Originally Posted by
DeerandbearhoG
completely incorrect, you obviously have never hunted these areas, these deer not only get hammeerd by legal hunters they are relentlessly shot at by night poachers as soon as they come into hard antler. people are constantly jacking deer along the hyways from yonkers on up into westchester too.these are the most pressured deer in the country! The difference between there and the catskills is deer dont have too many places to hide down here. most of the places I hunt in the suburbs are 20 acres or less, they get up out of their beds, you see em, its that simple. the catskills is an enormous place where a deer could easily hide deep in the endless laurals and swamps without ever being seen. like i said earlier just because you dont see big bucks doesnt mean they dont exist ,that is completely rediculous and impossible too prove anyway. are you really gonna suggest that every buck in the more rural areas is killed before it reaches maturity??? Ive also hunted big state land (30k acres) down here which is probably closer to what hunting in the catskills is like, definatly not suburban hunting, its thick dark woods w/ low deer #s. Ive sat for days without seeing anything and certainly nothing big, but Ive found 130" sheds 100yds from the parking area. Ive also seen a few big bucks taken from phonecia,cooperstown, cortland etc. too. That said ,Im kind of curious why anyone would be so bent on thinking no big bucks exsist in some areas, what does pessimism acomplish?
Yeah right. My uncle last year was invited out to Long Island to bow hunt with a friend on some state land. He had never hunted this type of environment before. He typically hunts the Catskills with me. Within the first half hour he had numerous does running around his stand and a twelve pointer just out of range. The twelve point then ran over to his friend who bagged him. In his many years hunting in the Catskills he never saw a twelve pointer never mind seen one within the first half hour. I'm not saying everyone who hunts the suburban environments has this kind of luck but in general they see way MORE deer than the Catskill hunter will. Bucks included. You are correct that they don't have a lot of places to hide in the suburban environment thus the success is way better down there. Yeah, the few bigger bucks in the Catskills DO have more places to hide, and thus they may not get shot. Exactly WHO has access or could cover every inch of land up there? The few bigger bucks that may live up there probably won't get shot by you or me since our area that we hunt will be limited just like it would be anywhere else. You can do all the homework you want, the odds are that the big buck most likely won't be anywhere near where we are hunting. It all adds up to way less success on big bucks in a place like the Catskills compared to the suburban environment. I myself could care less about big bucks. I am happy with any deer I shoot and I have filled both my buck and doe tag already in Delaware county. I am not gripping in the least only pointing out that it takes way LESS effort to kill a deer in a suburban environment compared to others.