2024 Deer Season

[WV Sawmiller]

  WV Archery season opens a week from tomorrow. Crossbows are legal for our archery season. I already have 2 feeders out encouraging the deer to visit my shooting houses at dawn and dusk. There appears to be plenty of mast in the woods this year so the deer don't need the corn but it is kind of like going to get an ice cream cone after dinner.

  I dug out my Killer Instinct 415 crossbow and took it out to sight it in. It is not an expensive crossbow but it works well for my needs. I dug my target and a couple of practice bolts out of the stall in the barn. I set it up and grabbed my tape measure and remeasured and marked the adjacent fence with pieces of hay strings at 5 yard increments.

  I dragged out and patched up a nearby sawhorse I've used for sighting in purposes before and tightened and added a few nails and an end brace and pulled out an old 5 gallon bucket for a seat.

  I waxed the rails and string and pulled back the string only to find the locking pin did not engage. I went back in the house and returned with my hand crank and cranked the string back and fiddled with the locking pin till it engaged. I guess the wax build up on it had it stuck in the up position. After that I was able to pull the string with my rope cocker.

  I set up at the 30 yard mark and shot a couple of test bolts which hit a little low and to the right so I started playing with the windage and elevation setting on the 4 power scope. Pretty soon I had it on target. When done I tried a couple of shots from the 40 yard mark and they also hit directly on the mark. I tried a couple from 20 yard mark and found they hit about an inch high so I'm fine for that for the areas I hunt.

  I bought about 50 bags for 1 lb rolls for ground meat last week from a local Rural King and got the hog rings and pliers to install them so I am ready to butcher anything I kill.

  Now its just a matter of waiting and watching the weather and such.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I took a broken fuel tank holder from my mill to be welded yesterday and picked it up a couple hours ago. About  half a mile before I got home I spotted a nice little 4-6 point buck in a neighbor's yard by their trailer. The lady was standing about 20' away with something in her hand. I don't know if it was a phone or camera or food she was feeding it. If its a pet I hope she puts an ear tag on it or a n orange collar so nobody shoots it. I'd sure shoot one like that and it is easily close enough to my home hunting area to come up but I would not shoot a pet if I knew it.

[beenthere]

They are all wild in WI, no pets. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Around here by law they are wild too but it is common for people to start feeding them or adopt a fawn. DNR will not give out permits for them. We had one years ago and I had an orange collar on her. She ran up and played with the other deer from day one but would come to us for her bottle or treats. We did not pen her up. Her mom got killed by a car when she was about the size of a cat and we had goats so milked the goats and fed her from a bottle. I went up in antlerless season and a yearling jumped up and a shot it then Spot jumped up about 30' away from where she had been playing with it. I felt bad and would not have shot it if I'd see her with it but when I gave her an apple or fortune cookie she forgave me.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I finally made time to go hunting this morning. I took my crossbow and went to my original shooting house. It is built into a bank overlooking a wide bench several hundred yards long and nearly 100 yards wide. I parked my ATV in the pasture and fought my way up the muddy slope to the bench. By my walking light I spotted at least 4 does/yearlings/fawns on the bench less than 1100 yards from the shooting house. They drifted away but were not alarmed. I climbed the last slope to the shooting house and unzipped my crossbow case and set up to hunt. Legal shooting light was 6:49 with daylight at 7:19 am. Just after 7:00 and old doe started sounding the alarm. I could see her flag 60-100 yards away as she she and her brood moved in in the dim light. She finally calmed down and the corn stealing doves started flying in about 3 minutes before my feeder went off at 7:30. Sever looked like they were about to light on my windows and I was hoping to grab a couple and wring some necks but they shied away before they got in reach.

    I got my book out when it was light enough and started reading. At 8:30 I looked down and 2 spikes had ghosted in from somewhere, They fed on the corn and often were directly under me. They had decent spikes but were real small. Since I am a meat hunter the antlers did not matter to me but they were not big enough to excite me although I did figure Id harvest one. Before I did they started acting skittish then drifted off before I could shoot the larger one. About 9:20 I looked down and a doe had appeared. She looked nearly as big as the spike and I just let her feed then leave in peace.

   I stayed on and finished my book about noon and came on home. I'll go back later this week after the Paul Bunyan show and maybe collect one of the spikes or their daddy.

[ron barnes]

Here in Aiken County SC, the deer processors are without power so they are closed.  I can't process my own so I will wait until later to get some venison.

[WV Sawmiller]

Ron,

   My son used a family friend for 2 of his last year. I think he paid about $100 each. I still do mine but it is more tempting every year. I may shoot one this weekend or early next week if the situation permits.

   IIRC the deer season along the coast in SC when I was there started August 15. Way too early for me to go fight the skeeters, deer flies and assort poisonous vipers in the area.

   Take care and have a very enjoyable season

[WV Sawmiller]

    We got back from the PBS last night and got unpacked and set the clock to get up and go chase our local deer this morning. I got set up in my blind/shooting house. The doves started coming in and stealing my corn when the feeder went off at 7:30. About 8:00 the doves all flushed and flew off. I looked and a hawk had lit on a limb 50-60 yards away. The doves and a squirrel that had also been below had disappeared. The hawk flew away before I could get my camera ready.

    A little after 8:30 I saw two spikes headed my way. They were the same 2 I saw the last time I went there last week and about the same time of day. They came to my feeder and started enjoying the corn. They were not big deer but one looked a little bigger and kept pushing the other one around. About the time they got settled a doe came up from the same direction and she started feeding. The spikes seemed to ignore her.

    Here is the larger spike feeding. I let them feed about 10 minutes watching behind and around and especially watching them to see if they spotted anything else coming but they did not so I decided to go ahead and harvest this one. The biggest problem was most of the time he was about 5 yards in front of and directly underneath me. He finally drifted to the side 10-15 yards away. I got my crosshairs on my crossbow scope behind his R leg and aimed a little low because he was so close. I shot and he ran right and the other two ran left. All of them stopped after 30-40 yards and kept looking around.

  Mine seemed confused and I began to wonder if he was even hit then he just crumpled beside the ATV trail. The other 2 moseyed over and seemed confused that would not get up. They went back to feeding and drifted off. None of them ever seemed very alarmed.

    I wrote out a field tag, packed up and walked over to look for my arrow/bolt. I found it sticking in a punky log about 6" in diameter. I tried pulling it out but no joy. I tried twisting and was able to unscrew the point and left it in the log. It's  no doubt ruined anyway and was not an expensive point.
  I walked  over to the deer and here is how he fell. The entrance and exit holes look the same. I used the winch and a handy maple fork to load him in the ATV basket. It is amazing how much harder it is to load a loose floppy deer, even a small one like this, than it used to be a few years ago.
  I took him home, called the WV DNR Game check number and checked him in then went down and hung him on my game skinning rack, weighed him then skinned and quartered and partially butchered him. He weighed 108 lbs on my spring scales and is about the same size as a typical grown doe around here. BTW - that's live weight as I never field dress my deer because I am so close and they are much easier to skin and process intact and fresh.

    It was so warm and the yellow jackets are so bad I pulled the loins, tenderloin, and brisket and put them in a corning solution where they will stay in the fridge downstairs for 5-7 days. There was about 8lbs of them after I trimmed them up. The hams, shoulder, neck and the trimmings I salvaged so far are in the fridge in my log barn. I'll do some more de-boning tonight and get some pork Boston butt and grind them together and make 1 lb rolls out of the rest.

[WV Sawmiller]

  I ain't gonna win no speed records for cutting up meat. I finished deboning the shoulders and neck Saturday night and finished the hams and a 10 lb pork roast last night. I do try to trim them a lot closer out of fat and silverskin than is probably necessary and more than what most people do.

  Now I just need to cube it and put the met in shallow trays in the freezer for an hour or so then grind it. I understand meat grinds much better if about half frozen. I'll packager the burger in 1 lb rolls.

EDIT: Well the grinder worked good and we used the stuffer to fill the bags. I think it was 37 lbs of meat but we overstuffed the bags I guess and ended up with 29 bags. Net time I'm going to dig out my bigger stuffer tunnel and see if that makes the process go faster.

[ron barnes]

I have been a few mornings but all I have seen is a doe with a pair of this years fawns.  The fawns are too young for me to shoot the momma so they get a lot of corn.  Monday I spotted a buck with the binoculars, looked pretty good but he was gone before I could get the scope on him.  Another day.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Yesterday was the start of our 2 week long Rifle Buck season. We also have a concurrent antlerless season on-going. I bet I heard 50 shots go off within hearing of my place throughout the day with 15 or so during the half hour before daylight. I did not see any bucks and only one big doe and her fawn/yearling that busted me and informed the whole world at 4:00 pm.

  Sunday I had gone up there with my crossbow and saw one nice buck in the distance who looked to be cruising his scrapes and one healthy 3 point at my feeder who would never give me a decent broadside or quartering away shot.

  This morning I did not see any deer but I went back up and the 3 point came back out when my feeder went off at 4:00. He must have smelled me as I had added more corn to the feeder and left my field expedient walking staff leaning on a tree under the feeder. Anyway the deer was on alert and looked to be leaving the area when I made an amazing shot to his right side vital from about 20 yards.  He bucked and ran about 30 yards and dropped dead.

  I dragged him about 400 yards to my 4 wheeler then dragged him behind it to my barn and loaded him on my little cart and took him to my skinning rack behind my boatshed. When I got to my pasture gate I saw at least 5 big does in my next door neighbors pasture about 40 yards away. I thought about harvesting one of them too but decided they could wait till another day.



  He weighed 145 lbs live weight on my spring scales I keep at the skinning rack. I got him skinned, quartered and partially butchered by 10:00 pm. I'll debone the shoulders and hams tomorrow and start the backstrap, brisket and tenderloins corning. I'll can a couple of cookers for BBQ and such and give the corned parts and at least one of the hams to my cleaning lady who wanted some deer meat.

  I'm tagged out on bucks for the year but can still kill between 3-5 does/antlerless if I manage the opportunities and want to do so.

[ron barnes]

Here in SC our deer season starts August 15.  We get 3 buck and 2 doe tags with our license.  We can also buy extra doe tags if we desire.  I have shot 2 small 6 point bucks so far and am going back out in a few minutes hoping to harvest a good doe.  Really enjoy the time spent in the stand watching for wildlife.

[Magicman]

Our long range weather forecast shows a Northerly wind for the next week so I will not make that 92 mile hunting round trip until the weather pattern changes.

I'll just burn some firewood plus I have a sawing job scheduled for the 4th & 5th of next week.  Gonna be chilly with the morning temps in the 40's.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I forgot to mention but it was funny to see the 5 -6 does at the pasture when I came in. I was dragging the 3 point behind the 4 wheeler because it would not have been safe to come down the steep slope with him in the ATV basket plus he was to hard to load.

   Anyway when I pulled up to the gate the does were 30-40 yards away and every single one of them were ignoring me and looking at the buck as if to say "What is Melvin doing now? I've seen him do some dumb things over the last 2 years since I've known him but I never saw him chasing a hunter on a 4wheeler while on his belly."

[SwampDonkey]

Our deer season ended on Sunday the 24th here. I don't think there were any taken in my area. I think there was only one buck around. Buck only hunt here.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I guess we have a reasonably liberal season and limits. Our archery (which includes crossbows in all but 4 counties) starts near the end of September and ends on 31 December and we even have a special Heritage hunt a week after that for recurve bow and primitive muzzleloaders, 

   We dropped to a 2 buck total limit this year and 3 does state wide. You have to buy extra stamps for a 2nd or 3rd deer in any category but landowners don't have to buy licenses or stamps when hunting their own land which is what I do even  though I bought a lifetime senior hunting/fishing/trapping license when I turned 65.

   We also have 4 youth/senior hunting days (2 in October and the 2 days after Christmas) where underage hunters (8-17) or seniors can kill an antlerless deer on each of those days which does not count against your season limit. Youths have to be accompanied by a licensed adult hunter who has to be close enough for supervision and cannot carry a weapon. So that potentially adds 4 more antlerless (Both antlers less 3" or no antlers) to their bag if you need them and follow different seasons.

   We now do electronic check-in where we call a number or go on line and report our kill and get registration number. Its pretty simple and straight-forward to do and stay legal.

   Our rifle season for bucks is 2 weeks (Thanksgiving week and the one after) which is our peak rut time for the most part and is often concurrent with antlerless plus there are 10-12 other antlerless days. After rifle season we skip a few days then have a week of muzzleloader season but you can't use a bow or crossbow on those days. They want to force people to buy muzzleloaders, black powder equipment and stamps. We can substitute a bow, crossbow or muzzleloader for a rifle if we want to do so. We could hunt with a bow/crossbow during muzzleloader season but would have to tag any kill as an archery kill and not an ML kill/bag limit.

   Its not perfect but it is reasonable for the most part and we are blessed with a very large deer population so the limits/regs are mostly working well.

[SwampDonkey]

Our season used to be longer and no difference in sex hunted. Deer were plentiful even in the harshest winter habitats. The deer would move to easier grounds for winter. They didn't stay in 6 foot snow of the Serpentine, but the rest of the year they were as plentiful as cows on a dairy farm on the same ground. No trouble to see 50 deer trot on across the edge of a clearcut. All lakes had nice paths the deer made. They are saying the deer are rebounding now, but that is mostly in the snowless south areas. The winter habitat of the north is gone, fell down, burnt down or clearcut and coyotes of plenty. Unbelievable how active the coyotes are on my winter sled/shoe paths, scat everywhere. Occasionally I find a kill, not that often because there are few deer. I think I've found 3 kills in the last 6 years. When the new highway opened [cut through a  wintering area], at least 50 was killed.

Pretty sure the reason we go to a station is for weight, and they take a tooth or something to get age and health of the deer. So online doesn't provide that.

[WV Sawmiller]

Donkey,

    Do you have different seasons/limits in the southern/snowless areas than where you live?

    Our state is broken up into, I think, 5 districts and each district has its own regs and limits to accommodate the differences in the number of deer there. Some require you to take an antlerless deer before you can take a second antlered buck while others don't. Some areas allow antlerless seasons, others don't.

     One area of 4 counties has been archery only for many years and do not even allow crossbow without a doctors excuse and they kill some really big bucks down there. Several years ago the state opened up to use crossbows in all the archery seasons.

     One advantage to the call in is if you want to you could actually do a final check in at the kill site and not even have to do a field tag. Just call in the info and record the number and if stopped show it to the game warden. 

(I once told the game warden to just hold on to my hunting/fishing license as I never needed it unless he was there anyway.  )

   It is a proven fact in Game Management if you want big bucks you harvest large number of does and spikes and restrict buck harvest to larger antler size and the bucks grow bigger. However you provide more enjoyment to the general population allowing more hunters to kill a small buck instead of just a few killing trophy deer. We have a few trophy management areas in the state where any deer killed has to have antlers that extend past the ears or about a 14" - 16" (IIRC) spread. Many hunters are happy to just kill a spike or basket rack buck and would not hunt if they could only take an occasional trophy so allowing small buck harvests results in the state selling more licenses and getting more money for the wildlife programs.

[SwampDonkey]

It's easier to point to the web site. I do see you can reg a deer online now up here.

https://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/nr-rn/pdf/en/Wildlife/HuntTrap.pdf

[WV Sawmiller]

  I finished deboning the shoulders last night and canned 10 pints of meat then did 9 more pints this morning. I had to cut some meat off the neck to finish filling the jars. I left the bone in the first joint of both front legs and will throw them and what is left of the neck in the crock pot and cook the meat off the bones and pull it off for sandwich meat/BBQ or hash. That is easier than deboning and cutting all the silverskin and sinew off those pieces.

  My cleaning lady came and got all the meat off the hams. She borrowed my cuber and will cube some steaks, pack some cuts as roasts and some for stew. I don't care for deer stew or soup. I reminded her she still has 13 lbs of the choice cuts corning that will be ready Wednesday. She got a sick look realizing her little freezer would not hold it then asked if I could can it. I told her if she would bring me the jars and lids I'd can it for her so she will do that in the next few days. I figure probably 2 canner loads (10 pints per load) will more than do it. She does water bath canning which takes 4 hours for meat and I still think is not safe as it does not get the meat hot enough but I think her mom blew up a canner one time and they won't use one now.

[TroyC]

I just finished all my canning and freezing last week. Had 2 bucks to do, took me about a week to get it all done. I use the 1/2 pint jars mostly, just right for a meal for 2 with no leftovers. Ended up with about 6 cases of jars, 12 to the case. Cut and froze thin steaks from the hams, canned most everything else. Put taco seasoning in some of the jars and it works nice for quick tacos. I give the shoulders to a friend, too much work for me.

[WV Sawmiller]

    For some reason this one seemed to be the easiest one I have ever done. I pulled the muscle groups from the hams and shoulders and just cut them loose at the ends with a boning knife. As mentioned, I do not bone out the neck or hocks (?) - the short section below the knee or elbow equivalent. I prefer to just cook them slow in the oven or crock pot then pull off the meat with a fork which is much easier than deboning them raw. The backstraps peeled right off

[TroyC]

As far as management, I now refrain from does and only take larger older bucks. Yeah, we have a lot of does and I enjoy watching them. They produce a lot of bucks every year! I call the does buck magnets. We are allowed 2 bucks in Georgia. I can afford the time to hunt for the bigger ones, and have been targeting 4-6 yr olds for the last several years. This year was a 4.5 yr old 200 lb and a 6 yr old 220 lb. The season in central Georgia was different this year, very warm and a super heavy acorn crop. During primitive weapons (about Oct 15-20) several nice 3.5 yr olds were coming to the food plot. Not nearly as many does in the plots as previous years, and I contribute that to the heat and excessive acorn crop. The bucks did not really show for the rut (too hot) and chase as much, and I figured it was just too hot and the does were in the woods. The 4.5 was coming to the food plot, the 6 yr old was tending a late rut doe. Those two provided enough so I was able to share with several friends and neighbors with plenty of reserves.

[thecfarm]

No Sunday hunting in Maine.
The Grandson can get at least 2 does and I think a buck. 
Better check the web, I might be wrong. 
hard for me to follow the rules now.
He bought a doe tag and then there was a drawing and he can get another doe on my land, but if he was hunting where he lives, he could not shoot 2 does. 
Someone says too many does in this County.

[SwampDonkey]

I think they started the Sunday hunting here because some folks can only hunt weekends and holiday (Thanksgiving). About the time a work day is over it's black as a cave up here this time of year.