ORIGINAL: GR8RALLY
ORIGINAL: Sylvan
Given the serious loss of hunters in NY, seems to me we should be looking for ways to increase the options a hunter has not reduce them.
Good Morning Sylvan,
I would like to hear some of your suggestions to increase hunter options. I'm not sure where you hunt from, but like others, in my area the buck to doe ratio is low. However, I do see alot of spikes, 4 pters, and 6 pters prior to gun season, then it's a major drop from then on due to hunter kills. My concern is many hunters are seeing less mature bucks invarious areas and think an AR, one Buck or AR combined with 18" Spread rule should be impleamented to increase the buck to doe ratio and age levels of the harvested bucks.
I'm new to hunting, so help me understand your position. Some post here indicate that hunters shoot young bucks for the tender meat, but refuse to shoot young does because they feel their killing of the future deer.Some feel the experience in hunting is that they go into the woods and shoot anything that wanders by, (especially any size buck) and that consitutes a fun, succesful hunt. And I can see their point, most only get a week to hunt and can't wait to get in the woods and harvest a deer, any deer. Some only hunt for the meat, to feed the family. I see their point too. So for those of us that feel a fun, succesful hunt is in the harvest of a mature buck, how can that be accomplished if the smaller deer are being harvested at an 90% rate. How can all of us get our cake and eat it to.
Off the subject of harvesting small bucks, whats your position on crossbows in NY. I for one would like to see it as an option for our hunters.
Thanks, Rod.
Wow, someone who can approach this subject unselfishly and with a rational mind. How refreshing!
Well let me start by saying that I can't speak for all of NY state but only my little piece of it. In my little piece I reject totally the premise that mature buck are that rare. Now granted, I'm retired and have a lot of time to hunt, and do, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to hunt a fair amount of good private land but still, as far as I can tell mature whitetail buck are taken pretty much everywhere in NY under the current rules. So we are not talking about not having the option to hunt them but about how to increase the chances of getting one for those that it's important to. Seems that you and I both understand that for many, it's not important at all. I might argue that it's not important enough to most hunters and totally eliminating their current option of taking a small buck wouldn't balance against the wants of a few to merely increase their chances of taking a large mature one. But no matter, even if it's the wants of a few, the desire is a legitimate one and the question you posed was how to satisfy both camps. I really don't think it is possible to do that on a state wide basis so I would suggest it's done kind of piece meal. Why not set aside given areas kind of like they do now with the trophy sections on streams. I won't suggest specific details right now as that would take some serious planning but it seems that kind of approach might indeed let everybody have their cake and eat it too.
With regard to xbows. Certainly. I wouldn't be interested myself but an xbow season would certainly increase our options and might get a few more youngin interested in hunting.