I have heard a lot about shooting crop damage deer. I live in Virginia and would like to hunt these deer. In state or out. But I can't find any info anywhere. Can somebody please tell me how to find out about this.

frank,most are handled by the land owners,with the stamps and paper work from fish and game,contact the Richmond office they should be able to help

In Michigan the tags (antlerless only) are issued to the land owner and his designated (by name) shooter (he can't just hand them out to anyone that stops by). Depending on the tag specifcations the head or the entire deer must be turned over to the state (head for testing, if required the body goes to chairty).
Find some farmers that can get the tags in your area, and become there bestest friend/free laborer around the farm. Prove to them that your a responsable hunter (not some city Rambo) and you might get a invite. Be prepaired to be looked down upon, insulted, scorned etc. because of what your doing (the horn hunters hate C.D. shooters).
Ya, I've done the C.D. and eradication thing, and you wouldn't believe the things the "manly man horn hunters" will say about you.

The landowners here in Ohio who are granted tags for crop damage are a matter of public record. You can request the list from the DNR and they will give you a list. Just be careful because it pisses the landowner off because his or her name is given out.

I make a very good amount of money each year doing what you are trying to do. I have been doing it since 1965. Started in Charleston , SC. Find out who is your district wildlife officer/warden, He/she should know the people who are having deer problems. You may be surprised to fine out that building contractors have major problems with deer eating high dollar shrubs and plantings in new sub-divisions. That is where I get most of my calls from. My deer culls pay for all my equipment, bait, ammo and there is always money for hunting trips left over.

Here in Texas,Animal Damage Control take care of the problem,As I work for them and do this,I would call your state Fish and game department and see if they have a program to hunt animal's
causing damage.

You can also see if there is a way to help by removing yotes and other varmints and when it is time for deer season they might let you help be removing of the deer.

Doc

I shoot crop damage deer in Maryland and have been doing so for about 6 years now and have killed well over 500 deer.

Each year I take a few new folks along that want to "hunt" crop damage deer. It's generally a real eye opener for them as they believe we are going to actually "hunt" them.

The actual process is more of a shoot than hunt once things are understood. The farmers want the deer dead (all the deer if he had his way) and he'd rather not (in most cases) be involved, he has other work. The Maryland tags we use are issued by DNR in batches of 10 and new tags are reissued once the previous 10 are used. They are for antlerless deer only (some antlered deer are taken but it's generlly for orchard and tree farm folks on a different permit). We setup to kill the deer depending on the time of year and crop distribution, soybeans and corn mostly. We'll shoot an entire "family group" if possible (depending on the order of the kill). It's better for us to not spook the local deer and change their habits, just kill all of them in a small area then change areas, we don't want to chase the deer around. Most are shot in June and July but we start as eary as February. It's not a good idea to shoot during the time the bucks are anterless, no need shooting a possible good buck for a doe. Fawns are killed before the lactating doe(s) so as not to eave too many fawns orphaned (they'll generally be adopted if they're orphaned).

Most farmers don't care to have too many folks shooting as it's disruptive, one or two shooters killing dozens of deer is much preferred to dozens of shooters killing one or two deer each. I've several times been given excluse hunting season rights to prime deer locations out of gratitude from the farmer's...it's a good way to get prime hunting land use.

Getting rid of the deer is another problem, where would a person take 6 - 10 deer a day during the summer months? I've used up most of the folks I know that eat venison (they're tired of eating venison). I generally "get orders" from folks and then kill enough deer to fill those "orders" otherwise I'm stuck with deer and no place to take them.

I've learned a lot about deer, their habits, social structure and habitat shooting crop damage and this has greatly enhanced my regular season hunting success. The most noticable change in deer movement and habit(s) occurs just a few days before deer season, hunters begin to scout for the season and in many cases completely alter the deer's patterns. These patterns remain fairly unpredictable (relative to the summer months) for the entire season.

Shooting crop damage deer is educational but not too much like "hunting", at least in my experience.

To get info, talk to several farmers local to your area, they probably know the methods and may already have tags.

[ 01-06-2003, 21:10: Message edited by: David King ]