"Earn a Buck" hunting reg coming to VA

[Al]

http://www.roanoke.com/outdoors/billcochran/wb/xp-index

Hopfully NC won't be far behind

Another related story here http://www.roanoke.com/outdoors/billcochran/wb/135173

[DJ65]

The main problem in my neck of the woods is not the doe harvest, but the loss of available hunting land. There are basically no more small tracts of gameland available to hunt. Most were bought by rich out of towners or by real estate groups wanting to develop the land for the previously mentioned rich out of towners. This also includes some of the larger tracts of private land that many of the old timers previously owned. Quite a few of these old timers would allow hunting on their land, but the younger generation are only waintin on "Gramps" to leave this world so they can sale the land to the developers. Once these lands are bought up, hunting basically ceases. The out of towners will not let anybody shoot "their deer".  What you are left with are sections that get hammered and the deer population dramatically decreases and large areas that are overun with stunted, inbred deer. The harvest of does is not the total solution to the population problem......it's just a part of it. Either the game commission needs to step in and acquire more land or educate the non locals, and the general public, on the importance of hunting. An example.................mention deer hunting in a public place and listen to the reactions. Most reply with a frown or say "nobody is shootin my deer". Yet most of these are the same people that bitch about deer runnin into their vehicles and eatin up their gardens and shrubbery. All I think is I hope they eat all of your shit to the ground and hopefully you won't get maimed or killed in that deer/automobile collision. Public ignorance and education are big parts of the problem.