Lifetime deer harvest

Has anyone of you old timers averaged 10 deer per year for 55 years of hunting?

Bruce apparently has.

He's up to 600+ and counting.....

Some adc guys take a lot more than that.

10 a year is a pretty good feat, but you have to either have to state hop for that or live in states where the deer are goat sized and there's really not a limit.

Back when tags were easier to draw and a doe was “the enemy” about 6 a year was my self set limit back then. Now tags or deer are tough find in my part of the state. Quantity and quality deer hunting did not go together I find an archery tag a year is plenty for me maybe another out of state archery tag but rifle lost its appeal a long time ago.

I’ve been archery hunting since the late 60s so I’d guess I racked up a few 100 I missed a lot of years trapping it’s all out one or the other.

Pretty sure jbyrd and that ole 6mm were pushin 1500 for a lifetime tally, deadly combo those two.

I never got ten in one season, that would be illegal in PA. I started hunting in this state when you were allowed one buck per license year and a doe tag was very difficult to get.

Bag limits have gotten a lot more liberal since those early days.

I average 2-3 deer a year over the last 55 years so lifetime harvest is somewhere north of 100.

You need a lot of population to take 10 per year, easy to do some places, not possible in others... especially in the Northeast with limited tags, back in the 60's 70's you were lucky to get 1 per year. Never totaled what I took, it's a bunch, but can't compare to other regions or guys on nuisance permits.

I have cleaned up that average, parents' aunts and uncle, I know a lot of guys that shoot crop damage, that shoot 50-100 deer a year, by a lot of guys 6-10 people

I have but as stated you must hunt a number of other states for me anyways.Been hunting deer for 53 years

I can’t count…..

In WV it could easily be done if one were inclined to do so. We have been able to take an average of 10 deer a year across all seasons with over the counter tags since back in the 90’s. Really the only thing that has changed is the number of bucks one could harvest. Back in the 90’s it was 5 bucks a year now it is two bucks a year.

Anything is possible on the internet.

When I started deer hunting in Indiana I could get 2 with bow one in firearms and one black powder. one could be a buck or 2 doe with bow and one buck with gun or muzzle loader or black powder could be a doe.

then they started adding bonus anterless tags at an extre 2 a year. Then they went to bonuses doe tags on a county basis. At one time you could kill 8 bonus anterless in my county along with your 2 with bow gun and muzzle loader tags. They cut that back to 2 after blue young went through. Add in refugee hunts and park hunts and hunting several counties we could stack them up quick. we went to one buck a year and rack size started to increase.

Most I killed in a year was 14. I think I read now they limit your state wide take but didn't really pay attention since I have not shot a deer in years and only have been hunting with the kids.

Point is state hopping helps if your after #s but There are some states you can shoot a good amount and the deer are not small. In some areas of ky it's unlimited doe.

What's my lifetime total I have no clue kids asked years ago and I tried counting them up and lost track giving up around 180 and I think that's close but I'm sure there are several I forgot about. I can tell you the boys are both over 20 each my 12 year old Is at 21 or 22 and my 14 year old is one behind him. If I ask they they will line me out in their #
The 14 year old hunts more and let's a lot more walk. Youngest let's a lot walk but still likes pulling the trigger. We have a lot of deer hunt 2 stated and several counties. They get a lot of opportunities and time to hunt every day they want at home and every day I'm off during seasion and I take my days off off and vacation during hunting seasion so get 3/4 of the seasion off. So the boys get lots of woods time. Often by the time gun season come in they are geting burnt out.

That's an average of 11 deer a year over those 53 years, Bruce. Pretty impressive!

I got my licence about 1958. Have harvested 1 for the freezer most years. ! deer per licence is our limit. I do party hunt and have got several occasionaly. As I got older , my passion for quantity, has mellowed , a bit. Wife does;t like venison any more. I just like seeing them mostly. I guess that comes with getting older. I still enjoy target shooting, and getting my old 243 cleaned out.. Good luck old 243

I try to shoot as many as my extended family can eat which is 3-4 a year.

I really enjoy processing them into the various cuts, apple-venison sausage and scrapple.

What are the guys shooting ten-plus a year doing with them?

Most in one year was 5 I think, usually 2 or 3, when I was motivated, lol
All processed and eaten...I know what the nuisance guys do with them here, They leave them to melt into the ground, I won't bring myself to that, especially for free.

When I was younger there were years I ate a lot of venison. No where near that many though.

Eat them.I never buy meat at the grocery store.Wife will buy chicken and ham.

B4 my game warden days (in my mid teens to early 20s)......there were many "seasons" I went well over double digit numbers. Highest year...23 deer, if I remember correctly. There were several years that I killed into the teens on bucks only. I never was a night poacher, but I was a road rider...shooting deer anywhere I saw them if I thought I could get away with it. Georgia's limit on bucks has been 2 bucks for decades. Our antlerless limit has went from 1 to 10 in my lifetime.

I committed myself to stop that disrespectful poaching nonsense when I decided to pursue becoming a wildlife officer. I will never knowingly violate any game law ever again. To me, knowingly violating a game law (or any law) is borderline sin (same mindset to commit it).....I won't intentionally ever do it again.

When I interviewed to potentially be hired as a game warden one of the officers asked me how many deer I had killed....that sparked a lengthy (and honest) discussion....lol. After the interview, one of the Captains on the interview board told me privately in the hallway that I was definitely gonna be hired. That was my blessing & sign to do right from that point forward.

Thank you

Same here, we only buy beef steak a couple of times a year. With four deer, I can feed a family of 7; me, the wife and our three adult daughters, plus their boyfriends/husbands twice a week with some cut of venison or venison product.

You must eat a boatload of venison if you’re eating 10 or 11 deer a year.

Not hard to go through deer meat if that is all you eat. I will have deer steaks w/eggs in AM, deer burger for lunch (if I eat lunch) and venison for dinner. Plus, I make hot dogs, corned venison/pastrami, and salami. I usually put up 100 venison burgers w/bacon, freeze 2 in a pack and vacuum seal.

Bruce eats so much venison....he poops pellets now

Where's Jbyrd when ya need him? LOL

True, but I think I'd get tired of only eating venison.

We make 250-300 quarter-pound venison-apple sausage patties each season. I vacuum-seal them six to a pack, make them every week while they last. I can easily go through a dozen when the family comes to visit on the weekends.

I usually get about 75 pounds of scrapple. I'd eat that for breakfast every morning if I could but I limit myself to once a week when the granddaughter's here, she loves it more than me!

Roasts for stew and steaks make up the rest. we try to have it all eaten by the time the next hunting season rolls around.

Hey Lug, recipe for your venison apple sausage??

Being that I much prefer beaver meat to venison my deer hunting in my later years is mainly damage control on the farm. Don't know numbers but it's substantial.

My grandpa told me "you told have to prove a man if fibbing to know he is"

What?

It wouldn’t do you any good Angela. I’ve been buying the dry seasoning mix from the same place for 30+ years and they won’t even tell me what’s in it. It’s proprietary they tell me.

If I knew what it was, I would mix up my own.

If you’re really interested, I guess I could buy some and ship it to you along with the rest of the recipe.

I really prefer beaver meat to venison in myself. But I pretty much suck at beaver trapping so I’m stuck with venison.

I’ll let you know if I ever make it to 55 years of hunting, heck, I’ll be happy when I get to 55 years of living.

I know a few fellas that average 20-25 deer a season. Young fellas, so they have the time to hunt a bunch.

I’m happy with my 2-5 a year. Keep a couple, donate the rest.

At least you quit ,Still plenty of corruption out there. When I was a young guy I thought I could sneak a rifle to my stand (.222) got it confiscated and the following year I bought it back from a fur buyer in Lanesboro. Les G. he told me he bought it from the local Warden. Oh well at least crime pays for some.

We adhere to all buck regulations and most of the time only one or none, depends on what we’re after or what needs managed. All are taken with archery equipment.

With does its not considered hunting, its purely management. Without getting in trouble, I’ll just say my son will be 28 tomorrow and if he stays at his present job, at 55 he’ll be in the thousands. Again, it has to be done and not considered hunting. No night hunting or out of season killing either. All daytime killing during the season with rifles. Yeah, we go through a lot of ammo. We’ll take a few with our bows, but arrows and broad-heads are a lot more expensive than bullets, lol.

My grandpa said “hold beam right the flashlight can so I see working what I am”

Majestic trophy ground hog season
is ramping up over here.

I usually shoot 3-4 if possible. We get alot of doe tags, last season i only got 1 deer. Shot my first one at 16, im 33now, think im right around 50 deer killed.

If yall just want to be legal...Georgia now has Deer Management Assitance Programs (DMAP) that allows a lot of flexibility. The DMAP is property specific.

Play around with a small batch using the standard sausage seasonings, try chunk or shredded apples.I bet you could come close to the same taste.

The Pioneer Women has an apple sausage recipe.

Lol....While working in Baxter State Park 5 days a week for 6 months breakfast,dinner,and supper.Deer steak and eggs for breakfast.Then for dinner and supper I will brown up a package of deer burger then add Marinara sauce served with peach iced tea.At home I eat alot of deer cheeseburgers as well.

I shoot 4 or 5 a year for me and the wife. Not hard to eat that much. We also eat lots of walleye some chicken and pork.
Used to shoot a lot of deer in my younger years. Would shoot two for every old farmer that let me use their land for trapping, hunting and fishing. They put their tags on them. That wasn't legal but at least they were tagged.
Would butcher them for them too if that's what they wanted.
Boy oh boy I miss those days.
There wasn't posted signs anywhere. Wasn't a need for them. Then the citiots arrived and started " leasing" hunting rights. That ruined everything for trapping in my neck of the woods. They lease it for the hunting season but that runs right along with the first 2/3's of trapping. And they don't even want you trapping ditches by the road.

Your Grandpa is CoonMan??

I’ve averaged 6 a year since 77 just kill what we use anymore

Lived in Virginia for 8 years shooting 25 to 30 deer a year there.I would drop Alot of them off to a local slaughter house for the hunters for the hungry program.

Never had the need to shoot that many. Now its just my wife and I at home and 2 is great plenty.

Illinois allows that many?

Michigan allows 10 antlerless and two bucks if really want to harvest them....and they arent goat sized. We simply have too many deer and not enough hunters to keep them in check.

Seems as I have aged I'm just not as angry at the deer as I used to be. I still enjoy hunting but I'm perfectly fine with about 3 yearlings per year.

Nope we get 1 WT tag here and sometimes the odd mulie tag. Good thing I can usually get an elk or moose every year to fill the freezer

we don't really get a lot of meat of a deer, boneless meat, is right around 35 pounds per. animal average, we weight every deer that we harvested, out of our camp for over 30 years, and I believe it was 35 pounds avg.

X2, I weigh the deer, that is about my average.

I kill 10-12 every season for the last five years, after the PGC upped the doe license limit. Up until 1988, you could only kill one deer a year in Pa.

It’s just the wife and I now days. We eat 3-4 deer a year. I think we can take around 7 or 8 per person, we are landowners.

4 is about right.

I usually eat 2 a year between me and the dog. Most of its ground, use it in chilí, tacos, etc. eacy to take a pound out fishing and cook up for dinner, do keep cuts for steaks and steak fingers etc.

I think keeping track of the number of "kills" is something most mature hunters grow out of. As a kid and teenager knowing the number was important, once you reach adulthood it isn't.

BnB the world champion has killed more deer than f250’s and ehd combined… he’s my hero

I have a few 100 pumpkin plants started in the greenhouse already. Once planted in the food plots I plan to hunt with only a bayonet.

I have killed an average of 25-30 a year, mostly all B&C a few P&Y. I too have been on here many years and failed to mention it before now, and never posted any pictures or anything. I like to eat it raw with fava beans, or boiled in used motor oil mostly.

I've never shot a deer in my life. Few caribou and a couple moose though.

I find this more believable than some other posts on here......

I have learned a long time ago that some people are just born miserable and are just around to put down others to try and bring them down to their own level.Its very sad really.

Possibly Vinkie....

So you think the same way about trappers?

This

I would shoot more deer if the entire thing was back strap.

Being the only one in my household that likes deer meat I'm about the same way. Maybe if I could only kill half a deer. I personally just kill one a year although six is the limit.

No picking on the special needs kids

if you want tender deer, always tender, pressure can them, I canned 4 deer this year, just meat no seasoning, so we can use it for anything from stew to taco, and a big plus is it doesn't take up freezer space,

I remember some deer hunts. Not all. Probably quit counting when I was a teenager. I get the antler hunters. Sort of. I enjoy it. A lot. Always meat as the primary motivator. Trapping has been about money. I can't remember hunting anything just for an excuse to be outside. Same with trapping. I enjoy it. Getting long in the tooth to go hard. I trap coyotes out of calving pastures. Trap with grandkids. I cant run daylight till after dark no matter the weather, so pay coyote jobs are not an option on a big ranch. Getting up and down just aint easy anymore. Have no clue what my lifetime deer cat coyote numbers are.

Braising is a good way for those tough cuts if you dont want to can or grind.

That stuff is good.I plan on putting some up this fall.

#1 and #2 all combined in a neat little package.....How cute

You get one deer in NH...and your a hero

I like stews also. Cut that tough stuff into cubes. Wife makes a delicious one in the crock pot.

Duck meat is better then deer…..

Y’all complaining about deer being tough, have you considered targeting button bucks? (Where legal of course)

They sure are tender

Yes the button bucks , or spikes , are my choice as well . I hunt mostly on my farm. Haven;t shot a doe in a lot of years. There just seems to be one doe , that lives here, If I leave her alone , the boys , will come visiting.. old243

The smaller they are the easier to drag or put into the truck. I've let big ones walk before, lol

I hunt archery because you can shoot a tasty doe in WA,,
Eating a buck is like eating a bore pig…..

40 years of Deer Hunting probably average 3 a year. During years when bonus tags were high, I shot as many as 8 and donated to Hunters for the Hungry Programs. For those that don't care for tough deer, cut in 1-inch cubes, pack in canning jars and put in 2 beef bouillon cubes per quart and can it. I use this meat for deer Manhattans, barbeque for sandwiches, add to vegetable soup and many other recipes.

Does are better, but i dont complain bout eating a buck. Still good vittles.

I believe I told the ground beef story on here before, but will repeat myself......was grocery shopping a few years back (8-10?) and saw some ground beef on sale. I was planning to make myself a big pot of chili that afternoon so convinced myself to buy the burger instead of using venison as usual. I did just that, and it was disgusting. I couldn't stand it. It was like eating Crisco soup. My Bride asked if I had drained the burger when I browned it and I had not. I gave the greasy crap to my son-in-law and he loved it! I was talking to my Bride about it later and asked her if she could remember any time when she brought ground beef into the house that didn't already have a bun around it. She could not think of a single time in the years we'd been married when she bought ground beef. We always had ground venison. To this day I still grind 90% of my deer meat. As to lifetime tally, I lost track decades ago, but have been at it since the late sixties. When I started deer hunting you were allowed ONE deer per year. Period. You can pile them up now days. I very rarely shoot more than 2 a season now, but when the kids were young I would feel I needed at least 4 to sneak by. After my All Purpose Boy started hunting we would shoot 6-8 between us. We often had bear, caribou, elk, etc. as well, so didn't buy much in the way of red meat. I also can venison every year or two and have it on hand most always.

At least two weeks in a walk in cooler makes all the difference in the world when it comes to eating a buck.

I'm turning 53 in June. First deer season was 1986. In 39 seasons I have killed 43 deer.

I don't have any idea how many deer I've killed over the years. We party hunt so some years you might kill a pile of them and some years only one or even none. Depends on how many times you are in the right place at the right time.

Now, instead of including does and yearlings, let's hear how many branch antlered bucks.

Thread killer

Antlered bucks - I've kilt some, but don't know how many. I do know I've never shot one big enough to put the head on the wall. But I've never just hunted for big bucks either.

I keep the antlered deer for my nieces and nephews, I shoot the does.

I'm happy to hear that. So many "hunters" hog the bucks, and only let the kids shoot does. That always seemes backwards to me....selfish is another word for it.

Bruce, you have to admit, saying you have averaged 10 deer a year is hard for alot of us to believe. How much time does it take to get 10 or more? How did you get time off from work, or whatever you do? How much did all those non res. tags cost? What did you spend on travel? WV is a long way from Maine. You're old enough to have been hunting 50 years ago. Did all those eastern states you hunted allow multiple deer harvest in the 70s? 80s?
I haven't lived in a whitetail state since 1975. Only hunted one season. I'm not overly knowledgeable on eastern state deer history. Your numbers seem high .

No idea.Would be roughly maybe a little less then half.I have shot 19 bucks that dressed out over 200 pounds and 1 doe that was over 200 pounds live weight.

Dang that's an impressive pile of deer, how many more from Maine you got to add to that list?

I deer hunt Alot.Days off and weekend on the few jobs that I worked falls.When I worked for the union for 30 years and now Baxter State Park for 8 years I have all falls and winter off.Also what helped me alot was growing up in Maine hunting the big woods bucks.A person had to really learn alot about deer to be successful.We are not talking about fields,apple orchards or food plots.Its tough hunting.Upon moving down to Virgina in the blue ridge mountains it was easy hunting for me.I also did alot of bear and coon hunting with hounds and learned all the gullies and places where deer crossed like the back of my hand while living in Virginia, nearby West Virgina,and North Carolina.I knew a number of places where large groups of hunters would park to start going in at daylight.I would then drive up to higher areas above them where I knew the deer would cross.I would get in my stands before daylight.Daylight would arrive and I would hear all the doors shutting and noises made from the hunters.Pretty soon here would come the deer.You are allowed 2 deer a day with basicly a 4 month long season which includes early bow season,Rifle season,muzzleloader season,and late bow season.You just had to keep buying the permits.Believe it or not I would also pass on alot of deer.I always would stop at 30 if I shot over 25 deer.I knew all the deer crossings.My brother inlaw who lives in Conn owns a greenhouse business there and has piles of places to hunt deer there as the deer eat all the shrubbery.People pay him to deer hunt.I shoot 4 to 6 deer every year hunting there for the last 27 years.Its also as easy to hunt even with just a bow as its just tiny patches of woods surrounded by houses.I hunt in New Hampshire on Sundays as they allow Sunday hunting where Maine does not.The bear hunters that I guide here in Maine allow me to come down and hunt their land in Pa.I also was invited to hunt up in the Upper Pen. of Michigan one year getting a buck up there as well.It goes on in on.What can I say but I love to deer hunt.I have never bought burger in my life.

Roughly 60 to 70 deer including 19 bucks dressing over 200 pounds and 1 booner.

Totally believe Bruce. I almost never missed work to pile up deer. Most I ever harvested was 11 in a season. Doubt I hunted a total of a two weeks of evenings that season. One evening father-in -law took off the head rows in one of his corn fields. Got three in about 20 minutes all laying down in the corn that night. I quit hunting after walking around a hundred yards. Numbers around my property are high and depends on how many kill tags you are allowed each year. Probably averaged around two or three a year since I started hunting (early twenties for me). But when I started there was a lottery for antlerless tags now they hand them out like candy with antler restrictions for the antlered deer.

Low coyote prices we better enjoy the doe limits. Shooting bucks does nothing to control populations. We may see stricter doe limits.

I very rarely weigh one.

In Maine its a big thing to weigh your buck and see if it weighs over 200 pounds dressed out.No guts,heart,liver and lungs

Yeah, we get some big ones here too. This one was 240something dressed.

I have never once weighted a deer. Guess it's just not popular here.

…. I killed 700 deer in one day… November the fourth 2005… I’ll never forget it

… number 562 dressed just a hair over 300 pounds

Processor friend puts out a
platform scale on 1st day of buck season.
That is a lot of fun.

Not really news worthy, happens often. I guess they did ask.

… way to deflate my ego big man! … oh well.. live and let live… I guess

NO………

^^^^^^
I know a guy who claims to have killed 500 antelope one year in Wyoming "with a 5 gallon bucket of .223 shells". He said he "stacked 'em up like cord wood".
This guy is quite a story teller, problem is, he expects you to believe his stories.

When I was a young ,,,,,antelope were everywhere in wy….
I had a job riding fence one summer in a jeep….. easily possible…
Ranchers hate them because they eat the pastures……

Congrats.Nice buck

(Quote)The Big One

One such buck in Maine’s rich deer-hunting history met and surpassed even the wildest dreams of a 59-year-old hunter back in 1955. Horace R. Hinckley did what no other hunter has been able to match since, by shooting the heaviest whitetail buck on record within the state of Maine. In fact, Hinckley’s buck places second in all of North America, only to a Minnesota buck shot in 1926 by Carl Lenandor. Carl’s buck topped the scales at 402 pounds dressed.