October 12, 201214 yr Good information... We'd have more "reasonable" trophies if the yahoos would just learn to stop taking these youngsters before their time... Makes me sick to see the line of guys opening day around here thinking they "got dem'selves" a trophy when they should be ashamed they shot the first animal with a spike. It's a shame...
October 12, 201214 yr Good information... We'd have more "reasonable" trophies if the yahoos would just learn to stop taking these youngsters before their time... Makes me sick to see the line of guys opening day around here thinking they "got dem'selves" a trophy when they should be ashamed they shot the first animal with a spike. It's a shame... The "line of guys" is an opening day thing. It's seen during trout season in NJ where folks stand elbow to elbow, dunking fuschia colored PowerBait for a ten-inch trout, opening day steelhead and king salmon season on the Salmon River in NY, and on all the opening day gun seasons in the tri-state area of NY/PA/NJ which are spaced apart by a week for a specific purpose. There is some truth to your statement, but I also don't lament the folks where the only time of the year they get out is during 6-day firearm in NJ. If they want to shoot a spike, so be it. They are vying for contention with the largest number of hunters in the woods at one time. As long as the harvest is ethical there is nothing wrong with that. I would wager that the majority of big bucks are killed in bow season, by folks who practice QDM, who have been patterning deer with trail cameras throughout the summer, managing their bait-piles, then getting the first crack at them in the woods. And it doesn't hurt if they have private land to hunt on where they can be assured no one else gets a chance at "their" buck. Yet, more than 6,000 deer were killed by vehicles during the 2010/2011 seasons. Wonder how many of them were trophy deer these hunters were patterning throughout the year that succumbed to the dreaded automobile? Dominant bucks, while secretive, are still pretty prolific, and will travel a lot just to breed as many does as possible. Yes, big bucks are killed in all the various seasons, but those killed late in the season are by luck or on small plots of land with little public access. It's the lucky, persistent person who kills a nice buck on public land late-season. If you review the numbers from last year posted on the NJDEP F&W website, almost as many deer were killed by bow as by firearms, and certainly a lot in early season thanks to the mandatory EAB tag. The doe harvest was almost double the firearm harvest. "Permit shotgun" was always the obligatory "brown is down" day. It's only been expanded over the years from what used to be one day to many. (Not to mention that persnickety permit fee NJ charges.) 2010-2011 season breakdown http://www.state.nj....dighnt56-69.pdf Deer harvest summary - 1972 - 2012 (ongoing) http://www.state.nj....vestsummary.htm
October 12, 201214 yr Parker, you couldn't be more right about there being big bucks out there, even on public land. This thread is proof... http://njgunforums.c...__fromsearch__1 We nabbed this big guy after 6-day, on public land that has no EAB.
October 13, 201214 yr Parker, you couldn't be more right about there being big bucks out there, even on public land. This thread is proof... http://njgunforums.c...__fromsearch__1 We nabbed this big guy after 6-day, on public land that has no EAB. Beautiful buck. Congrats to your dad. Hunts like that are the most gratifying.
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