dbHunterNY

vegetarian quiche?! oh hell no.

WTF?!?! i don't know what a "big chunk" of land is but i assure you i can't fit enough hunters on the farm to lease, have it pay all the taxes, and not have them think it's worth the money i'd have to charge them. any landowner i know of would care about taking advantage of a tax break. i'm not even in a really high tax area compared to some areas in NY. i just thought it up in my head. i'd be charging each of you at least $2k to hunt and you'd all be up each others a** and could have conversations treestand to treestand.

i have a lot.... taking my 3.5 yr old daughter hunting, checking trail cams, etc. gun hunting big woods public land up north with my dad, uncles, and cousins. stories of one afternoon with cousins and brother bowhunting public land up north. i tagged a buck and it was an hilarious getting it miles back to the truck. lots more.... but probably the favorite is first buck. i was on my own with him not far away. i was sitting in his go to stand that became mine that he took me before i was old enough to hunt. i think dad was happier than i was when he saw the 4x2 buck. i'm guessing it was a 2.5 yr old.

https://www.qdma.com/about/whitetail-reports/ ...yup.

this past year i won a free deer processing at a banquet. they did a great job, but not compared to what i would do myself. it's not practical for any deer processor to vest the time into each deer like i do with my own though. i trim like a lunatic even for ground meat which we use a lot of. the quality of ground venison i got from the processor wasn't as good as my own. it was much more "gamey" tasting without trimming deer fat other tissues as much as i do. it's a disappointment that's sticking with me. partly because i've never otherwise had a deer cut up by anyone other than myself.

it'd be interesting to know how the non-traditional path hunters vary in reasons they hunt. as in ones that have been doing it now for a while and joined others. one's that just started. i'd think many start for simple minded goals that are listed above but once they've been doing it they realize other reasons they're do it all factor in? i know they're achievement based and with context more aimed at the person. i look at a bank of memories, helping others tag something, and leaving the deer and/or habitat in a better place all achievements.

i've put venison in the freezer every year since i was old enough to hunt. most of what we eat throughout the year is venison. i feel that not having meat that year is very much a reason for concern. i don't necessarily care about the meat so much as what it might represent. if nothing goes in the freezer some year it means i'm no longer a provider that in mind my i want to be. deer numbers might be lower. i might have had unrealistic expectations. most likely i didn't put enough time and effort into enjoying hunt for myself. if my desire to hunt wanes then i have to think others less vested can or did too. i could think of other reasons too but all are bad.

maybe. it still seems that people are hunting together to an extent. not in the same treestand but the same property public or private. seems like i see a change in hunters flocking to or away from certain properties more so than the actual number of hunters changing. honestly others have posted how hunters might have something in life make them hunt less or more or be out of it completely but only temporarily. i've seen this happen too. ...i think the point i'm trying to make is a lot happens to make the perceived hunter density fluctuate wildy. i don't think anyone could truly notice a change that wasn't coincidentally in line with published data or something on paper that looks at more than you or i privy to.

every bit of public land in the southern zone at least is surrounded by some property that's not and can't be hunted. as private land access goes down, some will flock to public land versus quit. as public land gets more crowded i'd imagine deer will flock to adjacent not hunted property more and more. when that happens not many tags will be filled on that public land and then hunters will lose interest if they can't find somewhere else. so i'd think.

my younger cousin took forever to get his license because football prevented him from attending the course. if he missed practice he was benched for at least one game. he was a valued player too, but it was the same for everyone.

i'm just reading through and commenting where i feel like it. I don't think antler score is readily reported in VT. recorded would be a more accurate term. 126" is a nice buck especially in VT, but i know for a fact that there are others substantially bigger than that taken both that year and last year. i also know of hunters there who have hit lists with bucks that big. most on private land but not all of them. asking to see proof of them though is equivalent to talking to a wall. you aren't getting anything. carry on!

i agree with FSW in that access worth pursuing or obtaining will be more and more difficult. with every inheritance, property gets chopped and divided up. otherwise, it's more and more becoming not affordable for a single individual to keep. taxes on our property here in NY are far into five figures. to keep it, it has to be farmed and pull in revenue. finding time to do so with a day job, is a real *&^%$%. it's not a lifestyle and financial overhead that many are willing or have the resources to pursue. those that can afford larger tracts consuming a whitetails home range are in it for other reasons than deer, so it turns into leased ground. those with smaller parcels under several hundred acres are left with feeling limitation on how they can hunt or better their hunting. hunt a property small enough and any effort to be selective in your harvest goals or to try and manage the land might seem like a lost cause with little results to show for your efforts. also, hunting is less and less a tradition than it is a hobby or pass time. the latter comes and goes. it's human nature to continue something only if you're good at it and see results. in today's world, immediate are even more the focus. i've said it before technology and things like social media put only the very best results at your finger tips. you now have unrealistic goals or believe you can't keep up with the pack so some might think "what's the point?" in reality the anticipation and enjoyment of the whole process is where it's at and more of a guaranteed return. we all know a good portion of license holders go Average hunting age is higher and inline with baby boomer generation. as they (or you. lol) become old enough, such that hunting is parred back a bit or stopped, there will inevitably be an overall decrease in hunters. without mentoring and change we won't recruit anyone to replace enough of them. less and less there's participation the more the general public can say it's irrelevant and not needed. we're currently in a position where deer thrive in most of the country and this state. they are in abundance so much that putting people's wants and desires over what might ensure deer are best off may seem acceptable. i don't think too many people, including myself, believe deer are in danger of being wiped out any time soon. instead they seem to be doing just fine. that might be a scary mindset though. change especially when it comes to anything with natural presence might be subtle, until you wake up one day with more and more people saying "what the h*&^ happened to the deer?!" then again, maybe the novel idea of whitetail diseases becomes something real here in NY. something that would cause merciless and swift change. i do think there seems to be provisions to combat most of this, so my outlook still isn't all doom and gloom. i also don't let the fear of the future kill my efforts to enjoy hunting today and tomorrow. i think discussions like this are warranted all the same. if you don't realize and acknowledge what might be coming down the road. at some point you'll realize you're stepping out into traffic when it's too late.

i've gotten out of it due to access and i've only got so much time, money, and space for toys right now.

anywhere with my dad, brother, uncles, and cousins who hunt. consume a whole lodge for a long week or more of hunting whatever big game animal. stories always happen but since our generation has grown up and their generation gotten older. the logistics of that happening is impossible. those experiences made me a hunter for life. it wasn't about old ways of hunting or new ways of hunting. who's mount would get bested. it was just about as another thread put it "the journey" and anticipation.

i mean i get it, that stuff was his livelihood. not sure where you'd draw the line, but i agree the situation you mentioned was for a noble cause. seemed off to our group too. regardless, someone else stepped up with another set that is being used quite a bit, including on a 4-H Shooting Sports trailer traveling throughout the state. he was a God fearing man though, did his part towards education, and seemed to be a genuine person if you met him. little if any bitter feelings here.

on pages i'm associated with we've shared the hell out of it.

bluntness of the 4th tooth back one would think it's older but when looking at both sides you can tell the tips (lingual crests) are broken and not just worn, which is pretty common. the premolars (first three teeth) look lightly stained to think they have been in that long. also the last cusp on the last tooth doesn't have much for dentine showing. so i'm thinking it's more than likely 2.5 yrs old with i guess a possibility that it could be 3.5 yrs old. not older though IMO. like Tree said having it in your hands is much easier. pictures can have things going on that make it a little more difficult like odd angles, blood/food filled in the teeth, and glare from them being wet.

I assume you meant to quote gjs4 and not me. lol I was just sharing a story of my own. Nice bucks. Topping your personal best buck twice in the same season is awesome. For that to happen i have to think many around you aren't just what people call "meat hunters". They're passing some young bucks. Anyway congrats. No issues here. Don't know who you are, where you hunt, or what your situation is. I'm happy for ya. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

“In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.” -Theodore Roosevelt "0 Lord, I am a hunter And life I seek to take But let me not attempt the shot Beyond my skill to make For Lord they are your creatures Given for our use But each one falls within your sight They're not for our abuse And when I loose my arrow Please guide it swift and true Or let it miss completely, Lord That pain be not undue A clean kill or no kill, Lord Such is my heart's desire Give me the skill to make it so Or let me hold my fire And when my time upon this earth The days they are fulfilled Grant that I may die at least As clean as those I killed" - bowhunter prayer ...less serious. my cousin: "i can't believe i missed that big buck! he was so close i didn't even need to use the pins!" "this is what happened. i bared down on him and to get crosshairs real steady. ....but my elbow layed right into the [car] horn."

local club meeting tonight. focus is extending the NYS trail system to what might end up close to my backyard.

since an experience in my younger days, i pass up significantly busted bucks. story goes... i had a buck come running in after a doe. i saw antler but before i could get a better look it stopped like with it's head behind a 3' dia tree trunk. it let out the gnarliest and deepest series of grunts i've ever heard to this day. in less than a second the doe i could tell was going to bolt with him after her. it was huge bodied and didn't look like a very young deer at all. all that sealed its fate. as it started to pass the tree and take off to the races again, i confirmed antler and let lead fly. auto pilot had a couple perfect 30-06 shots at maybe 35ish yards through rib cage. turns out it was one of the biggest bucks on the farm at the time, a ridiculously wide but relatively thin antler framed buck we all knew of. well it somehow had broken off both beams making it a modest spike horn at most. everyone couldn't believe i shot a "spike horn". most everyone who had a comment completely ignored the fact that it's a** hung a good foot lower with all bucks next to each other, noses at same level. neighbor even saw it and said the antlers where too thin to have had as many points as the buck we all knew it was. i made a choice but i didn't need to shoot it and deal with the ridiculousness that followed. i don't shoot them anymore. since then we haven't had any of our best bucks break that far up the beams. one this past season was heavy enough it even caught a bullet in its antler between the base and browtine.

muzzleloaders will forever be a tool DEC thinks about that has less fall out than screwing with guns and regular season in my opinion. couldn't pay them off to do it. at the 2016 public meetings they put out there they were careful to put "special muzzleloader season" and nothing eluding to early season. I'm hard pressed to think that DEC will do something that they know had pissed off the public before.

yea i'm not necessarily talking about it being super thick. i'm with you there shots are close and too much to thread the needle down into it. treestand in open hardwoods is exactly where it'd bite you in the a**. all clear but that one small section of branch creepin for daylight. especially when you start to lose track of them at first and last light.

i'd bet twigs along the way would screw it up. people might be shooting at a deer 40 yards away thinking it's only 20 yards.

we also have a rule that stands must be no less than 20 yards from the property line, unless specifically asked and permission from the neighbor received. i read your post as hypothetical, that said if i shot a buck and it ran onto the neighbors within sight and they said no.... well that to me doesn't constitute a good relationship. i don't shoot any deer on neighboring property, unless i'm told to specifically at that time by them. our guidelines have seemed to work well.