The incredible expanding deer season
Saturday marks the opener for the 35-day special early archery season in our region of the Southern Zone. Plus, bowhunters get to enjoy a late season of eight days immediately following the closure of the regular firearms season (Nov. 17-Dec. 9). Forty-three days is a long hunting season for any big game species, but is it too long, just right, or not long enough?
A recent national survey by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the first since its last survey in 1996, indicated there were about14 million hunters (age 16 and older) in '96; and now there are about 12.5 million. But what is most revealing is the percentage of active hunters between the ages of 14 and 28 dropped to 58 percent from 92 percent. The decline in active hunters between the ages of 28 to 64 dropped to 30 percent from 58 percent.
The decline is also very evident in small game hunting. In 1991 there were 7.6 million people participating in small-game hunting, but 10 years later, that number had fallen to 5.4 million. And since small game is considered a primary activity to introduce younger people to hunting, it apparently is suffering from the steady decline in youth hunters as well. This decline in small-game hunting probably partially accounts for the overall decline in hunting.
I've been an avid bowhunter for more than 40 years, and I truly enjoy it. However, the days and time I've spent small game hunting has steadily declined over the past two decades, and only recently have I begun to ask myself why. There was a time when grouse hunting was my favorite fall activity, but in recent years that fire has burned less brightly. Was it because I was older? Was it due to progressively less small game being available and places to hunt it? If I am absolutely truthful and unbiased in reviewing this personal trend, it seems to have coincided with the steadily expanding deer seasons that have opened and the more liberal limits for hunting deer.
This fall, what with bowhunting starting on Oct. 13, then, beginning Nov. 17, three weeks of firearms season, and then the late special archery and muzzleloading seasons, ending on December 18, that's 66 days that deer are legal game in our area. (And in Westchester County, it closes Dec. 31. A special season in Suffolk County doesn't close until January 31, 2008.) The SZ deer seasons pretty much coincide with the prime weeks that I once pursued small game, and especially grouse. Now the lure of deer hunting tends to make me leave the grouse gun in the rack and carry the compound bow or, later, a deer rifle or muzzleloader. We often hear talk about a hunter being a "two-season" hunter, and what that usually means is he or she hunts during both the archery and firearms deer seasons. I can't recall ever hearing anyone talk about being a "three-season" hunter, which would include small game. Of course, this is all about choice ... more hunters prefer deer than small game, given the overlapping open seasons. But as this phenomenon has occurred, the majority of hunters now cease hunting once the open seasons for deer finally close, despite several small game seasons remaining open until the last day of February. That could be because the later weather is less appealing, or perhaps because they've had enough hunting for the year.
Which brings up the last trend, which is declining small game numbers, and the loss of places to hunt what there is.
In comparison to small game hunting with a shotgun, bowhunting is very low-profile. The hunter is camouflaged and stationary, and there is little noise created when a shot is taken. Small game normally requires the hunter to walk through game cover, attempting to flush game, and any shots can be heard for a long distance. Even though the small pellets fired from a shotgun travel but a short distance and quickly lose velocity, dropping harmlessly to the ground, the loud report tends to get people's attention. The result is many landowners now turn away small game hunters because of the noise factor, and not so much the safety factor. Much of our best small game habitat and populations are on private land, and many of old agricultural lands we hunted small game on have gone the way of new residences and cluster developments, with the habitat fringing on them. A blast from a shotgun, even if it's hundreds of yards away, yields the now oft-exclaimed "There's someone shooting out back!" Whereas, in the heydays of local pheasant hunting here, it was a common sound that few paid much attention to. "Must be pheasant hunters" As this change in attitude has progressed, increasingly more small game hunters were forced to hunt on public land that contained poorer small game habitat and less game.
As deer hunters, do we really need nearly two months in which to hunt? True, it is considered recreation, and each time the DEC lengthens the deer hunting season(s), it reminds us that we're getting "additional recreational opportunities" for our license dollars. What I have increasingly questioned in recent years is there emerging an imbalance in the hunting opportunities the DEC is offering us? Certainly I enjoy deer hunting, but the reason I annually purchase a Super Sportsman license is I also enjoy small game hunting, and the last time I looked, a portion of that license money was for that opportunity as well. If I figured the days-to-dollars spent hunting small game to hunting deer, I certainly get more bang for my license dollars with deer.
I understand and to some extent agree that bowhunting and cold adverse weather aren't a good match, which is why it precedes the firearms season, but if DEC keeps moving it earlier (and there's been talk of an October 1 opener in the SZ), what does that really accomplish? Most seasoned bowhunters I know consider the prime rut period in early November as their best chance to take a buck or, for that matter, any deer. And some bowhunters, me included, usually pass up easy opportunities at does in October because of that.
What impact would a later archery opener have on us? Would we spend the time previous to that hunting small game or turkey? Would we use it to take a youngster and introduce him or her to hunting via some outings for small game? Would archery success rates drop? Would a higher percentage of youngsters in hunting families leave their PCs, iPods and cell phones to spend some time in the outdoors with dad or mom? Or is this just all wishful thinking when trying to bring back the hunting heritage that is and has been such a crucial tool in New York's conservation and wildlife management?
A recent national survey by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the first since its last survey in 1996, indicated there were about14 million hunters (age 16 and older) in '96; and now there are about 12.5 million. But what is most revealing is the percentage of active hunters between the ages of 14 and 28 dropped to 58 percent from 92 percent. The decline in active hunters between the ages of 28 to 64 dropped to 30 percent from 58 percent.
The decline is also very evident in small game hunting. In 1991 there were 7.6 million people participating in small-game hunting, but 10 years later, that number had fallen to 5.4 million. And since small game is considered a primary activity to introduce younger people to hunting, it apparently is suffering from the steady decline in youth hunters as well. This decline in small-game hunting probably partially accounts for the overall decline in hunting.
I've been an avid bowhunter for more than 40 years, and I truly enjoy it. However, the days and time I've spent small game hunting has steadily declined over the past two decades, and only recently have I begun to ask myself why. There was a time when grouse hunting was my favorite fall activity, but in recent years that fire has burned less brightly. Was it because I was older? Was it due to progressively less small game being available and places to hunt it? If I am absolutely truthful and unbiased in reviewing this personal trend, it seems to have coincided with the steadily expanding deer seasons that have opened and the more liberal limits for hunting deer.
This fall, what with bowhunting starting on Oct. 13, then, beginning Nov. 17, three weeks of firearms season, and then the late special archery and muzzleloading seasons, ending on December 18, that's 66 days that deer are legal game in our area. (And in Westchester County, it closes Dec. 31. A special season in Suffolk County doesn't close until January 31, 2008.) The SZ deer seasons pretty much coincide with the prime weeks that I once pursued small game, and especially grouse. Now the lure of deer hunting tends to make me leave the grouse gun in the rack and carry the compound bow or, later, a deer rifle or muzzleloader. We often hear talk about a hunter being a "two-season" hunter, and what that usually means is he or she hunts during both the archery and firearms deer seasons. I can't recall ever hearing anyone talk about being a "three-season" hunter, which would include small game. Of course, this is all about choice ... more hunters prefer deer than small game, given the overlapping open seasons. But as this phenomenon has occurred, the majority of hunters now cease hunting once the open seasons for deer finally close, despite several small game seasons remaining open until the last day of February. That could be because the later weather is less appealing, or perhaps because they've had enough hunting for the year.
Which brings up the last trend, which is declining small game numbers, and the loss of places to hunt what there is.
In comparison to small game hunting with a shotgun, bowhunting is very low-profile. The hunter is camouflaged and stationary, and there is little noise created when a shot is taken. Small game normally requires the hunter to walk through game cover, attempting to flush game, and any shots can be heard for a long distance. Even though the small pellets fired from a shotgun travel but a short distance and quickly lose velocity, dropping harmlessly to the ground, the loud report tends to get people's attention. The result is many landowners now turn away small game hunters because of the noise factor, and not so much the safety factor. Much of our best small game habitat and populations are on private land, and many of old agricultural lands we hunted small game on have gone the way of new residences and cluster developments, with the habitat fringing on them. A blast from a shotgun, even if it's hundreds of yards away, yields the now oft-exclaimed "There's someone shooting out back!" Whereas, in the heydays of local pheasant hunting here, it was a common sound that few paid much attention to. "Must be pheasant hunters" As this change in attitude has progressed, increasingly more small game hunters were forced to hunt on public land that contained poorer small game habitat and less game.
As deer hunters, do we really need nearly two months in which to hunt? True, it is considered recreation, and each time the DEC lengthens the deer hunting season(s), it reminds us that we're getting "additional recreational opportunities" for our license dollars. What I have increasingly questioned in recent years is there emerging an imbalance in the hunting opportunities the DEC is offering us? Certainly I enjoy deer hunting, but the reason I annually purchase a Super Sportsman license is I also enjoy small game hunting, and the last time I looked, a portion of that license money was for that opportunity as well. If I figured the days-to-dollars spent hunting small game to hunting deer, I certainly get more bang for my license dollars with deer.
I understand and to some extent agree that bowhunting and cold adverse weather aren't a good match, which is why it precedes the firearms season, but if DEC keeps moving it earlier (and there's been talk of an October 1 opener in the SZ), what does that really accomplish? Most seasoned bowhunters I know consider the prime rut period in early November as their best chance to take a buck or, for that matter, any deer. And some bowhunters, me included, usually pass up easy opportunities at does in October because of that.
What impact would a later archery opener have on us? Would we spend the time previous to that hunting small game or turkey? Would we use it to take a youngster and introduce him or her to hunting via some outings for small game? Would archery success rates drop? Would a higher percentage of youngsters in hunting families leave their PCs, iPods and cell phones to spend some time in the outdoors with dad or mom? Or is this just all wishful thinking when trying to bring back the hunting heritage that is and has been such a crucial tool in New York's conservation and wildlife management?
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