When's your first day?

[buffalo]

:surrender: Man, am I a bone head. :surrender:

I totally spaced off our regular muzzle loader season is the whole month of December. I can continue to hunt with my smoke pole till January 16th of 2014 during the late firearm doe season.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

September 2nd for dove, and September 7th for squirrels, and the squirrels are already whispering warnings of impending doom to each other. :haha: Muzzleloader for deer is October 18th! For the folks that use a stick-n-string they can start on deer also on September 7th.

LD

 

[Moose Guide]

Whitetails, Mulies, Elk and Black Bear=Sept. 10, Moose=Sept. 20!!

 

[longcruise]

ML deer and elk opener is Sep 14th this year and runs nine days.

Gonna miss it this year though. Will be in Alaska floating for moose. Will be on the river sep 10th if weather cooperates. Plan to hunt 10 or 12 days.

Will be a hunt I never thought I'd do, but somehow am still going to miss the CO ml season with friends and family, specially watching the grandkids working at getting those grouse.

 

[White Oak]

I too live in Eastern Nebraska but my season will not begin until the regular firearm season in November.And yes I will be using my 54 or 58. I will also hunt the regular ML season in Dec. but that is where my season will end.
ball-et, I see you are in the eastern portion of the state. Did your hunting area have any EHD last year? I own 60 acres along a river in the Elkhorn unit and we were hit extremely hard. We didn't think so as our property consists of timber and pockets of timbered pasture. Water holes on our place had dried up by early July.
I spoke to a neighboring farmer in September asking about him seeing deer? His reply was "there aint none".I didn't take him seriously as we were finding no dead deer on our place but very little sign.When farmers began harvesting irrigated fields I became a believer. I can't give you a figure but the number of dead deer found in these fields was staggering. The EHD drove them to water and in a drought, the fields are were they found it.This was not just a local issue as the CO in the Ogallala area reported an irrigation canal blocked by deer carcasses.Friends who hunt east of here along the Missouri and south into Sarpy county reported similar finds.Friends hunting along the Platte River west of here also had very tough seasons.
Needless to say we saw far fewer deer than ever before and we hunted nearly every day.The most reliable source I have heard estimates between 60,000 to 90,000 deer succumbing to this disease.Please keep in mind that I am not even close to being a trophy hunter. I hunt for the experience and the bonus of some excellent meat.By the third day of hunting and almost no deer sightings, my wife and I decided not to take any does.I know I don't have to explain the biological reasons for this. Infact we now have a beautiful 20" X 30" picture hanging on the wall that she took with her digital camera after she laid her 50 down.The pic is of two mature does standing together within about 15 yards of her. The only does we saw.This was and will be again someday prime white-tail ground.
Earlier this month I purchased our tags for the regular rifle season. Once again, we choose to hunt with smokepoles during this time.When I saw the so called Doe- Fawn tags available and another early hunt in October,along with a January season , I just about lurched. This reenforces my opinion that Nebraska G & P is not managing for the good of the herd but for the dollars. Yeah the permits are cheap enough at $11 as opposed to $30 for a regular season tag. I don't believe that biologists that know more than you and I are setting the seasons and permit numbers. Rather a bunch of bean counters known as the commission. Other actions in the past by this group contribute to my thinking.Also consider safety issues of the October season. Full foliage on trees limiting visability. Farmers working fields at this time. Correct me if I am wrong but you will be sharing the woods with bowhunters during this time who are not required to wear orange but are required to if they hunt the regular rifle season when trees have dropped their leaves and most crops are harvested.Also consider other actions by this commission. 22 rifles now legal for deer. The lifting of the minimum draw weight requirement for bows.Heck, you can now use a spear. Anything goes! Sell permits. My oppinion and that of others I have spoken with believe the herd needs a brake. Including along the river systems where G&Ps seems to believe the population is still too high.
I expected to see, at the very least, a return to the old system of an archery season, regular rifle season also allowing ML, and the ML season itself in December.Wrong again. We need to sell those tags.I talked to a hunter recently from a western state where a large amount of money is brought in to support outfitters and the states economy that experienced a similar die off. It took 6 to 7 years to recover. I believe G & Ps still believes our population is too high.
I hope your hunting area somehow avoided this disease.Good luck throughout the seasons you chose to hunt.
As for me , I will still be punching paper in October and chasing squirrels or rabbits with my smoke pole in January.
If G & P refuses to restict for the good of the herd I can police myself.

Good luck,
Ed

 

[buffalo]

White Oak.

You have hit the nail on the head. EHD has hit my area of Columbus, NE extremely hard. Whe are estimating a 70% to 80% loss of deer in our area. I had the same four deer on my trail cameras all last fall.

I had more pictures of bunnies and coyotes on my trail cameras than deer. They just were not there.

As for the G & P, I have no use for their wildlife managment program.

It's all about the almighty dollar and I'm afraid the deer hunters this fall will be in for a rude awakening.

Most of the mature breeding does died from EHD along with most of the mature bucks. The number of fawns will be dramtically reduced and I'm afraid people will shoot the first deer they see due to the lack of deer period.

This fall my son will be attending Mt. Marty College in Yankton, SD. I have found private land up on the Missouri, south of Vermillion for us to hunt. The deer in this particular area didn't seem to be hit as hard by the EHD.

I saw more deer in one hour the day before father's day than I saw all last season on the Platte River. Plenty of turkeys too.

I will keep you posted on the deer population up on the Missouri River south of Vermillion.

 

[Ben Grace]

For Alabama it's November 18 for smokepoles.

 

[White Oak]

Good to hear ball-et. I know that there are pockets that appear to have come through OK. Glad you have found one. My son lived in the Croften area about 9 years ago. The deer population at that time was excellent. Don't know how they faired.
I do know that our area along the Elkhorn River was severely hit. Yet G&P continues their additional seasons targeting does along the river corridors. There is no way to judge a population in these areas by survey due to extremely heavy cover other than to be there. We spend a great deal of time there and get reports from neighbors which are not good. It will take years to recover and does are the ticket yet they are also the target of G&P.
Wishing you an excellent season!
Keep us posted.
Take care,
Ed

 

[jamesthomas]

Smokepole2 is right it's Nov. 18th thru Nov. 22nd then rifle season starts, but I hunt with my flintlock all season. Also for us folks down here in about 6 counties in southwest Ala. the season is extended to Feb.10th. with a break between Dec 2 thru the 10th. I was looking at last years dates when I posted.

 

[Loxahatchee]

Man that is a sad situation indeed. Hopefully your game commission has some kind of enlightenment and starts actually doing their job :shake: .22 legal for deer? Who in their right mind would want to allow that?

I don't see a problem with spears, I know some states have specific "primitive weapons" season, and there is quite a group of primitive weapon enthuisiasts that pursue game in such a manner, usually with primitive style bows or atlatls ("spear-thrower") And if somebody were to pursue game with such a weapon, they must really be passionate about it, because I cant see any Joe Blow going after deer with an atlatl.

 

[buffalo]

To clarify what white oak is saying. Nebraska allows any centerfire rifle that achieves 900 ft/lbs of energy at 100 yards.

Sadly, this includes some 223 & 22-250 Remingtons with factory loads. In the hands of a skilled marksmen taking a head shot or controlled distance shot the cartridges can do the job.

Nebraska Game and Parks is all about the good old dollar.

Our rifle season is during the peak of the rutt in November, so most mature bucks get harvested when they're the dumbest.

Too many little bucks never make it due to the 70,000 deer hunters who take to the woods armed with a gun they took out of the cabinet just a couple of weeks prior to the November firearm season.

 

[hoochiepapa]

I used to hunt deer here in CO with a .228 Ackley Magnum. 70 grain bullets. Never had a problem.

 

[Loxahatchee]

I have no doubt about it that a .22 or similar round is capable of downing game in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing. But I think that legalizing such rounds for large game opens the door for every knucklehead with a .22 or similar caliber to take shots at deer (and in the aforementioned area, deer numbers seem to be suffering bad) and end up wounding them to die later without being collected. From my experience in my area that's how I perceive it.

Now, if someone were to responsibly hunt game with such a caliber, then I don't have a problem. Responsibly meaning, they know what the heck they are doing.

 

[stinkyfeet]

For all you big game hunters using smokepoles. When is the first day you will be able to hunt?

Nebraska early whitetail doe starts October 1st.

I will be hunting with my flintlock on from Oct. 1st. - 10th. I can purchase an antlerless permit for $11 and take two doe.

In Kansas muzzleloading season starts on Sept. 16th state law is any muzzleloader 40 cal or higher to include inlines. Luckily I live and hunt on Ft Riley which is a military base, and the law on post is a percussion/flintlock only no inlines allowed, this is also the opening day or archery so its usual a pretty good hunt.

 

[jamesthomas]

:thumbsup: Good one for you! I'm glad the Folks who run your Post has a clue on what blackpowder hunts should be. I need a time machine an go back to slap Mr. Knight et-al, upside the head :slap: :slap: .

 

[stinkyfeet]

:thumbsup: Good one for you! I'm glad the Folks who run your Post has a clue on what blackpowder hunts should be. I need a time machine an go back to slap Mr. Knight et-al, upside the head :slap: :slap: .

Yeah I agree we are very lucky here in that aspect I am a member of the outdoors group here and we have a huge influence on the hunting and fishing opportunities here on the Base. usually they follow the off-base laws and its one of the rare policies that is different. I am very supportive of it as well as several other members who are traditional front stuffers.

 

[mike garner]

i just posted this under hunting reg.

i was born and raised here in SC we have the longest deer season in the US our season on private land runs from aug. 15-jan 1 not only that we can hunt with any weapon, high power rifle,bow black powder, anything. no tags are needed until sep. and that is for does, but on most saturdays and some other days starting in sep.- the end of dec. they have doe days where a tag is not needed. there is a 5 buck limit per day. no limit on the total amount of bucks that can be killed. i grew up hunting like this, i average around 10 deer per year. the most i have killed in a year is around 15 we have a lot of deer. one myth is our deer are very small, to me a 200lb deer is not small. but most average around 130lbs-150lbs i have no idea why the other states are so tight with there hunting rules. like all good rednecks i am ready for the 15th

 

[Loxahatchee]

Dixie, is your season continuous, with no breaks in it? Ours started yesterday (August 3) and runs until January 5. However, there is a 6 day break between archery and muzzleloader season, and a month long break right in the middle of General gun. This break also happens to be when our main rut is :cursing:

The reason for it has to do with some stupid rule or law that governs how long our deer season is (X amount of days.) And since we start so early, because we're zoned with the Everglades region, there has to be some kind of break in our season to meet this dumb rule :youcrazy: :shake: :cursing:

 

[mike garner]

no there is no breaks, and we don't have any special weapons season. we can hunt all year with anything. people hunt here with anything from 22 hornet up.

 

[lhw123]

October 12th until the end of January in Georgia.