What changes could be made to New Jersey's deer hunt? These are the possibilities

The Division of Fish and Wildlife will hold three information sessions next month to outline a massive revamping of the state's deer hunting program, including reducing the number of regulation sets, which outline when, where and what deer can be hunted.

The sessions, all scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., will be on Sept. 7 at the Pequest Trout Hatchery, 605 Pequest Road in Oxford; Sept. 28 at the Rutgers EcoComplex, 1200 Florence Columbus Road, Bordentown; and Oct. 5 at the Batsto Village Visitors Center, 31 Batsto Road, Hammonton.

Final approved changes are slated to be effective with the 2025 hunting season.

Overall, the changes look to align the deer hunting seasons across the state and reinstate the seven-buck season limit. Eliminated in the proposal is the requirement that a buck must have at least three points on one side (known as antler point restrictions) to be legal during "buck" season.

The APR are in force in some of the nearly 60 hunting zones — including a half-dozen "special" zones — across the state. There are eight "regulation sets," which offer different rules and even hunting seasons statewide.

The zones would remain, but the eight regulation sets would be replaced with three sets: low, medium and high. The low area includes the far western part of Sussex and Warren counties, which includes the national and state parks/forests, as well as part of the central and southeastern parts of the state.

Medium would be the remainder of the northwest and southwestern part of the state. The remainder of the state from the northeast through central New Jersey and the central Atlantic Coast would be in the "high" area.

Those three areas would see changes in both the number of hunting days and the daily bag limit on the number of deer killed, with hunting seasons becoming more aligned statewide.

Untouched are the bow, muzzleloader and shotgun licenses needed for those weapons, as well as permits for both antlered and un-antlered deer. The new regulations also would let hunters buy several zone permits at a discount.

The final word lies with the Fish and Game Council, which received copies of a 60-page study at its most recent meeting.

That study was prepared by the Bureau of Wildlife Management, headed by Carole Stanko, and includes research based on licenses sold, harvest numbers and a survey of licensed hunters.

The report also tracks the annual harvest of both antlered and un-antlered deer (about 1 in 10,000 does will grow antlers), as well as license and permit sales and a major survey of hunters and their habits.

According to the statistics, the number of deer killed has gone down since 1995. That year saw 59,769 total harvest, of which 28,073 were antlered. The 2022 total was 38,324, of which 16,289 had at least three points on one side.

At the meeting, Stanko noted that bow license sales have increased since 2009 due to the addition ofcrossbows, Sunday hunting and reduced bow safety zones. Those zones are the distance a hunter and quarry must be from certain buildings and property, such as homes and schools.

She also noted that firearm license sales and antlerless permit sales have decreased while buck permit sales have "remained relatively stable."

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New Jersey's deer archery season, which includes long- and crossbows, begins in September and lasts into February. No archery is allowed in December except in limited zones with a separate archery permit.

The muzzleloader season is late November through December, and the permit shotgun season also begins in late November but lasts into February. The six-day firearm season in early December does not require a special permit but does require a hunting license.

The survey of hunters allowed for responders to give more than one reason for being out in the woods. About 65% of hunters statewide said they hunted for meat for the family, and just more than half said they liked being outdoors and close to nature. About the same number said they liked going hunting with friends and family.

Of the nine categories of answers, hunting for a trophy was sixth, followed by "use wildlife management area," unknown and "other." Many of the division-owned wildlife management areas have shotgun and archery ranges available to licensed hunters.

According to the numbers in Stanko's presentation, more than 80% of hunters in northwestern New Jersey were able to harvest at least two deer a year between 2016 and 2022.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: NJ deer hunt could be revamped. Here are the details