WNYBuckHunter

1/10th the cost of a new vehicle tops. I dont know about you, but I dont dump my cars until they are damn near shot. Only ever sold 1 to anyone other than the junk yard. I know what it takes to keep cars running. You are ex-LEO arent you?

Management practices arent really the driving force behind ARs, not in my opinion. I think its the TV big rack culture that sells the idea that anyone with 50 acres can realistically shoot a 130+, or should be able to. People buy into that nonsense and then feel like they should shove that desire down everyones throat because they dont think there are enough of those deer around. For alot of areas, its simply not true. People dont realize that their property might just not be one that will hold older bucks, and alot of the time there is nothing they can do about it. ARs or not. Other times, they dont have the know how, willingness to do what it takes or access to get the big bucks that are around their area. I hear people all the time saying "NY can be the next Iowa", but it cant, and ARs wont make it that way. ARs will not affect the way I hunt, but I dont want to see them affect the way anyone else hunts either. Id rather spread the message for what voluntary ARs or management practices can do.

Swap the engine, it doesnt cost $50k+, like a new cruiser does.

OMG- If its a Toyota, take it to the dealer, they will buy it back at a higher price than what its worth. I had 3 friends do that.

I live in the rust belt, and cars dont go through those things (other than rotors) that often. Your frame is rotted, but the truck is 16 years old. Theres a treatment they do at companies like Ziebart that do wonders for keeping things rust free. They could spend an extra 600 to 700 bucks per car and have it undercoated. I cant imagine anyone making excuses for this blatant waste.

Your taxes are paying for all of that. Its cheaper to fix a car than replace it. Hell you can swap an engine and transmission for far less. Unless the frame is rotted out and unsafe, its cheaper to fix. 125k miles is nothing.

Well the reasoning behind it is habitat types and the average size of a yearling buck in that type of habitat. Say the average yearling buck in the catskills is a fork horn, they have to come up with a strategy to try and save that buck, but still allow older bucks to be taken, so they put a 3 on a side AR rule in place. Around here, the average yearling has 3 or 4 points on a side, so the 3 point rule wouldnt do much. In fact, you might end up with a lot of high grading going on, where the best yearlings are taken out. So they have to come up with a different strategy for this area. Do they need to point out each WMU individually? Nope, they can do it in larger zones, like they are doing. It will make things easier on the DEC and hunters alike, especially ones that hunt multiple spots in multiple WMUs, theres less to remember. Personally I think this is a precursor to statewide ARs, and I dont like it. I understand it, but I dont like it.

I still have a bunch. Roasts, a pile of backstraps, some sausage, maybe 10 or 12 lbs of ground. I should be able to make it until I kill something.

My truck sees all kinds of salt, it has almost 100k on it and not a spot of rust besides where some idiot side swiped it and I havent replaced the fender yet. This is just plain bogus union and government nonsense. Its no wonder our tax rates are so high, they spend money like drunken sailors. (awaiting pygmy's drunken sailor comment...)

No, some people dont look at that. I told him on page one and was responded to with "F U"

Apparently, according to the NYS Troopers union, they shouldnt be driving cars with more than 125k miles on them. Silly me, I thought that police departments had mechanic shops that fixed the cars when they broke, and that these cars racked up a whole bunch of miles rather quickly because they are on the road so much. So now they are going to be replacing the cars every year or two? I thought the state finances were not so great. Now they have to come up with funds to refresh Troopers cars more often? I wonder where that money will come from. Hmmm, they wouldnt be looking for the tax payers to foot the bill would they? http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s3868524.shtml

They are supposed to be out with an adult anyhow, I hate NYs rules on ages for kids to hunt. My daughter is fully capable of hunting under my supervision at 11, and she has been for a couple of years. At least she will be bow hunting next year.

12? What did I do?

They are calling for almost 4/10" of rain down by me today. That would be darn near perfect to get things started.

Nice. When I lived in FL we had a 3 pronged spear with a 10 foot lanyard and medical tubing attached to the back. You would strap the lanyard onto your wrist, and hood the loop in the medical tubing on your thumb and hold the spear near the prongs with your hand, which stretched the tubing. We would slowly walk down the docks at marinas and spear sheepshead as they were eating the barnacles off of the pilings. We would end up with a large cooler full of them in a couple of hours and sell them to the fish market. Fun way to spend an afternoon off of work. The teeth on those things are crazy, looks like a mouth full of miniature human molars.

Thats all these zones are. They are doing it because its more efficient than changing the rules WMU by WMU. If you think about it, it will be easier for hunters to remember as well, kind of like NZ vs SZ. There are going to be pitfalls, there always are with any kind of plan.

Of course you have to take population into consideration when you are talking about how many bucks you want shot. Thats not what this piece of their plan is about.

I seriously think you and Doc are smoking the same stuff. When did I ever say that an additional layer of deer management would cost less than the previous system? If I said that anywhere, please point it out and Ill eat my hat. DUH. I also said nothing about overall management. This whole thread has been about the new buck management program and map, we arent talking population management, doe management, DMP allocation or anything like that. What I said is that Doc has been insinuating that current WMUs are somehow going to go away, and that instead of focusing on herd management on a smaller, more precise scale, the DEC is looking to broaden its scope. None of that is true. Like you said, its just another layer, and this layer (yearling buck management) is fine to manage in larger areas than specific WMUs. Try to keep up.

I have to say that the soil is very dry here as well. I was lterally covered in dirt all day yesterday from tilling. Every time I got off the tractor I felt like Pigpen from the Peanuts, with a big cloud of dust flying off of me. When I hopped in the shower, the water was brown coming off of me. I sure hope we get some rain in the next couple of days like they are predicting.

I also pulled a card from one of my cams. Got a bunch of yearling and 2 1/2 year olds. The last 2 pics on the card, from this morning were of this guy. Im pretty sure this is Hooks, but need a head on shot to be sure. He is a 4 year old this year, and the backline and belly look about right for that. He always has his brows. Im not sure how much more growing he has, but he fits my bill for a mature buck. I passed on him 3 times as a 2 1/2 and had a 10 yard encounter with him last year during bow season. Hopefully this year he gives me a shot.

Its been a very busy weekend, we got started Friday evening with mowing down the buckwheat and brush hogging the rest of the plots now that the weeds have been knocked down. I also hung a new camera in a spot that Ive been wanting to get one into for some time. Saturday morning we got started by bringing in a second tractor to run the tiller while the brush hog was running on other areas of the farm. We started by tilling a brand new plot that was an old hay lot that was plowed up and then not used, so it was kind of a rutted up mess. I went over it 3 times with the tiller before I moved on to the next plot. I did the buckwheat plot next, followed by the failed corn plot. Both went very easy, as we have been working them for a few years. The failed corn plot had received 250lbs of 15-15-15 when the corn was planted, but with little growth I figure most of it is still in the soil. I added another 150lbs of 15-15-15 and tilled it in. Next was another small, new plot that my buddy has been wanting to play around with for a few years now. After that, I headed down to two of our best plots and got them tilled up. The smaller plot always does great with no fertilizer, as its basically a flood bottom, but this year I figured Id give it a bit of a boost, and tilled in 200lbs of 10-10-10. The larger plot down there was full of clover that stayed from the mix we put in last year. I was considering saving the clover and spraying with cleth to kill off the grass, but I second guessed it and tilled the clover in. Last up was another brand new plot, which I went over twice before I called it a day. This morning I headed back down with the kids to plant. We started out in the failed corn plot. I rolled it, then spread DeerAg Double Beam Brassica mix, dragged and then it got rolled once again by my daughter. Next we went to the lower plots and rolled them both. In the larger plot, I spread a mix of PTTs and 2 types of Rape. That got dragged and rolled, and then I spread a similar mix in the smaller plot, but added sugar beets to the mix there. Dragged and rolled that, and moved on to the buckwheat plot. That got the Rape and PTT mix, dragged and rolled. The small plot my buddy is working on got done by him in Hog Radish. The last two plots will be planted in WR later this month. We also have a couple of other new plots that didnt get tilled yet, that still may get scratched up and done in WR. One thing I noticed was the buckwheat plot was almost completely weed free and super easy to till. Im thinking that any of our plots that are going to end up as fall plots will get planted in buckwheat in the spring to keep the weeds down and give the deer something to eat. Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Take a few minutes and read all of the comments under that story. Hilarious.

LOL, typical.

Well, you bought the crossbow knowing (or should have known) full well that the season encompasses the last 2 weeks of bow season. Just like someone buying a full size truck knows, or should know, that they are not all that fuel efficient. BTW, you should also know that you can use your crossbow during all of gun season, and all of late muzzleloader/bow season as well. Hope you didnt smack your head too hard.

My dads place always has a ton of them around, they like to roost in that area for some reason. Its been going on for about 8 to 10 years. Never happened before that.