Rifle season for deer hunting to begin Saturday

JACKSON, Tenn. — Gun season for deer hunters is right around the corner.

The opening day of gun season for deer hunting begins Saturday, November 19.

This is when hunters are allowed to use center fire rifles to hunt. Rim fire rifles are not allowed for deer hunting.

There are several more important tips hunters need to be aware of for a safe, legal, and ethical hunt.

“One thing we want to encourage everybody is to have a safe weekend. Thanksgiving is coming up, family will be in, people will be hunting. Most importantly, make sure you’ve got your licenses,” said Amy Spencer, who does Communication and Outreach for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

First you want to make sure that your ratchet straps are not dry rotting and in good condition.

Also, when hunting, you want to be wearing 500 square inches of orange. That has to be on your head and on your torso. You have to wear orange while walking from the road to your tree blind and also while in the tree blind.

This orange can be broken up by a different pattern. If you want to have tree bark on there or some other kind of foliage, it can be broken up, but it has to be 500 square inches on the head and on the torso.

You might find yourself hunting in West Tennessee in two different units. One is a chronic wasting disease unit and the other is an L unit. An L unit is traditional hunting land, and a CWD unit is a CWD containment zone.

“So we do want to encourage hunters to remember that [they] do not hunt over bait, okay? In Unit L you can still put alternative food sources out for deer, but you can’t hunt over them. Everything has to be removed 10 days prior to hunting. That means everything has to be gone. And unfortunately, that is one thing we still see hunters doing. Now in Unit CWD, you can’t have anything out. It’s actually illegal to put anything out, such as salt licks or any type of alternate food sources, because that congregates deer into an area and that could help spread CWD,” Spencer said.

There are two different bag limits for each unit.

In CWD units, it is three antlered deer per season and three non-antlered deer per day. An L zone is two antlered deer per season and three non-antlered deer per day.

It is extremely important to be sure to check via the TWRA website or a hunting guide for which unit you are hunting in, whether it is Unit L or Unit CWD.

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