Going afield during New York state's holiday deer hunt? Here are some helpful hints

The day after Christmas this year, New York State’s Southern Zone (which is most of the state besides the Adirondack region) opened up deer season again for archers and muzzleloader hunters.

The weeklong special season is not an easy time to take deer for a number of reasons.

Our whitetails are spooky and gone pretty much nocturnal, compared to back in October and November.

Daylight, or shooting light, is in short supply, now just a week after the Winter Solstice.

Even though the DEC has extended shooting times now, from a half hour before sunup to a half hour after sunset, giving us a theoretical hour more, we still only have about nine hours of daylight. And on dark, gloomy days, for all practical purposes, less than that.

Not much time.

If we had a streak of really cold wintery weather (and that’s a big IF), we might be able to expect some real midday movement from the whitetails.

But dream on this winter, it’s been incredibly mild. Actually record-setting in that department, so I don’t expect to see deer moving much during shooting hours, except maybe at dawn and dusk.

We do have the moon phase going for us, though.

The full moon was on Dec. 26, so the full moon phase will extend through the holiday deer hunt, which ends on Jan. 1, 2024.

Diurnal, daytime deer movement, especially near midday, is slightly greater during the full moon phase according to researchers, and I agree.

And a few older doe fawns will have their first estrus cycle at this time, along with adults that skipped the peak of the rut in late October and the second rut in late November

That means bucks that are left over made it through the regular firearms season and may be on their feet, seeking those few doe that have not been bred in the earlier go-around.

But different tactics, compared to the same-old, same-old might need to come into play to fill that holiday season deer tag.

Deer drives might be key to success during holiday hunt

As deer hunters we all really have to admit, sometimes the only way to get deer on their feet is to move through their bedding area on what we call a deer drive or a push.

Even then, it may be tough to get a whitetail, let alone a big buck, to move out of sanctuary cover, even with a number of hunters with a plan, on the edges.

Some deer drives that work well are those hunts when two or more hunters plan and act out a strategy to move deer in order for someone in the party (usually termed “the standers”) to get a shot.

Usually, the shooter, or “stander” gets set up in a stand early, and then waits for other hunters to move through the woods and kick out some whitetails … and they move by the stander for a shot.

Back in the old days, it seemed the deer drive was much more common than it is today. Part of the reason is that hunting properties are much smaller than in the past and hunters are reticent to allow anyone to set foot on their lands.

The common refrain is that other hunters will shoot "their deer," when in fact if everyone moved around, I believe we would all have a lot more shooting.

Now as we are at the very tail end of the deer season, we face much too often the very common "whitetail stalemate."

We sit in our stands … the deer bed.

We wait and wait and sometimes they move, but on most hunts we find our quarry beds until, if we are lucky, just before dark.

According to the long distance weather forecasts, the holiday hunt will see pretty much rainy, off and on dreary weather, quite mild with daytime temps hitting the 40s and even 50s.

Normally, we would have snow, especially in the uplands and on the high ridges. I would opt to put on my snow camo and still-hunt, spot-and-stalk with my muzzleloader, or set up near between a bedding area and a known feeding area, like a cut cornfield or a heavy acorn flat (where deer are still pawing up oak leaves) with my archery equipment.

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But not this year.

The snow camo will have to wait for another year.

One caution: many bucks have shed their antlers already and at a glance, might look like a big doe. I like to make sure there are no light-colored spots on the deer’s head where antlers were first, by checking with binos or through the scope.

-- Oak Duke writes a weekly column.

This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: Holiday deer hunt in New York runs Dec. 26-Jan. 1. Follow these tips