Gun season during the rut?

[PrairieGhost]

Bow hunting during rut.
my first 30 years with a rifle. One way to hunt. Was drive around during rut to find the buck chasing a doe in daylight.
bow hunting I have not driven around however that may work for a stalk. But find that at my stand the bucks leave for the most part during the rut and come back in December. Db

They left my yard about a week ago. I think the old boys are coming out of the woodwork now. leave the season as is. The only difference would be camping in knee deep snow some years in a later season. I think most of the does are bred and now the old big bucks are trying to find something that no longer exists. Oh, there are a few does that will go into a secondary rut mid December. Some early fawns get bred then too.

 

[Obi-Wan]

Bow hunting during rut.
my first 30 years with a rifle. One way to hunt. Was drive around during rut to find the buck chasing a doe in daylight.
bow hunting I have not driven around however that may work for a stalk. But find that at my stand the bucks leave for the most part during the rut and come back in December. Db

The bucks will be were the does are so if your stand is set up in the right spot and you are seeing does you will see bucks during the rut.

 

[Downrigger]

:;:deadhorse

 

[Captain Ahab]

I enjoy hunting the rut. Interesting watching "the dance". I'm not road hunting either as all I do is hunt mule deer when I get a tag or help the wife with her white-tail tag.

 

[ItemB]

I think we should move it to June 1st. Fawns would be like veal! Mmmmm. Plus they still have those spots. Would be nice to have a point of reference of where to put my crosshairs.

Ohh man them backstraps would be so tender. mouth wattering. But what if you shot a buck fawn that had the genetics to be a monster??

 

[Kurtr]

The movement of mature bucks during hunting hours increases greatly during the rut. Bucks that are typically nocturnal will venture out during daylight hours thus allowing them to be harvested by both bow and gun hunters. So if it is beneficial to overall quality to shut rifle season down during the rut why would it not also be beneficial to shut it down for bow hunters?

Because I can't shoot a bow 700 plus yards and kill deer. I do and have with a rifle. You know how easy it is to sit on a big hill and kill deer with a rifle. Even with the movement killing deer with a bow is way way harder to accomplish. That's why shutting it down for bow hunting would .ale no sense. Not enough deer get killed with a bow to matter to the overall population.

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I also rifle hunt pretty much the whole month of November minus the first weekend.

 

[WormWiggler]

Because I can't shoot a bow 700 plus yards and kill deer. I do and have with a rifle. You know how easy it is to sit on a big hill and kill deer with a rifle. Even with the movement killing deer with a bow is way way harder to accomplish. That's why shutting it down for bow hunting would .ale no sense. Not enough deer get killed with a bow to matter to the overall population.

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I also rifle hunt pretty much the whole month of November minus the first weekend.

Perhaps this is why people bristle when they are told to invest in more hunting equipment... some persons have to hunt within a budget.

 

[Obi-Wan]

Because I can't shoot a bow 700 plus yards and kill deer. I do and have with a rifle. You know how easy it is to sit on a big hill and kill deer with a rifle. Even with the movement killing deer with a bow is way way harder to accomplish. That's why shutting it down for bow hunting would .ale no sense. Not enough deer get killed with a bow to matter to the overall population.

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I also rifle hunt pretty much the whole month of November minus the first weekend.

Trying to compare SD to ND for deer hunting with the present regulations and herd population is comparing apples to oranges. In 2016 approximately 25% of the deer taken were with bow ( excluding gratis ) or just shy of 20% including gratis, so it does have a big impact on the population

[h=1]2016 Deer Season Summarized[/h]Mon, 04/17/2017


A total of 44,140 North Dakota deer hunters took approximately 29,300 deer during the 2016 deer gun hunting season, according to a post-season survey conducted by the state Game and Fish Department.
Game and Fish made available 49,000 deer gun licenses last year. Overall hunter success was 66 percent, with each hunter spending an average of 4.4 days in the field.
Hunter success for antlered white-tailed deer was 72 percent, and antlerless whitetail was 60 percent.
Mule deer buck success was 89 percent, and antlerless mule deer was 78 percent.
Hunters with any-antlered or any-antlerless licenses generally harvest white-tailed deer, as these licenses are predominantly in units with mostly whitetails. Buck hunters had a success rate of 71 percent, while doe hunters had a success rate of 66 percent.
Game and Fish issued 13,466 gratis licenses in 2016, and 11,369 hunters harvested 6,593 deer, for a success rate of 58 percent.
A record 26,755 archery licenses (24,532 resident, 2,223 nonresident) were issued in 2016. In total, 22,071 bow hunters harvested 9,492 deer (8,686 whitetails, 806 mule deer), for a success rate of 43 percent.
The department is in the process of determining recommendations for licenses in the 2017 deer proclamation. The proclamation will be sent to the governor’s office for approval in late April.
In addition to harvest rates and winter aerial surveys, the department monitors a number of other population indices to determine license numbers, including depredation reports, hunter observations, input at advisory board meetings, and comments from the public, landowners and department field staff.

 

[Fishmission]

Simple fact is bow hunters make a little impact on the deer population no matter what the season

 

[SDMF]

The simple fact is, there are no facts because NOBODY has the 1st fuggin clue how many deer we have.

 

[8andcounting]

Have it the last week of nov and the first week of dec.
Having rifle season smack dab in the middle of the rut is a joke, it does no good for the deer herd.
Well unless you just drive around waiting for a love sick buck "that you haven't seen all year" to be standing right beside
a heavily traveled road I guess. Then you probably love the ND rifle season..

Bigger bucks are just beginning to rut in my area now . First couple weekends if rifle there was nothing rutting

 

[Davy Crockett]

Simple fact is bow hunters make a little impact on the deer population no matter what the season

Boy I don't know, I trust the truthfulness of the Big game surveys about as far as I trust the truthfulness of the rep system on here.

 

[bucksnbears]

First off, define your definition of " the rut"
Between most guys, there are different times, phases.
The" rut" can be from mid October to late dec. But some things never change I.M.O, and that is the time Most adult does are ready to breed. I think the dates from Nov 12- 22 are a hard time to see/ kill an older buck.
This will and always has been a hot topic.
Some of us old timers can remember years when blizzards have shut down deer hunting in early Nov.

Leave things as is!

PG, regular hunting cannot/ will not affect genetics in a wild herd! Poop

 

[KDM]

ND manages for hunter opportunity per the ND G&F publications, and the best opportunity to harvest deer is during the rut when deer movement during daylight hours is at it's peak. Moving rifle season would NOT be in the interest of maximizing hunter opportunity. The End!!!

 

[bucksnbears]

Bigger bucks are just beginning to rut in my area now . First couple weekends if rifle there was nothing rutting

You from. Nodak?
Bet both my balls they were " rutting" hard!!!!

 

[WormWiggler]

Simple fact is bow hunters make a little impact on the deer population no matter what the season

I don't recall anyone making that statement.... Is the number of deer tags available for rifle season reduced by bow tags purchased? ...by muzzleloader tags issued? ... by gratis tag issued?

To some rifle season is the big event of hunting, for some reason they choose to only rifle hunt.

 

[USMCDI]

All for starting gun season on Dec 1st and raising the price to $100.00 for a buck tag. No, it's not making it a rich man's sport it's simplifying one's priorities. I hear everyone saying that would make it a rich man's sport while they have payments on a new boat, pickup and everything else. I'd be in favor of a buck tag being 500.00. Not sure about everyone else in small towns but where I live they put their wives, mothers and everyone else that wouldn't know how to load a rifle in for a buck tag. I live and farm for the shit and I get a white tag every four years or so. I only hunt on my own land so it's not a deal breaker but there's a lot of guys out there that feel the same way.

 

[Obi-Wan]

Simple fact is bow hunters make a little impact on the deer population no matter what the season

1 out of 5 deer taken in ND was by bow in 2016 definitely has an impact

 

[You]

I haven't read many posts in this thread as I've been too busy leaving nameless rep comments in other threads (jk, i sign all of mine, we know this) but I've learned that more bucks than I ever would've believed (prior to game cams and my 20 +/- years of bow hunting experience) live near completely nocturnal and the rut is the only thing that brings them out during legal archery/rifle/muzzleloader shooting hours.

How would archers, riflemen, and muzzleloaders get a crack at these deer outside of rut?

There is only one answer, pushes and running shots which isn't anywhere near ideal for any of the 3 weapons.

The date system for deer is just fine the way it is.

 

[Kurtr]

Glass em up and sneak in and shoot them in their bed