What have you done this year to prepare for the 2015 season?

[burmjohn]

Have you added new stands / blinds? (Post pictures!)

 

New Bow / Gun?

 

Practiced for weeks on end?

 

Do you have any crazy rituals?

 

What have you done this year to prepare for the 2015 season?

 

Food? Whats going on at camp and what are you bringing?

 

[WNYBuckHunter]

Start on page 14 lol

 

http://huntingny.com/forums/topic/8457-wnybuckhunters-outdoor-journal/page-14

[growalot]

nothing much....

[Nomad]

Moved a handful of stands shot my bow maybe 5 or 6 times , oh I hung two cameras a couple weeks ago. Checked them the other day, one was not turned on the other had dead batteries ....

So all set!

[Chef]

Put in 3 new ladder stands, bough my girlfriend a bow. Put reflective tacks leading to my stands..... Oh and I bought a smoker

[Skillet]

    Put up 2 new stands, so that makes 6 locations on our property, 2 of which are doubles (for my kid & I). Did a ton of trimming and mowed some nice trails. This is Jr's first season, so he's been shooting his bow as much as possible all summer, & is grouping well. Put out cute little markers at 20 yards around the double sets, so he has a good visual boundary (I'm not letting him shoot past 20). Bought the GF a new crossbow, & one for myself. Already dry-fired mine because I'm an idiot. That stupidity cost me $60 for new limbs, but props to Excalibur (customer svc is awesome & I had the new limbs in 3 days).

    Got permission from a neighbor to hunt his land bordering ours, & picked out a killer gun spot on this super steep hillside, overlooking a bunch of intersecting logging trails. It's so thick and steep that nobody goes anywhere near there. Trimmed / marked a trail to find my way into it.

   

[BigGuyNY]

Tilled, fertilized, limed and reseeded the food plot.  

Fertilized and did maintenance on all fruit and nut trees

Added new lighting to inside and outside the garage for deer preparation.

Hinge cut a few trees

Removed branches from shooting lanes

Made improvements to the one of the box blinds

Moved one ladder stand and re-secured the others.  

 

 

[bisceglia]

new hoyt nitrum 30, all new camo sitka forest pattern, new stands, new cams, shooting everyday for the last 3 months, the list goes on

[GreeneHunter]

Backed off on Donuts at work and drinking more water .... LOL

[NFA-ADK]

Hung about 9 tree stands for my friends and shot thousands of arrows.  My ritual seems to be a massive triple decker honey turkey, honey ham and American cheese sandwich with chips and soda.  My little slice of heaven when stuck a few miles back in the woods and hunger sets in. 

 

This is one of the stands I was hanging from, only about 2 ft off the ground before we camouflage it.  My buddy told me that is not how you "hang stands".  lol  Yes I am the monkey.

 

 

[First-light]

Absolutely nothing……..had cams out all summer if that counts.

[The_Real_TCIII]

Leased a new property, have only walked it once but have a couple places to start. It's got a sweet beaver pond on it full of wood ducks. Hung two stands at another property, but I mostly use my climber wherever I go

[WNYBuckHunter]

Hung about 9 tree stands for my friends and shot thousands of arrows.  My ritual seems to be a massive triple decker honey turkey, honey ham and American cheese sandwich with chips and soda.  My little slice of heaven when stuck a few miles back in the woods and hunger sets in. 

 

This is one of the stands I was hanging from, only about 2 ft off the ground before we camouflage it.  My buddy told me that is not how you "hang stands".  lol  Yes I am the monkey.

 

You really should have your ladder sticks go just above the foot platform of the stand. Climbing off of the sticks and up onto the stand is really dangerous.

[LI OUTDOORSMAN]

In August we cleared trails and put up 5 new stands (ladders and hang ons) on our new place and cleared shooting lanes. I also finally got the lumber and ran up the hill and elevated my wife's new Shadow Hunter blind.Planned on adding hand rails and rails all around platform but just plain ran out of time..Its huntable for now ..hopefully get most of it done pre-fab down at the cabin and just run it in with the cordless in a few minutes in the afternoon..Other than that the cabin is cleaned and stocked up and the propane tank is filled...Cameras showing some nice animal life..We are READY!!

Edited September 25, 2015 by LI OUTDOORSMAN

[ants]

Im way behind, but then again …I am every year…Just not enough hours in a day.

[wolc123]

I am just about ready to go now.   Spring planted foodplots (corn & soybeans) are not looking so hot but the late summer planted stuff (brassicas, wheat, clover) is looking good.   I put an upper deck on one of my ground blinds that would have netted me a small buck last year if I had it then.   I have 6 tree stands and three ground blinds ready to go, including clearing access paths and shooting lanes.  I should be prepared for any wind or adverse weather conditions.   I may hang one more portable over at my brother-in-law's place nearby and have already secured permission for that.   I picked up one of those swivel, hammock-style seats to use with the x-bow and ML up in the northern zone in a couple of weeks and over the long thanksgiving weekend with the rifle.  

 

I have been getting lots of "marksmansip" practice along with my girls, mostly with the BB-gun. That's the best way to go now that .22 rimfire ammo is so scarce. 5000 bb's for $5, and you can re-use lots of them as they only pass thru one side of a pop can with the Daisy lever-action or with 4 pumps on the Crossman.   Rather than watching the Bill's go down in ugly defeat to the Patriots on TV last Sunday, I listened on the radio out on the range. That let me use that time productively to get my ML, short range "foster" shotgun, long range "sabot" shotgun, and rifle, all hitting where I wanted them.   I had already fine-tuned the x-bow a week prior.  I even signed the little cert in the book to make me legal with that.     

 

I have been keeping up the pressure on my wife to use venison and we are finally down to the last shelf on the freezer.   I have even been doing some burgers on the grill myself on the weekends to help her out a bit.   I defrosted the freezer a week ago to help get ready for the new stuff when it starts coming in, hopefully in less than a month.  I even fixed up a pressure washer that I garbage picked this spring and I cant wait to try it on a European-mount this fall.   All I have to do yet is sharpen some knifes, pick up a couple more DMP tags when they come out Nov 1, and see if I can find my "missing" rattling horns.  

[philoshop]

Im way behind, but then again …I am every year…Just not enough hours in a day.

 

The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up.

[LI OUTDOORSMAN]

Getting ready is just as much fun as actually doing it!

This time of year i'm messing with treestands..checking cams..prepping the duckboats..painting decoys...Shooting the bow.xbow.etc..and surfcasting the beach in the mornings before work...Gotta love it!!

[DirtTime]

Two new guns, a rifle and a shotgun. Rifle is shooting great, shotgun is patterned.

Added some cover to man made ground blinds I build last season, made a few new ones. Foot scouting and the land owners text me with what they are seeing. I don't have trail cams.

 

Camp? If it happens it will be one weekend, opening weekend NZ regular season. Tent camping. Buddy who doesn't hunt keeps whining about it being to cold. If it happens, Friday night my home made chili ( pre-made and reheated ). Saturday breakfast for me will be a couple of low fat fruit bars and some orange juice, lunch will be a ham or roast beef sandwich with swiss on wheat bread, dinner will be my home made beef stew ( again, pre-made and reheated ). Sunday morning for me will be the same as Sat. . Pack up and head home.

All dependent on if I kill a deer. Then at some point a trip to the processor, and dinner of deer heart and back straps. 

[wooly]

Knocked 2 more set ups off the list this week for a total of 4 complete.

Only 3 more stands to go... should have them done this weekend.

 

 

[Jeremy K]

Practice ,lots of practice. I picked up a Elite z28 in January ,it made shooting fun again instead of feeling like something i HAD to do. 

[Adkhunter1590]

I've done a lot to get ready for this season. A lot more than last year that's for sure. But what I've done the most of is piss my wife off on how much I've spent on new gear! Lol. New bow and accessories for that, 2 new cameras, new hang on and sticks, needed new rubber boots after my under armour ones fell apart last time I went and hung a stand. Other than buying a lot of new gear I've walked lots of miles of state land looking for a good spot to harvest a state land giant. It's become a addiction

[nyslowhand]

Wooly, you must be part monkey to get up in that hang-on!!!

 

Edited September 26, 2015 by nyslowhand

[wooly]

You know, I probably climbed that tree 100x's this summer without a step or stand to stand on and just hung out taking pictures,lol

 

I screwed a few steps into it for this time of year since I'll be hauling some heavy baggage with me in the coming weeks, and it's one of my easiest tree climbs. You have no clue how long it took me to get that sucker hung on that crooked trunk. Eventually, I found it's "sweet spot" and added a few wedges, and have no doubt it will see some action early on being right on the corner of the field they're entering now.

Right behind where I took this picture from is a deep ravine that channels scent from across the corn field. I'll snap some better pics of that next time I'm there.

Deer approach it from the paralell ridge and never have a clue I'm there.

 

It really is my expected kill spot for early archery season on an afternoon hunt, but I'm really hoping for something special this year so you guys will have to put up with a lot of pics of my skippers in the mean time from all my stands and blinds!

 

That might not be such a bad thing though...

[genesee_mohican]

Deer season never ends for me. I was out scouting and putting up a few trail cams just days after gun season ended. I just enjoy being out in the woods year round and learning the areas I hunt. I did a bit of shed hunting/scouting after the snows melted and had good luck there. I got permission to hunt a new property. Moved 3 stands, put up 3 more. I inspected and trimmed out all my stands in late summer. I have the bow and gun dialed in, license and park permit secured. I've been washing my hunting cloths, even my boots and will let everything air out for a while.
The firewood is in, appointments crossed off the list and I have saved time off for a few weeks in November.

With one week to go, I have one more stand to put up, maybe two. I'll do some more scouting this weekend in areas away from my stands and maybe help a friend put up a stand.  I have a few cameras to check and will start thinking about where I want to hunt the first weekend!  It's time to put an edge on the skinning knife as the time is near. Ya gotta love it.