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How many deer

Old 09-07-2015, 05:34 PM
  #11  
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I hunt multiple states. And typically take around 5 a year. It all gets used. Not about greed. If it's legal, and if you use it, then go for it. I've also donated to Hunters feeding the hungry at least one deer the last two seasons. I think programs like that are a good thing and should be utilized.
-Jake
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Old 09-07-2015, 07:15 PM
  #12  
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My Family shoots only what we butcher and eat, maybe 3-6 deer per year, of course when we shoot other big game that number is on the smaller side. I have given game away at times, but only if the receiver is willing to come to my home and help butcher/package the deer.
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Old 09-08-2015, 04:13 AM
  #13  
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OK let me rephrase this just so I don't come off as being arrogant. I can see where there are situations where a lot of game is utilized and the bag limits are liberal AND hunters hunt other game. I myself took 2 deer last year and a moose.
I guess what I was trying to say is about 10 years ago the PA Game Commission decided they wanted to reduce our herd. Which was fine. But IMO and the opinion of many other hunters is they went too far. They were giving out tags left and right and people were buying them up and slaughtering the deer just because they could. It got to a point where they couldn't even give it away and the meat was going to waste. The herd got so low in certain areas (public land) that you could go all season and only see a couple deer.
But now thankfully the PGC finally started listening to the hunters (not the killers) and realized they went too far and altered their program.
I'm all for people who use everything they kill. But I also despise those that waste this resource and I'm looking to the future of hunting for my grandchildren.
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Old 09-08-2015, 05:03 AM
  #14  
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Bronk, PA got really bad in some areas. You're definitely right on that. And it still is bad in some areas. I can take you to farms where you'll see 30-50 deer in a day of hunting. And to other places where you can't even find a track on a snowy day. And those properties are about 10 miles from each other. Some people shot way too many, they shot every tag they could, plus their kids tag, wifes tag, moms tag, grandpas tag, and they wonder why they aren't seeing deer now. We went through a couple year period where we stopped shooting doe in PA and Our numbers seem to be back to pretty decent now. But there still are areas, especially public land, that don't have many deer.
-Jake
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Old 09-08-2015, 06:34 AM
  #15  
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I generally listen to what the Game Commission (or the local equivalent) has to say. Mostly they get it right.

Personally I'm happy with a Spike Buck and hundred or hundred fifty pound Sow a year. I usually harvest a bit of small game also, Hare, Rabbit, Duck and Pheasant.

Most years I end up with some extra. I get called periodically for lost Game. Some weekend hunter gave up looking for the game he wounded and the guide calls for a Dog. Maybe one in three says you found it, it's yours (and pays for it). The other two will argue about it to the death. Even when you explain (here) that the law says when it wanders onto adjoining property it belongs to the land owner, not the guy who shot it. And then they argue again when they get the bill and don't get their Deer.

We don't use tags here, we use a quota system. The Wardens do a game census and the bureaucrats set the quota for a particular geographic area.

One of the spots where the Greenies and their LaLa land philosophy became really evident. They lauded the old Iron curtain 3 mile exclusion zone (no hunting, no German soldiers, no civilian firearms) as a haven for wild game and an example of natures bounty. I was tasked, with around 150 other hunters, to thin the herd out. What we found was a real eye opener. Dead rotting carcasses, what live game we found was in terrible shape, all sorts of disease rampant, Mange on all the Deer. The Red Deer were skin and bones, reminded me of the pictures of the old Nazi concentration camps. It was really terrible. Sometimes there is a radical difference between the vision and the reality.

We had an epidemic outbreak of Echinococcus multilocularis in the Fox population here. The Game Commission encouraged us to thin the Fox out, I was shooting 20 plus Fox a year. I actually found it more challenging and fun than hunting Deer. Except it gave me the willies. A particularly nasty type of parasite, that has no cure, the eggs are so small they can go air born and be breathed in. I handled every Fox I shot like toxic waste.

Last edited by MudderChuck; 09-08-2015 at 06:45 AM.
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Old 09-08-2015, 08:15 AM
  #16  
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About 10 yrs ago my family got 4 the boys were still living at home so most of the deer were in one freezer in a mud room out side living area. We went in only when we needed something.Freezer broke you know what happened lost all.
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Old 10-24-2015, 10:34 AM
  #17  
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I normally like to have 1 deer if it is a larger one. This year I shot one on the opening day of bow season, so now I am dealing with a serious case of cabin fever.
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Old 10-24-2015, 12:32 PM
  #18  
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A guy in TN officially killed and checked out 32 year before last. As far as I know not one of them was wasted. We are allowed three does a day for over three months.

I used to chase the numbers back in the day too. All were eaten and greatly appreciated by folks that didn't have the opportunity to take them their self.
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Old 10-24-2015, 01:47 PM
  #19  
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If it's legal, it's not wasted, and the herd can support it, shoot them. I wish I had more time, and was able to use more, cause I'd hunt more. But I shoot what I can use, and try to donate one each year.
-Jake
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Old 10-24-2015, 03:57 PM
  #20  
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Originally Posted by Bocajnala
If it's legal, it's not wasted, and the herd can support it, shoot them. I wish I had more time, and was able to use more, cause I'd hunt more. But I shoot what I can use, and try to donate one each year.
-Jake
I'd say that this is a pretty good guideline, I think however that it must be considered, can the herd support everyone taking that amount of deer? Plenty of good hunting has been ruined by people thinking that it wont matter that they take every animal that they legally can, and in that sense they are probably right, the problem is but they aren't the only hunter taking that many animals. If it would be wrong or detrimental for all hunters to take that many animals then IMO it is unethical for anyone to harvest that much meat.

As far as donating meat and supplying your extended family with meat, I wont do that. Here in northern Canada that is the excuse that the natives give for shooting ridiculous numbers of moose every year, and the hunting is a mere shadow of what it once was as a result in many areas. There simply is not enough game to feed every man, woman, and child. Feed your family if the herd will support it, take no more than that.

Last edited by Exophysical; 10-24-2015 at 04:02 PM.
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