dbHunterNY

any lighted nocks you prefer or choose to stay away from?

and to think the one thread got all heated when it comes to bow versus gun....haha... almost everyone is using both!

parents land is something between a hill and a mountain (around 400 feet in elevation change). routinely ride an ATV to the top using only an access road and before I get to many fields on the other side. then I walk the rest. couple be 200 yards into the timber or could be 1/2 mile.

Last year I bought some C-EZ reflective stickers on after season clearance. different sizes for treestands and such but will probably put a strip on each of my arrows by the vanes. don't intend to use lighted nocks even though they work good in low light spotting shots. my arrows are just expensive already. should help me find them quick enough low light with a flashlight. i'll find out.

no he won't.

more I talk to DEC the more I think their system needs tweaking. they factor in some other input just a little but basically they use the citizen task force to come up with a buck take objective. then look at if you were over or under it the previous year or couple years to determine how many doe permits and doe they want taken. for each buck taken over the objective I believe they assume that should've been an adult doe. so say for WMU 8H 8.1-13 doe where taken per sq mile in last season. buck take was 5 versus 3 bucks per sq mile, so this year DEC fully expects those in 8H to take 15+ doe per square mile and for you to take only 3 bucks per square mile this coming season. decreased buck opportunity assumed. however, it seems to be a lag system that's based on a screwed up buck take objective. if you still exceed your BTO it'll just tack on more doe. just 2 more deer per square mile seems easily achieved. However, when you factor in successful hunters shoot only what they need to fill the freezer each year and some areas with little to no take at all due to access or hunter choice not to shoot a doe, that 2 extra deer per square mile starts to snowball into a bigger number. further messing things up is their system functions assuming equal opportunity for harvest and that nothing 1.5+ yrs old is passed up. didn't get to ask much about 4J but found out 20% of land in 4C is composed of only 2 co-ops passing younger deer. we are then under buck take objective and in turn get a decreased number of doe tags. there's a slight over abundance of deer here as a result. by screwing up your BTO in those region 8 and 9 WMUs and with the functional lag in the system, your results are doomed in the eyes of DEC to appear lacking luster. in my opinion knowing the numbers DEC would like to achieve only helps so much.

I don't bother trucking them into the woods.

...damn. haha illegal to put any minerals, salt lick, or purposely placed "pile" of food out for the deer at any time of the year.

northern zone season starts the 27th... but you won't find anything saying you can use last seasons tags as they changed the tags to be valid Sept 1st to August 31st the following year. so far I haven't come across any discrepancy in the guidebook. other than the downloaded one where it says there's muzzleloader in 4J and 8C. have yet to verify if that's really the case.

yes.... there's no personal vendetta against bowhunters.

oh it holds water in those regions too. i'll give you not as much as other areas though. wasn't the intent to mean it trumps the need to reduce the population.

not talking about the cost of the paper. ponder. in my mind it can't be justified as the right solution. I do hunt a WMU that's effected. I've said multiple times what I think they should've done, which still would leave where I hunt screwed, because it's bow only. there had to be some reasoning DEC picked first part of early and entire late seasons. the reasons I gave and the simple idea they think hunters are capable of taking more then could be some. maybe they want hunters to capitalize on the first opportunities hunters get. there's a lot of hunters out there that pass on opportunity, then opportunity dries up, and they never fill the doe tag. Dead is dead but dead later is no guarantee. major catastrophe to DEC apparently isn't going to take hold for another year or more because you're still not toting a muzzleloader during early season this year. last you just told me you can't apply simple concepts of quality deer management when we're in fact talking about deer management! really?! well I guess we're screwed with this half a**** process indefinitely then.

it's a guidebook based on the LAW. you'll sure enough get a ticket.

they changed the date to beginning of September for license renewal and dropped the use of last years tags to my knowledge.

This is purely based on speculation and educated assumptions but here's what I think is a possibility.... DEC has thrown lots and lots of DMPs out there that don't get filled. Printing more simply wouldn't see any noticeable increase harvest rate so the allocation didn't go up. additional cost in man hours to process 49,500 tags that probably still won't get filled might be enough to pay for an extra body or overtime to help process the additional expected deer take, maybe makeup some expenses from Cornell surveys, or something else related. those where allocation numbers and not actual tags purchased? what has been said that sucks is I'm sure if DEC can, they most definitely will find a way to spin the numbers and make it look like it was or was more of a better decision regarding harvest outcome. Only way I can justify promoting doe harvest in some way that early is biological logic. if a doe lives to see the phases of the rut buck or bucks will have vested energy into that doe, be it seeking, chasing, breeding, or keep another buck from breeding it while it's in estrous. if you take the doe later on that vested buck energy was wasted and could've been gone toward a surviving doe, better physical condition into winter, and additional antler growth due to better condition leading into spring, etc. ...all that said I've already stated my opinion on what they should've done versus what they did. just trying to make any sense of it all.

small patches means many of them to prevent too much browse pressure. here and there would most likely mean a lot then. might want to be careful about wiping out what natural browse is left in some spots. any spot that has sun light probably has something, but if there's not much probably better off raking to bare soil and throwing down shade tolerant clover or something like has been said. keep in mind it sounds like it'll get browsed over pretty good and you creating these small patches of utopia could change the pattern of travel and what not of the deer. just things to consider when picking spots.

lol... I think there's a struggle with the OP being so open ended. basically if you're going against the stores wishes then it's unethical. if you intend to buy large quantities of gear at the discounted rate with sole intentions of selling it to make a profit then it's not ethical. if you happen to buy stuff to try it out, then find something better, don't want it, or some similar situation. then someone wants it so you sell it to them and they're willing to pay you more for it then what you got it for then so be it. unless the store has a policy against it then they have no grounds for firing you. normally I'd think you'd be taking a loss but we don't know how much the discount is. it revolves around intent.

feels good when I shoot a deer in it's bed.... each one I've done that way it was well within bow range. that's only with snow or wet ground in the woods. open field doesn't happen often needs to be very hilly and/or have broken edges opposed to a classic straight edged rectangular field.

hard to say if he was full of BS but I've waited until just after daylight to switching stands mid morning based on deer patterns. I wouldn't rule it out. go in with a red light before dark or I've raked a trail into the stand. I remember a Field&Stream article where a buck waited for camp to clear out and activity to die down. then came off a nearby ridge bed to feed in the field behind the camp. you get to where the deer will be without spooking any. that's the goal.

yea they did away with it last year... meaning this year they had no September early season to fill last years unfilled tags. kind of dumb and confusing. I think it's good they did away with it to keep things simple.

not to stir the pot but you're a little out of line. this makes complete sense. him being a Democrat, his predecessors generally supported slavery at the time. It was the Republican oriented at the time that worked hard and got it abolished it.

being a conserve-a-turd I'm befuddled, thinking you're a gun-nut and having a list like you do.... must be one heck of a struggle to come to terms with though.

guns.... all standing in a circle talking while my cousin loaded a borrowed Winchester Model 1897 12ga shotgun. Rule #1 he had it pointed in a safe direction. As we were talking though is went off into the ground in the center of the circle. we all locked up like a deer in the headlights. laughed gave him crap and then thanked him for pointing it in the right direction to begin with. multiple times walking down a slope coddling my scoped rifle I've slipped. Bumped it pretty good, drag the butt stock through the mud/snow, and stuck the muzzle into the snow/mud. never messed with the crown enough to effect accuracy from what I could tell. I keep oil and a boresnake close reasonably close by like on me or back at the truck for that reason. i'll unload it before traversing that kind of ground, muzzle up, and with the scope and receiver against my chest now. I've slid dozens of times probably. had ground to gun contact maybe half a dozen but only a few that were anything to be concerned about like above. dropped my Benelli Super Nova pump 12ga in pond/swamp water. also had a weird incident when it was used for clays where the trigger components and pump/forend stock binded up from maybe somehow working both at the same time or something. after a while of getting harassed by friends about my "Benelli" and trying to be gentle, had it in a safe direction and basically slammed the butt stock down on tree stump. everything broke free, looked it over good, tested function, and then went back to kicking their butt shooting clays. worked flawlessly ever since and only issue I've ever had with it. packed up the car to go bowhunting one morning very early in the morning/night. spot needed to be accessed sooner than usual and was a ways away. I set my $2,000 PSE Evo compound bow setup on the roof, finished packing things up, and then drove off. 55+ mph down the county highway. got to my spot, saw I didn't have my bow, and then started to about pass out. drove back and forth home and back a handful of times before the sun came up looking for it or pieces. didn't find anything. put up signs along the road about it missing. mail man found it on the side of the highway and called me the next morning. met him, chatted it up about loss, and then gave him a good finders fee. it had a little road rash on limb pocket bolts and most on sight. arrows were half popped out of the quiver. no other damage other than cosmetic. didn't adjust a thing and shot all 3 X's on a vegas face at 20 yards. still killing deer with setup with everything that went for a ride still on it.

you mean a fawn not a yearling?? I've taken doe out of family groups and haven't experienced that yet. had some stand and watch off in a distance as I gutted the mature one of the group. they run off though. I won't shoot a fawn for personal reasons but any 1.5+ doe would be fair game. I tend to take ones 3.5+ though. come to think of it I haven't taken any younger that I'm aware of. By two weeks of age rumination starts and they forage more and more with each passing day. by 2.5 months they can survive without milk and usually get raps to the head and forced to do so between 3-4 months. they have more to learn but if they're with other deer at all they will. so by early southern zone bow season they should be fine. I don't think your experience would be typical.

I didn't take what he said as having a gun involved. I thought he was thinking to expand early archery season to add two weeks of doe only in order to have the current early season either sex opportunity remain the same. I'd killed them sooner but wouldn't change the number of deer I shoot if he was talking about use of a gun.