Last week I walked out to the garden after lunch and caught a mother deer and her son munching on our lush bed of parsley.

They saw me almost right away and bolted.

The doe took off one direction and the buck went a slightly different route and ended up stuck between two fences about 8 feet apart that we use as a chicken pasture moat.

He kept trying to jump over and through the 5 foot high fence but only bounced back to the ground each time.

Too bad our special kill permit had already expired...or if I had been more prepared I could have legally killed it with a bow and arrow at this time of year. Being prepared would mean obtaining the equipment and learning how to use it, a project we might get around to in the future.

He must have figured out that jumping over the fence at the end allowed enough clearance to make the jump. By the time I went back to the trailer for my camera he was gone.

With a little luck his mom will decide our parsley is too dangerous and look elsewhere for a snack. Image credit goes to Do You Have Horns.blogspot.com for the awesome abstract drawing of a mother deer and her son.

Last week I posted about missing a legal opportunity to kill a deer in our garden by not having a bow and arrow handy.

Another tool to have in that line of thought would be a muzzle loading black powder rifle.

These weapons have their own window of time during the year when one can kill a deer and still be within the bounds of the law. A muzzle loader will cost at least a few hundred dollars and some time to learn the skill of how to load this older firearm technology.

Image credit goes to SnapShutter at twincity photos.com.

Youtube user rchopp had some luck recently using the above driveway alert system to keep deer out of his garden.

He simply put the receiver in a ziplock bag and hung it next to the motion detection unit near his garden.

Since our deer pressure is extreme I would consider making a modification that allowed one to switch the alert noise to something more harsh and scary, or better yet make the alert also trigger a mechanical gizmo that would activate and provide motion for a minute or two.

Expect to pay 30 dollars unless you catch it on sale.

Can you kill a deer on your own property without a hunting permit?

If you ask 10 people in my area you just might get 10 different answers.

Yes, you can kill a deer on your own property in the state of Virginia without a hunting license, but only during hunting season and only within the limits set forth by the fish and wildlife people.

Image credit goes to Ian McMurchy from RandyWakeman.com, who has an excellent article on wounding ballistics that I found very informative and well written.