June 25, 2015
Man is it hot- unbearable!! Just trying to make the best of it. Hard to think about hunting but it’s time to start planning for the 2015 deer season. It’s coming, heat or not. I’m looking at all my properties and making plans to move some stand locations. I like to move them every year if possible. However, I won’t move all of them. Already seeing some pretty good bucks feeding in bean fields as I’m out and around. Hey, are you following what’s going on in the legislature? If you’re not you better start. Major changes in hunting regs are on the way. The turkey bill sailed through the legislature with little or no fanfare. Seasonal bag limit dropped to three per season. Thank goodness the deer bill didn’t make it out this year, but it will be back up next year. Major changes sought in bag limits- four buck seasonal limit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to some changes. I would prefer to see a size limit instead of a flat number limit. I’m convinced you can achieve the same results while adding desired QDM advantages that way. AND, as with the turkey limit, I’m opposed to it because I don’t think South Carolina is a “one size fits all state”. Our state is too diverse for that. Furthermore, I’m opposed to placing a bag limit on hunters while allowing farmers to kill countless numbers of deer under the current depredation law. This program is one of the most loosely run programs under DNR and it’s immoral at best. Does are being killed just when they are dropping fawns, leaving the fawns to die unattended. What’s worse is the fact that nothing is being done with the deer killed- a complete waste. Deer predation needs to take place during the season. I’m not denying that farmers don’t have problems in certain areas but there’s got to be a better answer. It’s incumbent upon all of us to be better stewards of our wildlife resources. I’m convinced that a state run program to use venison to feed the hungry might be the way to go. I’d love to hear from you on this. Later…