Article and photos by Susan Lindsley
Many years ago, when Georgia had an overpopulation of deer, I had the gall to suggest to the state’s wildlife managers to allow firearms hunters to use the archery doe tags for one year to downsize the herd. The powers that be took my suggestion, and hunters jumped at the opportunity to harvest more meat for their freezers.
We now face another period of overpopulation, one far larger than years ago. We have 10 doe tags annually per hunter, but who is using them? Most hunters want the large-bodied, heavy-antlered buck rather than the smaller, tender doe.
Over population is again a threat to the Peach State deer herd.
The cost to process is the same for all deer, no matter the size, unless you do it yourself. How many hunters today know how to field dress a deer? Most hunters pose with the deer and throw the carcass into the truck bed to deliver to a processor. “Don’t get the hands into those insides” seems to be the latest slogan.
When I hunted, I didn’t hesitate to get my hands messy. I didn’t want somebody else field dressing my deer and putting hands on musk glands and then on the meat I was going to eat. Musk doesn’t taste good, even cooked. Meat doesn’t taste good after the deer is left long hours with the guts still inside.
Perhaps if the processor were asked to give a discount for a field-dressing, you could save a few dollars just by learning how to field dress a deer. That just entails removing the musk glands, washing hands and knife and removing external genitals. Then it’s time to open the hide and body cavity. Next cut around the diaphragm, windpipe and esophagus and pull them all out.
But field dressing and butchering the deer won’t solve overpopulation. Hunters harvesting does is a must. Since I began hunting back in 1966, I have been told Georgia lands can support 35 deer per square mile. Any number over that means loss of habitat.
A browse line is a sure sign there are too many deer for the habitat to support.
Thirty-five or more deer in one food plot on a 200-acre tract, with another 38 in a food plot over the hill and another 25 across the fence in my yard is not good.
At this rate, deer will eat themselves out of food before chronic wasting or other diseases move in. If the herd is not reduced, the high population can spread CWD rapidly. Hunters need to make does the objective; learn to field dress your deer; learn to butcher if you don’t have the funds in pocket to pay the processor that big chunk to cut that smaller doe. Or take the doe to the Hunters for the Hungry processor. But harvest does. That’s why you have those 10 tags.
Vehicles, poachers, fences and predators will not reduce the deer herds.
This buck stomped toward a coyote and the approaching predator trotted off.
I have asked the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to make the decision for us all to remove the buck tags for a few years. So far, DNR is not going to do so, but we as hunters must act if we want a viable deer herd in 10 years.
A member of the Georgia Outdoor Writers Association, Susan Lindsley of Decatur has authored numerous books about deer and wildlife, as well as novels, short fiction and nonfiction. For more details visit her website. She can be reached at yesterplace@earthlink.net.