Not to hijack your post Tabdog my friend but... You got me thinking reading your post - I am a dairy farmer here in northern New York and we own almost 400 acres about 60 acres woods. When my daughter was little (she is 19 years old now) most every time when I would take her back with me in our field right in front of the woods in the pickup about any day of the week we could count 25 or more deer grazing. Now 15 years later I am taking my son to the same spot (he is 4 years old)(yup thats right 15 years between them) we hardly ever see even one deer. We live in a very small town with about 70% population are Amish and over the years they have massacured the deer population. Most Amish families have about 10 to 15 children so that's alot of deer if you just count the leagal ones they get. I can take you to a few Amish farms that have what they call nuisance deer permits, that means they can just shoot them for no real reason. I have seen piles of dead deer remains that you can't even imagine behind some of their barns. I am not a hunter but have nothing against hunting, as long as it is done by the rules. Steve.
Matter of a fact about 5 years ago we had a moose around our area that must of swam across the St.Lawrence River from Canada (only about 12 miles from Canada) and one of our neighbor Amish kids shot and killed it - he said he thought that it was a deer, give me a break. He did geta fine but if you or I shot it we would still be in jail.