Part 3 of Wildlife Proposed Changes – Big Game
In Part One we covered Fishing Changes and in Part Two we covered Turkey Changes. There is some significant changes proposed in the area of deer hunting.
Implement a two buck limit in the entire Central Zone, currently areas where dog hunting is legal it’s under a four buck limit. I think a statewide two buck limit is a great way to go as a common sense balance between “meat hunters” and “trophy hunters”. This would be a step closer to that leaving only the Eastern part of the state under the 4 buck limit.
Unlimited anterless deer harvest on private land where legal. Daily bag limits would still apply and you’ll have to get additional report cards to report your kill. This is a great idea my only concern is the potential for abuse of public hunting grounds and guys tagging them as taken on private land. Many of the Game Lands in the central zone are under a limited anterless harvest now because of the potential for abuse.
Urban anterless deer archery season for basically the entire month of January. Another good idea it will be interesting to see if any cities jump through the hoops to get it set up or will they go the route of Bald Head Island and Biltmore Forest and hire sharpshooters to thin the herd.
Allow the use of Archery equipment on private lands during muzzleloader season. Once again a good idea, but I think it could go one step further, seems like a natural progression to go from archery to muzzleloader to firearm and should be allowed on all lands.
Reduce minimal draw weight requirements on long bows and recurves to 40lbs which is enough energy to harvest a deer so I see no issue with this.
Bears they want to clarify the baiting rules. Well in North Carolina you can bait deer but you can’t bait bear? Makes no sense to me at all. Now if your sitting on a deer stand with a bait and a bear comes in and is in season you can’t take it. Same situation except you have bear dogs you can turn them loose at a bait site to chase that bear which makes no sense to me. Myself I’d like to see them allow natural baits like grains not candy and doughnuts for bear hunting. The population seems certainly high enough in most bear counties to allow this and anyone who has hunted bears over a bait can tell ya it’s not a sure deal by any stretch.
Finally they plan to address feral hogs and wild boars. They are the exact same creature but Wildlife is not about to agree to that. In mountain counties where “wild boars” have been around for years nothing will change. Other counties wild hogs will be considered “feral hogs” and can be hunted year around except game lands where they can only be hunted during any open season on game animal. The use of dogs will not be allowed except on Game Lands that allow dogs for deer or bear and only during the season. Allowing feral hogs to get established in this state is a big mistake the damage they will cause will be devastating taking the use of dogs off the table I believe is a bad mistake.
There you have the majority of the proposed changes I hope you get your opinion heard and who knows I might see ya at one of the public meetings.
Mississippi currently allows 3 bucks and about 6 does to be harvested per hunter annually. There is a forkhorn law. No spikes allowed. They are thinking of going to a spread rule.
Hogs are multiplying like crazy and there is no limit. They are classified as varmints, I guess.
Thanks for the info on regs in your part of the world.
Comment by Rex Howell — January 10, 2007 @ 9:42 am