JimEIV
Registered User
- Feb 19, 2003
- 65,688
- 27,889
It's a tough situation on deciding whether or not to harvest. Ironically, the older I get the less selective I have become. When I was younger hunting in what I knew as Utopia on estates in Bedminster, I was super selective. I could be. I could watch a deer from fawn to monarch in the same field every summer. That is no longer an option, it hasn't been since 2010. In the last 8 hunting seasons since, hunting almost entirely on county lands, I have barely seen a mature buck during daylight hours while on stand. Maybe a handful of decent bucks during that time.I live in old school Hunterdon County, I would say with no hyperbole that every 3rd house on my road hunts. And that's what stinks about it, there's little opportunity for bucks to get big where I live, you have to hope they make it to a 3rd year & have that big antler growth spurt that season, or that one wanders down from Round Valley or changes its' range. So yeah, maybe I'll got for it if I see him when I'm out there.
Someday I'll get there. I hear that Whitefish area is one of the most amazing places in the nation, and probably an awesome place to move too, not just for the obvious reasons but for forward growth and increasing house prices over the next 20 years. Sadly, however, my wife is a teacher, and Montana practically pays college educated teachers like they're burger flippers, which is just bizarre IMO
This season I didn't even get my first, second or third choice in Hunterdon county. I stood in line for 4 hours in the middle of the night only to walk away with no permit. I came back the following day and picked up a left over for Hoffman park...I don't like anything I've seen there but I do have a permit for fall and permit. I might not even go hunt there. I have been focusing more on Somerset county.
On Montana: it's an incredible place but I don't think it is financially as advantageous as Wyoming, Idaho or even Utah...but I love Western Montana. It's pretty spectacular. My wife and I considered Hamilton for a while but the prices have become New Jersey-like over the years.
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