Chuck R.
Member
+1
It's also easier to get permission. Landowners usually care about saving bucks for themselves or family members, a lot of them don't want does, I think some don't even want meat. The late season is the time to thin the herd and it's way easier to get your foot in the door.
For a few years we had a deal going on a farm up in Atchinson KS, the place was close to 900 acres which is huge in the NE part of KS. Ideal, and I mean ideal whitetail habitat. Crops intermixed with wooded, creaks etc. Record bucks, plenty of deer, too many does. I was in a deer stampede once while doing drives that had to total over 30 animals. By luck I was in the middle of the escape route, the only time deer hunting that I could have made use of a semi. The farmer had the usual crew that hunted for trophies throughout the seasons. To maintain the ability to hunt, the late doe season turned into thinning the heard time and we'd often shoot 15-20 does in a day. The farmer wanted as many gone as possible. My personal "record" is a triple from one spot and another two later in the afternoon, for a total of 5 does in an afternoon. It was fun, the stalking and shooting part, what came later, not so much. When you shot one, you'd GPS it in, keep hunting, and then after shooting time we'd go around with a flat bed trailer and collect them up. We'd take them to a hillside and field dress them, then transport to a friends barn to hang. I'd often get home after midnight, covered in blood and smelling like deer.
The next weekend we'd spend both days butchering deer. Folks would come to help; wives kids etc and we'd do about 20-25 deer in a couple days, everyone involved would leave with a couple coolers full of meat. The guys running it were in the construction trades, so this time of year a lot of the guys were laid off. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, it ended when the farmer passed away and the son took over. Two years later the place was leased out to a group from NY, can't blame the farmer, they were willing to pay way more than we were. I keep reminding myself..."it's only a deer" every time I think about throwing money at the problem.
I'm now running a much, much, smaller version on my neighbor's place (480 acres), without the #s killed and thankfully without the mass field dressing and butchering. Priority is getting some of the uniformed guys I work with meat, especially if they have hunting age kids.
