Whitetail Hunting
November 28th, 2005 by Administrator
Whitetail Hunting kill near 100,000 - Kentucky’s modern gun deer season closes today in zone 1 and 2 counties. Hunting in zone 3 and 4 counties ended Monday.
By most accounts hunters have enjoyed a productive season. Through Thursday, 92,058 deer had been checked, 47,054 of them bucks.
Of the season total, modern firearm hunters had killed 75,231 deer, archers 9,109, muzzleloaders 7,278 and crossbow hunters 440. The 2005-06 total kill might not reach last year’s 124,752, but it should easily exceed 100,000.
Although modern gun hunting ends today, archery hunting will continue through Jan. 16. Kentucky’s 10-day designated crossbow season will start tomorrow and run through Dec. 7. Crossbows may also be used during the second half of the muzzleloader hunt Dec. 10-18.
Youngsters 15 and under will have another chance to use modern guns for deer during the free junior hunt weekend Dec. 31-Jan. 1.
For more information check the 2005-06 hunting and trapping guide or go to fw.ky.gov.
National Guard propertyopened to deer hunters
The Kentucky National Guard’s Hidden Valley Training Area in Powell County will be opened to archery and crossbow deer hunters for the remainder of those seasons.
The 542-acre property is west of Stanton on Hidden Valley Road. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources has agreed to manage public hunting and wildlife there in exchange for access to archery and crossbow deer hunting.
“This gives us additional land for people in central and eastern Kentucky to utilize this season for bow or crossbow deer hunting,” said Fish and Wildlife deputy commissioner Hank Patton.
For more information call the Fish and Wildlife Department at (800) 858-1549.
Season reminders
Kentucky’s early duck, coot and merganser season closes today but will reopen Dec. 5 through Jan. 29 for all species except canvasback, which will be legal Dec. 31-Jan. 29.
Canada goose season in the western zone will open Dec. 5 and run through Jan. 31. In the West-Central, Pennyrile/Coalfield and Northeast zones, the season will start Dec. 13. The snow goose season already has begun and will end Jan. 31 statewide except in a portion of Fulton County, where it will continue through Feb. 15.
Kentucky’s woodcock season will end tomorrow, and the late dove season will end Tuesday. The second half of snipe season continues through Jan. 22.
In Indiana’s Ohio River waterfowl zone, hunting season for ducks, coots and mergansers is open through Jan. 20. Canvasback hunting in the Ohio River zone will end Dec. 23.
Canada goose hunting in Indiana’s Ohio River zone is open through Jan. 30. Brant and light goose season will continue through Jan. 29 and white-fronted goose hunting is legal through Jan. 12.
Indiana’s early archery and firearm deer seasons close today. The muzzleloader deer season will be Dec. 3-18, and the late archery season will be Dec. 3-Jan. 1.
For more information go to in.gov/dnr/.
By Gary Garth
Special to The Courier-Journal