Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting ATTN VA DEER HUNTERS!

well,i know that over 50% of the deer i hear about friends and friends of friends killing never get checked in at all.

the vdgif has fixed it so they save all the money they can with there phone in system.i hunt all over the state and i see the same thing everywhere i go.we have people in high places in the vdgif that could care less about game,they just want the insurance companies off there back when it comes to deer .

its not that hunters are pissed about the 20.00 for the bear tag . its the fact that all we've heard for the last few years is that the growing bear population has to be brought under control.you people don't live in the highest populated area for bear in the state,i do. when one farm kills 27 bear on damage tags you know you have to many bear. one man killed 11 on that same farm 2 years ago. i've seen 25 trapped and relocated in a month within 1 mile from my house. we don't need any reason for hunters not to take a bear if they see one. having to pay extra for a bear tag will stop lots of hunters from buying it.

Resident Sportsman's License (age 16 and older)
Includes hunting license, bear license, deer/turkey license, archery license, muzzleloading license, freshwater fishing license, and trout license.

I own 80 more acres of land and two homes in VA that TN, but still buy NON-RESIDENT licence since I live in TN most of the time. I buy the NR license because I hunt different places other than just my own land. I won't buy the Bear Tag because if I see a bear it will most likely be on my own property and I don't need a license there.

License Exemptions

All persons, except those listed below, must purchase the proper licenses before hunting or trapping. Where exempt, the exemption means the individual is exempt from the basic hunting license; bear license, deer/turkey license, archery license; muzzleloading license; trapping license; and Virginia Migratory Waterfowl Conservation Stamp. All seasons, bag limits, and checking requirements apply.

Resident or nonresident landowners, their spouses, their children and grandchildren and the spouses of such children and grandchildren, or the landowner's parents, resident or nonresident, do not need a license to hunt, trap or fish (on inland waters) within the boundaries of their own lands.
Tenants, on the land they rent and occupy, are not required to have a license, but must have the written permission of the landowner. Persons who lease property and do not permanently reside there are not exempt from license requirements.
Residents, 65 years of age and over, do not need a license to hunt or trap on private property in their county or city of residence.
Resident hunters under the age of 12 are not required to have a hunting license or hunter education. Nonresident hunters under the age of 12 need a hunting license but do not need hunter education to purchase one. All hunters under the age of 12 may not hunt unless accompanied and directly supervised by a licensed adult.
Residents under the age of 16 are not required to have a license to trap when accompanied by any person 18 years of age or older who possesses a valid Virginia trapping license.
Any person who is not hunting, but is aiding a disabled person to hunt when such disabled person possesses a valid Virginia Disabled Resident Lifetime hunting license or a Virginia Resident Disabled Veteran Lifetime license is not required to have a license.
Any Indian who "habitually" resides on an Indian reservation or a member of the Virginia recognized tribes who resides in the Commonwealth is not required to have a hunting or trapping license; however, such Indian must have on his person an identification card or paper signed by the chief of his tribe, a valid tribal identification card, written confirmation through a central tribal registry, or certification from a tribal office.
Stockholders owning 50 percent or more of the stock of any domestic corporation owning land in Virginia, his or her spouse and children and minor grandchildren, resident or nonresident, do not need a license to hunt, trap and fish within the boundaries of lands and inland waters owned by the domestic corporation.

That says more about the people you're associating with than anything else. I've hunted the Commonwealth for nearly 30 years, and hunt with a lot of guys that have done so for far longer - most of them in or very near to areas that you say you hunt - and I can NEVER remember a single one of them not checking in a deer or even talking about knowing someone who didn't check one in. This includes every member of a very large hunt club in Nelson County (a county you say you hunt), as well as friends and family that hunt up and down the Shenandoah Valley, the Eastern Shore, Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula, and in several areas around Richmond, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, and NoVA. Maybe more than 1/2 of the deer people you associate with don't get checked in, but that's a far cry from making the same assumption about the entire kill across the state.



Good f'kin' grief. The VA deer herd is larger now than it has been at any time more than 20 years prior and will rebound from the mast crop failure and two disease outbreaks to increase beyond the historic maximum in just a few short years. If VDGIF was in league with insurance companies to somehow knock the population way down, they are going about it completely ass-backwards.



I have lived in, and hunted, that area. I know bears and bear hunters quite well. The Parkway and Skyline Drive right adjacent to your area is a huge driver in bear population numbers and in problem bears, and there's no hunting there.

If someone is going to bitch about $21 over a bear tag, and I'm sure there will be a few, they'd likely not take a bear anyway - it'd be too much work.

VDGIF has managed the deer, turkey, and bear populations of the Commonwealth extremely well for quite some time. I have more than a little confidence in them knowing what they are doing from a biological standpoint, and far more trust in them than in folks that refuse to check in 1/2 of the deer they take when there are unlimited and very cheap tags available.

everything i've said works,you just have no clue.when you get to va. you go to any checking station and just ask how much its down.especially in the mountains. you will learn the truth.you don't enen have a stake in this never ending battle we are fighting.you obviously understand nothing.

What you said about the parks is spot-on.

For a number of years I hunted on a farm about a mile from the Gettysburg battlefield. Within a few days of the opening of the season, many deer just crossed over into the park to ride out the storm. Several times I ran into town for a sandwich and saw literally scores of deer grazing peacefully on the site of Pickett's Charge. No bucks, though. The parkmis severely over- browsed, which you can observe by driving along Confederate Avenue and looking down through the adjacent woods. It's browsed clean to a height of about five feet so you can see the fields on the other side.

The Park Service employs snipers to thin them out, rather than allow bow hunting as practiced by some county and state parks.

well, i talked my man in the vdgif this morning and he is telling me that they have only seen a few cases of disease in the ramseys draft area. he says the same thing i do that bad winters,lack of mass and coyotes and bears are more to blame for the deer herd decline in western augusta,highland and bath counties.he talked about the number of hunting camps in those area's that are for sale. we have a nice camp just across the mountain from ramsey's that we never use for hunting.

20 years ago i could go to that camp and every parking spot along the roads leading to the GWNF would have a camper in it.he told me that last year opening rifle season they saw 3 campers on the same road.a guy that was with him said he hunted near there on private property for 4 days last year. he never saw a buck and only saw 2 small does. oh he said he heard a total of 3 gunshots in that time. he also told me that he was sorry he couldn't stop the bear tag from coming and that it wasn't going help at all in my area.

you don't much have to worry about driving the skyline drive if you live near it because locals don't go up there much anymore. its turning into a tourist trap as they keep raising fees . i used to ride it and see hundreds of deer in a few hours. now you see very few deer most trips .the deer we have figured out that most of the food is on farms,not on the park.