New Deer Hunting Bag Limits

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) today announced that the deer hunting season bag limit has been increased in some parts of the state for the upcoming 2009 deer hunting season.

Deer hunters who hunt on private land in deer management zone 7 (New Haven County area) will be allowed to take one additional antlerless deer during the shotgun/rifle season and one additional antlerless deer during the muzzleloader season. In zones 11 and 12 (Fairfield County area and shoreline towns), hunters on private land will be allowed to take two additional antlerless deer during the shotgun/rifle season and two additional antlerless deer during the muzzleloader season.

The shotgun/rifle deer season on private land runs from Nov. 18 to Dec. 8, 2009, and the private land muzzleloader deer season runs from December 9-31, 2009.

“These changes will provide hunters the opportunity to more effectively reduce deer populations in those areas of the state where it is needed most,” said William Hyatt, acting chief of the DEP’s Bureau of Natural Resources. “Controlling deer population growth will better protect Connecticut’s eco-systems and help reduce public risk of being involved in deer-vehicle accidents,” said Hyatt.

Over the past 10 years, the DEP has implemented several changes to the deer hunting season framework so as to increase the effectiveness of hunting for controlling Connecticut’s deer populations. Local efforts by towns, such as Redding, Ridgefield, Wilton, Darien, Brookfield, and Fairfield, to open up lands to hunting have also been instrumental in managing deer populations.

Numerous regulation changes were approved in July 2009 and will take effect during the upcoming deer hunting season.

Some of these changes include:

· Extension of the private land muzzleloader deer hunting season (Dec. 9-31);

· Addition of a second youth hunter training day (Nov. 7 and 14);

· Allowing use of crossbows during the January archery season on private land in zones 11 and 12.

To learn more details about these and other changes in the deer hunting season, hunters should visit the DEP website at www.ct.gov/dep/hunting.