Well I got my first two doe tags for the season my first choice camp then one for home. I will be allowed 2 more for home Nov. 1 I wonder if the DEC 's possible season change will back fire ? They want to open our area at home to gun hunting doe a week or so before our archery season. If they do not allow a extra tag or two for this new gun I won't be using my only doe tag until Nov. 1 on an early gun doe. That is unless they consider the crossbow as a gun season weapon in that season as well. Right now crossbows are allowed in muzzle and gun season. They then allow it in the last two weeks of bow, but a muzzle loader licence is required to use it in the bow season.
So is the DEC double dipping or they forgot the Xbow is considered a bow by definition? Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
It's actually the legislations call not the DEC.'s. In order to use a crossbow in NYS you have to buy a muzzle loading tag. I have a life time archery tag I bought years ago and I still have to go buy a ML tag to use my x bow the last two weeks of bow season.
Come on down to to the SE US... I get more tags than opportunities (on public land)... I'd need to double check but believe in NC, we can still take 6 deer (2 antered, 4 antlerless) and nearly 4 months of hunting... GA and AL have higher bag limits, if I recall. Keep in mind, pound for pound, our deer are probably half the weight as those in the northern climates...
I would agree if I haven't seen such a decline in doe in our area. We can get 2 initial tags Then two more in Nov. 2 signed over by other hunters Then if you get an archery / ml license that is a buck or doe tag. This is in farm country where farmers can apply for nuisance tags That can be given to guys leasing their lands and used in summer. All this in a high density hunter area. I'm watching doe/ fawn #'s dropping. Deer nocturnal by Sept.. We have a guy down the road that shot 7 doe each year the last couple of years just because he could. Which really makes me wonder how he managed to get them on his small acreage during the day to do that. His immediate neighbors are wondering that as well . All hunters. unless too old, hunts. Every land owner here hunts and imports family and friends. The DEC never knows when we will get extended deep snows and or extended subzero temps . Two things common in our area of this management unit.
I've only tagged out once. But I do tag out on doe every year I can. This year I think we are going to try 4 doe to get us through the year. I have enough to get us to Sept. But if I have the population on the farm (always do) I try to get one for a family or two that I help out.
Which is fine if you feel comfortable with the #'s your seeing in your unit. Though as you know units are sizable and very diverse here. Hunter density and predation is as well. We are in an area where you still see pickups loaded with orange glad guys cab to bed driving from field to feild doing drives. It's not just a few guys in bow then the gun Army for 3weeks it's the gun army also bow hunting for weeks before gun season. I just think management #'s are not as accurate as they think they are.. Also hunters themselves aren't considering what's happening in their general locations when using an over abundance of tags.
Hopefully this will be my year to take a deer with my bow, even though its been only 2 yrs since I got the bow. But trying to figure out these deer on public lands is frustrating sometimes.
Look for browse sign. Though being in Texas that may be wildly different than the Hills of NYS. Yesterday I noticed very heavy browse on all my berry patches around the property. They have hundreds of acres in clovers white and red but the berry leaves in the woods are what they are hitting now. Also poke weed is another with ragweed getting topped off as well. Here in the N/E Breech are just blanketing the ground. So find your area wild forbs and see what they are eating. There is also a recent YouTube video on this. Which I love because for years guys poo poo' d my leaving and hunting huge patches of poison ivy. Our deer love it. That and the wild rose..
