Hunting Rules

Summer's officially over even though you can't tell because it's still so hot and sticky outside. Most of us have finished pre-season scouting, and have hung our tree stands along well-traveled deer trails, hopefully next to a mature white oak that will begin dropping acorns soon. Finally, the time of year we've been waiting for is here, the beginning of football and better yet, Archery and rifle deer hunting season.

If hunters held a popularity contest for wild animals, the white-tailed deer would probably win. Admired for its speed and jumping ability, a deer can run 40 miles per hour and leap over a fence 8 feet tall. Even from a standstill, a deer could jump straight up and over your orange covered heads. People like the beauty and graceful movements of the white-tailed deer. The buck's antlers look like an ivory crown. When it walks, a deer seems almost to float. It moves silently into the woods, sometimes disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye.

Whitetails also make a fine dinner entree, are good for you and taste great.

(Personally, I like Jerky, but any of these cuts wil do)

Archery season provides a great opportunity to take a trophy whitetail and hunting the rut is arguably one of the best times to do so. If you're stealthy enough and have done your homework, you've got a good chance of having a nice one walk out in front of you.

As a matter of fact, a lot of the rutting goes on until right before the start of rifle season. During rut doe scent works great. Post rut, these guys are beat, smelling like dirt might be better than trying to sex up your stand. Remember, those little buggers have been rutting for weeks so come November, they are tired and could go for some acorns and a nap.

After rifle season starts and the pressure to rut has passed, a lot of your mature bucks go nocturnal. Since their not chasing ruting mates, you might not see that big buck again for the rest of the season, except for maybe a picture taken from your game-cam sometime during the middle of the night.

Note: Only bows may be used during archery season. No bows, crossbows, spears, daggers, Medieval pole arms, battle axes, tomahawks, Pikes, Lances, fauchard, Glavie, Guisarme, Wu Jian or Shuriken Daggers, may be used to harvest deer during rifle season. Other things you can't use during rifle season include explosives or drug-injecting arrows, a machete or bows equipped with electronic computational or laser sights.

This behavior is not allowed!

You also can't use dogs to hunt deer, but you can use bird-dogs if you are hunting birds. Otherwise, the only time you can have a dog in the woods while hunting is if you have one on a leash, or if you are trying to make it look like an accident.

Towards the end of rifle season, if you still haven't seen anything and you're quite the marksman, rabbits and gray squirrels make good substitutes to shooting the real thing. In a pinch, Raccoons, opossums, coyotes, nutrias, skunks and beavers also may be used to satisfy your craving for hunting glory.

As far as legal shooting hours are concerned, you're allowed to let your bullets fly one half-hour before sunrise and one half-hour after sunset

Well, I hope I've helped answer any questions you might have had regarding the rules and regulations of deer hunting as some of these rules can be a bit confusing. ( See Note:)

Here's hoping all your preparation and persistence pays off and wishing you luck on taking that monster buck.

As always, have fun, hunt safely and we'll see you soon!
Ole Grey