Deer Hunting - Rifle Season

Cabin,

Winter in the northern tier of states is the bottelneck in the size of the deer population. Deer numbers are up when the winter is mild because more deer survive the winter and they are in better shape so they have more sucessful reproduction. The size of our deer herd fluctuates and the seasons and limits follow those fluctuations.

Other factors, like the number of deer hunters, habitat quality, and wolves, impact the deer herd too but not to the extent of the winters.

Winter in more southern states isn't as much of a limiting factor so the deer can get so numerous they become pests.

Of course in a few years, when MN warms up due to global warming, we will have their problem of too many deer.

It seems like Minnesota has the most restrictive hunting restrictions of all the states. The hunting season is short and anterless deer and does seem to be "protected" compared to other states. There are some areas in Minnesota where more tags are issued per hunter, but they are in the agricultural areas.

I remember some years where no one was allowed to take an anterless deer.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

South Carolina, zone 3 Sept 15th to Jan 1st. You can order up to 4 antlerless tags per person per season with no limit on antlered bucks. Then there is doe days where you can shoot either with out using a tag.

I remember reading in hunting mags in the 1960's as a young lad just starting out on my deer hunting, states like Minnesota you could take two antlered bucks while Michigan was just one and you had to apply for a drawing for a doe permit. I dreamed of getting old enough to go to Minnesota to hunt deer. By that time Minnesota had changed the rules there. Michigan also started the season a week earlier in the UPPER than in the lower. By the time I could travel to the UPPER they started the season the same time as the lower.

Al

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Garden View Apiaries. Where the view is as sweet as the honey.
A member of SEMBA & MBA.

We're just better hunters up here.

If we had liberal regs deer would be extinct after a season.

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Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi


Libertarindependent

WA State Modern Firearm Seasons

Black-tailed: Oct 15-31; Nov 17-20
White-tailed: Oct 15-23 or 28, depending on area; Nov 5-19
Mule deer: Oct 15-23 or 28, depending on area

You may only take 1 deer per year, unless you draw a 2nd deer permit (usually antlerless) for $66. For black-tails, it's usually any deer or any buck. For white-tails it's either any deer, any buck, or 3 or 4 point minimum, depending on the area. And for mulies, it's generally a 3 point minimum. That's 3-4 points per SIDE, the east coast equivalent of a 6 or 8 point.

But we also have elk!!
That season is either 10 or 15 days, limit to one elk unless you somehow draw a second tag.

Cabin Fever, there's always the S.E.S system you could use!

Shoot. Eat. Shutup!

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r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

In south central Missouri there is no Urban or Antlerless season, and I'm sure not going that far north just to kill a deer !!!

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Cabin is saw something on the news that most of the whitetail heards ar dying off in the northern states due to some type of disease. Maybe this is some of the reason? I see in Montana,Dakotas and Wyoming I think most effected. Check out and see if it is headed your direction. The states where there are hard winters were most effected because of weakened condition and caused in the spring by some type of fly. Mule deer not effected as much or some of the other animals, but they can be also. Sure hope there is not a big die off. Some states saying it will be years before recovery. I do know according to news that the Milk River herds are effected.

Probably what you saw was new on Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) which has infected a very small population of wild deer. The source of the disease was from a herd of domestic elk that got loose. It has not had any impact on deer populations.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

No, not CWD, but something that takes out a deer in a short time. Here is a link about it, lots of info on line. Here is a couple of links, if they work.

missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/​eastern-montana...
http://www.moultriefeeders.com/Artic...ws/Hemorrhagic...

I couldn't get the linc to work, but I think its what we call Blue Tongue here. It is a disease that occurs around stagnant water and can be fatal to deer. We had a outbreak of it in late summer here in Kansas. Usually disappears when cold weather hits.
Kansas has a 10 day any whitetail season the 1st of December, and then a antlerless season the 1st of January. The antlerless season is 8 days for most of the state with a couple of zones getting 2 weeks. We can get permits for as many as 5 antlerless (doe).

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* I'm supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder for me to find one. .*-

not Blue Tongue.

"BILLINGS, Mont. — Whitetail deer populations in parts of eastern Montana and elsewhere in the Northern Plains could take years to recover from a devastating disease that killed thousands of the animals in recent months, wildlife officials and hunting outfitters said.

In northeast Montana, officials said 90 percent or more of whitetail deer have been killed along a 100-mile stretch of the Milk River from Malta to east of Glasgow. Whitetail deaths also have been reported along the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in western North Dakota and eastern Montana and scattered sites in Wyoming, South Dakota and eastern Kansas.

The deaths are being attributed to an outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD. Transmitted by biting midges, EHD causes internal bleeding that can kill infected animals within just a few days. "

http://www.grandforksherald.com/even...cle/id/226126/

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Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi


Libertarindependent

From the info I find, it seems that blue tongue and epizootic hemorrhagic disease are very closely related. Both are carried by insect vectors.

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* I'm supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder for me to find one. .*-

Where we are we could get one buck and up to five doe, across the highway they could only get one deer.

Area 1

Archery, either sex
Oct. 1-Jan. 31

Primitive firearms, either sex
Nov. 12-18
Jan. 23-29

Still hunt (no dogs allowed)
Nov. 19 -Dec. 9
Jan. 9-22

With or without dogs
Dec. 10- Jan. 8

in my zone in western Arkansas (Ouachita mountains) our gun season is Nov.12th through Dec.4th or the Christmas hunt which was Dec.26th through Dec.28th this year we are allowed 2 bucks (3 point rule on one side or they must be under 2 inches) and 1 doe combined for all hunts including bow an black powder an gun ........ they can also use dogs for running during the Nov-Dec gun hunt........... we have two blackpowder hunts during the winter and the bow season runs from Oct.1st through Feb.28th each year 40# or heavier pull or crossbows as well............

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Wrangler's Roost