This Saturday, Nov. 20, marks the opening of the Southern Zone’s regular deer season, and come whatever the weather may throw at them. Hundreds of hunters will be seeking to put some prime venison in their freezers. While a few may harvest a trophy buck, the season is more about culling the deer herd to a level that the habitat can support and also reducing damages to private property, including car-deer accidents on roadways.
Although the DEC can only estimate the state’s deer population – which is given at around one million – densities vary greatly from one area to another, depending on the quality of the habitat. As such, densities in the Adirondacks are substantially less than in western New York’s heavily agriculture regions. And as our area continues to see our habitat reverting to forests, our deer densities will also decline. A side note to that is deer are progressively becoming more adaptive to living closer to human development areas, where habitat is better. And since developed areas mean more roads and traffic, car-deer accidents have steadily increased there.
Despite what some might think, deer stand a better chance of escaping hunters than they do avoiding traffic on the highways. Statistics annually show that for every deer taken in the state by hunting, three succumb to collisions with road traffic. Deer taken by hunting obviously provide a valuable edible resource, while most that die on highways are usually wasted and end up in landfills with the trash.
Despite initial fears that allowing deer hunters to use rifles in our region would increase dangers, statistics since the law was enacted indicate no increases have occurred. In fact, New York has one of the best hunter safety records in the nation, and that has been improving with each passing hunting season. Hunter numbers have declined about 10 percent since the 1960s, while the rate of hunting-related shooting incidents declined nearly 66 percent during the same period. Actually, most deer hunting accidents involve non-shooting incidents, such a falling, and especially from tree stands. Also, successful on-foot hunters are advised to take their time getting their deer out of the woods. Dragging an adult deer is strenuous work and can overtax your heart if not done in short drags with frequent rest periods.
This season, DEC wildlife managers are predicting a slightly lower overall deer harvest in our unit, which follows a trend in recent years as our deer density declines, less private land is available to hunters, and fewer hunters hunt multiple days now, despite the Saturday opener. Another trend has been a much larger percentage of hunters spend the majority of their time sitting on watch or in tree stands, so deer aren’t being moved as much as when hunters chose to still-hunt or put on deer drives. It’s normal for deer to bed down during daylight hours, and many remain there unless spooked by an approaching hunter.
Be Safe: Use a commercial stand in good shape and wear a safety belt. Most falls occur when entering or exiting the tree stand. Wear some hunter orange. Over the past ten years, 15 New York State big game hunters have been mistaken for deer or bear and killed, and every one of these victims was from that small minority of hunters who did not wear hunter orange. But not even one person who was wearing hunter orange has been mistaken for game and killed. So wear some hunter orange (deer see the color as a neutral shade of gray).
Firearm selection: What gun you choose to hunt deer with is less important than your and its ability to shoot accurately when the moment comes. Whether you hunt with rifle, shotgun, muzzleloader, or choose the venerable .30-30, .30-06, 12 or 20 gauge, or a .50 muzzleloader. Placing that initial shot where it produces a quick and humane kill is job one for any deer hunter.
