Photo by Billkenney.com

Garden State deer hunters enjoyed a reasonably good season last year when they turned some 69,456 deer into various venison steaks, chops and burgers stashed in their collective freezers. The season was at least a bit better than the previous year's when the overall harvest stood at 63,786 whitetails.

This year promises to be even better, if Mother Nature and her whimsical weather patterns cooperate. And weather conditions often determine the final outcome -- or count, if you will -- of the final season tally.

In New Jersey, one will be hard-put to find a place where there are no gunners. No matter where you go, there will likely be other hunters. The idea, however, is to minimize the crowding, and Mid-Atlantic Game & Fish thinks we can do that for you, at least to a certain extent. Consequently, here are some lands accessible to the public within five popular, high-harvest deer management zones (DMZs) that will at least up the ante for downing a deer, while at the same time offering some semblance of a quality hunt.

First, to get a better grip on what's in store for deer hunters this season, let's take a look at last season's harvest rates within the state.

Deer hunters will eagerly tell anyone willing to stand still long enough to listen, about the comparatively poor conditions during last season's six-day firearms hunt, which takes place for one week each December. Keep in mind, there are many additional deer seasons in New Jersey, including muzzleloader, fall and extended season archery, as well as various and sundry permit seasons.

Yet, it is the six-day firearms season (commonly called the buck season by most graybeards) that counts most and generates the most enthusiasm. It is the equivalent of the opening day of trout season in the Garden State. Nearly every hunter, whether that hunter is primarily a bow or frontloader fan, turns out for the buck season.

Additionally, firearms deer hunters invariably pray for a cold week, preferably one that offers at least a covering of snow. That is exactly what nature provided on opening day in New Jersey's northern climes last year. However, in keeping with New Jersey's reputation, those so-called ideal conditions didn't last long.

Certainly, it didn't snow throughout New Jersey on the kick-off of the six-day season last year, with only northern counties like Sussex, Hunterdon and Warren benefiting from the white stuff. Nevertheless, weather conditions throughout the state were good, but all of that was about to change.

No sooner had Mother Nature teased us with what appeared to be the answer to a deer hunter's prayer, than she retained the moisture but cranked up the thermostat. For the most part, and depending upon whether you hunted South Jersey or the state's northern reaches, the remainder of the week would have made a duck ecstatic. It rained -- no, make that deluged -- in some areas.

Despite nature's ill-timed temper-tantrum monsoons, the harvest rate for last season's six-day firearms season wasn't all that bad, as hunters downed some 12,332 bucks as opposed to the prior season when the tally for the same season stood at 10,588, an increase of 1,744 deer.

In addition, the first day's take for the 2004-05 season was down considerably at 3,636 compared with the 2003-04 season that tallied 5,279 deer.