Matthew 24:29-31 KJV "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: (30) And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. (31) And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other"
I have been thinking of booking a hunt this fall inside of NYS for whitetails. Now that NYS has seen fit to open up additional counties for rifle hunting, I am looking at Stueben county. Stueben county led the state last year in buck harvest with 5657 bucks and 12,796 total deer taken. Stueben county is in the top five counties in the state for buck density coming in at 4 bucks per square mile. I think we may have 4 or possibly 5 of us going for a 3 day packaged hunt. Before the hunt, I hope to get some topo maps and possibly some GPS co-ordinates to look at and program into the GPS before we go. By the way, did I mention that I LOVE this stuff?
The county is made up of a lot of real estate that is sparsely populated, full of hardwood ridges, big stands of conifers, and a lot of abandoned and active working dairy farms. Per the August 2007 issue of "Environment DEC" three counties were opened up last year to rifle hunting. Rifle hunting for big game is now allowed in Chemung, Yates and Stueben counties. The legislation expires in 2008 and will have to be renewed by state lawmakers. Hopefully the exit of Gov Spitzer under less than ideal circumstances for him will not circumvent the county remaining open in 2008 and beyond. Statistics have proven that rifle hunting is no more dangerous statistcally than hunting with a shotgun or muzzleloader.
This is good news from my standpoint and might keep some of my rifle hunts in my home state of NY. Prior to this, my rifle deer hunts in NY were limited to the Adirondacks. The difference is that the Adirondacks of course is a remote big woods hunt with deer density per square mile much lower than Stueben county. Don't get me wrong, as I enjoy big woods hunting and the solitude and opportunity to see a real trophy buck, however there is something to be said for rifle hunting in an area with 4 bucks per square mile too.
The hunts themselves are available on several levels from a do it yourself Econolodge package offering a complimentary breakfast and a box lunch to packaged hunts on a one day, three day and week long basis. The packaged hunts can be had with meals and treestand locations, accomodations etc. or on a bring your own food basis. The rates are very reasonable considering the opportunity to hunt in an area like Stueben county.
Looking forward to the opportunity to spend 3 days away from the telephones this fall and have a chance to let the air out of a nice buck with my .308 Savage, or maybe the .270, or who knows, perhaps the .338 Federal. One of the fun things about planning a hunt is deciding which rifle to bring.
Hopefully this fall, I can write an article with some photos of nice bucks thrown in.
Dan Wafer
www.deer-hunting-information.com
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