Why??

[wolc123]

7 hours ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

We have 116 acres of tillable land. 103 of it we rent to a local dairy farmer. It’s all either corn or alfalfa. I give him a bit of a deal and he only picks the corn so it’s standing well into November. The other 13 acres are plots we plant with a variety of crops.

We also have a good amount of oaks and apple trees. We have everything a deer could ever need but with our current seasons it’s just nearly impossible to get a 3+yr old buck. In the last 10+yrs of running cameras we’ve had less than 10 mature “3+yr old” bucks on camera.


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If your goal is to hold 3.5 year plus bucks, then I would suggest a few changes.  I think your problem is that your property is basically being controlled by older does.  They will always dominate the choicest ground and with oaks apples, corn and hay, that sounds pretty “choice”

I would start by cutting out the apples and asking the farmer to cut the corn earlier for silage.  The old dominant does will then move out to be closer to the food sources.  The vacancies, in your heavy cover areas, will be filled by older bucks.  Leave the oaks (you will just have to trust me on that one). 

Edited December 10, 2021 by wolc123

[Shoots100]

5 hours ago, Trial153 said:

The gun season is way too long in the southern zone and insanely too long in the Northen zone. A two buck limit is nuts especially considering that 7 out of ten bucks in the state killed are 1.5 and 2.5 years old.

But by all means carry on like good little worker drones doing the same thing and getting the same results.
Brown is down, can’t eat the horns, I don’t kill him my neighbor will.

I would suggest that you call the DEC and educate them, or become a teacher and educate the newest worker drone hunters.

I for one don't shoot small bucks and none in my group of drones does either, unless their a new hunter.

They get one legal buck and then their not new anymore.

I hunt for meat, so the same results for me, is meat on my table, not a rack on my wall.

Personally, I would rather see the bigger bucks not get killed so they can pass on their genes, but with all of the trophy bow hunters annihilating them with their new fangled sniper bows before breeding season, the lesser bucks do most of the breeding and the weaker genes are passed on.

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[G-Man]

14 hours ago, wolc123 said:

If your goal is to hold 3.5 year plus bucks, then I would suggest a few changes.  I think your problem is that your property is basically being controlled by older does.  They will always dominate the choicest ground and with oaks apples, corn and hay, that sounds pretty “choice”

I would start by cutting out the apples and asking the farmer to cut the corn earlier for silage.  The old dominant does will then move out to be closer to the food sources.  The vacancies, in your heavy cover areas, will be filled by older bucks.  Leave the oaks (you will just have to trust me on that one). 

Just kill some.does

[G-Man]

On 12/8/2021 at 7:58 PM, land 1 said:

Ive also heard from people that the blaze orange law is stupid, but seems to me no matter where you hunt during gun its a common sense to wear it ,,, i wore it prior and deer dont even see orange

I always wore orange as well except late.muzzleloader and then that was snow camo unless we were doing drives then orange hat again.. doesn't really bother me  ,neighbor how 86 hunts in blue jeans and a old wool brown grey coat..  deer don't care  people do thats it..

[Five Seasons]

23 hours ago, Grouse said:

Deer don't , buy coyotes do.  Maybe the DEC is trying to keep the opening day yote kill down.  Seems they do a lot to keep their populations up.

something else occurred to me the other day in my blind. While most dog walkers and leaf peepers wear bright colors during gun season as a good best practice, they can't be ticketed. But if I have a gun on me and a license then I can be ticketed. If I have a .22 hunting squirrel I can't be. If I'm hunting a yote with a .243... how can you prove I wasn't after a deer?

law has major flaws. 

[G-Man]

23 hours ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

I’ve done a ton of habitat work. We have two 40ish acre sanctuary’s that are extremely thick that I’ve done hinge cuttings etc to improve. The problem is we are surrounded by neighbors that shoot the first 2 bucks they see and no matter what you do you can’t keep a buck on your property.

With 8 weeks of gun and surrounded by hunters a buck doesn’t have a chance, there’s too much time for him to make a mistake!


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I am surrounded by small camps and a 30 acre sanctuary hold deer , dropped over 700 trees last winter just to make cover in the mature hardwood, whole tree left to rot.  Sanctuary is no go zone all the year , and you can't see 30 yards into it. If your shooting into it or hanging on edge you don't have a sanctuary . 10 buck and 3 doe off this year tells me we can hold buck.  Methods of hunting will keep more deer out as well still hunting walking around scouting ..  all are detrimental. 

Helped a local hunter this year who had same issues his sanctuary was way to open and accessible.  His stands were not entered easily and quietly , scouting during season was stopped , he has had his best year since New work done on land and property management done all summer.. 

. 

[Buckmaster7600]

I am surrounded by small camps and a 30 acre sanctuary hold deer , dropped over 700 trees last winter just to make cover in the mature hardwood, whole tree left to rot.  Sanctuary is no go zone all the year , and you can't see 30 yards into it. If your shooting into it or hanging on edge you don't have a sanctuary . 10 buck and 3 doe off this year tells me we can hold buck.  Methods of hunting will keep more deer out as well still hunting walking around scouting ..  all are detrimental. 
Helped a local hunter this year who had same issues his sanctuary was way to open and accessible.  His stands were not entered easily and quietly , scouting during season was stopped , he has had his best year since New work done on land and property management done all summer.. 
. 

Our sanctuary’s hold deer, unless we track one into or winter work in them we don’t go in or near them. We’ve added a couple clear cuts that are really getting nice as well. We have everything setup for minimal impact. We don’t even hunt close to them unless we know there’s a shooter in them and even then we wait until the right time. We do zero in season scouting or still hunting on our property.

It’s frustrating, I enjoy the work but the time and money for basically zero reward gets old.

Between the two of us we’ve had 34 chances to shoot bucks this year that’s pretty good odds with less than 40 hunts between us on our property. With 14 different bucks on cam as of last weeks cam check. Biggest one is a 2yr old 5pt.

Edit to add
4 miles East as a crow flies we have a 100 acre woodlot that is in SZ we have sole permission to hunt it but aren’t allowed to do any land work. There zero real agriculture within a couple miles yet we’ve had 5 different shooters on cam. Only difference is 3 weeks less gun season.


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