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November 06, 1992
9 Point, 20 1/2" spread
Green Score: 120 7/8
High-Tor Wildlife Management Area
Middlesex, New York
Click Photo for Larger View
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Yep. That's me back in my heyday. I went the CVS and took this old photo and had it converted to digital format.
The year was 1992. That was a big buck in New York for that time and it was only borderline
New York State Big Buck Club.
I won 3 big buck contests including a free mount
from Streeter Taxidermy in Ontario, NY and placed 16th in the New York Sportsman Big Game Contest. It was my first deer with a bow.
I would love to apply modern day deer tactics to the story and tell you how I saw him all summer, scouted carefully, got in
his home range, blah blah blah. But I didn't. I shot him at 8:00 AM on November 6, 1992 ..... on State Land believe it or not.
It was the first year I had a vehicle and I was relatively new to the area with little time to hunt. Hunting on State Land was
better than not hunting and back in those days I did not care what I got. A buck was a buck especially with never killing a
deer with a bow before.
I had hunted from the stand probably 5 times before that day and all I saw was people. Not one deer. It was discouraging. Pheasant hunters pounded
the property and, as it turns out, I had the stand only 75 yards from a road that people loved to walk their dogs on. Needless to say
it was discouraging and I knew I had to find other places to hunt. But this was about all I had for this year. I got up in it that morning
and out of nowhere here he comes. You can read the rest of the story to the right. My buck is just one of many bucks that I, and probably you,
are aware of being taken on public land. It does happen.
Like many of you, I am about out of private lands to hunt on that are close by. This has made me re-analyze my hunting expectations and what the
future of hunting has to bring for a New York hunter. I am not going to just stop hunting. I will try and take the best advantage of
what is given me and I will not think twice about hunting on public land. If that is what it is then that is what it is. Most importantly, I
do see deer there and I have been successful hunting there. Should I have the same expectations as if I was on highly private ground? Ya
just never know. You have to be out there.
I'm what you call a chance taker when it comes to deer hunting. I always have a "you just never know" attitude when it comes to chasing whitetails
especially with a bow. I often find myself at odds with my friends. For example, many of my friends claim rattling only works the first couple
weeks of the season. I disagree simply because I have had my best luck doing it right in the rut. My philosophy is simple - if a mature whitetail
who knows he is king of the ridge gets alone at this time then he may be very anxious and aggressive when he hears 2 bucks fighting over a doe in
his general area. From my experience rattling deer in both Idaho and New York, it does not bother the deer. Rattle every 45 minutes. It may not
work the first 2 times you do it but then out of nowhere here comes something on the third try. Ya just never know.
When it comes to hunting public ground, I find that the biggest problem is not necessarily the
hunting pressure but the fact that plenty of non-hunters use it for walking their dogs and things of that nature. Stay away from groomed
trails and you will not see those people. We often hear about deer patterning hunters but does that make them stop walking around? Some
would say yes but most evidence suggests that they just avoid you during daylight hours. So a deer may just avoid those places where the
non-hunting crowd roams around which will almost always be on the roads. Plus one could argue that the deer get used to the presence of humans
in that area to some extent. It is at least one argument you can make to keep your spirits up. Ya just never know.
I also believe that the lack of hunting opportunity makes in season scouting much more important to the common everyday hunter. You do not have
the acres of property to try and cover every funnel or known travel routes before season. If you are on public land then you always have
the overhead of people and why run the risk of working hard to put up 6 good stand set-ups only to have the rug ripped out from under you?
In my opinion, you are much better off trying
to look for something going on while it is going on especially if you are hunting on public lands. If you wait until later in the season
to do your hunting then you have the best hunting and you can spend time earlier in the season trying to get a feel for where people have been.
I simply go for a ride on Saturday mornings and look for parked cars.
Adjusting to the times, I have found that mobility is important for me on public land. I have invested in a climbing tree stand and I now do all
my scouting in season. This allows me several advantages. I do not have to leave my equipment on public ground and I can easily move if I encounter
people or lack of deer. Isn't the best time to take a mature whitetail out of your stand is the first time in it? There is also a lot of oak on State land.
Deer often move to new acorns every few days. I can easily stay on top of
the action by being mobile and if I encounter a bad area then it does not come with the overhead of hanging/un-hanging tree stands. You also will
likely find yourself in trouble if you start using tree steps on public ground.
I no longer hunt very much until the first of November. This allows me to see where the hunting pressure seems to be
earlier in the season. It varies each year. My roommate hunted the stand that the buck above was taken from the next year and saw a ton of deer
and no people. I try and pick a few places where no one seems to have gone (usually steep and thick places) and pop in there once in a while looking
for some steaming hot buck sign. As long as I am seeing deer then I am happy. The presence of deer means the presence of more and as the rut appears
the presence of mature deer that are half stupid.
Screw what the TV, magazines, and books say. I have never been a big fan of the strategies they present because they just do not relate to the
overall disadvantages that most of us face. I agree with a lot of their theories and strategies but the reality is that most of us do not have the
land opportunities to apply them. Your best bet, in my opinion, is to get out there at the prime time and hunt and see what happens. Determination
is everything. You don't know what is going to happen and that is the best and only motivation that most of us have to go on in this day and age.
I, like many of you, just do not have the opportunities to try and target 3 1/2+ year old bucks. Our only opportunity is to hunt hard and see if
we can stumble on to one once or twice in our life.
You can be successful hunting public land. In fact, it may be a little under-rated. Anymore, I set my sights on trying to kill a mature buck on
public land and nothing more. If dumb luck dictates a monster buck then great. Modern day tactics just are not a reality for me anymore.
Hunting is better than not hunting at all and I don't necessarily buy in to the theory that you cannot be successful at harvesting mature deer on public land.
In fact, I have done so. Ya just never know.
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Rob Taylor, Founder, EmpireHunting.com
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