uberyan

Mostly because it’s touted as the best ny county for buck take. We have plenty of does down here but bucks have been hard to encounter.

Hmm I like to still hunt so I’d prefer to avoid places with too many other hunters. Don’t want to feel Like I’m walking across a hot range. Is Erwin big enough to get that kind of hunting done?

Got a longer break than usual for thanksgiving this year. thinking of making a longer trek up from the island to steuben county. cany anyone comment on the public lands there? not looking for anyone to divulge their secret spots. Just want some confidence that there are good deer to be had before driving for 6 hours. thanks y’all.

Again I have no problem with them deciding what their proper product mix is to maximize sales or profits. It's when they urged congress to push for a ban on all assault weapons that they crossed the line.

Cool. Thanks for the link I'll check them out. Nothing too crazy. My nieces wanted to try fishing so I'll prob tag along and take my son as well.

I was planning on spending some money with fishing gear this summer at f&s. Now I need to find some other place that carries that stuff.

If anyone could guarantee that by banning this one specific, yet ambiguously defined, "assault type rifle" that no mass shooting would ever ever happen again, I'd support it instantly. But we all know that it won't. So what's next? Any semiautomatic rifle whether it's black and scary or pink and flowery? Then what? All semiauto handguns? All guns period? Not trying to be overly dramatic or poetic but let me paraphrase something that came out of the holocaust: First they came for the ar and I didn't stop them. Then they came for my rifles and I didn't stop them. Then they came for my handguns and I didn't stop them. Then they came for me and I had nothing to stop them with.

Pragmatically an age increase might make sense. But at the same time, are we saying 18 year olds can't be trusted with firearms but they're still trustworthy enough to vote and serve in the military?

Blows. Being in Long Island the field and stream was the easiest option to stop in and get little things here and there for hunting, especially last minute. If they had simply decided to stop selling ARs it'd be fine. But to come out and basically say they agree that assault rifles are bad and should be banned is where they lost me.

I was out hiking in a no hunting park on the island over the weekend. Saw some deer trails and was tempted to go in looking for sheds and whatnot. Ticks were exactly the reason I didn't. Wasn't wearing any treated clothes and I could here the mice hopping around. No doubt I would've emerged looking like a poppy seed bagel.

When do they start dropping around here? I'll probably try my luck with a few more actual hunts before the season ends. After that I'm planning on doing some shed searching as an excuse to get out of the house.

Some solid bucks there coastalhick. Ive only had one verified buck sighting on public lands so color me jealous.

That makes sense. I would have no problem reporting any deer taken from those areas or for any state property for that matter. Is that information not required when you submit a tag online? In any case I was more concerned with whether I had to present a whole carcass in person at the check station. I would prefer to quarter out in the field.

I believe anything taken during the special firearms season needs to be checked. During the regular archery they suggest it for everyone but it's only required for takes from Brookhaven, wildwood and ridge.

Nontypical you seem to have good experience hunting the island. Do you know why deer taken at Brookhaven and wildwood need to be checked at ridge?

So half way to the first site I realized I forgot my thumb release on the coffee table. Crap. Going to have to use the backup wrist release. Well fears were unnecessary. Long Island hunters are a persistent bunch. Checked out three places. Each spot was full. Oh well. Nice drive around the island I suppose.

Is today the last day of the season up in westchester? Guess you might as well hunt it if you're gonna be out there. Then pick up the cams on the way out.

Still snowing on the island. Maybe I'll head out once it stops to see if there are any good tracks to follow.

Thinking I might try out some of those one hunter only at a time spots on Saturday. Maybe the insane cold will keep them free. Or maybe they'll be free because there are no deer there.

Whew. It's cold out there. Way to brave it. Debating what to do this weekend.

I'm fairly new to hunting so I won't make any claims as to what makes proper deer management. One thing I would say is that if you really wanted to better manage the deer population you would have to get a lot more local. FWIW, NYS is a pretty large mass of land and differing geographies. What works in suburbia near the more populated cities is not going to work for the sparser rural areas. Deer population and herd health can vary a lot depending on where you are. In my case, Long Island has a huge population of deer to the point of nuisance in a lot of areas. The biggest hindrance to controlling those numbers is due to lack of access. Not a lot of private areas that are large enough to hunt on even if you had access. And in general, too much private land with no access. They've made an effort to open up more public areas to hunting but those all come with numbered spots with a certain number of hunters allowed at any given time. Shortening the season here would just mean higher hunter densities crammed into a shorter period of time, possibly with some hunters not being able to get out at all. And I'm sure I'm not the only person that does this, but I avoid any opening day as I prefer to still hunt. A large amount of hunters is not good for me as I don't want to disturb anyone else's hunt but more importantly, don't want to expose myself to some trigger happy idiot who will shoot anything that moves (obviously none of the fine folk here). A long season is beneficial to me as it affords me the most opportunities to get out at all. That's actually the reason I even took up bowhunting. My first season I only hunted the rifle season and even getting out three times was a chore.

Dog ticks disappear in cold weather but not deer ticks. They stay in the brush piles under snow is what I've read. Not super active but alive and well insulated under the snow. As soon as temps go up or snow melts they go back to being active. I think drying out is their only real danger. What freaks me out more is when I see them crawling around my pants legs even though I keep my clothes soaked in permethrin. I really hope they haven't found a way to become immune to that stuff.

These are the spots I've been hunting on the island. Hither Hills - def most deer I've seen out of the island spots. Some of the does were pretty big. Also the only spot I've had a confirmed buck sighting. Overall a good spot to still hunt. Large enough and spread out enough so you don't have to worry about other hunters even if the parking spots are taken. The con is it's just too damn far. Two hours for me. And they also take part in the January firearms season so god knows what will happen then. Wildwood - lots of deer sign. They don't show up until sunset is near. Couple of pockets that are just too thick to go into and that's where they seem to stay during daylight hours. Does seen no buck sightings. Sarnoff - deer sign but I couldn't find a way in off the main trail. At least not in the area that I was in (spot 8 I think in one of the main lots). Briers are thick and some are up to five feet high. Even if I shot one i would dread the recovery process. Brookhaven - looks good for a few hundred yards from the parking spot. Then turns into big pockets of thick briers. Some rubs here and there. Bumped one deer just a few minutes in. Couldn't tell what it was. All the west side spots were taken on a Friday. But last Sunday when I drove by they were all empty so I'm not really sure what the pressure is like. Drove by kings park just because it's the closest to me and I was curious. Only one spot and it was taken. Looks tiny and a bit gnarly. Close to houses. There are a couple of other spots I'd like to try out but they're all one spot/hunter limit areas. Risky to drive out there just to have it already occupied. I looked at the map for Otis pike and some of the other more well known areas. Parking spots looked like they damn near overlap each other. No thanks. If you know of any other decent spots I'd love to hear it. Getting kind of worn out this season.

They need to do something about clearing the undergrowth in a lot of the public spots on Long Island I know we should be grateful to have public lands to hunt at all but when you have twenty hunters crammed in a spot where less than half the park is accessible it becomes pretty useless.

Surprisingly a good Amount of parking spots taken today. Guess I'm not the only that has a holiday today. Bumped one on the way in. Still amazed how close they stay to the main trails sometimes. Trying to circle back behind it.