New Deer Survey Is Out
Connecticut
Check your email. The new deer survey is out. Nice that they are considering changing the tag allocations on one of the questions.
You must be a republican Steve,.......you know how the mail-in ballot system works, right?
Done. Let’s see if anything changes.
Bowtecher, what do you think should change?
I haven’t gotten one yet. What are the changes?
I mentioned that DEEP needs to stock more 10 pointers.
I don't think I have ever been sent a survey.
Stop unlimited doe tags and Earn a buck tags . You can still shoot a ton of deer .
So the only way you can get a survey is making sure when you log into your online profile for licensing, you add your email in there.
I should be getting one, I get their other surveys. I’m down with stopping unlimited doe tags. I think the population needs to rebound in most areas of the state. I’d be down with a stricter antler restriction also.
One subject that merits discussion is to allocate the total "take" as a fixed number regardless of the number of permits a hunter obtains. For example, years past I believe (before replacement tags even) it was possible to take 13 deer if you got every available permit. I think it's time to consider a total take of 4 deer period and let the hunter decide their preferred method of take.
In some areas (especially the NW corner where I live and hunt) I'd even go as low as a total take of 2 deer per season, all methods combined.
The questions on restrictions was only for Zones 1&2.
I just wrote in notes on every question that we need a Bear Bobcat seasons.
First, I’d like to see the removal of replacement tags and earn a buck tags. Second, like Mike in CT said, I agree between, archery, gun in private and state, and muzzleloader, one could harvest way too many deer Third, and I may be in the minority, but I wouldn’t mind seeing an antler restriction like in some nearby states. Our CT herd is definitely in the decline and would like to see it return to like it was around 10 years ago. I primarily hunt in Zone 11, so my view is different from the rest of the state, but that’s my two cents.
100% agree with everything mike said. As well as bowtecher. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have a antler restriction in the top corners of the state. There’s more than enough land to support a large herd.
I am pretty much fine with the way things are currently.
I definitely would not be in favor of antler restrictions anywhere.
Sorry but I'm not for antler restriction. I am lucky to see a nice fork I am in heaven to take it. I hunt the Hartlands and don't see a lot of deer while putting in lots of hours. Maybe one with a bow every few years but usually in the rut with a gun. An excellent year is 2 deer harvests.
I'd like to see them eliminate the 16 year waiting period between shooting a buck. That's something I've struggled with for years :>)
I also noted a need for the bear season and reduced tags for sections with lower deer herd numbers.
If CT promoted this, maybe in a few years we’d start seeing more and bigger deer. :)
If CT promoted this, maybe in a few years we’d start seeing more and bigger deer. :)
I like a lot of the suggestions for moving back to a smaller allotment of tags. Maybe the CT DEEP can be more like NY......I’ve seen plenty of these signs in my travels for work in NY at the WMA’s....promoting letting deer walk and let the hunter decide what’s best for a quality hunt.
Does anyone know how to find it? I can't seem to locate it on the DEEP website. Thanks for your help
As an out of stater (MA) from what I see is the areas I scout/hunt in the Stafford/Union area their might be good numbers on private land but the public is not great as I see in the snow. I think they should reduce tags for public land.
This pic is from my land in Ohio. I own 130 acres and had 58 different bucks on my cameras this season.
Ohio gives out 1 buck tag that can be used during any season.
Kentucky is the same way. Tons of Deer, lots of bucks and only one Buck Tag per season.
I've never been in favor of statewide, universal antler point restrictions; our biggest need (aside from land access) is recruitment and limiting the opportunities for new hunters to take a buck to me is counterproductive.
What I've proposed is that the state designate some of the WMA's as de facto QDM areas with antler point restrictions. I think this is a fair option that provides the opportunity to have better quality bucks available while not adversely affecting those who simply want to take a buck and aren't interested in anything approaching trophy hunting.
Designating certain areas with point restrictions is a good idea. All the big state forests can handle a big herd. Even the smaller ones can handle a big herd. I walk through Nathan Hale state forest multiple times a week and even with the snow, I hardly ever cut a track. I’ve never seen a deer there. The population is almost nonexistent.
Pat, how many does can you take out there? And do you?
One of my Ohio shooters thanks to good deer management
One of my Ohio shooters thanks to good deer management
Brian. I get two doe tags and one either sex tag. I shot two does and didn’t fill my either.
I love the one buck rule. Guys can shoot a small buck if they want then their done for the year. With multiple buck tags guys shoot multiple small bucks and they wonder why they never see big ones.
I’ve got five bucks of this caliber on my Ohio piece. Imagine how awesome CT hunting would be if we had better age structure in our herd?
Pat, aren’t there different limits for different counties in Ohio? I think I remember reading that.
Yes, but only for does. The entire state is one buck only
I love the one tag rule. In Ohio we always have 3 or 4 big bucks on our trail cams
“ I love the one buck rule. Guys can shoot a small buck if they want then their done for the year. With multiple buck tags guys shoot multiple small bucks and they wonder why they never see big ones.”
100%
1 buck per hunter per year regardless of what weapon is used, ESPECIALLY now that crossbows are everywhere.
Those who want to hunt can hunt as much as they like; those wishing to fill the freezer can shoot does. Where the herd is too thin to support taking does, it’s clearly too thin to support taking multiple bucks, and where there are enough deer to support filling multiple tags, the need is for DOE numbers to be reduced, NOT bucks.
I think the DEEP figures people won’t keep hunting without a buck tag in their pocket, but to that I say FANTASTIC! Pressure on public land is ridiculous, but if it were lightened, maybe there would be a few wandering off private property into areas where they can be hunted by us peons....
But the OTHER #1 that needs to change is the baiting. That has permitted stock-piling of deer on private land where all of those animals not on somebody’s Shooter List may as well be on the moon, as far as their chances of being tagged are concerned....
Yeah, I don’t care that much about them myself… Not saying that I wouldn’t go to a taxidermist if I got one nice, mature specimen, but I have never wanted more than one of any given species on the wall…
But ONE buck per year just makes sense to me. If you want to hold out for a really big one, then hold out and let the rest walk. If you don’t care about points, and you just want A Deer, then shoot the first legal animal that walks by. If you want to fill your freezer, shoot does and get the herd in check.
So JMO, everybody comes out ahead with ONE buck per Hunter per year. More does get taken; more young bucks get a pass; less pressure overall. What’s not to like?
I’m fine with one buck. I wonder how well that would work in CT? If you pass on a forkhorn someone else will probably shoot it. There’s a lot of hunters that go deerless each season and would be happy to shoot it. So it just might end up being a case of spreading the wealth and not necessarily promoting antler growth. If hunters shoot less bucks then it will probably result in more does being shot. There go your fawn makers. Less deer around.
If hunters are going deerless every season then it shouldn’t matter to them if they can only shoot 4 not 13. Also, they should probably find a new spot to hunt if it’s a every season thing. There’s no reason to shoot 13 deer. It’s not healthy for the herd. If someone wants to use their buck tag on a fork horn then go for it. I still think that certain forests and WMA’s should have a antler restriction. If someone doesn’t like it. Then don’t hunt there.
You guys just don’t begin to understand how silly an argument this all is from my point of view...
I grew up with one tag per hunter per year. Period. Choose ONE weapon and you bet your wad on the outcome. Yes, you could hunt both deer AND Elk, but if you wanted to hunt both with the same weapon, you had to hunt both in the same season… Some of which are only four or five days long.
So by comparison, Minnesota struck me as being incredibly liberal, because you could buy licenses for more than one Season/Weapon; it’s just that you were still only allowed to FILL just that ONE tag per year. “ If you pass on a forkhorn someone else will probably shoot it.”...... Well, if you do shoot it, it will DEFINITELY be dead. So what’s the difference?
“ So it just might end up being a case of spreading the wealth and not necessarily promoting antler growth.”..... And given that deer are a publicly held resource..... what exactly is the problem with that? The state is under no compulsion whatsoever to promote “trophy quality“ antler growth. They are in the business of managing a resource for the health of the herd and the landscape, and for the benefit of everyone who buys a tag on an equal opportunity basis.
The problem here is that the deer are NOT AT ALL distributed that way.... And by and large, the people with access to them are not taking as many as is really necessary while the multi-tag system allows a motivated individual to take a lot more than what might be considered a “fair” share.....
I guess that comes down to knowing whether the harvest rate on public land is primarily a function of deer density (too low), hunting pressure (so high they’ve gone nocturnal or moved onto Private), or sheer incompetence on the part of the “average” public-land hunter.... I guess I’m assuming that voluntary restraint is not a limiting factor here....
And I guess I needn’t belabor the point that license sales and hunter recruitment would both benefit from distributing the number of public land animals taken across a larger number of individual hunters....
So basically (JMO) we need a lot of tags that can be filled only on private and limit to 1buck/year (if not 1 deer, period) on public. I guess there are those who simply won’t hunt without a buck tag, but this isn't like culling from the live-well on a bass boat....
Smooth, the neighbors around our Ohio lease basically shoot any buck that comes by. Which is weird to me. One lives there and the other place is leased from guys that live in Michigan. I'd imagine if I lived there I wouldn't be shooting small bucks. I'd have to imagine you could shot one big buck a year, but it's their tag so they can do what they want with it. With that happening there's still multiple big bucks roaming around. Also reading reports that the Ohio dnr puts out. Only like 14% of hunters shot more than 1 deer. Which is pretty crazy to me. So I don't think going with one tag would create a scenario where many people are killing like 4+ does every year. It'd probably be more like one or two does. Or a buck and a doe.
I think there are hunters, like myself, that don't shoot any doe because they're the "producers" for our future herd. I hunt state land where the deer herd numbers are low, so like others have said, management practices should vary based upon the health of the herd in each area and not a statewide harvest plan.
I’m all for lowering the bag limit. It would ultimately help with the number of deer and antler size. How many hunters shoot more than four deer? It would be nice to see statistics on the number of deer being shot by individual hunters. I shoot 2-3 deer yearly by choice.
I was a 2/year guy when I had good access to private. Only once did I take 2 bucks; one was so small I missed the spikes, and the other was on the last day out that I was going to get that year, so bad luck for him....
I think that was the one that had worn the hair off a patch of his neck on the edge of a feed trough; I had passed him a coupla times already that year...
I only shoot one or two Does a year, just because I will lose permission because they want Deer shot. One landowner wants a Deer for his freezer.
Only shoot Bucks that are mature. Most guys around me shoot anything that moves.
Most of the younger guys don't remember the day's when filling tags wasn't a problem. I wish we could experience those days again.
Except that those days were entirely unsustainable.....
Over my 65 +yrs of deer hunting with a bow I've seen it both ways and in the middle with state regs and various hunters' opinions. Now I shy away from intellectualizing the process. I shoot a legal deer and sleep like a baby.
