You are State Deer Czar. What does your season look like?

[Stingray713]

Virginia

Archery: October 1st-November 8th

Muzzleloader: November 9th-23rd

General Firearms: November 24th-January 1st

[Stingray713]

Actually pretty close to this upcoming season. I went to easy on the dog hunting crowd. Feel like they need Thanksgiving though, or the Czar hunting season would open up.

[MitchB]

Now that Illinois passed a straight walled rifle bill I don’t have a lot of complaints. Only things I’d change are the 1 round limit for rifles, and move the bow opener to mid September. Other than that I’m pretty good with how it is.

The one thing I don’t get is muzzleloader season though. Why are those a thing? It’s like gun hunting but with more annoying clean up for the rifle.

[purebowhunting]

Wisconsin

Archery - Sept 1 through first Sunday after Jan 1.
Rifle - Same as current - 9 days of Thanksgiving week
Crossbow - Runs Oct 1 through first Sunday after Jan 1
Muzzeloader - 7 days prior to rifle but truly primitive, no scope only iron sights, no inline models, would be peak of rut.

Tag is good for all weapons, but you have two choices for antlered deer harvest, 1 buck for a season no restrictions or 2 bucks for the season and both must have 4 or more points on a side. End youth season and all doe only hunts.

[Drich]

Minnesota
October 10 - October 25 doe season

November 10 - November 25 Buck season

November 26 - December 25 Any deer season

No separating of deer hunters into archery/firearm/muzzy/youth hunters. 1 buck per hunter/year. Doe tags by lottery where needed.

Realistically, I'd be happy(and shocked) with just tweaking the current rules to have no archery hunting the seven days before firearms season.

[justdirtyfun]

Missouri
Archery can be Sept 15 till Sunday after New Years Day. Shorter because no need for shooting shed bucks and the added stress of winter.
Youth gun would be weekend immediately before Halloween. Great action and the rut sign would help kids build knowledge and excitement. Moderate weather and less bug issues. (Possible doe weekend if needed???)
Gun season would be weekend before Thanksgiving through the weekend of. That includes anything that goes bang. That is slightly later than current so less disruptive for mating. More family time for traditions to grow.
2 bucks any way that it happens. One 4 point side requirement. Draw hunts need to be pulled in spring so vacation can be arranged.
Cool thread.

[thwack16]

Mississippi

Archery (no crossbows): October 1- December 15

Rifle: December 16- January 1

Muzzleloader/Archery: January 2- January 31

No bait. 2 buck limit.


For the Midwest, I really like Kansas’s structure outside of the early muzzleloader season. If you’re looking for a mix of opportunity and bucks having a chance to reach maturity, I feel Missouri gets it right.

[seazofcheeze]

Montana

Current Regs:
Archery - First Saturday in September, season runs for 6 weeks. One week break
Rifle - Saturday after one week break until Sunday after Thanksgiving

My season:
Archery - First Saturday in September through November 30th.

Rifle - First Saturday in December through second Sunday in December. Rest of December for late bow, season ends Jan 1.

One buck tag, but somehow earn a bonus for the following year for a doe harvest in an overpopulated area. Maybe after doe harvests in 4 separate years you'd get a bonus buck tag.

[Dewey]

Wisconsin

Archery: Sept 1-Jan 31 statewide

Gun Season: Same as current 9-day

Muzzleloader: 12 day season immediately after gun season. Primitive weapons only. No scopes or inlines.

1 buck tag with choice of weapon. One and done. 2 antlerless tags good for any units above herd goals. Not county specific but regional areas like we had before.

After muzzleloader lets finally get back to having a real late bow season again.

No early December antlerless hunt and no Holiday antlerless hunt. If certain units are way above herd goals provide extra antlerless tags that must be purchased for a small fee and then stop sale when goal trigger is met. Registrations are electronically tracked so that should be easy enough to do accurately.

[Tennhunter3]

Tennessee 1 buck 1 doe tag per yearfor a few years.

Currently we're 2 bucks and unlimited does.
Our states herd desperately needs help in the western part of the state.

Velvet hunt bow only August 27th 28th.

Traditional,Recurve bow September 12th-24th
Bow all September 25th- Jan 31st.

Youth gun October 29th, 30th

Muzzleloader nov 1- jan 12th

Gun Nov 21st through Jan 12th

Late archery Jan 13th through Jan 31st.

End season.. its pretty similar to what ours is now. .
I just hate that my state has no early or late season like surrounding states do. I added the traditional season and late season bow. And I changed the bag limits to help the herd recover in the western part of the state.

With a few years of a 1 buck bag limit Tn would be like Kentucky and be a big buck state. It would increase our of state license sales and have a healthier age structure of bucks throughout the state. My state has potential to be one of the best big buck states in the country but it has never been properly managed.

[Tennhunter3]

I find myself in tears alot over my state tbh.
We have multiple bc bucks every year, very large bucks in lbl,Catoosa the potential is their. We have great soil in the western part of our state to produce monster bucks.

If we ever decided to reduce the buck bag limit to 1 and doe limit to 1 I truly feel within 10 years Tennessee would be a incredible state everyone would want to visit and enjoy the outdoors in.

I wish we could have true conservationist in charge of our regulations instead of a bunch of rich politicans in Nashville that don't have a clue.

They think through cwd we need to kill all the deer to save all the deer and they have ruined the western part of our state by ignorance. The worst human beings always are in power it's so sad.

[Stingray713]

Are these numbers right? They don’t seem to add up

[Stingray713]

I find myself in tears alot over my state tbh.
We have multiple bc bucks every year, very large bucks in lbl,Catoosa the potential is their. We have great soil in the western part of our state to produce monster bucks.

If we ever decided to reduce the buck bag limit to 1 and doe limit to 1 I truly feel within 10 years Tennessee would be a incredible state everyone would want to visit and enjoy the outdoors in.

I wish we could have true conservationist in charge of our regulations instead of a bunch of rich politicans in Nashville that don't have a clue.

They think through cwd we need to kill all the deer to save all the deer and they have ruined the western part of our state by ignorance. The worst human beings always are in power it's so sad.

Are these numbers for Tennessee right? They don’t seem to add up

16.6 hunters per square mile only killing 135,000 deer seems a bit off

[szwampdonkey]

Wisconsin:

Archery second Sat in September-Dec 31 Statewide.

Crossbow Nov1-Nov 30 Statewide

Gun Deer 9 days (week of Thanksgiving)

Eliminate Muzzleloader specific season unless they get back to truly primitive. Modern muzzleloaders will still be legal during 9 day Gun deer.

Eliminate the Oct Youth Gun season (totally unnecessary kids are more than capable of hunting in the 9 day, let them). Eliminate the Statewide 4 day Anterless Gun season, and for the love of hunting Eliminate the stupid 9 day Holiday Anterless Gun season!

Go back to having to tag animals in the field prior to being able to move them so the local scumbag poachers can no longer drag their 4th deer of the year right past a warden promising to register it when he gets home after he’s done butchering it and putting it in the freezer (yeah right).

1 Buck tag for firearms combined (rifle, shotgun, muzzleloader, handgun)

1 Buck tag for arrows and bolts combined (recurve, compound, crossbow)

1 doe tag per license. Lottery system for extra doe tags in counties with too many deer.

[Tennhunter3]

Are these numbers right? They don’t seem to add up

The numbers for the most part are correct as far as hunter numbers and hunters per sq mile.

However I don't believe we have 800k deer in the state.
And I do think deer are killed but are never turned in. I'm sure the harvest is higher then the numbers show.

I live in the western part of the state and can drive the last hour before dark any night and not see 20 deer. Our deer numbers are nearing dangerous levels in the western part.

Around 2004 their was a huge die off of our herd we used to see 50 plus a night driving around.


That also doesn't show the devastation to our wmas.
Almost all of our public hunting areas west of the Tn River are below 15 dpsm some that number is single digits.

While the numbers as far as hunter numbers and hunters per square mile seem correct. What your showing their isnt the reality of what our public lands have as far as deer numbers. Deer harvest in our western wmas is extremely small due to very little dpsm. I haven't hunted much of region 3 or 4 in our state but the places I've hunted keep getting worse every year.

I highly doubt we have 800k deer in our state if so less then a thousand of those deer are on our west TN wildlife management areas.

Our harvest has been decreasing then tiny uptick snd decreasing again. Our herd is reducing over the years not gaining.