Dan's Question of the Week: How Many Deer Will You Use in a Year?

[retiredsailor]

I agree entirely with nuideas1's post, based on my firsthand experience. Two years ago I hit a large 8 point with my truck one night (did over $6,000 damage to the truck and ended that buck's journey). Now we are starting to see CWD in West Virginia (where I hunt) and in Virginia (where I live). Not only does CWD harm the herd, but the necessary containment restrictions are a bit of a hassle for the hunters. For example, in the West Virgina county where I hunt and where CWD has been spreading for several years, if you do harvest a nice buck, you cannot keep the head - you can only save the skull cap, if cleaned out well. I suppose a good taxidermist can still do some sort of head or shoulder mount but it will certainly cost more. We have to keep these herds in check where necessary.
Thanks for your comments, nuideas1.

[Powell1120]

ORIGINAL: ShoulderNuke!

Honestly Dan its my opinion that there are a bunch of folks who think they need several deer yearly in their freezer .I think most of this is just a chest thumping kind of thing like a  macho  thing amongst hunters .Most families will never eat more than 1 or 2 full grown adult deer a year . 

This may be true in a limited number of cases, I will not totally dissagree with you.

I checked the "more than 5" box. My family has been fortunate enough to be able to completely substitue venison for beef except for the occasional steak night. We eat no ground beef, I would say we easily eat venison 4 days a week in some fashion or another. Last season we had 5 in the freezer, and unless I get lucky early on we are going to run out of Ground venison shortly with steaks and roasts not far behind, The reason I say I would like more than five is because I was only able to smoke a limited amount of sausages and stick this year. I would like to have two deer available for this as the summer sausage and sticks make great take to work for lunch items as well as being a huge hit at family functions. I know that I have been extreamly fortunate to be able to harvest that number of deer season after season, but it is what it takes for my family to save the life of some lucky cow some where. The best year we had was just a couple ago, the last my father -in-law got to hunt before he passed, we harvested 12 deer that season. That was too many for us, but 1 was a road kill we obviously hadn't planned for and we also participated in a depradation hunt in a state park and had better luck that anticipated. We made some of the old timers that can't get out and hunt anymore happy that year.