steve863

You guys need to go explain your cases to the DEC and let's see if they buy any of it? The facts are that bowhunters on LI don't kill nearly enough deer, and there are a number of reasons for it, and the DEC knows that some of the reasons will not change or get better. No such worries with the sharpshooters. $300K is not a hell of a lot of money when we are talking about public spending. Would it cost less for the DEC to monitor sport hunting day and night and year around? For that's what it would probably take to make a significant dent. I don't think so. Plus, whether you like it or not, the public out there has more trust in professional shooters than they do in you guys. And that is surely not my fault since I don't hunt out there.

Plenty of people on this thread, and others are "all up in your kitchen", way more than I care to be. You can say what you want for all I care, but when you tell others that it's stupid to kill fawns, you open yourself up to plenty of criticism. A dead deer, is a dead deer. Any other justifications by hunters, to what age they should be before they receive a bullet or arrow, is pretty much all self-serving reasoning. Nature will and does take the young and old, so what's the difference if hunters do, since their main purpose is to control deer numbers?

Yes, I am surely NOT young anymore. With age, however, one can more quickly determine who the dumb asses are.

I don't like posting pictures of any kills, but you guys shouldn't dare me to show pictures. Here is one I shot last year. It was a button buck, too, so how about them apples?? No apologies to ANYONE either.

Belo, the forum members are taking up a collection, and will be sending you some mutton of a 7 year old sheep for Christmas. In the name of young animals, both wild and domestic, we expect you to eat every ounce of it! LOL

Elmo, did you take this pic in upstate NY?? That's the same type of smile we see from some of the big buck hunters upstate!!! LOL

I've had a mother deer come in with fawns, and was then busted by the fawns before the mama, so they are not all as dumb as you think. Since when did hunters have to leave the dumb ones alone, and only shoot the smart ones?? Do you give them IQ tests before you make your decision on what deer to put down?

Haha, coming from another Long Islander I see. Yup, we should leave it up to you guys to control the deer population on the Island instead of the sharpshooters. LOL With attitudes like yours there will be more deer than people on the Island pretty soon.

So why has this thread turned into condemnation of someone shooting a fawn? I have no bone to pick with anyone shooting one. I've done it myself and won't be apologizing to anyone for it. Like some of you have so much more ethics for letting them walk this year, so you have bigger back straps to put in your freezer when you gun them down next year? Yeah sure.

Really good post! There is a growing segment of the hunting/gun rights crowd these days that like to be in everyone's face, however, ala Ted Nugent. I think they feel that since the other side can say and act anyway they want, they think that this will work for our side, too. I've got some news for them, though. It won't! Way better to act like a civilized human being instead of the chest thumping yahoo. I can assure anyone that you won't impress anyone other than some other yahoos, by acting that way.

You and me, Wooly. Then hunters wonder why no one wants to let us hunt on their land anymore and why hunters get a bad rap in general. They ought to look at themselves in the mirror once in a while for the answer.

Gun-free zone shouldn't mean that a trained guard shouldn't have a gun. I don't think even many liberals are against having armed guards in schools. Arming teachers is a different story, however. Students shouldn't be taught by a teacher with a gun strapped to their hip, that is NOT what they are being paid to do. We'd then be NO better than Nazi Germany when their youth was being indoctrinated by armed SS officers. I for one don't want my kids growing up thinking that a gun is the solution to all problems, because it surely is not. Most won't agree here, but I really could care less.

Not that I expect much from the forum members here, but one would think that since this forum is filled with deer hunters, that someone would have picked this tune?

Oh, what drama!! So why the hell didn't you help the cause on LI, and kill that 4 point and doe that you told us you passed up in a couple of your recent posts?? I am all ears. You are so full of it, just like most of these bow hunters on LI who pass deer after deer waiting for that big buck to come by. They could care less about helping control the population, all they care about is the bragging rights they would have with that big buck. You guys failed, thus something more drastic needs to be done. The general populace out there thinks the sharpshooters could get the job done better than you can, and I would say they are correct. The sharpshooters surely won't be passing deer up like you do! LOL

Doc, how many hunters would you allow on your property?? How about if you could practically see them in their stands from your kitchen window?? Grow, NO I do not work for the government. Private firm for 20 years, thank you. You people need to take a ride to LI and see the lay of the land for yourselves. Easy to talk when you don't go further than 10 miles from your food plots on your own properties.

The biggest problems are in the residential areas, how are you going to get people to allow hunters if they are dead set against it?? That's the big question here. The property owners may be wrong in their thinking, but good luck trying to convince them to think like you. You can have 10,000 hunters ready and able to cull the herd, but it ain't worth a hill of beans if no one will let you hunt. Should government then make people allow hunters on their land?? How would that be different than you guys wanting government out of your lives?? Just way too many issues you guys are neglecting to look at here.

Yeah, it's a plan, but do you want to be the hunter who has the whole neighborhoods eyes gawking at him when you go over to recover that deer? Maybe you don't mind, but I know for a fact that there are plenty of hunters who would never subject themselves to this, me included. I somehow highly doubt that these hunters will be looked at as heroes by the onlookers in a place like LI, so it will do nothing to enhance our image in the long run. Sharpshooters, on the other hand will be looked at as a necessary evil, and for the most part might get the job done by the cover of darkness, so very few will have to witness any of it.

Probably not. Why? Because it takes a good deal of money to draw up a plan and debate this stuff back and forth. Probably MORE money than it would take to hire snipers for a couple of weeks to get the job done more effectively.

You want to make a bet it wouldn't cost more than $300K in police overtime to be present at all the protests at these county parks if you opened them all up to hunting?? How about the time and money wasted on lawsuits to stop the hunts? Hiring a few good snipers would be a steal compared to all that.

Yeah, that's the usual answer you'll get on websites such as this one. LOL The reality is that properties on LI are small, and you can't force people to allow hunters on their land if they don't want to. Would you like the terrible government to tell you that you CAN'T hunt on your land??? Probably not, so why tell others what to do with their land? Why keep thinking that sport hunters alone can control the deer numbers when it's not currently happening, nor is there anything significant that could be done to actually get hunters to kill more deer. Most hunters spend only limited time hunting, so why would anyone think they'd all go out just to help cull the herds? Sharpshooters could kill them at night, on the sides of the road, take out a small herds within seconds, anything would be fair game for them. To me at least it not hard to understand how sports hunters could never be as effective.

How many deer get taken by bow in NYS compared to gun? Very few, and you can't say that it's because of lack of tags. The true reasons are a) success rates with bow are much lower. b ) Not nearly as many bowhunters out there as gun hunters. I don't think the DEC is tying anyones hands. In overpopulated areas like LI people can get plenty of doe tags, yet the deer don't get taken for the reasons above and a few others that have already been mentioned by others. LI is NOTHING like areas in upstate. I think if people actually saw the lay of the land out there, they would realize that the sharpshooters might be the best option to put a significant dent in the herd. I don't think we need to get into the drama of "oh how can we let sharpshooters kill those majestic deer" and stuff like that. No one likes the idea of a cull, but why can't we just face reality for at least a minute here??

Sorry, but bow hunting alone ANYWHERE, does very little to significantly reduce herd numbers in a very overpopulated herd. Bowhunters just don't take very many deer. That's just the nature of bow hunting. I would think most hunters would understand this. And as SteveB has said, absolutely NO one here is addressing the recovery problem. It would be nice if deer shot with bows would drop on the spot, but that's not what usually happens. This is one HUGE reason I would never hunt in a suburban environment like LI. I don't want to be knocking on someone's door three properties down to ask them to recover the deer that just dropped dead next to their backyard swing set. Good luck with a scenario like that!!

Yeah, I don't buy this stage categorizations either. I think everyone is different, and it's pointless to try to put a hunter in any category. Hell, I hunt because I've enjoyed it over the years and it's nice to get to see some game animals in the woods and hopefully get a shot at them and then enjoy eating what I get. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. No need to psychoanalyze any of it.

That's very true, but I don't think anyone should say that the HUNTING sucked, if they unfortunately were able to spend only two days out in the field. Big difference there. Hunting takes time, way more than the 22 minutes or less that we see on the TV shows.

If you got an opportunity to shoot a deer during the season, than no one can really complain. If you shot and missed that's your fault, so better luck next time. A lot depends on the time you put into it, too. Some people go hunting only a couple of weekends and then complain that they had a bad season. That's baloney in my book. One can't expect a hell of a lot in a few days hunting, most especially during bow season. If you hunt only a few days a year and had an opportunity or two at a deer, you should consider it a very GOOD season.