RE: Big ol' monster NY buck...
Gnarly... Nice deer. Add this one to the monster taken in Mansfield opening day of early archery, and that's all you need to know about whitetail bucks in NYS. For every one of these monsters that are harvested, you can bet another 100 or more like it are never seen.
Buck conditions in NYSare just fine. Asare the deer herds on the whole. Some pockets are certainly in better shape than others, but I would look to habitat for the answersto those differences.
Early returns from the harvest reports show a harvest on par with last year's - Bucks about the same, does running a little higher. That was expected with more DMPs.
What is of note, and pertinent to this thread, is that the bucks are showing a higher than historicallynormal harvest of mature bucks (3.5 - 5.5), especially on the older side. At least this is what I am hearing from the biologists...