Deer, Me!

Woo Hoo! It's Urban Archery Season in Fairfax County! And now with crossbows! Here's what you need to know:

**Only antlerless deer may be taken.

**Lists of properties available for hunting are not maintained by the Virginia Department of Game of Inland Fisheries or local governments. To find available properties, visit with or contact local landowners, hunters, or check stations. Hunters in Fairfax County may wish to contact Suburban Whitetail Management of Northern Virginia, Inc.

**You must obtain permission to hunt from the landowner. You must also obtain permission to pursue or retrieve deer from neighboring landowners.

**Due to the small size of parcels and proximity of residences, you or the landowner should notify adjacent property owners or tenants, as a courtesy, before hunting.

**License and tagging requirements for the urban archery season are the same as for the other archery seasons in Virginia. You must purchase an archery license to hunt during any special archery season. See "License Requirements".

**NEW: Crossbows are defined by law as a type of bow and are therefore legal during urban archery season. However, to use a crossbow during any special archery season, you must also purchase a crossbow license. See "License Requirements".

**The season bag limit for deer cannot be exceeded unless bonus deer permits are purchased. See "Bonus Deer Permits".

**Most localities participating in the urban archery season also allow archery hunting during other traditional deer seasons; i.e., early archery season, general firearms season, and late archery season (see below). Antlered deer may be taken during these traditional seasons, provided that the locality of interest allows archery hunting then. Remember that only antlerless deer may be taken during the urban archery season.

**Bucks that drop antlers prior to the conclusion of the urban archery season are considered "antlerless" and may be legally harvested and tagged with an antlerless-only deer tag.

**Deer must be checked by calling 1-866-GOT-GAME or at a big game check station.

Those are the archery regs for both Fairfax as well as other towns and cities within this here great Commonwealth of Virginny. Here are some more specific to Fairfax:

**In addition to the urban archery season, archery deer hunting is also allowed during the early archery season and the general firearms deer season (i.e., from the first Saturday in October through the first Saturday in January).

**Hunters must abide by all applicable sections of the Virginia State Code and Virginia Hunting Regulations (including bag limits and tagging/checking requirements).

**Hunters must gain written permission for posted property and verbal for un-posted property.

**It shall be unlawful to discharge an arrow in a manner that can be reasonably expected to result in the impact of the arrow upon the property of another without permission from the owner, fee holder, or tenant.

What I read all this to mean is that my back yard could be hunted if I liked. And indeed, I had a nice offer come into the Tasty Bits (TM) Mail Sack from a hunter willing to do just that. Thanks, but I'm going to pass: although the reaction I would get from the Missus by telling her I had arranged for complete strangers to show up in our yard with crossbows would be priceless, I doubt if I could afford the resultant long term medical care costs.