phade

It does when you bring up the doom and gloom of hunting future state. Followed up by another laundry list of reasons why kids won’t get involved. All I heard were more excuses in the same vein as complaining with no real suggestions to move forward. Like I said. *Edit and yes I’m aware that you Doc have done stuff in the past. My comment is on the here and now. You know as well as I do that engagement is more important than ever before. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This site. Either of you take a kid out hunting this year? Just curious. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, I knew they sold out to the Goretex group but it still boggles me that they haven’t leveraged the designs for work clothing relative to trades and other fields. Such an untapped market for them. I’m a little fortunate in that I get 40-50% off Sitka depending on the time of year. Even then the stuff is too pricey to swallow. But it only hurts once I guess, right?!?!? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm done conversing with you. You can't read and understand - hell you couldn't even follow my post about the NE US. You still seem to have dyslexia when it comes to herd health being translated precisely to big bucks. Enjoy.

Apparently NY is an Enigma that forces the state into some other dimension where the basic tenets of managing a resource are somehow different than the rest of the world. The DEC can't even make the most simple of changes without legislature approval; you are right, maybe NY is an enigma after all with deer management. I'm not going to get into a pissing match with you about getting a clue; I genuinely thought you were having trouble understanding what people were saying on here. Now I just know you do.

You just proved my point. You have a hard time understanding posts in this forum. Best of luck to you.

In the NE US, there's not a lot of trophy deer hunting business going on, comparatively. The NE US is the most densely populated (human) portion of the whitetail range. Not sure where you spent those 35 years, but it clearly wasn't in the sunshine.

Rain gear took a dump after ten seasons, so my wife ponied up the cash for Sitka rain gear. If I get 10 years out of it, I'll be one happy camper. Such well designed clothing. Also got the Fanatic Hoody. Might be the best designed garment I've ever worn. Wore it yesterday and had to handle a few tasks outside and it's awesome. It's so good I could see myself buying another in the non-camo pattern to wear working outside. I don't get how one of the major players in the men's garment industry hasn't come in and swooped that company up. It's "skunk works" behind these designs would make a killing in the work industry. Also got some gift cards and a really nice colored picture of a deer from my daughter.

You seem to have a hard time with coming to terms with a lot of posts on this forum. Whether access or season related, etc. it seems understanding them is difficult to believe for you. Are you a new hunter? Managing a resource at the macro and even micro level for the state is not "farming" as you put it. I don't know, maybe I have it all wrong or something. Maybe I am looking at it backwards. You worry about the human element; I tend to look at the resource first, and then back into what works for people and the resource. I'll say this though, there's not many 23+ day regular seasons in the NE quadrant of the US. Two of them exist in NY.

HBD!

I agree with Culver. This is a longgggggggg road. Belo you and I are same age/education/demographics, and at this point in my life, I'd be inclined to facing reality and making a concerted effort to locate more reliable hunting grounds that do not carry with it, this degree of a Sh!tshow. I have less time than ever before, and as a result, the time I do have to hunt, is much more valuable to me. The ROI on your spending even one more second worrying about this or trying to think of a solution is wasted time on getting a jump on 2018. Too many data points indicate that your time and focus on this situation reduces your degree of success in 2018 - and not by filling tags, but by enjoying all aspects of what you get out of hunting. Your focus should 100% be on finding new/better ground. Worst case scenario, something plays out in your favor, and you have more ground to hunt on. Best case scenario, you experience what we all think will happen in 2018 for this current ground, and you have the foresight to have good ground to hunt and enjoy. Don't spend the energy and time? Well, then you are a fool, and should know better, and spend more time dealing with the guy then enjoying hunting. Plus, if you locate ground, then guess what? NOW you can have the conversations with him and the owning family with minimal to lose. Poking the bear now does little.

I'm not going to be all high and mighty or anything, but I think you'd be surprised that it is the opposite. The people who most want the shorter season in my experience are those who do kill good bucks or believe the state could employ better strategies to help the health of the herd. In large, the DEC has a disconnect with hunter sentiment and responsibility (they define their goals different than from what some hunters would). I don't like to generalize, but I think most supporters would fall into those two buckets (sometimes they are the same bucket). My guess is those against it don't spend a lot of time diving into the management component or are fine with the recreational nature of hunting. Neither POV is wrong. As for evidence to my first two sentences above, the people supporting in this thread likely killed bucks in the top 5-10% of all bucks killed on this site this year or in the state this year from an age/score perspective.

And for the record, outside of access issues/solutions, I think the single best move the DEC could make would be to run a regular season starting the Saturday after Thanksgiving for nine consecutive days or for seven consecutive and then run a two day Saturday/Sunday two weekends after the opening day. Harvest total counts will still be very similar to final numbers in current state, pull the gun season out of the peak of the breeding, and minimize the amount of significant pressure and displacement of deer at a critical refueling time where deer need to pack on calories lost during the rut to date. Yes I bow hunt, I gun hunt, and I MZ hunt.

Here is the chart for 2016. Considering that many states around NY have gun seasons that are a fraction, the data in the image has some insightful details. What is important is that when seasons are condensed, most harvest totals do not take on as big of a hit as people think. There is limited data on this but it has been consistent. Condensing to a 7 or 9 day season here would likely result in very similar or ballpark harvest totals as our super long season. The true benefit to this is more geared around pressure and the impact on these deer from a winter mortality and herd health perspective. Our DEC will never shorten the season unless a force acts upon it IMO.

Can you elaborate? Each day the season is open, the total harvest count for that season rises. It may not rise to your satisfaction or as high as at the start of the season, but it most certainly rises.

The DEC does publish the take by date on a chart. I've seen it a handful of times. It's out there if you search for it. And by exact, I mean according to their "exact." But they do publish it.

I wish we would adopt Ohio rules. Have to carry the signed form on your person. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This guy is as close to being above reproach as I’ve ever met. I’ve met and spoken with him several times back when he was a rising talent on the fishing circuit. Super humble and is from the town bordering my hometown. How about we just congratulate the guy and move on. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Muddys are left. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very hard to find cameras on the market. Cam has adjustable bracket and it a picture taking machine. I have two of them. $290 for the pair. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am definitely posting less. Some good people here though so I stop by from time to time.

This year had the good, bad, and ugly. Hit a branch shooting at a mature buck mid-October, sending arrow right under his belly. It was a "gimme shot" too. Never saw the branch until it went flying. Buck disappeared late October from cam. Crap intestinal shot on a different target buck in late Oct, definitely dead, and never found despite quite a bit of searching and even calling in the best Deer Search dog in the area. Went to the airport from the dog search soaked to the boxers and flew 1,000 miles in silence not talking to anyone. No more pics of him on cam and positive he suffered until dead and is lying somewhere with my arrow in it. 3rd time in my 25 hunting seasons I've shot a buck and not recovered it. Happened to be the day Grampy was here...I caused him to miss significant tree time. Missed the last weekend of gun season due to a storm in the Southeast canceling my flights home from FL for three full days. Missed being there for one of our buddy's biggest deer ever, noted below. Hunted one PM of MZ season, so in the last two weeks of the season, I had about 4 hours of woods time. Does were much less common most of the season than was typical. Watched my FIL miss the biggest buck he's ever seen in the woods, not once, but twice, with a crossbow. Sat next to him in the blind, and they weren't misses by much. He was still very much happy at the chance to have missed. Had some laughs convincing sheriffs we're legit hunters, watching Moog pass along his get out of jail free card to them in the process. Our buddy got his biggest deer ever by far and was super excited for it. Happened during the last hour of regular gun season. Long time coming and he was as persistent as he has ever been this season. Still needs help hunting all day but he's getting there, ha. Took a young kid out hunting a few times as his mentor no longer hunts. Saw 5,000 squirrels and no deer, of course, which were the only deer-less sits of the season. I had the golden spoon this year with no less than six mature buck encounters, not including a slammer hung up just out of range tending a doe and being able to have a conversation with him across grunts and clicks and snort wheezes. In the end, put somewhere around 250-260" on the wall this year between the two tags. I learned to fight through back-to-back poor shot outcomes, something that I haven't experienced before. Getting back in the saddle was probably only easier because Moog and my buddy told the big bucks to come my way again because they were safe around me. I also bought a second house and conducted the move during the season. First house flooded on Nov. 6, too. Good, bad, ugly.

Bushnell pending funds. Muddy I'll drop to 97.50 shipped for the pair via Paypal friend and family. Moultrie, I'll drop to 189 for the same, friends and family.

No Muddy is its own brand. Likely shares manufacturing plant with Browning. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Runs through Moultrie separately. You can be up and running in 15 minutes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk