Department of Agriculture Sharpshooters

[HerbG]

An urban state park here in Alabama with a very large deer herd has been selected to be thinned. Even though the park was opened briefly for bow hunting, that failed to make a dent in the deer population. Now, "sharpshooters.......with suppressers" will be used to thin the herd.

Does anybody know what kind of equipment these federal "sharpshooter teams" use?

Below is an portion of the article from a local newspaper:

"Sharpshooters from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will enter the park sometime in the next few weeks, state officials said Tuesday.

The shooters have been given a few weeks by state Conservation Commissioner Barnett Lawley to harvest an undetermined number of deer. The team will use rifles with suppressers to reduce the noise.... "

 

[Preacherman]

Moving this to the Hunting forum.

 

[Spark]

I wonder if that's like working as the DJ in a strip bar - after a while, even the fun stuff get's boring.

 

[Greybeard]

That sounds like the tool for the job might be the .308 "Whisper".

 

[scout26]

Up here around Chicago, they use USDA sharpshooters to cull the herds in the forest preserves. Cost the coutny $2 million. Hell, we trained at the club that I'm a member of. (it took a LOT of Training, hee hee.) Here they use shotguns and slugs, but they only hunt at night. Don't want to make the soccer moms nervous seeing a guy in camo with a gun sitting in a tree.


I proposed that they open the preserves to bowhunters and charge $50 -$100 in addition to the regular cost of an archery tag. But then that makes sense. The Gov't would rather spend money than make it..........

 

[JohnKSa]

I know a guy who's brother-in-law owns/runs a large ranch. They're always trying to reduce the deer population and the BIL has a large number of population control tags (not exactly the right term, but I forget right now).

He's shy of having strangers come in and hunt the property.

Which means that this guy can basically go hunting any time he wants and shoot all the does he wants and a good many bucks as well. The only thing is he has to do is field dress them and donate the meat. The ranch employees won't shoot any does and won't even shoot a buck unless it has a really nice rack. They've gotten tired of all the field dressing and won't do it unless they are going to get a nice trophy in the deal.

It sounds to me like the fun has pretty much worn off.

 

[HerbG]

Scout26 says they "jacklight" the deer. I know that is probably the best solution, but USDA pay enough money to hire me for that job!

I still wonder what equipment they are using. Scout26 said they used shotguns with slugs. Any other ideas?

 

[ojibweindian]

I forget the name of the park, but it's in the Birmingham area. There was a huge debate on whether hunting was to be allowed there. From what I heard, the animal right finally won out.

Guntersville State Park is in the same situation.

 

[HerbG]

The park where the USDA is scheduled is Oak Mountain State Park just south of Birmingham in Shelby County. The State Department of Conversation scheduled a special archery hunt there about a month ago that resulted in only 25 deer being bagged. That disappointing yield resulted in the USDA program being brought in.

The Bambi protectors put on a small protest before the archery hunt, but it didn't amount to much.

 

[Balog]

I wonder how one goes about applying for that job?

 

[nico]

I wonder if they're planning on doing that in MD any time soon

<----- USDA Employee

 

[Spinner]

The New Zealand government used to employ deer cullers in an attempt to control the herds of wild deer destroying our forest resources. Many guys signed up for the job thinking they would be in hog heaven .... all the hunting you can cope with AND getting paid for it too. Unfortunately, not many guys stuck with the job.

A very small percentage of cullers stuck at the job long-term. A culler had to be mentally tough, practical, happy to spend much of their time alone or with one or two other individuals in the middle of nowhere for long periods of time. Inclement weather shouldn't deter a culler, they needed to be highly self-motivated to get out and hunt and kill as many deer/pigs/goats as possible ..... even when they didn't feel like it. The simple truth for many was that although they could kill and butcher game animals, they really couldn't stomach the continual killing of as many deer as they could find .... they rapidly got sick of it.

You have to be a particular breed for this kind of work in the long term ...... in the same way as a sniper needs to be a breed apart from the average soldier.

Spinner

 

[Art Eatman]

Back some 35 years ago, I did some cullling to reduce the total numbers of deer on the old family place outside of Austin. Totally illegal, back then, because the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department bureaucrats didn't know anything about "carrying capacity" of land. Ranchers did, of course; they had to in order to survive, long term. Anyhow, I shot does and mature spikes and "scraggle horn" bucks. After about three years of this, body weights were up, and I was seeing bucks with decent racks. By the fourth year, average body weights were up around 30%.

But gutting just a dozen to twenty deer a year can really get old, particularly in summer. Best to shoot when you're really hungry, so the thought of food can offset the "aroma" of hot, dead deer...

, Art

 

[4v50 Gary]

USDA Sharpshooters? How do I apply? Can I use blackpowder?

 

[Sparky]

It's Oak Mountain State Park..'bout 35 miles from where i'm sitting. The state finally got smart and brought in the "pros" The archery hunt in January was a dismal failure. They did not stipulate does only so all the participants were horn hunting. Plus for 2 weeks prior to the hunt the woods were crawling with guys scouting for a spot. The Feds are going to use supressed rifles and spotlights to thin does from an incredibly overpopulated herd. The park has 3K acres and there is NO brush undergrowth etc. The trees have been stripped as high as deer can reach. they have become a nuisance to the neighborhoods around the park (love azaleas0 and a traffic hazard. Some one in the DOC got some cojones and decided to let the do-gooders howl.

 

[ojibweindian]

Hope they open up Guntersville State Park to archery and black powder hunters next year. According to an article in last October's "Alabama Game and Fish" magazine, Guntersville State Park is pretty much in the same situation as Oak Mountain.

 

[scout26]

That's the biggest problem. Too many of us hunters have the Saturday morning huntin' show disease: "If it ain't a wall hanger I'm not going to shoot it." Well that's a bunch of crap. The herds need to be thinned, everywhere. If you get the chance to fill your tag, do it. QDMA is about right sizing the herd to make better deer. I you want a wall hanger, then get two or more tags, but help thin the herd, by taking a doe. If you don't want the meat, send it to me (I got a wife and two kids to feed), or donate it. Besides, does taste better.

 

[Al Thompson]

the pay is pretty low. Here in SC USDA-APHIS-WS mainly does Beaver Trapping, but some deer work is also done. Lots of leeway for the equipment.

Our deer wackers were Rem 700 PSS in both .223 and .308. AWC supplied the suppressors. Usually used Leopold or Nightforce scopes and shot from a pick up at night with a Q beam for illum.

.300 Whisper was not effective - the 240 gr Matchkings have a terrible ricochet problem and loading 125s just gave us a 7.62x39 equivilent round. Rifle was a TC Contender with full stock and suppressor.

Most of the WS guys like light and fast. The .270 with 90 grain bullets and .243 with 70 or lower are the most popular. The velocity and fragile bullet helps keep ricochets down.

Also started using an arrow gun. Usually a 77/22 with the OD of the barrel turned down to where an arrow with a broadhead would slide over it. Used a blank for thrust, very quite and effective.

Pay is about 20 k per year.

 

[HerbG]

Thanks Al for the answer to my question! Interesting choice of guns and ammunition. I had figured on something slower and heavier to help the suppressor with the noise.