Happy Hunting: Hunting Season Beginning in New York State

It's that time of the year that hunters throughout the region have circled on their calendars every year, Hunting Season is here. The State Department of Environmental Conservation recently made the announcement for the beginning of hunting season for the state of New York and with the announcement came plenty of information that hunters are going to need to know before heading out the door.

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Rules and Regulations for New York Hunting Season

Recently the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation made the announcement that hunting season is open in New York. For those unaware, hunting season comes in waves throughout the Fall and into the Winter season. New York state in terms of hunting is also divided into sectors, those sectors being the Northern and Southern Zones. Each zone has its own set of rules that must be followed.

According to the DEC website, the boundary line separating the Northern and South sectors beings where the Salmon River and Lake Ontario meet and extends eastward down and across the state until it meets the New York/ Vermont border. There are also certain areas of the state where hunting is not allowed, for example, there is not hunting of any kind in either New York City, Nassau County or the City of Binghamtom.

A number of other rules also exist depending on what sector and which region of New York an individual hunter lives in. For example, during Deer Season there are only certain times of the season where hunters in either the Northern Sector or the Southern sector can shoot deer of either sex. In the Northern sector that time happens between October 14-20 and again from December 4-10 but in only parts of the North. In the South either sex may be hunted from December 11-19 and again from December 26 to January 1.

Many other rules and regulations for both the Northern and Southern sectors of New York exist for both deer and bear season. An example of the would be that here some deer may only be hunted if they have their antlers. On top of that, some deer that have their antlers may not even be hunted due to a "antler point restriction". The DEC defines the point restriction as "...antlered bucks must have at least one horn with 3 points or more on it and those points must be at least an inch in length".

The Beginning of Hunting Season in New York

The following are the times of the season and designated for deer hunting. The hunting season breaks down into numerous different sections of days and weeks. Early Bowhunting season is beginning now throughout the state and rolls right into crossbow season. Both of those seasons end in mid October or mid November depending on which section of NY you're in.

When the early bowhunting and crossbow seasons end, that's when regular hunting season gets under. Regular hunting then lasts until either early or mid December, again depending on which area you are in. Regular hunting season then makes way for Late bow hunting season which ends in either mid December or on January first.

Those were just the basics for what one would need to know in order to hunt deer in the state. Hunting bear opens up an entirely separate section of rules, time frames and acceptable weapons to use for hunters throughout the state. For that list you can follow the link here

There is plenty of more information that hunters throughout the state should know before going on their first hunting trip of the season. Hunters should definitely follow the graphs and rules from the DEC which can be read about more here. For of those who will be partaking...

Happy Hunting.