Anyone else out in the hot and sweaty months? This farmer lost 75 acres of beans on his first planting. The state says that 30 deer need to be removed. Five shots, five down so far. 2 with the 308, 2 with the 6.5 PRC(both Tikkas), and 1 with the Howa Mini 6.5 Grendel. The 120 grain ELDM over CFE223 works like a champ. Looking for an opportunity this morning with the 6mm Creedmoor(103 ELDX)

Do you get to butcher them? Years ago our department would issue depredation permits if you met the criteria but the deer had to be left to rot.

It’s been so hot here they’d be cooked before you could get to them.

I'm not sure about Kentucky now, but when I was shooting them under the crop damage law, they had to be left where they fell. Most of the farmers I knew did not want them left in the field, because it left a carcass that they'd have to deal with when then combined the beans, and also because the buzzards would beat down a lot of beans when they were feasting on the deer. A lot of the farmers that were shooting the deer under the crop damage law would use a 22, or just gut shoot them with a bigger rifle, where they would run out of the fields before they died. I know that sounds cruel, but that's just how it happened.

I knew one farmer who was losing a lot of crop to the deer, and he decided to lease his farms out to some hunters in the hopes that they'd reduce the deer population. He told them to kill deer, and lots of them too. Instead, the hunters were only interested in big bucks and wouldn't shoot anything that didn't have a big rack. They then got mad when the farmer went back to shooting the deer himself, because they weren't killing enough of them.

I have too many does here on my place, and they do eat quite a bit of the beans and corn. I have one small corn field that they absolutely ruined by eating the top out of the plant, and it is not worth combining. However, I am reluctant to start shooting them, even though I probably need to.

I get the back straps and hind quarters. These can be kept for consumption. As said above, you gotta get to them quick and get the meat on ice.

In Colorado,as long as CPW gives out vouchers to the farmer, you do not let them rot in the field

Looks fun Longshot!

We used to shoot a lot of deer on damage permits when we still crop farmed. I still get my name on the damage tags my inlaws get. A soybean and corn fed deer certainly tasts better than a mountain deer in November!

We had depredation permits on our farms. Ride around with a spotlight and zap one out of each field. Come back in 20 min and repeat.

I shoot them. I also take the meat. They don’t need to be left in the field and I’m not gut shooting to run off and die…edit to say on purpose. It is common to do so and perfectly legal. I just don’t do it that way. I “think” it’s legal here now to take the meat but certainly don’t have to. The dates numbers and sex is all I’ve been instructed about.

Got one with the 6 Creedmoor this morning. About perfect conditions. No wind, calm, broadside shot on a feeding doe. 650 yards. Center punched the lungs. It's nice when you see all the practice at the range pay off!

Do you guys shoot does that have fawns with them? Not judging but I’ve been offered permits to fill and won’t do it before mid September so the fawns have a fighting chance. That’s just my opinion.

I mostly shoot the smaller does. More tender and easier to drag. That will cause me to shoot a little buck from time to time. It does keep me from shooting the doe with fawns. I don’t shoot them with fawns during season either. Guess I’m getting soft…lol. Like you said no judging from me either I just don’t do it anymore.

Back when I was on active duty I had a buddy whose grandparents had a farm up on the Blue Ridge. We did some depredation hunts and turned the deer over to the game dept who gave them to the needy. My high take was 13 in one day and after gutting and skinning them I decided that was too many to fool with at one time.

My step Grandfather owned a large farm in PENN and would often shoot deer for crop damage. He would only shoot one at a time and kept all the meat that he could just like in regular deer season.

That's the law here in f**ked up New Jersey as well. And down here in the southern end of the State, where it's still largely agricultural, they do a lot of damage.
Stupid and wasteful law.

It’s piss poor wildlife management when a game department decides to treat a valuable resource as a nuisance. Here in New York it is commonplace, and we have the deer herd to prove it. I don’t know of any out of staters who travel here to hunt, with a few exceptions to the Adirondacks. And they are going there for the seclusion and scenery, not necessarily the abundance of deer.

Used to be ask to gut them and get them to a place a Possum Cop could
pick them up. Farmer could eat them, but not give them away.
Only PGC could.

Lead to a lot of BS.

Those old farmers were no BS guys, their help was underpaid and they
knew it. Often really poor people. So the farmer left them shoot deer
for meat. Take it home and take care of it.
Several problems solved, as simply as possible.

Then the Wardens got involved. Arresting the help.
Deer got gut shot, run over with tractors, one guy feed them
to his hogs. (Usually around 100/year. Anything he could shoot)

Another story of PGC,
heavy handedness, power hungry, stupidity.

There were easy ways to get it all inline,
But they only see ways to fine people.

I personally do not shoot does with fawns. There are plenty of young, single does that show up.

13?! You were busy for a while! 😁

Uncle who’s land borders our backyard has permits to take deer that are eating his pumpkins. I don’t know exactly how many permits he gets or how many he kills. I have heard rumors that a 22 and gut shots have occurred. We usually save our doe tags and hunt his place in alternate methods season to take out a few does to try and help.

Yeah, I never understood the logic of the powers that be not allowing the deer killed on those permits to be required to be left in the field…. I absolutely don’t agree with it. But I always complied because I didn’t want to cause trouble for the farmers that were getting the permits. I guess we could always just reintroduce wolves! That seems to have worked out well in other places. 🙄

Farmers/landowners create most of the over population problems themselves by not allowing enough people to hunt. The hardest part of properly managing the deer herd is restricted access to private land.

Culled does legally on local plantations for right at twenty years here. None of the meat was wasted. My log book showed where they were shot, caliber, distance, bullet, etc for each deer. Deer were shot with every caliber,bullet combination from 222 Rem to 300 Ultra. Hint: culling was more pleasurable with the 222.

I won’t mention numbers because I don’t like being accused of lying.

Being a farmer and a landowner, I'm going to comment on this. Most landowners that I know just are not going to open up their land for anybody and everybody to hunt. Here in Kentucky, land that's not being hunted by family or friends is leased out. Most of the leased land is hunted by guys wanting a big buck, and they don't shoot anything else, even though the deer herd usually has too many does. Contrary to popular belief, most deer hunters are trophy hunters first, and meat hunters last. They've been programmed over the years to think that way because of all the big buck contests, and the TV shows that show the guys and gals hunting trophy whitetails.

I know the argument about how we need to shoot does is a good one, and in most cases it is a valid one. But, it's not always the farmer/landowners fault that it doesn't happen. I know several guys who lease their land out, and they have given specific instructions to the hunters to kill lots of deer............but that usually does not happen, as the hunters want a big buck and here where they're only allowed one buck a year, they aren't going to waste a tag on a small buck, and a lot of them won't shoot does until they fill their buck tag.

Having said that, here where I live the Mennonites keep the deer population in control because they are meat hunters for the most part. Still though, they're going after antlers just like everyone else, and often shoot bucks instead of shooting does. The fact that too many hunters won't shoot anything but a buck, which leads to overpopulation of the deer herd, is very rarely the landowners fault. Then when the farmer ends up culling the deer that are eating his cops, he gets criticized for not allowing enough hunting.

When I was a teen, (SE Texas, mid 60's) a local "big name Rice farmer's son", leased/planted soybeans where none had ever, never before, been grown. The deer went crazy for them ( like catnip) so he bought 5 new Browning BAR 30-06s, (he used only illegals for help) and they started whacking/stacking/burning them. No state permits, no quota, just the "good ol boy network" looking the other way. Well, all the deer leases within 10 miles that fall were affected, no deer to speak of. This made the deer hunters mad, who contacted/threatened to stop leasing the Paper Company land ( which messed with "their money" ) and the next year...no soybeans were planted in that tract of land. That farmer went back to Rice (his family had a gazillion acres further south)It was a mess.

Total misunderstanding of a farmers situation. Most farmers here want a responsible group of hunters with whom they have a relationship with and can trust. On our lease we have raised the buck spread requirements to the point only a 3-4 bucks are killed on 1800 acres per year. Basically if you want to shoot deer it is going to be does. However, it makes for some great sits watching the parade of bucks that are going to be something one day.
GreggH

Well said. Most of the people who complain about farmers not letting people hunt do not have a clue.

I don't give a shyt how it is on your lease, I know how it is here as I've seen it with my own eyes. Even DEC says their biggest impediment to properly managing our herd is that so much private property is either completely off limits to hunters or too restricted and therefore under hunted.

I thought the Coywolves were cutting down the NY herds ?

Had two farms in my family dumbass. Never a posted sign on either one and never a problem with too many deer. You are the one who is clueless.

They take some deer but we've got areas with 60+ deer per square mile.

The same thing happens here. A lot of the farmers either won't let anybody but family hunt because they don't want somebody else shooting their trophy bucks or they lease it out to hunters who have no interest in shooting anything but trophy bucks. Then they piss and moan about crop damage. Those farmers bring their over population/crop damage problems on themselves. They deserve no sympathy when it's nobody's fault but their own. Forty odd years ago, before everybody went trophy buck crazy, lots of farmers here would let just about anybody who asked hunt {my neighbor is still one of these} or just didn't post their land and you didn't even need to ask. Those farmers, of which there were many, never had problems with too many deer. Then we have the bunny hugging city slickers with deep pockets who come here, buy up large tracts of land and won't let anybody kill poor Bambi. Combine them with the aforementioned farmers and it makes it impossible to properly manage the herd on private lands.

The part you obviously don’t have a clue about is any normal landowner I know wouldn’t want some ignorant know it all foul mouth hot head on the property they own. It has very little to do with a silly deer no matter the size. Land owners have had fences cut cattle shot fields drove through for starters. Then if they let too many people or the people can’t get along guess who hears all the complaining? Yep the land owner. So it’s easier to say no. Especially when everyone I know who owns land either hunts themselves or has hunters that are family members or close friends. Keep ranting though. It’s entertaining if nothing else.

Of course farmers and landowners only let family and friends hunt the private property…..lol. (Unless leased out to a responsible group). No one who has anything they’ve worked hard for want random people helping themselves to it. No point in trying to explain why because the fact that someone would even make that statement amazes me. That’s some sure enough lefty liberal we should all have to share poor me the hard workers bought land for themselves I deserve it too mentality.

The reason you think that way is because that's all you've ever known. It wasn't always that way here even within my memory and I've only been deer hunting for the last 45 years. Were there farmers back in the 70's who wouldn't let just anybody hunt ? Sure but there were still a lot that would too. Go back to the 50's when my dad was young and hardly anybody posted their land. You could hunt all over and nobody cared and they never even thought of leasing their land out to deer hunters. That was a disease that started in the South and didn't spread here until recent years, right along with trophy management and the trophy bucks or bust craze. Before that, most farmers didn't care much about deer or who was hunting them on their land. In fact, many thought of them as little more than crop eating pests and welcomed hunters to keep them thinned out. One farmer whose land I hunted on as a kid went so far as to tell me to shoot all the deer I saw and that he didn't care if the season was open or not, just kill the damn crop eating varmints. He was known for carrying a rifle on his tractor and shooting them on sight year round himself.

Funny we never had those problems from the time my grandfather bought his farm in 1946 till he died and the farm was sold in the early 2000's. It never had a posted sign on it in all those years and tons of people hunted it. A gate was left open once and some heifers got out and that was about it. The person who did it later admitted he was the one who had forgotten to close the gate and apologized profusely. Other than that, there are still a few old timers around here who will let pretty much anyone hunt for the asking. As mentioned before, my next door neighbor is one of them. The owner of another farm I used to hunt just died back in 2012 and his son sold it off. He had 997 acres that was never posted and anyone was welcome to hunt. He never seemed to have problems with too many deer or with hunters trashing/disrespecting his property.