I usually take 6-8 in my home state. I will keep 2 or 3 for my wife and I and my family and Church friends usually get the others.

Tags are plentyful here in some areas (DMAP). I make sure that their is a family member or friend who wants a deer before I harvest any more than what my wife and I can handle. I usually have more people wanting deer than what I am willing to harvest.

It only cost $25 here to get the meat processed so, you are right, it is definitely cheaper than beef. I don't charge anyone anything but, the 25 dollar processing fee. I usually skin and quater the animal then, I soak the meat in iced saltwater for 2-3 days before taking it to the processer. The processing plant will do everthing (Gut, skin, quarter, and process) for $60 but, I am willing to do my part to help my family and friends by saving them the $35.

Deer hunting is rewarding in many ways.


Reloader

Buy a VAC-SEAL not he cheap kind but a good one thay run about 400.00
Thay keep the meat good for about one year frozen

As for how many ( I ) would shoot ?
I have a large Ice box
Be creative Elk ..Deer .. there not just for stake's
Add some ground beef to it. It change's the taste .

I live in Alabama and we can shoot a lot of deer here. Like one buck per day state wide and in some counties up to three deer per day. The most I've ever shot was 10 in one year, plus my wife shot 2 and that was a bunch of deer to skin. We kept the meat from maybe 5 of them and give the rest to people who needed it. Which I normaly give half of what I shoot to familys who need it anyway, but I'm in no hurry to skin and clean that many again, it can become a lot of work. Last year I shot 4, she shot 2, and most of the meat we keep is gone so that works pretty good for us.

That is a very good point about finding someone that wants the meat. I used to "share" regularly, till I found out that much of the meat was not used, for what ever reason. It would seem that some folks just won't touch game animals, even tho they might not tell you that face to face.

I know that game meat is the reason why a lot of people like hunting, but for me the hunt itself is the main reward. In your situation, I would probably shoot a pile of deer in the first year or two then maybe try to keep things varied by using different methods. Try stalking deer or shooting with a bow/pistol or only shoot does within 50 yards or only big, barren does. Snipingg females that are not always wary at a distance could become tiresome or make you feel guilty.

In my part of WV we have too many deer. Being recently retired, I have lots of time to hunt and my own land to hunt on. As a result, I've taken 19 deer in the last 3 years. They've all gone to our table and we are grateful to have the wonderful food.

We field dress as quickly as possible being as clean as possible. Quarters go into plastic bags and are refigerated for 5-7 days. We change the bags every other day and make sure the meat is dry. We then cut and wrap in multiple layers of heavy plastic wrap from the big boxes available at Sam's. The meat holds nicely for the year with no freezer burn at all.

I usually have the first one from the next season just as the freezer is empty!

Take what you can actually use without leading to decline of the herd.

Best of good hunting.

In Georgia not nearly enough deer are being taken in most areas. The limits here increased from 3 to 5 and then up to 12 (10 must be antlerless) a couple of years ago. And since we don't even get tags anymore for the animals we kill, the regulation of limits is largely voluntary, which probably means you can shoot all you want. Still not enough have been taken because most people don't care to shoot the number of does it takes to keep some our population in check. We now have more deer in Georgia than when Christopher Columbus discovered America.

Some of our local farms and plantations are given permits during the summer to shoot as many as they would like in order to keep the abundant deer numbers down. Few of these summer kills ever reach a dinner table.

On my farm I have loads of deer, but during our 3 month gun season I find myself very reluctant to shoot the does as I'm nothing but a trophy hunter and don't want to mess up a good hunt by blasting some doe. I will shoot some does during our five-week bow season, which opens tomorrow. I usually let kids and other youthful hunters take does as needed. We probably still should take more. Many that we shoot are given to whomever we can find that might need some meat in their freezer. I even have in my wallet, for example, the name of a guy that was changing the oil in my car last week that said he would like a deer. I hope to fill his 'frig soon!

I'd kill as many as you can in order to help herd sustainability. As for the meat, I donate it through my local SCI chapter. I take a little bit of meat for me ( I'm not crazy about the taste) give some to my friends, but nothing goes to waste. jorge

My family (4) goes through about 500 lbs of game meat per year, if we have it available. Ranges from elk, moose, deer, goose, grouse, whatever I or my wife drag home. My kids just as soon eat game, so if there's some in the freezer, that's what we eat. HTH, Dutch.