Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting VDGIF

Not sure we’re they’re going with this new early and late season in Va.
Rifle season came in this past Saturday for does only and will be in till 09/30 .
Then late season will start in the middle of January and run until March .
These extended seasons will be only for certain counties Page county being the only one west of blue ridge I believe.
This makes for lousy early season hunting temperature wise and for ticks and fleas along with other pestilence.
Also throws a monkey wrench into early archery season.
Which runs through the month of October.
A good many not happy with it .
Then the late season goes into a time frame when they will be pregnant .
Seems absurd that anyone would want to harvest a deer with a youngin in its belly .
Kind of makes you feel like they’re deliberately trying to paint a bad picture of us .
Then several years ago they started a summer season on squirrel, in June!
Who the hell wants to eat squirrels in June , a lot of nasty critters on them too .
WTH are they trying to do ?
Kenneth

I’ll have to ask my son about that. Forget the county he hunts in, but he and his boy were killing doves over the weekend on their club lease.

I’m with you on the warm weather pestilence. The WV bow season opens the 24th. I’ll be out there trying to fill my Earn-a-Buck quota, but am hoping for a break in the heat.

A gallon of permethrin arrived yesterday, so I’ll be ready for the little crawly bastards. Also turned on my Zoleo satellite tracker, my Leash as the wife calls it so they’ll know where to find the body.

My guess is they want to kill deer in places with too many. Hope the button bucks don’t take the hit too badly.

Thermacell. 😊

@kenneth66

I just had to look up the DWR (i.e. DGIF) regs again, and you are right.... Page 41, bottom right corner: Early & Late Antlerless Only Firearms Deer Season: Sept 1st - 30th and Jan 8th - Mar 26th. BUT ONLY SPECIFIC COUNTIES (mainly in NOVA, i.e. Fauquier, Loudon, etc...)

That is gonna seriously mess up early bow season for lots of folks!!

This is the second year for the early/late antlerless season. I think it has more to do with hoping to control the herd, with CWD continuing to spread. If you look at the map I will bet most of the counties that have the additional season are counties hit the hardest with CWD. The deer are so thick on a nearby farm hunters on the lease are required to take 2/3 doe before they take a second buck from the property. But there motto is we grow world class produce not game animals.

NOVA is awash in deer. I think in NOVA and some other cities there is no limit on does.

I remember when my daughter & son-in-law moved up near Manassas (she accepted a high paying teacher job) about 5-6 years ago. Every time my wife and I drove up there to visit, have lunch, etc... Seriously... you literally had to STOP on 234 and let a massive herd of deer cross the main road!

There’s a early season for bear here always way to hot

It’s too hot now and too many little fawns. The first cold spell in late September will get me working on the earn a buck does, though.

Just as I finished typing the post above, my daughter informed me there are several deer in the front yard eating the landscaping…tempting.

There were ALWAYS a chit-ton of deer at Camp A.P. Hill in Virginia, too. I was told that it was closed to "normal folks" and that the congresscritters used it as their private reserve. We spent a couple of Octobers there on "off-post exercises" when I was in the Army, and during our stays there, you could drive down any road, stick your arm out, and see deer wherever you pointed. Turkeys, too. That was pretty awesome for me, as when I'd get back to Ft. Bragg, I'd go on leave to hunt back home in Missouri. It really got me going.
We had a lot of fun there.

Fort AP Hill.... Wow, I remember that place! As a retired military veteran (US Coast Guard), I was told I could hunt there, if I wished. You had to attend a safety seminar/video, and pay a $50 fee (if I remember right - on top of your normal DGIF license), and you're all set.

They'd assign you a TA (Training Area), where you could setup, and quite literally take your pick of any deer. The freakin' place was so overloaded, it looked like a game preserve, you know what I mean?

BUT... It all came down to the, um, *ahem* military game wardens. If for some reason, they got their panties in a twist, they'd assign you a completely bare TA, and there are NO DEER IN SIGHT! Example: You get assigned TA-24. But yet right next door, you can take your binos, and glass the area into the distance. You see TA-25, and it is LOADED with deer, and no one is hunting it! You get pi$$ed, pack up, and drive back to the game warden shack, and (politely) ask "W"hiskey "T"ango "F"oxtrot!!!

Never again.... "F" that place....

Really?

I can’t imagine anything more fun than guttin’ and draggin’ a stinky, greasy ol’ bear in 80 degree weather🤔

My thoughts exactly 🤢

Spent more than half of my 25 year navy career in VA. One of the most screwed up states in the nation. Everything they do is weird. One day after I retired from active duty I hauled A$$ out of that cesspool.

You was in the wrong area of Virginia anywhere near Norfolk or Virginia Beach needs to be annexed as well as northern Virginia

The season(s) appear to coincide with the DMAP program.

Way too many deer in a good portion of the state[especially in NOVA]

The weirdest thing about Virginia is the mish mash of rules by county. You can hunt with rifles from the ground in one eastern county, then move west to the next and its shotgun only, then move west again and its rifles from a tree stand. You have to look at each county individually for their rules and seasons. It's just dumb.

My county has ordinance “cannot discharge a firearm” within 100 yards of a state road”but I can drive to either county bordering and people are lined up beside the state roads waiting for a spike buck to cross

I totally agree with all these posts....

Now, you all know why I (a resident of Henrico Co - western suburbs of Richmond) absolutely REFUSE to hunt anywhere near the metro WMA's or Piedmont areas, etc... It is a complete joke, as rules change year by year, depending who has the power over the DGIF.

I don't care about driving 2½ - 3 hours west from Richmond, out to the Blue Ridge Mountains, to get away from everyone and everything. It's peaceful, relaxful, and you feel like nothing in the world can bother you, when you are up in the mountains all by yourself.