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Well there is this guy who has hunted for maybe the last 65 years of his life. Camped at Indian lake, Catskills and hunted the Finger lakes. Has more stories about hunting then you would care to listen to. My 6 hour drive to camp would be filled with stories from the past, I've heard them a zillion times but when he tells them it's like the first time hearing them. He would wear his boots and gloves he brought back from Korea, the tent we camped in, from Korea. After a while he didn't wear gloves and I swear he lost the feelings in his hands but he was still able to pull the trigger. He has passed down some really nice firearms and hunting equipment, each of us has something of his. Yea he is really angry right now, this will be the first year in probably 65 that he will miss the hunting season. He actually left his bride the day after coming home from Korea to hunt at Indian lake! He had to be put in a nursing home this year because he can't walk anymore. It got to a point for 24 hr care and that could not happen at home. My brother in law has spent the last few seasons with him on opening day, getting him out to a spot so maybe they could take one more deer together. That never happened but it didn't matter he was out in the woods. I'll miss him at camp and for sure the ride up. My gun season is dedicated to my father in law Gus. We took a lot of deer together and may I'll take another one this year so I can tell some stories by his bedside. Be safe this year and bag a big one!

hahahaha I love guys like you, never killed one but could have. You know what is good practice for killing a big one, killing a medium sized one first.

Not sure how good this guy's taxidermy is, but his commercial is funnier than hell... http://www.youtube.c...bed/LJP1DphOWPs

Any deer taken legally is is a trophy. We get too hung up on this site with other peoples ethics. Don't shoot does, Don't shoot small bucks, You should pass on this and pass on that. Only shoot mature bucks. Do you see where I am going with this? Pretty soon we should shoot nothing at all, remember the license you buy from the DEC is for hunting and you can shoot anything that is legal be it a doe, buck, small or large it's your choice. Depending what DMU you are in, so don't have someone rain on your parade if you shoot a small buck if it's what you want it's your choice period. Good luck hunting to everybody.

I didn' tmean to imply that you did... if you're hunting coyotes them you wouldn't be trying to buck the system.. we were referring to those that said thats the excuse they would give if they got caught after dark with their weapon loaded.. i like furbearer hunters!!

blaze orange in gun season. Not looking to get shot! and im on private land.

I have my land posted The D.E.C. officers (2) have been on location.They took pics.They actually were really madder then I was.The plan is for me to call them when he's there and hopefully he'll shoot something on my land and be charged with many D.E.C. violations and misdeamenors.My biggest thoughts are the safety and protection of my son who just started hunting.It just wasn't fair that he had to start his hunting years worrying about crap like this.Its his first yr to hunt away from me but I told him today we'll have to sit together one more yr.Thats whys this situation is so upsetting he was looking forward to hunting in his own stand this season.Thanks everyone for your imput I hope this never happens to any of you.I will be careful.He thinks he scared me but I am irate and pissed off but doing the right things.Every law enforcement agency in the area D.E.C.and township know whats going on so do all the nieghboring landowners so if something happens he's busted.

A .22 is. A .22-250 is not. He said .22 centerfire, not .22.

OK, that does make sense. I think we also need to take into consideration the size of their butts. Maybe we could use a sort of formula like Culver mentioned above? Like how many lead balls would fit into one of their cheeks for adequate gauge selection? LOL

Reminds me of my grandpa. He and my dad would take me hunting from the time that I was able to walk. My grandpa would be out at 5am every weekend of deer season well into his 70s. He was diagnosed with Alzheimers about 10 yrs ago, so he could not carry a gun any more. My dad and I would still bring him with us and he would sit in the ground blind with us. My grandpa passed away about 6 year ago. I now use his old 30-06 for deer hunting as a tribute.

I leave mine hanging on the wall in my guy room year after year and never take it down. Steve I will try to take a pic tonight while I am packing and try to post it tomm morning.

I have a thought for you guys on this one. How many phone calls do you think the DEC gets from guys who shoot a buck that ended up having major ground shrinkage and did not want to tag it. So they think they can outwit the system and call the DEC and issue them a tag to keep it and all the while they get to keep hunting. The way I see it the 2 choices you had were both good ones. Tag it and be done with it and filling your own buck tag or call the DEC. I think the DEC made th correct choice in taking the deer and then getting dispersed to the hungry. How do they know you did not make this story up and was trying to double dip on a buck? Im trying to figure out why you feel so bad also. The deer is not wasted and you get to keep hunting. What is wrong with all that. You could have let that deer rot and go to waste. You didnt and it wont.

lol there are alot of bow companies... but there is only one who invented the solo cam that everyone is now using.... to get back to the post if you want advice you need to be more specific ...

Just teasing by the way. I usually go with, "I think I could have got a shot" that way there it still leaves room for anything that could have happened. lol

You cant remove a 1/2 nut with a 9/16 socket. You can use a cresent wrench on both but it sometimes gets ugly. Thats why I have more than one gun in my locker.

NorthCountry Deer Report Week #5 2011 If you believe in the “lockdown” theory of rut behavior this was your week. The week started with fairly normal rut related deer activity but by the weekend most if not all of the breeder bucks were “locked down” along with the does. Last week we observed 11 bucks, 19 does and 21 fawns in 30 hours of sitting. This averages out to 1.7 deer sighted per hr. This was the second week in a row we had a marked decrease in deer sightings per hr. Unlike prior weeks where 50% of our buck sightings were 2.5 or older this week only 36% of the bucks sighted were 2.5 or older. “Lockdown” refers to that period of the rut when most of the does in a given population are either in estrous or very close to being in estrous. If there are plenty of does in your herd the breeder bucks don’t have to work all that hard to find a doe to breed. Bottom line, instead of walking around looking, they are “locked down” breeding. Does have been harassed so much that they are avoiding their usual hang outs. They are not showing as much on food plots and when they do, they are moving to them later in the day. They lay up with other does and fawns or pair up with a breeder buck for 2 or 3 days at a time. They often seek out the thickest stuff they can find or in out of the way places. This morning I saw the same doe and fawn in my dooryard I observed all spring. I have not seen them since late June. Neil has a whole group of does who have taken to his back yard to escape love crazed bucks. They come to plots late and leave at the slightest sign of buck aggression. Many doe fawn groups have been broken up by bucks and it is not uncommon at all to see lone fawns or fawn twins with no mature does in evidence on food sources. Does and fawns are very much on edge and young bucks are still moving about looking for some “action”. This is what we witnessed through most of last week and this is what we expect to see through most of this week as well. It is tempting to call “rut over”; in fact, a neighbor hunter stopped by with a “rut over” report last Friday (said his buddy read it in the paper). Nothing could be farther from the truth. The rut may be on but all bets will be off as the weekend approaches and the gun hunters take to the woods en mass. From this weekend on (at least for a week or two) hunting pressure will dominate deer behavior. If you have a hunting property with minimal hunting pressure your deer will return to normal in a few days following the gun opener and your population will no doubt grow as pressured deer seek sanctuary on your property. If your property gets hit hard your deer sightings will go down and probably stay down. As far as a bow strategy this week we will be once again hunting “intercept” stands near thick cover. The warm weather will slow down movement but a cold snap will probably put some lead in their pencils. As more and more does are bred this week our breeding bucks will be switching partners which may require moving from point “A” to point “B”. That’s when opportunity will knock. The sightings will be random but the rut is still very much in play and breeding activity is in full swing. You may not see many deer this week but it is an excellent time to intercept a good buck as they go back on the prowl. I just took Radar out for a bit of air and sure enough spotted a nice shooter buck running a doe through the woods 100 yards from a stand I hunted Saturday. Honest I just saw it a minute ago (10:30 a.m.) in the woods next to the cabin. Here I am, writing a report while…………… oh well, I’ll be in the woods this afternoon. We pulled the plug on our ratio and fawn recruitment data gathering for herd monitoring last week as our ratios are currently skewed due to the rut and will continue to be skewed due to gun season. Overall we ate pretty pleased with things here at Kindred Spirits. Slightly under 50% of our bucks are 2.5 or older (this is about as good as we have ever had it). We were also very concerned with fawn recruitment due to our increase in coyote sightings and explosion in bear sightings (someone sees a bear almost every time out). Our recruitment rate seems to be somewhere around .84. (102 does divided into 86 fawns +.84). This is just about dead on with the national average which has a range of from .5 to 1.2 fawns per doe (depending on state). We are pleasantly surprised by this number (remember only a small % of the 1.5 year old does in most areas of NY are bred as fawns). We also observed numerous sets of twins which suggests to us that the coyotes are not making a big impact on our fawn crop. If you have been looking at your twin numbers and you fawn to doe ratio and even your buck ratios all season do your tallies now before the gun harvest changes your numbers significantly. You should also be setting your gun harvest goals this week. Our current buck to doe ratio seems to be about 1 to 2.5. We would like to improve that ratio a bit. We would like to take our overall deer numbers down for winter. There is not a single acorn on the ground nor is there much left in our standing corn. The deer worked the corn stalks in the dry season when growing stalks was the best thing around and the bears worked it at the milk stage. This means we will enter winter many tons of food behind most years (no acorns, no corn and green plots hit hard all summer). Our deer will be eating a lot of browse this winter and that can really impact the native vegetation we have worked so hard to establish over the years. This is a good year to take an extra 10 does or so out of our population and trim back our numbers going forward. We are also hoping to thin out the bears some. Almost every sit someone in our gang sees a bear. They along with the deer ate up our early corn and they are very disruptive to an evening sit when they are working an area. The population in our area is way out of control. Will report next week. This is the time to be thinking about where you are numbers wise on your property. Best get it done now before the season gets away from you. We know it does with us (always waiting for that great shooter and never taking those does). Thanks for all your reports they have been terrific. Keep them coming and hunt safe. www.NorthCountryWhitetails.com 315-331-6959

Dave, I think you have the right attitude you don't look down on people who don't hunt the way you do. Really that's what hunting is all about. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder I would say the same for deer hunters. We all have our own preferences whether it be big or small bucks and does. It's all our choice in the end. They are truly our own personal trophies even if they are not 160".

Super buck buddy.. Welcome to the site..

Here's one NY and one Ohio kill. I ended up shooting a small buck right before leaving for Ohio...it's was essentially my last day to bowhunt here in NY and was actually the first rutting action I saw all season. I rarely get to the "anything goes" point for my buck tag...but it was a tough season here in NY. Passed a ton of bucks but never had a bonafide 3.5 or older within shooting range. He'll do just fine for the tough season. Ohio was a challenge based on the amount of corn still up and the weather. Passed on a 2.5 8 and kind of regret it as the back end of the week that looked real good weather-wise turned out nice and cold...but with 25 mph winds gusting to 35. It kept the deer in the corn for much of the day. The game cams revealed a ton of nice bucks at night...an unreal b:d ratio on unmanaged private ground. My hunting partner/mentee took what is his biggest bow buck...a real nice hard quartering double lung shot. Shot looked bad at first when I saw it, but the angle was actually perfect. You can see the type of corn we had to deal with. I actually hunted in the tree on the other side of the lake to the left of his head...3 acres of woods around that lake and corn as far as the eye can see from 20 ft.

I say get your butts out to work and earn the things you have. A bunch of socialists that want everything handed to them.

yeah sounds like a mix of hippie throw backs and a buch of whiney kids pissed they have to pay back money they borrowed.

That is why I am a strong believer in taking the FIRST deer that gives you a good opportunity if meat in the freezer is important to you. Passing deer after deer the whole season waiting for the big one and then thinking that a good, easy opportunity will present itself on the last day is wishful thinking at best. Put one in the freezer first, and then worry about getting Mr. Big.

we should record the traffic and play it in the woods . they will come

Heres the reply I got. Probably the fastest answer Ive ever gotten from them. "John, Climbing tree stands are fine to use because they do not permanently injure the tree or increase its risk for disease or insect damage. Screw in trees steps however, bore a hole which can lead to future problems for the tree. Any of the hang-on stand would also be okay if accompanied with a climbing stick that is attached to the tree with either a strap or rachet, nothing that bores a hole. If you have any more questions feel free to ask. Ron Gross Fish and Wildlife Technician 1 New York State DEC, Bureau of Wildlife 6274 East Avon-Lima Road Avon, NY 14414 Phone 585-226-5380 Fax 585-226-6323 Email: [email protected]"