Antler Restrictions

[Rick]

Hello!

I was just wondering about "Antler Restrictions" in Western New York. We seem to be losing our deer heard in the area and was wondering what we should do to bring back the deer. I believe that 3 points one-inch high would not be a bad start. We must do something or we will lose all the deer heard. I remember back in the sixty's the DEC feed the deer during the winter and it helped a lot. So what is the answer today. We need to do something now or lose our deer hunting as we know it today in New York State.

Rick

[Culvercreek hunt club]

You think the herd is down in WNY? where are you hunting? If your reference is the 80's and 90's the herd is probably down from what was an overpopulation. as for AR's....that is not a population control. It is viewed by many as a tool to increase buck populations but not in the overall herd.

[KenAxe-7]

Antler restrictions have been very successful in PA. I am a big advocate for these types of regulations. You won't see a change in 1-2 yrs but hang in there and just watch what happens. We hunted in PA for quite a few years with some getting nice bucks(before the restrictions) 5 years after the restrictions were put in place we got an awesome 12 point(perfect 6x6), 2-9 points(very impressive), and 2-8 points(one was absolutely huge).....all on opening day of rifle season.

[Doewhacker]

You think the herd is down in WNY? where are you hunting? If your reference is the 80's and 90's the herd is probably down from what was an overpopulation. as for AR's....that is not a population control. It is viewed by many as a tool to increase buck populations but not in the overall herd.

Yes Culver all of those big bucks killed out there are a figment of your imagination, like that one you got last year...it was fake and if you let him grow another 5 years he might have been a 52 pointer that scored 400.

[nyantler]

AR's aren't about population control.. just age structure...and I'm not sure that there is any concern about deer population in NY.. there is an estimated 1 million deer in NY so I don't think we're threatened with lack of deer to hunt.

[BUCKrub91]

If you think the deer heard in western ny is suffering you obviously dont do much driving around at night

[Larry]

Putting an AR in place will not help the deer herd. Killing a buck no matter how big or small will not increase the size of the deer herd contrary to what some people believe bucks are expendable. The major way to control the deer herd is by increasing or decreasing the doe harvest.

[tughillhunter]

i believe you should let spikehorns go. The land i hunt we have our own antler restriction set to nothing under 6pts. Amazing the amount of bigger bucks we have, as long as the p.o.s. road hunters dont get them. It is just to increase bigger buck population tho.

[scobar]

I agree that the herd is fine, even though my outings this year have been low on sightings. I do practice QDM in Erie county and it does work. It takes a lot of work to keep everyone on the same page, but it can be done. 3 one one side is still usually only a yearling, so just passing up all yearlings is the first step. We have our QMD goal of if it's not worthy of a mount leave it pass.

[Larry]

put one on the ground yesterday nice fat doe in 9p seeing more does this year then in the past 3 or 4 years

[Doc]

First of all, AR is not a population tool ....... that is the job of antlerless permits.

As far as the current state of the deer population, I am not even going to try to second guess your assessment of what is going on in your particular local area. Chances are pretty good that you know what you are seeing, and I won't be disputing that. However, I would think that if you are experiencing a diminishing herd in western NY, it most likely is a very, very, local problem ...... And, I have seen that happen on specific high pressure, heavily hunted parcels. Anyway, I don't think you really are looking for any kind of statewide or even areawide regulation type fixes. Believe me, there is very little danger of "losing our deer herd". You may have something going on in your part of your hunting area, but that is a bit of a too-small scale for the DEC to provide any practical fixes.

At any rate, AR is absolutely the wrong thing to go after a population problem with. I would suggest that you contact the regional DEC headquarters and have a conversation with one of the biologists. I think they can be a lot clearer on population control and what the practicalities of micro-managing herds by neighborhood are.