North Carolina to Allow Crossbows & Limited Sunday Hunting Next Year?
March 5, 2009
Today Commissioners weighed in on the multiple proposals to alter hunting, trapping and fishing rules across the state. Initial reports coming out of today’s meeting suggest that the commissioners listened to comments made at the public hearings across the state.
Allowing bow hunting on Sundays on private land only. Bow hunting of migratory birds is still prohibited.
- Removing the daily bag limit for white-tailed deer.
- Shortening bow-only season by one week and opening the muzzleloader season a week earlier.
- Eliminating the winter wild turkey season.
- Allowing the use of crossbows, without a permit, anytime bow and arrows are legal weapons.
Several other controversial proposals were rejected:
- The commission did not establishing a uniform deer season across most of the state. The proposed changes would have been patterned on the current Eastern Deer Season.
- A “Youth Only” Wild Turkey Season was not replaced by a proposed “Friends and Family Afield” Turkey Season.
- The Spring Wild Turkey Season will not open the Monday after Youth Season, as proposed.
The proposals will go before the state Rules Review Commission in April before going into effect in July.
I can’t say I’m surprised by any of these and think overall the changes will be positive for sportsmen across the state. We’ll have to wait to hear about the rest of the proposals to see how everything shakes out.
For me I’m glad to see the legalization of crossbows, the elimination of the daily bag limit on deer, and the expansion of the black powder season. I’m also glad to see that the youth turkey day was not eliminated and the turkey season was not moved up any earlier than it already is. None of these rules are official until approved by Rules Review Commission and published in next year’s regulation book.
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[...] at the public hearings for changes to the hunting regulations but after all the dust settled it seemed a number of them had passed. Legalizing the use of crossbows and the adding of an additional week to the muzzleloader season is [...]