SE MN CWD sharpshooters (PROFESSIONALS??)

[drewevans]

i was on a list to receive a deer if DNR sharpshooters harvested enough in the testing of the herd in our area, and today i got a call that they had a deer for me. I was very grateful!! when i got there they had a yearling for me and a yearling for one other person, very small yearlings! i was still grateful! but had too ask if these deer counted towards their quota and was told no they are to young to carry the disease. i left it at that there. but i am a very [PoorWordUsage] about this. we are paying professionals to harvest adult deer over a bait pile and they are harvesting yearling deer that you can clearly tell are yearlings and for what!? we are having this hunt too test deer for a disease not too cull the herd!

DO YOUR JOB AND KILL ADULT DEER!!!!!!

[mrklean]

anoter great waste of tax payers money

[ERdeerhunter]

i was on a list to receive a deer if DNR sharpshooters harvested enough in the testing of the herd in our area, and today i got a call that they had a deer for me. I was very grateful!! when i got there they had a yearling for me and a yearling for one other person, very small yearlings! i was still grateful! but had too ask if these deer counted towards their quota and was told no they are to young to carry the disease. i left it at that there. but i am a very [PoorWordUsage] about this. we are paying professionals to harvest adult deer over a bait pile and they are harvesting yearling deer that you can clearly tell are yearlings and for what!? we are having this hunt too test deer for a disease not too cull the herd!

DO YOUR JOB AND KILL ADULT DEER!!!!!!

+1, except I would say killing any deer for this witch hunt is a giant waste of time and money.

[matchset]

professional shooters....maybe not so much in the category of correct identification.

[someday]

After the land owner period ended two guys showed up in the yard in a white pickup with a snowmobile in the back. the older one said I suppose you know who we are? I said yea you're the USDA Poachers. to which he said we have been called worse. I said its not who you are it is what you do. He asked if they could slaughter the deer on my property, and I told them I would prefer they did not. I then took them in the garage and showed them a large male deer my son had shot for the testing. He shot the deer behind the right ear at 150 yds with a 270. We had over 2 dozen different deer coming onto the property in Feb. and at least half were less then a yr old and some very small. I knew their rule was any deer coming to the bait piles was to be put down.(theres's a rumor going round that includes two head of cattle) that was why I asked them not to kill anymore deer on my place. There is not much sign of deer coming here anymore.

[leech~~]

After the land owner period ended two guys showed up in the yard in a white pickup with a snowmobile in the back. the older one said I suppose you know who we are? I said yea you're the USDA Poachers. to which he said we have been called worse. I said its not who you are it is what you do. He asked if they could slaughter the deer on my property, and I told them I would prefer they did not. I then took them in the garage and showed them a large male deer my son had shot for the testing. He shot the deer behind the right ear at 150 yds with a 270. We had over 2 dozen different deer coming onto the property in Feb. and at least half were less then a yr old and some very small. I knew their rule was any deer coming to the bait piles was to be put down.(theres's a rumor going round that includes two head of cattle) that was why I asked them not to kill anymore deer on my place. There is not much sign of deer coming here anymore.

Good for standing your ground! But, can I ask why if it's a shotgun zone during Deer season. How can you be using a 270 now to shot them? Just um, asking.

[someday]

They pretty much through out the rules for the kill. It was even legal to shine them at nite if you could bring yourself to do that.

[mwal]

As for using rifle in shotgun zone. Back when the DN had a forum that question was asked and the answer form the DNR was back in old days it was assumed that shotgun slugs were safer go less distance etc. They said that its not true due to size of slug they could actually be more dangerous. But people felt that shotguns are safer so why change it. Wi has removed almost all their slug zones and guess what no increase in deaths or shot up bldgs etc. Think about it you can predator hunt with any cal rifle and you know how some yahoo spray lead all over at running game. You don't hear of houses and people getting shot up. Yet in slug zone you have talk of slugs whizzing by and hitting homes etc. Large solid projectile hits ground bounces and whizzes around. High velocity bullets hits ground breaks up. Rifles should be state wide IMHO

Mwal

[lakevet]

i was on a list to receive a deer if DNR sharpshooters harvested enough in the testing of the herd in our area, and today i got a call that they had a deer for me. I was very grateful!! when i got there they had a yearling for me and a yearling for one other person, very small yearlings! i was still grateful! but had too ask if these deer counted towards their quota and was told no they are to young to carry the disease. i left it at that there. but i am a very [PoorWordUsage] about this. we are paying professionals to harvest adult deer over a bait pile and they are harvesting yearling deer that you can clearly tell are yearlings and for what!? we are having this hunt too test deer for a disease not too cull the herd!

DO YOUR JOB AND KILL ADULT DEER!!!!!!

From the DNR HSOforum www.dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/deer/cwd/index.html

CWD sampling information

Type of deer # Harvested

Adults/Yearlings 427

Fawns 218

Origin of deer # Harvested

Landowner permits 492

Sharpshooting 99

Other (road kill, etc.) 55

Test results # Tested

All deer 603

CWD positive 0

The CWD surveillance area stretches from Wanamingo, Zumbrota and Zumbro Falls southward to Kasson, Byron and Rochester. DNR, working with landowners, will test 900 adult deer within the surveillance area, 500 of which will be taken within a roughly five-mile radius of the confirmed CWD-positive deer. Each will be tested for CWD.

The landowner shooting permit program ended with great success on Feb. 28. In total, DNR issued 310 permits and landowners shot 492 deer, 333 of were old enough to count towards the sampling goal of 900 deer. To date, all test results have been negative.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Wildlife Services will complete the surveillance effort. USDA operates by contract with DNR on private land with permission from the landowner in a very controlled environment.

Deer taken by USDA are removed to a central location, where the CWD sample is removed and the carcass is refrigerated until the CWD test is reported in 72 hours. Upon notification of a negative test result, the carcass is released to individuals on the DNR donation list. Currently, more than 300 people have requested deer taken this winter.

The following is my read on the above, correct me if I am wrong in my conclusions! Be sure to go to HSOforum and read for yourself first!

So as of 3/3/11

adults/yearlings harvested 427

fawns harvested 218

Total (adults/yearlings + fawns) = 645

NUMBER OF DEER TESTED 603

So of 645 deer shot 603 have been tested

93.5% OF DEER SHOT HAVE BEEN TESTED

It appears that the DNR is testing fawns as 603 deer tested but only 427 adults/yearlings harvested. The fawns may not count towards the goal of 900 deer older than the age where CWD has been found in the past, but it looks like the are checking anyway. Possible reasons is that we don't have birth certificates showing exact age so they are testing to be sure to catch deer that are actually older than the aging estimation says they are. Also there is the viewpoint that if you don't look you won't find it. Diseases can change/shift and by testing the younger deer they are covering all bases.

A big thank you to all those who have got on board to do the best possible effort to beat CWD!!

Thankfully no more positives yet.

lakevet

[TruthWalleyes]

Leech, My buddy is a landowner in the pine city area. He had a DNR tell him to go a head and use a snowmobile, just be sure to at least get off of it before you shoot...All rules were tossed out for this shoot. If it goes boom, it was legal. Spotlights also OK if you have a permit to hunt at night.

[someday]

I think that depends on the weapon. A co-worker of my wife asked if he could shoot a deer during the kill. and I said it would be Ok. He showed up with a friend and they both had AK 47s. I was not impressed but put them in a place where they would be shooting into the hill, showed them where the property lines were and said they did not want to let a wounded deer get off my property. That evening they sprayed the hillside with lead followed the tracks to the back of the property where the deer stood laughing at them, and left never to come back. apparently the exercise made them sick as my Wife said they missed sevsral days of work before she got the story.

[HNTNBUX]

I do not support these efforts to shoot deer in the new CWD zone. I don't understand how killing the deer and feeding them at bait piles help find a cure or solution to the problem. In fact baiting is often cited as a method for spreading disease. My next issue would be calling the sharpshooters poachers after it was clearly ok for your family to go out and shoot deer however they wanted, including a large buck. It seems the pot and kettle are black.

[someday]

The MDHA the DNR and local Gov. were pleading with local land owners to cooperate in testing adult deer for CWD. Even though we could have taken an animal using many practices which are illegal here otherwise, the only thing we did differently was shoot the animal with a rifle. the reason we used a rifle is that my son had never shot a deer with a rifle and likely wasn't going to go somewhere else to do so since we can take 5 or 6 deer apiece here every fall and who can eat all that meat. Also with all the snow and cold temps it was near impossible to get in shot gun range! While scouting deer in my car from my driveway I watched a herd of deer coming across my bean stubble a half mile away, when they saw the car they turned and ran back. As for the USDA shooter's methods shining, silencers,baiting,taking everything that comes to the bait pile including fawns and very pregnant does. Most every landowner I know of who participated targeted the large males as they are a dime a dozen here. And nobody wanted to gut a deer with a placenta full of fawns. I have a Nephew who shot 2 large antlerless male deer from his porch one morning in his bed clothes. HE is a trophy hunter taking record class deer on his property with a bow every year and he can give you the life story with pictures of every deer on his place. Unless you live in the kill zone you have no concept of the mess this area is in. If it were not for this hornaholoic mania the deer herd here would have been managed for the potential of CWD and not been so over populated.

[Musky Buck]

Your last sentence was kinda a mess someday. Many pockets are overpopulated and 0 CWD has been found. Are we 100% guaranteed the deer with CWD was shot where it was shot. 32,000 deer, elk, moose tested and no CWD found in any. When we recycle the deer herd every 3.5 years it will be tough to spread or not. They claim tainted soil can spread it also, but I think we need at least 2 confirmed CWD deer in a given area before the sharpshooting begins, will winter polish off a diseased CWD deer or can it hide in deer and surface later etc. I know so little.

[ERdeerhunter]

Good at hitting what they shoot at, not necessarily good at identifying the age of their target.

[ERdeerhunter]

someday,

Why do you have to live in the killzone to understand the concept?

[TooTallTom]

someday, I'm having trouble reconciling the second point you make about how over-populated the deer herd is where you are and the reluctance of local landowners to kill and clean does (Does control the size of the herd.) with the first point you make about how horrible and unethical the USDA sharpshooters are who are killing small deer and everything that comes into a bait pile.

I understand your reluctance to field dress a pregnant doe or shoot a fawn, but it seems like it might be necessary that someone to be willing to do it, in order to make a lasting impact on herd size. The sharpshooters are willing to do just that. Can you help me out with this one?

[someday]

There are more than a few local people who believe there is no CWD and this is just a DNR hoax to kill all the deer that didn't get killed last Fall. That is too over the top for me.I suggest anyone making the decision the decision to eat or not eat deer from this area google last weekends post-bulletin articles about the CWD. pay particular attention to where the Mayo research Dr. talks about mice with human DNA being fed CWD. I have several relatives who make a significant portion of their living off the deer hunting around here. One has a locker that I believe processes 1200 or more deer every year. He is convinced this will lead to his going out of business. I had several friends ask about taking a deer during the kill, but after mentioning it to their families were told they weren't bring meat from the CWD zone into their house. The mess I'm revering to is how to you manage the deer population around here if somebody in the family is afraid they or their kids will get it.

[someday]

The Fawns are not part of the 900 to be tested so if you are not being selective then it will likely take 2000 or more killed to get 900 to test. As for Does it is just that alot of the does seemed to come in heat early last fall late October. I think that makes them due late May. If you kill a fawn test doesn't count. If you kill a pregnant Doe 1 counts likely 2 don't

[#1RiverRat]

So far there hasn't been any signs of humans contracting this disease. The disease lies within the bone marrow and not the meat. The situation of having a diseased deer would be if are butchering it yourself and going to cut through bone (spine, legs, etc.) make sure to use a different knife when actually cutting up the meat then the one that went through the bone. I myself wouldn't risk it just because of the matter. All in all you can blame that elk farm north of Oronoco off of Hwy 52.

[TRZ II]

You want gut a pregnant doe!! I sure would not have the stomach or desire to. Someday-I feel really bad for you guys it is a very tough situation. darned is ya do and darned if ya don't..

[Musky Buck]

And watch deer number 901 that was too sick to hike to the baitpile will be the CWD deer. Hopefully not. Wish the sharpshooting would take place after a 2nd deer is found to have CWD in the area, look at all the tested deer after season and 0 CWD which is great but I keep looking for yes more CWD found in the area of the lone CWD deer but that hasn't been the case. Avian Cholera at LQP did the sharpshooting begin ? No I think they incinerated the deceased, how about we do that to the lone deer, test at bow,rifle,muzzy season and road kills and do so for a 5 year period in the immediate area, no more found, no need to sharpshoot.

[leech~~]

Leech, My buddy is a landowner in the pine city area. He had a DNR tell him to go a head and use a snowmobile, just be sure to at least get off of it before you shoot...All rules were tossed out for this shoot. If it goes boom, it was legal. Spotlights also OK if you have a permit to hunt at night.

Um, I hope you mean Pine Island, not Pine City?

[delcecchi]

Isn't the classic way to quarter a deer to cut down the middle of the backbone with a saw?

[someday]

Even before the CWD deer was found around here I read an article by a guide out west who basically fillet the elk and deer his clients shot just like a walleye. He would lay the deer on its side and cut along one side of the back bone from neck to rump and peel the meat with hide on toward the belly. Then he would make a hole to reach in and tear the tenderloin out with his hand. leaving the skeleton with guts in where it fell. I have a meat band saw but with this last deer I just cut all the meat off while it hung.