The 2008-09 big game seasons will only feature a few changes to last year’s regulations. Due to the odd calendar year, there will now be a nine-day first segment of the muzzleloader season running from Nov. 1-9.

Most other changes were small adjustments in regulations to either increase antlerless harvest or simplify regulations. Two counties, Obion and Shelby were placed into Unit L, while 21 Unit A and B counties saw slight increases in their antlerless hunting opportunities. The commission also approved that Unit L Young Sportsman hunters have the same opportunity to harvest three does per day as the rest of the Unit L hunters.

In other house cleaning items, the commission made it easier for Unit A and L hunters to take their statewide limit of three bucks by allowing all three bucks to be taken with the same weapon in the same unit. For a number of years it has been legal for hunters to harvest three bucks with the same weapon, they simply had to hunt in different units. The new regulation simplifies regulations for the Unit A and L hunters. Clarifications were also made of bonus animals, youth accompaniment, and legal antler points.

In other big game news, there will be only minor adjustments to bear and boar seasons, with most changes involving increases in harvest opportunities, especially as it pertains to archery season.

There were slight expansions in the fall turkey seasons with East Tennessee adding a few counties to the fall hunting list. It was also approved that the 2009 spring turkey season begin March 28 with the Young Sportsman hunt one week before.

Tim Singleton was honored as the TWRA Boating Office of the Year. Singleton, a Putnam County officer, covers Dale Hollow and Center Hill lakes among his duties.

The TWRC also set its next meeting for June 17-18 (Tuesday-Wednesday. The days are a change from the TWRC’s regular meeting days of a Wednesday-Thursday.

HUNTING SEASON NOTES:

Added two days to the muzzleloader season so that the 1st segment runs from November 1-9, 2008 in all deer units.

Add Shelby and Obion county to Unit L
Increase antlerless gun opportunities in: Anderson, Benton, Blount, Carter, Chester, Claiborne, Fentress, Grainger, Greene, Hamblen, Hancock, Hawkins, Henderson, Jefferson, Johnson, Knox, Loudon, Meigs, Sevier, Sullivan, Tipton.

Remove the Jackson county quota hunt.

Allow Unit L Young Sportsman hunters the same opportunity of harvesting three does per day as the rest of the hunters.

Allow Unit L and A hunters to harvest all three bucks with the same weapon in their unit of choice. They no longer have to switch units to harvests their three bucks.

Add Polk county (East of Hwy. 411 & North of Hwy. 64) to the Oct 18-19 feral hog hunt with dogs.

Add Polk county (East of Hwy. 411 & North of Hwy. 64) to the Oct 6-7 and 18-19 black bear hunt with dogs.

Extend the bear archery still hunt from September 27 – October 24.

Increase fall turkey hunting opportunities in Anderson, Benton, Blount, Davidson, Knox, Moore, and White counties

Set the 2009 Spring Turkey opener for March 28, 2009 (Young Sportsman March 21-22).

Defined a legal antler point as a projection of at least one inch long, measured from the tip of the point to the nearest edge of the beam, following the mid-line of the tine.

Clarified bonus animals and youth accompaniment requirements.

Fall turkey hunters will enjoy expanded opportunities. They will be able to hunt the entire season, from October 11 through November 30, with a shotgun, muzzleloading shotgun, bow or crossbow. This new rule adds 35 days to the previous season for fall turkey gun hunting. Nine additional northeast Ohio counties will also be open for fall turkey hunting, bringing the total to 46 counties statewide.

Deer hunters can again buy additional antlerless deer permits at reduced prices for hunting in an urban zone, participating in a controlled hunt, or hunting during the September 27 to November 30 portion of the archery season. Deer hunters with antlerless permits can hunt in Zone C until December 7. Cost of the antlerless deer permit remains at $15.

As was the requirement last year, hunters must purchase a regular deer permit before purchasing antlerless deer permits. The permit system remains otherwise unchanged from last year: hunters may still take up to one additional antlerless deer in Zone A, up to two additional antlerless deer in Zone B and up to three additional antlerless deer in Zone C.

However, use of the antlerless deer permit during the first part of the statewide archery season and during deer-gun week in Zone C will not count against the hunter’s season bag limit for that zone. The sale of these permits will cease after November 30, so hunters need to commit early to buying and using the extra reduced-cost permits.

Archery season will run from Saturday, September 27 through Sunday, February 1, 2009. The popular youth deer-gun season is Saturday and Sunday, November 22-23. Regular deer-gun season will run Monday, December 1 through Sunday, December 7. The additional deer-gun hunting weekend is set for Saturday and Sunday, December 20 -21. Statewide muzzleloader season will run Saturday, December 27 through Tuesday, December 30. Special area muzzleloader hunts will be open Monday, October 20 through Saturday, October 25 at Salt Fork, Shawnee and Wildcat Hollow. Muzzleloader hunts at these areas will no longer require a special permit and hunters may use either deer permit for this hunt. The bag limit remains at one deer of either sex with any antlered deer harvested counting toward the one-buck yearly limit for the year.

The state’s three deer-hunting zones remain in place. A three-deer limit (Zone C) will cover 38 central, south, southeastern, and southwestern counties. The 30 mid-state counties of Zone B will have a two-deer limit, and the 20 northwestern counties of Zone A will have a one-deer limit. A hunter may take only one buck in Ohio, regardless of zone, hunting method or season.

Hunting and trapping seasons for rabbits, pheasants, quail, squirrel, grouse, fox, raccoon, mink, muskrat, beaver, river otter, crow and falconry were approved as proposed.

Rules for dove, Canada goose, rail, moorhen, snipe, and migratory waterfowl hunting, as well as those season dates, will be set in August, in compliance with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s 2008-09 framework.

State wildlife officials say Canada geese are migrating later in the season and fewer now stop over at the popular hunting grounds. The hunting season would be consolidated to take advantage of that timing and better align hunters with their presence. It also means other hunters can use the areas in November.

“We’ve found the (goose) hunter harvest is not as great as it was, so we’ve decided to consolidate, said John Lerg, the wildlife biologist for the Allegan State Game Area. “The resource there is changing.”

Some hunters are not pleased with the idea. The proposed changes effectively cause it to become a winter hunt, they say, not a season for those with fair-weather tastes.

“It’s a horrible decision,” said Dave Engle of Saugatuck, owner of Hunt Best Chance, a commercial goose hunting guide service that takes clients to the Allegan GMU. “The old guys can’t go out in the blowing snow and the kids don’t like to do it. It really limits the season to only hard-core hunters.”

But Lerg said the number of goose hunters is declining. Meanwhile, other hunters and wildlife observers are finding opportunities there.

Goose hunting was permitted at Allegan GMU from Nov. 24-Dec. 2 and Dec. 27- Jan. 31 last season. The season would open seven days earlier in December under the new rule to account for lost November days.

“It’s become obvious to us that there are a great number of hunting pastimes that don’t relate to managed goose hunting,” Lerg said. “We see more duck hunting, especially mallards, and we want to recognize the opportunity there.

“People also enjoy rabbit and coyote hunting. And there are a whole lot of people who just want to come out and look at wildlife.”

Consolidation is one of several changes being proposed on a three-year trial basis. The new rules would run through 2010 and then be evaluated.

Consolidation may, or may not, occur depending on hunter feedback, Lerg said. Some hunters have already expressed their support.

One issue expected to cause a stir Thursday is a proposal to hold afternoon hunts on Tuesday and Thursday, eliminating the traditional morning hunts on those days.

“It’s going to throw a wrinkle in things for some of the hunters,” said Maria Albright, a wildlife staffer at the Allegan State Game Area. “They have their morning strategies and this is going to change how they hunt.”

The change is being recommended because Canada geese do not leave their roosts until later in day during the dead of winter. It can be one or two o’clock, according to Albright. The GMU closes at 2 p.m.

“Why have hunters sit out there at 8 o’clock if the birds don’t move until one,” Albright said.

Engle thinks that decision will be good for hunters.

“In the late season it would be a good way to kill birds,” he said.

Thursday’s meeting will also provide a chance for hunters to discuss a decision to discontinue the seven day hunting closure/quiet period for Zones 2-8 at the GMU. That rule is one of several that went into effect on a temporary basis in 2005. The idea was to give geese a chance to settle down before the normal season opened.

‘We didn’t find their (flight and feeding) patterns changed the way we were told, meanwhile people who rabbit hunt and do other things said we’d closed the door on them,” Lerg said.

Other topics for Thursday include four temporary rule changes for 2008-2010. They are:

Reduce hunting pressure adjacent to the refuge by eliminating every other hunting area in the Zone portions adjacent to the refuge except Zone 6.

Reduce check station staff to 2 employees

Limit deer hunting on the refuge only to when the deer population warrants hunting

Stop assigning hunting blinds at the Bravo Unit.

If you go

Allegan Goose Management Unit Public Meeting

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, March 13

Time: 7 p.m.

Where: Plainwell Operations Service Center, 621 N. 10th St. Plainwell, MI

With that drop has come worries that states won’t be able to pay for the rising costs of conservation efforts and acquisition of open space.

States generated $724 million last year through hunting licenses and fees for wildlife management and conservation; taxes on guns and ammunition added another $267 million, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Sportsmen pay the bills, especially east of the Mississippi,” says Rob Sexton, vice president for government affairs at the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, a hunters advocacy group in Columbus, Ohio. “A vast majority of the public land where people go for walks, wildlife viewing or mountain biking, the vast majority is bought by sportsmen.”

Since 2004, 18 states have changed their laws to loosen restrictions on when children can hunt with parents, and to allow novice adult hunters to try hunting without a license, Sexton says. The effort has shown signs of working, Sexton says: The states have seen an additional 35,000 people apply for hunting licenses since 2004.

The decrease in hunters appears to be a result of modern living, says Nicholas Throckmorton, Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman. He says fewer Americans hunt because they are spending more time on work and organized sports for their children. Most Americans now live farther from wildlife areas than in the past, says Throckmorton, whose agency conducts a national survey of Americans’ outdoor activities every five years.

Officials are changing state laws because they are “trying to tear down the barrier for recruitment of new hunters,” Throckmorton says.

Mark Damian Duda, executive director of Responsive Management, a research firm focusing on outdoor recreation, says the modest increase in the hunter population has been good news. He says the vanishing hunters are “a long-term concern.”

“At some point, there’s going to be less dollars if current trends continue,” Duda says. “Is it a good thing for fewer and fewer people to be funding all wildlife conservation … protecting national resources enjoyed by 97% of the people?”

Among steps being taken:

•Kentucky allows new hunters to hunt for a year with a legal hunter before taking a hunter-safety course. Since July, 1,159 new permits have been issued.

•Oregon has a Mentored Youth Hunter Program that allows unlicensed children ages 9 to 13 to receive one-on-one hunting experience and training.

•Arizona implemented an online hunter-safety course that can be completed in three hours, instead of the standard 16. Big game, such as deer, are reserved for hunters 10 and up.

Thad Musser, 33, who bought a deer-hunting bow at B&B Archery Pro Shop in Manassas, Va., last week, says changing the hunting age in Virginia, now 12, would not lure more hunters; they’d merely start younger. His 4-year-old nephew wants to hunt now and will still want to in seven years, he says.

Larry Ralph, 16, of Gainesville, Va., who started hunting at 13, says it was the rite of passage — his father “passed on the 30-30 (rifle) to me” — that spurred his interest. “I guess the younger the better.”

More hunters also help states save money on certain expenditures, such as those linked to damage by foragers that are too plentiful, such as the Canada goose and whitetail deer.

“Rather than paying professional hunters to cull the herd, sportsmen would be happy to pay a fee to do it themselves,” Sexton says.

Some say the focus on hunter retention is not the way to go.

“The number of people who hunt has declined in recent decades, and the number of people who enjoy wildlife in other ways, like wildlife watching or bird-watching, continues to expand,” says Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Humane Society of the United States. “Efforts to reverse these trends are futile.”

Rachel Brittin, spokeswoman for the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, says hunters are a great source of revenue, but they can’t do it alone.

U.S. wildlife is threatened by more issues than ever: increasing urbanization, invasive species, climate change and new diseases. States receive $1.5 billion a year but need an additional $1 billion annually to accomplish goals, Brittin says.

Efforts to raise enough elsewhere have failed, says Dave Chadwick of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

Lawmakers came up with a plan to buy land with $350 million a year in offshore oil and gas revenue, he says. Environmental groups squawked about taking money from the oil and gas industry, and property rights advocates balked at the land acquisitions, Chadwick says. The effort died in 2000.

Small Game — Hunters age 17 and younger may hunt for rabbit, pheasant and all other legal game in season during two designated weekends, Oct. 20-21 and Oct. 27-28 statewide. Quail may also be taken in open counties.

Pheasant releases for young hunters will occur prior to these dates on the following state wildlife areas: Resthaven, Oxbow, Berlin, Killdeer Plains, Camp Belden, Grand River, Spencer, Wellington, Delaware, Dillon, East Fork, Caesar Creek, Rush Run, Fallsville and Darke — and at the Charlemont Metropark in Lorain County.

White-tailed deer — A youth deer-gun season will be open statewide, Nov. 17-18. Young hunters age 17 and younger who are accompanied by a non-hunting adult may take one deer of either sex during this season, in accordance with existing bag and deer zone limits.

Wild Turkey — It is not too early to plan for the spring youth wild turkey hunting for 2008. A statewide spring youth wild turkey season will be offered on Saturday and Sunday, April 19-20. This hunt is open to youths age 17 and younger.

The Division of Wildlife offers several controlled hunts for young hunters throughout the hunting season. Applications to participate in these hunts are accepted June 1 through July 31. Applications are available at district offices and on the division’s Web site and may be completed by mail or online. There are controlled youth hunts for white-tailed deer, wild turkey and waterfowl.

All young hunters must be accompanied by a nonhunting adult, and must abide by all regular hunting hours and bag limits. A valid 2007-08 youth hunting license, along with the appropriate permits, are required.

For details on all youth hunting seasons, refer to 2007-08 Ohio Hunting and Trapping Regulations booklet, call (800) WILDLIFE or (800) 945-3543

On February 3-4, almost 50 youngsters participated in duck hunts at duck clubs throughout the Mississippi. It was the second year for the event organized by DU Regional Vice President Dr. Ronal Roberson. DU staff provided a program to help the kids identify waterfowl species, understand the daily bag limits, learn hunter safety and why wetlands are important. Several duck clubs in the Mississippi Delta hosted the youngsters and their parent/guardian.

“Our goal with this hunt is to get kids outside and let them experience the excitement of duck hunting,” said Dr. Roberson. “These young folks hunted at some of the most successful duck clubs in the Delta that are managed by people who are passionate about waterfowl.”

Dr. Roberson also instills young hunters with an awareness of the need for conservation of waterfowl habitat in Mississippi and throughout North America.

“We need to support organizations like Ducks Unlimited that protect waterfowl breeding, wintering and migration habitat to promote healthy waterfowl populations and provide hunting opportunities for future generations,” Roberson said.

In Ballard County, Kentucky, Ricky Waldon, owner of Waldon Lodge, hosted 30 youths and their parents/guardians during the youth-hunt weekend. Excellent hunting conditions and cold weather provided opportunities for most youths to shoot plenty of ducks. In all, 290 ducks and 10 geese were taken during the two-day hunt.

“The fate of our wetland and waterfowl resources rests in the hands of these kids, and it is up to us to make sure they are prepared for the task,” said Waldon who serves on the DU Conservation Programs Committee in Kentucky. “By introducing a youth to hunting, we can help them establish the link between natural resources and human experiences to develop a desire to conserve those resources.”
The purpose of DU Greenwing events like youth hunts is to educate young people about the importance of wetlands to waterfowl, other wildlife and people and help them form an appreciation for the outdoors. In association with DU’s Wetlands for Tomorrow campaign, the Educating Youth About Wetlands Initiative was launched to raise awareness of wetlands and wetland values among students throughout North America. DU’s Greenwing and Project Webfoot programs give students hands-on experiences and provide integrated classroom activities to help inspire tomorrow’s conservation leaders. To support the Educating Youth About Wetlands Initiative visit www.ducks.org/wetlandsfortomorrow.

The last day of hunting season always brings with it a flood of different feelings and emotions. We all feel something.

Last day, the season didn’t turn out like I planned. I thought for sure that it would be good this year and I’d finally get the buck I dreamed of. It didn’t happen and now it’s over and my wall is still empty. It’s a long time until November.

Last day, the season was so much better than I expected. I killed more ducks than any of my friends and they’re all jealous. I wish it could go on forever but now it’s over. And now I worry that I won’t ever see another season like it. All I’ll be able to do is look at the photos and remember “The Year.”

Last day, thank God, because I’m tired. It’s been a long, hard season and I’ve had about all of the fun I can stand. I’d have given it up sometime about Jan. 15, but I didn’t and I don’t know why.

I kept going even though I was tired. I kept going even though I wasn’t having any luck. And as tired as I am, I’d go tomorrow if the law allowed it.

Last day, and I just don’t know what I’m going to do with myself. This is what I love. This is what fills me up. It gives me a reason to get through work on days when it bores me to tears. It gives me something to look forward to. It’s bad enough to lose for another nine or 10 months the thing that I love, but losing that bounce in my step hurts even more.

Last day, and I really don’t want the fun to end. It’s just been good this year, not so successful, but good. Everybody got along, not the usual backbiting. It would be nice to think the harmony would simply resume next year but it won’t. Members will change and circumstances will change and it just won’t be the same. This kind of chemistry is temporary.

Last day, and I’ll never see these woods again. I’ll be back next year but all of these trees will be stumps. They’re coming to turn them into cardboard boxes, newspapers, books and reams of printer paper. When I was a boy, they’d cut some and leave some and eventually the woods would heal. Now they just leave stumps and I won’t live long enough to see it become pretty and open like it is now. It’s their timber and they’ve got the right, but it still hurts.

Last day, and I’ll never hunt with my buddy again, not like we have. He’s moving and he’s not coming back, not even in retirement. He’s not from around here. Sure, he’ll spend a weekend or so with me every year and I’ll go to his new place. But we’ll grow apart and get too busy to visit and that will be it. For 10 years we’ve shared sardines and cheese at lunch and beers after the hunt. I’ll miss it.

Last day, and this old dog has retrieved her last duck. If she makes it to next season, she’ll just be a pet. My wife is already mad about me taking her this year. When we came home after that really good day, she was so tied all she could do was flop down on the rug in front of the fireplace and shiver. My wife sat and held her head and looked like she wanted to cry. The new pup is coming along fine but it’s going to tear my heart out when I walk out of the house next season and the old girl stays behind with my wife.

Last day, but I’m coming back soon. The club has lots of briars and I’ve got friends with beagles. We’ll chase rabbits all day and have plenty of fun. But the club always looks a little different in February, sort of abandoned and lifeless. It gives me a strange feeling to be there after the season ends.

Last day, and I’m going to dust off my over-and-under and shoot clay targets. I’ve enjoyed the hunting season but it’s over and now it’s time to load some target shells and put away the camouflage. I’m looking forward to seeing the guys at the skeet range. They’ve all been hunting, too, and we can catch up. We’ll all be rusty, so it’s like starting over and who couldn’t use a fresh start every year.

Last day, and I’ll be fishing next weekend. It’s still a little cold but the February bite can be really good, especially on those unexpectedly pretty days. Just before it rains, it’ll warm up and be sunny.

Last day, and I won’t be hunting with this bunch next year. They wouldn’t find happiness in Heaven. It’s a great place and I’ve taken lots of game, but good Lord, the people make hunting here absolute misery. I hate looking for another place and the next might not offer hunting this good for this money. But it’ll be worth it to get away from these guys.

Last day, and I’ve got so much to do at home and at work that I won’t come up for air until April. The leaves are piled up three inches thick at home and the yard looks like hell. I still haven’t put together my kids’ Christmas presents and my wife has a honey-do list a mile long. She’s getting impatient. I have only enough vacation days left to take a week with my family this summer. I’m lucky to still have a family and a job.

Last day, and the meat is in the freezer. I’ll eat it until next November and enjoy every bit of it. Grilling tenderloin is sort of like paying a little visit to hunting season. You can see it, smell it, taste it and relish it. I have friends who never ate game until they met me. Now they look forward to our “wild” dinners.

Last day, I’ve been looking for it for decades and finally got it. It’s headed for the taxidermist. Looking at it after I shot it, it was hard to believe. It will look nice on my wall. But I’m not sure what I’m looking for now. I got a trophy but did I lose a purpose?

Last day, and now I’ve got to look for another lease. I’ve been hunting here since I was a kid but not any more. This place will be a commercial hunting operation and somebody will pay $500 a day to sit in my blind. Funny thing, we’ve been leasing this place so long we forgot that we didn’t own it. We’ve had free run of it, coming and going as we pleased, putting shooting houses, stands and blinds wherever we wanted, fixing the road and even cutting a little firewood. Now the “No Trespassing” sign means us, too.

Last day, and I won’t be hunting with a little boy next year. At 16, he’ll still be a kid. But he’ll have to pass the hunter education exam and buy a hunting license. He’ll have a driver’s license and won’t be entirely dependent on me. Ever since I gave him the single-barrel .410 and took him squirrel hunting, we’ve spent every weekend together. He couldn’t go without me. Next year, he’ll be able to go pretty much wherever he pleases. I hope he doesn’t forget me.

Last day, will I ever hunt again? I used to think that another season always followed this season. Back when I was young and indestructible it was like I thought I was entitled to another hunting season. Now it gets harder and harder to go, and without my friends, I really couldn’t. I’ve come to realize it’s a privilege, a gift from God, not an entitlement. Will I be physically able to hunt next year? Will I still be walking this earth? I don’t know.

I guess none of us do.

Reach Robert DeWitt at robert.dewitt@tuscaloosanews. com or at 205-722-0203 or 866-400-8477, ext. 203

What it boils down to is this: hunters, I think, are going to see more deer in the woods than they have in several years. I also have faith that those counties and lands off I-80, all the way from the Poconos to the western side of Pennsylvania, will have a substantial whitetail hunt.

Since some facts are required, understand that I base that claim on scouting and driving across the state in the last few weeks, including some intense scouting in the north central region, in Tioga County, and in the Montgomery-Berks county area.

I acknowledge my evidence is anecdotal evidence but when it comes down to it, that’s what deer hunters rely on. We base our scouting of whitetails not only on sighting deer, but on finding rubs, scrapes, scat and trails. With that, I’ve convinced myself that in those places I hunt, I’m finding evidence of more deer visiting my spots, certainly more than over the past two or three years.

I believe there is good reason for this as well.

Frankly, we’ve had a string of mild winters, and there is every indication that the herd, at least on the eastern side of the state, has not been stressed by starvation. I also believe that family size has remained strong over recent seasons. All summer and fall, I have seen does with two or three yearlings and the number of bachelor groups I encountered both here and in the north central region was significant.

Again, call me an optimist, foolish or what have you, but that’s what I’ve observed.

While this is good news, it doesn’t mean hunters are able to haphazardly enter the woods and spot deer. It’s not as it was in “the old days,” and it may never be that way again.

In addition, at the start of this season, hunters may have a hard time shaking bucks loose from cover. They might face antlered ones sitting tight during the shank of the day — not leaving cover to chase does.

The first peak of the rut occurred around the full moon in early November. That’s when I observed numerous wide racks pursuing does in the middle of the day.

Personally, I live in a rural-suburban zone next to the Green Lane Reservoir. I have a decent backyard with a number of fruit trees and other vegetation I planted to provide food for wildlife. A week before the full moon, I was finding piles of scat beneath my trees. I even saw a trio of deer standing on my sidewalk — on my sidewalk! — before dawn one day. My dog alerted me to their presence.

About the time of the full moon, I started keeping a close watch on my neighborhood. Early one morning I looked out a back window at 4 a.m. and there, in the middle of my fruit trees, stood five antlerless deer. I kept the lights off and soon was treated to the sight of an eight-pointer busting down the swale. He had one thing on his mind.

Since then, the rut, at least on the local level, has calmed down. It can easily pick up again, and probably will, but the high, first wave is over.

On the Thursday before the start of bear season, just about 10 days ago through the new moon, I took my dog hunting on a farm in Salford. We were chasing doves from one tree to the other, putting them in range for a young hunter I meet that day.

Eventually, I headed towards a deep ditch on the farm, one that covers some sixty yards and is carved out at least twenty feet deep between two ridges. As we neared the spot, I heard the bounding crashes that denote exploding deer and sure enough, two bucks — one a spike, and the other a wide, eight-pointer — flew up the ridge. The bucks were surely taking a siesta at noon, and I felt strongly that the eight-pointer would have been working the countryside, if the rut were strong.

Earlier I said, I expect there to be a good harvest along the wooded zones that border I-80 across the state. Also around the November full moon, I had occasion to drive from Red Hill to Erie and back again over the course of three days. The number of dead deer I saw along the interstate was astounding. I talked to an archery hunter who made a similar trip after I did, and he bore out my observations, adding he had seen at least thirty deer from Williamsport east to the exit for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. What was doubly interesting was neither of us saw a carcass, or blood spill, on the Northeast Extension from the Pocono exit down through Quakertown. Perhaps the high, mid-road barricades and the fencing along this section of highway have deterred deer from making the crossing. Or perhaps the guy in charge of picking up dead deer in this area already made his stops. I don’t know.

While you can’t hunt a dead deer, the I-80 fatalities provide anecdotal evidence there are numbers of deer in that boundary region.

Whatever may be fact or fiction in these observations and findings, only time will tell. I am, however, going into this season with high hopes. And if you’re a whitetail hunter, that’s the best approach you can take.

The first segment of Tennessee’s Muzzleloader/Archery Deer Season opens on Saturday, November 4, and goes to Friday, November 10, in all three of Tennessee’s deer hunting units, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA).
Hunters are allowed the following bag limit during this segment of muzzleloader season: Unit A – 5 deer, no more than one antlered; Unit L – 2 antlered (only one antlered deer per day) 3 per day on antlerless deer; and Unit B (East Tennessee) – 1 deer antlered only (Except either-sex during November 4-6).

For the exact boundaries of the different deer units consult a 2006 Tennessee Hunting and Trapping Guide, available where hunting and fishing licenses are sold and at all TWRA offices.

Muzzleloading firearms of .40 caliber minimum plus long bows, compound bows and crossbows are legal hunting equipment for this season.

Resident hunters ages 16 through 64 must possess, in addition to other appropriate licenses, an annual big game archery or an annual big game muzzleloader license, depending on which equipment is used. Lifetime Sportsman license, Junior Hunt/Trap/Fish, Adult Sportsman license and Permanent Senior Citizens license holders are not required to purchase additional big game licenses.

In addition to private lands, including public hunting areas, several wildlife management areas (WMAs) will be open to hunters during this muzzleloader season.