Scratching My Head

[highridgehunter]

CB
Oh ya the bears are bck we have 1 on trail cam( probably 150 or so) . Got pictures of him all summer and fall. I agree about no QDMA.  the guys we hunt with we'll tell them we saw 4 or 5 small bucks and they're saying well you better put a chain on them because they're dead if they walk over the hill.  I know you can't control that but we have made the property very attactive for them.  As I told habitatmanager (4 food plots- 2 clover and 2 turnips and brassicas) we only hunt over 1 over them.  This with all of the tree tops gave the property a ton of cover too. This maybe just an off year but it's not over.  I know the rut hit a little late and maybe just a little time we need for the the bucks holding to get back to their secure area.

[texsalerno]

We are hunting about 1 square mile or more in T/Cameron Steuben County. Very few acorns here this year.Deer and bear sightings way down from last year. Funny how one area can have tons of mast and another very little. Until last week you wouldn't know there were turkeys anywhere near this place.

Bucks seemed to be right on time here.Quit scraping around 11/07. Started again last week 11/24.Definitely chasing and tending does through that period.Back into cruising mode now.Never seen so many active scrapes as this year.35% of deer sighted while bowhunting were bucks. Best buck:doe ratio I have logged in 10 years.

We don't have any harvest goals. Mostly meat hunters. If it's brown it's down.If we had a larger selection of bucks chances are we would let the smaller racked bucks pass, but when you only get 2 or 3 shots in 2 1/2 months it's not hard to take a yearling.Rather than wait for Muy Grande that got poached or hit by a car.

Tex
<)8-)

[CB on the run]

Tex,
  I'm surprised your not in a QDMA with Charlie Ashiemer in your vicinity.  How was the mast crop last year? We had none in eastern Cattaraugus County and it really effected the turkey and bear. Last Friday my son got phone video of a sow and 3 cubs under his tree stand and we had the best crop of acorns in 10 or so years.  Up towards home it's just average.  We also seen more bucks than prior years during bow, however, almost all were 1 1/2 olds and all walked until gun season.
 
CB

[gjs4]

Thats the problem with NY state hunting pressure and not even quality ammo managment. This brown and down crap is ridiculous... then guys wonder why things arent like the used to be....... well guys its you, the orange army of irradicators that ruin it for everyone. The state only manages for license sales adn population, as well as, harvest numbers are off by as much (and this is published) by 40%. Yup, we have charlie, doughertys, a few well known and published authors......and even a few 200"ers that fall every year... but NYS is the bottom of the barrel for deer hunting.....the state does nothing but discourage managment and the culture is an aged group of trigger pullers that find satisfaction in genocide.

[D A Smith]

I hunted in the Catskill Mtns the first weekend.  There are alot of acorns this year and several black bears in the villages near houses but, between the 5 family members we only saw one doe in the woods.  I believe the coyotes have killed off most of the game.  Saw one partridge also but, no rabbits.  Heard there where two bucks taken in the area a 5 & 11 pointer.