BackWoods Hunter

Buy the DVD the Salerno Brothers made.

3 deer total. Late muzzleloader you can get two tags, one antlerless and one either sex. The third tag is your regular general gun antler tag that you can also use for does in late muzzleloader. http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/8305.html

Is the cost of the fine the problem or is it simply that there aren't enough officers to actually catch people. I think it's the latter.

That was my point. I was being sarcastic. So many here immediately jump to that conclusion just because a guy wants clarification on why a certain law exists. I think they're the same question except that if you break it you're also doing something illegal. That's definitely not a fair assumption although you're clearly not alone with that line of thought. It's also one of the reasons there's so much negativity on many forums, not just this one.

Why is it unacceptable that some people ask why the rules are the rules? Some of you folks need to relax. I'd bet some of those same people that need to relax are also against the safe act and bitch and moan about it. By your own standards you must be criminals. You question that law on this site openly so therefore you must be violating it. Food for thought. Take it for what it is.

The people in charge determine how many deer can be taken in order to manage the herd's health. If too many deer are taken, they will issue less tags. So if what you're asking was legal, few people would shoot many deer, and many people wouldn't be able to even get a license. License might be based on a lottery type system of that were the case. Right now everyone can get a license because as you said, not everyone shoots deer. If every license got filled, they'd be forced to issue fewer.

So I have a theory about this. I haven't thought about it long though so I'm hoping you guys can tell me what mistakes I've made. Deer are nocturnal which means they don't like the light, be it light coming from the moon or the sun. They feel safer when it's dark so they're more active at those times. This means deer are happiest when there's a new moon because there's complete darkness all night long. They are most active from sunrise to sunset. After the new moon, the moon begins to set later. Instead of the deer moving at sunset, they wait for complete darkness when the moon goes down. Eventually more than half the night is lit by the moon. At this point the deer begin to get accustomed to it. They begin being more active at sunset however still prefer to be inactive at sunrise. Next comes the full moon when there is light throughout the night. By now the deer are fully accustomed to the moon light. They move the most from sunrise and sunset. After the full moon, there is complete darkness for a short period of time after sunset but before the moonrise. The deer begin to be active at sunset again. However because they've become accustomed to moving during lit (moonlit) conditions, they continue to be active after the sun rise. Eventually more than half the night is covered in darkness because the moonrise is so much later. The deer are transitioning out of being accustomed to the moon's brightness and become inactive at moonrise. Finally, the cycle repeats itself with the new moon. All of this assumes the air is cool, there are no weather fronts moving through, and the rut is not taking place. Hunting pressure could skew the times towards a more conservative cycle with the deer moving less in the twilight hours.

Lmao!

From Nov 19th - Nov 23rd I was seeing deer every evening. I wasn't hunting mornings. I had two bucks come within 10 yards one night. Another night I had a doe and a fawn come within 10 yards. None of the deer were scenting me or seeing me. I only spooked them when they could here me walking out or in. On the 24th the weather turned hot and it got up into the 60's. After that obviously we had the snow storm and the cold temps that followed. I stopped seeing deer on the 24th. What happened?

Wow

^ ^ ^ ^

For what it's worth: I decided I wanted to hunt bow three seasons ago. I was going to buy a Bowtech. I called a dealer (closest one was pretty far away). The dealer told me they don't recommend them because Bowtech doesn't stand behind their product. They said they had customers returning them because the limbs broke and Bowtech wouldn't warranty them. So after a lot of thought, I had decided to buy one but found out at the last minute that I shouldn't. I still haven't bought a bow. It sucks.

And tonight in 5g... a doe with a fawn in tow.

Had two 4 pts small bodied deer feed on by me in 5g this evening. Still in bachelor groups? That seems odd this late...

Weather coming up looks like it'll be great for deer movement in the ADKs. Since I can't get out, until the week after next I'm looking forward to everyone's reports!