2023 deer hunt

[gim]

Anyone still deer hunting or are we all done for the 2023 season here?

[casts_by_fly]

I’ve got two months left. Bow winter season runs until about Valentine’s Day here. We have friends here this week or I’d be out right now. Next time I’m out will be the first week of Jan when the holidays are done. 
 

both Wednesday and Thursday I saw deer, but the only ones that came into shooting range were small bucks and I was hunting for does. 

[gim]

Just now, casts_by_fly said:

Bow winter season runs until about Valentine’s Day here.

Holy Hannah that is a long season.  Basically hunting them through the majority of winter.  The bucks here usually lose their antlers in January.

 

Our season ends on Dec 31 and there doesn't appear to be very many people still hunting anymore.  Its been so warm here.  I have seen deer while pheasant hunting almost every time I go.

[12poundbass]

Late doe season here until the end of the year. It’s been warm and rainy so we didn’t go out this weekend. This is my last week of work for the year so 6poundbass and I will be hunting hard when I’m off to put some meat in the freezer.

[casts_by_fly]

7 hours ago, gimruis said:

Holy Hannah that is a long season.  Basically hunting them through the majority of winter.  The bucks here usually lose their antlers in January.

 

Our season ends on Dec 31 and there doesn't appear to be very many people still hunting anymore.  Its been so warm here.  I have seen deer while pheasant hunting almost every time I go.

not to mention we start the middle of September. It’s about 6 months we can shoot them here in my zone. 

[gim]

9 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

not to mention we start the middle of September. It’s about 6 months we can shoot them here in my zone. 

Ya that'st astonishing to me.  Mid September is when the archery season opens here too.  Half the year deer hunting?  I wouldn't get much done for half the year lol

[JackstrawIII]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Half the year deer hunting?  I wouldn't get much done for half the year lol

For real. 

We start the 2nd week of Sept and can hunt (off and on, different weapons, etc) until around the first-second week of January. It's a LONG season. 

 

I'm not complaining, but it's definitely a major distraction for an extended period of time. Fortunately, I filled the freezer very early this year and have been able to focus on family, grad school, and my job for the last couple months. 

[Skunkmaster-k]

Whitetail is still going, but muley is over. I got a respectable muley the second to last day of the season. He is delicious. 

[Skunkmaster-k]

[gim]

Nice mule deer there skunky.  Where's the body?  Already in your belly lol

[casts_by_fly]

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

Ya that'st astonishing to me.  Mid September is when the archery season opens here too.  Half the year deer hunting?  I wouldn't get much done for half the year lol

 

55 minutes ago, JackstrawIII said:

For real. 

We start the 2nd week of Sept and can hunt (off and on, different weapons, etc) until around the first-second week of January. It's a LONG season. 

 

I'm not complaining, but it's definitely a major distraction for an extended period of time. Fortunately, I filled the freezer very early this year and have been able to focus on family, grad school, and my job for the last couple months. 

 

I would call it more of a blessing than a curse.  Growing up in PA we had a pretty standard schedule.  we fished until October.  Early small game (squirrel and grouse) opened the first week of October.  Rabbit and pheasant was the 3rd weekend.  We'd hunt small game until the saturday after thanksgiving.  Monday after was the first day of buck (only) season.  We'd hunt at the cabin for 2 days, maybe the two saturdays after if we hadn't tagged out.  Monday-Wednesday after that was 3-day doe season.  Then small game opened up after Christmas for a month or so.  I guess since I was in school and my dad worked a M-F we had saturday so everthing was focused on saturdays only (there was no Sunday hunting then).  Around age 14 we started archery hunting (my dad did it for a long time before) which cut back the early small game but we still got out for rabbits and grouse some times.

 

Fast forward to now, I work a M-F job, but its from home and I set a lot of my own hours.  A lot of what I do can be handled from a stand or a boat.  We can hunt sundays here on state WMAs and private property so it means I can pick and choose my days a lot.  At first I was in @JackstrawIII's camp as a big distraction.  If the season is open I want to be out there hunting!  And if I was sitting at home then why couldn't I get out there.  Now I've come around to picking and choosing better.  I still have a goal to shoot 3 deer each year (a buck and two does) but I'm not maniacal about it.  I try to get an early one under my belt to relieve some of the mental pressure but its a long season.  I've shot deer as early as mid September and as late as Christmas.  After Christmas gets harder and more weather dependent, but there are still deer around.

 

Also, its not all of NJ with this long season.  I just happen to be in a zone which includes a lot of 'fringe' area- that mix of housing, unhuntable green spaces, public lands, and other places where there are lots of opportunities for deer to disappear into unhuntable locations when pressured but also grow big populations without any control.  

 

The nice thing is that I start fishing in early march usually (that's normal ice out).  I can hunt until the middle of Feb, take three weeks to tackle up and get the boat ready.  Maybe do some house chores.  Then start early season fishing.  In the fall I normally stop end sept/early October.  This year I went much later since I shot an early buck and didn't have another buck tag until Nov 1.  That Sept/Oct overlap of seasons can be tough to pick hunting or fishing but that's a good problem to have.  Sometimes I think I should go fishing and put the bow in the rear well.

[Skunkmaster-k]

4 hours ago, gimruis said:

Nice mule deer there skunky.  Where's the body?  Already in your belly lol

Yep ! Most of him is in the deep freeze , all except his blackstrap. 

Autocorrect. Backstrap. 

[GaryH]

First time I ever saw a black deer. We’ve had an albino going on 8 years that comes in everyday but this is a first for us. Standing on the driveway eating acorns.

[casts_by_fly]

New guy hanging around my stand area. I’m tied up until Jan 3rd but if he keep around I’ll be in my stand that morning. 
 

in fact, I think that might be the 8 I saw in the yard in October. 
 

[TnRiver46]

On 12/20/2023 at 3:45 PM, GaryH said:

First time I ever saw a black deer. We’ve had an albino going on 8 years that comes in everyday but this is a first for us. Standing on the driveway eating acorns.

My buddy trapped a melanistic raccoon once, solid black. I’ve caught 9 albino but never seen or heard of an all black one except the one he caught

[GaryH]

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

My buddy trapped a melanistic raccoon once, solid black. I’ve caught 9 albino but never seen or heard of an all black one except the one he caught

I looked it up and it says it’s approximately 1 in 500,000 deer are melanistic 

[12poundbass]

Well our season end yesterday with us empty handed. A while back I was hoping the farmer next door would cut the corn. Now I’m wishing he hadn’t! Corn gets cut, the deer take off. I should’ve thought about that before because the exact same thing happened last year. Late doe season last year we didn’t see a single deer….the corn had been cut. 

[gim]

I think we can close the book on this one being that is now 2024 and deer season is all but over for most of us here now for the 2023 season.

[casts_by_fly]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

I think we can close the book on this one being that is now 2024 and deer season is all but over for most of us here now for the 2023 season.

just about. I was drawn on one Wednesday evening. It came straight in, let me draw with its head behind a tree at 20 yards, walked to 15 yards and stood there. But I could see it was a button buck and not a doe so I didn’t shoot. Still planning to shoot one more doe this year. 

[JackstrawIII]

2 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

Still planning to shoot one more doe this year.

Wow, your season is really long. I hope you get the chance to bag one. 
 

Ps. Good job not shooting the button buck. Responsible deer management is something we all need to be on board with. 

[casts_by_fly]

32 minutes ago, JackstrawIII said:

Wow, your season is really long. I hope you get the chance to bag one. 
 

Ps. Good job not shooting the button buck. Responsible deer management is something we all need to be on board with. 

I’ve got another 5 weeks. It’s a LOOOONG season. It means I can be a little choosy about when I go.

 

I’ve passed a bunch of buttons this year now. Every time I see them coming, get in position to shoot, and at the last minute I see the nubs. It’s getting harder to tell now since their coats are thick. This one I had to look three times to be sure. Our doe to buck ratio seems high to me and we had a crapton of deer two summers ago.  Ehd hit locally and last season the population was low but they have come back after two breeding cycles now. Next year the population will be back up again I suspect.

[JackstrawIII]

Just now, casts_by_fly said:

Our doe to buck ratio seems high to me and we had a crapton of deer two summers ago.

It also doesn’t help that button bucks are the dumbest deer and always seem to be the first easily shootable deer in any group. 

[casts_by_fly]

Just now, JackstrawIII said:

It also doesn’t help that button bucks are the dumbest deer and always seem to be the first easily shootable deer in any group. 

agreed. Lots of people shoot the first deer they see so…

[gim]

Button bucks aren’t legally classified as a buck here in MN. They would be considered an antlerless deer, which is in the same category as any other antlerless deer (like a doe).

 

A legal buck here is defined as having one visible antler that is at least 3 inches long.

[casts_by_fly]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Button bucks aren’t legally classified as a buck here in MN. They would be considered an antlerless deer, which is in the same category as any other antlerless deer (like a doe).

 

A legal buck here is defined as having one visible antler that is at least 3 inches long.

same here. But we also have unlimited antlerless deer in my zone and a couple more. So if I shot all of the buttons while I was hunting does this year that would have put a decent hit on the balance. Then if lots of others did that because button bucks are dumb….