NY bucks....where are they?


Turkeygirl

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So for the last week I've been hunting, all Andy and I have seen are does and button bucks except for a limping rack buck we couldn't find. Actually I got the button buck on Thursday morning, thought it was a big doe. Andy got a small doe Friday. Anyway we have our buck tags left to fill. We have close to a foot of snow on the ground which makes the hunting a little easier, there aren't very many people pushing the woods anymore and with this cold weather, you'd think theb ucks would be out eating. Is anyone else in NY seeing bucks? Any suggestions?

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Re: NY bucks....where are they?

I was very Lucky opening morning I had 5 Bucks around my stand. 2 spikes, a 4, 6 and an 8 come out. Chasing does. The 4, 6, and 8 came out at the same time and the only clean shot I had was on the 4. I was the only one that morning out of my club that saw that many bucks. Everyone elso saw does. Makes it hard to believe that we didn't get any doe permits this year and there are so many of them.

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Guest bigbucks125

Re: NY bucks....where are they?

ive hunted everyday since the opener..9 days straight...and ive seen 3 bucks all on opening day. ive seen so many does but where are the bucks??

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Re: NY bucks....where are they?

How did you mistake a button buck for a big doe? Button bucks are usually 1/2 yrs old and are tiny. Did you mean, "small doe"?

As for not seeing bucks. NYS does not properly manage their deer herd properly. In our system, every hunter that buys a tag gets a buck tag. And doe tags need to be applied for. If every hunter can kill a buck in an already unbalanced buck to doe ratio state, then how does our DEC expect us to see any bucks. Especially big ones, when their is no antler restrictions. I blame our Liberal state for not supporting the herd. We should be killing more does than bucks. Our Dept. of Envir. Cons. does not know their butt from a whole in the ground when it comes to managing a deer herd. And, what get's me is, they are so arogant, they think they know it all!!!!!

--Rossman

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Guest bigbucks125

Re: NY bucks....where are they?

i think NY should seriously have an antler restriction next season. within three years NY would have many more big bucks and a better buck to doe ratio. look what the antler restriction law did for PA. or maybe new yorkers should have to kill a doe in order to get a buck tag like some states.

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Re: NY bucks....where are they?

they are out there, in putnam and dutchess counties i have been see alot of smaller bucks now that im just doe hunting. filled my bow tag with a 9 point and my regular season tag with a 8 point on friday, good luck, with that much snow try walking around a little see if u can kick something up and track

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Re: NY bucks....where are they?

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Is anyone else in NY seeing bucks? Any suggestions?

[/ QUOTE ]

With the rut past its peak, start focusing in on food sources in the last week of the season. Up to then, focus on buck bedding areas, if that's what you are after.

I've filled my 2 antlerless tags now, and will be checking with a landowner to see if they still have DMAP permits to hand out.

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Re: NY bucks....where are they?

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however it's not fair to blame the DEC for this as all they do is legislated by Albany. and the insurance companies have lots of money!! as was evident in the senseless slaughter of all those deer this spring in Oneida co. to check for CWD.

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Senseless!!!! I agree, but for the opposite reason you think. The DEC should have eliminated all of the deer in the area. Not just the 400 to 500 they did kill. Why they did not try and kill all of the deer iin a pre-determined perimeter boggles my mind. I know it sounds extreme but if you have the chance to get rid of CWD in such an early stage, then why not do it. In knoe the hunters in that area would have been really mad, but the population will redevelop and CWD might have been eliminated also.

I do not know what the insurance conmpanies had any thing to do with the DEC killing the deer last spring. That comment right there is senseless. What? Do you think the DEC called State Farm to get approval?

Also, the DEC is the only party to blame for not trying to increase the quality of it's herd. Except, for those idiot hunters who do not tag their deer!!!! The quality of New Yorks herd is terrible, and NY's DEC is to blame.

Yeah, the insurace companies do have alot of money, but to decrease the numbers in deer. You need to kill does not bucks. if the insurance companies have anything to do with how our deer numbers are managed, then why doesn't NY's DEC increase the number of doe tags?

As for us bow hunters and muzzleloaders. Yeah we should try and fill our antlerless tags. But there are many more gun hunters, who should be given doe tags and have buck tags taken away. To balance the population. Gun hunters have a much more drastic effect on what is killed. Just compare the number of deer taken by gun to the number taken by bow/muzzleloader combined!!!!

--Rossman

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Re: NY bucks....where are they?

In certain areas where deer numbers are high, DEC should impose a new tactic like NJ does. First you need to take a doe then you are allowed to shoot a buck. I would think that would help reducing the doe herd if everyone was to take a doe out first then concentrate on antlers. Just my 2cents.

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Re: NY bucks....where are they?

I find it kinda funny that most NY hunters were hollaring last year that they didn't see any deer and now they see too many. The DEC did not cut back on doe permits because they wanted to. It was the hunting public demanded it. Now I see 10- 20 does on almost every drive we do and I cannot shoot a single one of them. Each of those deer (providing we have a mild winter) will make one or two more when they have fawns.

I have a feeling when the number break down you will see a lower buck kill in the northern zone and a normal or better one in the southern zone.

Ranger

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Re: NY bucks....where are they?

In my opinion with the popularity of muzzelloading and bow hunting there is a lot more pressure in the woods earlier. This is going to educate the deer much faster than it would if the first day you went out was opening day of riffle or shotgun. With the ability to take a buck with a muzzleloader early has also taken the buck population down. Another thing that has hurt the buck population is the fact that as a state we keep shooting almost all of the year and a half old bucks. This is obviously going to have an affect on the bucks that you see the next year.

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Re: NY bucks....where are they?

I bow hunt in 3R and gun hunt in 3H.

I went to 3 meetings held by DEC last feburary. 2 of those meetings were to discuss the changes to the hunting rules and regs. Youth seasons, saturday opener, year round yote season were the topics of 2 meetings. The last meeting I went to was in Loch Sheldrake ,NY in Feb also. The was a DEC proposal for antler restrictions in all of region 3.

99% of the room was for it. Meat hunters opposed it.

No where in ANY of the meetings I attended did anyone request that doe tags be curtailed. A matter of fact, many complained about there not being

enough doe tags. 80% of the bucks harvested are yearlings...how are you gonna shoot a big one if you don't let the small ones walk? I know not everyone is looking to shoot a trophy, but the over all quality of the deer herd will benefit from QDM.

Yup, some people don't even report their deer, and that makes for bad DEC math regarding the kill count and whats in store for the following year.

All I saw this gun season so far with MANY days on stand is does and small bucks...forks and smaller.

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