http://www.vasportsmen.com/forums/
Good place to start.
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fishing are helpful too. Here's a link to the
regulations book.
To your questions:
Yes. A ton of deer. Big game tag is 6 deer (3 either sex, 3 antler less) 3 turkeys and 1 bear. Unlimited
antler-less bonus tags ($18 per 6 deer).
Season varies depending on where you are. Near DC (ie: Northern Virginia) you can't use a center fire rifle in Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria or Prince William. Prince William will allow you to use a muzzleloader or shotgun though (I do a lot of hunting there). 40 minutes outside DC, Faquier or Loudon County, and you can.
There are fundamental differences in how government operates, and levels of local control, between Eastern States and western states. Much has to do with how they were founded. In Virginia, there are still weird land laws on the books that derive from how the original deeds were handed down from the king of England (you actually find that up and down the east coast). For instance, everywhere else the border between states is in the middle of the river. Along the Chesapeake and Potomac River, Maryland owns the river up to the Virginia shore (and there is ongoing dispute over whether its the high tide or low tide mark).
Season length varies considerably based on where you are in Virginia (so does the timing of the rut). In the 4 or 5 counties near DC, you can hunt deer basically 9/1 through 3/27. Every day. Bag limit in VA is 2 a day. But in those same populated NoVA counties it's unlimited. Want to kill 20 a day? Go for it.
Never heard of a magazine restriction. I've hunted with a WASR once, just to do it. It usually isn't a problem, my go to gun is a Rem 700 in .280 rem. it holds 5 rounds.
The individual local restrictions on guns (as opposed to season dates and harvest limits - which are set by the state)
are here. Basically, in Virginia, the local form of government is a county (there are a few towns, but most are unincorporated areas within a county and are governed by a county). I'd chalk these local restructions up to two things. First, many of them are designed as safety measures. And are generally reasonable (and, Loyalist Dave, Maryland has some of the same funky restrictions. In some areas its even worse. In others, better). But there's a whole bunch that have originated out of a desire to enact some form of gun control, which the counties are generally prohibited from doing. So rather than banning guns, they put in place controls on the discharge of some.
Its really not that confusing, if you know where your hunting (and indeed, you need to know which county your in in order to check your game - no different than how you check game by management zone out west).
There is a numbered complete list of every kind of ever specific different county restriction in the state (there are 79 total), and then a chart of all the counties listing which applies where.
For instance: Fairfax 2, 25, 45
2. No rifles larger than .22 for hunting.
25. No hunting with firearms of game species from within 100 yds. of a road.
45. All rifles, pistols, or shotguns loaded with slugs are prohibited for any hunting.
That may seem restrictive until you realize that Fairfax is one of the more densly populated areas in the country. There are a few places that you could probably safely hunt with a rifle, but frankly most of Fairfax is urban or heavy suburban (town home developments, homes on 1/4 acre lots). Great urban archery hunting. And you can use buckshot. But nothing that's gonna travel 100 yards or more.
Loyalist Dave mentioned the magazine restriction. That only applies to Buckingham County. Its a very rural county. And there really shouldn't be an issue like this here. However, its just south of Charlottesville (aka, University of Virginia, aka lots of rich liberals). My guess is that this was an attempt to restrict the use of modern sporting rifles of the type that give liberals the heebee jeebees. Screw 'em.
Only down side in VA is the Sunday hunting ban (well, there if you are a waterfowl hunter and you live in Northern Virginia there is a real issue with that ownership of the Potomac thing. You need a non resident license to hunt the Potomac and Chesapeake for ducks. AND, if your on the non-tidal Potomac (area just above Great Falls, ie: 6 miles up river from DC) you can only hunt it if your hunting with a Maryland resident). Sunday hunting bans are generally in place in some form from NC up through New England. It's a relic of colonial times and the need to be in church on Sunday. VA and PA have the worst laws (basically complete bans - unless your chasing Fox's on horse or going to a couple of bird shooting preserves). MD allows Sunday hunting for deer on private land. So does North Carolina. We've been fighitng ofr it in Virginia, but the Republican party controls the state and they refuse to allow it (bet you didn't expect to see an issue where the Democrats where 1000 times better on hunting/shooting issues than Republicans). Its a real strange aliance between The Church (Pat Robertson, he's headquartered in Norfolk, VA), the
Farm Bureau (they consider Sunday a day of rest and their membership has adopted policy that states you should be in church on Sunday and not out hunting because god commands it and the animals need to celebrate the Sabbath too) and the Humane Society of the United States/PETA. Believe me, its bizarre to see Farm Bureau lobbyists and HSUS/PETA lobbyists working the same issues. And Republicans supporting them.
Also, we have some
Elk. The are in far SW corner and are treated as white tail for game tag purposes. Except you need to take them to physical check station, no phone or Internet check. And in 3 counties where they are being introduced you can't shoot them as of last year (most of the elk we have wandered over from TN and Kentucky).
We also have some limited numbers of
Sika on the eastern shore. Maryland has more, and a growing population (
and well established seasons) but we do have some (though it doesn't look like they are open for hunting this year). They are small elk from Japan. Some guy brought them over 100 years ago, they escaped and now we have a full sized heard wandering in the swamps. Not much bigger than a dog. Small rack.
But super tasty.
Any specific questions, feel free to ask here or via PM or at
vasportsmen (and mark me down as referrer please!). Also check out the reg book. It's pretty clear. And it's much easier and clearer here in the east than out west with lotteries and stuff and the need to buy a license (or enter a lottery ) 8 months in advance for the chance to shoot a single deer. We can guarantee you won't go hungry.
