RE: anyone in NY mad about the antler restrictions
If I may add some comments to the thread. You may not want to hear from a PA hunter , but I think there are some things missing in the thread.
First, NY didn't impose AR just to grow bigger bucks. NY has been watching PA since AR and increased doe tags began.
If someone has information on issues like Buck to doe ratio, overbrowsing,fawn mortality, and % of 1 1/2 yr old bucks killed it would help. I don't have these things , but this is what PA considered when AR was descided.
The % of 1/1/2 yr old bucks killed in PA every year was....90%. Think about that, "90%". Almost ALL of them. Mostly made up of spikes and fork horns. On top of that we had a 3 day doe season.
Long story short what you end up with is an unbalanced herd.A 15 to 1 doe /buck ratio.Forrests overbrowsed to the point that there is virtually NO regeneration at all. No regeneration means NO food for the deer. There are state lands that are void of deer because the herd has moved on , because there is nothing to eat.A hard winter kills the bigger bucks first because they are worn from the rut. Which, if you are interested lasted 3 months because the does were not bread , because there were no breeding age bucks. Alot of the late breeding that did occur was by the spikes.
It's just not a good situation.
Anyway, back to the point....
NY is not High grading. They are attempting to increase the age structure of the breeding class bucks.Saving the 1/1/2 yr old bucks and allowing them to live another year makes a big difference. A 21/2 year old buck is much smarter than a 1 1/2 yr old. He will probably make it a couple more years to be 3-4 1/2. They are much harder to kill.
AR can't work if doe harvest is not increased. The does have to be thinned to allow the regeneration to take place. I've been to NY and seen the same thing that PA has in it's woods. No forrest floor. Just ferns growing. Ther are no new sprouts shooting up from the ground. There are exceptions, like large pieces of private property.
My guess is that NY has boilogists that feel that this is a way to improve the deer situation and the health of the forrests.. It will work given time.