NY hunter new reg proposals

[RMillet]

Well I got a somewhat vague reply, as I expected, but at least someone read the e-mail.

I'm posting the entire reply here for anyone interested:

Thank you for sharing your views regarding the deer season restructuring proposal for the 2005 season. We plan to conduct a structured public outreach effort in early February. This effort will include public meetings similar in nature to the 2002 State of the Deer Herd program and will provide additional opportunities to provide input and discussion. The schedule of the meetings will be posted on our website by the end of January.

It is our intention to implement changes to NYS's deer management program that will make full use of deer hunting as the most primary tool for controlling deer numbers on a statewide scale. In the process of doing so, it is our desire to provide equitable access to the deer resource for all hunters, while concurrently enhancing and expanding overall recreational opportunities. Clearly compromises will need to occur in some instances, and some long standing traditions may change as a result. However it is our hope that by doing so that we will be able to provide a balance of opportunities that will carry over to the next generation of NY deer hunters. By doing so, the legacy of deer hunters and deer hunting will be maintained and will continue to provide a valuable and important service for all of the citizens of NY.

The regulations to enact changes to the 2005 Big game hunting Season will be formally proposed early in 2005 so that changes can be implemented in time for the autumn of 2005. This regulatory process also includes a 45 day public comment period during which formal reaction to the proposed regulations can be registered with the Department. The DEC is obligated by law to respond to the comments received as a part of this regulatory process before adopting a regulation.

Thanks again for sharing your views and opinions.

Dick Henry
Big Game Biologist/Wildlife Services
NYSDEC , Division of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resource

If you've got a stake in the outcome of this restructuring, please make yourself heard during the public comment period. If enough of us traditionalists speak up, we just might get ourselves a flintlock only season. I've got nothing against inlines specifically, I just don't think they belong in a primitive season. I don't know about everyone else but I'm seeing more hunters during the muzzleloader seasons now than I do during the regular firearms seasons. FWIW, I agree with the sentiments regarding bows with training wheels. I stay out of that argument though as I don't hunt with a bow.

Dick

 

[Pasquinel]

So we shoot in-lines at 300plus yards, use a 12x72 scope
(which just happens to be a nightsight scope)big deal. So I don't know how to gut a deer let alone sharpen my buck knife. At least I have one. Sure I could waste time scouting
but just having a good idea of where to start my bait piles
is usually good enough. You probably wonder why at 24 years of age I need to ride to within 10 yards of my tower stand,
well those woods at the rear of the corn field are sure scarry. Beside all the time and enegry I save can be used
golfing. :m2c: This is just some of the ideas I have about those fellows who call themselves hunter but are to lazy to
hunt and give the quarry a fair chance. If you kill a deer
at 300 yards, that isn't hunting just a good shot. Learn where the game animal lives, eats, sleeps and how to beat him in a fair game of predator & Prey! :m2c:

 

[Stumpkiller]

It's the "old farts" who keep the sport honest.

There's a lot of truth in that. But it's not like we're guarding some ancient secret flame. Most of us made the same journey from BB guns (and if we didn't shoot our eye out) to single shots, to repeaters, to high-velocity, mightly scoped semi's, and now we're ready to take a step back and smell the sulphur roses. Some of the very lucky ones had a family introduction to muzzleloading. The rest of us made all the mistakes and somehow survived.

Technology is great. But when all is said and done it's a crutch. The less you rely on it, the more you have accomplished by yourself, of yourself and for yourself.

 

[RiverRat]

Stumpkiller says it right! Some of us had never shot a firearm
until we were in the service. We always wanted too but the opportunity was not there for us. I made the long treck to where I am at now, looking back, I was blindfolded in the dark.

 

[SimonKenton]

Slayer of Stumps,

I also had a very strange journey. I got the gun bug in high school and by college was old enough to own a rifle but here in NY City (Hunter's Hell or Shooter's Hell depending on your reference) there are so many laws that it was a long time before I got a license for rifles and shotguns. I did shoot BP in college though. I had bought a CVA Mountain rifle in .50 caliber and had a ball. Sold that and got a Big Bore Mountain rifle in .54 which I still own. That thing hits like a freight train!

Later I got my first two centerfire. An original Winchester Lo-Wall in .22 Hornet and a Ruger #1 Tropical in .458 magnum. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum. If I hadn't sold the Ruger and snapped up a custom Mauser in .375 H&H I would never have learned to handle a big bore. The Ruger was WAY too light with a buttplate too narrow for a beast like the .458, whereas I could shoot the .375 all day for snorts and giggles with no flinch.

I learned a LOT about intelligent gun design from that experience. Then I added a Shiloh Sharps in .45-120 that I handloaded with paper patched bullets. A lot of fun but a lot of work. The two guns I most regret selling are the Mauser and the Sharps.

About 16 years ago I had Jack Garner build me one of his TN Mountain Rifles in .54 flint. I got all kinds of odd looks at the range but when the flint fired fast and accurate the looks turned to envy! ::

I didn't listen, being a know it all green kid then, and got a 42" STRAIGHT barrel from Green Mountain. A good barrel but that rifle (known as "Heavy Metal") was an unwieldy cannon and muzzle heavy. Later I sold her to a fireman who then won two consecutive matches with that cannon. I have since received a new TN in the early Bean style with a 44" swamped barrel by L.C. Rice in the early Dickert pattern. The balance is sweet beyond belief! The round groove radiused rifling makes loading and cleaning a breeze and is more period correct for the 1790-1810 period I am aiming for.

-Ray :RO:

 

[ghartung]

TOTALLY AGAINST IT. I'M A TRADITIONAL BOWHUNTER FIRST AND FOREMOST, I'D LOVE TO SEE A PRIMITIVE ML SEASON ONLY IN NY BUT ONLY AFTER THE BOW SEASON.I DON'T WANT TO TRY AND HUNT WITH A BOW AFTER A WEEK OF BOOMING AND PEOPLE STOMPING THROUGH THE WOODS. I'LL GO TO ADK'S OR WAIT TIL THE REGULAR GUN SEASON TO USE MY FLINTLOCK IF THAT'S THE CASE.

 

[2nd artillery]

Well think it would be great to have a flint lock season. Maybe it could go along with the bow season or take a week off at the end of everything then have a week or two of flint lock season. :m2c: And simce i'm from NY i do care how this gos casue I havent got a deer yet(with the flint lock)

 

[ghartung]

i totally agree to have it at the end, and no inlines, strictly flintlock or percussion.

 

[Keith]

Make your views known to the DEC. I like an early ML season, and a flintlock season. The timing of the early season is poor I agree.