Somewhat. Our state's laws have always been very, very lax for deer hunting (I'm in the SC Lowcountry - Upstate laws are a little more strict than down here). Our season typically goes from August 15 to January 1. 10 deer limit from public lands (though only does need to be tagged, making bucks in the limit effectively on the honor system). You can apply for up to 4 doe tags if you wish. On private lands, there is no limit (I know people that have killed dozens of deer per year - 1 I know has taken over 100 a few years).
Weapon restrictions - while still hunting you can't use buckshot or rimfire on public lands. On private lands you can use anything you want - including rimfire if you really want to.
Dog Hunting - here is the current hotbed of activity, and the cause for most of our problems. For those that aren't familiar with it, dog hunting for deer is essentially where you take a trained pack of dogs into a section of woods that is surrounded by hunters with buckshot (legally you have to use buckshot for this). The dogs will "jump" a deer, and you can typically know where the deer is by their yelping. Eventually they'll run it out of the area, and one of the shooters that is close to it will shoot the deer as it exits the surrounded area (usually called the "drive"). You're not allowed to use your doe tags while dog hunting - bucks only except on designated "either sex" days (in which case even if you have doe tags they're not required).
Now, I've hunted like this all my life. My first deer I ever killed was dog hunting, but personally, I think it's an activity that's run it's course. Typical things that happen while out there (this is not everyone who dog hunts - I do it myself - just a sizeable number of them).
(1) Drinking. Guns and alcohol don't mix well, but it seems like the majority of dog hunters don't get that. Even though it's illegal, rather than just NOT DRINKING, tons of them just have developed more clever ways to hide their beer.
(2) Completely ignoring authorized areas of where you can and can't have motor vehicles. There are tons of gated roads that are closed to motorized traffic. Tons of these hunters though will walk down the road, and if they kill a deer they get lazy about dragging or carting it out. Their solution? Grab their giant 4x4 and drive around the gate (knocking over sapplings and anything else in the way) to go get the deer.
(3) THE WORST. Absolutely, insanely, ridiculously dangerous shooting etiquette. These guys, I kid you not, will "string" down a road, and consider it ok to shoot down the road with other people down there if a deer is crossing it. In their minds it's safe if everyone stands on the same side of the ditch because then you can shoot the deer when he's on the other side. As if 15 degrees of barrel travel away from another person makes it ok. While I know if no one who has actually been killed yet, I know 2 people who have been shot. When I've gone lately, I try to actually walk into the woods where I'm alone, or get on a long clearing where there's no one else. Inevitably though you get the idiots jumping into their trucks (communicating over CB as if it were a military operation) driving all around trying to catch up with the dogs. If I see some idiot stop his truck near my secluded stand and do that stupid hand motion for me to move to the same side of the clearing as him (so he can have that "safe" shot if it presents itself), I pack my stuff and head home.
This also causes issues in that the law *CURRENTLY* allows for these idiots to "string" the side of a major highway. They're standing around with shotguns on the side of the road waiting to shoot a deer in the middle of the street and have the gaul to get pissed off if a loud car comes by (I kid you not - they'll start waving their hat like crazy to "flag" the car because the cars should obviously slow down so as to not spook the deer). Now this isn't in a residential neighborhood or anything - it's paved highways running through the woods, but still, dozens of guys lined up shooting deer along the same roads truckers are flying down is just stupid.
(4)Dogs running wild. They've tried to get high tech with tracking collars, but the reality is people are lax about keeping their dogs in a certain area. You have dogs running onto private lands. This presents two issues. For one, sometimes they're running onto private hunting clubs. Still hunters, understandably, are 3 shades of pissed when they're up there on their stand and a pack of dogs comes blazing through running away every deer for miles. Secondly though, a ton of the dog hunters somehow think that if their dogs cross onto private lands, then they still have the right to essentially tresspass to stop the dogs (and kill the deer they're running) until they get the dogs back.
Also - for some stupid reason, though this tradition has mostly died out (either through many old men who did it literally dying off, or the younger ones who did it getting enough tickets to make them stop), these idiots often go out dog hunting on the 4th of July. Completely illegal, but someone goes out and does it at least once a year. 9 times out of 10 they get caught. Idiots.
The state has done a lot to reduce dog hunting lately - used to be every weekend some public hunt unit was open for dogs. Now that's been reduced down to just 4-5 weekends out of the whole season (it's always open on private lands still though). There's been efforts to make it illegal to stand/hunt along a road open to traffic. Hasn't passed yet, but likely will soon. I also heard that there's proposed legislation that will stipulate that if a game warden catches a dog with your collar on it outside of the the area open for dogs more than 3x, you lose your license for the season. Already I'm hearing them chuckle "Well hell we'll just start runnin' 'em without names on the collars!".
Idiots. Sorry for the rant, but yes, in this regard, as the laws tighten down for this particular area, I'm definitely seeing some resistance to it. If they changed the way they did things, then dog hunting COULD be done in a safe manner, but most of these people just aren't interested in that, and so by their own actions I'd wager that the state will have it outlawed completely within 10 years. Truthfully, despite having enjoyed it (when done right) for all my life, I must say that I couldn't disagree with that decision at this point.
