wolfen what is good in Kansas is not good everywhere, how many deer do you have per square mile, the counties I hunt in have 40 or more deer per square mile. Baiting is illegal in Va., but due to the overpopulation of deer there is talk of making it legal due to the fact that there is no CWD in Va. or any neighboring state and the importation of any deer or elk into the state is illegal to prevent this. Would I bait? No, but that is my choice. We have plenty of nice bucks here in Va., there is no reason to force QDM on hunters in Va. If you are into QDM you should know that with overpopulation comes smaller deer with smaller racks. If there was a shortage of deer and of nice bucks I would be behind you 100%, but in Va. there are tons of bucks, the number of bucks killed versus the number of bucks surviving is miniscule.

Rifles are legal in most states, in Va. there are only a few counties that have made rifles illegal and the reason behind it is population(human)density, not because it is the weapon of choice of poachers, accidents, nor fatalities. The main cause of the less than six hunting deaths in Va. had nothing to do with the weapon, it was falling out of tree stands! In the counties where rifles were made illegal they made it shotgun only. In regards to black powder, this has nothing to do with eleminating rifles, it is a way of allowing the use of primitive weapons. In Va. bow season starts first, during the last 2 weeks of bow season blackpowder is legal, then after that ends rifle/shotgun season opens depending on what county you live in.

I totally concur that baiting should be illegalized in any state or state bordering a CWD infected area.

I will tell you an observation of mine over the 35+ years I have hunted even in counties where dog hunting is legal, 90% of the BIG bucks I have seen, I have seen during bow season. The BIG boys dissappear for the most part during gun season, they go nocturnal. Many times during gun down home I would see huge bucks at night feeding in the very areas I knew they had run dogs through that day.

wolfen the world is not Kansas, things are different in other states and as a result there are different regs. BTW in Va. there are public hearing every year where the VDGIF, state wildlife biologist and outdoorsmen discuss changes in regulations, in Va. hunting/fishing regs are not set without input by the public, that is one reason why bow hunters get thier season during the rut, black powder gets their season during the tail end of the rut, and gun hunters get the remainder. The state wants to cull the herd down tremendously and if it was totally up to them gun season would begin during the rut.

Actually the two weapons of choice for poachers here are crossbows and 22's.

What would you suggest for regs in a state with a very large over population deer. Would you reccomend outlawing all gun hunting and strictly allow bow only and only bucks of 8 points or better?

The Tazman aka Martin Price
Founder and President of
Virginia Disabled Outdoorsmen Club