Leaderboard

This is what it's all about folks. Hunters helping hunters, to make it better for someone else. And remembering how it was when you started out. Then in time have them pass something along to another hunter. This is what hunting needs more of. And I've seen it time and again from some really good people on this site. NFA-ADK, that is a very unselfish and generous offer. Hope the new hunter can take advantage of it. Offers like that don't come around too often anymore. Way to go!!!

Going through some pictures, I forgot to post this beautiful sunset I saw on my walk home from the deer stand last week. I forgot this happens here pretty often. I didn't have a wide angle lens with me or I would have got some better shots that weren't so cramped. I'll bring it next time for sure. Pretty sweet sight to see! I was tripping over my own two feet because my eyes were glued to the sky walking home in the dark!

I shoot bow, and rifle and primarily go for deer. If you are interested I can meet you at one of our east end rifle ranges and go over the basics and introduce you to some weapons so you have an idea of what you want to use. Then we can go over DEC hunting spots on LI. I am familiar with some of them. If your interested in bow we can shoot at Suffolk Archers, depending on your draw length I might have some cheap options for you to start out with. One thing I would say you need to work on is shooting, it is the most under rated part of hunting. If you intend on trying out bow hunting; (I do recommend this type of hunting ESPECIALLY if you want to hunt close to home on LI.) You would need to get one soon to be able to hunt this year with it. It is not like a gun and requires more practice. (LI is primarily bow until January when they open shotgun.) I have been hunting since 1988 so I have some experience. I am available this Saturday if your interested in going to the range. Welcome aboard, great people with a wealth of information!

Be sure to use those two days of hunter safety education classes as a networking opportunity. There will be a lot of people there that already have hunting grounds, or ideas of where they will be going and they are all local. Make use of that fact. Also, "where to hunt" would make a good classroom question because I am sure you won't be the only one there that has the same question.

We have a winner! G-Man guessed the correct number (42). G-Man, I will message you on Tuesday pertaining to the call. Thanks to all.

Not so hot here. Been running the same ad on Craigslist for 6 months now and no takers yet. 5' 9''.., white boy.., 150lbs.., blue eyes.., yellow teeth.., red neck..., brown undies... "Red Dog".... FREE to good home! Love, wooly

Of both my kids they are doing so well both are home owners hard working is an understatement and just good ppl with huge friend net work...that says a lot right there. That said Our Daughter went for yet another position at work and is now assistant to the President of a local college. I wish her the best at her new job...It's nice to know you really don't have to worry about them too much once they have entered the"Real World" Though the Mom / Dad worries never ever quite leave you...Phewwwww and all that money paid off to boot!

Thanks to ChainReactionGC for the give away of a beautiful call. Congratulations to G-Man being the winner! That was fun!

I pass many deer every year and really don't care if I ever shoot one again, but then I have someone that wants meat, or guys aren't having much luck and want a deer, I live on the property I hunt and see many bug buck in my yard, I could take them any time I want, my closest neighbor is 1/2 mile or more away, but there are rules and I follow them, contrary to most. Believing that horns are it , I could care less, and when you care less about the size of horns you will have more fun watching younger and new members killing good deer.. besides why would I want to get full of blood gutting one, just to say look what I got, better letting someone who wants one get it..

What's everyone up to? The kids start football Aug. 3rd. (one flag, one tackle) I went camping twice (OC Maryland & Fish Creek). Haven't done much fishing yet though. Doing a lot to the house nowadays. Hope you all have a nice summer! Work is insane. Pm me when there is a get together. Love, Elmer

So I got the steel in today. Looks beautiful in person. I should be able to get 2-4 knives out of it depending on size. Drew out the outline to get it cut out tomorrow using a plasma cutter. Close-up of what the steel looks like where the blade will be.

From Rob's original post , I thought shooting someone else's gun not being okay pertained only to Pistols . Unless the pistol was on your permit you couldn't legally handle it . Prior to having guns registered when you bought them there was no registration . So , if the 22 that I bought 60 years ago was being used by my son , how would anyone know who the owner is / was ?

Obama is proposing taking guns away from anyone on SSI if they have someone else managing their check book for them. He's trying to say any level of diminished capacity is grounds for removing your 2nd Amendment rights. Someone could be in a wheelchair due to paralysis below the waist and using someone else to do their banking. Obama would take his guns. Democrats have NEVER seen a gun ban proposal they did not like!! They want ALL guns banned. If you ever cast a vote for ANY Democrat, you are helping them attain this goal!

Like grampy said, thanks for this fun little game and putting up the prize. Congrats G-Man.

This guy is still growing nicely. He put on a lot of growth in his G3's/beams from this time to early August last year and his tines are still very bulby so I expect to see some nice development over the next 2.5-3 weeks... July 20th last year: July 18th this year:

Thanks! Can't believe I won... maybe I should buy a lottery ticket!

VJP - True, it could have been the carcass of another species. However, woodchuck is unlikely given the seasonality of golden eagle presence. Porky is unlikely for other reasons - though not impossible. Somewhere in my computer is a photo of a golden with quills in it. That case was written up in a scientific paper. Goldens don't eat fish as a rule but balds do. Fish is an unlikely source in the case of the bird in the photo. As you probably know, you can no longer buy lead split shot in NY because of the poisoning of loons and other species that acquire grit on the bottom of water bodies. The time it takes to die depends on the dose, which is also dependent on volume and surface area of the lead. Since almost every avian scavenger in the east is chronically exposed to lead, the current levels in its body could have an effect. Many lead fragments - such as are found in a gut pile from a deer killed with a high powered rifle - are more effective at poisoning than a single piece of equal mass. A good dose could impair a bird within in a day. They often die of secondary causes - primarily starvation - since they cannot function. Often when they are found alive, they are badly compromised neurologically and cannot be released. Two eastern goldens that were lead poisoned, rehabilitated, and released last year were tracked by telemetry. Neither survived long, even though they seemed well when released. You are probably right that preventing all bird deaths from lead would require a ban. It is also true that preventing all eagle deaths from electrocution might require a ban on power poles. Stopping car collisions might require a ban on cars. I'm just being flip now but there is a lot that can be done to reduce car deaths - moving roadkills away from highways quickly gets the birds off the shoulder. To minimize electrocutions power poles are being redesigned and retrofitted. To reduce eagle deaths hunters can choose to hunt with bullets that were designed to be better bullets - copper bullets. Their lack of toxicity to birds and people was an unintended benefit. This is so unlike the change that took place for waterfowl hunting. Use lead at the range. Use the copper in the field. Simple and voluntary.

Sounds like most of you are enjoying the summer. For those that are taking on new adventures, think of it as a change for the better. Sometimes, stopping for a moment, realize what you have, and just view nature at it's finest, pump the soul and spirit. Enjoy every day, to its fullest!

I have a power washer that could take care of a few of those things. We get you cleaned up take some new picts and you'll be on your way to a new home in no time! lol

Everything is good here. Loving my job, family and life. Love Paula

I don't think we are a complacent society, more like a "powerless" society. We've watched our manufacturing jobs be sent to Mexico and China, and we sit by watching millions of illegal aliens steal our unskilled labor jobs, and allow millions more foreign contractors with H-1B visas take our clerical and highly skilled jobs. Meanwhile, the cost of living outpaces wage increases. Most of us now realize that voting doesn't help, Republican or Democrat, since the career politicians we are presented with have no loyalty to the people, but to the lobbyists and corporations that put them in power. Todays kids actually work HARDER than we did. More homework in grade school, and you now need a college degree to be a line cook or file clerk. The 20 and 30-somethings I work with are on call 24-7, and often work nights & weekends to keep up; they're also smarter about computers and technology than the folks my age at the job. The saddest thing I see with this generation is the use of hard drugs, mostly with the under-achieving or academically challenged crowd.It seems every day I'm reading or hearing about another overdose death, and I know quite a few families who've lost kids to drug addiction; these are not inner-city ghetto kids, but middle-upper class families.

I think we should work on a thread that we can pin to the top of this forum for some of the more common food plot seeds, clover being one of them. There is likely alot of value in this because we can get alot of "national" info on how certain food plot types perform, but being local to NY, we can get better direct feedback based on experience. I know there are a TON of plotters here, we just don't get much into the details other than back and forth conversations. Was thinking if we may be able to standardize the posts so there's no time lost in pulling/searching info and back and forth talk. We can modify whatever we see fit as a forum. Was thinking example as: Location: (County) Name: (type of seed) Type: (Red, white, etc.) Annual/Perennial: (obvious answer here) Seeding rate: (lb/acre) Planting date: (spring, fall, month, etc.) Plot size/purpose: Soil Prep/method used: (variety of methods) Soil Type: PH Level/Test Results Growing Conditions/Prior Usage: Ongoing upkeep: (mowing, spraying, fert, etc.) Results: (Great, poor, OK, etc., whatever you desire) Why you like/dislike it: (whatever your thoughts are) Suggestions on where to buy/cost: (tips to help source it)

Due to the way that huntingNY allows small business to mention themselves in its forums, without treating them like spammers, and the generosity of adding a link on the links page, I am going to give away one free turkey pot call to a member on here. (I do this often). All you have to do is guess a number between 1 and 100. If for some reason 2 people guess the same number, the person that said it first gets that number as their guess. I will close the guessing with a reply to the thread at 0800est on Wednesday. If the correct number isnt picked, the closest person to the number without going over...wins. The winner gets a slate or glass surface pot call in any wood listed on my pot calls page, unless I don't believe that wood matches the surface for the best sound. You can see the examples here. http://www.chainreactiongamecalls.com/pot-calls.html Good luck!

G-man, your call is finished. Walnut slate over glass. W/ walnut mushroom tip and spectraply flared tip Strikers.

lol you can just buy and sell any thing on line ...scary .....

One thing I learned is that you can be told every little hunting secret in the world, but nothing is better then experiencing things your self. That's the best way your going to learn. Especially since every deer heard acts differently.

For LI, bowhunting is your only option until the January shotgun/mz season, which is a lottery. Keep in mind, bowhunting is far more difficult that hunting with a gun. Go to an archery pro-shop and make sure you find out your proper draw length. I'd then suggest you shoot several bows in whatever your price range is, and go with whichever you find the most comfortable to shoot. Picking the fastest bow is not always the best choice. Once you have your bow, practice, practice, practice. The last thing you should want is to wound a deer and not be able to recover it because your arrow hit a non-vital area. Also, depending on where on LI you hunt, you may need to purchase a tree stand. If you do go that route, make sure you practice shooting from up in the stand also, it's a bit different from standing flat. And last, make sure you know what you're doing after the shot. Don't down a deer and then have no idea how to field dress it, or no plan to either butcher it yourself or know where to drop it off. Early bow season on LI can still be pretty warm. Without a plan, that meat can go to waste in a short time.

Busiest I've ever been as far as work goes... booked until the end of the year... been to camp every weekend since the end of April... found some cool revolutionary war stuff metal detecting... caught some nice trout... had a FEW manhattans on the back porch... and smoked some very good cigars. It's been horrible, hope you all are having as bad of a summer..

Yes - 145 raw score. Got dinged for the drop tines. Adirondack wilderness deer.

All good this summer. -Bought a house end of March that had everything we wanted (good schools, updated everything, big inground pool, great location, etc.) -Sold my apartment in June - Got married in June - Going to Boca Raton in sept with my boys for a golf trip - Maui in October for honeymoon Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All good this summer. -Bought a house end of March that had everything we wanted (good schools, updated everything, big inground pool, great location, etc.) -Sold my apartment in June - Got married in June - Going to Boca Raton in sept with my boys for a golf trip - Maui in October for honeymoon Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm sure you'll be alright with the freezer filling from what it sounds like. sorry to hear about your mom. it would definitely put a damper on all life activities I'd think.

Oh how I miss Monty Python !

Great advice already. Making friends is the best way to get onto private land. Beats trying the door to door asking method. Another thing to consider is figure out the areas you want to hunt most and buy your weapon of choice to fit that area. Brushy areas, open woods or fields, how far will you shots be..... Also if you are on a budget or only want one gun and plan to hunt small and big game, you can't go wrong buying a shotgun with a slug barrel and field barrel combo. I would actually suggest this to anyone starting off because you have both worlds covered. Hunt everything you can for a season and then decide how you want to proceed. Just starting out and doing it alone can seem daunting. There's a lot to know and learn. Ask questions, a lot of questions.

Hi and welcome! I started on Long Island and had no one to teach me or go with. Still, I learned by myself and had a blast exploring new areas. It is quicker with a mentor tho'. A great place to start for finding hunting land is with the Dec (stony brook in WMU 1c, suffolk county). There you can get maps with direction and sizes of the public areas. Contrary to most, I've always had a great relationship with the local Environmental Conservation Officers. If you play by the rules, many will tip you off to underutilized areas. Starting with the Otis pike preserve group of lands around the peconic river will get you going. Same holds true for upstate, I'm in Delaware county and first thing I did was visit the satellite DEC office, wildlife Dept. in Stamford. There is also a ton of material on the DEC website, put it in your favorites. Also, don't forget the small gun/bow shops. They know of good areas as well, just don't forget to buy something small as appreciation for advice, worked well for me when I moved upstate. I could go on and on (already have!) but finding new areas, trying new styles, is most of the fun! Good luck and have fun.

Those are some Beautiful calls !

I most definitely know there are some that know their stuff and others that don't within DEC. I had a NYS forest ranger who's a friend tell me that at one check station a DEC biologist was telling everyone that a deer was 15 years old based on the sharpness of its teeth. to put it into perspective tooth wear isn't reliable and more theoretical at less than half that age. at that age every tooth is going to be a flatten stub. some at DEC need an over haul or refresher at least if they're assigned to deer stuff. education sucks here in NY. hunters don't need to be forced to learn it all, some just don't have the desire which is absolutely fine. info being continuously put out there it'll sink in as if common knowledge. one important take away from survey results is most thought 1.5 year olds should be protected which actually blew my mind. I thought most could give a damn, but some seed has been apparently planted. there's probably mixed opinions on why yearlings should be saved, but that doesn't matter. point is as long as people are thinking about bettering the situation the more things will slowly start to take hold. problem is DEC has to promote it for some to believe it. some look at me and others I know as just another hunter that knows some stuff but would take a DEC bird biologist's word over mine when it comes to deer, no matter how ridiculous the info.

Why Grandpa carries a gun My old Grandpa said to me, "Son, there comes a time in every man's life when he stops bustin' knuckles and starts bustin' caps and usually it's when he becomes too old to take a whoopin’." I don't carry a gun to kill people; I carry a gun to keep from being killed. I don't carry a gun because I'm evil; I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the World. I don't carry a gun because I hate the government; I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government. I don't carry a gun because I'm angry; I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared. I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone; I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon. I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man; I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love. I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate; I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate. I don't carry a gun because I love it; I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me. Police protection is an oxymoron: Free citizens must protect themselves because police do not protect you from crime; they just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess. Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take a whoopin’!

Rod and Gun clubs are a good way to get into hunting/fishing ! As mentioned by "Doc" before networking is an excellent way to find hunting ground . Seasoned hunters generally welcome new hunters into the fold (so to speak) !

Dear Elmer, The summer is flying by, sadly. It is already the 20th of July and before you know it...............BAM, it's Labor Day! I started a new job a few months back and the learning curve is extreme. Lots of great days and then others not so great. I don't miss the days of small business ownership, at all. Planted some new grass that looks like a__. A few different spruce up projects are in the works and some others are done. Money goes fast............... Youngest graduated from high school and is now preparing for college in late August, son is hard at work locally. The wife's 86 year old father is a daily concern. He lives on his own still and is in pretty fair shape but still demands attention. Zero shooting and that sucks. Fished a bit but need to get out more. Bow needs action and I can shoot at work so that's a big plus. The wife and I go out a bit with old high school friends of mine, about 3-6 couples that have been friends for 40 years plus. Yesterday was a cool event, I got to cross one thing off my bucket list, I'll post pics tomorrow. Can you feel the suspense? Take care, Larry

Have you aquired any hunting gear yet besides firearms? Things like.... Hunting boots for early season and for cold weather. Camo clothing, no need to go expensive here look for sales, for now . A good base layer works wonders when it's warm out or cold. Use multiple layers when it gets colder. A decent knife for field dressing your deer and game. Keep it small, 3 or 4 inches will do most jobs. A good comfortable foam seat to carry along will make any sit more enjoyable. There is an endless list of things to consider for hunting. At first try to keep it simple until you see where your hunting journey is taking you. Then just add as you need or can afford. Try to learn somthing new with each outing. And above all just have fun!

Welcome! Lots of good folks here that will be happy to answer any questions a new hunter may have. Remember, the only dumb question, is the one not asked. We have all been where you are now and will be there when you need us. What game will you be hunting? What will you be hunting with? Bow,shotgun,rifle? What part of the state will you be hunting? Will you be able to tag along with an experienced hunter? This will shorten the learning curve quite a bit. I wish you a lifetime of hunting adventures! Good luck!

Beautiful!!

I know it'll say a lot about me but I think Family Guy is a hoot. America's Funnies Home Videos crack me right the heck up too. There it is, all out in the open. Lump me in with .......rob. I can take it..............................

69

A round or two doesn't warrant gun cleaning unless you are shooting black powder or old military ammo with corrosive primers.Rimfires can be fired many hundreds of rounds without cleaning with no ill effect. Even high velocity centerfires can be fired dozens of rounds without need for cleaning. in many cases, wear from the cleaning rod is worse than leaving the bore dirty, within reason.. Take your .22 or your shotgun or your .243 and blow hell out of that cheeky rodent...<<grin>>...

So Angel "helped" me pick berries, by walking through the under brush stirring up all the biting insects...dozens of bites 8 dead deer fly and 1 quart of berries later I was back in they really hurt. So I looked up allergies to bites...Sometimes I think ignorance can be bliss

No, it could have a coyote carcass. It didn't get the lead from lead paint. Both eagles switch to scavenging as a primary feeding activity in the cold months. Commercially ground vension showing lead (while spots) after being put through a CT scanner. Anyone want to submit some samples for X-raying? I think I can get it done for free. PM me. I would be especially interested in commercially processed meat. Those who cut their own are usually much better about trimming the bad stuff out. Cutting out the bloody stuff doesn't preclude lead fragments. They can travel up to 14" from the entry hole.

Very nice buck! He's shaping up to be a real brute! Where exactly did you say this picture was taken???........grin.. :-)

I may be mistaken,but I think you posted some pictures of the ones you did for your groomsmen awhile back. If I remember correctly, they were very nicely done. And I really like your new design, and think these will come out to be just as nice, or even better. Have fun and please post pic's of the finished knives! Or even a step by step series of pic's would be cool!