How many have you eaten?

[Thumbcocker]

I came late to deer hunting. I was 26 the first time I went deer hunting and 28 when I got my first deer. I started dating Mrs.Thumbcocker when we were 29. Illinois has small metal pins with a deer head and the year on it that you get when you check in a deer or ask for one at a license vendor.

After this years deer kills I counted my pins and added in a deer we were gifted plus a few road kills we scarfed during lean years. Including 2 that ran into our vehicles over the years. The upshot is that in 30 years we have eaten 50 white tail deer. Suprised us.

So how many have y'all eaten over the years?

[leadeye]

Never have kept track, game animals just sort of come and go. Don't think it's anywhere near 50 though.

[high standard 40]

Louisiana season limits are rather generous. There was a time when it was one legal deer per day during a 3 month long season. The current season limit here is six. I've been hunting every year since about 1974. I'll just say there have been quite a few more than 50. I do try to bless people in need with venison every year, often much more than I keep for myself.

[slownsteady22]

We consume 2 or 3 per year on average. Started out mostly jerky or ground meat, but the last 3 or 4 years we have gone to using all the different cuts. Funny thing is, thats about the time we started doing all the processing ourselves and the meat seems to have a better taste.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

[versa-06]

No way to count them. Archery, Muzzle loader, Firearms. Started young & like leadeye it's just been a way of life. When I was young & worked I spent many hours hog hunting, frog gigging, gigging fish & fishing at night. Daytime was wrapped up with anything that was in season at the time when I wasn't working. I'm retired now & hunt quite a bit still & took up trapping coyotes 2-years ago & wound up with many Bobcats, Coons, Skunks, & opossums. Never thought to keep track of any of it. But I have been blessed with abundance, and therefore I am thankful on bended knee.

[Ban]

We had an overpopulated decade & shot to many to count for a number of years. Must be upwards of 150 in 25 years. We relied on it for 6+yrs.

[Hossfly]

We process 1-2 deer per year. Sometimes 3 but that’s rare, mostly hot pan sausage or smoked. Been doing that since I was 15, I’m now almost 71. That’s a lot of deer,La hunters kill about 125K per year that are counted. Seems like about that many end upon the road also. If I find one not swelled, I’ll stop and investigate.

[M-Tecs]

200 plus

[Winger Ed.]

I hunted about every year during the 80's until '06 and we sold the 'low fence' place in the Texas Hill Country.
Having venison was sort of a novelty for a city kid.

I did my own processing, liked having it in the freezer,
but never really tried to make hunting a substitute for going to the meat counter at the grocery store.

All in all, I figure I got 40-something.
My last 5 were with cast. Three RN 170s in a .30-06, and two were 405s in a .45-70.

[SSGOldfart]

5 to 8 a year until I got in this wheelchair two in the last 11years, but I'm back in the woods now with a track drive chair it's a different way of hunting but it will do. I started 50 + years ago we ate a lot of deer

[RU shooter]

I'm a young 52 years old , family has always been hunters so been eating deer even before I killed my first when I was 12 along with a healthy amount of squirrel and other small game . As a youngster it was rare to have beef or pork at our table .

[waksupi]

I would estimate 150 deer, a dozen or so elk, a bear, a couple buffalo, caribou, a few bighorn sheep, a mountain goat, some moose, dozens of antelope, a few mt. lions, and lots of small game and fish.

[koger]

Well for the past 34 years or so, the wife and I have filled at least 2 tags each, the last 20 years we fill between 5-8 deer, which is our limit. We bow, rifle and ML hunt, and eat them all. We usually gift a deer, half each to 2 families down the road I will be conservative, and say 200, we leave nothing but a skeleton and hide, trimming off every inch of scrap as it can be ground up. We also share a cooler full when we go see my daughter in Ohio. We have come to depend on it, and got to where we prefer it over beef, and I raise a few cows. The wife and I work to live a self sustaining lifestyle, and grow a spring, summer and fall/winter garden, with a huge garden coming in the next month or so.

[MT Gianni]

If you are counting eating the whole deer, not just a mealor two......Between age 2 and 32 about one a year. Between ages 33 and 66 at least 2 a year and some years 4. Antelope probably no more than 20, 12 Elk and 1 moose.

[Chad5005]

im 51 and as a family we have ate venison all my life.the wife and i kill 5 or 6 a year now to make it through.so id hate to say atleast 150 thru the years

[richhodg66]

I was late to the game too, killed my first one at 30, I think. Have averaged about two a year since, 24 years now.Have also done a few someone hit that I called to have an LEO put down. I guess it's pretty close to 50 here as well.

[slim1836]

I'm embarrassed to post my numbers after seeing the above, good for y'all.

Slim

[Lloyd Smale]

probably have averaged 50 a year over the last 10 years and probably one a year average for the previous 30. Cant say i eat all of the 50 a year but a good 30 of them anyway after deer we donate to the church and food banks. Ill say that i havent bought more then 50 lbs of beef hamburger in the last 10 years and probably not even that much beef steak and roasts. Big advantage i have is we do crop damage shooting (not hunting) on a local farm from the second week of july to the first of oct most years we can shoot as many as we want. Only one year (last year) were we shut down before the first of oct.

[bangerjim]

None. Zero. Nada. I just kill paper targets and water bottles. Have not killed a single living thing with a weapon in my entire life. I get all my protein from the local butcher shops.

[Lloyd Smale]

every time you ate meat from the store you were just as responsible for killing an animal as i would be shooting a deer. Your protein comes from living animals not the meat fairy at the store. The history of man would have ended before the Neanderthal if we all relied on someone else to kill the animals to feed us. We sure wouldnt be speaking english today if our fore fathers and the people serving today werent willing to kill. Killing to survive is part of human nature. Has been since the first man and will be till the last one dies. Guns are made to kill things. Why else would you own one? Its like buying a harley and putting it in your basement. Kind of reminds me of my wife. When we first dated my buddy brought over some fresh eggs from his chickens. She said she sure as heck wouldnt eat brown eggs that came out of the but of a chicken. her eggs are white and come from the store[smilie=l: She also had never ate venision at that time. As you can probably figure she has a different attitude today.

[elmacgyver0]

I have never killed a deer also. I always thought I would like to but probably will never happen.
Raised on a small farm I know where meat comes from so that's not the problem. Deer seemed to be non existent in eastern Iowa when I was a kid.
I did kill my share of bunny rabbits, sold the meat to fund my .22 shells. My dad liked pidgin soup so I shot those as well and cleaned them.
My mom cooked the pheasant I shot in with a duck as I didn't care for the greasy duck.

[richhodg66]

Well, I hunt, don't have a problem with it, but do find myself the past few years not really wanting to kill things much. I need a pretty good reason, and eating what I shoot is a good enough reason, but still not as enthusiastic about it as I used to be.

A lot of guys on here raise stock to eat. I never have, and I think I would find that much harder for me to do than hunting. Seems like it would be harder to nurture something for a long time and then kill and eat it than to hunt wild game.

I'll keep deer hunting and eating venison as long as I'm able, I prefer the meat to store bought stuff and enjoy the experience.

[WinchesterM1]

I have killed 7-8 deer a year to feed my family for the past 9 years but I hunt in Zone 1 where it’s unlimited deer tags

[BUFFALOW RED]

Used to get 4 a year between me & my boy but not as many deer here now

[Lloyd Smale]

Well, I hunt, don't have a problem with it, but do find myself the past few years not really wanting to kill things much. I need a pretty good reason, and eating what I shoot is a good enough reason, but still not as enthusiastic about it as I used to be.

A lot of guys on here raise stock to eat. I never have, and I think I would find that much harder for me to do than hunting. Seems like it would be harder to nurture something for a long time and then kill and eat it than to hunt wild game.

I'll keep deer hunting and eating venison as long as I'm able, I prefer the meat to store bought stuff and enjoy the experience.

i kind of chuckle at the farm we shoot at. Its a potato farm but they do raise cattle to sell for meat too. the two sons now about 35 that run it lived around killing all there lives. raised cows from new born to put in 4 h shows and had no problem killing them which to me would be much harder then killing a deer. We were talking dogs one day and one of the sons says without any emotion he just put down his lab last weekend Said it wouldnt get up and had been sick for a while so he shot it. Told him i dont think i could kill my own dog. Id have to take it to the vet. He said "its an animal not your son" Hes been around it all his life and so have there kids. They know that animals dyeing is just a natural thing. I guess im somewhere in the middle. I dont kill what i wont eat or donate to someone who needs it. I dont waste. I make every possible effort to recover every animal i shoot even if it means tracking all night. But i sure dont tear up when i come up on a dead deer. To me its like walking up to the meat counter at the supermarket. but i guess im a bit of a hypocrite because i treat my dog like a son and wouldnt leave him outside in a dog house in the summer!

[Thumbcocker]

We are looking at some amazing amounts of meat here. Using 50 pounds of meat per deer as an arbitrary average; 100 deer amounts to 5000 pounds. 2.5 tons of meat. Really makes you take a whole new look at deer and their value as a resource. Factor in ammunition sales, license fees, gas, lodging, and I guess body shops the impact of deer on the economy has to be pretty substantial.

[koger]

You are pretty close on your weight, a #100 doe will make about #30 of grind plus the backstraps, if no meat is blood shot. A buck that weighs between #140-160 gutted will make about #50-60 pounds. That is the average weight of deer around here in KY, where I live. That being said, in ML season the wife an I took does that weighed 134 and 120 gutted. As our herd has went thru a drastic increase the past 10 years, we are seeing does getting older and much bigger. The ones we shot, out of 2 different herds were both barren does. We both killed ours out of a herd of 7-8 each.

[Lloyd Smale]

weve found about 30 lbs of meat total out of a 90-100lb doe. Now i dont fool with ribs but do take flank meat to grind. I basically keep the loins and tenderloins for steak. most of the hind quarters go to roasts and cube steak with the trimmings off the hind quarters, flank meat and front shoulders go to burger and summer sausage making. I make probably an average of 300lbs of sausage and the rest goes to burger. Probably 2/3s of the sausage is given to family and friends. Keep in mind too when i say we average 50 deer a year thats two of us. Best year was a 121 deer worse was last year with 15. This year was 62. 39 i shot and 23 the buddy shot. But we split it all even. Keep in mind too that a 100lb doe is a good sized doe here. We get a few bigger and a few smaller but most are in the 90 lb range. Thats gutted weight.

I chuckle at those alaskan shows where they claim they have to shoot a deer for the winter meat. They have to about be vegans! Costs us 20 bucks a day for gas and then add all the work involved and we need to average a deer every other night to make it worth while. Get a slow year like last year when we went sometimes 3 days between deer and we would have been better off buying beef. If it got to the point where i knew it would cost me money id quit in a heartbeat. Dont get me wrong we have alot of fun and get the opportunity to test guns and loads but bottom line is i do it to get meat period.

This year was a real good one because we got 62 which was far from our best but were both getting old and dont go every night like we used to. We blew off many days this year because after cutting up 3 deer in the morning we were just to beat to do it again that day. so even though it was the best number it was probably the best we did with venison obtained vs cost of gas. You also have to factor in the wear and tear on you truck driving it a 100 miles round trip and oil changes ect. I can see it comming to an end soon. Im not getting younger and my buddy is borderline right now in not being able. For the most part i have to do the gutting, dragging and then skinning and quartering the deer. He is to the point he shoots and his wife butchers his. He takes so much pain med that he cant even drive back and forth anymore.

[MT Gianni]

It is situational. I drive 5 miles to a friends farm. I can legally shoot 7 whitetail only one of which can be antlered. I rarely shoot more than three as that is plenty for the four of us. I buy half a beef every other year from a local rancher and half a pig from local 4H kids buddy pigs.

[richhodg66]

When I first replied, I forgot about the eight or ten my sons killed when they were teens so probably more like 40 for me.

I'm no animal rights activist, but I do admit there are practices th meat industry does that I'm not that comfortable with. I really would rather go out and shoot a wild deer, at least it had a life, not born to die and kept penned up like chickens and hogs are. At least cattle live outside for the most part, more or less left to do what they do. I've never personally put a pet down. It's always torn me up to watch a vet do it, just don't think I could bring myself to do it

I have gotten a lot slower to pull the trigger on anything the past few years. A few months ago, right after coming back inside with the dog, I saw a big skunk in the back yard just casually wandering around, first thought was "Thank God to dog didn't see it", then the second thought was "I really should shoot it so the dog doesn't have another chance at it". There really wasn't any reason not to shoot it, I just didn't want to, and I may very well regret not doing it if knuckle head dog gets sprayed, but I couldn't see killing something just for being what it is and doing what skunks do. Guess I'm getting soft as I age.

[marshall623]

I've never gave it much thought till now , Va. started an app in 2016 that you can buy your license check deer , turkeys and this year bear in on . Your license and tags are on your phone through the app . When you check in a kill in , it saves your check in history, so since Oct 2016 I've killed 14 deer . I've been hunting for 38 years and of course a few of those I goose egged . It would be fair to say for 34 years I averaged 1 a year . So that puts me conservatively at 48 deer .

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

[white eagle]

to many to count

[Yooper003]

We have eaten most of everyone I have shot,(do give some away to friends & neighbors. Have hunted archery, muzzleloader& firearm seasons for 69 years, guessing the number somewhere around 150.

[WebMonkey]

2 to 3 deer for the last 8 years or so.
half a deer to one full deer a year for the 50 years before that.

i grew up in the suburbs.
my maternal grandparents lived on 300 acres near herman, mo.
so i grew up understanding a lot about wild game but not about year 'round usage.

then the army career.
finally moved to my 'forever home' on 120 acres to hunt/process/preserve myself.

eat a LOT more wild game now.

;)

[richhodg66]

A few years ago, I butchered out two in a season, was living away from the family at another post, so not much to do in off time, so I was very careful about butchering and weighing and it seemed to me I concluded that you seem to get about a third of the on the hoof weight back in meat if you do a good job butchering, does that sound about right to you guys with more experience at this than me?

[DougGuy]

3 or 4 a year was good for just me and the 2nd wife, so 30-40 while I was with her? Single now 20yrs so down to 2-3 a year, but I am very saddened by the fact that the treatment for tonsil cancer left me where I can barely chew and swallow any lean meat, so I can't really hunt deer like I used to. I avoid pork chops, white meat chicken, lean beef, except in pasta sauces, I have to hunt out fatty steaks it sucks but hey at least I am alive and kicking!

I could probably have deer sausage or deer chili no problem. Just can't do a whole roast in the crock pot.

[woodbutcher]

:eek: Hi Thumbcocker.You mentioned"body shops".A few years ago,I read an article about what deer/motor vehicle accidents were costing the insurance company`s every year.
Are you setting down?Try 1BILLION dollars a year.And like I said,that was a few years ago.
As to eating deer ,I have probably eaten about a dozen.Plus some elk.Mighty tasty too.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[dk17hmr]

Since 2015 according to the pictures on my phone I have killed 10 deer, 7 elk, and 12 antelope, last year I didn't hunt elk because I was given 2 bull elk. Numbers include the 7 animals I have taken this year.

I haven't hunted bears in several years but one of my coworkers hunts them every year, our agreement is I process the meat (usually sausage) and keep 1/2 of it. I think he has dropped 3 bears off here in the last 4 years.

We go through alot of meat and I give alot away. The old man across the street stopped by shortly after Rona hit and asked my wife if she sees burger in the store to pick it up for them and he will pay us back because all the meat was basically sold out at all the stores in town. Needless to say we opened the freezer door and filled a grocery sack up with a little bit of everything. When I started filling tags this year I gave him another 20# of game burger from our freezer from the 2019 season instead of turning it into sausage.

[marshall623]

A few years ago, I butchered out two in a season, was living away from the family at another post, so not much to do in off time, so I was very careful about butchering and weighing and it seemed to me I concluded that you seem to get about a third of the on the hoof weight back in meat if you do a good job butchering, does that sound about right to you guys with more experience at this than me?Sounds about right the head,hide , rib cage is probably a good 1/3 to 1/2 of live weight . I don't do deer ribs , I get the lean flank at the back of the ribs and after I cut loose the hams from rib/back bone there is some big chunks of lean in there as well . I started last year boning out the hams and separating out the 3 big roast and freezing them whole for jerky , steaks and canning the rest of the hams and other chunks .I freeze shoulders dejointed at the first joint whole unless I need one or both to make a canner full . Back straps get made into steaks and neck is a roast . If kill another one this year I want grind some into burger with bacon in it , tried a small batch last year and was good . Shoulder's after season is over go into Bologna and ground meat jerky .

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

[sharps4590]

Counting all of them, just as you described, including the ones my wife and son killed when he was home, we're right there with you at 50, give or take a few either way. Momma is in her blind as I type this. I don't derive a lot of pleasure in it any longer but, I'll go when these winds lay down some...if they do. I have become so bad about being a fair weather hunter and fisherman. Used to, I would have hunted all day yesterday in the driving rain and wind we had. Great stalking conditions. Those days are long over!!!!

[Elroy]

I never kept track of how many I killed,but I have killed a lot. I have ate ,or ate off of more deer than I have killed, because my Dad,and Brother also hunted . I usually only kill 2, or 3 a year now, and give away as much as we keep.

[firebyprolong]

This got me thinking and I did the fuzzy conservative math in my head and I’m at about 80 give or take a few over the last 20 years. Thats not including my wifes deer. They really are an amazing resource when you think about it. For 11$ a doe tag while I was in college they kept my roommates and I in meat and later myself and my wife. We still eat a lot of deer at our house, but it’s a bit more relaxed now that not filling all our tags doesn’t equate to no hamburger for a couple months next fall. I probably wouldn’t be the rotund fella I am today if wasn’t in country crawling with deer as a younger man.

[megasupermagnum]

weve found about 30 lbs of meat total out of a 90-100lb doe. Now i dont fool with ribs but do take flank meat to grind. I basically keep the loins and tenderloins for steak. most of the hind quarters go to roasts and cube steak with the trimmings off the hind quarters, flank meat and front shoulders go to burger and summer sausage making. I make probably an average of 300lbs of sausage and the rest goes to burger. Probably 2/3s of the sausage is given to family and friends. Keep in mind too when i say we average 50 deer a year thats two of us. Best year was a 121 deer worse was last year with 15. This year was 62. 39 i shot and 23 the buddy shot. But we split it all even. Keep in mind too that a 100lb doe is a good sized doe here. We get a few bigger and a few smaller but most are in the 90 lb range. Thats gutted weight.

I chuckle at those alaskan shows where they claim they have to shoot a deer for the winter meat. They have to about be vegans! Costs us 20 bucks a day for gas and then add all the work involved and we need to average a deer every other night to make it worth while. Get a slow year like last year when we went sometimes 3 days between deer and we would have been better off buying beef. If it got to the point where i knew it would cost me money id quit in a heartbeat. Dont get me wrong we have alot of fun and get the opportunity to test guns and loads but bottom line is i do it to get meat period.

This year was a real good one because we got 62 which was far from our best but were both getting old and dont go every night like we used to. We blew off many days this year because after cutting up 3 deer in the morning we were just to beat to do it again that day. so even though it was the best number it was probably the best we did with venison obtained vs cost of gas. You also have to factor in the wear and tear on you truck driving it a 100 miles round trip and oil changes ect. I can see it comming to an end soon. Im not getting younger and my buddy is borderline right now in not being able. For the most part i have to do the gutting, dragging and then skinning and quartering the deer. He is to the point he shoots and his wife butchers his. He takes so much pain med that he cant even drive back and forth anymore.

Is any of this real? 39 deer you shot this year yourself... in Michigan... driving 100 miles every day you go out... and you eat those 39 deer in a year?

My oh my, I can put down some food myself, but I've still got a couple packages of bear I shot in September, and I gifted plenty of it to family. Other than the odd hamburger, just about all the meat I've eaten the last three months has been bear, duck, and goose. If I really loved deer, I could probably put down 4-5 a year. It would be hard enough just to get 5, being as I would have to travel to multiple hunt zones just to legally shoot that many.

[missionary5155]

If you back up in his tale a bit he wrote he gives away 2/3.

[bowfin]

LOL, there were nights that the wife and I quartered and boned out four deer in one sitting. I have a brother who keeps getting Antlerless Only permits in Nebraska and he doesn't keep a single one. I think 12 has been the most in one year that I have cut up and eaten in the 43 years of my deer hunting career. If I had to guess, I would say somewhere over 200.

Here in Nebraska, if you buy a Season Choice Antlerless Rivers Permit, you can shoot two does or yearling with a $14 permit. You can buy them until they run out...and they haven't run out of them in years.

[KCcactus]

If I include my son's deer, we're at about 30. Feral hogs are more like 70. Most of the hogs have been in the last 4 years since I started running my feeders year round. No limits and any time on feral hogs here in Texas. I stopped trying to trap them after I caught 14 at once. I haven't run the trap since then. I prefer to clean them 1 or 2 at a time. We've been processing everything ourselves for the last 20 years.

[trapper9260]

I did not keep track how many deer I ate and shot , not as many as most of you , I came into getting my first deer in my 30's, I also eat other wild game and fur bearers , and birds and what ever else I feel up eating. Also eat fish and snapping turtles and crayfish beside what ever else I feel to eat. I know that I like eating deer and I got my self 2 this season one with the muzzle loader and one with the crossbow . one came out with out the leg bone of 70lbs of meat and the other to 76 lbs . It works for me .

[curiousgeorge]

Started deer hunting at age 25 in 1983. Here in KY back then, not a lot of deer, but I had good places to hunt. Now at 62, just wife and me but raised 3 kids along the way, mostly on deer meat. Tried to count them all, but can't. Somewhere close to 50 that I've taken and all eaten by me and family, including grandkids. None wasted.

[green mountain boy]

i am 72 and started hunting whitetails when i was 11-12 in vermont. i have never counted the total but on one big hill here in wyoming the last 41 years i have shot 36 bucks in the national forest, its bucks only. and passed two years...2 years i didnt find a buck. several bull elk and dozens of antelope have fallen to cast boolits. i hunted 9 days this year and drew a blank, ya cant shoot what ya cant find.

[Norske]

We've eaten between 65 and 70 whitetails, dozens of pheasants, and are burned out on walleye. The odd thing about the deer is that my least accurate game rifle (a '76 Ruger M77 257Roberts) took 43 deer with 43 shots. It was used the most often because for most of my hunting life, because it has been the lightest weight rifle I own, so if hiking/carrying was involved, it was chosen.

[Traffer]

I quit hunting in 1985. Moved to Boston. Moved back to Wisconsin in 2011. I used to get a lot of venison from friends but that source has dried up. So I guess I have eaten about 10.

[dale2242]

I`m a month away from 79 years old.
Having been raised a loggers son here in SW Oregon winters were sometime tough on the family.
I have eaten venison as long as I can remember.
There has been many a winter we had eaten more than one deer.
We eat it every year so the count would be a wild guess.
It would be a lot .

[ravelode]

Considering antelope elk one moose whitetail mule deer, at least 120+, some years they had extra tags & I'd harvest 7 animals a season. MT since 1978.

[ravelode]

We've eaten between 65 and 70 whitetails, dozens of pheasants, and are burned out on walleye. The odd thing about the deer is that my least accurate game rifle (a '76 Ruger M77 257Roberts) took 43 deer with 43 shots. It was used the most often because for most of my hunting life, because it has been the lightest weight rifle I own, so if hiking/carrying was involved, it was chosen.

Similar my M96 6.5x55 is my Rifle of choice just because it's 1.5 lbs lighter than my 30-06.

[gbrown]

I have hunted deer since I was 24. 1st year I got one. I've probably gotten 150+, never kept track. Dad killed several hundred in his 85 years. I would love to get back, but health issues have limited my activity. Hoping to recover and get back in it. My first deer, I dropped off at a processor. Thought my Dad was going to have a stroke or beat me half to death. Lesson learned. He taught me how process and get the maximum yield. I butcher/process my deer and other meats. Today I processed a pork loin into chops and 2 small roasts.

[35 Whelen]

Well...al of them that I've killed over the last 35-40 years, couldn't begin to count them. When all four kids were still at home, we'd eat four deer and still run out of venison before season opened again.

35W

[DeadWoodDan]

I'm with 35W. I've never counted and know its a high number. Both my kids and now grandchildren consume. I was HUGE into archery a few years and could count on one hand the number of days I missed hunting in one season. I feel very fortunate for that still today, those where more simple years even though I thought money could make it better, and have lived long enough too know it hasn't. I'll trade it all to go back to paycheck to paycheck AND to spend every day in the woods. I've been crippled for two years now but still have family and friends that helped stock my freezer. Have enough burger ground and even some being made into salami as I right this. Best part is I've learned to harvest better, not taking young ones, and be patient. I even have to laugh b.c. my daughter stoped tonight and took a salami!

[gunseller]

When I started deer hunting in Iowa there were few deer. In the 50 plus years I have been deer hunting I know I have averaged over 1 per year. Even got one while in the army. Used government issue rifle and ammo. M16 will kill a deer at 300 meters with a 55 grain fmj. If it is leagle to kill it in Iowa I have eaten it, except fox and coyote. Actual deer count from my guess is over 100. I know that is 2 per year. This would include those killed with bow, handgun, shotgun, muzzle loader, car and truck.
Steve

[PositiveCaster]

The majority of the deer I’ve eaten were Kodiak Island blacktail. In the 27 years I lived in Alaska I hunted Kodiak at least 18 times. The bag limit varied from 4 to 7. I seldom took a limit each year, not because I couldn’t but because I didn’t need/want 7 deer a year. So maybe 60-70 total, I seldom gave meat away, Kodiak venison is....the best.




.

[Drm50]

I’ve hunted deer in several states and Canada. The best deer came from farm country where they were grain feed. Smells like canned corn when you gut them. The worst deer I ever shot came from scrub woods along Ohio River bottom. Terrible. Depends a lot on what they eat. Mountain deer that fend of nature’s food aren’t bad but not as good as those raised on corn. I have no idea how many deer I’ve shot. I was tag filler ever since I was a kid. The most I shot in one day was 14, the most I shot in one flurry of activity was 9, with a 5 shot rifle. All were tagged and most ended up being taken for processing. I always cut my own.