SHERIDAN — There’s too many deer in Sheridan, and since turning mountain lions loose in town to eat them isn’t a viable option, the city is trying another approach — let people bowhunt them within city limits.
That doesn’t mean Sheridan residents might wake up to camouflaged archers perched in their front yard peach trees, or that some random dude will be firing a crossbow at deer in a downtown alley from the roof of a bar.
As in years past, the hunts will be tightly controlled through the Sheridan Police Department’s Deer Management Archery Program.
While the designated “archery zones” are within city limits, they’re in parts of town that have wide swaths of mostly undeveloped fields, trees and brush.
Urban Deer Get ‘Zinged’
Safety protocols must be observed, said Sheridan Police Department Sgt. Shaun Gerleman, who runs the deer management program.
“You can’t shoot arrows across sidewalks or roadways,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
The metro deer hunts have taken place since 2007 during regular archery deer hunting seasons, which generally begin in August or early September.
Typically, roughly 80 bowhunters sign up each year, and about 30 deer are killed, Gerleman said.
Some employees at the local Sportsman’s Warehouse store, who declined to give their names to Cowboy State Daily, said they hadn’t participated in any of the metro deer hunts but knew people who had.
“My friend zinged a buck in an open field over by the hospital last year,” one remarked.
The City’s Program
Before the city launched the public hunts, some police officers were allowed to use firearms to occasionally cull deer in town, and the meat was donated to local people in need, Gerleman said.
But as enthusiasm for that waned, it was decided to give the public a crack at the deer. Since civilians can’t legally shoot firearms within city limits, archery was the only option.
Either by officers or by civilians, the Sheridan deer numbers have to kept in check, he said. When they get overpopulated, disease runs rampant among the deer.
The deer cause all sorts of headaches for Sheridan’s residents
“They were jumping fences into yards, running out into traffic and stomping on small pets,” Gerleman said.
Last winter deer mischief in Sheridan took on a holiday flare.
At one point, three mule deer bucks were strutting around town with Christmas lights wrapped around their antlers
Officials figured the deer had run underneath low-hanging lights or perhaps rubbed their heads against people’s seasonal yard displays and ripped some lights off in the process.
By The Game And Fish Book
The metro deer hunting program must be run according to Wyoming Game and Fish Department regulations, because that agency manages the deer, issues license and enforces hunting season dates and bag limits.
There are ample deer hunting opportunities within the city archery zones, Game and Fish Sheridan Region spokeswoman Christina Schmidt told Cowboy State Daily.
“Depending on the license type a hunter holds, there is opportunity to harvest a mule deer or white-tailed deer,” she said. “City of Sheridan town limits fall predominantly in Deer Hunt Area 24. A very small portion of town on the east side of Interstate 90 is in Hunt Area 23.”
So, archers who decide to participate in the metro hunts should double-check the Game and Fish regulations to make sure they have the right licenses for those areas, she added.
Otherwise, it’s the city’s program, Schmidt said. The same is true in other Wyoming communities that might allow in-town deer hunting.
“Game and Fish does not operate this program locally or statewide. Individual communities may offer similar programs at their discretion,” she said.
Reporting Strangers In Camo
Hunters who want to take their shot at zinging a Sheridan deer this fall must sign up in person at the police department, Gerleman said.
They’ll be given information about regulations, as well as maps showing where they’re allowed to hunt.
They must also pick up a harvest report. That includes some questions about how the hunt went, and whether the archer killed any deer. Regardless of whether hunters succeed, they must fill out those forms and return them at the end of the season.
One might wonder if, during the hunt, the police get frantic calls from residents who aren’t aware of the hunts – reporting a stranger in camo packing a bow around the edge of town at down.
“That has happened on occasion,” Gerleman said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
