Questions for the trophy hunters?
 

Just out of curiosity, what is the deer population density where you hunt?

How many deer can you legally take a season?

How many bucks?

I am just asking this to see if I hunted where you do if I would be a trophy hunter or meat hunter.

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

RE: Questions for the trophy hunters?
 

Taz,
I couldn't find the densities but generally there are about 100,000 deer taken during the week long deer gun season in the state and I believe areoun 25,000 taken during the archery and primative weapons season each year.
In areas of the state you can take up to 4 deer with only 1 being a buck.
So I guess it depends on what the intent is.
Me, I plan on taking a doe as soon as I can and seeing what happens as far as the buck goes.


Greg

"Getting close to the game is the joy of Bowhunting for me, the harvest is a bonus."

Live 15 ft Python after eating a small Antelope!

RE: Questions for the trophy hunters?
 

MD is broken into 4 regions and in my region you can take 12 deer 6 being antlered... 4 with bow 4 with Muzzelloader 4 with shotgun... You have to take 2 does before you second buck with any one weapon... and in another region you can tkae unlimited amount of does... So I guess you could take as many deer as you wanted... Provided you followed all the other rules... I think in MD if you hunted all the regions and took you limits, you could take over 30 deer...

RE: Questions for the trophy hunters?
 

In NJ you can take as many doe per season as you like and many zones are "earn a buck" in which you must take an antlerless deer before taking a buck. You can take on buck per season and some zones have a 3 point per side antler restriction. There is early bow, permit bow, shotgun (not "earn a buck"), permit shotgun, and late bow. You need to pick a zone to hunt in the permit seasons. In PA, you are allowed to take one antlered deer with 3 points on on side (new this year) some counties are 4 per side and as many does as you have doe tags for which are issued by county.

Deer densities in NJ are pretty high. In some areas such as Princeton (where hunting is not allowed) it is as high as 100 deer per square mile.

In PA it varies. If you are near public land it may be as low as 10 per sq. mile, but in most areas it is probably around 25+, but I would have to check to be sure.

RE: Questions for the trophy hunters?
 

two does and one Buck

RE: Questions for the trophy hunters?
 

Taz, I may be wrong here but I believe many areas are simular to Iowa where you can take two does or more and one anysex or buck. This makes it easier to be a trophy buck hunter because you can still put venison in the freezer. I personally have an anysex tag for bow, anysex tag for shotgun, two antlerless for late muzzleloader. I don't consider myself a trophy hunter but will be holding off the bucks during the early part of the season in hopes of finding a big one to hunt.

RE: Questions for the trophy hunters?
 

Taz, I think Ohio's deer population is around 500,000. I may be off. You can take 7 deer, with the proper permits. Only 1 with antlers. There are 4 urban zones in which you can get 4 anterless permits. Some counties allow 3 deer. Others 1 or 2.

Phil.

RE: Questions for the trophy hunters?
 

Taz,
I think another question for these guys too is "How many older/larger class bucks are around?" In many of the heavy hunted areas you could have 100 bucks, but maybe 3 of them will be older than 2.5. I don't care what kind of hunter you are you can't shoot what isn't there.

Some things are true whether you believe them or not.

RE: Questions for the trophy hunters?
 

wimp I am sure many bow hunters in Va., that are out there a lot, can verify there are a lot of mature bucks around. Last year was very frustrating, yet rewarding in regards to big bucks. I sat and watched 2 big bodied 6 pointers out about 40 yards(beyond the range I will shoot)for at least half an hour, then one of them started to look into the woods behind him, one of the biggest bodied bucks I have seen in my life came out, he had a very heavy typical 8 point rack with about 6 inch browtines and probably 22 inch inside his beams. He was so big his back was flat, he probably would have been about 250 pounds on the hoof! They never came closer than 40 yards. I also saw quite a few large heavily antlered buck that were to far out to count. Funny thing how all them big boys dissappear when gun opens, I think they have a calander!

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

RE: Questions for the trophy hunters?
 

Well Taz, here in the great state of Illinois we are allowed only 2 bucks. Doesn't matter by which means you shoot them. If you shoot 2 with your bow before slug season, your slug season is going to be doe only. Only 2 bucks no matter what, unless you are one of those guys who have your non-hunting buddies tag a small buck for you. The does are pretty much unlimited. Over the counter tags and you can shoot as many antlerless as you want.....I think that is how it is.

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