Throughout the United States — in Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, Nebraska, West Virginia and right here in New York — deer hunting season brings with it big buck contests, offering cash awards for killing male deer with the largest antlers. Tom Clark, chair of the Amenia Fish and Game Association, has a different approach.
The Pine Plains resident, homesteader and lifelong hunter, is more interested in rewarding hunters who take to the woods as a way to bond with friends and family, enjoy nature — and to feed their families. This year the association is sponsoring, for the first time, a big buck/big doe contest, in which the heaviest dressed deer wins. Antlers aren’t involved.
The idea came from the association’s vice president, Sam Williams, a butcher at Frank’s Superette in Hopewell Junction, Clark told the Herald. “People have had big buck contests for years,” he said. “You want the big antlers? I’ve got a whole milk crate full of antlers but the only thing I use them for are toys for the dog. It really comes down to food. Here in Pine Plains, a lot of people still depend on deer hunting season for a lot of their meat. That’s why we wanted to do a big buck/big doe contest — the heaviest one wins.”
Credit: Bob Barnett
Clark, 58, a retired construction worker, practices what he preaches. On his property on Route 82, he raises more than 30 chickens for eggs, mostly Barred Plymouth Rock, and about 150 chickens for meat in a “hoop tractor,” which he moves every day, so “they get to eat bugs and grass and anything else that’s crawling in there,” he said.
In four garden beds, he raised enough this year to can 40 quarts of tomato sauce, 200 pounds of potatoes, 15 pounds of dried peas and about 150 pounds of string beans. He has seven freezers. “Nothing here goes to waste. All my chicken droppings get put into compost. Cardboard boxes get put in the bottom of the brooders.”
He sells, barters and sometimes gives away his homegrown food to neighbors each week. Clark said he recently gave the farm workers at the Cedar Ridge horse farm, across route 82, “seven roosters that I didn’t want any more. The deal was that they have to come over and help me catch the chickens and do the processing right up to bagging them. They were very grateful. But they’re also guys who, if a tree falls over there, they’ll cut it up into big pieces and just bring it over because they know I use firewood.”
Clark got the hunting bug growing up in Lake Carmel, N.Y., starting at age 14. “The first year, I got a deer. I got hooked,” he said. “I started making jerky, and everyone loved the venison and the jerky.” After he moved out of his parents’ house, got married and started working construction, he kept hunting. “There wasn’t a lot of money,” Clark said. “So it helped for a few bucks that I had to spend on a hunting license I was able to bring home like, 200 pounds of meat.” He would field dress the deer, skin it let it hang in a cooler refrigerator and then butcher it himself. “I’m not the best butcher in the world, but over the years, I’ve gotten better.”
Clark hunted for about 30 years with a friend, who has recently passed away. “The first thing we did was go coyote hunting,” he said “We had a tent. We were sitting there with a decoy, saw an eagle and a hawk come around that decoy. Then we saw two young bucks fighting. And then all of a sudden, we saw a bobcat just sitting on a rock, looking out. At the end of the day, we didn’t see any coyotes. I said, ‘Joe, I’m sorry we didn’t see any coyotes.’ And he goes, ‘Who cares? Did you see that show in front of us? It was beautiful.’”
Credit: Bob Barnett
Clark joined the Amenia Fish and Game Association about 20 years ago: “It’s a group of like-minded people who like to go out and hunt. We do a game dinner — we’ve had venison, bear, pheasant, duck, even a beaver one year, and a moose one year that somebody donated from Maine. We made meatballs out of it and the kids loved it.” The association has weekly indoor range shooting, and Clark, a licensed firearms instructor, charges $30 an hour if anyone wants training and safety tips but donates the fee to the association. “When I help someone site his shotgun, I tell them, now if you miss, it’s your fault,” he said. If it takes more than an hour, that’s fine with him. “For some reason, I’m supposed to help people. I don’t know why.”
“I’d like to see more people go out hunting,” said Clark, who taught his daughter and two stepdaughters how to hunt. It’s a great opportunity to get out in nature with friends or family while, with any luck, filling your freezer. “If you just want to go out and shoot deer for the big antlers, I hope you use the meat,” he said. “We’ve gone up to state property and found deer with no heads because all they want is the trophies. It’s such a waste.” That especially true because anyone who wants to hunt deer but doesn’t want to keep the meat can contact the Federation of Dutchess County Fish and Game Clubs (email: info@dutchessfishandgame.org), so it can arrange to pick up donated venison (or pheasant), process the meat and donate it to local food kitchens.
The rules for the contest are simple. You can enter in advance for $20, or simply call Clark when you’ve got a deer that you want to enter and pay him the fee on the spot. Half the money collected goes to the winner, half to the association. “You shoot a deer and go, whoa, this is a big deer — I’m going to call Tom!” He’ll meet you on the spot.
“I’ll find a place that’s nice and cool to meet up with you as fast as I can. I’ve got a winch that hooks up to the back of my truck with a scale. We meet up, you give me $20, we weigh your deer, and it goes right back into your truck so you can process it as fast as you can. Or if you’re near Amenia, we’ll go to the association and weigh it there. I try to make it as easy as possible.”
To enter or simply learn more, call Tom Clark at 914-953-5685.
