At the time of our interview, the state's Fish and Wildlife Council was about to vote on potentially significant changes in the harvesting of bucks.

Kandoth suggests that hunters check www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw, the DFW's Web site, for the latest on any such changes.

With a bit over 300,000 acres of land in the state open to public hunting, managing the deer herd is a significant challenge.

For hunters looking to put deer in the freezer, though, she felt Garden State hunters have plenty of opportunity.

"It's pretty easy to get multiple deer here," noted Kandoth.

"Two-thirds of the state has an unlimited antlerless bag limit. The highest harvest takes place in the northern portion of the state.

"Hunterdon County tends to have the highest harvest, year in and year out. There isn't a whole heck of a lot of public land up there, but there is some."

Hunterdon County's Clinton WMA provides around 1,500 acres of public hunting land in that area.

But with some 75 WMAs scattered throughout the Garden State, there are a lot of public-land areas for hunters to seek their share of venison.

DELAWARE
Deer management has been a major focus of the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW).

Deer hunting opportunities have expanded in recent years. This fall, hunters can expect seasons of the same basic structure.

Based on last year's deer take, Delaware hunters are continuing a trend that has witnessed record or near-record harvests the past several seasons.

Biologist Joe Rogerson was still processing deer-harvest data when we spoke. He felt the 2006 bag would be right up there toward the top.

"I don't think we are going to reach our all-time harvest of 14,599. But it should be over 14,000," he said.

"It looks like it will be our No. 2 (highest) harvest. The prior season had produced our No. 2 harvest. It should beat that one."

The 2005-06 seasons realized a total take of 13,670 whitetails. That year, hunters bagged 3,738 bucks, 5,962 mature does, 1,875 button bucks, 1,400 fawn does and 531 spike bucks.

For 164 of the deer taken that year, information regarding gender or age was not provided.

"The harvest of female deer ran just shy of 60 percent, which has been a goal of ours," Rogerson continued.

"In recent years, the population had gotten a little out of hand in some parts of the state, so our season structures have been targeted at harvesting antlerless deer.

"It looks like that is working."

Part of the agency's tools for deer management has been an aerial survey. Rogerson explained the reasoning behind conducting such a review.

"The survey was conducted during the winter of 2005 to 2006. Delaware is divided up into 17 separate deer-management zones.

"The way we designed the survey is to determine a population estimate not just for the entire state, but also for each of those zones.

"The habitat varies across the state. Hunting pressure is different because of urban areas and agricultural communities and such. We found out that we are approaching our goal in some of our zones. We still have some work to do in others.

"So I think in the future, hunters may see a focus, season-wise, on those high-density areas.

"It looks like things are beginning to work. Our last three seasons have provided our top three all-time harvests."

The most significant recent regulations change took place in 2004, when each Friday, Saturday and Monday in October were designated as gun days for antlerless deer.

"The bowhunters were a little disappointed because they had had October to themselves," said Rogerson.

"But overall, it's been a success. We've been able to increase our harvest by over 1,000 deer (per year) as a result of those added days.

"Once hunters got accustomed to things, I haven't heard much negative feedback."

For the coming season, no major changes will take place in regard to deer-related seasons or regulations. But as the agency collects more information, adjustments may take place in the future.