We’re about halfway through the regular deer hunting season here and it seems the general consensus by hunters is it’s been a feast or famine season as far as hunter success goes. On one side are the hunters who experienced success early the first morning or opening day, while on the other are those who’ve struggled just to see very many deer.
I suspect one of the reasons for the disparity has been the milder than normal weather we had the first two weeks, which limited deer movement during the warmer daylight hours. The other may well be fewer hunters moving that, in turn, rousted bedded or immobile deer into moving. Many opening weekend deer that were taken were moving along natural travel routes between bedding and feeding areas. Reports also indicate a majority of bucks that have been taken were either following does or moving along the buck’s establish scrape line, in search of receptive does.
Generally speaking, deer are also often taken along routes they use to escape hunting pressure. If the pressure isn’t there, deer will often stay put for much of the day, and move primarily early and late in the day and at night. Since the temperatures weren’t unpleasantly cool, many hunters spent the majority of their hunting time sitting on watch, waiting for deer to come by. Also, the main rutting period appeared to start a bit later than normal this year, and the warmer temperatures caused many bucks to do most of their rutting travel at night when it was cooler.
As usual, the best success by hunters has occurred on private lands while those hunting public land areas tended to be less successful. This has been especially true of the bucks being taken. Public land hunters, however, generally took an overall higher percentage of antlerless deer via the state’s deer management permit (DMP) system. As far as I know, no hunter has reported taking a black bear in the county yet, the season having opened on bears last Saturday.
Last but not least, luck always plays a part in deer hunting … being in the right place at the right time. The best example I can give of this is my experience opening morning. I’d found some serious buck sign and chosen that area to put up my tree stand. However, when I reached the stand on opening morning, I could see another hunter was set up in a ground watch about 100 yards almost directly in front of my tree stand. Not wanting to “overload” the area or risk an unsafe situation, I moved farther away and took up a ground stand watch. I found out later that my hunting partner had spotted a buck heading toward my tree stand about 10 a.m. By then, the hunter I’d seen had moved on, so neither of us ever saw the buck. Had that hunter not been there, I’d have probably taken that buck when it came by.
Although more by choice than luck, sometimes the hunter must make a shoot-don’t shoot decision which could cost him or her a deer. This year mine happened just a few days ago. It was windy and light snow falling where I was hunting. I’d just finished a still-hunt, moving into the wind as I hunted. All I encountered were two smallish yearlings, so about 3:30 I decided to loop back and spend the remaining time in a pop-up blind I’d set up near a buck’s well-used travel line. At about 4:15 I could see a large deer walking steadily through dense beech saplings and briars about 80 yards away. Although by its posture and gait I was quite certain it was a buck (plus I had a DMP for an antlerless deer), I kept following it through my scope, looking for an opportunity to shoot. But I also was concerned that the shot might be deflected by the dense cover and I might just wound the deer. So I never fired.
I’ve noticed during my lifetime that has been liberally sprinkled with hunting and hunter contacts and friends that deer hunters normally fall into two different classes. One are those who hunt primarily for bucks, and the other are those who hunt for venison and don’t care all that much about antlers. There might also be a third group, one that simply harvests whatever deer they have an opportunity to take. regardless of whether you’re a “horn hunter” or meat hunter” or a bit of both, there will be many factors that can determine your success or failure. And that’s why it’s always been called “deer hunting season” and not “shooting deer season.”

Legislation introduced to fix major gaffe in New Jersey gun-a-month law
As drafted and hastily signed into law by outgoing anti gun and anti hunting New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, over National Shooting Sports Foundation’s (NSSF) strenuous objection, New Jersey’s one-gun-a-month legislation failed to provide an exemption for federally licensed firearms retailers, who would, in essence, be barred from purchasing inventory from distributors or manufacturers, and which would have put every licensed retail gun dealer in the state out of business . NSSF raised this problem in testimony before the state’s Firearms and Advisory Task Force. Thankfully, the task force listened and recommended corrective legislation that has been introduced in the "lame duck" session and is expected to be passed in the next week or so and be signed into law.
The initial proposed New Jersey law is a very good example of elected officials writing ill thought out legislation in their zeal to make constituents believe they are adopting laws that would reduce crime but then prove to negatively impact everyone but the criminal element.