Deer hunting this year.

I wasn't going to do it this year because of tight money, new kid, and all that fun stuff.
Well, the wife gave me the green light for a few mornings this week, but this morning was the first chance I got to go out.

Just yesterday, I spied a 4 point buck on my parent's new property, which my brother informed me that I wouldn't be allowed to shoot. Apparently, NYS DEC imposed new regulations for certain management zones- which state that deer taken in those zones MUST have 3 points of 3 or more inches on one side to qualify as legal- in an effort to bring back some of the thinning deer herd. Its not a bad policy, and I agree that the pickings have been slim the last few years.

Anyway, our zone is, of course one of those on the list.

I get out about a half hour before daybreak and find a spot on a trail that deer cross on a regular basis. No signs of life, so about an hour after sunup, I got up and followed the path to the field at the end of it. I didn't really have a plan, but it was getting cold, and moving around seemed like a good idea.
I get into the field, and immediately see a white tail. Freeze.

Can't see the head, but with my luck, its a doe, and you can't get doe permits around here. I watched it for a few moments, and catch a flicker of that unmistakable yellow in front of its ears. ANTLERS!

I flip the safety off the ruger, dial in the scope a bit, and remember the new antler restrictions- but this deer's big enough that there's no way he didn't meet the limit.

Wrong.

The bastard lifted his head, and I almost laughed and cried at the same time. Three points total- a split with two on one side, and a single pinkie on the other. It was comical on the size animal he was. As big as he was, he should have had 6 or 8 points.

Nope. two. MAYBE three.

And he knew I couldn't shoot him. We stared at each other for no less than 10 minutes, while I debated taking him anyway and having him cut up on the sly by one of my friends. I didn't do it, slung the rifle and walked away.

And spooked three more deer on the way out- all doe, but still.

You want to know the worst part? There's a group of guys that are also allowed to hunt this property (its private, and we've got permission from the landowner) and these guys WILL shoot this deer- restrictions or no- since they cut it up at their cabin across the street.
They have no regard for the local hunting laws and take doe all the time, permit or no permit. I let the thing walk, so one of these morons can take it with no consequences.

Sometimes, being the good guy blows.

Lets see what happens tomorrow.

There's no luxury of that here. The herd has been so thinned out that these restrictions are sort of necessary. But he's the first buck I've seen in three years, and had I seen him last year, Meat.

We have a HUGE population of guys from NYC, NJ, and LI who come up and shoot anything that moves, spike, doe, dog, cow- whatever....that I don't really protest the restrictions. I'm just pissed off that someone else WILL take him.

A lot of places don't have the regulations like my area does- or if they do, they're a bit more relaxed. Doe permits are easier to get, and there's no minimum spike for the bucks.

The regulations are in place to make sure that a local population isn't wiped out, but hunting is still in use to make sure it doesn't explode altogether. There's a balance that needs to be met I guess. I don't really know.

For decades, the area of the Catskills that I'm in was subjected to such over harvesting that they needed to impose the management regulations, which I'm more than happy to abide by. If the law says I can't shoot a spike horn this year, I won't. My beef is that there are people who will, and do. And they're not caught.

Literally everyone I've spoken to today told me "You should have shot it anyway." But what's the point? If I'm taking spikes out of the woods every year, there won't be any of the big ones down the pipeline.

To be honest, I counted this morning as a successful hunt. Had hit antlers been bigger, or I'd been a bigger jerk, I'd have venison on the table. There was no missing at the range he was at, and he was broadside of me twice. I've done so many hunts where the only living things I see are chickadees. To catch sight of 4, and scope one of them. I'm perfectly happy with it.

I've never been hunting. I'd like to go. A deer just took out my sister's car as she was on her way home for Thanksgiving (she's alright, though), costing me a butt-rush emergency trip 7 hours away to go get her.

Never been deer hunting, but I know plenty that do.  I'm going pheasant hunting next Monday.  I enjoy it.  Good exercise.

I'm headed out again this morning to the same spot.
I'm not a great sportsman by any means, but I flushed three doe out of the area on my way out of the woods. Logic tells me that there's no way that little spike I crossed yesterday is the only buck in the range. Unless he was killed off this season already, there's got to be another one around somewhere.

I've got this morning and Thursday morning as my season, and thursday's iffy with weather coming up. My best chance for payoff is this morning.

Temps feel like 15 degrees this morning. Those of you that want to get into the hobby, mull that over for a few moments.

oldsoldier wrote: Scope?, you are a wimp. 45/70 Model 71 at 100m. I don't chase field deer.

Anyone who can't hit a deer in an open field at 100 yards with open sights shouldn't be shooting.

However, I'd like to see you identify antler points at 100-150 yards without optics in medium brush cover in low light. The scope is as necessary as the bullet is in some instances.

Wow. that is a pretty messed up set of parameters for taking a deer. Can you get doe permits?

Have doe tag, if it's brown, it's down. 

I haven't looked into it this year, but I know last year, they were practically giving away extra doe tags.

After the initial stamp/tags purchase(which was 2 bucks, and I THINK 3 does), you could purchase extra doe tags for like 5 or 10 bucks.

We have a smidge of an overpopulation problem.