phade

Context, my dear Watson...context.

Ah, but when used improperly, it becomes a violation of Grammar By-law 2.01 Section 3 Sub-section A-45.

Wait, aren't you the anti-grammar nazi? Hello Pot/Kettle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There, this thread has it all.

Hard to tell there with the pic...3.5 or so. Pretty good buck by any stretch. Bedding and activity habits seem to shift when a buck makes it past 3.5. Not really sure why, but it's like a light goes on or something. As much as I consider a 3.5 a mature buck for NYs sake, they are a completely different animal when they reach to 4.5. I think Potter on this site targets 4.5s and has pretty good luck with them...I'm just not there yet. If I see a good 3.5, in most cases I'll take it, because I don't own or control enough acreage. I can only count on my hands how many times I have run into a legit 4.5+ while in stand here in NY. I run into a ton of 3.5s.

First, sorry to hear you are from Utica. No offense, lived there for two years, and never again. Second, AJs has decent reviews but I have never been there. Lots of people I knew when I lived in that area went there. Good Luck!

Yes, you'd really need to be obnoxious or mean to the officer to get a ticket punched at this point. I can't give you proof other than that article, but I have "heard" that they are laying low on writing the tickets at the moment. I seriously doubt you would get pinched for feeding deer. There is an effort to re-word the law to make it more concrete. Until then, it's pretty soft on enforcement.

Big boys - 2.5? 3.5? 4.5? That's early for roaming if they aren't beded on your ground or very near it.

I suspect the lowers stands are taking advantage of bucks bedding within the wind tunnel and your stands are just outside of the tunnel...I imagine they are there as you say in-season for a reason. Could be tough hunting, sounds like your major bedding spots for bucks are below and above...good for transitions between the two as bucks roam from both places into your ground in season. But, sounds like early and maybe late are harder to hunt for mature bucks?

Nah, directed at rossi. He's complaining about state legislatures, writer's orgs...councils, etc. Seems like nothing is right unless they fall lock step with him/his ideas. But, I will say, they put those numbers in their annual deer report, which is their most prestiguous release. That says something. It's akin to a publicly traded company putting numbers in their Form 10-K.

That sheep hunt is likely one of my "dream" hunts. Haven't started putting in because the time constraints of the season (December) doesn't lend itself to my slower time at work. Most people seem to take some long shots at them based on the outfitter photos...would prefer bow and arrow.

I now feel like I'm in a Tom Cruise movie about conspiracy theory....sheesh. Sounds like someone with problems with authority all the way around.

It sounds like you don't have much buck bedding on your ground at all to be honest. Sounds like when you do, it is situational based on the wind and thermals - so when the conditions are correct, they'll come in and bed. If you have west slopes, and you have W or SW winds, those bucks are likely bedded on the other side of the slope, with wind coming up over the west slope and dropping down to their beds on the other side at the 1/3/ from top elevation line. Bedding at the base of the hill often tells me that there are thermals and currents in play. Since this is your home turf - maybe look at taking milk weed seeds and releasing in various conditions and times of day, and weather types over the next few weeks. You could also maybe bring a handheld smoker. I suspect you'll find conditions where the wind could be flowing one direction, but the smoke flows differently based on thermals and wind tunnels. Sounds like you have both in play. Mother does - especially alpha does - are known to agressively hold the best fawning ground and deter bachelor bucks and even groups. Alot of it is dependent upon the deer involved. If the alpha doe is agressive, then chances are the does will still be there and fawn.

Don't get me wrong, there will be some motion blur - and more because it is black flash as compare to say a red IR. The tradeoff is the flash being invisible. My opinion is that the tradeoff is worth it. You set the cam for three shots, and you will get some blur, but one of the three are going to be prime and clear. It takes all three photos in 1.5 seconds total, which is probably the fastest out there until you get to a Reconyx - and even that is ballpark same performance number. There isn't a cam on the market commerically that is going to eliminate motion blur with one lense. That's the issue...Reconyx is trying a dual lense approach this year, and if it works, I think you may see the industry lean that way. One for night and one for day, no filter use.

Looks like he still has three legs too many, no?

Same here, although I'm not so sure i would even call it skinning...knife in on the center and slice those breastisiz right out. I don't find any other meat on them things worth eating.

I can pretty much gurantee those are doe beds based on your description Grow. Close proximity and multiple beds are #1 sign for doe beds. Bucks, esp. mature bucks, are much more calculating with bed selection. Does are a bit less choosey - because they rely on a different defense - numbers. Does will often beds in numbers - you can tell because the beds will indicate different directional facing. You can determine which way the deer is facing based on where the pellets are in the bed. Does and bucks will pee and deficate in the bed, often while standing to stretch or getting up to leave the bed. Doe beds will not often appear to have a purpose in the way that they face in them...some will be north, some sw, some e, etc. There are certainly exceptions, but that is the case. You'll also see beds and pellets of varying size. The locations of the beds will often not be in ideal defensive positions - such as open fields from time to time, or in low spots where they cannot sample the wind and see at the same time. Even in times of bachelor groups, you will rarely describe their bedding as multiple and in close proximity. Generally speaking the best buck (dominance wise) is going to take the best bedding from a defensive/safety position. You may have what are called sattelite beds held by lesser bucks - these beds are often spread out over a graeter distance. If the mature buck is not in that "best" bed, then a subordinate buck will occupy it. You want to see a sizeable bed with large pellets and big tracks. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to rub use - some bucks will have a rub right on top of the bed, and some will not. If you do find all of the above and a solid rub or rubline leading away from the bed, then you know you are in the money. Most often, though Grow, mature bucks are a different animal than does and young bucks. They value safety more than anything - most people that refer to bedding "areas" usually mean doe bedding and maybe some subordinant bucks. Even in times of bachelor groups, most of the mature deer will be beded lone, unless they are in a sattelite setup. You can find that in marsh situations often. The other thing Grow, is I think you are in hill country, which to me can be easily figured out in general, but fine tuning is very challenging because of the large variety of factors. Finding buck beds in hill country can be most easily accomplished by looking at your elevation points and walking the 1/3 from the top elevation line. You'll find wind specific bedding more common in hill country than in flat land/ag (although it does happen). So, looking at that 1/3 line, you find a buck bed. You can generally tell what wind he beds in it with, given thermals and wind direction. In most cases, that buck will bed with the wind coming up and over the hillside from his behind, and he will be looking down into the valley. He'll be on that leeward side, sampling the wind from behind and using his vision in front where his nose cannot defend him. This pattern also shows in flat land or ag - they'll be backed up to a thick area with vision over a more open area, with the wind coming from the thick area they cannot see through. It so effective, you can pretty much identify the exact position in the bed and where they face in that bed. That's why you often hear about hunters hunting transition lines (hardwoods/brush, marsh/hardwoods, brush/field) - but most don't know truly why they find success there. Deer are certainly users of transition lines and hunters think they are in a funnel setting, etc. But really, what they are doing is unknowingly setting up closer to a buck bed. The closer you are to his bed, the better your odds for killing him (and alerting him, too, but based on numbers, hunters can unknowingly get lucky over time). They think this buck they shot was up crusing, etc. when in reality, he had just rose from his bed and was in his safe zone. Remember, if you identify the "best" buck bed for an area and a mature buck uses it...as long as nothing changes, that bed will be backfilled by the next "best" buck once the one that occupied it before is killed or moves to new ground. Many people who target beds for hunting have pulled multiple mature bucks from the same bed over the course of 5-10 years. I can go into hunting the buck beds a bit more specifically, but I've already wrote a ton...lol. BTW, you may get more responses if your title was a bit more clear - ie "how to find buck beds" or "how do you identify beds" etc.

At least he's not the one promoting natural selection whilst acting as the laggard of the group.

Lifetime licenses add up over time, don't forget. It's not just a one time thing. It compounds year over year. As time wears on...the number becomes more important. 899 vs 901 is statistically irrelevant, too. That decline, whatever they indicate and valiated to a talking point, is likely price-point driven. Plus, the best part, is that the DEC even states that their numbers on this aren't accurate...lol. So we really have no numbers to argue on at all that we can fully confirm. DEC even noted so in their management plan.

Read your own linked sources man...lol...it's on the link you just provided. Darn near 21 years worth of lifetimes were bought in a single year. Lifetime License Sales License Year Quantity Sold Gross Sales Notes 2002/2003 4,355 $1,309,644 2003/2004 3,793 $1,245,545 2004/2005 3,892 $1,203,710 2005/2006 4,561 $1,372,550 2006/2007 5,270 $1,509,150 2007/2008 5,958 $1,662,860 2008/2009 106,915 $23,783,030 2009/2010 5,362 $2,189,234 2010/2011 2,922 $1,258,170 YTD 08/04/2011

Average lifetime purchases were about 2-5k per year. In that single year alone...more than 106k were sold. That is more than 20x the annual average. So, yes. I do expect you to believe that.

I believe, I may be wrong, but that figure is no longer accurate because of what happened with the license hike and lifetime license purchase push. That's why you see the balloon in the license sales and then a drop off. Once you buy the lifetime, it no longer counts in subsquent years as a "sale" because the money is put into that fund and there is no new revenue. I'm fairly positive overall hunter numbers are statistically higher now in NY than in 2006.

See attached chart for the nationwide... Not only has NY had a rise in hunters, but it is above the national average. The dip in the mid 2000s can be pretty much traced back to the big whiff the DEC had with deer numbers and DMPs...the boom population of the early 2000's and then that big drop off. Rebounding deer numbers means more license sales imo. But in any case, NY has had statistically important growth since 2006.

Total Hunters by State Where Hunting Took Place, 2001 to 2011 (Population 16 Years Old and Older) % Change ‘11 Hunters/Square State 2001 2006 2011 2006-11 Mile of Total Area New York 714,000 566,000 823,000 45% 15.1 QDMA Report...

I know where you are coming from on this, but hunter numbers have upticked in the past few years in most all statistical categories. Bowhunting and MZ have been popular. I think the federal study, which is the "big" one that most go by, shows a 9% or so year over year increase since 2006. Whether it is a short-term blip of 5-10 years, or a start to a new trend, I don't know. Access will continue to be the issue going forward.

Yes.