garrymny

Here we go again. And nobody will bother to put floating docks in. Thank God for Newfane Marina, the only people that had the sense to install floating docks. Niagara State Park and all the rest will be unusable AGAIN for the second time in the past 3 years. Some blue barrels and treated lumber and you could build them at a very reasonable price. Sent from my moto z3 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

I don't hunt near the reservation anymore. My reason though is that off judge road it sounds like Armageddon on the first day of pheasant season! The attraction to me was the huge alfalfa fields. But trail cameras didn't reveal that many deer visiting them.

Blockhead, just wondering if you were hunting near the Tonawanda reservation? I think the Indians deer season comes in before ours. Could this explain folks walking around with rifles early? As for the dead deer, heads cut off, disgusting. I've hunted the Iroquois Wildlife refuge for 14 or 15 years and I've never seen a game warden! I think you May be onto something, poachers and I believe coyotes (from the tracks I see) are taking a toll. Without a dog , we have no idea these dead deer are out there. With your dog, you are finding them. I love the swamp. So diverse. But if I had an alternative, I would not hunt it as much. Tried Carlton Hill and it is hunted heavier than the Refuge, so I gave that up.

Well I finally saw two deer today. Passed on a medium doe. Kicked a buck up in goldenrod redbrush and missed.

For one thing, there was no posted land. This spread hunters out back then. In NY, it was shotgun only and saved alot of deer. I was raised on rifles in Pennsylvania so know the effectiveness of s Rifle versus a shotgun. Now, with everything posted, public land is hunted very heavily. This has a huge impact. I can hunt the swamp most of the day, not see a deer. Get in my truck and drive home and see deer feeding in the open Fields in broad daylight. On posted land of course. There was very little shooting the the first day thus year. I don't have a theory yet for this year, being slow, but I appreciate the comments and ideas. One thing I'm pretty sure of, once rifle season gets here, in the swamp they are nocturnal. That, along with the astronomical amount of impenetrable cover, is a tough combination.

Please, let's not derail this post into an argument over crossbow versus archery hunting. I personally use bow, crossbow, inline mz, flintlock, and rifle. This is about the slow year, lack of deer sighted in the Iroquois National Wildlife refuge this year, and possible reasons. Thanks.

I believe you are right. A very marked increase in pressure on the first day of crossbow. So they have the deer in nocturnal mode. In addition, the relative lack of quantity of tracks in the snow I saw in January and February of 2019, shows a reduced number of deer. Coyote? Maybe disease? I saw several deer on my August trail cams that looked like sick skeletons. I wondered if they had cwd they looked so bad. Not sure what, but definitely sick and diseased. Could be they had just been wounded or something.

Believe me that's not the issue. I go farther than 90% of the people. I even had to debone a doe and pack the meat out two years ago. I think several others have pointed out one reason, the crossbow season is the new Rifle season. I saw a marked increase in hunters on first day of crossbow

Yes, I find every year the deer especially bucks become nocturnal. With the cattails and impenetrable multiflora rose and thickets, you are not going to get them once they go nocturnal. The only possibility is a rut crazy buck, or very inclement weather to make them get off their feet in daylight. But I can usually take a doe or two, and I usually pass up a small buck or two during Rifle. Not so far this year though. Tough year.

I've hunted the Iroquois Wildlife refuge extensively and exclusively for the last 15 years. It is the closest public land for me to hunt. I don't have access to any private property. I can tell you this is the slowest year I have had. Very few deer sighted. Not alot of tracks in the snow. I can tell you my deer scouting started last January and February during the government shutdown since I was out of work. I canvassed huge swaths of the swamp walking miles. I put out trail cameras in September. I started hunting archery October first. In archery I saw four bucks. Two small ones, and three shooters but no shot. Only three does! I've hunted three days in Rifle and have not seen a deer. Now, I'm sure by now many reading this are thinking I don't know how to hunt. This is my 44th year of hunting. Only once in 44 years have I not taken a deer. I've taken by my estimate 60 to 70 deer, two elk, 25 gobblers. I am a still Hunter, and a stand hunter. I hunt both PA (where) I'm from, and NY. I cannot explain what is happening in the refuge with the deer population. There is extensive cover that is impenetrable to a man. My belief has been the deer become nocturnal by rifle season. But that doesn't explain my experience earlier in the year.

Yes I just read an article that said a few States studied this for years looking at thousands of fawn fetuses and back dating them to conception. Their conclusion was the peak of the rut in all the States they studied was November 15! Makes no difference about weather, moon phase, etc. The study has shown for year, it was mid November.

Ok well for me I really did not see much rut activity this year. I hunted up through Nov 11 veterans day for archery then called it a season until Saturday rifle. T I'm not confident in my location. I have nice bucks on my trail camera from August and September, then it kind of dried up. I'm hunting along some thick bedding areas. Hopefully the rifle opener will have them moving. I saw someone on veterans day and he said the peak of the rut in the swamp was two weeks ago. Without acorns I guess I just couldn't find the high doe density areas which I know is where you want to be in peak rut.

Yep. I always hunt acorns. But there are very few if any in the Alabama swamp this year. Frost must have got them.