Meat Manager

My buddy and I each got a doe on the southern tier yesterday, the deer were definitely moving all morning.

Here she is:

Got this doe yesterday morning hunting the southern tier yesterday. This is my third deer/doe of the season (2 Gun, 1 Archery). My buddy got one shortly before I did, making that his 6th (1 Buck PA, 2 Bucks NY, 3 Does NY).

Touch Screen Liner Gloves by Burton Bloodproof/Waterproof iPhone Case: http://www.amazon.com/Krusell-SEaLABox-Universal-WaterProof-SmartPhones/dp/tech-data/B004YIZXHY

No, but quite a few are taken every deer season, including this monster (which to be fair is more likely just a ferrel farm hog), and these (sorry I just did a quick search, these are all from 2009): http://blog.syracuse...gs_huge_wi.html http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/2009/12/cny_wild_boar_update_theyre_st.html

Chunky doe, finally got some hangin weather!

Does that are not mated in the first rut will go through another estrus about 28 days later. Bucks will respond accordingly. Full moon and snow covered ground, I saw a group of deer for the first time in three weeks this morning. By anecdotal accounts the first rut was weak this year do to high temps, but from my own observations was right on the full moon, November 9,10 (check my live from the stand report from that day: ). I would say with this cooperative weather there is potential for a decent second rut that may rival the split first rut.

Nyantler I am suprised you are still trying to convince old-timers who are upset because they can't hunt in the exact same place every single season with the exact same results, especially when decades have passed and ecologies have changed. Your mistake here is believing in science and common sense, 60* days all november just makes too much sense for these anecdote loving grumpy old men. Don't you know DEC & Scientifically collected statistics are a big consipiracy to kill all your deer!!!!!!! Oh yeah, old guys (and not-so-old guys), maybe its your ATV you drive in to haul you and "drag" your trophy with, giving away your position before you get there.

Looks like a lot of activity with the snow on the ground and the full moon (2nd rut?). I got into my stand about 6:15 snowing with about 1.5 inches on the ground. Had three good sized but tweaking doe (not another hunter in the woods, don't think they knew I was there but they were spooked) ping-ponging back and forth through the thick hardwoods...had a couple brief broadside shots @40yds but was too picky, they finally took a quick straight line but the first open shot I had was at 100yds with open sites and sluggers...combed the ridge for signs of wounds, but I am confident I missed her clean (combed the hill, no blood, not a hair). First miss this season, it happens I guess. Packed it in, got lots to do today before an all day Stand-Still-Drive hunt on some untouched private property tomorrow...1 Reg, 1 DMP and 1ML/BOW tag yet to fill, 10 days to do it!

Started my still hunt around 12:30...cool, light rain covered my noise for the most part...did hear something ahead for a while, Made it to the stand around 3, fingers crossed.....tempted to put out an estrus bomb for potential second rut full moon coming this weekend.

Another insane response...anecdotal responses on a message board is not a scientifically conducted survey. Oh but at the same time you are discounting archers reports (that makes a lot of sense since successful archers have to be much more aware of deer activity then typical gun only hunters, not too mention we have had an opportunity to see the deer before you guys push them into panic mode). Finally, I joined this board early in november when my deer sightings dropped (and when the temps skyrocketed, hmmmm) to try to glean new info from other hunters, I am sure alot of other people use this site more when they are not seeing deer, thus a higher population sample of frustrated hunters....the inverse also seems true with most guys posting their harvest days or weeks after they occurred, indicating they visit the site less when there is success in sightings or harvest. I'm done with this thread...I'll go back to just reporting live from the stand nearly every day.

I guess they don't want to track a deer, or have much left to eat for that matter. So windy by the lake this morning I sat in my treestand outback overlooking the neighbors meadow for the first time all season. When it is windy like this they often come into the open just off the hedgerow in large groups (6 - 9 ). Just heard my dogs whining so I came in to leave them out....sittin at the table window hunting for now. If the wind dies down I might head out with the climber later on and get on some fresh sign.

There you go using math and scientifically collected data and common sense....don't you know these guys have a feeling it's because all the hunters who don't hunt enough are killing too many does resulting in less bucks seen during the day? Seriously though Larry, thanks for the breath of fresh air. Way above average temps just makes too much sense for some of these guys. My boy who is an excellent hunter has legally bagged about 14 deer in the past three seasons between PA & NY hunting only a handful of days. He has 3 this year in as many attempts including a 9 point today. I am an average hunter, but I haven't made tag soup in the 7 years I have hunted in Ny

More anecdotal responses...and someone please show me where the average deer take has gone down 22%...in 1991 the take was 212,000; in 1999 it was 255,000; last year it was 230,000, that seems somewhat level over the past two decades. http://www.dec.ny.go...door/42246.html

I am not gonna go as far as to call myself a good hunter, but as I pointed out before, I am pretty confident in my own awareness of the deer patterns in my area at all times during the season and beyond. I am very aware of where the deer have gone, I just can't hunt them there at night. I obviously know that "a little pressure from hunters is a good thing." The original point you made was that because fewer hunters are dedicated to hunt beyond the first days of gun season we have seen less deer in the past several years (which is not the case for me, only this year seems atypical, and the weather has been just that, atypical), and I say this is nonsense, if anything the trapsing of the typically loud, stinky, and unaware gun hunters push the deer nocturnal regardless of weather. And yeah, the OP was about the whole deer season, which for me started in September when i traveled 1:15 each way twice a week to start scouting my Northern Zone archery stands. I don't think the lack of a full rut or low sightings in archery had anything to do with hunting pressure.

Here is information on why deer populations need controlled (so that it doesn't glut, ever hear of chronic wasting), and how filling doe tags is a critical part of that effort: http://www.dec.ny.go...imals/7211.html This is not new info here is an article from 1955 that is pretty concise: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1130476/index.htm Get educated. By the way I am not one of the posters asking "where are the deer?" I know where they are (because I continue to scout before, throughout, and after the season is well over), bedded down in the thick stuff and moving pretty much only at night thanks to the weather.

First of all, @Doc since when do good hunters rely on other hunters in the woods? A good hunter patterns deer all season, regardless of hunting activity. That is what I try to do. Second, @Ncountry, shooting does is NOT the problem with sighting deer...Thanks to @nyslowhand for actually linking some statistics, rather than just listening to guys whine about the DEC. Anecdotal declines in sightings like your alfalfa field probably have more to do with ecological changes immediately in your area...and sitting and getting zero seen a couple nights is not anything more than an anecdote. The fact is that DEC, or in PA DCNR (which most of these whiners would really hate, with statewide antler restrictions, and very staggered deer seasons) IMPROVED the size of the heard over time (doubled it from 1980 to 2010). I would agree with most reasonable and knowlegable members on this board. The fact is the weather was tough all year 2011, in the winter it was extremely hard with inches of snow on the ground for more than 90 straight days in most regions of the Northeast, let alone NY. Now, during the season 60 degree temps and crystal clear nights THROUGHOUT November = Deer moving at night! That is why you aren't seeing them. Just check your bedding and feeding areas for droppings and then come back and tell me there are no deer. This thread is getting ridiclulous...nearly everyone agrees its a slow year for sightings, but blaming other hunters for not being in the woods (I wish they would all stay away from my hunting spots), or people who are doing their part filling doe tags (which I paid for, and which is the real herd management portion of hunting, taking trophies does nothing in that respect), or even stupider yet, blaming the DEC who actually uses real studies including radio-tag deer to determine actual herd size, not PERCIEVED herd size according to anecdotes.

Got into the #1 stand around 6:15...seen zero, packed it in at 9:30 and still hunted the edges of the thickest thickets on the way back to the truck, took about an hour or so, seen zero.

Nothing but a turkey seen last night. Got stuck with some construction chores today, so I am hunting from the kitchen window this afternoon. I am looking forward to a few chilly mornings in a row. Nice work on that doe grow, I wouldn't feel so bad about those little ones you orphaned...my buddy would have dropped them as well without a hesitation (the young ones are tenderest), I probably would have too if I had the tags.

I hunt the public land all around Coldbrook in Homer...we have quite a pig population around here thanks to them, but I have heard good things about hunting there.

I have not and will not ever attempt this... However, my salty grandfather will slit the throat quickly with a very sharp knife (as all of my grandfathers knives are at all times) during flint-lock in PA. He insists he is less likely to lose a deer this way, rather than take the time to reload the flint-lock. He will also use this method when picking up roadkill...another practice I typically avoid.

First off I harvested two doe so far, 1 early in archery, 1 on the gun opener. Both early morning on the setting waning quarter moon. I will say that my deer sighting average has been going down steadily since the 1st week of Archery (the last time the average temps were remotely seasonal, and the last time I saw more than 5 deer in a day), and it has to be my worst by now as well. I had a few nice chasing encounters right on the rut full moon (2 breeding pairs in 1 morning), but other than that rut sign was very low, leading me to believe the split rut theory. As for the reason, I have to go with weather...I do not believe that the DEC's management has much to do with it (other than the potential problems with the "nuisance tags" mentioned by someone above). I know there are plenty of deer around here, 50-100 at a time were out in the fields midday-dusk all Spring & Summer, and I know many of them are still here, cause the bedding and feeding areas are still loaded with droppings. So, I think the main reason you, me, and many others are reporting a slow season is because these deer have had every reason just to stay out at night and bedded down close to food and water during the day. The nights have been warm and clear, the days even more so...check your calendar, its December 1st and Philadelphia, PA has had more snow than entire southern zone.

Zero seen last night. Today I still hunted the 300 yards of edges leading up to my #2 stand....had some on and off freezing rain for noise cover. Just got up in the tree @2...calm, cloudy, a little cooler than the past two days....if its brown it's down!

None seen last night. Today i took my gun for a long loop walk to my stand dragging the tarsal from my last doe...took about an hour....made to my stand about 2. First time using tarsal....got the deer from this stand 11 days ago.