Is there anyplace in the USA where someone can go for "culling" of game animals, such as deer?
I and my family would learn a lot simply by shooting more animals.
Lots of the high-fence ranches in TX need to remove does and "inferior" bucks every year, and some will let you do it for a discount.
Or, talk to your state (or nearby states) fish and game agencies to find agricultural areas where they issue a lot of crop damage permits and see if they can hook you up with landowners, or find them on your own.
I know a few places in Idaho that could stand to have some scrub bucks removed but it's highly unlikely to happen.
Michigan allows shooting deer on crop damage permits.
Is there anyplace in the USA where someone can go for "culling" of game animals, such as deer?
I and my family would learn a lot simply by shooting more animals.
Find a state that has DPOP (depopulation) or Ag nuisance permits and then find landowners that have them.
Am I correct in assuming that most de-pop culls must be in southern states?
The herds here are limited by the weather.
Used to be a lot of depredation permits in the west. but they have fallen off in the last 10 years, around here at least.
I used to pick up 6 deer and 2 elk tags a year from ranching friends, but now if they get them they have become highly sought after and they can sell them pretty fast.
Sorry not much help..But I do know there are units that go under subscribed every year on antlerless hunts.
Around here in Texas the Ranches charge a fairly high fee for meat hunts. You are limited to the usual number of tags unless they have MLD permits. Usually these culls are done by ranch staff or the biologists and the ranch sells or donates the meat. TPWD encourages owners to use the opportunity for youth hunts which I have done as a volunteer guide. Usually the volunteers can take a couple of deer too after the kids have tagged out. You might want to look into one of these programs.
I kill gobs of deer on depredation permits. It is very limited and you have to know the landowner to do it. I don't think that they allow non-residents, either.
Watch the outfitters section in the Texas Hunting Forum.
http://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/16/1/Outfitters_&_GuidesLarger ranches, both low and high fence, with management plans will take lots of does every year. As mentioned above, most use known hunters, shooters, and/or employees to handle the work. But, some will sell doe hunts for $100 - $200/head, no food, lodging or help cleaning them.
Most of those hunts are usually done early in the season in October. Watch for the listings in the summer.
Some will still need to take more to hit their plan goals late in the season, so keep an eye on it right now for potential hunts in January.
The fun wears off pretty quickly and then it turns into real work. Dropping them where they stand is a high priority.
Lots of places in Texas. Not cheap
Michigan allows shooting deer on crop damage permits.
I have done that in the past, and I have very mixed reactions about it. Kentucky would issue crop damage permits, with the understanding that they were to be used for antlerless deer. But, that was abused beyond belief. They also allowed, and still do as far as I know, for deer to be shot in the summer and left laying. These had to be deer caught in the act of eating crops. I knew some farmers who killed some incredible numbers of deer that way.
Crop depredation laws have changed a little. Now the farmer can actually remove the carcass from the field and I'm not sure if this was a change or not, but the farmer can also shoot the deer any time -- it doesn't have to be during the growing season.
This came up around here recently. A tenant (leasee) farmer was shooting deer in a harvested corn field during mid October. Grandson of landowner (who hunted the farm) got upset and called the game warden. Long story short, nothing happened to the farmer. Never even made it to court. Bottom line -- depredation definition is pretty vague. The KY Farm Bureau lobbied hard for that crap. I'm sure the results may vary from county to county depending on the county attorney and judge, but that's the way it happened here.
Crop depredation laws have changed a little. Now the farmer can actually remove the carcass from the field and I'm not sure if this was a change or not, but the farmer can also shoot the deer any time -- it doesn't have to be during the growing season.
This came up around here recently. A tenant (leasee) farmer was shooting deer in a harvested corn field during mid October. Grandson of landowner (who hunted the farm) got upset and called the game warden. Long story short, nothing happened to the farmer. Never even made it to court. Bottom line -- depredation definition is pretty vague. The KY Farm Bureau lobbied hard for that crap. I'm sure the results may vary from county to county depending on the county attorney and judge, but that's the way it happened here.
You're pretty much spot on about county to county, and I'll add even game warden to game warden. When the deer population first started growing by leaps and bounds back in the 1980's here, there was a lot of damage to the soybeans in particular. I was farming a lot at the time, and had several fields practically destroyed by the deer. I had grown up when we had no deer, so I was hesitant to shoot them at first. KDFWR answer was to let hunters come and kill them during season. That didn't help in the summer months when the damage was noticeably being done. The state was issuing a few crop damage permits to a few select farmers, and none to others. One of the local CO's then told the farmers they could shoot as many as they wanted, just leave them laying and don't do anything with them. The farmers didn't want a carcass left in the field, so the preferred method of shooting these deer was to gut shoot them and have them run off into the woods and die. That sounds cruel, and it was. But, I knew a number of farmers who just wanted the deer gone, and didn't care how they did it. Now days, most of them here have figured out that they can lease the hunting rights and make money off those deer.
I'd be willing to be you could find plenty of places that would let you shoot all of the hogs you wanted.
I'd be willing to be you could find plenty of places that would let you shoot all of the hogs you wanted.
If you know of any please post here. Texas is over run by them but hunting them isn't cheap. Might be true if you know someone personally. Tried a cheap place in TX and got ripped off. Closest I have come to free hunting hogs is knowing someone who knows someone who knows someone who has a ranch in TX.
call your local game warden and ask if they do any sampling to determine peak of the rut, overall nutrition, etc. i have a farm and know all the wardens in my area. they do "sampling" at night, shooting does which they hope are pregnant. once we've killed 3-4 it's off to the shed where they are dissected, collecting the fetus for measurements and other organs are also taken for later lab work. we do this 2-3 times each winter. the wardens i know get tired of doing this by themselves, so they gladly invite me to do the shooting and help with the labor. whatever they do in your area, it's worth a phone call or two. good luck.
Here you have to have a financial interest in the crops to use a depredation permit, and you can't do anything with the animals at all after they are shot.
I hunt cow elk on a buddies ranch where he gets a dozen or so depredation permits each year. It's usually about developing a relationship with a land owner.
Good luck and happy hunting!
Here you have to have a financial interest in the crops to use a depredation permit, and you can't do anything with the animals at all after they are shot.
Seriously? They are wasted? That's the dumbest thing I've heard since obamas last speech.
Best opportunity to shoot a number of animals over a short period of time would be Alabama. You would need to be a member of a large lease that manages according to QDM rules. Many leases have large numbers of doe permits available late in the season because their members will only shoot bucks. Some areas allow hunters to shoot two does per day some only one per day. The meat is donated.
Watch the outfitters section in the Texas Hunting Forum.
. . . But, some will sell doe hunts for $100 - $200/head, no food, lodging or help cleaning them.
must be way far from here in n central Texas. it used to be
free back 20 years ago. i checked on a hf cull hunt last
week (they called it a "meat" deer hunt) and they were
asking $900.00 with a bunk. i don't see a day hunt being
much less than that.
Here you have to have a financial interest in the crops to use a depredation permit, and you can't do anything with the animals at all after they are shot.
Seriously? They are wasted? That's the dumbest thing I've heard since obamas last speech.
That used to be pretty common, it was that they didn't want you shooting just for the meat, rather than actual depredation... yeah, its dumb. Dumb as outlawing silencers and so on, actually dumber than that...
Lot of hogs by Austin, he'll they come out of the woods behind my house. Pigs all over Texas.
Lot of hogs by Austin, he'll they come out of the woods behind my house. Pigs all over Texas.
Lots of hogs all over Texas, you hear people complain about them non-stop but no one is letting you go kill em on the cheap. I've had guys tell me of good deals to hunt em, like $350 a day. $700 for a weekend to try and exterminate a ranchers vermin ain't exactly a good deal.
People aren't going to do anything for free, because it ain't free to do anything. Time and bait to get set up to hunt is worth a lot. I have heard people say that cheap people don't need to go hunting. Anyone else ever heard that. I used to take guys hunting, most of the cheap MF's never offered to help pay gas, food, beer, much less a little corn. Cull hunting sounds like someone wants to go for free. What do you all think??
I draw a distinction between cull hunting and control hunting. Cull hunting is taking animals out of an established population to improve herd quality. Control hunting is reducing a population of animals to protect a crop or other resource that doesn't include the animals themselves.
For hunts where you can shoot as much as you want, I'd look at control hunts for hogs on public land in northern California. It'll take research and time on the ground, but there are a lot of resources to help you if you're willing to do the legwork, and a lot of hogs that need to be shot.
Okie John