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Hunting in a CWD world

Our cameras in hardeman county are capturing improving buck quality. You shouldn't be discouraged by cwd. It's nature. The strong survive. Enjoy the liberal limits and don't shoot what you won't eat- otherwise it's just slaughter.
 
If you have dogs, I'm sure they would love for you to give them what you don't want to eat yourself. I don't think canines are susceptible to CWD that we know of. And it's the most hypoallergenic meat out there.

Our vet has recommended $200 per bag special food for our dogs that have allergies. I'm going to fix that by killing an extra deer or two and processing it for our fru fru pets for the next year. I'm keeping the tenderloins, backstraps, and hams for myself... but this cutie is getting the heart, neck meat, kidneys, rib meat, and front shoulders.
 

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fairchaser said:
I was fortunate to harvest a doe opening day. It was around 6:00 pm and I had some work to do before dark. The doe dropped within 50 yards and I jumped down immediately. With fading light, I went directly to her. She was dead. No fawn nearby, she was also dry. I was thankful to have earned my buck tag. We must kill a doe first at Ames.

I took my climber down and carried it to the bike, got my cart and went back to get my deer. She was a good sized 2.5 year old and was heavy not dressed. I needed my gloves, scalpel and zip lock bags before I dressed her. Once back at the truck, I had to open her up and find the large and small intestine. They needed sections of those for research. I then called the researcher to meet me at the check station.

Once there we weighed, aged by removing the jaw bone, and removed the pharyngeal glands for CWD analysis. After completing all the paperwork, finally I had a deer to deal with. No processors were open, it was too warm to hang it for the night and no place to refrigerate it so I cut the backstraps out and dumped the deer in a hole dug specifically for this. I felt bad about this but no other real choice.

Some 2.5 hours after I killed my doe, I was headed home. Now to wait on my results. After 2.5 weeks, I finally got the news this week that my doe was CWD positive.

This is the new paradigm we hunt in now. I want to be part of the solution, but this is hard.
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Agreed, this cwd is the COVID of the us! I have no idea where or even how to test for cwd in East Tn just pray its not here sorry to hear of your bad luck but maybe it helps the herd! Also let TWRA you get $75 so check on that!
 
fairchaser said:
When possible KR, I donate the meat to HFTH. But there are fewer and fewer places to do this anymore. At least I saved one deer from a horrible death from starvation.
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Have there actually been any studies that show that every deer that contracts CWD will die from starvation?
 
spur necklace 3 said:
Have there actually been any studies that show that every deer that contracts CWD will die from starvation?
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It's 100% fatal and they lose their ability to eat or drink. They are extremely emaciated toward the end of their life. They starve to death or get eaten.
 
megalomaniac said:
If you have dogs, I'm sure they would love for you to give them what you don't want to eat yourself. I don't think canines are susceptible to CWD that we know of. And it's the most hypoallergenic meat out there.

Our vet has recommended $200 per bag special food for our dogs that have allergies. I'm going to fix that by killing an extra deer or two and processing it for our fru fru pets for the next year. I'm keeping the tenderloins, backstraps, and hams for myself... but this cutie is getting the heart, neck meat, kidneys, rib meat, and front shoulders.
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How's the wife with feeding the fur babies infected meat or does she know? Lol
 
Blockhouse said:
Our cameras in hardeman county are capturing improving buck quality. You shouldn't be discouraged by cwd. It's nature. The strong survive. Enjoy the liberal limits and don't shoot what you won't eat- otherwise it's just slaughter.
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It's 100% fatal. There's no surviving because of strength or youth. You don't know if the deer is infected until it's tested. Therefore, if you eat everything you kill, you will be eating infected deer. The herd will survive because it takes long enough to kill the deer, that they can successfully breed and have a fawn at least once. Also, not every deer will contract the disease. It will affect the herd numbers as well as the overall age of the herd. This will reduce the number of older bucks in the herd. A few will prevail to 3.5 or older.
 
fairchaser said:
It's 100% fatal. There's no surviving because of strength or youth. You don't know if the deer is infected until it's tested. Therefore, if you eat everything you kill, you will be eating infected deer. The herd will survive because it takes long enough to kill the deer, that they can successfully breed and have a fawn at least once. Also, not every deer will contract the disease. It will affect the herd numbers as well as the overall age of the herd. This will reduce the number of older bucks in the herd. A few will prevail to 3.5 or older.
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How do the areas that have had CWD for years and years still have any animals at all? CWD has been in existence since the 1960's. The areas that have had it for a long time don't even pay any attention to it anymore. I wonder if there is nothing that can be done and it will be everywhere eventually?
 
AT Hiker said:
My point was hunting is a management tool. If we dont kill them somebody will have too at some point.
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My thinking is there may be some anti-hunting (as we know it) mixed in with some regulatory edicts which may SOUND somewhat "reasonable" to us, geared towards ending "sport" hunting.

I would like to think the TWRA leadership is way above this kind of thinking, but higher up, top-down, more at the federal and general non-hunting political level, the collateral "benefit" empowering them is reducing and/or eliminating "sport" hunting.

Their plan includes instead using government employed "sharp-shooters" for deer management, as well as very costly other ideas such as birth control for deer, etc.

Just note that where CWD began, and in other places where it's been much longer known than in TN, there are still plenty of deer, whether much anything was done, or if the localized deer herds were mass slaughtered to near extinction. A few years later, similar outcomes regardless.

My concern now is that the measures TWRA is taking may slow the spread of CWD only very little, will not change the outcome of CWD, but will cause many current TN deer hunters to hunt a lot less, deer hunting totally, and not pass on the tradition to the next generation.

THIS is already happening, but the CWD regulatory edicts may be greatly accelerating it, then giving more power to the anti-hunters, who can then more easily convince that 80-plus percent of citizens who do NOT hunt (the non-hunters), that the role of deer management should transition from traditional hunting to a new government policy of sharp-shooting, fencing, trapping, and other measures.
 
Headhunter said:
How do the areas that have had CWD for years and years still have any animals at all? CWD has been in existence since the 1960's. The areas that have had it for a long time don't even pay any attention to it anymore. I wonder if there is nothing that can be done and it will be everywhere eventually?
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The reason the deer herd still exists even with CWD is that it's a chronic disease that doesn't kill the animal immediately. The deer still have a chance to breed and produce offspring. They may live 2-3 years depending on when they contract the disease. Secondly, not every deer will become infected. Typically the areas that CWD is endemic will have a younger herd with fewer animals but they will survive.
 
TheLBLman said:
My thinking is there may be some anti-hunting (as we know it) mixed in with some regulatory edicts which may SOUND somewhat "reasonable" to us, geared towards ending "sport" hunting.

I would like to think the TWRA leadership is way above this kind of thinking, but higher up, top-down, more at the federal and general non-hunting political level, the collateral "benefit" empowering them is reducing and/or eliminating "sport" hunting.

Their plan includes instead using government employed "sharp-shooters" for deer management, as well as very costly other ideas such as birth control for deer, etc.

Just note that where CWD began, and in other places where it's been much longer known than in TN, there are still plenty of deer, whether much anything was done, or if the localized deer herds were mass slaughtered to near extinction. A few years later, similar outcomes regardless.

My concern now is that the measures TWRA is taking may slow the spread of CWD only very little, will not change the outcome of CWD, but will cause many current TN deer hunters to hunt a lot less, deer hunting totally, and not pass on the tradition to the next generation.

THIS is already happening, but the CWD regulatory edicts may be greatly accelerating it, then giving more power to the anti-hunters, who can then more easily convince that 80-plus percent of citizens who do NOT hunt (the non-hunters), that the role of deer management should transition from traditional hunting to a new government policy of sharp-shooting, fencing, trapping, and other measures.
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I agree with some of this LBLman. I don't like conspiracy theories. However, there is a political aspect to everything . Why waste a good disease like CWD right?
I think the TWRA is under pressure to do something rather than conclude that nothing will matter in the long run. If they slow the spread even marginally, they buy some time for a cure. If they do nothing, the areas that are clean now will sqwalk for action. It's a clear no win.
At Ames, I've seen first hand the difference in the deer herd. We have plenty of deer but the bucks are clearly younger animals. You can't even get a pic of a 4.5 year old buck anymore. The last three deer I've killed were all positive. The infection rate is high. Several dead heads have been found by bow hunters. Since the season opened, we've killed a total of three does, two of which are positive. How many hours of hunting from a membership of 50 hunters to kill three deer? For those who think CWD isn't real need to come on out to Ames and sit in a stand for several days and see very little if anything.
 
fairchaser said:
The reason the deer herd still exists even with CWD is that it's a chronic disease that doesn't kill the animal immediately. The deer still have a chance to breed and produce offspring. They may live 2-3 years depending on when they contract the disease. Secondly, not every deer will become infected. Typically the areas that CWD is endemic will have a younger herd with fewer animals but they will survive.
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Hmm, been around since 1967. How long does it take CWD to destroy an entire deer, elk, mule deer, etc. herd?
 
Headhunter said:
Hmm, been around since 1967. How long does it take CWD to destroy an entire deer, elk, mule deer, etc. herd?
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As indicated, the herd will survive even with CWD. History proves this out! However, the herd will be younger and at some level affects herd numbers. So it will never completely eliminate the herd. It's just one other thing deer have to contend with in survival. The real negative is what it does to the older bucks we all want to hunt.
 
fairchaser said:
As indicated, the herd will survive even with CWD. History proves this out! However, the herd will be younger and at some level affects herd numbers. So it will never completely eliminate the herd. It's just one other thing deer have to contend with in survival. The real negative is what it does to the older bucks we all want to hunt.
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So, in areas that have had CWD for years, how are they still killing the same number of great bucks and mature deer as they did before? Looking at numbers for other states, looks like over time, their numbers are about the same.
 
Headhunter said:
So, in areas that have had CWD for years, how are they still killing the same number of great bucks and mature deer as they did before? Looking at numbers for other states, looks like over time, their numbers are about the same.
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Not true for our area. We aren't killing the same number of mature bucks (ie. 4.5 or older). You can still kill 3.5 year olds, even with CWD, there are a fair number of those bucks. But, the older bucks are far far fewer in number. With the infection rate at 50% for bucks, half won't live to maturity. We have picked up many more dead heads this fall than I've ever seen. This is all anecdotal evidence but it's very real to me.
 
Omega said:
?? Knowing that is the procedure, I would do like I do now, except instead of quartering, I would debone. Before the hunt, I fill a cooler with ice. Once a deer is down, I get it up on the gambrel, now permanent, but have a portable one too, as quick as I can. I gut and quarter the deer, removing the backstraps, tenderloins, and heart for quicker processing (usually eat the heart for dinner that day). I place the quartered deer in game bags then on top of the grate I have in the cooler and place the ice on top. I leave it in the cooler for a week, emptying the water and replacing the ice as necessary, whereupon I begin processing for the freezer. Seeing as some would like to wait on results, the aging timeline can be stretched some if need be. Seeing as Ames makes some decent money off of hunters, you would think they would build a place to do all this.

When I was stationed at Ft Bragg, (for mil members, yea I know.. "Back at Bragg") McKeller's Lodge had a walk-in cooler for members to store the deer for 4 days (skin on), the check station had a kill shack with gambrels, hoses, saws, clippers etc, and a hole outback (moved yearly) for the carcasses, which would be treated with lime daily. While the tools would be an issue with CWD, there has to be something like this that would work there, at least to keep members from wasting good venison.
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What are you using for a grate in your cooler
 

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