I think the biggest thing that hunters want to understand two main points
First is all deer that are harvested have to have to have a tag on period.
Second thing is we now have a statewide limit on antlered bucks uh using the personal license based tags.
The question that we're hearing most from hunters is how they going to get their deer tags?
There's a couple of different ways, uh,
Important thing for resident hunters to understand is that,
If they already have a hunting license that is going to be valid during the deer season,
They're in line to receive their free bass set of tags, okay.
Uh, If you buy a hunting license and it's not deer season um but encompasses the deer season, same thing.
You're in line to get a set of tags.
If you buy your hunting license in big-game permit during the deer season,
It's going to be seven to ten days before these tags come to you in the mail.
Which is another important point, allow time before you go deer hunting for the mail to run.
Because we're going to be mailing these tags just like we do with turkey tags now.
Um, lifetime licensees, senior licensees, disability licensees.
Youth hunters, the hunters under 16, they're all, if they're a resident hunter, they're all in line to get the same free base set of tags.
But they're going to have to reach out to us.
But by phone or online and request those tags be sent to them.
If you're a parent just trying to get, um, the base set of tags for a youth hunter,
Make sure you've got the youths information.
Their contact information, date of birth, social security number,
Uh, you know, use the toll free number or get online. You will actually set the child up.
They will be given at that time, a customer ID number which will stick with them throughout the future.
Um, and then they get their tags just like everybody else.
Um, this base set of tags includes,
Three unrestricted antlered buck tags, those are just wildcard.
They're valid for any antlered buck, they're valid across the state in all game zones.
The base set of tags also includes eight date specific antlerless deer tags.
And basically those tags are pre dated, kind of like what we used to call the doe days.
In fact these replace the doe days, but you will have eight of those.
They're only valid notes on those specific dates, no other date, um.
If the date has passed that tag is worthless and if I think the big message to hunters is,
This is basically just like the doe days but you're getting a free tag.
In case you harvest that deer on the doe day, you use that tag.
Now you're going to need to look at your tags that's very important.
If you will take time when you get your tags and read each one of them, you'll see these dates written on them.
Certain parts of the state that they are valid in, certain parts of state that they aren't
Um, for example Game Zone one in the mountains there's very few deer.
We've only had in the past, uh, three doe days up there.
You're only going to have three tags that are valid in that part of the state.
So message is read your tags and it'll be self-explanatory.
When you look at the deer rules and regs it's going to look different this year.
It's going to be very short and to the point.
It's going to basically tell you what the season is because there are no doe days.
You're gonna have a tag that tells you,
It's basically the same days it's been in the past, um, and,
It'll say okay if you want to take an antler-less deer on this day you can and you can use this tag.
Now, um, all resident hunters, whether it's a youth or someone like me that buys their license annually,
Or a lifetime or a senior license, all resident hunters have the option to purchase some additional tags.
Um, you'll have the option to purchase two restricted antlered buck tags.
Those are five dollars apiece,
And what the restriction is an antler restriction and the restriction is four points on one antler,
Or a 12 inch inside antler spread and what that is it's designed to take some of the harvest pressure off the young bucks.
That's a real popular thing among hunters these days.
And it was something that the the legislature was interested in,
Um, on the antler buck side.
Just like in the past resident hunters can purchase their individual antlerless tags, up to four.
These are the same four doe tags that people have always been able to get. They're still five dollars apiece.
We've been getting a good number of calls from non-resident hunters to find out how this affects them.
And it definitely does and it's a little bit different than the situation with residents.
Um, what non-resident adults need to understand is,
They still need to purchase their hunting license, their non-resident big-game permit,
But they've got to purchase their deer tags as well.
They cannot legally deer hunt until they purchase those deer tags.
Um, non-residents are entitled to purchase up to four antlered buck tags, that would include two unrestricted any buck tag.
And then they have the option to purchase the two antler restriction tags, um, just like the resident hunters do.
As far as the cost, the first antlered buck tag anon-resident purchases is $50
They can just get one if they want to, so, that's 50 bucks.
If they want to purchase the other three, in any number of the other three,
They're twenty dollars apiece.
The first buck tag they purchase is an unrestricted and that just makes a good sense,
That if they just want one they should be able to take any buck.
And then thereafter there's really no rhyme or reason to what order they purchase the tags,
And there's no order at all in which they use the tags.
That goes for resident hunters as well, who are going to already have some of these tags.
It doesn't matter which buck tag you use first or last.
Okay that's that's up to the hunter.
Non-residents as in the past had the option of purchasing their individual antlerless tags up to four.
Just like in the past, one change there is they for non-residents they now cost $10 apiece.
So you know, non-residents, they need to take care of their business ahead of time.
One note for non-resident youth hunters, as part of this, they're going to be treated just like a resident youth hunter.
So hunters that are under 16 that live out of state, that may come to South Carolina with their parent or any other adult,
They're entitled to that same free base set of resident type tags.
Which includes the three unrestricted antlered buck tag,
The eight date specific antlerless tags,
Now beyond that, they turn back into a non-resident as far as the optional buck tag.
And then the optional individual antlerless tags.
In the antlerless tags, they've always had to pay for those individual antlerless tags.
So, but at least initially they will benefit as a youth for that free base set of tags.
If some of the questions that we've been getting involved,
Where can I get my tags?
Very important, these tags are not going to be available over the counter at point-of-sales vendors.
Like Walmart, Dick's, Academy, these remote license you know the local bait and tackle shop.
You cannot get these tags over the counter.
They're going to look at you funny if you go in there and start talking about I want my deer tags.
Because they probably don't know anything about this.
Tags will be available over the counter at our main DNR hub offices.
Those are in Charleston, Columbia, both downtown at the Farmers Market, Clemson office, Florence office, and the York office.
So you've got five or six offices that during normal business hours.
You know around the 1st of August, this first cycles when,
Those tags will be available over the counter.
But you will be able to go in and get them like that.
Starting after June 15th, you will be able to go online,
Or use the call center, the toll-free number, of course to get your license your big-game permit,
And you can either if you're a resident requesting tags, you can do so at that point.
Or if you're a non-resident same tags, you can do so at that point.
These tags aren't going to be mailed until much closer to deer season.
But you can go ahead and buy your license, your big game
And put in your order for the deer tags.
You know another important thing to remember is now that we have 365 day licensing,
You may find yourself in a situation that, and I'll use myself as an example.
My license is good until September 26th, that's when I bought it last year.
I'm already in line to receive my resident base set of tags.
My problem is going to be my license is going to expire.
It won't be valid on September 27th.
I'm going to have a set of tags that are valid for the entire 2017 deer season.
So it's going to be my responsibility to legally deer hunt.
I'm going to have to renew my hunting license, so you know a word of caution for folks,
Once you get those deer tags you need to pay attention to when your license expires.
If it expires during the open season for deer.
Another important point is for non-residents,
When they're purchasing all of their tags, and for resident hunters who are purchasing the optional tags.
Other than non-residents being required to purchase the first buck tag and unrestricted tag,
There is no rhyme or reason to which tag they purchase, which tag they use, how many tags they purchase,
You can go back and have multiple transactions during the deer season.
In other words if I were a resident hunter and I forgot my base set of tags,
I want to get one antler restriction buck tag and two of the individual antlerless tags.
I can do that.
And then maybe I go back and get another one to antlerless tags later in the season.
So pretty good bit of flexibility there as far as is, you know,
Kind of a lacarte purchasing those deer tags, um,
The statewide limit on antler deer, for resident hunters is five.
Across the board using the personal license based tags or big-game permit based tags.
For non-resident, the maximum number of antler deer is four.
Now in each case, two of those bucks have to be the antler restriction bucks.
You would have to, you know, you would have to use those antler restriction tags
To fill out that five limit for a resident or four limit for a non-resident.
Um, the daily limit for antlered bucks is two per day for residents and non-residents.
The daily limit for antlerless deer is two per day for residents and non-residents.
And really, from an antlerless deer standpoint, you could take,
If you're a resident hunter with one of the date specific tags, these are all Saturdays.
Just like the doe days used to be.
You could use for example if October 4th is one of your date specific tags,
You could take a doe on that day and in order to take a second one,
You would have to have one of your individual personal tags.
And that's really no different than it's been in the last few years,
As far as it's taking multiple deer on the same day.
There have been no changes to the deer season itself,
Only that, all deer that are harvested must be tagged,
Now there is a limit on antlerless deer.
The things that you need to know to get you through the same seasons we've had,
The have been some changes.
Let me say a word about hunting on our wildlife management areas.
As usual there are some different rules and that's always been the case.
If you're an avid WMA hunter the last few years,
The maximum number of deer that you can take on a WMA is 5.
And that's combined statewide.
If you hunt on this WMA and move around and hunt them all,
You can only take 5 deer, no more than 2 bucks.
Okay, read our rules and regs when it comes out, it will be published on the website
They'll be hundreds of thousands of copies of it.
Most of the WMA regulations haven't changed the use of the individual antlerless tags.
These are the optional tags that hunters have always been able to buy.
Really no changes related to WMAs.
Which you can only use two of them on WMAs
But that's the way it's been in the last few years.
Again an important message for folks if they'll take time and read their tags
This will all make sense to them.
The dates, when they're valid, for what type of deer, what area and so on and so forth.
It'll come together.
Well as part of these changes in understanding that all deer now have to be tagged,
We tried to make some accommodations for archers.
Archery hunters that are in Game Zone one and two will know just what i'm talking about.
In the past they have had the ability during the archery only and primitive weapons season,
To take antlerless deer without tagging them.
So that's a clear conflict with where we're headed with this all deer tagging system.
So to try to defeat that and give them some sort of opportunity like they've had in the past,
When they receive their base set of resident tags, these date specific tags,
They will notice that on one side of the tag, there will be a part that talks about archery.
The message is, is that they can choose to use any of those date specific tags.
On any day during the archery only or primitive weapon season, it's their choice.
If they do take a deer and want to tag that deer on the date it's not supposed to be used,
There's a validation they have to go through.
They have to actually write the true date on the tag and they have to understand,
That they've used that tag and it won't be available.
You know, later in the season when it was supposed to be used,
So, or they can use an individual and one of their personal optional tags just like in the past.
So that was as good as, that was as close as we could come to making up that situation.
With archers kind of having the ability to do a lot of different things.
So the message is during an archery only or primitive weapons season,
After September 15th, that's as early as you can take antlerless deer,
After September 15th, an archery hunter can choose to use any of those date specific tags.
On any day, although there is a validation process to make it legal.
All of this information is available on our website.
That's dnr.sc.gov, we've got it laid out, a special button for
Resident hunters, non-resident hunters, youth hunters, lifetime and senior licensees.
It's tailored for each of those, it will tell you how you can get your tags,
What different types of tags there are,
We've got a list of about 20 frequently asked questions that they can direct to, that we've kind of accumulated.
As this process is because we've been through this process
And we'll be building that as we move forward.