Deer tales from early season

There were some nice deer taken, particularly on the opening weekend of the southern zone season.

Deer Tales: Terry Yardley and others have often said that the main reason for hunting is to have adventures or tales to tell. That’s a good thing because tales were more common than deer this past week or so for the southern zone opener.

There were some nice deer taken, particularly on the opening weekend of the southern zone season. One local deer processor had taken in about 10 deer by Sunday afternoon and all of them were heavy 8 or 10 pointers. A small sampling did not seem to show as many deer taken as normal but many of them were impressive.

During the week of frigid weather prior to the opening of the southern zone, Ed Patricia, Terry Yardley, Tom Van Pelt, and I hunted the Northern Zone at Costello’s No Stress Zone Camp northwest of Camden. It was seven degrees with six inches snow as we set out that Wednesday morning. That day we saw 18 deer, although we did not recognize at least two bucks until it was too late. Late in the afternoon, we were hunting the far edge of the property when Skip Hobbie, one of the camp regulars, was driving down the dirt road not far from us when a buck crossed ahead of him and stood a short distance away in the woods. Skip got out of his vehicle, walked a short distance and shot the 8-point buck.

Previously a friend of mine was hunting with his crossbow and shot a nice buck. It fell down a steep bank and ended up in a tag alder swamp. Because of the difficulty involved, “J.P.” got his four-wheeler and hooked up his winch to haul the buck out and up the bank. He thought that it was harder than usual but kept on pulling. Later he found that an antler had hooked around a small tree and the winch had broken the antler off!

On opening day, the temperature hovered in the low teens as our crew set out to different favorite locations. About 15 minutes after the start of legal shooting hours, I heard a crunching sound as a deer came towards me in the frozen snow cover. It turned out to be a spike horn and it came within 10 paces of me. I decided that I was not going to shoot it and it stopped and stared at me face to face at 8 paces for almost two minutes until it finally got my scent and took off running. I figured that it would be a good sign for lots of action that day. However, I was wrong and that was the only buck I saw all day.

Meanwhile one of our gang, Ed Patricia, was sitting some distance away on the same property. About mid afternoon, he

crossed a field back to the truck to get some warmer clothing and something else to eat. A lone birch tree out in the middle of the field looked inviting so Ed sat down by it to relax and soak up a few minutes of sun. He eventually turned around a saw a buck standing 20 yards behind him. As he tried to get his gun the buck ran off, but returned not once, but three more times. Finally, the deer returned and gave Ed a safe angle and a standing shot at 40 yards. This time Ed dropped him with a single shot.

Bill Batdorf hunted closer to his Chittenango home and did not hear many shots or see many deer. While hunting a swampy area, the cover was thick and tall so Bill had to get up in a willow tree to get any kind of view. From his vantage point, he saw a nice buck in the cover and took the deer.

Other friends hunted down near South Otselic and were impressed with what they saw in sign and deer. The group took several deer and are headed back there this weekend. Others who had seen a lot of deer near New Hartford while bow hunting did not see any this weekend. Once again, somebody’s experience this weekend shaped their view of whether or not there are many deer and if was a “good season” so far.

Meanwhile my friend Gary Lee from Inlet reported on some unusual stories from the Adirondacks. One person from Old Forge took an 8-point that weighed an amazing 205 lbs. Another hunter near Speculator took the deer of a lifetime with a non-typical buck that had 19 points!

It has always been true that someone’s experience shapes their view of whether or not it is a good season, and how abundant deer seem to be. It is too early and too small a sample to make any judgement yet, but it does seem that a lot of area hunters are seeing less deer than usual this year. Perhaps the frigid weather has been keeping the number of hunters down, and thus less likely to move deer to other hunters. But it could be other factors, such as increased hunter activity and pressure during archery season causing deer to move to heavier cover and become more nocturnal. In any case we are interested in hearing reports from individual hunters and we will compare observations and theories later.

Good Luck and keep us informed. Remember that only about one in ten hunters get a buck anyway so enjoy the experience and hope to beat the odds.

SHORT CASTS Bad News For Adirondack Railroad

The recent press release from the state re. the fate of the Adirondack Railroad Travel Corridor sounds great in the flowery verbiage put forth by the spin-doctors of NYS’s propaganda agencies. In reality it will mean the ultimate death of the Adirondack Scenic Railway, its plans to provide traffic to Lake Placid and Saranac Lake area, and the hopes of sportsmen for access to much of that county that is now virtually impossible to reach.

Officially, the state has announced the plans to tear up the tracks from Tupper Lake to Lake Placid and replace it with an expensive “multi-recreation trail.” The press release of propaganda and ridiculous claims would be humorous if they were not so blatantly false and destructive. They claim that this will open up recreation to uncounted thousands of tourists to hike, bike, ski, or snowmobile. Duh, they can do that now! Do they really think that thousands will flock to hike an old railroad bed when countless miles of level hiking trails now go unused? Yes, cross country skiers or snowmobilers can use it; all they need now is snow (which is actually scarce in that area in recent winters).

The Adirondack Scenic Railway (ASR) will be “cut off at the knees.” It could have run trains to Lake Placid, with stops in between, if it only had the funds promised many years ago. Now the state thinks it will soothe hurt feelings and throw them a bone by offering money to repair the tracks to Tupper Lake. Tupper Lake??! No offense to the good people of Tupper Lake, but who is going to go to Tupper Lake as a destination? If you believe that I will gladly sell you the bridge over the Raquette River.

Not only could ASR have provided popular traffic to Lake Placid, it would have offered stops for campers, paddlers, fishermen, and hunters along the way and picked them up on later return trips. Forget that now. A former administrator of the ASR told me that there is no way that a train trip to Tupper Lake will be viable. Obviously, sportsmen and regular tourists are not important to NYS.

There will be three public hearings on the Plan. One will be in Old Forge on Thursday, Dec. 5, 6 to 8 p.m. at the View Art Center. But don’t kid yourselves, the decision has already been made. NYS, including the DEC made its plans several years ago and every time they lost a hearing or decision, they changed the procedure and brought it up again. Several times I was involved in the campaign to save the railroad and although we won the battles, we have apparently lost the war. Thank you for all your support in the past. Chalk it up as another lost cause for sportsmen and the average citizen. The meanie-greenie fanatics win again.