Vermont must have had deer then!
 

The menu looks delectable and delicious..see if i can make it..it would be great.,

Possibly Farm Raised?

In the forests of Southern Vermont there are no deer these days. The woods are too thick so no sunlight gets to the ground to grow deer food.

The remaining open land is heavily posted.

I walked a rural dirt road yesterday where there had been deer in the 50's, 60's and 70's. No tracks, not even one deer track.

In fact years ago in VT I saw many animals like porkupines, grouse, squirrels, chimpmunks, deer, small birds, red squirrels, etc.

Now: Nothing!

Here is a deer kill report.

http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/hun...eernumbers.cfm

I am sure this varies by region. I know in my mature woods I had virtually no deer tracks for a few years. Then I had it logged with the effect of lots of food and little cover for a few years so the deer would visit at night and leave. Now the cover is returning and I have some food plots going so things are looking up. A nice mix of agriculture, logging, and woods works great for the deer. Also, from what I am reading about WI deer hunting at http://host.madison.com/sports/recre...cc4c002e0.html deer hunting can not be a free-for-all and there needs to be limits on harvest. And predators play a big role (wolves). Also, blaze orange would have been helpful in 1914.

WISCONSIN
1910 -- Deer populations drop to record low numbers due to unregulated hunting and market shooting.

1914 -- Twenty-four hunters killed, 26 injured; license sales at 155,000

1915 -- First buck only season.

1917 -- Shining deer illegal while possessing a firearm; Conservation Commission delegated some powers related to deer season, but legislature retains authority to set seasons; deer tags (paper) required for the first time...they cost 10 cents.

1919 -- Estimated kill is 25,152.

1920 -- First use of metal deer tags...they cost 10 cents.

1921 -- Wardens are instructed that "all deer found in possession...with horns less than three inches in length, is a fawn and should be confiscated."

1924 -- Estimated kill is 7000.

1925 -- Legislature passes law closing deer season in alternate years.

1927 -- No open season.

1928 -- Deer hunters required to wear official conservation button while hunting; Game Division formed with Conservation Department; estimated kill is 17,000 with 69,049 deer tags sold.

1929 -- No open season.

1930 -- Estimated kill is 23,000 with 70.284 deer tags sold.

1931 -- No open season.

1932 -- Deer tag price is raised to $1; estimated kill is 36,009 with 70,245 deer tags sold.

1933 -- No open season; Conservation Congress, an advisory group representing public opinion registered at annual county hearings, begins to assist the Conservation Commission in establishing a deer management policy.

1934 -- First bow deer season; estimated gun kill is 21,251 with 83,939 deer tags sold.

1935 -- No open season.

1937 -- Shortest deer season on record, three days.

1938 -- Use of .22 rifle and .410 shotgun prohibited.

1939 -- Licensed children between ages 12 and 16 must be accompanied by parent or guardian; buckshot prohibited statewide.

1941 -- Deer predators rare, timber wolves nearing extinction; estimated gun kill is 40,403 with 124,305 deer tags sold.

1942 -- Back tags required while deer hunting.

1943 -- First doe and fawn season in 24 years.

1945 -- First year of ‘shotgun only' counties; wearing red clothing required while hunting deer.

1950 -- First ‘any deer' season since 1919; estimated gun kill is 167,911 with 312,570 deer tags sold.

MZS,

Your report on the WI hunting included this:

"1914 -- Twenty-four hunters killed, 26 injured; license sales at 155,000"

That's incredible and very sad to read.

Are you sure it's right?

It is from the Madison.com site, so it is as accurate as they are. They claim the info is from the WI DNR. There were no shotgun only counties at that time. They did not have to wear even red back then, and I am guessing deer drives were fairly common. Deer drives were bad enough when I was a kid - hunters moving toward other hunters, shooting at deer in between them. I remember a guy shooting at a deer that doubled back in between me and another driver - fortunately nobody hit but the deer. I can only guess there was more a "wild west" mentality back at that time when deer hunting season rolled around.

My dad was involved in a hunting accident back around 1960 - that accident gnawed at him the rest of his life and also seemed to make him go a little off sometimes when deer hunting was discussed, making it rough for the rest of the family. With regard to hunter safety, there are often no second chances - every gun is loaded and ready to fire, always.

In 1914 they must of had some tough deer back then,looks like they won they war.LOL

There are plenty out there. I live by the highway in Brattleboro and see them all the time in a field up the street in back of the country club. I see a lot in the forests and fields going up the hill around the edges of town. It's true the forest is thicker but there are also more people everywhere with big patches cleared around them with plenty of feed. So they all hang out in the edges of the forest around the valleys where nobody shoots at them because it's to close to houses and often against town ordinances. Mass. has a huge deer population because of this trend. I suppose that's where the ones we are missing are. Up in the mountains and the larger swatch of forested land in the Green Mountain national forest areas it's hard to catch site of them at all.

It's really frustrating because everything is heavily posted in the areas where the deer are the public lands and places where you can hunt end up with 3 or 4 times more hunters than deer in Nov.

I live in the Champlain Islands and we are loaded with them. They got more out of my garden this summer than we did and we wacked a bunch last fall.