Deer hunt numbers up Vermont
November 22nd, 2005 by Administrator
Deer hunt numbers up in NH, down in Vermont - As of last Sunday, New Hampshire deer hunters had registered 7,366 deer - four percent above the 2004 total of 7,101 at that point of the season. Cheshire, Coos, Grafton, Merrimack and Sullivan counties are experiencing the highest registrations since 2000. The influence of snow in the northern areas and on some of the higher elevations has contributed to hunter enthusiasm and success.
The regular firearms season ends Dec. 4. The archery season ends Dec. 15.
In neighboring Vermont, the deer kill is way off. Two changes in Vermont deer hunting regulations may have contributed to the decline. Starting this year, baiting for deer has been outlawed. I don’t know what percentage hunted over bait, but I suspect it was a small number, so this change should have a small impact on the decline.
The most significant change is the definition of a legal buck. As of this year in Vermont, a legal buck must have a minimum of at least one antler with two points on it. A point is equal to 1 inch of antler. The theory behind this change is to allow the spike horned bucks to gain another year to grow and thereby create future larger classes of older bucks. By contrast, a legal antlered deer is a deer with at least one three-inch antler. It can be a buck or a doe, but must have that three-inch antler.
Welcome to Thanksgiving week and peak rut. Normally peak rut runs between Nov. 14-17, but with warmer temperatures slowing the process a tad, I think peak rut is at hand. Robb and I are seeing more and larger scrapes. The fact that any deer hunting in WMUs L and M ended Friday should not discourage the average buck hunter.
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Colder weather and the prospect of snow only add to the hunting equation. The full moon heightens the rutting season. The time has come to take advantage of it by attempting to rattle in a buck. Bucks come to rattling out of curiosity and to see who has the audacity to intrude on his territory. One mistake rattlers make is to rattle too loudly. This has a tendency to scare off smaller bucks. The other attractor is the use of grunt calls. When these two are combined with the use of scents, your chance of tagging out are increased.
The recent rain has helped quiet the woods for the still hunter. Virtually all the leaves are down except for a few reluctant oak leaves. The secret to still hunting is speed: the slower the better. It is not how much ground you cover, but how you cover it. Periodically scanning 360 is a workable component of still-hunting. With temperatures at long last dropping, you should be working the southwest slopes. The most important reason is this is where you have your highest concentration of oak trees. It is also the significantly warmer side of the mountain.
If there is one thing that has captured the intensity and full attention of Fish and Game it is Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). CRD has spread to 16 states and several Canadian provinces. While the exact method of transfer has not been determined, the most probable explanation is that states have been extremely lax in controlling the movement of game animals to and from private game preserves.
“The threat posed by CWD to New Hampshire’s deer herd is of serious concern to us,” said Lee Perry, Fish and Game’s executive director. “Hunters who hunt out of state need to abide by the rules, which are designed to allow people to bring their deer back to New Hampshire without putting the state’s herd at risk.”
Two hunters are facing $1,000 fines for illegally importing whole deer from New York. The confiscated deer had not been butchered and were incinerated to destroy any potentially contagious material. CWD is a contagious neurological disease that is fatal to deer, moose, elk and other members of the deer family. It is classified as a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) and it attacks the brain of the infected animals. There is no evidence that CWD is linked to disease in humans.
The rules for importing harvested deer from the 16 listed states are covered on pages 6 and 60 of the current New Hampshire Hunting Digest. It would be an expensive mistake not to read these pages. It would be even more expensive if you were responsible for infecting the New Hampshire deer herd.
Thanksgiving is a national holiday that gives pause to be thankful for the blessings that have been bestowed upon our great land. Happy Thanksgiving!
(Bob Washburn can be reached at hunterscorner@aol.com.)