Deer stolen in PA: When a Big Buck Means Lots Of Dough, a Deer Is in Peril

Wall Street Journal ^ | Oct 4, 2003 | FASIH AHMED

[The Raven]

In 1997, he paid $900 for a five-day-old male whitetail for his breeding farm here. "He was just a lil' wee thing," Mr. Miller recalls.

Six years later, the animal could be worth millions of dollars, which explains why it's at the center of a criminal investigation and a nasty court fight, and why it has the world of deer farming abuzz.

[The Raven]

A soft Sunday post

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[Chancellor Palpatine]

Who knew?

[Fzob]

bump for later

[Ditter]

Intresting. I'll alert Mr. Ditter.

[tet68]

375 lbs?? That is a monster buck!
The largest I have taken was 215, here in ga.
Just not into deer farming if it's not for fair chase.
Improving the herd, ok but breeding for the type of situation they talk about is sh*t.

[RippleFire]

bump

[Gringo1]

Hunting on private preserves are for those who cannot hunt fairly and don't wnt to put in the time or effort to find a big buck the real way. I myself have never shot a truly huge buck other than a 200 pounder in Missouri, but it was just a 7-pointer and I have seen 1 or 2 other big bucks fleetingly. I generally hunt for meat, which means I shoot a doe or 2 every year rather than a buck, plus the club I hunt on is in a QDM county.
Practicing QDM is the best way to go if you want good bucks to hunt, letting a buck get to his 3rd or 4th year not only makes the racks bigger, but it makes the chase fairer due to the fact that the bucks get "wood-wise" by the time their racks are impressive enough to qualify them as a "shooter".

[Snowy]

Why are people breeding these things on purpose in PA? There are far too many of them here already.

[kenth]

52-points and 375 lbs... yow!

but finding a buck in the wild with antlers worth mounting can take forever.

I would be more proud to mount a small eight-point that I took from skill and perseverance than a fenced monster regardless of the acreage. It's the hunt, not the rack.

[Libloather]

Wouldn't a big buck mean lots of doe?

[Fzob]

This is what QDM can get you

[11B3]

I'll take the 7 point or 5 point Elk I had in my yard eating apples last night anytime over a deer. (The deer that was in the yard with them looked like a large dog in comparison.)

[LizardQueen]

I would be more proud to mount a small eight-point that I took from skill and perseverance than a fenced monster regardless of the acreage. It's the hunt, not the rack

That's exactly what I wanted to say but couldn't quite find the words for. Thanks for doing it for me!

Too bad the point is lost on a lot of these so-called "hunters" who are only interested in nice-looking tchotkes for their walls.

LQ

[Quigley]

I wish some of the expert hunters out there would come to Alabama and kill off some of these pests. Evidently our local hunters are more interested in drinking Jack Daniels than they are in killing off a deer population that is too large. We have about 1,600,000 of them and you have to be really careful at night to keep from hitting them with your car. I have hit several in the last few years. If I was in charge of the conservation department I would give out of state hunters a free license to help get rid of them. They are pretty but to me they are totally worthless and are nothing but trouble.

[Imal]

On July 29, four local deer farmers embarked on a cross-country sperm-shopping trip.

I really didn't need to read that.

[cyborg]

speaking of things on all fours, tonight VH1 has 'Surviving Ted Nugent' a hunting reality show. Looks pretty good...

[wardaddy]

I'm all for buck management but fenced hunting is not my cup of tea.