Changes?

[Rhino]

Just curious if any of you have hunting reg. changes to face this year too.

In MS...The only new change I'm aware of is the Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries will now have the power to close seasons without the need for the decision to be voted on by the Wildlife Commission. Last year flood waters affected low land properties along/near the MS River. We didn't have much flooding at all but some displaced deer from flood waters were relocating on us. Obviously that made for more deer sightings & more fun on stand. The Commission met & closed the season early in parts off the state including where I hunt in MS. Remained closed too. Another club I know got hosed. Their season was closed too & they were about 4 miles from flooded areas and got no benefit at all from deer moving out of flooding areas. I was opposed to this...we have bag limits for a reason.

In MO...several new changes this year.

1. There's a 2 buck limit this year, with only 1 allowed during their 11 day gun season. Used to get 2 archery season bucks & 1 gun season buck in MO.

2. Crossbows are now legal during archery season.

3. The late anterless only gun season has been shortened to 3 days. Used to be 2 weeks.

With deer numbers declining in MO the last few years, I'm fine with these changes. Wish they had set a limit for doe tags available to bowhunters though. Those are still $25 each for a non-resident & no limit except your hip pocket. Gun season has a 1 doe tag limit. Other than those changes, same as last year.

Any changes for you?

[Ravin R10 man]

Rhino, thats B.S. you cant hunt your property because of a fllood nearby. Sounds like special laws to protect high money operations that get flooded out. jmo

Nothing much in Northern Wis as far as changes go; anyone wishing to dig more than I did can click here and look;

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/hunt/deer.html

Edited June 22, 2016 by Mathews XT Man

[wtnhunt]

New reg handbook has not been published here yet, they are usually available the first to second week of July. I have not looked at the states site yet to see, usually I have done so multiple times by now. Thanks for the reminder, I will look sometime this afternoon.

The big deal last year was the change in buck limit from 3 to 2 and I supported it. Met major opposition from a LOT of people. I suggested once again that a change or at least some more evaluation to the liberal doe units was needed particularly in those areas where it is known that there has been history of high ehd dieoffs, but doubt they changed anything.

I posted some on the tndeer site last year and got blasted for supporting the 2 buck limit and a change to the liberal limits and even got hammered by one of their mods for not conforming to their view. Found quickly that was not the place for me, even though I had been a member there back in their beginning. Was almost comical some of the beliefs by some, a moderator there actually told myself as well as a few others that doe numbers are not down, but rather that the does have gotten better at hiding and those that were not seeing them were just not good enough hunters to find them.

TWRA did close seasons in parts last year here that were flooded close to the MS river. It was reported that the flood waters posed an unfair advantage to hunters where it funneled staggering numbers of deer to what high ground they were able to find and so they made the decision to close those areas.

[Ravin R10 man]

TWRA did close seasons in parts last year here that were flooded close to the MS river. It was reported that the flood waters posed an unfair advantage to hunters where it funneled staggering numbers of deer to what high ground they were able to find and so they made the decision to close those areas.

Still B.S.

Thats like shutting down late season because of high snow levels, and deer will move to areas to yard up for winter.

Either way, like Rhino said, you can ONLY shoot what you have a tag for, you just may be shooting a deer that lives miles away.

I got the feeling some HIGH end landowner prob. had influenced game agency. jmo

[Rhino]

Rhino' date=' thats B.S. you cant hunt your property because of a fllood nearby. Sounds like special laws to protect high money operations that get flooded out. jmo[/quote']

I totally agree Martin. Word through the grapevine after they closed it this past season was due to a filthy rich guy's place getting flooded out & whinning to the powers that be the high ground neighbors would kill his deer. Heck...the state owns the game till it's reduced to possession under the game laws. Rumor was he'd donate 7 figures of $ if they closed it. No way to confirm the rumor but that's what was going around.

Sad thing was...,many areas that were closed saw no benefit from deer numbers increasing while escaping from high water. They were too far from the flood waters. Like the place I mentioned in my initial post being 4 miles away (minimum) from flooded areas...not the MS river...it's further. From talking to hunters I know that hunt there, they saw no increase in deer numbers before the season closed early. Many areas not affected were closed so the DWF&P could use main road/highway boundaries (some far from flooded areas) as landmarks to ID the closed portions. There were other road boundaries or even creeks they could have used closer to the flood waters. That would have been fair to properties that didn't have refugee deer coming into them.

Edited June 22, 2016 by Rhino

[wtnhunt]

Actually Martin, that was on our local news back when the flooding was so bad in our late season last fall and may be that the flooding Al is talking about was around the same time frame. It was an extreme situation where tens of thousands of acres of prime hunting grounds were under fast moving water, and there was also a danger factor for folks who may have attempted to take advantage.

One positive change I agree with for this season, they moved forward with the definition of what is a buck, which counts toward the 2 buck statewide limit.

For big game hunting seasons, the TFWC changed the definitions of antlered and antlerless deer. Previously, a deer with antlers less than three inches in length were considered antlerless. With the commissions change, an antlerless deer is now any deer with no antler protruding above the hairline, and antlered deer are any male or female deer with antlers protruding above the hairline. From now on, a deer harvested with any antler protruding above the hairline will count toward the statewide antlered deer limit of two. - See more at: http://www.tn.gov/twra/news/42296#sthash.BLxIXgNR.dpuf

Gonna be some very unhappy folks over in the tndeer community over that.

Evidently my thoughts on the liberal limits were not brought up. They actually added 4 more counties to the liberal unit.

[Rhino]

I posted some on the tndeer site last year and got blasted for supporting the 2 buck limit and a change to the liberal limits and even got hammered by one of their mods for not conforming to their view. Found quickly that was not the place for me' date=' even though I had been a member there back in their beginning. Was almost comical some of the beliefs by some, a moderator there actually told myself as well as a few others that doe numbers are not down, but rather that the does have gotten better at hiding and those that were not seeing them were just not good enough hunters to find them. [/quote']

That's pretty sad William. Many people HATE change, even when it's justified. As we all know...some hunters are into numbers. Hey that's their choice...to each his own. However, to get blasted like that, especially by a moderator telling you "conform or else" is just down right ridiculous.

[wtnhunt]

Yep, some see change as taking away their rights while not being at all open to the other side of the discussion and unwilling to open their eyes to the idea that maybe sometimes change they so strongly oppose might actually benefit them. There were some pretty strong opinions/opposition on the buck reduction discussions and some boys over at the tndeer site said they were just gonna kill that many more bucks to spite the tn game commission for imposing their will on them. Ridiculous is right.

Part of the reason I rejoined over there was in part due to it being so slow here and also that there are a few twra officers I had some questions for that I wanted to see how what they had to say reflected discussions I had had with our county warden.

There was a discussion there that the "antlerless" were gonna be hammered as a result and a lot of those would be bucks that fell under 3 inches of antler. Surprised me that some of what was posted there was not followed up on by leo's. I just cannot grasp that type mindset, to take out your frustration with the commission on animals and screw others in the process. Dunno though, maybe that mentality/mindset was brought to the attention of the powers that be.

This state definitely did right imo by redefining the definition of what was considered antlered as I copied and pasted above. Unfortunately I am afraid that new definition may result in potential wanton waste with some that will not take the time to identify before the shot and after they find their nubby buck that they have to punch 1 of their 2 buck tags on they will leave them for yotes. And YES, some are into numbers, still able to kill 3 antlerless a day, at least now some of those antlerless bucks may not get whacked and counted as does.

[wtnhunt]

TWRA did close seasons in parts last year here that were flooded close to the MS river. It was reported that the flood waters posed an unfair advantage to hunters where it funneled staggering numbers of deer to what high ground they were able to find and so they made the decision to close those areas.

Still B.S.

Thats like shutting down late season because of high snow levels, and deer will move to areas to yard up for winter.

Either way, like Rhino said, you can ONLY shoot what you have a tag for, you just may be shooting a deer that lives miles away.

I got the feeling some HIGH end landowner prob. had influenced game agency. jmo

Best as i recall that coverage they had video of swimming deer in large areas of water and thin strips of ground they were swimming to with little to no cover. While opportunistic is one thing, i actually think under those circumstances twra did right.

While this one is not the one I remember here is one local news stations report from that decision along with a video clip http://www.wbbjtv.com/2016/01/07/twr...e-to-flooding/.

[wtnhunt]

Gonna be real interesting to see how things play out the next few years between the numbers and the age structure of bucks. If the plan is followed for the most part we should see a positive impact on age structure.

[dbHunterNY]

some rule changes out here with NY DEC still trying to manage the deer herd and deal with the hurdles that stop them, as well as them being a state entity are slow to roll anything out. in some units said to be over populated their rescinding a previous first two weeks of doe only that bans buck harvest. putting it back to doe or buck. they're trying something else by introducing an early September muzzleloader season before early bow season in October. that will be doe only and might tack on the same at the end of late season which for us in this area of NY is mid December.

most importantly they'll start to publicize info about what yearling bucks look like and (in a round about way) benefits of passing them. no regs in place like antler restrictions or anything like MS. just hoping hunters will start to do it more and more voluntarily.

[Strut10]

Only changes here this year have to do with CWD zones............................. yep.  Great................. we have it here, too, now.

My place is not in a CWD zone as yet.  But it's not far away.  Drove up to some gunshops an hour or so away week before last and there's a big sign by a municipal building marking a CWD dumpster location.

Wont be long til it hits here 

[wtnhunt]

That sucks about the cwd Don.  Tennessee has been pretty strict on the regs regarding cwd, amazes me how confused still some are about it.  Had a boy telling me it was here, pretty sure he was talking about ehd.  No bone allowed to be brought into state from cwd areas, other than cleaned skullcaps, that said with the geniuses around yeah probably only a matter of time.

[Ravin R10 man]

Don, My guess is you always had CWD it just took this long for people to recognize it.