Deer Tags

[TiffanyM2505]

OK. I was raised you don't eat deer during the hot months because of parasites and illness. However, a family member has been issued deer tags to cut the population killing his farm land. They have asked a few of the family members to help my husband and myself included. I don't like the idea because the does nursing, but I understand it. So my question is.....anyone ever eaten deer taken this time of year and lived to tell about it? It just seems a total waste.....

 

[John B.]

Yep... stacked em like cord wood during summer depredation... a few more ticks than normal fall hunting, but they eat just the same.

 

[Brandon_SPC]

Just like John said they taste fine. I will say this when I was helping my dad out with a few farmers we stopped shooting them towards the end of July because they started dropping the fawns. But shoot away and if y'all shoot more than you need I would be happy to take a few deer from y'all

 

[Clay]

They taste the same, just keep in mind you have about an hour to get them dressed out before spoilage will occur in this heat -so gut them in field and throw a few bags of ice in the body cavity for the drive home/processor.

If you shoot a nursing doe, you may want to shoot the fawns too, more humane then them starving to death. Sometimes the fawns will get adopted by another doe... So it's a tough call, one I don't want to make personally.

 

[redneck]

Yep I would not shoot a doe now it's to late but if I shot a doe with a youngin I would shoot it too the coyote will get it quick it will yelp for momma and they will come I would not want to pull out a youngin when gutting one ether

 

[SAWMAN]

DAEZEE and I are out at night "quite often". We wonder the vast peanut,cotton,and soy bean fields of both Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. We position ourselves to scan with the higher end thermal,literally hundreds of acres. Some of the fields that we watch are 800+ yards long and more than half of that wide.

With my thermal I can tell the difference between a deer and a hog at 600+yards away. At that distance,not only the shape of the animal tells us which animal it is,but how it feeds,walks,how often it moves,in which direction,how often it puts it head to the ground,how often it looks around,and how "alert" it is. Also the proximity to other animals it is and the shear numbers of the animals in the area. A great tell for "it's a hog" is single file into a field and how many in how tight a bunch. IOW we have seen sounders of 30+ hogs in a single field. Within 100yds X 100yds square. You will NEVER see this with deer.

At less distance than that(which it typical)we can quite easily tell the difference in the size of the animal and sometimes what sex. Now ........ I will not speak for DAEZEE but I have seen a doe actually nursing a fawn,in one of these fields,only once. In my experience it was 350-400yds distant and I could quite easily tell what was going on.

We hunt ...... we do not eradicate. Speaking for myself .......... if I had deer depredation tags I would NEVER kill a nursing doe or a nursing fawn. I would not kill a visably pregnant doe. I do not care what the farmer wanted me to kill. I simply would not do it.

Soooooooo .......... what I am gettin' at is this. If I had depredation tags I would not expect to see a nursing doe or fawn in an open field. Given my experiences my chances of killing either of these is EXTREMELY slim. Now .... if the doe leaves the fawn in the woods and comes out in the open to graze ... then ... all bets are off. However with depredation tags to fill,I would still be extremely cautious as to which deer I would target.

But this is just me. --- SAWMAN

 

[John B.]

Plus, does won't be dropping fawns for at least 6 more weeks... here in NW Florida anyway...

 

[TiffanyM2505]

I know there are some that will be nursing now only because an old school mate of mine owns a deer ranch not far from here and they have does dropping now. Matter of fact I think they started last week. Either on the ground or in the womb I'd still feel like a total ass. We are going to try to do our best NOT to take a doe. As far as the meat side goes the fields are just a mile or two from the house so they will be cleaned and dressed in a hurry. We process our own so I have control of preventing spoilage after that.

 

[Daezee]

I've never done deer depredation shooting before. I have, however, attended two seminars put on by FWC and Auburn University on mitigating deer, hog, and coyote crop damage. As presented by the experts at the seminars, it blew me away with how much crop damage deer can do. It could be in the thousands of dollars per field. The biologists went into detail on deer reproductive rates vs available foliage, acreage, crops, etc. Bottom line for both seminars was that to do the most "good" in reducing deer damage, take out the mature does. Those are the ones making more deer. The idea was to look at the long term effect in reducing the overall population to a level not producing extensive crop damage, yet still maintaining a deer population. Take out a buck and that's just one deer gone. Take out a doe and that means the next year in effect there are 2 less (the doe and next year's offspring)...look at the year after that and even less deer (the doe, her new fawn, the offspring of last year's fawn, etc). I realize that deer depredation shooting conflicts with conventional deer season hunting and fair chase ethics.

I've been talked to by 3 farmers about crop damage deer shooting at night using my thermal equipment. They didn't exactly come out and ask me to take some deer on their property; they sorta talked around the subject as in have I ever considered doing it, as they either have or can get permits for same. I understand, as it can be a touchy subject. At the time I said I'd have to think about it, as it was so alien to the deer hunting I've done during deer season. From seeing crop damage first hand, that can make a person change their mind. If you haven't, please see my post about my 14th hog. I've included some pics of deer cotton field damage.

As Sawman said, we see LOTS of deer at night. While you can get pretty close to a hog if the wind is right, deer have MUCH better night vision than a hog. At least deer do a lot of standing still. I'd say getting to 200yd from a deer at night in an open field is pretty easy. 150yd in an open field is do-able, especially if little to no moon and the deer are lying down. 100yd or less at night in an open field can be done, but don't count on it...best bet is to be sitting still downwind ahead of time where the deer will be coming to or passing by; they can pass by rather close then as long as you don't make sudden movements. Never saw a nursing fawn at night; have seen plenty of bucks whacking each other's antlers. Can't always see the antlers unless real close, but can see the bucks butting each other and hear the antler on antler noise.