Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Aarrghh! - I don't have enough college degrees to understand the regs!

I'll be out in Kentucky for a hunt this Fall and am looking over the reg books of nearby states (MO, TN, NC, SC) for other opportunities. The maze of zones and WMA rules and private land rules and buck-only days and antlerless days and either-sex days and multiply-split seasons and and and...
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" />I'm going crazy! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I just want to find a little hole on some National Forest where I can pop a buck!

The rules in IN are pretty easy and there's a 182K ac. Natl. Forest that borders KY.

I'll check Indiana out, even if they are handgun-unfriendly.

Deer hunting with a handgun in indiana is legal.

Handgun or shotgun hunting in Ohio is legal (no rifles)... and there's some VERY BIG BUCKS in the State forests and hills of southeastern Ohio.

Hunting with a handgun in Indiana is legal but requires some sort of permit from home. And I'd be afeared to even have one in my gear. Illinois- fuggedaboutit!

If I may add my two cents, I have hunted in California for years, and let me tell you, our Fish & Game print X number of of hunting books, which always run out at the sporting good stores. So, you have to go to their website. It's very informative, except in the areaa of what you need to know as a hunter. For instance, every year I always go to Shasta County to hunt on family property. The rule had always been F&G start to sell tags June 30th. Well I was looking at their web site trying to figure out what zone they were calling Shasta this year! It changes periodically. Couldn't find it, they said they were going to be releasing the zone information soon. The info I could find was in regards to things like a point system (they don't explain it, your assumed to know what the point system is) and they talk about late hunts, early hunts, junior hunts, archery and blackpowder hunts, Etc but they never said when tags were going to be sold or the zones ( which are many) THAT INFORMATION IS NOT LISTED IN THEIR D&*#@ WEBSITE!!!! So when I went to purchase my tags on July 30th for rifle season I'm told they're all sold out for Shasta. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I was livid! I asked, "You sold out since June 30th?" I'm told Sir, we start selling them April 1st, everyone knows that." Well, apparently their web programer was never told! The information you do need they don't have on their sites, the little you can find out is only after surfing through useless crap none of us care to know. Like studies on the life and times of Kangeroo Rats, insects, oil pumping off the coast and what Fish & Game are doing about that! Inviremental hogwash I and every other hunter don't give a [email]D@%&[/email] about! I just want to know how I can deer hunt legally without going to jail. I do blame myself for not calling earlier and spending the hour punching buttons on their phone banks for a real person. Nevertheless, I wrote them an acid letter of what I thought of their Berkeley enviremental friendly brainwashing un-informative website! If they want to force non-hunting crap down our throats, fine! Put it in one section and I'll lie to you that I read it. But have the hunting section hunter friendly, so you can get to the pertinant information you need to know. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> By the way I picked a secondary hunting area, so I will be deer hunting, but it won't be the hunting grounds I'm familair with and love. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Thank you for registering your opinion of the California Fish & Game Dept. Do you feel better now? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Seriously, good luck with your hunt. Ain't it nice to have people who don't have a clue about hunting making the rules?

BCR

I'm with you that the CA web site is badly done, incomplete, and late. I hate going there.

I've found the stores sold out, too. I learned long ago to shop early (of course, that presents its own problems- one clerk sold me the pig tags for the not-yet-finished hunting year instead of for the coming year for which she was filling out my license and deer tag forms).

Bummer on losing out on your usual spot. Familiarity breeds success.

Is hunting in Ohio's State Forests loose and easy, or regulated and quotaed?
(I'm accustomed to Western hunting where huge chunks of land are available without permission.)

Missouri's regulations aren't that tough to figure out, and there's only 32 pages of them to read through. I live in Kentucky, but hunt Missouri, as I have a lot of family there, and I know the farmers and the ground there, better than here. Seriously, though, the MO regs aren't that tough, they are in Adobe pdf on their website. Handguns are welcome, but it should have 450 ft. lbs. of energy, with EXPANDING bullets only, and it must be .357 Magnum or better. Leaves out the good SWCs. Deer hunting is excellent throughout the state, I hunt the north central part, where I grew up, but there are deer everywhere, the northern deer are just bigger. They ARE starting a QDM program in 29 counties in the NW portion of the state, but that isn't a problem. At this point, they can certify NO CWD, too!

I don't know what part of KY. you plan to hunt. The areas with the largest deer ( bodysize) is Western KY. including those areas West of Interstate 65, and Land Between the Lakes(LBL) and that of Ft. Campbell, KY. Year after year many state records, B&C etc. come from these areas.

Just got my MO regs today. You're right, they are pretty simple; nothing like those Carolinas.
Sounds like I couldn't quarter and pack out- they speak of head attached and whole carcass.
How's the hunting in the Mark Twain in the SE?
Unless you know something specific, I bet what they mean by "expanding-type bullets" vs the prohibited "full hard metal case projectiles" fully allows cast lead SWCs of any alloy.

I'm in luck, 1960. I've applied for an LBL tag and I'll be hunting somewhere in Ballard during the regular season, through a connection.

Got any suggestions for Tennessee?

macrabbit, As with KY. the best spots in TN. regarding number of deer and size of deer is west or northwest. many of the best counties surround Nashville or are close by. This includes areas such as LBL, Ft. Campbell, etc. There are areas in middle TN. that are good also. Pull up www.tnwildlife.org for more info.

Thanks, 1960.
Since I am so ignorant of the area and would just have a couple of days to give it a shot, can you suggest any particular public spot I might go on the spur of the moment? I'm not into this one for a trophy, just a little hunting where there should be more deer than hunters.

I think MO is starting Tele-Chek, like Kentucky has, you can just call a toll-free number and check in your deer that way. It's pretty handy here in KY, and if MO is doing that, you can quarter up to your heart's content. You might check www.MoSportsmen.com for more info, there was a thread about it there, last time I looked. Good luck and good hunting, wherever you go!

Appears that phone checking is available only to landowners.

Thanks for the wishes.