doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What do you guys make of this...

I see that Canaan Valley, WV. is on the list. I have been there many times, and the place is (or was) WAY overpopulated with deer. It needs to be hunted. These anti-everything people have little concern about the animals and the ecosystem that they live in....

I have a farm about 20 miles from the Blackwater refuge. The number of deer we have on that farm would stagger your mind. Back in the early 60's we would rarely see more than two or three deer at a time in any one field or on the farm total. Now you will see deer anytime of the day in numbers from five to fifteen or more. The crops they eat is almost to the point of making farming a waste of time.

It has gotten so bad that the lease for deer hunting stipulates the minimum number of deer that they must harvest each year. This farm is just over 400 acres and the number of deer that have to be harvested each year, according to the State Game Department management expert, just to try to keep the population in check, is just under 100 deer. Sounds like a hunters dream come true until you consider that the number of deer has to be dressed, and disposed of by someone. Who the heck wants to eat ten deer a year? No many people I know. We shoot and have processed 30-40 deer a year and give them to the local food bank.

It is so bad that I have considered paid deer hunt by the day with a tree stand or blind provided and complete dressing and packing services. Figure that in the two week season that I can safely run about 50 hunters through the farm. Like they do with waterfowl you end up running as many people into the blind as possible each day. You get a time in the blind, half a day or so and can shoot any deer that you wish in that time slot. No deer and you get the next time slot free. Miss your shot and stay until you get another shot. Package fee for everything would be less than $200.00 for a deer hunt, deer processing and all the rest.

Problem is that I would end up not killing enough deer to meet the required population reduction goals. But the prospect of certain deer within easy range for most hunters with both limited work and fairly cheap total price would I suspect make the hunt a very popular option.

So when I see some animal right group trying to stop the hunting in my area I want to kick them in the ass. Either we get the deer population under control or Mother Nature will. I do not want to see starving deer or deer under stress that makes them weak, sick or prone to mass die off. Nothing goes up for every without coming down. Get CWD or deer AIDS or whatever into a population of stressed or underfeed deer and you could easily end up with a 90+% die off. This is according to the State experts that are trying to prevent this from happening.

So unless these animal rights people are willing to adopt a deer and take it home with them they should shut up. Like the city person who moved to the country and complained about the noise, dust and smells. After I had the hogs moved to the field nearest their house, in the middle of the Summer, they learned that they would be better off being a nice neighbor than a loud neighbor. Cost them about ten grand in legal fees to have a judge tell them to shut up a enjoy the fresh air. After that I moved the hogs back where they had been. Ten years later and they are still real quiet.

Seems to happen the world over.
Farming is not the peaceful, tranquil idyll many believe.
Managing animal populations, both domestic and wild, is not fluffy bunnies and peaceful passings. It's messy, and sometimes brutal. There's not a lot of room for feel-good sentiment.
RG

Nothing beats a wiff of them hogs on a hot dove day!
Altho' I do love Jimmy Dean pork patties - those suckers stink.
Hog farming in my area has been replaced by orchards, vineyards and Christmas trees. Much kinder to the nose holes.
The clash of old country and new country started way back when farmer Brown decided to sell the back forty to the city boyz for some really big bucks. Hard to give a garden party with all that rootin' & snortin' coming from your neighbor's pen.
What would the ladies think my good man?

Problem is these "Animal Rights" people don't have a clue as to what's "Right" for the Animals.
When Mother Nature steps in it can get nasty...she might harvext them all.

Long after the season is over, and after the rut takes place, haul-up some 50lb bags of cracked-corn to the deeryard.
It'd help 'em out until the spring green-up.

Somebody didn't dot a few "i's" and cross a few "T's". They left themselves open to this suit. However, the big question is, will they fight it or will they cave in? Bet they fight - IME, gov agencies get PO'ed at those who sue them - makes a lot more work and diverts inside resources.

Exactly... Resourses that could to have gone to conservation efforts.

Gee, at one location in Western NY they wanted to catch all the squirrls and make them sterile!CRAAAAAAZY We are talking large roaches here! Nothing surprises me anymore.