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Well got my bow buck last night in 15-20mph winds. I setup on a funnel in between two thickets at about 3:45 to get the last hour in. There is an absolute giant on the property, but i havent seen him since August, also 2-3 decent bucks(2.5 yr olds), and a small 4 point that i've let walk a few times already. . Around 4:30 this bucks pops out of the thicket to my left nose to the ground and gives me a 40 yard broadside shot. I ended up spining him, and literally raced out of my climber to run up and put a finishing shot on him. I felt a little bad for the shot, but i put him out as quick as possible. He's not the P&Y buck that i was hoping for this year, but im a very happy hunter anyways.

I know many of you guys liked following my posts last year on our hunting adventures with my Redtail Hawk Moka. Well here she is now with her her full red tail. Been hunting her quite a bit but we still have so much vegetation on the underbrush it makes it kinda hard. Our last years tally on rabbits was 55. So far we're up to 4 for the season this year. It'll only get better once the snow starts. Gonna try and get some better vids this year too.

Our friend David tagged out this morning on a nice 8. The last of our group of 4 will hopefully get lucky in the next few days. Been a good year so far for our group. Congrats to the rest on here.

buddy shot his this a.m.

this is the first buck in 10 years with a bow. been hunting all that time but nothing to shoot. this one came by my son but was too far away for him to shoot. he radioed me and told me to watch for him next thing I knew he was right there. I grunted at him he stopped and I let the arrow fly. watched him go back the way he came and crash into a tree. waited for about 45 mins and went to find him he only went about seventy yards.

My buddy Cj's buck.Taken in Western Wayne Co. yesterday afternoon

Congrats on all the great deer guys!!! I shot this one last night on Long island. Waited Till The Morning Because There Was Not Much Blood And Found Him About 70 Yards away. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Rembering that being bored in the stand is better than being bored at work !

i usually just text my other buddies in their stands and talk about how little is going on that morning

Lets see... Rabbit season is open for 151 days and the daily limit is 6. 151 x 6 = 906 potential legal season total. He took 55! You never have anything positive to contribute Early. Did you forget to take your meds today? Miss your nap? Get booted off the AARP forums? You must be a real joy to be around everyday....

Trying again Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

thanks for your useless contribution.........I'm sure it's appreciated.

that could be the reason they stopped doing them.........after hearing him tell the story they decided it wasn't worth it.

Be vewwwwy careful. They've been known to be vewwwy dangerous. Looks to be rutting too. 35.5 year old. LOL May be a pie bald also from what I can tell.

That's easy...from the spread of her hips...length between the curve of her waist and the bottom of her butt cheek...28 yrs old...lol

They are obviously in the "chasing" phase, and may have even advanced to the breeding phase a few hundred yards down the trail. X-Calibur Lighting Systems http://facebook.com/XCaliburLightingSystems

old enough =)

Some times I read. Either off my phone (browse the web, check my social medias, log into huntingny and see what shawnhu and belo are arguing about this time, etc.) or from a book. I read one paragraph, stop, scan the woods, read the next paragraph. My logic is the time it takes for me to read one paragraph is only a few seconds. If I only had a few seconds to spot a deer and shoot it before it got away, then I never really had a safe, ethical shot to begin with. Other times I close my eyes (again, only for a few seconds at a time) and meditate. In both instances, any little noise makes me stop what I'm doing and scan the woods.

I made another bag....want some?

It's so funny. We have Belo and Shawnhu going at it on every thread it seems. LOL I think we need to put them in a steel cage and let them go at each other in there. They can rip out their choice parts from each other, and maybe some organ meats, too. LOL

I sometimes slice out the gonads and make a nice broth out of them... too far? Anybody.. was that just going too far?

I do all day hunts all the time. I will sometimes crawl down from my tree stand and do a little stalking in the opposite direction of my stand and sometimes even bring a camera into the woods and take pictures. Enjoy the forest its part of hunting.

We've all been there. Better a clean miss than days worth of tracking a ghost. Get back out there and get one!!!

styk- are you still in the tree? lol The bear wont hurt ya

I'm no trapper but love this kind of stuff. What are we, the inexperienced trappers, looking at? What's the target species and how will it get caught?

Oh man Joe we need to have a caption contest for that pic,lmao 18 inches....long black.... and Joe blows, would probably pop up at least once on the first page and I'm sure there would be plenty more lauughter to cum,lol!

It's as simple as this...The .223 is capable of making clean kills on deer with proper shot placement and bullet choice... However , you may not always be offered ideal shots , such as nice broadside shots.. It is not an ideal chambering for shots that require a lot of penetration, such as ranging shots, or shots that contact heavy bone. The ,223 excells as a varmint cartridge, but can be very effective on deer under the right conditions.. The .308, however, is ideal for deer sized game and will also do a good job on larger game such as moose and elk with proper bullets... It is NOT overkill for deer, but will make clean kills from any practical shot angle... If I had a rifle in each chambering that I felt confident with, accuracy wise, I would take the .308 for deer every time. Given equal accuracy, I can see NO advantage for the .223 over the .308 as a deer cartridge, and I see definite advantages of the .308 over the .223.

NYS DEC officers are state police officers, that mainly focus on Environmental Law. One of the main differences that we are concerned with is that ECO require a lot less probable cause to search you or your vehicle than your normal state police officer. Like Paula and Steve said, play by the rules and accept that these things will happen. You folks want poachers caught? This is one of the ways DEC does it. Those that use wife's buck tags, etc., they would get ticketed if caught at these stops. X-Calibur Lighting Systems http://facebook.com/XCaliburLightingSystems

I have to say that there are an awful lot of unpleasant personalities being exposed in this thread. It looks like there are a few that I definitely wouldn't care to meet in person and absolutely couldn't stand to be around for very long. Some of the arrogance and just plain unfriendliness probably is something I could have gone a whole lifetime without encountering. There are way too many self-deluded experts here that are like a bunch of jackals that simply lay in wait for any opportunity to flame any mistake that may occur in a topic. That seems to be their whole reason for belonging to forums. Who the hell needs that? I have to wonder just how much conversation is squelched because of the arrogance of some of these people who truly love to take advantage of someone's bad luck and do their best to make them feel even worse.

Saturday (10/26) - Morning hunt in the Creek Ladder Stand; Temps in the 40's and breezy with stronger gusts out of the SW. I was hoping they would be moving with the rut creeping up on us and with the storm front that's due to move in later in the day....And they were moving - -Seen a coyote and 5 bucks! At about 8:20 AM I heard some grunting mixed in the wind that sounded like it came from somewhere in front of me. I tried picking apart the landscape in front of me. Then finally some movement about 40 - 50 yards off caught my eye and I could see deer legs moving...then I saw antlers. It was a buck and coming my way. He was grunting and moving slowly in the right direction. As he was getting closer the binocs confirmed it was a SHOOTER through the thick brush but he had stopped moving. Then I saw some deer legs to my left. It was a smaller buck, a little 3 or 4 point. The next thing I know the shooter buck runs at the smaller buck. Now I could see that the shooter was a mature 8 point. The smaller buck ran towards me and went by less than 10 yards from my tree but the 8 didn't follow. Instead, he ambled back towards the thick brushy area and started to rub a tree. Then while watching him I saw another deer coming through the area. A small 6 point was walking towards the 8 point. But the 8 wasn't going to have any of that - the next thing I know, the 8 point ran at the 6 point and chased him right by my tree. Then the 8 point circled back towards the thick brushy area. Now the 6 point was walking right behind my tree - less than 5 yards from my tree; thankfully the wind direction was right. As the 6 point crossed behind me, the 8 point didn't like him circling towards the thick brush area again and the 8 point started walking towards him and grunting...Perfect...right towards my shooting lane. Now the 8 point is standing less than 20 yards from me but with a tree directly in front of his vitals. I stood at full draw for what seemed like an eternity waiting for him to take that final fatal step...but he didn't. Instead he turned directly away and walked in line of that darn tree. As I was thinking about blowing on my grunt tube, I heard movement behind me again...Oh yeah, that little 6 point was still there. Now when he walked again, the 8 point had enough of that. He turned again, heading to the 6 point and again heading towards my shooting lane. This time he walked like a deer with a mission towards the 6 pointer but again managed to stop behind a tree. As I was at full draw again, he finally did it...He took the step I needed exposing his chest region. He was about 18 - 20 yards away and staring at that little 6 point. I let the arrow fly......THWACK; God I love that sound of a good hit. The buck ran towards the pines and out of sight but I heard a crashing sound within seconds of him running away. I was hoping the crash was him going down and not just running through the pines. I was concerned about the shot because the buck had bolted towards the 6 point seemingly at about the same time I released my arrow. I let my arrow fly at about 8:45 and I waited until 10:00 to be sure since I was concerned about the hit. Funny thing...while sitting there two other smaller bucks, a small 6 that could have been that 6 from earlier and a 4 point came through the area. When I got down and went to the spot the buck was standing at the shot...No blood and No arrow. Oh boy...Not liking this. I got on my knees and looked in the direction that I thought I heard the crash and ... Oh Yeah...white belly just into the pines! As I headed that way now, I came across some decent blood and found my arrow. Then, I walked up to him...Oh Yeah...a nice mature 8 point bucK! Love this time of year! Good Luck all.....Hunt Safe, Hunt Hard, & Have Fun!

moog got his buck.

Just want to start out by saying, this is the first time ever hunting on Halloween day. in all my years i never was able to get out and one of the things i always wanted to do was harvest a buck on this day. i slipped into my stand this morning around 5:40am, not 15 minutes later i hear walking around from behind me and i figured id start getting my mask on and get ready. the foots steps seemed to have stopped and i did not hear anything walk off so i knew what ever was there is still there... at first light i notice a few doe walking in from behind me, they were standing there in the dark the entire time. For some reason the doe were all corralled up in this thick area literally around my tree. Standing for awhile, grazing leaves and the yearling were even playing together. ive never seen deer hang around so long, it looked like they all sticking close by eachother. i know from my past few sits in this tree these doe were being run pretty hard so i didnt know if that had anything to do with it. at around 8:45 most of the deer had moved off and i sat there for another 15 minutes not seeing anything. It felt like it was one of those morning where anything can happen and at any time, nice overcast and no wind. i decided to hit the MAD Hyper Growl and do a sequence of long grunts followed by a snort wheeze then another long grunt. i waited 10 seconds or so and repeated. No sooner then i get my call back in my pocket i hear crashing through the woods and heavy steps, no doubt a buck coming so i get ready. This buck squirts in fast looking for what made the calls. Hes turning his head fast in every direction. He then steps into my lane at roughly 30 yards broad side but with his off leg far back in mid step. As i release my arrow it felt great, i watched as the fireknock hits it mark but no pass through. i knew the arrow stopped in his off leg after impact. The deer kicks, and makes a dash and stops 40 yards from where i hit him and crashes down. the whole thing lasted 8 under 10 seconds, text book im thinking. i was so surprised i could even see him go down in the thick cover i am hunting. upon finding him hung up in brush i could see where the arrow hit the off leg confirming my thoughts. i have this deer on trail cam from the past 2 weeks and he seemed to frequent past this stand. My origonal thought was i was going to pass this deer when i saw him. when i saw him come in this morning i thought he was slightly bigger then what i thought and being halloween, this was my buck! After 2 previous seasons trying to iron out the RIGHT tree and learn how i was going to make the perfect ambush after all the countless encounters with deer over the 120 and 130" mark, i was finally able to get one to feel comfrotable enough to step into a lane offering the shot anyone could ask for. The rage did its job and simply ate him up! breaking bone in and out with ease... after the gut job i can see i took out lung and almost cut the heart in half. for those who say the job starts after the shot, well your right. the drag out and effort to get him out of this spot thats a half mile in was fun to say the least, after he was tagged and all loaded up a sence of accomplishement had hit me. i was in the woods by myself today and did not have my partner with me so getting him in the truck was interesting lol with things heating up in the woods and another tag to fill you know where ill be! good luck to all you guys!

You guys just aren't getting it. Must be becasue I have been married for 25 years this coming July. He is trying to get away from her bitching. Geno- Look at the Italian hand gestures!!! That is how he got a mile in the woods. he has been running away in those Converse and she is in hot pursuit and yelling and flailing her hands the whole way. What is the date stamp on that? In a day or two I will pick them up on my Cameras in Rochester.

It's a pilgrim running from a tomahawk wielding indian. As you can see he has been partially scalped already, and the indian wants to finish the job.

She is telling him about something judging by her hand pointing. Maybe she is saying "this is where you will be if you don't buy me a nice ring". Ain't it something how far a guy will follow a woman just for a chance to see her neked?

I usually occupy my mind by thinking about deer movement, (the chess game, my next few moves) and watching wildlife. I glass for deer, relax and just enjoy being out there on another hunt. I don't get bored too often.

Not in my experience. Most non-hunters I know realize why deer and other animals need to be hunted. They could care less about anyones "primal urge" to hunt. The anti-gun stuff has nothing to do with the subject, and there was no "off limits" to the anti-gun side. Plenty of the guns included in the SAFE act bans are of the hunting variety. Semi auto shotguns/rifles with thumb-hole stocks, just for an example.

I agree. I was just saying. Ill admit to taking a few head shots in the past. I never made a bad head shot, maybe I was lucky, maybe I was just good. Havent taken one in a looooong time.

I would bet most Troopers, sheriffs and Local LEO's don't know the majority of the game laws.

I do have a procedure that I incorporate into my still hunting (gun only) that makes it almost seem like an all day "sitting" hunt. I move very slowly .... I mean very slowly .... for about 15 minutes to a half hour and then sit for about the same time. Always moving into the wind or across the wind. I repeat that over and over throughout the day. It's kind of like an all day moving "sit". It avoids the boredom of watching the same trees and bushes all day and helps to maintain sanity.

I wish I could have liked this comment twice!

If he didn't provide for himself and the bird, the other predators would have "hogged" too. I suppose you'd rather the coyotes "hog" away. SMH

If this is what I think it is, Paula and I had this discussion already.... X-Calibur Lighting Systems http://facebook.com/XCaliburLightingSystems

Personally, I'd use the .308. I know guys who use .223 on deer but, for me, it's just too small. .243 is the ABSOLUTE minimum I'll use on deer, and even then, I don't like it. My deer rifle is a Rem 700 in .30-06. Use a good, expanding bullet that your rifle fires well. It's a little close to gun season to be figuring that out. Whenever I get a new rifle, I buy a box of Hornady American Whitetail, Remington Core-Lokt, and Federal to see which I can get better groups with, then that's all I fire through that weapon. Does your Mossberg have a rifled barrel? If so, modern sabots are really just rifle bullets fired out of shotguns. I'm shooting Hornady SST slugs out of my Savage 220F bolt action SG and have no problem shooting MOA at 200 yds.

If you conduct yourself as WNY said there would be no lying. If they asked to se my long guns they would be headed for a warrant to do so. Why? Becasue that is how the game is played. If they want more rules they better be prepared to play by all of them as well.

I think it is ethical to do our best to perform the task at hand. Primarily we are inthe business of herd reduction. If we can do it legally,within the limits set by the DEC and do not waste the venison, I do not see an ethical issue. shoot 'em if you got 'em. I know a lot of folks that love venison and do not hunt. when they have their fill I will donate the rest. Personally I don't quit until the season ends or I run out of tags. (still waiting for the latter to happen..lol)

Congrats to all !!!

I punched my archery buck tag this past weekend, bittersweet, however. I am not disappointed with the buck, but it is going to hit hard in the opportunity cost area because of the bucks targeted this season. Not a case of ground shrinkage; a case of mistaken identity, maybe. I had seconds to make the call and I chose to let loose. I encountered the buck Friday afternoon walking in as we locked eyes as he was bedded. He let me snap some pics of him in his bed. Fast forward to Sunday, and while hunting with a few other friends, I chose what to me was the "out of the way stand" near that buck's bed that had been recently hunted, and I merely had not thought about taking him as he was not ready. This stand has a path leading down to a valley where several large bucks, one with solid brow tines, had congregated in a scraping area with more bedding area on a far side ridge. I was not expecting much from this spot in all honesty. All was quiet until this bucks pops up under my nose and in the split second I saw the brow tines I went into kill mode, thinking I knew what buck it was. As soon as the arrow cleared the buck and I moved my eyes back to the rack, I knew what had happened before the buck bedded down in 20 yards and expired. Perhaps adding to my frustration a bit is the fact I did not make plans to go to Ohio for the first time in years because I felt like for the very first time in my life that I had enough caliber bucks here at home to hunt where traveling made little sense. I also haven't historically had solid gun season ground - I've lived and died by the archery season most of my time in NY. I once read a saying that quickly became a life mantra for me, "Good is the enemy of great." While it's a solid buck most hunters would be beaming about, I had immediate reservations that have subsided a bit over the past few days. I'm resigned to the fact I was good, not great, this archery season. I have all of next week off and now my focus goes toward enjoying the sights and sounds of the rut and helping a couple close friends burn holes in a few giants. Also looking forward to getting another euro mount done and have this guy camo-dipped in Predator Fall Gray or Brown Deception. Rest assured, I'm shooting a flipping monster in gun season.

Shot this doe Thursday morning. My first time down to hunting camp this year. Took out her heart and she still went 200 yards!

Here is my first buck with the bow!! He came in around 5:30 with another smaller buck down a heavily traveled path towards my stand. The smaller buck split off from the larger buck and started heading towards my 9:00 which is directly downwind of me. The larger buck kept heading down the trail, stopped at a scrape with a licking branch, took a piss down his back legs and then started heading towards my 12:00. As this was happening I notice the smaller buck now directly downwind of me is putting his nose in the air and staring in my direction. The larger buck begins to turn and present me with a quartering shot and what is going through my head is "I better take this shot now before the little buck figures me out and blows"!!! So I drew back and launched an arrow..... He jumped and ran ten yards... then took 7 or 8 slow steps and then went out of view disappearing under the canopy of branches. Now I am texting my buddies how I screwed up and missed a nice buck and I'm not worthy of sitting in this stand, etc. So 30 minutes go by and I decide that I at least want to go find my arrow and broad-head. So now I'm on the ground looking around and I notice blood on the ground!!!!! As I am having this epiphany I notice the buck laying under a tree about 25 yards away looking at me!! So I grab my bow and the only shot I had was through his neck so I took it and ended it for him. Turns out my first shot went through his one lung and then passed through his gut on the opposite side. I know I should have just left the woods when I saw him down and waited it out but I couldn't contain my excitement so I took the follow up shot. Can't wait till November 16th.