Temporary tags now available for 2017 deer season

The August 15 traditional starting date for deer hunting season remains unchanged, and blistering hot weather greeted big game hunters during the first week of hunting. The new deer tagging system put in place by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources is now in effect, as hunters revisit the outdoors in hopes of bringing some venison back to the skinning shed. Every deer must be tagged in 2017, including both bucks and does, and those tags come in the mail with purchase of a big game hunting license, but temporary tags can be obtained online if needed.

            

The deer tags for 2017 were mailed out to license holders prior to the August 15 start date, placing the responsibility on hunters to keep them with them while hunting. The tags for doe deer came with the buck tags, and doe season begins on September 15. Charles Ruth is a big game biologist with the SCDNR, and he stresses that hunters in possession of a gratis license for seniors or a youth hunting license, must reach out to SCDNR to obtain their 2017 deer tags. It wasn’t cost-effective to mail out deer tags to all of the senior and youth license holders, since the majority of them are not big game hunting.

To view the entire feature article in the newspaper click on Colletonian.

To view past blog entries about 2017 click Buck Tags are New

To view past blog entries on deer management click on Coyotes - Game Zone Three - Charles Ruth -  Food Plots - Estimating Buck Age - QDMA Founder