North Carolina’s dove season opens statewide Sept. 5 at noon with a daily bag limit of 15 doves per hunter per day.

After opening day, hunting opens a half hour before sunrise to sunset. Dove season is split into three segments this hunting season, with the first segment from Sept. 5 to Oct. 10. The second segment is from Nov. 23 to Nov. 28, and the final segment from Dec. 19 to Jan. 15.

Possession limit is set at 30 doves per hunter. When dove hunting, wildlife officers advise hunters to be safe, shoot responsibly and follow state hunting rules.

First-time hunting license buyers must successfully complete a Hunter Education Course, offered free across the state. For more information, consult the online version of the 2009-2010 N.C. Inland Fishing, Hunting and Trapping Regulations Digest at www.ncwildlife.org

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A number of rules adopted at the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s March Commission meeting will not be in effect when hunting seasons open this fall.

The North Carolina Rules Review Commission referred a number of the proposed rules changes to the General Assembly as a consequence of written opposition, an action required under state law. As a result, these rules changes cannot take effect until reviewed by the Legislature next year. Legislators have 30 days from the start of the next session to propose a bill disapproving
any of these rules. If no bill is proposed, the rules automatically go into effect for the 2010-11 season.
Rules NOT in effect for the 2009-2010 season:

H1) Require persons harvesting deer through the Deer Management Assistance Program to use tags provided by the Commission and report their harvests, whether those deer are antlerless or antlered. Allow harvest of deer on DMAP areas under the big game harvest report card and the bonus antlerless deer harvest report card, where applicable.

H2) Change the description of where bonus antlerless deer harvest report cards may be used from “private lands” to “lands other than those enrolled in the Commission’s Game Land Program” in order to permit the use of these cards on military installations, national wildlife refuges, and other public lands that are NOT game lands.

H3) Remove the daily bag limit for deer.

H4) Allow hunters to use archery equipment to harvest deer during the muzzleloading firearms season on game lands.

H5) Shorten the bow season by one week and open the muzzleloader season one week earlier to create a two week muzzleloader season.

H6) Deer seasons in the Northwestern deer season will be changed so that the regular gun season is extended through January 1. Deer seasons in the Eastern, Central, and Western deer season structures will remain unchanged.

H7) Deer seasons on game lands in the Northwestern deer season will be changed so that the regular gun season is extended through January 1. Deer seasons on game lands in the Eastern, Central, and Western deer season structures will remain unchanged.

H8) Open all private lands in the Eastern, Central, and Northwestern deer seasons to the maximum either-sex deer season.

H9) Assign all of Moore County to the Eastern deer season.

H25) Allow falconry on Sundays, except for migratory game birds.

H26) Allow bow hunting on Sundays on private lands only, except for migratory game birds.

H28) Allow the use of crossbows, without permit, anytime bow and arrows are legal weapons.

H48) Disallow the selling of live foxes and coyotes taken under a depredation permit to controlled hunting preserves.

H50) Allow a landowner with a valid depredation permit to give away the edible portions of deer to anyone. Require the recipient to retain a copy of the depredation permit.

H51) Eliminate the requirement that a landholder must get a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permit for the taking of migratory birds before getting a Commission permit to do so. For a complete list, visit North Carolina’s 2009-2010 Inland Fishing, Hunting and Trapping regulations. For more information about this year’s delayed rules, see our previous news release and N.C. Wildlife Update.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission
1701 Mail Service Center  • Raleigh NC 27699-1701
(919) 707-0010
www.ncwildlife.org

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Jefferson Approves Urban Hunting Season for Deer

By Joel Frady

The Jefferson Board of Alderman unanimously approved a motion to create an urban hunting season in the

town to help curb the booming deer population. The season only applies to bow hunting, but will give hunters a new window to hunt deer as long as they get permission to hunt from the land owner.

The board approved the motion after Christopher D. Kreh, a wildlife biologist for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, proposed the idea. He said that 10 other municipalities participated in the program during 2009, including Elkin and Middlesex, and that 45 deer were eliminated during Elkin’s first urban season. The 2009 urban bow season began on Saturday, Jan. 10, and runs until Saturday, Feb. 14, but Jefferson will not participate until the 2010 season as long as they register with the Wildlife Resources Commission by April 1.

The decision required two motions from the board: the first was to drop bow-and-arrows from the town’s weapons ordinance, so that hunters may use bows; the second motion was to file the appropriate paperwork with the Wildlife Resources Commission to participate in future bow urban seasons.

Members of Jefferson’s town government all said they thought it was a good idea.

“I think we need to do something to eliminate some of the deer population here in Jefferson someway,” said Jefferson Mayor Dana Tugman. “They’ve been a nuisance.”

Board member Mark Johnston said that “in Jefferson, we’re an old town. Everybody has apples trees, fruit trees or pear trees in their yard. So we had the food source for the deer – that’s why they showed up here.”

Johnston said he is not a hunter, but liked the idea because of the number of car accidents that are caused by deer in Jefferson.

“I live right in town and last year I buried three deer in my front yard that got run over,” said Johnston. He noted that he enjoys the deer that graze in his back yard each year, but that he would “just as soon somebody eat the meat as tearing up somebody’s car.”

Tugman and Johnston both felt it was a perfectly safe alternative to fight the deer population.

“All the deer hunters, all the guys I know who hunt with a bow, are the safest guys in the world,” said Johnston. “Basically, you’re bow hunting from a stand or a tree. It’s a down shot, so if you miss it’s in the ground. It’s a perfectly easy way to get by.”

Tugman said that he thinks “bow hunting will not be a danger to the public the way rifles or other weapons would be,” and that “bow hunters are a pretty special class of hunters. They’re very careful and probably respect the property more than some classes of hunters.

“Especially those that would be hunting during the colder part of the season up here,” continued Tugman. “You have to be a pretty tough fellow to put up with that.”

To find out more about the Urban Bow Season, click to www.ncwildlife.org. To find out more about the town of Jefferson, call (336) 846-9368.

http://www.mountaintimes.com/mtweekly/2009/0129/urban.php3

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by Josh Poe EDITOR
Unless you are heading down south for a quick hunting trip, the deer season has ended in the Carolinas. However for many of us seriously afflicted individuals the real work is only beginning. Now is the time for preparation. There is much scouting to be done, picking of new stand sites, planning for next season and strategizing. Yes, there is much to be done. Right now we are working on aleviating predator problems to take some pressure off the deer and turkeys. Soon there will be shed hunting, bringing in the trail cams, fertilizing our hard and soft mast trees and collecting soil samples. Then we will be pulling the tractors out an getting the food plots in the ground, refreshing mineral licks, fertilizing our browse and sending in our applications for out of state hunts. After that we will be chasing turkeys, scouting for the early season and starring at the mailbox hoping we get drawn for some far away adventure.

Next will come the much anticipated hanging of the treestands! Hopefully in new honey holes where old mossy horns lurks! Then september with me, bow in hand back to my faithful treestand to complete the cycle for yet another season. Of course we will fill in the gaps with a little predator hunting, some small game, maybe even a hog hunt down south. These will be great days afield with good friends… Secretly though, we will be wishing for the fall. The pre dawn hours when the air is crisp cold, the forest is silent except for the occasional acorn and we are in our favorite stand eagerly awaiting the sun to start peaking over the horizon. It will be here before we know it.

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It’s 100 pages, but QDMA executive director Brian Murphy broke it down into a 20-slide presentation on Thursday. Here are a few of the points that caught my eye:

more here

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