The six-day gun deer season starts half an hour before sunrise on Monday and ends half an hour after sunset on Saturday, December 11.

Although New Jersey is the fifth smallest state, it has approximately 750,000 acres of public land for deer hunting, and this land benefits from opportunities in several national wildlife refuges and large county parks. These can be found on pages 42-45 of Hunting & Trapping Digest. South Jersey is particularly blessed with a lot of open land.

Although nearly three times as many deer are marked during the month-long autumn bow season (19,018 vs. 6,127 in 2020), the event formerly known as "shotgun week" or "buck week" is still very popular, especially during Southern region counties.

Deer hunting clubs abound, and this tradition is deeply integrated into outdoor fabrics. The members of these clubs range from a few to dozens, and the tactics range from standing (tank) hunting to driving deer, the latter coordinated movement between divers and standing people, similar to military exercises. In most areas of South Jersey, the woods and swamps are so dense that driving within the range of a shotgun is the only feasible and effective legal way to make money.

Regardless of the modus operandi, this week will prove interesting so far. For a variety of reasons, the deer harvest numbers for the fall bow, licensed bow, and two-day licensed musket season are about 30% behind last year.

One is that last year saw a significant increase in "COVID-driven" hunting pressure, as more and more people took advantage of the generous deer hunting season after get off work. The more hunters, the more deer are marked. Second, a deadly midge-driven EHD (Epidemic Hemorrhagic Disease) broke out statewide (17 out of 21 counties), resulting in a significant reduction in the number of deer in certain areas (read: large). Fewer deer, fewer deer marks.

Other supporting factors (coyote and bear predation on fawn, and hunting on the road) will also reduce the number of white-tailed deer, but in fact, the Garden State has a strong herd of deer, providing excellent deer in state, private, federal and county parks. Deer hunting.

Carole Stanko, director of the Wildlife Management Bureau of the Fish and Wildlife Administration and former head of the statewide deer project, introduced the upcoming gun deer hunting week on the Rack & Fin Radio program tomorrow morning. Prospectus

On 97.3 ESPN FM displays between 7-8. She will also discuss the impact of EHD and what DF&W is taking to prevent the chronic wasting disease (CWD) that kills deer from entering New Jersey.