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Nebraska Deer?

Anyone from Nebraska? I’m trying to understand the Non-resident Deer hunting opportunities. My Brother lives in Lincoln (not a hunter yet) would be interested in areas South and East of there and to the KS border (other brother lives in KC)

I see a state wide archery tag, and then rifle seasons.

What is the bag limits? 1 or 2 bucks? Additional does?

Draw or otc? Rifle subunits?

Thanks

I have to be honest, i don't know much about the nonresident tags. I know you can kill 2 bucks max. Typically there are doe tags available at reduced cost. Check out the NGPC website.

Yes you can shoot 2 bucks in Nebraska. For NR Archery, it went to a draw last year. Archery tags are statewide. You can also buy a statewide tag that is good for all seasons (Archery, Rifle and muzzleloader) as well. This tag is significant more than just an archery tag. Doe tags are called season choice tags and are OTC and first come first serve for individual units. Not exactly sure where South and East of Lincoln you are talking but I hunt that general area as well. Blue southeast and Blue northwest are the 2 units I have purchased in the past for an extra doe tag.

Thanks for the info. To me the regulations are much easier to understand with a basic knowledge of the system.

So is the Non-Resident multi season tag a draw or OTC? Is it Either sex or buck only?

Is there a statewide bag limit on does or is it per unit?

I see the units mentioned- I would be looking in Pawnee or Johnson county areas. So by the blues. Is the point of the units for different season dates? Since it appears deer tags are statewide?

Are the doe tags good for only one unit or statewide?

2 bucks statewide, 1st tag draw, but there's leftovers, 2nd tag leftover first come first serve on a specific date and time. A few different doe tags... for different areas. Buck tags are either sex. It's been changing every year for the last few years. Don't ask me about mule deer. Ed F

No baiting allowed in NE.

I believe it was changed at last meeting that NR can only take 1 buck. And for Muledeer a NR has to draw a rifle muledeer tag but it is valid during archery season

Thank god for no baiting.

They have changed the rules every year for the past 5 or 6 years... and their rifle season is prime rut. They are managing hunters... not wildlife. Still... I love hunting Nebraska. Ed F

The landowner season is total BS. Getting to hunt the weekend before rifle season with rifles

Whipranger, what meeting was this changed at? I can not find anything on the internet about it. There is nothing in the January commission meeting minutes about it.

I don’t remember. I tried looking for previous emails from NG&P but they’ve all been deleted. The only reason I remember that was I told several of my friends that come to Nebraska about the change and they were bummed out.

The deer herd in most of NE is a shadow of its former self. Especially in the Pine Ridge. I have hunted that state since 2006. Barely see any deer, even on private during archery nowadays. Last season i hunted NE near the Niobrara. It was better, but not great on a rut hunt. No mature bucks in 8 days on private. Public is terrible. EHD has really knocked out the population since 2012.

KHNC unfortunately nailed it. I hunted southeastern Nebraska from early 2000's till 2013. Use to have a solid population with multiple big mature bucks (150+) seen every year. Once EHD hit in 2012 it was a massive hit. I gave it up in 2013 and focused on elk and mule deer after that. My business partner kept our lease till 2023 and had no success on anything over 130. Just seeing a 140+ was rare. Not my business as a non resident but sure seems like game and fish should've reduced the harvest of both bucks and does starting in 2012/2013.

NG&P was required/forced to add the limited landowner season that your reference occurring the weekend prior to the regular firearm season by the Nebraska Legislature in 2020. LB126, introduced by Venango, NE Sen. Dan Hughes, requires the state Game and Parks Commission to issue up to four limited permits to hunt deer during the Saturday through Monday preceding the opening day of firearm deer hunting season to qualifying landowners and their designated immediate family members. The number of permits a landowner can get is based on the size of their property. For Nebraska residents, the number of permits is the total acreage of the property divided by 80. For nonresidents, the number of permits is the total acreage of the property divided by 320.

I used to hunt NE a lot. 10-15years ago it was awesome but it went to hell.

Finally one year when I got their survey I mentioned that they had to do something different, like start limiting NonRes. And this was coming from a NonRes.

I haven’t been back since they started setting quotas and going to a draw. But I doubt it much better

I grew in SE NE and started my bowhunting career in the “golden Age” of NE deer numbers, the 1990’s. Rifle permits were still buck only, and as a bowhunter permission could be obtained from most any farmer. Too bad I was 15 and didn’t know what I was doing! I believe the downturn started in 2012 when EHD hit bad, coupled with an earn a buck rifle season in SE NE. Deer numbers have never fully recovered, which I think is ok with most farmers and insurance Companies. NE has never had the rich deer hunting heritage of the upper Midwest and IA. It’s always been more about revenue over quality. I have always gone back every year since I moved and had access to some really good private land. The deer numbers simply aren’t there anymore. Between the license price hikes and tag limits (which I think have been needed for far too long), I won’t be going back for awhile. I hope one day the deer herd recovers, but I don’t ever see it going back to what is was in my youth. That and leasing has taken over and my family/friend connections are dwindling. Private is tough right now, public is real tough imo.

NE needs to move the rifle season out of November. The entire state’s quality will suffer until they do.

I used to hunt there every November. I won’t go back.

I’ve hunted a large private ranch in central Nebraska for the past 5 years. Crazy good hunting with lots of big bucks every year. I’m alway amazed how few deer I’ve seen while driving out there. The lack of roadkill is a testament to how few deer there are elsewhere. I have several buddies that hunted all over the state for years that no longer bother due to low numbers. A couple ranches they hunted don’t even allow hunting anymore due to low numbers. Still a few bright spots but nothing like 10 years ago. The price hike is tough to swallow but I hope it helps in the long run.

I hunted private in Western for the first time this year. I have only seen a handful of deer while driving to and back 5-6 trips. Depressing

Guys talk about the golden times of the 90’s all the time. The 90’s were very wet in a lot of the midwest. In the Dakotas lakes grew rapidly in size.

2009 was a very wet fall. Lots of corn still standing well into gun season. The following year there were a lot of great bucks shot. I chalked it up to with the standing corn for so long bucks were able to hide from pressure.

Two years later EHD hit. Ironically 2 years after that was our best year as far as big bucks go. Then it was like a light switch went off. We went from seeing a dozen or more big bucks every year to seeing 1 or 2. 2 years ago I had multiple big bucks on camera. During a 2 week rut hunt I seen 1. Come to find out the biggest deer I had on camera was shot and left laying in a ditch a 1/2 mile from where I hunt. This was roughly a week after gun season was closed.

I keep saying bring on the rain. This dry stuff hurts the herd.

I still hunt Nebraska deer every year. My expectations have gone down considerably. It used to be one of the best public land deer states, then they realized the $$they could make! Doe tags soared and coupled with ehd, the herd crashed. Public land can’t take the kind of pressure that the add on doe tags brought. Ehd was the final straw and it hasn’t rebounded yet. Too many game departments take the “you can never kill enough” whitetail approach, and farther west where cover is more fractured that approach was terrible for public land especially. They are still giving the add on doe tag with rifle licenses! Public lands need to be managed differently than private. It’s still better than public hunting in MI where I grew up, but not much. With the prices going up and age class of bucks shrinking it’s getting harder for me to send them my $$. For the first time since 2000 I’m checking into other options.

Not only EHD in Nebraska but CWD also causing a decline in the deer population. Colorado, the state west and adjacent to Western Nebraska has a CWD prevalence of 34% along the South Plate River adjacent to Nebraska. I was recently told by CPW staff that deer populations have declined by 70% in those area in the past 10 years.ie, there you had 100 deer in the past, now only 30 exist. EHD, CWD, over harvest, all contribute. IN the past, one might hold out for a mature deer, but now, maybe, if it is brown, it is down, buck or doe. A huge decline of the deer, especially when Nebraska allowed up to 5 does to be killed on private land and on many SWA, season choice tag where many does were killed. Recently the use of state wide season choice does tags have been eliminated on SWA. Actually many states are experiences the same, from the Good Old Days to the present. Times are changing as are big game seasons as the public land hunters increase.

In addition to the issues given in previous posts, it's important to note that in some Nebraska counties there has also been as much as 15% decline in deer habitat over the last decade or two. Where crops are grown, farm practices continue to maximize use of every possible acre of ground. Trees, shrubs, fencelines are disappearing. It's been going on for years but seems to have really accelerated lately.

One factor that I think is really hampering a faster comeback as far as numbers is the increase in coyotes. The western 2/3 of the state where I have done most of my hunting has seen a big uptick in numbers. Especially big public parcels, I hear and see a lot more than I ever used to. They don’t get after too many adults for the most part, but hammer the fawns in spring! The places I hunt have no shortage of great cover and food. They were hit hard for several years during rifle with doe permits and then ehd.

I did see 3 x coyote sign compared to deer sign

As long as NE opens the rifle hunt during the peak of the rut, it will always be a second or even third rate deer hunting destination. Iowa and Kansas are top tier deer hunting states. They manage for better quality by keeping the rifle hunt out of the rut. Nebraska has the same deer and same habitat, just crappy management. Being a 2 buck state doesn't help either.

For those that have watched Randy Anderson coyote videos will have heard this.

In the early 2000’s Ne Coyote numbers dropped pretty good due to mange. Randy talked about it often.

In the SE corner there was a bunch of CRP acres that converted back to growing crops when the contracts ended. This would have been right before the bad EHD outbreak in 2012.

NE having their rifle season in the rut is just like KY. KY is not Iowa or Kansas but it is really good considering the long modern gun seasons right in the middle of the rut. Bowhunting was much better for numbers in the 90s in my part of KY. Not even close as far as numbers. We had tons of deer. Now the numbers are way back but still good assuming you don't have an EHD outbreak. Quality of bucks is much better in my part of the state vs in the past but KY could be tremendous without the crappy dates for gun season. Eastern Ohio was the holy land during my early years of bowhunting and it has gone way downhill now. I consider it on par or maybe even below eastern KY now.

I've Hunter NE since 1980! At that time there were deer and Antelope ALL over! EHD and CWD have had a major roll in animal population! Somewhere in the early 2000's more Non-residence started to show up due to TV programs stating NE was a sleep state that could produce great animals which was true! Now more Outfitters are leasing land and it seems the State of NE is doing more of their animal research from their computer in Lincoln than actual observations and or on hand in the field ! Also more Politics have come into the picture which is never GOOD for the Hunter! I'm more of an Antelope tan anything! As a NON-Res. they ave limited out permits to 250! I called Lincoln and was advise there reason was low numbers of Antelope! I then asked if that was the reason, why is it that the late rifle DOE/Fawn season runs from NOV. until Jan? Why NOT STOP the DOE/FAWN season, I was advised that this is what the residence wanted! I know this is not true! Regardless, I've never missed a hunting season in NE for the last 45 yrs.. At the ripe age of 76, I love this state and its residence and will play their stupid game!!!!

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