Why is hunting season primarily during the winter?

Hunting seasons are generally based on when the game animal has no responsibilities to raising young. This includes pregnancy.
Brent
 
Yes, that, and also that is when primarily agricultural societies have time off from farming chores.
 
yes hogdogs has it spot on. in addition to what he said you can add a couple of minor reasons. hunting in the summer can get unpleasant due to the heat. there is so much flies that they can ruin the meat. the heat itself can spoil the meat. summer rains and the following plant growth sometimes makes it impossible to spot the animals. having said this i firmly believe the main reason that most hunting is done in the winter is the the almost absence of snakes;)

man i hate those things
 
The other have pretty much stated it....hunting seasons are primarily determined by the time of year in which the young are no longer dependant on the the adults, and the adults aren't carrying any young.

Figuring in these factors allows the wildlife biologists to calculate the estimated bag limits needed to maintain the population at both a sustainable and balanced level to meet the carrying capacity of the habitat on a year round basis.
 
Our hunting season's are mostly in the fall. Our carrying capacity has to be met before hard winter sets in. We might see -40 before winter starts, if we waited that long not many hunters would participate. that would be disastrous in some forested areas.
 
I hunt in the winter months mainly because of the heat. The flys are unbearable here. It is also hard to keep meat if you are out for more than the one day.

Keeping food is another problem in the eskys the ice melts too quick, oh yeah and the beer.

Hunting in summer months does have it's advantages animals venture further looking for food. Also you can bet they will turn up at a water hole on dusk. It isjust unpleasant during the peak of the sun.
 
I was going to say something about how uncomfortable thinsulate lined camo coveralls would be on a florida july day!:D
Brent
 
Another reason is because it is mating season for most large game and you can take advantage of this to help your success. Turkeys breed in the spring and most turkey seasons are in the Spring. Most duck seasons are timed to coincide with the southern migration in the winter. When ducks are moving.
 
All of the answers above (well,most of them;) ) are correct.

Before the invention of the wall outlet, people didn't have any way to plug in their refrigerators. They had to rely on nature's refrigeration, so there was a major push to stock up after the first major frost of the late Fall and before the onset of deep Winter. Thus, there is a bit of tradition involved, which scientific research has proved to be helpful to the health of the game animals.

Pops
 
My theory is to avoid conflicts with fishing. I really hate having to choose between hunting and fishing although duck hunting and fishing might be a good combination.
 
Why?

I really hate having to choose between hunting and fishing although duck hunting and fishing might be a good combination.
Click to expand...

Why do you have to choose? My son a few years ago at the start of the fishing season - an early morning hunt followed by fishing.

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Hunting is allowed all year round here in New Zealand. When hunting in winter and my hands are freezing I look forward to the summer. Then in summer when toiling up the hills I look forward to the cool winter days when you don't have to get up so early and can sleep in longer.:)
 
Always heard less ticks on game animals. Also before a good freeze our squirrels have worms in them. ( think its called wolves??)
 
I personaly think its because some idiot decided to make you wake up at 3 am and freeze your butt of while sitting in a tree for hours at a time
 
Those aren't worms in the squirrels. They are bot fly larva. They don't hurt the meat as they live just below the skin. That said, the thought of eating a squirrel that had them puts me off my feed.

Doug
 
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