Is the 6-Day tradition a thing of the past?

[BHC]

I would rather hunt with the bow, but this week has been a 37 year tradition, but it's getting worst....opening day 2016 and yesterday I saw a total of 5 deer from my stand, all does......

[Haskell]

Zone 3 driving gangs are all gone ,lucky to see a orange hat these days ,first day muzzy few guys drive the hills but not many.

[DV1]

It's still alive and well on public land here. Still lots of big club drives, and a few clubs took more than a dozen deer on drives just yesterday. Expect pretty high numbers by the end of the week.

 

Private land seems to be a bit more quiet, probably because the guys who hunt there have all those days now from longer seasons, so it's not concentrated into one week. If you did away with the ability to shoot a buck during permit shotgun, it would pick up some for sure. 

[YurytheRed]

Given, in essence the extension of season it seems more of a case of the passing of one tradition and the door opening on another, albeit different one. With that said and quite sadly as NJ becomes more congested and more progressive such time honored traditions will eventually fade to black and with it a noble and proud history.    

[Thunderchicken]

Gone!! Too long a gun season, too many people and bag limit is WAY too liberal!!

[BenedictGomez]

Is the craziness of 6-Day a thing of the past?........  It seems that very few people hunt 6-day anymore.  

 

Statistically, I wrote about this the other day.  If you look at the F&G kill data, there is a clear trend in reduction in 6-day deer kill over the years. The downtrend is pronounced.  So it's not just your imagination, there are definitely fewer people hunting 6-day.

 

Anecdotally, if you look at the guys who still get "excited" about 6-day, I find they tend to be older.  Because they're from that generation who when they were kids that WAS hunting season, and it was a family thing with Dad and Grandpaw, etc...    Now juxtapose that will those who are a bit younger, and the reaction is, "who gives a **** about 6-day", it just seems like a pain in the ass, and the most dangerous days to be in the woods the entire hunting season.

[bill43]

The driving clubs in the pines are still pretty big. That would be the biggest resistance to any changes to 6day.

 

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[Swamprat]

Next Wednesday-friday will be busy. Guys(clubs) aren't going to push all the does this week off "there spots".

Next Wednesday- Friday will be brown down time.

[hunterdan199]

Listen I hunt with a cross gun Aka crossbow but when it's open since sept and closes second week of February what's 6 days of shotgun ?

 

 

Sad but true It's dead

[Bucndoe]

I'm sitting in Stokes now and the only people I see near the campground are me and the two I'm with

[nmc02]

Gun season no one longer sits. Its push push push. Trespassing, thieves brown and down.

Its sickens me to watch what hunters will do to the herd for the next 2 and a half months.

Id say its over

I sat sun up to sun down....always do for openers

[Roon]

IT'S GONE! Like a lot of you I've been hunting over 3/4 of my life so far.

When I was a kid I bow hunted hard or what I thought was hard.

The break in between extended bow and gun was nice and made you long to be out in the woods.

As a kid I thought the gun gave me a better chance of killing a deer, most do.

Needless to say I killed my first deer with a bow and did so every year, it took me nine years to kill my first deer with a gun.

But "gun season" was always looked forward to, I hunted with my dad, his friends and neighbors, we did not drive, push or make all types of noise out in the woods, we hunted, our spots were planed and when someone shot usually 2 or 3 more fell with it because of knowledge of land and heard.

At this point in my life I stopped gun hunting just cause of not feeling the need for it.

It turns my stomach to drive down Rt. 202 and see a bunch of guys running deer like rabbits from now till February.

To each is own do as you wish, the state want everyone of them dead any ways.

But the days of "when we were kids" is long gone.

K I'm done with my rant go push what deer are left lol

[Buckeyes11]

I’d rather have one sit in late October or early November than 6 day. I’m 42 and the appeal wore off about ten years ago. My grandfather passed. My Dad doesn’t hunt anymore. My son is 5. So hopefully we can get it going

again

[3Blade]

Yeah it's gone for me too, it's just not fun anymore. I hardly gun hunt now, in fact last year I did not even pick up my gun and this year will probably be the same unless I could make it to the Deer a Thon. What I don't like is the gun season is way too long and allows guys too push deer around for two months with no bag limit. 

[JHbowhunter]

I might also add - I have 13 bucks on my wall and 2 more in flight from this season.   I am 53. Started deer hunting age 10 with gun with my dad.   Hunted hard during 6-day for many years, sat through many a deer drive.  I didn't shoot a buck until age 16 - a spike.  Even at that, another club member tried to claim it as he shot first, the buck never looked like it was hit after he shot it came to me walking just fine and I dropped it.  Was a bit of a thrill until some jackwagon guy in his 50s who would shoot 3 bucks on one drive and expect others to tag his bucks, tried to claim my first buck. I thought my father was going to shoot him.   But my point is really this - I never shot a buck older than 1.5 years in all those years of shotgun hunting and only one 8 point that was 2.5 - 3.5  because it was injured after I became a dedicated bow hunter (a buck I had passed with bow but was limping bad).   Never shot anything remotely close to deserving of a shoulder mount during 6-day...  Now I have a wall full of 3.5 to 6.5 year old bucks, all with bow...      The evidence doesn't lie...