Nice of them to stand in the "road" for you like that! How many people can get a picture of their buck both before and after the kill????
We apparently had a good deer season here (I don't hunt). 7K+ during rifle season, about 3,500 both in archery and muzzleloader season. Didn't know muzzleloaders were so popular.
Muzzleloaders are quite popular in NH and VT. I know when hunting season starts when I hear my neighbor sighting his in! I have to take hunter safety next year. Again. I took it once but never made the test.
Young bucks aren't terrible. We never have doe season in this part of the state.
Grats Kate, nice buck! Yeah... New England is primarily bucks only pretty much everywhere. antiquated blue law type stuff. Up there you didn't used to be able to hunt on Sundays either. Pretty ridiculous really. don't know if that's changed. Don't know if anyone noticed the doe standing back behind and to the left of the buck... further up the road.
Antlerless permits depends on the deer population. The article I read said they upped the number of muzzleloader licenses in certain parts of the state this year. Winter 2016 was mild, plenty of deer. Seems they are doing a good job balancing the size of the deer herd relative to the amount of available habitat.
There were Blue Laws when I moved here in '79. Never heard of them before. About the only 'business' thing you could do on Sunday was buy a newspaper. They died soon after, best I can find is that they were declared illegal by the state supreme court in 1983.
And yes, I did see that second deer in @Ferguson K's picture