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

[Haskell_Hunter]

I agree with a lot of that. Definitely the longer seasons have reduced the interest/excitement, but that's only one of many factors, mostly because, as we often discuss, people hunt, or don't hunt, for different reasons. I think the reason small game hunting has been in decline is not so much because deer seasons are so long, but that a lot of the habitat for small game has vanished. Rabbit and native pheasant populations are way down, quail basically only exist where stocked and grouse are all but gone. This is also a reason people quit small game. I think waterfowl hunting is still pretty popular. I know almost as many duck and goose hunters as I know deer hunters, it's still very popular down here, maybe because I'm not far from the shore and Delaware bay. 

 

Loss of habitat, decline of small game to hunt, and places to hunt them, dropping deer numbers, increase in youth sports and electronic entertainment, inability to access quality hunting land for deer, and being forced onto public land, where it's a crapstorm around here in bow season now as well as shotgun...all reasons people are losing interest in hunting in NJ. The one thing we don't have in my area that it seems many deal with is the stigma of hunting. Everyone around here hunts...everyone. Gas stations, Walmarts and convenience stores are dominated by denim, camo and overalls. Hell, even a few doctors have their walls covered with mounts. There is still a good bit on interest here, not as much as years past, but still more than enough for the amount of land you can access. Private land is very tough to gain permission on because everyone hunts, and public lands are more crowded now than I have ever seen them. We have fewer hunters but they are crammed on even fewer acres, making it more crowded, and more frustrating to hunt  NJ.

 

I don't think I've been small game hunting in about a decade.  With bow and permit bow season, I'm hunting deer instead.

[hammer4reel]

1. its an incredibly wrong idea to give to the state a reason to charge us even more for hunting. Don't we pay enough?

2.I don't buy your statement that  people don't hunt rabbits anymore because the deer season is too long and therefor hunters participation is down . Where is the logic? If they are hunting deer instead of rabbits so they are still hunting. How does this reduce hunter's participation? There are no rabbits, that's why they are not hunting rabbits   

 

I personally would rather pay more to get more.

For me its about the quality of the hunt , not the numbers of the kills.

its all a resource, take from it pay for it.

wanna hunt every season , PAY for it.

 

Not like you buy a ticket to a baseball game and get to go watch basketball and hockey for the price of that ticket

 

There are plenty of rabbits around, and ten times the geese.

Guys wont disturb their prize spike buck areas in fear of pushing the deer off.

 

AND since you truelly haven't been doing this long you haven't seen how much more hunter participation there used to be in ALL the seasons.

[BHC]

There was a time I would see 30 plus deer per day bow hunting, gun season I wouldn't count cause I would either be out of woods by 8am with a buck or just saw deer all day long.....Like Hammer said, back then the average buck would be a spike or 4 pt, and every now and then a nice buck, and yes back then I would take a few does out. After the 2001 season the herd seemed to diminished to the point I would see on a good day 7 to 10 deer, of course the bucks are bigger these days. Last deer I shot in this area was 2012 it was a doe and 5 years later I still regret it. I can't tell others what to take, I can only police myself. I had plenty of chances this bow season on both does and bucks, but I knew what bucks roamed the area and I waited I rather eat the tag, I'm not desperate for venison or a kill. I honestly like the challenge the area gives me, and the challenge I put on myself. The best buck I killed in this area was in 2005, 101"  

 

 

The best buck I have seen from my stand was this buck

 

I have trail camera pictures of very nice bucks for this area, but it's nearly impossible to pattern these mountain deer, but I do have ideas where they come and goto. The 40 acres I have access (borders public land) to it's their bedding area, and I don't dare enter it during the hunting season or just before the season, when I do I go in after the season looking for drops, but I will say I never find any.

 

AR would work in this zone and any zone, but I think it should be statewide, not for certain zones.......

 

Yes the all mighty $$$$$$$ plays a major role here in NJ, and the insurance firms sure has their hand in the cookie jar

[hammer4reel]

license sales, then to now 

 

http://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/pdf/license_sales70-16.pdf

[Haskell_Hunter]

license sales, then to now 

 

http://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/pdf/license_sales70-16.pdf

 

Holy crap that's a significant decline!

[BHC]

Huge drop in Resident Hunting Licenses, WOW !!!!!

 

Resident Archery License dropped but then slowly increased, I'm sure with the crossbow coming into play

[BHC]

I'm sure with the drop in license sales is one reason for the 6 months of deer hunting, they goto make up some of the lost funds

[hammer4reel]

Yet the non resident bow licences went up 5 times

 

Due to our liberal bag limits

[Lunatic]

I personally would rather pay more to get more.

For me its about the quality of the hunt , not the numbers of the kills.

its all a resource, take from it pay for it.

wanna hunt every season , PAY for it.

 

Not like you buy a ticket to a baseball game and get to go watch basketball and hockey for the price of that ticket

 

There are plenty of rabbits around, and ten times the geese.

Guys wont disturb their prize spike buck areas in fear of pushing the deer off.

 

AND since you truelly haven't been doing this long you haven't seen how much more hunter participation there used to be in ALL the seasons.

 

 

Paying more does not necessary give you more. Its is a wrong idea. If you think we need to take down less does why not push for the number of doe tags to be reduced instead of pushing for paying more? Where is the logic in this? If your truly believe your system will give the state more money then how do you conceive the idea that charging for does will improve your quality of the hunt??? The only way this new system could work is if the hunters keep killing does so the state can collect the money. Your argument works against itself. You are looking to kill the same number of does but to charge for it and yet you think your hunt will improve somehow?  HOW?????

 

This response is not on subject. How people hunting deer instead of rabbit reduce the number of hunters?? You stated and that's what I responded to: The longer dear season reduces the number of hunters because hunters don't hunt small game anymore. If that's the case and longer deer season reduces small game hunting, it is only logical they are hunting deer so the numbers are the same. Yes?

[JHbowhunter]

yep the Vermont freezer-filler tours happen every year, and those guys are EXCELLENT hunters... Take an avid Vermont big woods bowhunter that might be hunting all season to see a buck or maybe even a few deer, and put them on a NJ WMA or that big water gap public area, and they are lethal.  That's more deer sign in one week than they see in 10 years... I know some of them and they all fill their late October buck tags and each shoot several doe. A lot of the bucks they get are pretty decent too, sometimes even P&Y caliber. I don't think they use bait either.

[BHC]

yep the Vermont freezer-filler tours happen every year, and those guys are EXCELLENT hunters... Take an avid Vermont big woods bowhunter that might be hunting all season to see a buck or maybe even a few deer, and put them on a NJ WMA or that big water gap public area, and they are lethal.  That's more deer sign in one week than they see in 10 years... I know some of them and they all fill their late October buck tags and each shoot several doe. A lot of the bucks they get are pretty decent too, sometimes even P&Y caliber. I don't think they use bait either.

I know of one Vermont Hunter and his crew, they rented a friends house for a week of bow hunting and we became friendly......they hunt Walpack, they did their scouting via computers and once they came down to walk the area they hunted to get a better idea.....well every year they kill bucks in the 110", 115", and bigger, of course they take out does as well, they don't bait they just hunt hard

[hammer4reel]

Lunatic I have been hunting the same farms since 1974'

Everyojne of them now are deer santuaries.

They used to all get squirrel hunted. Rabbit and pheasant hunted.

Many goose hunted .

Many of the original guys hunted those seasons and just a few days of deer.

Most no longer hunt here as DEER guys want nothing hunted on these farns to keep the deer on them.

Total waste of other great hunting ooportunity.

 

Esoecially for getting new hunters involved.

[Lunatic]

Lunatic I have been hunting the same farms since 1974'

Everyojne of them now are deer santuaries.

They used to all get squirrel hunted. Rabbit and pheasant hunted.

Many goose hunted .

Many of the original guys hunted those seasons and just a few days of deer.

Most no longer hunt here as DEER guys want nothing hunted on these farns to keep the deer on them.

Total waste of other great hunting ooportunity.

 

Esoecially for getting new hunters involved.

 

 

I can't argue with that and I understand. However how charging for individual does will bring them back. That's what I am asking. Again for your idea to work someone has to kill the does so the state can collect the money. How is this bringing back goose hunters?

 

BTW I hunt a farm as well. We are sami-wild. We have deer hunters, goose hunters and we have guys hunting with dogs farm raised birds. We have no issues.

Edited December 6, 2017 by Lunatic

[DV1]

yep the Vermont freezer-filler tours happen every year, and those guys are EXCELLENT hunters... Take an avid Vermont big woods bowhunter that might be hunting all season to see a buck or maybe even a few deer, and put them on a NJ WMA or that big water gap public area, and they are lethal.  That's more deer sign in one week than they see in 10 years... I know some of them and they all fill their late October buck tags and each shoot several doe. A lot of the bucks they get are pretty decent too, sometimes even P&Y caliber. I don't think they use bait either.

A friend of mine got tired of all the problems with too much crowding and few very deer on our area WMA's so about 8 years ago, he started making he trip up north to the Water Gap to hunt. He has hunted Worthington and Stokes, says you can't believe the amount of sign and deer, and big bucks. He has killed some big, old bucks up there over the last 6 years, 4 of them between 4.5 and 6.5 yrs old. Took him a few years to figure it out but now he doesn't even bother with the WMA's around here, he makes a few trips up there each year and fills his tag. It's all relative, what you guys think is bad hunting, people from area's with fewer deer (Vermont, South Jersey) will tell you is good hunting. 

[DV1]

I don't think I've been small game hunting in about a decade.  With bow and permit bow season, I'm hunting deer instead.

This is another thing a reduction of buck tags would help. If guy's had only one buck tag, and filled it, they would return to chasing rabbits, geese, maybe even some stocked birds (and buy those stamps). 

Edited December 6, 2017 by DV1