KEVA

I would not mention trapping season. If he is an animal lover the thought of trappers will just get him angry and more hostile. I would talk to him about the dogs and how they run deer, mention that is is illegal and explain how it harms the deer. Keep the salt lick to yourself incase talking to him does not work out, and record any conversations with him discretely. Be friendly, it does not sound like he has done anything that bad. He may have seen you shoot the deer and gotten curious, perhaps he was not trying to protect the deer but just wanted to know what you took. The dogs seem like his only foul here. Personally, not a fan of leash laws. I can control my dogs, and it is nice for them to stretch their legs. I do however hate dogs that run deer and feel they should always be leashed or under supervision. Best of luck, stay above reproach!

It is not considered hunting as long as your gun or bow is unloaded.

Nice buck shooter! What do you think the age is on that one? A large 1.5 year old or narrow racked 2.5 year old? With the mass I would guess 2.5. Nice deer, Congrats!

It has been a while since I have been active on the site, but after getting back into archery this year have gone a little crazy again for hunting. Anyhow, I am a college student in Virginia so no longer have many opportunities to hunt in New York. I did have a four day weekend during achery season, so this year I brought my bow south and prepared. I only had two full days and two half days to hunt so I tried to make the best of it. Spent evenings and mornings in stands, and mid day moving stands to better achery locations. Passed on two young bucks my first morning out, had a real nice big bodied buck pass by stand a little too early on my second morning out, but on my third and final morning I had three young bucks come through. I took the lead one which happened to be this small six point. At only fifiteen yards and broadside, I could not have asked for a better opportunity. The ramcat broadhead did its job passing through ribs, lungs, and the heart. The arrow disappeared in the deer, but only came through the otherside when the buck fell about 60 yards away. I like chasing the large bucks as much as anyone, but having not taken a deer with the bow since highschool, I was pumped to put one down. Especially from a stand I had only thrown up the day before. The one picture shows the exit wound in the heart. It may have gone sixty yards, but it was dead the moment it fell. The other two bucks actually stayed around for another ten minutes. Thanks for reading!

My concern would be if your bullets are traveling at the expected rate of speed. Did you use a chronograph to get your fps or go by some previously written expectations? If you used a chronograph I would feel comfortable using the calculator, but if not you may be surprised at the actual fps that your bullets are traveling at which would alter your trajectory. I use my .260 for deer and varmints. I have two different loads, but I sight my gun in with deer rounds before deer season, and varmint rounds after deer season. I do use a calculator to develop trajectory charts, but I get my bullet velocity from a chronograph.

I use 209's and they work nice. Have you tried cleaning out the plug good? I just soaked mine in solvent tonight, and used an appropriate sized drill bit to clean it out good.

Nice pictures, they are a cool animal.

Seems bow and muzzle loader privileges are separate and must be bought. Share tags though. Regular season tag is valid during muzzle loader, but I read nothing that said it became an either sex. Regular season tag is still only for antlered deer. Edit: Upon further review of their website, it seems the regular season tag is either sex during late season.

They are protected in a large part of the state, including where this guy is living.

I was psyched to have seen it, it was 80 yards away silhouetted against the stream. Seeing it cross the beaver dam gave me high hopes of catching it on camera, and fortunately I did.

Managed to catch some pictures of a bobcat in the Central New York area. Saw him while deer hunting and figured catching him on camera would be pretty easy with that beaver dam.

The first and third pics of the same buck have a NY tag. Real nice buck! The tag from the second buck seems to have to sharp of corners for a NY tag.

AR, though I don't know if I would want AR statewide. I feel like the one buck rule would have a limited affect, most people in my area are only rifle hunting anyways. One buck may result in more people not filling their tags out also. I will have to look more into the one buck a year idea.

More entertaining because I love observing deer, and there will be a lot more bucks. Including a lot more 2.5 year olds and other mature deer which are a rarity in a lot of areas. Being to observe more bucks and have and improved chance of taking a mature deer is why I would consider hunting more entertaining, but I see how you can consider this opinion. As for the DEC making more money, I don't know that they will. Just responding to the argument that this is all about the money. Just saying increased revenue for our conservation department is a plus for us. If a poacher takes a 1.5 year old, he instantly puts a target on his back as everyone will know he took it illegally. If he is checked he won't be able to fill out his tag quick or say he forgot to fill out his tag. He will be caught for what he was doing, poaching. If they start taking the older deer, they will likely brag about which will also lead to being caught. It will not end poaching, but it will make poaching a little tougher.

Stop generalizing. One AR supporter mentioned 90 to 100" deer. That is not what I am after, and I am sure many other AR supporters are also not after that. I like the concept of AR because it provides a healthier deer herd and more entertaining hunts. Throw in that ARs will make poachers easier to catch. I love that part of ARs though it may not be a good reason to enact ARs. The improved opportunity to get a trophy is a plus also, but trophies should not dictate our policies either. If larger bucks in NY produce more revenue for our struggling DEC department, then why not consider that a plus too. I am unsure what DEC employees are making, but I doubt it is a significant amount as most conservation officers nationwide don't make much. More revenue for them will improve their ability to conserve our hunting grounds. How often do we hear how budget cuts for the department our going to negatively impact NY sportsman? Antler restrictions will hardly affect our opportunities to take bucks. There will be fewer legal bucks, but not a whole lot fewer. I do agree that young hunters should be exempt. However, as SteveNY mentioned, young hunters ARE exempt. Imagine that...

Dave6x6, pretty sure your buck is his big bro, not twin. Don't mean to offend you or anything, but your buck is not that small or young. Nice deer!

citiot=city idiot At least that is how I interpreted it. You know, the city folk who come out one weekend and rampage through the woods, and don't have much of a clue as to what they are doing or much respect for the locals. Not that I look down on city people, I don't even use the term though I find it humorous. We do need to be conscious of what the general public thinks of us, and the best way to do that is to be well educated on hunting and deer management practices. The general public should not be able to compete with our knowledge of deer hunting practices. As the article SteveNY posted mentioned, ARs are not all about raising trophy deer. It supports a healthy deer herd. Many hunters may only support it to increase their chances of getting a trophy, but ARs do much more than increase the number of trophy deer. Personally, I have a hard time taking anti AR arguments seriously when they discuss how it will be fuel for the antis. ARs back up hunters role in managing healthy deer populations and therefore support hunting activities. Why are hunters stepping back from better fulfilling their beneficial role simply because they are afraid of antis? You want to knock ARs, go ahead. Just don't take the BS argument that we will get our butt kicked by antis because of it. I won't let antis stop me from hunting responsibly. Thanks for the articles SteveNY

Nice to see some pictures showing up again, and some snow. Having that many bucks show up so late in the season should mean good things for next year.

I really don't know how shooting deer from a vehicle on a roadway constitutes as hunting. I would never be able to do that with a clean conscious. I know it may be rough to see an old hunter who can't get around the woods anymore, but how often do we hear stories even on this forum of the younger or healthier outdoors man helping an older man out to a stand or sitting location to deer hunt. I can't say what I would have done, but I certainly would not have shaken his hand and wished him good luck. You really want to do him a favor, take him hunting. Like the guys already mentioned, he might not be able to hunt his old way. He can still drive up to a blind or something. I guess my real point is, if you want to turn a blind eye it is your decision. He is violating the law and if he was caught I would not shed a tear, neither would I care if you got caught helping him. I don't know where you get off saying that everyone should be accepting of his illegal behavior. I understand he is not healthy enough to walk the woods, but I do not see what there is to be tolerant of? Help him out by taking him hunting, not by encouraging his illegal behavior and walking away. You did not help him out, just walked away leaving him in his same old sad predicament. Who knows maybe I would have looked away, doesn't make it right. It is sad, but truth is he should lay down his rifle or get some help.

I doubt the DEC would try to make trouble where they felt there was no need. I don't know your situation wooly, but the DEC must have felt it was reasonable for you to be on the property. When i was discussing the warning thing, I just meant to point out that the DEC does not have the ultimate say. They may successfully resolve the situation with a warning. However, looking at the law, I believe the land owner could forget about the DEC warning and pursue trespassing charges. I am not disagreeing that the DEC give warnings or with their decision to do so. Just saying that I would not bet on only getting a warning, I would think the land owner could make quite a mess for you.

He is right about the unimproved part, but that is a gray area. Most areas have fields around them. Fields=improvement->trespassing. Any paths or trimmed trees constitute as improvement. I never saw anything about having a clearly defined border, just improved land. Would be pretty easy for most land owners to demonstrate that their land has been improved. As for the DEC get caught once get a warning, twice and trespassing. I would question if that is the law or the way they handle the situation. A pissed off landowner may not bite on a warning and pursue charges. Not to mention if you shoot a deer then get caught, have a fun time retrieving your deer from a pissed off landowner. Like stated earlier, it is YOUR responsibility to know where you are hunting, not the land owners.

If its posted they have no excuse for crossing over onto your property. Catch one and prosecute. I am sure your neighbor will begin stressing the importance of staying off your property after that. Horribly disrespectful and outright illegal on their part.

I do not think that is deer hair. Besides, if it was a coyote chewing on a deer i would expect some blood or flesh. Must be some other animal, perhaps lost from fighting. Hawk kill seems reasonable.

Sorry BVET, the filling of other people's tags was not directed at anyone specific. Never meant to suggest you did it. Just pointing out to the many people who may read this forum that do use others' tags, that they are in the wrong. The early years of a buck may be pretty easy to pick out by amount of antler, but once they start maturing I would think the food and genetics would alter the antler size too much to consistently guess age right. Of course a well experienced eye may pick up on many other factors of the deer we may not even be able to describe and come to an accurate conclusion. Definitely a three legged stool: genetics, food, and maturity. My main point earlier was to refute the idea that antlers should not be used to estimate a deers age. I personally feel comfortable estimating a buck's age by his antler growth, though I do also take into consideration its body form.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7494.html They are listed as endangered. If they were naturally coming back it would be a true shame to shoot one.