Bowfanatic,

I think everyone should spend a day at a check station.

Back in my former life, when I had dreams of becoming a wildlife biologist, I did some intern work for the NYS DEC. One day was spent at a deer check station on opening day of shotgun (1975). Back then, there was a lot more hunters and I doubt anyone in the state had ever heard of QDM. By the end of the day, I had seen hundreds of deer and I was pretty much convinced that 1.5 years was the maximum age of a buck in NY. The number of button bucks that filled "antlerless tags" was amazing. They gave me some statistics that I vaguely remember, but as I recall, something like 85-90% of the buck kill occurred on opening day. It's a bit better now, but you don't see out-of-state hunters coming to NY to hunt big bucks. It's a shame too. The potential is there, proven by the small tracts that are being managed. However, probably less than 1% (a guess) of the deer herd consists of mature bucks(4.5+ yr). If you hunt around me you hunt hard to see a 2.5 yr buck and a 3.5 yr buck will only come within sight once every decade (if you hunt hard enough). You want to see a mature buck here, well, I want to win the lottery too.

I'm not complaining, and I don't want every deer to be a trophy, but it would be nice if 1000 hours in the field could result in seeing one mature deer.