ny_gun Posted February 24, 2006 Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 From DEC Web Site: During the 2005 season, hunters harvested slightly more than 180,200 total deer, including 89,000 bucks and approximately 91,200 antlerless deer. The total deer harvest for 2005 represents a 14 % reduction from the 208,000 deer taken in 2004 and is the lowest total deer take since 1994. Declines in 2005 were expected following an intentional 35% reduction in Deer Management Permit (DMP) availability, an action intended to rebuild and stabilize the deer population in many areas of the State. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirrelhunter91 Posted February 24, 2006 Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 Re: NY 2005 Deer Harvest Well, what did DEC expect? They handed out alot less doe permits this year and of course the take was going to be down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ny_gun Posted February 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 Re: NY 2005 Deer Harvest Here is the link to the full article: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/press/pressrel/2006/200622.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuckNrut Posted February 24, 2006 Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 Re: NY 2005 Deer Harvest That's an interesting stat. A 35% reduction in DMPs, but only a 14% reduction in total harvest. Perhaps the herd is healthier than believed. With the mild winter we are having (at least in 8H), this bodes well for next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adjam5 Posted February 24, 2006 Report Share Posted February 24, 2006 Re: NY 2005 Deer Harvest I am excited about the pilot antler restriction program set into place last year in 3C and 3J. There was a 52% decrease in the buck take in that area. That means that most if not all are following the new restrictions. Thats gonna leave a whole bunch of 2 1/2 year old bucks for that area next year. That should make the hunters happy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 Re: NY 2005 Deer Harvest Have not seen any official numbers for TN yet, but expect the numbers of does and young buck to be slightly higher than last year and the number of mature bucks to be considerably lower. Things here are headed in the wrong direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 Re: NY 2005 Deer Harvest Forget the total harvest numbers. With permit allocations bouncing around like a rubber ball, that number has lost all relevance. The number to look at is the buck harvest. With the exception of a couple AR test areas, that is the only remaining constant that can be used to judge herd size from one year to the next. What the buck take shows is that there is little difference betwen this year's take and last years. 89000 in 2005 vs. 88733 in 2004. That is probably statistically insignificant. However, if we compare 2005 to 2003, we have taken a 17% hit. Further, if we compare the 2005 buck take to the 2000 take, we see a 37% decrease of 89,000 vs. 140,857. I wish I had the numbers through the 90's which I suspect shows an even more dramatic decrease. But the point is that conclusions based on total take numbers are really pretty bogus, because the ground rules keep changing depending on what the permit allocations are doing. Of course other things changed this year like the Saturday opener. Who knows what effect that had. Also this idea of signing over permits that has been with us for the last couple of seasons probably impacts the numbers too. Now, the other thing that has to be remembered is that these statewide numbers are completely meaningless. All they show is the average size of the harvest across the state. How does that relate to the ground that you hunt? The fact is, it doesn't. That number is the result of unusually high harvest areas and unusually low harvest areas, none of which probably represent anything that you have been hunting. When you finally get the county harvests, you will have a better idea of your local conditions, and the town by town report will start to zero in on what you really care about. Statewide numbers don't indicate how well the hunters have been doing or can expect to do in the future. They do not indicate how well the DEC has been doing in their management efforts or antlerless permit allocations. Statewide numbers may just indicate that areas of the whole state may be under-harvested and over-harvested, but the average is just right....lol. A good state average could represent the worst management results possible. Think about it. And of course none of this means anything unless you buy into the "calculated" take concept. That is you count the small percentage of reports that actually come in. Then you run around to deer processors, taxidermists and such and come up with a "reporting factor", and then undoubtedly add in all kinds of other questionable factors and assumptions, stir that in with the report numbers and poof!.....you come up with a number. Well, maybe it's right, maybe it's not. With that much massaging of data I wouldn't blame anyone who was a bit skeptical. So anyway, let's not get terribly excited about these numbers. Just reflect back on your past season, and then you can decide what the real numbers are and how they compare with past results. Those are the numbers and observations and conclusions that are really meaningful to you. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LETMGROW Posted February 25, 2006 Report Share Posted February 25, 2006 Re: NY 2005 Deer Harvest We might also be seeing results of hunters becoming aware of there own situations. As QDM is getting more popular, I know of several hunters who have passed on smaller bucks to let them mature. The cutback in DMP'S also had some affect. Hunter's are probably catching on to the fact if you kill every deer in sight there won't be any left. There were other variables like the weather etc which kept hunters home. As for me I had an excellent season. I couldn't count the number of deer I passed on. I just hope next year is as good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossman Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 Re: NY 2005 Deer Harvest I know a guy who kills every buck he sees, without killing a single doe. Last year he killed 8 bucks and no does. He does this every year. I would not consider this guy my friend, but more of an aquaintance. He obviously does not tag any of these deer. He had an oudoor party at his house last month and I was invited. He has all of his racks lined in the rafters of his "barn room", probably totaling 100. Yes, 100 and maybe more. Deer ranging from 2 inch spikes to 130 class bucks. He just kills every buck he sees!!!!!! Now the point of the story, an off duty DEC officer was there, and congradulated him on killing all of the bucks he has hung. When you have off duty DEC officers complimenting people in taking of illegal game, how can you trust the organization the they work for? I mean, it was blatently obvious that this guy does not take his deer legally. He's about 30 yrs of age and has been hunting for 12 years. It maks me sick. When I heard an off duty DEC officer was stopping for a beer, I said to myself, "this guy is finally going to get what is coming to him". Nope, The DEC officer shakes his hand and gives him a nice big compliment. From what I have seen in the past in NY, I believe there is a big poaching problem and illegal taking of game in this state. I know other from NY may not want to hear it, but I bet you the actual take is probably 50% - 100% higher than what is actually reported. I know alot of people who do not tag their deer, and I bet you alot of NY's in here do to!!!! --Rossman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QDMAworks4me Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 Re: NY 2005 Deer Harvest [ QUOTE ] I know other from NY may not want to hear it, but I bet you the actual take is probably 50% - 100% higher than what is actually reported. I know alot of people who do not tag their deer, and I bet you alot of NY's in here do to!!!! --Rossman [/ QUOTE ] I agree, more and more people are getting this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LETMGROW Posted February 28, 2006 Report Share Posted February 28, 2006 Re: NY 2005 Deer Harvest rossman, I know of an example which would make yours look miniscule. There have been ample chances for this guy to go down but he hasn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 3, 2006 Report Share Posted March 3, 2006 Re: NY 2005 Deer Harvest [ QUOTE ] Doc what you also have to look at is the number of hunters, there were about 620000 from 2000 - 2004. last season that number went down to 540000. thats a 13% drop that whats sad. [/ QUOTE ] The real sad part is that today it seems that once people drop out of hunting, very few of them ever come back even when hunting conditions improve. That's what makes this "feast or famine" approach to deer management so harmful to hunting. It seems like there is not much change in direction until after some radical change has occurred. In other words, management practices are reactive and not proactive. That is why I'm also afraid that AR rules would have the same effect if they were ever implemented statewide. Lost hunter numbers seem to stay lost, and they seem to react negatively when the hunter odds of success shrink. As far as deer take numbers are concerned I have records going back to 1973 and they are sorted by state, county and town. The town and county numbers only include my county and my town. Unfortunately, I never saved the WMU numbers. I guess I figured that if I had my town numbers, that was probably more meaningful to me than the whole WMU. For most of the years, I also have the statewide number of permits issued. I'm not sure what happened to the 90's, but I have no records after 1989 to 1999. I also have bowhunter numbers for most of the years back to 1980. I got these out of the annual big game special editions of Bowhunter magazine. I assume that they were getting these numbers from the DEC because I can't imagine where else they would have got them. There doesn't seem to be much of a drop in those numbers, in fact they seem to be consistantly going up. It's all pretty interesting stuff, but unfortunately, I have lost a little bit of credibility in the deer take numbers as I continue to learn more about how these numbers are arrived at and how many assumptions and factors are stirred into the results. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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