I absolutely regret the Shotgun opener. I can't stand hearing all the repeated shots, sometimes guys even reloading & emptying again.
BuckAlley:
I agree with you 100% on that one. The amount of shooting that goes on during the opening day of deer season here in the southern tier is absolutely disgusting...what do those guys think there going to hit by rapid firing 5 shots off? Last season I counted 250+ shots by 8:30 on opening morning...and that was during a below average year! There's lots of idiots out in the woods that really shouldn't evenbe there [:@].
many hunters w/shotguns seem to always try and outshoot its abilities. So I gotta believe if a hunter is given a rifle, practices, and becomes very accurate with it taking advantage of its capabilities. Then therepeated shooting would decrease.
Its also true that alot of guys take poor shots at deer...whether they're too far away or running full bore through the woods. No question about it...on a stationary standing deer a rifle is a more accurate weapon. However, with a little practice,a scoped shotgun with modern rifled sabots is also a more than effective gun out to 100+ yds. Not all of your shots are gonna be at standing deer (especially during the opening day frenzy)...what's gonna stop guys with rifles from ripping off shots at deer running through the woods or a nice buck out in the field at 400 yds.? There's gonna be deer getting wounded and unrecovered no matter what. I know some guys who kill nuisance permit deer at a buddy of mine's farm evey summer...and they have more deer get away with rifles than they actually kill out right. If you hit a deer where you're supposed to with its witha slug or a rifle, it's not gonna go too far. Unfortunatley, alot of guys I know simply dust their guns off the afternoon before season opens, fire a few shots throught it and think that they're ready to go hunting. I gotta believe that they would do the same thing with a rifle too. I would really hate to know how many deer go unrecovered every season.
Less shots blazing through the woods seems a heck of alotsafer to me. Many areas of Northern NY are farm lands also.
I don't know what would be more dangerous...the number ofslugs going through the woods...or the potential range of the rifles. Neither are too safe. I can't believe that there's anywhere in the northern zone where there are as many hunters in the woods at one time as there is in the area I hunt here in Steuben County. It takes an awful lot of hunters to kill over 20,000 deer a year during 2000-2003. This area usually averages right around 16-17 deer taken PSM, this past year is dropped to around 10. That's still alot of shooting going on...no matter if its will a shotgun or a riffle.Like you said though, not all areas in the southern zone have the same topography. I feel thatalot of areasare just too crowded for rifles.
Far as safety on shotguns I say NYS implements a 3-shot plug rule to slow these guys down!!!
Maybe that's not such a bad idea. Maybe you should be required to pass a shooting test before you can purchase your deer licence every season?
Plus its been working fine in PA for yrs, andya know how popular hunting is there.
It seems to have worked a little too fine down there...that's why they implimented AR's in the first place. The entire buck herd was getting slaughtered on a yearly basis. I sure don't want that. I believe that the real issue here in the southern tierisn't whether or not shotguns are efficient at killing deer and controlling deer populations(thousands of shotgun carrying huntersfill there freezers with venison in NY every fall)...the REAL issue is access to land. How are hunters gonna control deer when they can't get to them...in which case it reallydoesn't matter much if you are using a shotgun or a rifle.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this one turns out. By the way, where in the southern zone is your camp located?