Are you ready for opening day?

Finally, it’s opening day of firearms deer season.

Here’s a quiz to help get you ready:

QUESTIONS

1. If you’re unarmed, is it okay to walk within 150 yards of an occupied resident or farm building while participating in a deer drive?

2. As long as you have a doe tag, can you shoot a doe on opening day?

3. You’ve bagged a big buck. The best place to tie you tag is on one of the antlers, right?

4. Does camouflage fluorescent orange satisfy the blaze orange requirement?

5. Can a junior license holder or mentored youth harvest a spike? What about a senior license holder?

6. Deer are curious animals. While you’re hunting, is it okay to use a cover scent such as vanilla?

7. You’re hunting on state game lands and encounter a group of non-hunters who are just out taking a walk with their dog. None of them are wearing blaze orange – should they be?

8. If you are leaving a tree stand or ground blind on state game lands, you must attach an identification tag. What information must be on the tag?

9. When can a hunter who doesn’t have a doe tag harvest a doe?

10. Can a mentored youth participate in a deer drive?

ANSWERS

1. It is unlawful to hunt for, shoot at, trap, take, chase or disturb wildlife without 150 yards of any occupied residence, camp, industrial or commercial building, farmhouse or farm building, school or playground. It is unlawful to shoot into a safety zone, even if you are outside the safety zone.

2. Hunters may shoot bucks or doe opening day in WMUs 2B, 5C & 5D. All other WMUs, antlered only Nov. 26-30; antlered and antlerless, Dec. 1-8.

3. Nope. The tag should be filled out and attached inside the ear of the animal, with the bar code showing.

4. Camouflage fluorescent orange may satisfy the requirement (250 square inches combined head, chest and back) as long as the total orange content including the hat totals 250 square inches. When I drew a cow tag for the state’s elk hunt, I wanted to wear a camouflage orange fluorescent vest and had this question. The answer was that the vest, along with a solid orange hat or cap, would cover the requirement.

5. Junior license holders, mentored youth, disabled hunters with a permit to use a vehicle, and resident active duty U.S. Armed Services personnel can harvest antlered deer with two or more points on one antler, or a spike three or more inches long. All other hunters, including senior license holders, must abide by the antler restriction – three points on one side in or area.

6. Nope, vanilla scent can’t be used as a cover scent. Hunters can’t use any scents or lures that contain any form of natural or artificial food stuff.

7. Except on Sundays, any person who is present on state game lands from Nov. 15 through Dec. 15 – even someone who is not hunting or trapping – must wear the required minimum of 250 square inches of blaze orange on check, back and head.

8. The identification tag must include the owner’s first and last name and legal home address; or, the CID number of he owner’s hunting license; or, an identification number obtained from the Game Commission (via the website) by the owner.

9. Late-season flintlock hunters are permitted to take an antlerless deer anywhere in the state, as long as they possess an unused antlered deer tag.

10. A mentored youth must be stationary (defined in the game laws as “cessation of all forward, backward or lateral movement”) and within arm’s reach of the mentor at all times while in possession of any lawful hunting device. A mentor and the mentored youth may no possess collectively more than one lawful hunting device while engaged in hunting, and the mentor must carry the device in transit to and from the hunting spot.