phade

No worries - just making light of the back and forth. It wasn't me. I voted for less frequency.

You should really work for the dec.

No offense, but that statement simply isn't true. The new Aggressor and the Reconyx line will beat out Cudde on that component. Plus trigger speed comparisons are a marketing gimmick. If you fall for that bullet point alone, you (not you, but in general) really need to learn how cameras work. Cudde is simply middle of the pack overall imo. Browning's BTC5HD and BTC7FHD are about the best bang for the buck under $150 for red IR at the moment on 2015 models. Black IR...there are cams that are good at vids, and cams that are good at pics, but not much under $150 that do both extremely well.

Then don't sell us a bill of goods that deer numbers are in dire overpopulation and something needs to be done yesterday. You can't talk out of both sides of your mouth. Doe tags are OTC in darn near every benchmark state and they manage much better than we do. When the tags are gone/filled, they are gone. The DEC just prints more money not knowing what the impact is on the markets....I mean they print more tags thinking that fixes everything, but then limits putting them in the hands of the people that can get the job done.

It doesn't look good. We're screwed, lol. Hello muzzleloader in bow season. Maybe dbhunter can then tell everyone how none of us know what we're talking about and the DEC is infallable.

There are zero parameters in which they define the need for an antlerless season or a sufficient harvest to avoid implementing one beyond fluff language. I already know what Art said. His response was literally about going to the doctor to get his, excuse me but direct language here, his head out from his ass. Then he canceled a committed appearance because a smart person called a spade a spade.Whats that tell you? Its pretty easy to give numbers or even conditions in which hunters meet their goals. What theyve done is set themselves up to do as they see fit without any commitment. Its done on purpose and anyone trying to say they have done any semblence of a good job with this effort needs some serious attention imo. PS the award they won, lolololol. Its a state award within ny. Its like giving yourself a pat on the back and saying good job. dont try to act like its some peer reviewed deer industry award.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/103040.html This is their bible to the antlerless changes Where in this do they say we need to kill 10,000 does in 8h? Nowhere. What it does say is we're above "desired levels." Great. So tell me again, where they've drawn the line in the sand and said if you kill X number you won't have another antlerless season? They haven't. Since you are so well connected, please call Art and Jeremy and ask them. This is nothing more than an agenda move.

I bet we could run out of antlerless eligible tags by October 15. But by the DEC's reasoning obtaining tags isn't a barrier. Never understood why needing to beg borrow or steal DMP consignments was seen as something to defend against opening up tags OTC without reservation. Good grief.

No offense, but all of that is back-room math. The DEC hasn't laid out any standards set forth in any PRs or communications. The only reference is "desired levels." Anyone saying their trying to back calculate is making a large assumption - otherwise the DEC would clearly, cleanly, and simply state targets.

Trying to get a poll set up...hopefully it works right.

I have no idea how this season is going to play out for me, personally, as far as days afield or desire/drive. What I do believe is that the DEC has positioned themselves perfectly to continue to mismanage our resource and hunter sentiment. The want us to get does to the desired levels. Yet, I haven't seen Doc or anyone else from the DEC state what that number needs to be or even what ballpark it needs to be in. It's brilliant. Now they can do whatever they want regardless of the action/results because we won't know how well we did compared to the "desired levels." Yet they state they won't deviate from their management plan. That's completely correct, and that's why the Vaseline is needed. We won't and can't know any different.

MN has one deer only areas. Like you, you are not done with one deer. You are just done in that area. What happens now is that hunters in those one deer areas are traveling to the overpopulation areas to whack more deer, spurring economic growth/investment, while at the same time allowing the areas that need population growth, to actually take place. If you have zero DMPs in your unit, it's highly unlikely that taking two bucks is better than taking one from a resource perspective. I doubt the imbalance of B:D and the carrying capacity/BTO is that askew.

I give up, Doc is right. He is always right. OBR is a fad, Kansas, Ohio, KY, IN, and others all have it wrong. Our NYS DEC are the benchmark in deer management - and if having a 23 day gun season in the rut, a bow season that was just reduced in parts of the state to antlerless only for 14 days, plus an entire MZ season antlerless only in the same areas, all without any biological evidence to prove it is prudent, along with a proven track record of being able to fluidly make adjustments to keep deer management as a resource and hunters as a group happy, then yeah, go for it. Oh and no incentive to open private lands up for hunting, might as well throw that in there. Let's just keep sticking our heads in the sand. It's gotten us really far to date, Doc.

Boots...bought new late season boots and didn't have luck with them. They'll "do" but they weren't as good as I had hoped. I had great luck with my Redhead side zip insulated, but apparently the build quality has changed and they get horrible ratings/reviews now. I haven't yet found a boot that fits well and keeps me warm.

I think there is a ton of area of need geographically on a local basis, but there is also apparent need at the statewide level. Not everything is a bottom up management - the best is actual a combo of top down and bottom up. Setting the right management at both levels is exponentially going to return better hunting quality and resource management than solely focusing on the microcosms.

Scatter-gun? They're used in a larger number of state management plans/teams - teams and plans that you would undoubtedly drop NYS's counterparts for like a hot potato to swap out. Talk about not having vision beyond one's backyard, Doc. I don't call having one of the longest rut-based gun seasons in the country and having supposed severe population issues almost right. I don't call a management team that says they respond to people's feedback, yet nobody knows of one who has gotten a response, almost right. I don't call not providing ANY numbers whatsoever as to what has to be killed and where - nor why - especially when lead articles state DMPs are getting slashed 15% statewide, almost right.

OBR would strongly change my hunting time, but it would shift toward their goals of population reduction, to my dismay. That second buck tag in my pocket has saved a lot of does in gun season. If all I have were DMPs for gun, I might hunt less or differently, but there is a fair chance I wouldn't have any tags left ever. I also strongly think that OBR forces hunters to think more management-minded. Whether we like it or not, I think a majority of hunters are apathetic (nothing wrong with it in reality for the weekend warrior or opening day hunter) and the ones who are active with a lot of field days often don't think about management beyond the "I have this tag and this tag in my pocket," mentality. OBR in my mind forces hunters to start thinking about the impact of their decisions. AR probably does the same thing to a degree, but not allowing someone the free will to be happy to shoot that forkie just rubs me the wrong way.

I am not a fan of AR because it removes choice as opposed to OBR which doesn't and imparts doe management. If only 5k hunters shoot a second buck, there really is little need for it from a biological/buck harvest perspective. If we take DEC numbers on face value (I know), many areas of the state are OVER the BTO, furthering the idea that second buck tag isn't needed and might be harmful in those WMUs where the BTO is higher than the target. But that said, if they did statewide - you are letting the tail wag the dog and not paying attention to the 80/20 rule. There will be plenty more bucks that are more than 4 points breeding to dilute the impact of the four pointer, per say. Again, I would not like AR to be implemented. There are negative components to it as well from a biology perspective that people go back and forth on. For every point for or against, there seems to be a counter. I wouldn't fear low-end genetics in free ranging whitetails because they would be diluted. Highgrading the top-end bucks seems more of a leg to stand on in my book.

Good product for Lone Wolf stands and sticks....the owner is very active on a few forums, nice guy.

I MIGHT have one...might is operative. I can check at some point this weekend.

It may or may not help, but buy some cat crap (actual name) and give the lense a good rubbing. Even still, the moisture in the air really play tricks with the IR bouncing and giving that foggy look.

You must have that cam in a low spot or something, that fog/moisture in the air really clouds up the IR depth. Good bucks as usual.

Bummer, must have been the early rut.

OBR exists for ego? Did I read that correctly? Wasn't sure if that was the question or the statement.

Ants wreak havoc on the cams themselves, they eat/chew a lot of the components believe it or not, which is why they break cams. If you have ants - remove cam from the field. Place cam in freezer for 24 hours. Take cam apart and blow out the dead ants and re-assemble. Don't set cam in same spot. If you fear ant issues, you can dab a variety of chemicals around the tree itself that the cam is hung on rather than the cam itself as many of the chemicals can damage cam bodies or components. I've only had ant issues 1-2 times and I'll ring permetherin around the tree to prevent revisits. Not foolprood and generally only a summer use. I don't like to mess with chemicals and cams as the season approaches. Diatamaceous earth around the tree on the ground even works some. Good luck.