steve863

It's been a good many years now, but I have been on guided hunts, mainly because I wanted to hunt in other locations and doing it yourself wasn't very practical and does take a lot MORE time and work. I have absolutely NO reservations in saying that killing even the dinkiest of deer all on your own is way MORE satisfying than killing anything you might come across on a guided hunt. I highly doubt too many others who have been on guided hunts would ever admit to the same.

I don't buy this. You probably catch your walleye in public waters, while the majority of hunters still prefer to hunt private land for various reasons, which if you didn't notice is getting harder to come by OR costing hunters more and more to have access to. Whether you own it or lease it, it costs WAY more money than catching your walleye in public waters. There lies the difference. People won't be wasting their time and money on hunting if there is very little that is legal for them to shoot.

What I can't stand is when they shoot a perfectly fine buck and then make the disclaimer that it's just a "management" buck, somehow meaning that it's not what they were really after and almost some sort of mercy killing. What the hell is the difference? A dead deer is a dead deer, and their "management" buck would make many other hunters perfectly happy. The only thing they glorify is big antlers, and these shows have brainwashed the majority of the younger hunters out there to think the same, thus we have people pushing nonsense like AR's on us. They honestly have done the sport way MORE harm than good in my opinion.

I think they should use that chubby guy T-Bone, who appears on some of the Realtree Monster Buck DVD's as host of this DVD. It would be funny as heck to see him sweating amongst all those pretty "racks"! Probably would be a good idea to have paramedics on standby while they shoot the DVD! Just might be a little more than the big boy can handle!

I can't speak for Long Island, but the areas I have hunted upstate have definitely had a decline in hunter numbers over the years I have hunted. Day and night difference to how it was in the late 70's when I started. The reasons for the decline are many, least of which is game laws in my opinion, although I can see AR's having a very negative effect for many hunters who have only a few weekends to hunt, which in reality is a good MANY hunters out there. The sport has become something totally different than it once was. Way too much competition in this sport right now, with less private land access. Everyone thinks the guy on the next property is a poacher, criminal, etc. It has become a very selfish game, that is for darned sure.

Just checked out the racks calendars. Looks like you get the best of both worlds with them. I have no doubt a DVD version of the "making of the racks calendar" would smash all previous outdoor DVD sales records!

Well, they don't call it horn porn for nothing. Hunting shows simply replace big boobs with big antlers and it kind of entertains the bigger boob at home in the same way. Like porn DVD's, I would bet most hunting DVD's are viewed in fast forward so one could get to the good parts quicker.

Hmmm, I'm not following here? Are you saying that those who are not choosey are more likely to do illegal acts like reusing tags or not tagging deer? I think stunts like that can be committed by those who aren't choosey along with those that are just the same. i.e seeing a bigger and better buck after you have already taken a smaller one. We are talking about people hunting within the law here, so I think implying that one side is more likely to commit illegal acts will take us down even more slippery slopes.

That's exactly what I am talking about guys. Good for you! I don't even include mortgages on homes as being "credit" in the same sense as with other stuff. After all a home purchase is probably one of the biggest investments a person will make and few can afford paying for a house in cash. I would bet that most of the people who have foreclosures on their homes was due to out of control spending on their credit cards which in turn makes it hard for them to meet the mortgage payments. Have some control over other expenditures and mortgage payments CAN be met in most cases.

Many hunters around the state can only wish that they hunted in locations where they get to see deer of any type each and every day they hunt. Still many places where you can go for days without seeing a hair. These hunters can't be to choosey if they want to fill a tag and put at least a little venison in the freezer. I think many people here tend to forget this fact.

Well, the problem with this country is that it's too much of a credit society. Government, corporations, people, will buy things on credit and sooner or later they don't have the money to pay for it. They think they will be able to pay for it all, but then discover they can't. If everyone only used cash, I would bet that the vast majority would not put themselves in the holes that they do. I don't know for sure, but I would bet that China is way more of a cash society than we are, thus they are prospering. Show me the cash, and you will get the goods is probably the way they do business over there, unlike I will give you the goods and you can pay me in 4 months to a year like we do here.

I reckon some sort of metamorphosis occurs on the last weekend, where in desperation of not having to eat their tag, they revert from the biologically proven, forward thinking AR supporters, back down to the ranks of the barbarian brown and it's down guys! LOL Kind of like what happens to the incredible Hulk.

Then the DEC and everyone else supporting AR's in these units should call it what it was really implemented for, which appears to be an attempt to reduce the buck kill. Fair enough. I can accept this as a management tool for this particular location if they saw a need for it. I however will NOT accept that AR's by themselves will ever be needed to improve the health of a herd or for a better age structure. As I mentioned before, everyone, including the DEC it appears should be more honest and truthful about all this.

As I and others have told you before, then keep AR's in YOUR unit and stay out of the others. Very simple, but obviously not simple enough for you to understand I guess. We know darned well what AR's are all about. You guys simply can't get yourselves to be honest about it. You keep repeating that it's better for the herd health and age structure when the truth behind it is easy enough for a blind man to see. As we have pointed out before you never would have had such biological theories if hunters wanting more trophy deer didn't pay biologists to devise it. When we point this out, you tell us we are ignorant. So be it. I could give a hoot what you think.

After all your amazing hunting experiances all over the states as you brag about you would have thought you would have learned a few things along your travels. Clearly your old, but not wise. 70% of the deer taken in NY are fawns and yearlings, I do not undertand why there is no much hate and controversy over letting the small ones walk. You really can't let them go? What I have learned and YOU have yet to learn is that hunting means different things to different people. For some like you antlers are everything and you use flawed biology to try to justify and make everyone else think that AR's is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I on the other hand believe that hunting is NOT all about antlers and want to give people the freedom of choice to hunt the way they want. With AR's you are putting limitations on people. Without AR's you aren't putting limitations on anyone. You can continue to hunt for antlers to your hearts content, while others can hunt for what they want. Some like you want to try to make things easier for yourselves by restricting others, while others like me believe that one needs to WORK for the things they truly want.

Yup, you ARE an idiot, and I am probably old enough to be your daddy and have killed more deer of various sizes than you are able to count up to. For your information I have hunted since 1977 and besides NY, have also hunted PA, AL, WY, MT, TX and British Columbia and Quebec in Canada. Only in your dreams will you have the hunting experiences I have had over the years.

Go ahead and write them to keep them in your WMU and keep your nose out of other WMU's where they are not wanted. You keep accusing others of not knowing about the area YOU hunt, yet you want AR's expanded to other areas. You idiots obviously have an agenda and it is clearly showing.

Please voice your opinion to the DEC about this as I and other already have. As you probably know, they are proposing AR's to even more DMU's under their new plans. The more people we have speak up, the more we can counter these so called "sportsman's" clubs who think they speak on the behalf of everyone who hunts these units. You can e-mail them here. [email protected]

He's getting a head start on his July 4th weekend. You know he needs to avoid those toll roads, so it usually takes him a little longer to get where he's going. Looks like they got him on film anyway, even without that EZ pass.

No kidding. All we need is that fella Fairgame to come back and it will be like watching Amityville Horror II.

That sounds great. So does this mean forum members will get some free BBQ?? Well, maybe at least the ones who don't support AR's???

You obviously both did plenty of things RIGHT! It is those people who are bullheaded and have the "my way or the highway" mentality that are the ones that end up in divorces. People need to approach marriage with an attitude that it CAN work and then it will.

No, the real issue is your failure to understand why this biology you keep touting was ever developed in the first place. If it weren't for the greater benefits that the hunter might potentially get from it, it would have NEVER even been devised. So maybe you ought to "read, learn and understand" with a more skeptical mind.

Do you really think bucks will reach their full potential with AR's? All AR's do is allow them to live one more year, and then an awful few hunters will be passing them up once they have 3 points on a side. You might get to see full potential in a vast private expanse of land or an enclosure, but you will never see it in a state like NY where most of the land has different ownership every couple hundred acres or less. You also need to have a hunting populace that hunts extensively and has unlimited time to hunt to be passing up the smaller bucks for the biggest ones. Maybe you have an unlimited amount of time to hunt, but that is not the case for most hunters today and I doubt that it ever will be in the future.

I've got nothing against the guys who want to hunt for the trophies. They can hunt for them with the way the regulations are currently. No one is stopping them and that is there free choice. AR's however takes away the choice from the guy who is happy with the spike or forkhorn, especially in the areas where doe permits are not easy to get. To me this is unfair and it gives preferential treatment to one group over another. If hunters hunt for many different reasons, then ALL the reasons need to be considered and none of the reasons should be given priority over the other. Keep AR's out of the picture and everyone will be able to hunt anyway they want.