Winter Bow Season Underway

It’s been one day sort of week since it opened, but the 2023 winter bow season for deer feels more like its month-long October counterpart.

I mean, it is warm...bordering on the “h” word for the first turn of the calendar page.

The season will run through a half-hour after sunset Tuesday, January 31, and while whitetail numbers have been pruned significantly in various standard and permit seasons, there are still plenty of deer around to provide an opportunity to put additional venison in the freezer.

To be sure, whitetail counts in various Deer Management Zones (DMZs) took a hit via the EHD outbreak earlier in the fall, but with nearly 750,000 acres of public lands open for deer hunting that don’t require extra access permits or fees, well, it’s a simple matter of scouting a hunting another spot(s) if home area whitetail counts are meager.

It’s basically a matter of putting in the time, no matter the weather.

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Opines veteran rack rocker (see photo) Bill Brown from Waretown in Ocean County who hunts public lands 99.9% of the time, “Get out and sit, no matter how warm or cold it is. You can’t kill a deer staying at home. They’re moving. They’re feeding. It’s about being in the right place at the right time, and you can’t do that unless you’re in the woods.”

Simply put, but tag filling profound.

While the general statewide season concludes at the date/time listed above, winter bow opportunities continue through a half-hour after sunset Saturday, February 18 in DMZ’s 7- 15, 17, 36, 41, 49, 50, and 51.

Check page 36 in the 2022-23 Hunting & Trapping Digest for the various bag limits.