Soooooooo jealous! We get ONE. And unless you get drawn for a special permit in certain areas, it's for a buck. And then there are antler restrictions in much of the state.
One deer up here and it must be a buck unless you get drawn for an Any Deer Permit. It still only one deer but with that it can be a doe.
Like I said this is the first year for tags. When I first started my county had a 2 deer a day limit, and 10 buck per county limit, no anterior restriction. We had doe days where does could be killed without a tag. It was basically every Friday and saturday from opening weekend throught thanksgiving. Then a few weeks off then like the week before Christmas and then the last 3 days of season. You could also buy 4 doe tags to use if it was not those days. No limit on does, bow hunt was doe anytime, still 2 deer a day. But that's your county. Every county had a limit!! So I could technically kill 10 in my county farm is in 10 where I live, 10 down the road in the next county I hunt in. And no one really kept tabs on those 10???? There was no reporting stytem, they didn't really care (they did a few years ago crack down at the process or making you put a license with each deer). Several years back the buck limit got pushed back to 5 in many counties. Some areas only used 2 doe tags and doe days went to just every Saturday till almost thanksgiving. Then one in december and the last 2 days of season or so. The coast area is about a free for all statting august 15 (all of the state closes jan 1. My zone opens oct 11... and an inbetween zone opens sept 15 and these are all for gun)and with just a 2 day limit and still doe days but like no buck or a 15 limit. They have always used bait legal (upstate only been legal for like 2 years) and can hunt with dogs. Our deer heard took a huge tumble from the decades of them pushing shoot every doe you see plus the influx of cyote. I didnt see a cyote till i was in college (15 years ago??)or just out? Clemson did a long term study on fawn predation by cyote and it was something like 45% of fawn recoupment. I quit shooting small bucks 10 years or more ago, land ownership around me changed as well as hunt pressures and there has been a noticeable shift in big deer. We still have too many bucks allowable in my opinion, I would like to see 2. My dad is 64, when he was little he said you never saw a deer or a track at the farm. The restocking efforts and years of strict limits and the mild temps allowed the population to explode till it was at its peak in the 90s. I was hunting then. It was. Othing to go hunt the last hour or two of the day and to see between 10 to 20 deer on a good day, few bucks. Now I might see 6 deer to 10 on a very good day, but the buck to doe ratio is closer to 2-3/ 1. We're moving in the right direction it just has taken too long in my opinion. There have been rumors of this change I have been hearing for 5 or 7 years. Many meetings about limit changes etc. Ok that was longer than I had intended but I am sure that many have no clue about other state limits.
