I talked to one of these guys and then contacted my nephew, a DEC engineer. I heard the party line- no no no unless someone released a "pet". But I am being careful with my kids and dog.....we have deer,turkey etc. traveling through our lawn - all good eating (or "bait"?)for one of these critters.

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nice buck bob, i hunt not to far from there.and yes there are truly some giants in that area. good country to hunt. he's got relatives. truly a once in a lifetime.

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hey Bob , longtime no see. been awile since toshiba days. see you are still huntin. me too. Been Gettin some pretty good bucks myself. Maybe I'll become a member and send some pics in. Working at sikorsky. Workin with Ron Moore. Take care

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i have hunted theses hills in broome county for 17 years only ever seen one bear while hunting spending 8 to ten hours in the woods is not uncommon for me so IMHO there are not enough bear in broome county for a season

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I have been hunting in Honeoye in Ontario County on family property for 26 years, I have seen bear scat and prints on the property for all of those 26 years, but only seen a bear once and that was 2 years ago.

For the longest time, up till about 5 – 7 years ago, DEC officials have said that they were not many bear in this area and declined to acknowledge the fact that were resident bear.

All of sudden you are telling us we have enough bear to justify a hunting season in this part of the state, I don’t think so. I believe that is coming about because of the lack of knowledge that the general public has concerning bear. As you guys know, bear are not going to harm people unless provoked, most bear are living far enough away from the population that no harm will come. Just because people who live well off the beaten path see them in their yard, or have them get in their garbage does not justify a season.

I do believe that someday a bear season will be needed to control the population but now is not the time. Let’s give them another 7 – 10 years to grow in population, and use that time to educate the public and hunters on bear.

It’s my opinion that if bear season was to open in this part of the state that what you would see is a large number of young bear being killed in stead of older mature bear.

I just wanted to give my 2 cents in on the subject and hope that what I have to say might help change you mind in expanding the bear hunting area for 2008.

Thanks for your time.

I would like to hear any comments you might have concerning my comments, feel free to contact me at leighstatt@hotmail.com

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adkhunter - I take it that you hunt the vast woodlands of the Adirondacks. My property is actually right on the edge of the Adirondacks but is actually mostly agricultural farm land. My woods is essentially surrounded by all kinds of crops from cor, alfalfa, spinach, soy beans and etc. 5.3 acres of my interior property is actually planted to corn as we speak. The deer that live around my property don't have to worry about where there next meal is coming from. Last winter there was actually about 250 acres of standing corn until early Feb, which is when the local farmer harvested his corn. This corn field was about 500 yds from my dense cedar swamp woods and the deer had a fantastic trail leading from my property to the corn field all winter long. My issue is that local hunters will shoot the first buck they see without hesitation or consideration towards QDMA. I personally feel a shorter gun season would help remedy the situation. Plus due to the local farm land, very few deer die during the winter and with not being able to consistantly harvest does has led for an increased population of does over the years, and an unbalanced adult deer sex ratio. I do understand that in the remote reaches of the Adirondacks there are limited food sources for deer, and the deer density dramatically decreases. My property is in WMU 6F which primarily consists of remote woodlands, however my property is right on the fringe of agricultural farm land. I feel that deer density numbers on mine and surrounding parcels of land are not accurately reported through the overall makeup of WMU 6F. I am hoping that the NYS DMAP program will help me harvest a few more does in the near future, and help me get my herd numbers more in check. adkhunter - I do agree with you, most of the Adirondacks certianly needs to be logged off to promote new green regeneration of native plants. I am actually currently looking into different logging companies to come into my property to achieve these same goals. Even though I have a 5.3 acre field for foot plots on the edge of my woods, my woods are very mature and lack a lot of young vegetation to promote good deer forage and bedding cover. I also would like to add an additional 1 acre food plot clearing right in the middle of my property, we will see how things turn out. I guess it really depends on the exact makeup of the property specifically where you hunt. I certianlly do not need 40 days to harvest 1 or more deer on my property. adkhunter thanks for the comments, I love inteligent deer hunting and property management conversation, good luck to you in 2008.

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Northernnyhunter, I personnely been hunting the northern ADK's for over 30 years and have been very successful and have been fortunate to take some large bucks. The reason why is that the deer population is less than half deer per square mile including Bucks and does,going dayif not weeks not seeing a deer at all. I order to give a hunter (old or young) the opportunity to even see a deer,the gun season should not be shortened. The issue is that the Northern ADK's is so swampy and thick along with very little feed that the deer are stressed. The state of NY needs to log in order to provide more feed and a better habitat for not only the deer but other animals of the ADK's. Shooting less deer is not the solution, it's creating an environment were deer will be healthier,live longer and survive a long winter. By shortenning the gun season the lees deer will be harvested and less hunters will loose interest and the tradition will suffer.

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I have read all the comments posted so far and most everyone made very good points, except for Chufa. It is too bad he has that kind of outlook on hunting, which allows no consideration for other people's hunting enjoyment, and the future of this amazing sport, and better yet, way of life - deer hunting. I live in northern NY, about 10 miles south of the Canadian border. I spent countless hrs afeild every year. I also travel with family to the Southern Teir in Livingston and Wyoming Counties for opening of shotgun. I think NY certianly has the potential to rival states like the golden triangle (Il,KS,IA) but before that can happen NY needs to revamp the deer management philosiphy. here in the northern zone our rifle season starts Oct 19th and ends the first sunday in Dec, usually around the 5th or 6th. You are talking about a 40 plus day gun season, way too much time for all the immature bucks to get shot. Also here in northern NY there are no DMP's, that's right, unless you bow hunt or muzzleloader hunt you can not shoot a doe. This has created a problem where I hunt of a completely out of whack deer sex ratio, I honestly see about 20 does for every buck. I travel to the Southern Teir because the trophy prospects and hunting in general is much better in the southern zone. Everyone think of this, what kind of hunting what the midwest states currently have if NY's hunting seasons and laws have been in place there over the past 25 - 30 yrs. I guarantee they would not have the kinda hunting they have now. Despite these very liberal laws NY is still a top 6-8 state in the country for whitetail population, an estimated 1 million strong. But the deer herd has become very young in general and the issue needs to be addressed through some more conservative game laws. I would love to see NY shorten the gun season considerably, provide more opportunitues for muzzleloader hunting, and make QDMA a part of the hunter education courses to inform the young future of our sport about the importance of quality deer management. I know I have been rattling on here, but I could write for days on the topic of deer hunting and what I feel NY should do to increase the age structure of the deer herd, and put more emphasis on quality deer management. If anyone with power to change NY DEC game laws reads this or knows someone who does. Get on the phone to the DEC Departments in the midwestern states and ask them for advice on what NY can do, and most importantly listen to them. The midwest certianly has figured aout the essential ingredients for QDMA, with a revamped deer management program, a little hard work from all those who enjoy hunting here in NY, and some time for these changes to take effect and yield the results, I think NY could join the midwest in being known for a trophy whitetail paradise. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read my post. Great luck to you all during the 2008 season.

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Awesome black bear. How did you get him out of the woods? Was he taken in Orange county?

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Twice in the past week, two different neighbors have said they have seen a Cougar or Mountain Lion. I live in a senior apartment building here. The guy upstairs was an avid hunter for many years and he swears that he saw a cougar in the back yard last week. We didn't believe him but now a next door neighbor has said he saw a Mountain lion going up into the back hill last night at 8:45 Pm
I take photos of all the outdoor critters from my window. There is a Grey Fox that comes down every night at that time. Do you think maybe they are following the fox? I sure hope I can get a picture of this "big cat"!!!

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