VSdreams
09-09-2008, 07:18 PM
STABILE: Bowhunting season set to open
By JIM STABILE • COMMENTARY • September 6, 2008
My Central Jersey
Bowhunters will get the first shot at replenishing freezers with venison when the fall bowhunting season opens Saturday in 31 deer management zones.
The first deer killed by bowhunters must be antlerless, but the season bag limit allows an unlimited number to be taken through Oct. 3. That means you have to earn the right to kill a buck by first killing an antlerless. One antlered buck may be killed during the season, which has more deer available than in any of our seasons, and in 10 of the zones only bucks with at least three antler points on one side of their racks can be taken. Check the deer regulations in the Fish & Wildlife Digest and on the Division of Fish and Wildlife's website for details.
During last year's month-long fall bow season, hunters bagged 1,793 deer in Hunterdon County, 890 in Somerset and 882 in Morris among the season's harvest of 9,994 deer. Total kill during all 2007-08 seasons was 47,017, the lowest it has been in many years.
We have an estimated 150,000 deer in our state, a lot less than the 180,000-200,000 we had before liberal bag limits were enacted to ease deer damage to crops and shrubbery as well as to try to give the forest understory and its young trees a chance to grow without being nipped dead by deer.
By JIM STABILE • COMMENTARY • September 6, 2008
My Central Jersey
Bowhunters will get the first shot at replenishing freezers with venison when the fall bowhunting season opens Saturday in 31 deer management zones.
The first deer killed by bowhunters must be antlerless, but the season bag limit allows an unlimited number to be taken through Oct. 3. That means you have to earn the right to kill a buck by first killing an antlerless. One antlered buck may be killed during the season, which has more deer available than in any of our seasons, and in 10 of the zones only bucks with at least three antler points on one side of their racks can be taken. Check the deer regulations in the Fish & Wildlife Digest and on the Division of Fish and Wildlife's website for details.
During last year's month-long fall bow season, hunters bagged 1,793 deer in Hunterdon County, 890 in Somerset and 882 in Morris among the season's harvest of 9,994 deer. Total kill during all 2007-08 seasons was 47,017, the lowest it has been in many years.
We have an estimated 150,000 deer in our state, a lot less than the 180,000-200,000 we had before liberal bag limits were enacted to ease deer damage to crops and shrubbery as well as to try to give the forest understory and its young trees a chance to grow without being nipped dead by deer.