2010-11 KY Hunting Rules

[shaman]

http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/1011huntingseasons.pdf

The big news is the zone changes that were proposed back in March:

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Proposed Deer Zone Changes

Commission members proposed several deer hunting zone changes for the upcoming season. Bullitt, Hardin, Hart and Nelson counties would go from zone 1 to zone 2. Adair, Barren, Butler, Cumberland, Daviess, Edmonson, Hancock, Marion, Metcalfe, Monroe, Ohio, Simpson, Taylor and Warren counties would go from zone 2 to zone 3. Clinton, Garrard, Knox, Laurel, Russell and Whitley counties would go from zone 3 to zone 4. Caldwell County would go from zone 2 to zone 1.

Higher zone numbers are more restrictive than lower zone numbers. Placing a county in a more restrictive zone generally helps to increase deer numbers in that county.

Under another proposal, late muzzleloader season deer hunters in zone 4 counties could only take antlerless deer (does or a buck without visible antlers) during the last three days of the season. The first six days of the nine-day late muzzleloader season in zone 4 would be for antlered deer (bucks) only.
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[kykevin]

I'm in Owen County and we are always a zone 1 county. I also would like to note that we may now cary sidearms for personal protection while hunting. Might me a good thing if we ever get those wolfs

[SHKYBoonie]

Yep, I picked up a copy of the 2010-11 hunting guide a few weeks ago. I was shocked to see that they didn't do a zone change on Christian Co. I had talked with a KY State Biologist last year that told me they were going to do a zone change because the total numbers were way down in that county due to the blue toung outbreak and then the ice storm. Personally I will not be allowing any doe harvest on my farms until I see the numbers come up quite a bit from what they are now. From my trail cam serveys there are other things that have been bothering me also. Most of the does are without fawns again this year. The does that have fawns, only have one fawn. I have pics of one doe that has twins, that's it! I was told by the biologist that the blue toung usually upsets the fawn rate for 2 years after. Then things go back to normal given the deer don't have anything else happen during that time. This will be the third year sense the EHD and 2 years sense the ice storm. I figured this would be the year things got better. We have done several native brows enhancments this year as well as had great success with our warm season food plots. I have several ponds on the farms as well as spring fed creeks. The deer look very healthy, I just don't know what is going on with the fawn reering. I do have a really great age structure of bucks this year though. We seem to have been getting alot of recruitment this year. I am very impressed! We have more bucks in the upper age classes than I have ever seen on my farms before. It seems that I am seeing or getting phtots of new 3.5+ year old bucks everytime I go out to the farm. Some of them are bucks I reconize from passing last year as 2.5 year olds but most are deer I haven't seen before. It's really got me excited! We took out all of our feeders this year except for a couple up on the front end of the farm that will not get hunted. I think the baiting thing is a double edged sword. It will help hold some deer in the area but, in time, it makes you a dumber hunter/woodsman by fooling you into not using your skills. Also, I think the older bucks get spooked early by you going in to service feeders on a regular basis and avoid the area or go nocternal all together. It's going to be interesting to see how the season ends as we are trying several new things on the farms this year that we haven't done before.