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Buck Potential in St. Lawrence County

I purchased a farm in Dekalb Junction which is in St. Lawrence county a year ago and this will be my second fall owning it. I am from northern Vermont and do not know many local hunters. I have been trying to assess what is the quality of a mature buck in this area. Any information would be greatly appreciated. I am new to the Bowsite website. Thank you.

I would recommend you run as many trail cams as reasonable for the size of your property. If you do,it right you’ll know for sure what’s present in that locality and you can judge. During the rut you may get a surprise or two and by that I mean a surprise on the upside. Just my opinion.

Thank you for the response. I should have been more specific, my property is 345 acres and I run 12 cameras. I have a good handle of the quality of bucks on my place but am wondering if the potential of the area is better than what I have. Last year was interesting, I had pics of 16 different bucks but only 1 that was 3.5 years old. Age structure seems really young to me. I thought during the rut I would have some strangers roll through but it didn't happen.

I'm sure the potential is there, but it's not able to express itself. If you aren't picking up many 2+ yo and had pics of fifteen 1 yr olds then I would guess the majority of your neighbors are shooting young bucks. The bucks are there, they just aren't getting any age behind them. Maybe take a good look at your acreage and put some time into some habitat improvement that may help hold some deer on your ground for longer. Not an easy task, but you can get a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment out of it. Tons of great info out there on this subject as well. You don't have to own big equipment to make big improvements.

I bet a lot of bucks you think are 2.5 are 3.5. That part of the state produces good bucks but like a lot of NY it takes bucks at least 4.5 years old to hit that 120" mark. I am not saying there are no bucks that hit that at 3.5 cause there are just not as many as folks think. The area you are in can and will produce those 150" bucks and bigger you just have to get them to at least 5.5 to 6.5 years old. Shawn

Shawn, to follow up on your comments how old do you think this buck is? Picture is a little blurry but should be good enough.

I would say all of 3.5, a look from the side would help may be 4.5. Looks like he has been running hard! Shawn

I have hunted there a good bit, Stl county is a place where deer can die from old age. My family has had multiple camps in that area , my grand parents owned a Diner and Motels there too. I would say between all of us there are about 100 mounted Adirondack bucks on our walls. They don't carry big racks by typical standards. The deer we kill in the southern tier are generally younger but with half again as many inches on their heads. My uncle is a super accomplished whitetail killer. Half of his deer have come from up there and I would venture to say if you walked into his trophy room you could pick out which bucks were from there and which bucks were from somewhere else. We hunted a bunch in the Cranberry/Star Lake area...for reference.

Shawn, 3.5 yr old was my guess as well.

HDBOW, Thank you for the information. My property is in the heart of farm country in St. Lawrence County. We did go down to Cranberry Lake area and hunt a few days and my son shot a pretty nice 8 pt. I tracked a big buck for 2 days and while tracking him he got in a fight with another buck and had one side of his rack broke off just above the brow tine. Assuming a 3" brow tine, 17" spread and the other side matching he was 150". I was impressed with the hunting in the Adirondacks.

Crazy mass

Even with "crazy mass" that half rack from above would struggle to go 150"s. Sorrybut even with a 10" G-3 which that would be pushing it that buck may hit 140"s, maybe!! I could show you an example of a buck that grosses 163"s and he has over 45"s of mass. Disregard the ugly guy in photo!! Shawn

Shawn - It's not my buck. I was just saying it had nice mass. Letmgrow would have to provide the measurements

I live a short ways from Dekalb;firstly we are in the St.Lawrence River Valley,not the Adirondacks.Farm country,lots of feed and growth potential.We shoot decent bucks every year and pass on the small guys;have pictures of a few real nice(140" class bucks) but they are elusive as any-where else.I hunt all seasons and see 25-40 bucks per year and shoot one.Biggest problem locally is road hunters and Amish shooting anything that moves year round.If you have Amish close they will decimate the deer herd.Don't get me wrong;I have some Amish friends and deal with them regular but some have no respect for the game laws.

Shawn, score of the buck wasn't really my point so my fault for listing score. You are right it isn't 150", it is 149 2/8, close enough for me. That is a gross score not net. My point was really that the Adirondacks held better deer than I thought. Photos of horns are tough to judge especially a close up like my photo. They look way bigger if you long arm them. Wildan, good to hear there are some 140" bucks in the area. Hopefully I will get one to move into my property.

Letmgrow - I think the spread on that buck is 17 6/8, so it's perfect 150" buck.

Shawn, that is a nice buck you are holding; lots of character. Is that a NY buck? XbowfromNY, he was going to get shot if i caught up with him when I was tracking even if he was 20" smaller. He is a fully mature buck, long stride and crazy stagger. The buck that he fought with was a younger buck but he must be a decent buck as well.

God no its a Kansas buck my only point was it takes a lot for a deer to hit 150"s and that half rack just does not do it. My pic. if you look is not long armed either, elbows pretty bent. Sorry anyone can fill in a score sheet. Hard to believe that is a 10" tine and I do know pics are deceiving. Just like the hunting shows, guys say look at this gorgeous 140" 8pt and it is lucky it is 120"s. Again my buck has 13 scorable points and bases of 7.5"s and 8"s. and 8 and 9 inch brow tines but is only 16.5"s wide still cannot imagine that buck scoring only 13"s less. Sorry just my opinion. Shawn

Shawn, not sure why I am defending myself but here is a tape measure showing 10 1/8". Nothing to me what it scores it is a half rack I found. I have shot a number of deer over 150" and some surprise me that they score more and some surprise me that they score much less. I really don't care what they score, I just know if it is a buck I want to shoot or not. Where I live in Vermont that is an 80" buck, on the Nebraska farm I owned, I wouldn't take my bow off the hook unless they were over 140". Also I was not saying that you were long arming your buck, it is definitely a 160's buck, I was simply saying that a photo on a desk has a much different perspective than somebody holding a buck out in front of them. It should also be noted that there is a huge difference appearance wise between a 163" buck and a 150" buck, that is roughly 10% more horn.

As mentioned I live and hunt in the St.Lawrence River Valley;my BIL owns a taxidermy shop (40+ years) ,we see lots of local racks;maybe 5% will gross 140". Here is a bow local bow kill from last year;don't know what he scored but weighted about 220#.

Shawn used to be known as the guy who killed alot of deer and put on those great rabbit hunts. Now he's known as the guy who looks at everyone's deer pics and says they are scored too high (yikes poor CURLISS ). Lighten up and give these fellas a few inches. What's my best NY buck score..100..110 ?

Wildan, Black Lake is not far from me, where is your BIL's archery shop? That is a real nice buck, I would be very pleased to have deer like that to hunt.

Swampbowman, That is a hammer and with a stick bow...nice!

Thanks. For the record he was a 4 1/2 yr old that scored 180gross (14pt 8/6 rack) but nets 169 as a 12pt typical. In the western end of the state where I am the we see alot of 3 1/2yr old deer that hit 120 plus due to our better food supply but as Shawn said ADKS deer take longer. I was just ribbbing Shawn for another rack discussion he got into with a friend ; Shawn puts more serious time and effort into deer hunting than most of us ever will.

Swampbowman - That's an awesome buck. I'd feel no pressure the rest of my life after getting one like that LOL

Shawn and swampbowman, those are some great bucks. Would love to hear the stories behind them. Letmgrow, that's a thick shed. Very cool that you were on that same bucks track for 2 days.

STL county like the rest on NY deer hunting suffers from our hunters habits and culture more then anything else. ADD in NY DEC abject stupidity in regards to seasons and tag and unfortunately we have everything working against a quality deer herd in NY. There are parts of NY that have decent soil and potential to grow bigger bucks however its pretty hard to accomplish when 75% are kill at 1 and 2 years old. While it isn't the midwest we would have some better bucks if they reached maturity. Blame the DEC and blame ourselves. Good luck with you land, its beautiful country up that way.

Trial153 hit it. The potential for good deer hunting in Northern NY is good, but the habits of the local hunters cuts down on the potential quite a bit. Deer drives, pushing corners, 7 week long gun season, low numbers of enforcement personnel, light to non-existent fines if caught poaching and the "If it's brown it's down mentality makes looking for a decent mature buck seem like a fools errand. I go to Ohio to hunt for bucks, I own 114 acres to shoot a deer maybe every other year off of. I originally bought the land to hopefully have a place to hunt some nice bucks on, but since I a surrounded by 5 people who own 35-50 acres and they all hunt. I put in food plots and have improved the habitat. Any time a deer comes in to feed, it usually has to walk past at least one guys guns, so they get whacked. My friend is a Game Warden and he said that 85% of the deer taken each year are 1 1/2 years old or less. From my observations as a NY Bowhunter Ed Instructor, when I talked about shooting does, the people from here (Lewis County) and St Lawrence Country looked at me like I was blaspheming!! LOL "Shoot does??? That is where the bucks come from. You don't shoot does". Hillbilly mentality like that is why we don't have good hunting up here. Shoot only little bucks and leave the does, the bucks left over keep rutting to breed does that didn't get bred, right up through Jan, so the bucks that are left, die in the Winter... Then all you have is spikes and button bucks the next year... I hunt here still, but I go to sit in the woods, watch nature and the changing of the seasons,, and maybe see a deer. I go to Ohio to go in to the woods to see lots of deer and many of them are big... Definitely not the same thing. Good luck to you. Be well. Jay

I was fortunate enough yesterday morning to get the buck I tracked last year that broke his rack fighting.

Shot him getting out of his bed.

It was tough drag in the deep snow.

Got him in the truck. Time for a cold refreshment!!

Taken in true Adirondack fashion...well done.

That is a nice northern NY buck. How much snow do you have ?

There is 12" - 18" of snow depending on elevation. Tough walking.

Wow!!! Beautiful buck. Congrats!! St. Lawrence County?

Arrowone...Yes it is a buck from the Adirondacks in St. Lawrence County.

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