ORIGINAL: cnyguy
Why do you perfer the Ohio regs, and what type of management goals are you trying to reach? Bigger deer? More deer? I grew up in Ohio and my brothers still live there. Ohio has some advatages over NYS, part of which are its climate, and farming practices. Some disadvantages are LOTs and LOTS of posted land, and minimal public land. That being said, Ohio is one of the better trophy buck states. Why? It has a lot to do with the hunter mentality than overall state mandated management practices. Down there, more and more hunter refuse to shoot smaller bucks. They will shoot a doe if they want meat and let 1.5 to 3.5 yo deer walk. The state works to keep doe/buck ratios and overall population in check, other than that they leave it to the hunters to decide what to shoot. Most peoplehave their property posted, or leased, set up food plots, and can bait deer. They can afford to waiton a bigger buck because they have more control over the land they hunt,reach agreements with surrounding land owners on what to kill, have generous archery/crossbow seasons.Its a little like the QDM people preach about in NY, but they don't shoot a buck because it had "4 points" on a side, or "wider than the ears". They look to see if it is a B&C 140 class (Ohio big buck) deer. If not, it will probably walk. Overall, our deer population is good, it just depends on what you want.
Well said, and speaks to the importance of hunter education and attitude, versus looking for increased government mandates.
NY hunting regulations are fine. Seasons could use some tweaking for certain (I'd like to see that Saturday Opener scapped and a return to the traditional Monday opener). But Deer Management strategies have changed, with these new plans requiring a couple years to start bearing fruit. As hunters, considering that successful deer management requires good information concerning harvest and population estimates, I would believe we should be working very hard to get the harvest reporting compliancy back to where it was pre-DECALS. We want to make all sorts of changes in the laws, but I hear nothing about efforts to get reporting compliance back to near 100% (high was 95% in 2001). Today, its @ 76% at best. Shame on us all....