DOVER — Federal sharpshooters will attempt to finish collecting a 600-deer sample for scientific study in the next couple of weeks, state Division of Fish and Wildlife Director Pat Emory said Tuesday.

But the plan — to harvest the does at night from high-density areas adjacent to housing developments or state parks, where hunting is typically prohibited — quickly drew fire.

After outcry from hunters who questioned why the state would pay outsiders to do a task many sportsmen would gladly do for free, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control offered hunters a "first shot" at collecting the does during seasons in January and February.

The dead does — and their fetuses — provide data on such topics as age-specific reproduction rates, the sex ratio of fawns, the length of the breeding season and the age structure of the doe population.

Deer will be collected, analyzed by Fish and Wildlife staff and sent to Sussex Correctional Institution near Georgetown to be processed, all within a span of four or five hours, Mr. Emory said.

He said the process was delayed while the USDA completed an environmental assessment of the collection and the state sought landowner permission.

"To pay someone $2,000 a day to go in there and poach deer with a spotlight, that's the lowest form of hunting I've ever seen," said Robert Bradford of Hartly, a lif-long hunter.

"If they're going to allow a sharpshooter to go in during the night, why not let people in during the day who aren't afraid to show their faces? Have a controlled hunt."

Mr. Bradford said DNREC waited too long to alert hunters to the need to donate the samples and placed the onus of transporting 200-225 pound deer on them.

"I see them every day complaining about it, but they come to the wrong place when they come into my shop," he said of the hunters who are against the plan.

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