can you eat the meat from the deers roaming in Fairfax County? or is the meat too unhealthy?(from all the junk the deers eat around here)

Sure. Deer do not eat junk. they are herbivores. You can't throw out kitchen scraps and expect a deer to come along. Eat Up. Just don't leave them on the road too long before you grab them.

I wasn't actually worried about the deers eating human trash...

What I meant was that people in this area seem to over-use pesticides and
chemicals on their lawns and plants... the deers love the stuff humans grow... so...

BuckStud Wrote:
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> Sure. Deer do not eat junk. they are herbivores.
> You can't throw out kitchen scraps and expect a
> deer to come along. Eat Up. Just don't leave them
> on the road too long before you grab them.

They process it just as you and I do. No worries.

and I would wager 99% of their diet is pesticide free

By the way, the plural of "deer" is "deer".

new_cow Wrote:
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> can you eat the meat from the deers roaming in
> Fairfax County? or is the meat too unhealthy?(from
> all the junk the deers eat around here)

It depends on what you mean by "roaming". I would NOT eat a deer that was
hit by a motor vehicle. There is a possibility that it may have been sick.
(as in Lyme Disease). I only feast on deer that were obviously healthy
and not showing any signs of illness. Check the liver. Spots are a no-no.
Do you know how to properly gut, skin, and cut up a deer? Hows about scraping
off all the fat? Deer fat is terrible and must be removed as it is rancid.
Please check these things before you try it at home. Their diet here is
probably better than "farm fed" as farmers use pesticides heavily. Forest
fed is best. (acorns)

I forget what the exact disease is but I head a lot of wild deer have it. I would seriously not eat a roadkill deer unless you were starving to death.

How many different species are there in this area, anyway?

Ghostface Killah Wrote:
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> How many different species are there in this area,
> anyway?


Whitetail only. In other parts of Virginia there are Sikka (much smaller), but
only in a very few areas. There are even a very few Elk in our state, but their
herds are just getting started.

Deer are delicious if you cook them first

The disease you are probably thinking about is called "Chronic Wasting Disease." It's been a problem in the midwest for a while and has been moving East for the last few years. Google it.

You hicks!

Yeas make up some jerky

legally? no as far as I know you can hunt deer and mount their heads etc. but somebody correct me if I am wrong here for some reason venison is illegal in Va. as food.

Years ago when I was a serious gym rat I ate a diet of expensive vitamin and vegetable shakes and venison I bought off a long time hunter. Dude would go up into West Va on the weekends and bag a dozen prime healthy deer. Dude was very skilled in correctly processing the deer cleanly. Every step of the way from gutting to finally choosing prime cuts and even putting the venison through a meat grinder for venison burgers was done expertly clean and proper. It cost me a LOT to eat that diet for 6 months but I ended up a freaking beast.

Venison steaks, nuggets, strips, burgers you name it even venison soup. Ultra lean high protein meat. It was like eating steroids it worked so well.

The deer around Mt.Vernon used to get poached but that ended years ago as Belvoir grew. The deer here now eat nasty shit. Chemical treated everything grass leaves you name it. Eating local deer is a bad idea youd likely get pretty sick.

For prime healthy venison you need to go out of your way to where deer roam far enough away from people that they eat foliage that has never been sprayed with something. Up in the mountains deer are bigger and healthier the foliage they eat up there is just much better for them. Only time Ive ever seen a 12 point buck was right up close to the Blue Ridge. Freaking thing was HUGE it was as tall as a horse its 12 point rack was astonishing. For some reason it had come charging out of the woods on one side of a road. I was behind a Mercedes SUV on this road that this huge buck tried charging across. The Mercedes hit it spun to the side a bit the front left wheel of the Mercedes was left broken and bent several degrees inwards and a large part of the grill just broke and flew off when it hit the buck. The buck stood there for a second stared at the Mercedes and charged off into the woods on the other side of the road like nothing happened. One of the wildest things Ive ever seen.

CelticCross74 Wrote:
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> legally? no as far as I know you can hunt deer and
> mount their heads etc. but somebody correct me if
> I am wrong here for some reason venison is illegal
> in Va. as food.
>
> Years ago when I was a serious gym rat I ate a
> diet of expensive vitamin and vegetable shakes and
> venison I bought off a long time hunter. Dude
> would go up into West Va on the weekends and bag a
> dozen prime healthy deer. Dude was very skilled in
> correctly processing the deer cleanly. Every step
> of the way from gutting to finally choosing prime
> cuts and even putting the venison through a meat
> grinder for venison burgers was done expertly
> clean and proper. It cost me a LOT to eat that
> diet for 6 months but I ended up a freaking beast.
>
>
> Venison steaks, nuggets, strips, burgers you name
> it even venison soup. Ultra lean high protein
> meat. It was like eating steroids it worked so
> well.
>
> The deer around Mt.Vernon used to get poached but
> that ended years ago as Belvoir grew. The deer
> here now eat nasty shit. Chemical treated
> everything grass leaves you name it. Eating local
> deer is a bad idea youd likely get pretty sick.
>
> For prime healthy venison you need to go out of
> your way to where deer roam far enough away from
> people that they eat foliage that has never been
> sprayed with something. Up in the mountains deer
> are bigger and healthier the foliage they eat up
> there is just much better for them. Only time Ive
> ever seen a 12 point buck was right up close to
> the Blue Ridge. Freaking thing was HUGE it was as
> tall as a horse its 12 point rack was astonishing.
> For some reason it had come charging out of the
> woods on one side of a road. I was behind a
> Mercedes SUV on this road that this huge buck
> tried charging across. The Mercedes hit it spun to
> the side a bit the front left wheel of the
> Mercedes was left broken and bent several degrees
> inwards and a large part of the grill just broke
> and flew off when it hit the buck. The buck stood
> there for a second stared at the Mercedes and
> charged off into the woods on the other side of
> the road like nothing happened. One of the wildest
> things Ive ever seen.

I'm having a hard time believing it was as big as a horse. One of the largest deer on record I've read about was 300 lbs. A horse otoh (depending upon the breed) would be more like 1,000 lbs. Are you from south Texas by any chance?
They raise some world class bullshitters down there.

you can definitley eat the meat!!!

Libertarian1 Wrote:
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> The disease you are probably thinking about is
> called "Chronic Wasting Disease." It's been a
> problem in the midwest for a while and has been
> moving East for the last few years. Google it.

If a deer has CWD, you'll know it. It's entire backside will be rotting away with intestines and whatnot visibly falling out.

I'd think real hard about taking a roadkill deer when I witnessed its death (via my car or someone else's), especially if I was out in the pick-up. If it's been laying for unknown amount of time, no way! My neighbor has a nice 12-point pair of antlers in his garage from a buck he pulled off 66 in Haymarket. Carcass of that one got tossed from an bridge into a creek way out in bumfuck.

I've been killing deer with a suppressed .22 in Rock Creek Park for the 4 years I've had to work up there.

Isn't a huge deal. I travel that route in the early AM. Always plenty of them walking right along the road.

One shot...in the bed of my truck. Hustle home to VA.