All of west TN is now CWD zone

[Andy S.]

I live in dyer county and it is a positive cwd county but the dnr does not classify it in the cwd zone. Makes no sense

Dyer has ONE KNOWN positive, from 2021 season (4.5 year old buck), but no other detections to date. Due to current low prevalence rate, and the only positive to date confined to a mature buck, it has not been added to "Unit CWD" and is still classified "Unit L".

I fully realize rules and regulations can be confusing, but reading the TWRA CWD Response and Management Plan will shed some light on the Agency's current approach with CWD. While it may not be perfect in everyone's eyes, it is a plan that explains background, timelines, assumptions, procedures, etc to manage CWD in free ranging deer and elk on a statewide level.

 

[knightrider]

Can you still donate deer to hunters for the hungry in those cwd affected counties?

 

[BSK]

When CWD popped in TN before MS, I learned how to cape and clean skull cap to legally bring the trophies back to MS (even tho middle TN is not CWD endemic yet).

It isn't hard to cape an animal if you take your time around the lacrimal ducts of the eyes, the hair just under the pedicle, and the lips.

There's not chance in Hades the average hunter can learn to cape the face. A lot of hunters in West TN want to bring their deer into the Nashville area for mounting. This is going to a problem for some hunters.

 

[Andy S.]

Can you still donate deer to hunters for the hungry in those cwd affected counties?

Yes

 

[Andy S.]

There's not chance in Hades the average hunter can learn to cape the face. A lot of hunters in West TN want to bring their deer into the Nashville area for mounting. This is going to a problem for some hunters.

Same problem many of faced 5 years ago, when we hunted in a Unit CWD county but our taxi was in a Unit L county. A few possible COAs below:

1. Learn to cape
2. Find taxi in Unit CWD (path of least resistance, and likely most economical)
3. Store buck in freezer in Unit CWD and pay your preferred middle TN taxi to travel to Unit CWD to cape and travel back to his place of business.

I have seen all three COAs done over the last 5 years.

 

[Texan11285]

I'm in west Tennessee, so I guess I'll be going out of state. I'm a meat hunter.

 

[megalomaniac]

My understanding was you coulding move an undried cape across cwd unit to any other portion or across state lines, I thought it had to be mounted? But im not very smart either

Me either...I get all the states rules all jumbled up. I know hunting out west in CWD areas it is fine to cape an animal and bring the raw cape and cleaned skull cap (or the entire skull if all brain matter is removed and skull is cleaned... ie euro mount) Same law in MS.

I do know the expeditor I'm planning on using for AK moose is unable to transport the frozen head back to the states... Frozen cape is fine, cleaned skull cap is fine. But I probably want a euro mount, so I'll have to pay someone in AK to do it, then have the cleaned skull transported back with the frozen and deboned meat.

 

[Andy S.]

I'm in west Tennessee, so I guess I'll be going out of state. I'm a meat hunter.

Hunt as far NW in west TN as you can, and you will be fine. About same odds of killing CWD positive deer (especially doe and younger buck) as buying winning lottery ticket.

 

[Omega]

I'll be hunting Hardin this year, so will be deboning the venison, which is easy enough. If I happen to get something I want a euro out of, that will be trickier. I can easily clean off most of the skull in the field, the way I read the rules that should be fine because I'm probably not taking my turkey fryer out there.

 

[tellico4x4]

We bought an old walk in cooler last year to do away with the urgency of having to deal with it. Put a 10k window AC in it with CoolBot tstat and it works great. I bone mine out and bring meat back to AL to be processed. There's two taxidermist in Savannah that gets all our business.

 

[AlabamaSwamper]

Caping the face isn't hard

If

You have the right tools. Skinning knives won't cut it.

Tellico, who you using in Savannah?

 

[Henry]

No, it has been found in most of them, but not all of them. This graphic and link will help you.

CWD Distribution & Prevalence

View attachment 187550

Does anyone know what govt or govt/"private partnership" facility is in Fayette or Hardeman county? There are just too many cases in those counties for this to not be a human caused issue...as seems to be the usual mo now a days.
Maybe going to the source and shutting it down would give the deer a chance for the sick ones to die off and for this to go away.

Also find it interesting that counties with 1 or a just a few positive tests in prior years, but NOT in the recent year, are considered cwd...

 

[Andy S.]

^^^ Guaranteed it was/is a "human caused" issue, but pinning it on a single human or entity isn't likely at this point in time, likely a decade or more after it was introduced to Fayette/Hardeman county line area. Worth mentioning, a single detection or just a few is a good thing, when compared to the higher prevalence rate counties, BUT you need to know how much testing is being done in those counties to get the rest of the story.

 

[tellico4x4]

Tellico, who you using in Savannah?

Creggs Taxidermy in Burnt Church & Tims Taxidermy in Savannah

 

[DeerMan66]

There's not chance in Hades the average hunter can learn to cape the face. A lot of hunters in West TN want to bring their deer into the Nashville area for mounting. This is going to a problem for some hunters.

I learned to cape a deer watching a YouTube video when I killed one in Kansas. The rancher let me borrow his razor he used for castration. I was a little nervous but took my time and it worked out just fine.

 

[TNRifleman]

What's the over/under in years for the whole state being declared a CWD zone? I say it is as soon as each county starts testing but would set the over/under at 4.5 years.

 

[buggyla]

I'm not surprised

 

[Buzzard Breath]

What's the over/under in years for the whole state being declared a CWD zone? I say it is as soon as each county starts testing but would set the over/under at 4.5 years.

I think the natural barriers deer encounter as it moves east will slow it substantially. Starting with the TN River. It'll hit another speed bump at the plateau. The mountains of far East TN have such a low population density, It could take a long time for some of those counties to ever have positive tests. I don't see the entire state testing positive in my lifetime. This is just an amateur opinion from someone self-educated on the subject of CWD.

 

[Boll Weevil]

I think the natural barriers deer encounter as it moves east will slow it substantially.

While natural barriers may indeed slow LIVE deer moving from place to place, I'd argue it's hunters moving carcasses that contributes to geographic progression outward from the zone. My guess is pickup trucks are the most common method of movement (vs the infected deer themselves).

 

[Buzzard Breath]

While natural barriers may indeed slow LIVE deer moving from place to place, I'd argue it's hunters moving carcasses that contributes to geographic progression outward from the zone. My guess is pickup trucks are the most common method of movement (vs the infected deer themselves).

Definitely can happen. I just don't believe the probability of this happening to be all that great. A deer would have to eat the grass grown where someone disposed of the deer and still get a large enough prion load to get CWD. I would have thought they would have started to get some positives already if carcass transportation was an issue. I'm assuming they are testing deer east of the TN River. I'm also assuming they are testing around the elk reintroduction area.