sampotter

I grew up in Washington in Litchfield county, moved in 2006.

You can shoot a ridiculous # of bucks in CT if you buy/qualify for all of the various tags....

To see a buck with more than 8 points or that scores much over 140 is pretty rare.

Not that I know of. I think you missed my sarcastic tone... All natural. There were probably twice as many younger bucks I didn't include, lots of scent.

There are 3 in there that if killed, would've been in the top 10 killed all year in CT.

Looks like fun... http://www.wideopenspaces.com/archery-tag-better-dodgeball-video/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=NY%20%2F%20NJ%2010%25&utm_campaign=WOS_newsletter_1.9%20-%20NY%2FNJ

Ha, I don't do drives for a reason. Plus these bucks are not in Cayuga county.

Yeah, that's it... These are Adirondack bucks on public land... No, never posted any of those before.

Can we get back to the conspiracy theory in which FSW wants ARs and more restrictions on hunting because it will increase business at the deer farm? I kind of liked this one in particular...

I'm not saying they hunt heavily- pressured public land, more that they don't sit in the same old stand every day, regardless of wind direction, while smoking a cig and drinking coffee.

Just the one where the buck turned and looked at it, but he didn't seem too concerned.

I had the camera set less than 200 yards from a road where I could access it easily without bumping deer when checking it. I was a little surprised to not see more daylight activity though- it is over the crest of a hill, so the actual spot can't be seen from the road. I actually think a lot of the bucks were cruisers. There's only a couple of them that showed up more than once.

So.... Iowa monster?

I never connected on any of these, but there are some nice bucks in this spot. There is audio, but you have to crank the volume. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I7DeUHhCXo&feature=youtu.be

Who knows, probably if you take the generations back far enough..

This thread is an online street brawl. There has to be at least 5 different conversations/fights going on at once!

Just because there are more mature bucks in a general area, doesn't mean they are going to walk by your stand. Any deer is going to gravitate towards covert that has less hunting pressure. 1 guy per 30 acres is fine if it is hunted a few times all season, but it would be really easy to burn out 30 acres if that was the only place you hunted and sat there more than 5 times all season, especially if wind is not taken into consideration and no scent control is practiced. A lot of hunters get into the habit of hunting the same old stand every time, which all deer pick up on very quickly. There could be 10 mature bucks per square mile and an overhunted property could be a big buck dead zone because it is overhunted. I have about 6 different properties I can hunt near my house, with woods/brush covering 1-80 acres. I don't recall hunting any one of those spots more than 3-4 times last season. I had one chance at a mature 8 but let him go. That was it. You don't need many acres to kill a mature buck though, it just has to be hunted properly. If The Lakosky and Drury TV-types among other things, are really good at managing pressure, i.e. hunting individual stands sparingly, scent control (I'm not talking about ozonics either), hunting the wind, etc.

I'd add there is a whole range of "trophy hunters"; from the guys that just like the challenge to the ones that pay an outfitter to put them in heated blind and shoot a big buck, and all they take home is the rack and cape. I'd still call the challenge guys "trophy hunters". I fall somewhere in between; I hunt for myself and the challenge first, but still like to show off a big buck when I finally connect, not seeking fame or endorsements either, I'm just proud of an accomplishment and not ashamed to admit it. I think you'd have to put yourself in a similar bracket NYantler... otherwise you wouldn't have a website or post pictures of your kills.

I don't think anyone could consistently kill mature bucks on 300 acres if it was shared with 8-10 guys. Heck, I don't think the whole group could manage to kill one mature buck every year off of 300 acres. Way too much pressure for a mature buck's taste. With that many hunters you guys can probably see each other when on stand. Having more mature bucks around doesn't make them any easier to kill. I feel like I have one or two chances at mature bucks all season. Of there were more mature bucks, that might increase to 3-4 chances all season. It's still up to the hunter to put themselves in that position and be able to capitalize when it comes. Mature bucks can't be hunted successfully like yearlings and 2 year olds either.

Who says we aren't? PA was ridiculously overpopulated with deer. The only benefit was the hunters who liked to see swarms of deer wouldn't get bored on stand. EVERYTHING else suffered; small wildlife like nesting birds, the forest, farmers, heck even the deer suffered from increased disease and stress. PGC never should have let populations get that high in the 1st place. Hunters have ruined access to land. Not trophy hunters paying leases either. It was the few slobs that were disrespectful to land and landowners. More land has been Posted and closed to access due to this than any other reason. Example: A big farm down the road with several thousand acres leased their land out a couple of years ago because they were sick of dealing with slobs and they wanted to control who was on it.

Or maybe let me and other lifetime license holders shoot 2 bucks and everyone else just 1?

Well, I'm a lifetime license holder and I'm going to want some money back!

A one buck rule would help more bucks reach maturity than any ARs. Think about it; you're bowhunting downstate in late October and a decent 8 you normally would have shot walks up. He's not fully mature, maybe a 3 year old. You have your yearly Adirondack trip planned for the 2nd week of November coming up. If you shoot the 3 year old 8 you won't be able to hunt in the 'Dacks. Hmmmm..... there will be a lot of hunters that would pass because they don't want to end their season early. I've hunted OH and MN, both one buck states. Trust me, the mature buck density is a LOT higher than in NY and the buck to doe ratio is a LOT better. MN's gun season starts the end of the 1st week of November too. I like the idea of ARs for selfish reasons, but also understand that other hunters don't look at deer hunting and bucks the way I do. If I had to choose a OBR or ARs, I'd go with the OBR.

In the dairy industry we've had borders shut down a lot of different times because of disease concerns. It was a PITA but I never heard any of the thousands of dairy farmers squawking about their amendment rights being stepped on....

Are you talking about the rectal biopsy test (live animal)?