Will I be rewarded for holding out?

Ok in New York state we have a high buck to doe ratio i would guess like 6 to 1 or 5 to 1. So this makes calling in bucks very hard because the competition for does is slim. Because of this it cause a lot of hunters do shoot really young bucks. Also with the high ratio you rarely see bucks. This causes me to shoot the first deer with horns that comes across my path. I was wondering do you guys HONESTLY think that if i let the spike horns go by that i will be rewarded with bigger buck like 4 or 5 pointers or bigger? Just interested because i feel like if i pass the small bucks i wont see anything all year and ill have depressing seasons

 

Do you ever see big bucks after you have killed the small bucks? Do you ever see big bucks at all? Answer those questions and you can probably answer your own question.

 

1. Sometimes
2. Sometimes

thanks that was a lot of help

 

If you happy with any buck keep whacking them. If you feel like going to the next level let em walk and understand tag soup is a possibility. Good Luck !

 

Where I live there is a small population of deer, I think the stat is that you can expect one every 7 years. I happen to live in a small town where the deer population is very high, but archery is the only means of taking a deer. I have been passing 1 or 2 young bucks every year to see if I can get a better deer, I always end up eating tag soup. It's not that I don't see nice deer every now and then, I just don't get to see them enough to put a shot that I feel comfortable with on them. The past couple of years all the decent sized deer have been shot off the island by ignorant slob hunters who like nothing but to kill, not hunt. This year I am debating on whether to shoot a young deer or hold out again. I think we have similar situations here, and I'm just giving you my point of view. If you see a deer and want to shoot it, nothing's stopping you, I say go for it!

 

I hunt NY and I see more bucks than does in the early season ... last year I saw at.least a dozen different bucks and only a.few doe ... until gun season .... then I saw more doe .... hmmmmm

 

There you go. Sometimes holding out will be rewarding, sometimes not.

Holding out doesn't guarantee but if you have a tag when one walks by...........

 

I wish I had a 6:1 buck to doe ratio.

 

I definantly think different parts of New York are suffering b/c i too have heard of people in new york who are from a different county that shoot slammers every year and rarely see does

Me too but i have a 6 to 1 doe to buck haha

 

Yep so helpful

 

Don't get me wrong, slammers are rare where I am ... most of the bucks I saw were 1.5 year olds ...

 

I mean i believe that is what i am see but rarely but it could be something i am doing wrong. I definitely want NY to have some sort of regulations so we can be producing the bigger bucks but idk just kinda lost on what to do and looking for advice

 

I will say that you will probably be rewarded, in the way of extra time in the woods at a minimum. Maybe you'll get lucky with a bigger buck, maybe you won't. Like Bruce was saying, if you shoot a small one now, you'll never know. It's a gamble, like anything else. Do what makes you happy. Have a great and safe season!

 

I shot a spike last week and LITERALLY within 10 min I saw a 4, 6, and another spike. It is not guarnteed that you will be rewarded, but it certainly betters the chances. Less noise, less commotion, less disturbance all leads to more deer acting normally in the area.

 

just a nice 8 point opening day in orange county last year good bucks there. but it sounds like a machine gun war here in n.y. i hunt on long island mostly and have seen 5 shooters in one day good 120 inch deer but were abundant here on the public properties

 

lucky haha i shot a buck a couple years ago mybe if im lucky broke 100 inches it was a 7 pointer and around here that was the talk of the town because it was a "monster" what im looking for i guess is not what i should do more or less what would you do if you guys as hunters were in my position would you hold out or not and why? i understand that there is no promise that i will shoot a bigger buck thats a given i just want to here other ppls perspectives on my situtation

 

You have 5-6 bucks for every doe? That must be an intense rut!

Since doe to buck ratios are figured before the hunting season, it is virtually impossible to have a ratio higher than 3:1 in a free ranging herd.

You can't kill what isn't there. If hunters continue to kill yearling bucks at a high rate, there is a reason that is all they are seeing each season.

 

I know one thing for sure......You will never shoot an big buck if you shoot a spike and go home.

I have had many years that I passed 15-20 different bucks and bought beef. That is my choice though. For me it is the biggest buck of my life or nothing. I have shot my share of younger bucks. If the rest of my family does not fill the freezer, I can take a doe for meat.

 

I would say it's 100% your call. I shot a 9 point in 2008. I have been holding out since then. It's a bit disappointing each year but at the same time I know I would be way more disappointed in myself if I shot something I wasn't completely satisfied with.

 

How cant you have a higher ratio than 3 to 1