One Less

[Tom Flanigan]

Stan, I can certainly appreciate your perspective. The oat farmers I know in Canada have the same perspective on the bears. Also, on the property I hunt in NY, corn used to be grown for silage for the cattle. The deer did tremendous damage so we got crop damage permits from the NY DEC to use in September. The DEC came out and viewed the damage then took a rough estimate of the deer per acre on the property (I don't know how they did it). We got permits for the excess.

I'd go out evenings and kill four or five from the fields and then call the game warden to pick them up at the barn. One day I asked him what he was doing with the carcasses. He told me that they take them to a dump. I never turned in another deer after that. I shot them but I butchered them all and gave most of the meat away. It was a real chore processing the number of deer we were shooting but I just couldn't see them going to waste.

I tested a lot of different calibers and bullets back in those days from the .222 to 30-06. In the end, my favorite caliber for field shooting was the .243 with 100 grain bullets. I use mostly a .270 with 130 grain bullet now for everything from deer to moose. The .243 is too light for game larger than a deer or bear.

We had very few coyotes back then unlike now. We have fewer deer on the property than we did years back, but they average bigger and are probably better conditioned. Coyotes might be the reason why. I hate the thought of them killing deer but they are probably beneficial to our herd.