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Had a good season got 5 does in KY and a young buck here in FL.
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I'd definitely call that a successful season. Definitely won't be seeing the bottom of your freezer for at least a few months.
Venison for days! Good job.
Out of curiosity, how many does are you allowed in KY?
The Commonwealth is broken up into Zones, and they are different, so you have to know what zone you are in.... and you have to check each year to see what changes have been made to your zone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Waffles
Quote:
Bag limits and harvest restrictions apply to all hunters. There is no daily bag limit on deer.A person may take no more than one (1) deer with visible antlers (excluding button bucks) in Kentucky on private land. On some public hunting areas, including Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge, Fort Campbell and Fort Knox Military Reservations and Blue Grass Army Depot, a bonus antlered deer may be taken, as determined by the governing agency for each area.In Zone 1 counties, there is no season limit on antlerless deer.In Zone 2, 3 and 4 counties, the combined season limit is four (4) per hunter. Hunters may choose to take up to one (1) antlered deer and three (3) antlerless deer, or take up to four (4) antlerless deer total.In summary, hunters may take a total of four deer statewide, except in Zone 1, where hunters may take an unlimited number of antlerless deer using Additional Deer Permits.In Zone 3, a hunter may take no more than two (2) deer with a firearm. In Zone 4, an adult hunter may take no more than two (2) deer with a firearm (one with a modern firearm and one with a muzzleloader, or both with a muzzleloader). In Zone 4, antlerless deer may only be taken with a firearm by a youth during Youth Season or Free Youth Weekend, or by any person hunting with a muzzleloader during the final three days of the December muzzleloader season.
Awesome, thanks for the info Sled.
Sled nailed it. The counties I hunt are all zone 1 so it is unlimited does, although once you have killed the 4 deer the come with your license and deer permit. I have to buy additional deer permit @ $15 for 2 additional does.Quote:
Originally Posted by Waffles
We used to have a deer population like that where I live in Up-State NY. The coyotes have really done a job on the fawn population here. I remember not that long ago watching them walk by my stand all night long picking out which one I wanted, only shooting deer uphill from the house...cause I wasn't going to drag them uphill to get them home.
I hope it lasts where you are...shoot all the coyotes you can.
We are just about overun with both..... you seemingly can't drive 500 yds without passing a deer or coyote carcus, and I live close to the city. When I lived in Lawrenceburg, it made riding the Harley in the evenings very dangerous. Indiana is having a big push to introduce more young people to hunting. They gave a lot of reasons why hunting is on the decline, but what they are not factoring in, and can't really fix, is there are less and less places to hunt. Public lands are a crapshoot whether there will be a guy climbing the tree beside you, and many private landowners now either don't allow hunting, or lease the rights out. I haven't deer hunted in years, and lack of places to hunt is one of the main reasons I stopped.
You did very well on the backstraps this year :)
Diminishing hunter numbers are by and large due to a diminishing interest in hunting.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sled
Pa is one of the few highly populated states having a vast amount of public land open for hunting.
The combined total of state owned, and Pa Game Commission owned land is about six million acres, and growing.
The PGC owned land has over many years been purchased with funds derived from license sales.
Yet with all the open land, hunter numbers have fallen off to a very large degree state wide.
I started hunting in the late 40s, when it was an all day trip from the SE corner of the state to the NC part where we hunt.
The vast majority of people we knew chose to hunt the closer areas like the Poconos for that reason.
Today with much better roads and vehicles, the drive time has been reduced by half, and the Poconos have pretty much been removed due to development and posting. Yet hunter numbers in the areas having the most open land have pretty much dried up.
There has never in my now more than 70 years of hunting, been a better opportunity for tagging a black bear or a trophy buck as there is today. Yet that seemingly means very little, what is heard most is complaining about no Sunday hunting, or the restrictions on semi autos for big game. Camps inherited from family, by and large go unused during the hunting seasons, and ours is very close to being one of them.
thats a nice haul. Enjoy the eats, as i dine once again on tag soup this year. On a side note, I was making hog sausage all weekend long, but no tags were used on hogs.
Wow that is a lot of deer per license. We used to be able to get an additional doe tag for a total of 2 deer (shotgun/pistol) until we had drought. Where I used to hunt probably lost 2/3 of the deer population to blue tongue that year. We are back to having the first shotgun season limited to bucks, something I hadnt seen sense the 80's.Quote:
Originally Posted by tufrthnails
Yeah Eastern KY densities are pretty poor right now and tags are low, but the western side of the state has a very heavy density. I was there for 2 weeks this season hunting for a stud buck I had a few encounters with, but never could get a shot on. I didn't start shooting does until the last couple days to fill the freezer. I had encounters with 27 different bucks during the two weeks, but didn't get a shot at the one I wanted. I have no idea how many does I saw.Quote:
Originally Posted by BB68
Im curious as to the type of terrain where you hunt in KY, and what method you use to hunt?Quote:
Originally Posted by tufrthnails
Mind you im not questioning your numbers, as weve seen those type numbers also back in the day we had more deer and hunters.
Up until the last 2 seasons, I hunted the entire 2 week buck season every year for more than 40 years.
It wouldn't be at all uncommon for me to see that many bucks during that time frame while glassing the hillsides.
Today its entirely different as for numbers, but the chances of a real wall hanger are much better.
Back then of the 25 or more legal bucks i might have seen, maybe 4 or 5 would be considered good bucks.
Another problem is that their habits have changed over the years due to the coyote population and long hunting seasons, mainly archery.