Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Could you live on deer in a major crisis?

Lots of guys on here talk about shooting deer to feed the family. I got curious on just how long the deer population would last if/when it gets to this. Here are a few states I picked at random, human and deer populations. Of course the majority of people wouldn't or couldn't hunt, but if even 10% of the population went out and killed a deer, in any state the deer would be extinct in months, some in weeks. There are other factors to consider, of course, like private land. However, in a crisis, private boundaries would cease to exist. You can't stop all the poachers.

North Carolina
humans: 10.7 mill
deer 1 mill

Texas
humans:30.3 mill
deer: 5.3 mill

Kentucky
humans: 4.6 mill
deer: 950 thou

Montana
humans: 1.1 mill
deer: 508 thou

Idaho
humans 1.9 mill
deer 780 thou

Arizona
humans: 7.4 mill
deer: 147 thou

Here are the links to human and deer populations for all the states so you can calculate any other state: HUMANS DEER On the deer page, scroll down a ways to get the total of whitetails and mulies.

GFY

My grandmother told us that during the Great Depression in PENN white tail were very hard to find do to night shooting

We have a lifetime supply of deer, birds, beef, etc., but there's no way to defend if chit hit the fan.



Have to band together with local folks.

No,
But pigs for quite a while. Bears, game birds, rabbits, anything else with meat on its bones. Populations may dwindle but so will the humans. Not many hunt anymore.
Plus there is a couple hundred thousand acres of almonds, grapes, walnuts ect in my area.

Why worry about deer when you’re ass deep in hogs ?

I like bacon.

I’ve said that anyone that thinks they can survive on game…..is fooling themselves! Game , livestock, and fish in many places will vanish quickly!

Those that are moving about will kill a large animal (game or stock) cut off what they can carry…..while leaving the rest to rot!

In many places the fishing laws help maintain the fish population as well as in some places millions of “fingerings” are released annually to maintain the fish population!


Simply put……anyone not prepared for the long haul in virtually all aspects of survival is doomed! memtb

in the late 1800's and early 1900's, market hunters decimated the deer and other game. Some states had less than 1000 deer left in the whole state. There are a lot more hunters today that there were market hunters then and they have better equipment. The deer wouldn't have a chance.

Plenty of dogs/cats and other things

Living on the coast is a plus.

Why is it always deer? Why is nobody killing rabbits, rock chucks, porky’s or squab in a crisis?

What a clever, well thought out reply.

My daddy said that back in the Great Depression rabbits were very scarce.

We have herds of them but I have always figured in any kind of real food crisis they would disappear pretty quick. Hogs too I bet.

Locally there is also elk, pronghorns, big horn sheep, bears, birds and lots of cattle.

Wild horses are also in the mix.

If you have no carbs in your diet you need 80% of your calories have to come from fat. Master fish, crawdad, raccoon and muskrat trapping and you will last a lot longer than the deer hunters.

I’m just matching the OP . You fugking loser

You need a salad, bro. Just sayin’

A quick search on just TX showed 1.1 million licensed hunters and an estimated 1.5 mill hogs. If each hunter tried to shoot just 2, they'd be out of hogs. Of course many of the hogs would be inedible.

You don’t quite grasp the reproduction cycle of hogs……