...and there you have it!

[stratocaster]

7 hours ago, hammer4reel said:

Imo  many hunters in Nj are lazy. They will shoot every deer they  can in areas even lacking in deer instead  of looking for a new spot that holds greater numbers. 

There are thousands of acres of public accessable lands that are virtually untouched .

 

.all within an hour of any hunters home. 

 

.a little research can go a long ways to finding a honey hole. 

 

Not to totally disagree with you but there is a BIG difference between public land and private land and the way deer are managed on both. 

[BHC]

The longer season brings unnecessary stress to the herd,  so YES longer seasons suck

[Lunatic]

7 hours ago, BHC said:

Last deer I took here in NJ was 2012.....I don't shoot does , fawns or below average bucks for the area i hunt ....being selective and patient is hard but is the right thing to do

Lame excuses needed to stop.... "I'm on doe patrol" "I'm hunting on management hunt " "landowner wants the deer dead",  "my family only eats venison" or my favorite pathetic excuse "My buddy wants venison he doesn't hunt"

these are the same people who complain about lack of deer seen in the late season, then come September/October they are back to killing everything

I have a feeling you don't eat venison.
It would be hard for a guy like me, who primary hunts to get meat, to go six 6 years without taking a deer.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Lunatic

[BHC]

7 minutes ago, Lunatic said:

I have a feeling you don't eat venison.
It would be hard for a guy like me, who primary hunts to get meat, to go since 6 years without taking a deer.

I love venison, but to kill deer to satisfy my appetite when the herd is way down is just wrong, my family and I aren't starving that we need venison to survive.  No one is starving or on survive mode, to say you need to kill to eat is just a excuse to kill....one is enough in these days with deer numbers are down, 20 years ago absolutely the herd need to be reduced,  the objective has been met years ago

[MZ7Extreme]

The bottom line is the only way to change things is to start doing it yourself.

Have shot a few does in 4 1/2 years and have passed a bunch of does and spikes basket rackets and yes on 2 occasions 2 1/2yo public land bucks because I was after the bigger ones I saw.

Have only hunted for 4 1/2 seasons now and in my opinion is taking what I need not hiding behind the guise of I am taking within the law.

Anyway it only works if people follow suit.

On a certain WMA I hunted I literally had 2 mineral sites, and would let the deer go to grow and they did, and people benefitted with these bucks because of me I'm sorry I can not say the same for the asshats who just shoot something because they feel like they are a better hunter when they do or because its within the law.

Truth be told if I killed everything that walked by me I would tag out every season and would have at least 30 doe to my name in 4 1/2 years. To me knowing it would have been a dead deer is enough.

I will take a doe in the next 2 weeks but thats it.

I'm a different breed of hunter I guess because I started off as a conservationist vs kill them all. I learned from my fishing days where I did kill them all and we wiped out a reef in 10 years.

Edited December 21, 2018 by MZ7Extreme

[Lunatic]

22 minutes ago, BHC said:

The longer season brings unnecessary stress to the herd,  so YES longer seasons suck

It would not if the bag  limit was sensible.

[Lunatic]

22 minutes ago, BHC said:

I love venison, but to kill deer to satisfy my appetite when the herd is way down is just wrong, my family and I aren't starving that we need venison to survive.  No one is starving or on survive mode, to say you need to kill to eat is just a excuse to kill....one is enough in these days with deer numbers are down, 20 years ago absolutely the herd need to be reduced,  the objective has been met years ago

No one has to starve but I prefer to eat healthy and eat what I harvest myself. That's the essence of hunting for me, and that's the reason people are hunting for 1000s of years. I don't need excuses and I am not ashamed of hunting to eat and I eat about 3 top 4 deer each year.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Lunatic

[vdep217]

16 minutes ago, BHC said:

I love venison, but to kill deer to satisfy my appetite when the herd is way down is just wrong, my family and I aren't starving that we need venison to survive.  No one is starving or on survive mode, to say you need to kill to eat is just a excuse to kill....one is enough in these days with deer numbers are down, 20 years ago absolutely the herd need to be reduced,  the objective has been met years ago

Deer numbers may be down but are they unhealthily low..  a true guage is coming in the next few weeks to 2 months..  look at the lower browse in the woods..  if there is still browse the herd might be in great shape or low..  pieces i hunt already have no lower browse indicating to many animals for the carrying capacity of that land

[Lunatic]

9 minutes ago, Ryanm said:

All depends where you’re hunting, drive through zone 8 in October deer everywhere no shortage. Now whether you can gain access or not is another story.

That's the biggest problem with insisting same set of rules, and that's what most are talking about, to the entire state. There are places in this state with deer in great numbers.
I also believe if we went to 1 deer per season, people who hunting in high pressure areas would still not see any deer. Our state is like a checker board. Black being high pressure areas and whit sanctuaries with few or no people hunting, great cover and abundant food. deer are staying away from the dark side because white areas sustain them

[BHC]

9 minutes ago, Lunatic said:

It would not if the bag  limit was sensible.

Just because the state says kill as many as you like doesn't mean you have to.

[BHC]

Go to zone 3 or 4.....you will never see a lot of deer, hell parts of zone 3 you may never even see deer tracks after a snow

[midwestxpress]

Hey BHC, you forgot one which is the saying I hate the most. "Gotta  fill the freezer".  

[Lunatic]

2 minutes ago, BHC said:

Just because the state says kill as many as you like doesn't mean you have to.

So why are you asking for shorter season? Just because you can does not mean you have to hunt for six months
"We should do away with September hunt, we should eliminate gun season, we should not bait, we should not shoot doe, we should only shoot 6 year old deer", is an attempt of forcing everyone to someone's personal preferences. If you believe deer population is below healthy numbers then talk about sensible bag limits.
 

 

[Lunatic]

6 minutes ago, Ryanm said:

 

Once again you were part of the butt hurt group about me shooting shed bucks. My backyard spot borders county property, used to see 16 does on a sit at a time. Well the county had been hammering the deer, so last year I saw 6 does so instead of taking a pregnant doe, sucks pulling two sacks out in the gut pile I opted to take a shed buck. Now there’s a ton of deer this year because I limit what I shoot there. Opening day doe and usually a deer winter bow. And I would take an unpressured spot for winter bow over tracking all over the place I’m a meat hunter and proud of it. My wife’s doesn’t work besides her crafting project which she’s been busy lately other than that I support the family we don’t buy beef if we have venison. Realistically if a spots low on does and your a trophy hunter not saying your particular I know a lot of big buck hunters that say you want venison shoot does. But that’s not the best scenario. Also belonged to a club with 800 acres no do hunting. Biggest bucks were 125” and deer drives guys did nothing to see 40 does. Plenty of bucks but no real monsters. 

This thing about looking down on guys who shoot sheds or young bucks has nothing to do with conservation. Its about "you should let it walk so I can get him later". Otherwise why would anyone care if it makes you happy or it makes sense to you to kill a shed buck?

[MZ7Extreme]

What bothers me further is the guys who have private pieces but go to public land and shoot spikes and does and they leave their area alone...

 

Those are the worst imo