http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/image_archive/2180787.jpg> Old sign on the side of the K-27 building, the last of the Oak Ridge processing facilities once part of the nation's largest uranium-enrichment complex. (DOE photo)

Most hunters are aware of the diseases and physical maladies that may adversely affect deer herds in their particular state or region, including chronic wasting disease (CWD) and the cyclic, insect-borne epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD). In addition, there are numerous parasites and other factors that may cause harvested venison to be inedible or otherwise unusable.

But a special restricted deer hunt that takes place each year can produce whitetail with traits not only unique to that area, but they also require testing methods unlike any deer hunt you've ever experienced - unless you hunt in Oak Ridge, Tenn. After all, when was the last time you had your freshly harvested whitetail checked with a Geiger counter for radioactivity?

Kinda' gives a whole new meaning to "deer ticks," wouldn't you agree?

In recent years, three, two-day deer hunts have been scheduled on the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge reservation in October, November and December. However, for the past two years, the October hunt has been cancelled; in 2012 as a result of a security breach and last year because of the federal government shutdown (remember that?). As a result, the first 2014 hunt held Oct. 17-18 was the only time in three years the reservation hunt has coincided with the rut, resulting in a record single-hunt harvest for participating hunters - with 238 deer taken, compared to a total of 188 in the 2014 November and December hunts combined.

Of the October hunt total checked by wildlife officials, two deer were retained because of radioactive contamination - they were too hot to leave the reservation.

http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/image_archive/2180785.jpg> Sy Cook took this 10-point buck during the two-day October 2014 hunt at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He got to keep it, too. (ORNL photo)

Oak Ridge, aka The Atomic City, is headquarters of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and historic sight of the Y-12, known as one of the "hottest" spots on earth. Built in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, the facility's electromagnetic uranium enrichment plant separated U-235 from U-238 and produced the material for the world's first atomic bomb.

In the 1940s and 50s, laboratory workers were known to simply bury some of the waste byproducts produced by the facility, which resulted in the radioactive runoff at the area known as Y-12. That practice ended decades ago.

Each deer harvested is tested by ORNL and wildlife authorities for strontium-90 in the bones and for cesium-137 concentration in muscle tissue. Since the deer hunts began in 1985 to thin the problematic herd, more than 11,600 deer have been harvested by hunters, and 204 - about 1.75% - have been retained because of high radiation.

Obviously, it's not the hot deer that attract thousands of hunters to annually enter the lottery for a chance to hunt ORNL. Rather, it's the hot deer hunting. The heaviest deer taken on the reservation weighed 218 pounds and the most points on a buck was 28.

To date, the hottest deer taken on an Oak Ridge hunt was an 86-pound, 5 1/2-year-old doe killed in 1999 on Copper Ridge near the old Tower Shielding nuclear reactor site. With that deer, as with most "hot" deer on the reservation, the determining issue was strontium-90 in the bones. Normal radiation background is something on the order of 30 to 40 counts per 2 minutes, and the 1999 doe registered 853 counts.

Authorities keep any deer with radiation levels 1.5 times above background. Historically, nearly all the hot deer are retained due to strontium-90 (a bone-seeking radionuclide).

- J.R. Absher

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