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Buddy shot a 6 pt yesterday morning. Came right in to a Tinks bottle. Nice deer!

Bagged a mid size 4 pointer last night. I was watching it at distance fir a while when it hit me that with like 30 hours in the woods since Saturday it was the first shoot able deer I'd seen and just went for it. Single shot, 60 or so yards. Deer in the freezer may take up space but it tastes better than tags.

Yesterday I decided to pick up 2 boxes of 30.06 ammunition for this and next deer season, and to check one of my rifles that has been put away for a long time. After waiting almost a half hour to get anyone to come to the sporting goods section, the fella that showed up immediately starts apologizing for how bad the process is to purchase the ammunition. Little did I realize how bad it would turn out. After giving my name, address, height, weight, address, occupation, showing my driver license, and social security number, and writing the check to pay, the damned computer said the purchase was being placed on some sort of delay for review, by who the hell knows, and I could not buy the ammunition. The clerk said it could have a determination “in a half hour or as long as 2 days”. WTF!!!! This shit has got to change! NY has gone to hell in a hand basket! The way things are here, I really think it’s just a matter of time before I sell everything and go back to Alaska.

All depends on the day, conditions and where you are sitting. Inside the woods with no snow on the ground your lucky to get and extra 10-15 min before/after due to darkness. Open field no snow that might stretch out to 20 min. Now you add snow in the mix and there is a good chance that you can utilize the full 30 min before and after. That's just my experience anyways. I don't mind the change at all and think it makes since and aligns with every other state in the country.

To be honest I think it is pretty much impossible to stay warm sitting still for extended periods on cold windy days without being bundled up in somewhat bulky clothes. Sweating and getting your base layers wet from it will be a big problem. You can get by with sweating so long as you stay away from cotton materials period, good poly or wool next to your skin for any base layers. I have always had decent luck staying warm in real cold weather wearing high quality wool from top to bottom. While it is bulky and heavy I will take that over freezing my ass off. Al

Started with crossbow , missed an 8 point , shot under him , he comes back 4 days later , I shot him at half an hour of light left . Lost the blood , came back at sunup the next day and found him , coyotes tore him open, Then shot at a doe with the crossbow hit a twig , complete miss Then had a very nice 8 tight under my stand , couldn’t get a hood shot before he noticed me and took off The very next day a decent 6 comes broadside , goes behind a tree and we play the waiting game .. he won Sunday I did kill a nice doe with the .243 so I hope that broke the curse . Ive checked zero on my crossbow at 20/30/40 and it’s dead on .. So I guess it’s me

maybe the DEC will okay Night vision scopes >>>>>>>

Gave up the ladder stands in the woods tonight for a scrub bush in the middle of the goldenrod. What the heck. If I don’t shoot a deer at least I’ll have a field day (pun intended) checking for tics tonight. Cripes I hate them damned things !

hoping this snow actually happens thurs night into Friday.

That is exactly the way I do it, except I don't quarter them. I think quartering them may be a more neat way to finish them off, so I guess I will start doing that. By the way, just a word of safety now that deer season is open. Don't forget the blaze orange outer clothing. I don't think it is required for us small game hunters, but safety is always more than just what the state mandates.

Hunters do not vote, and the NYS politicians know it. It will only keep getting worse as long as hunters and gun owners stay apathetic and refuse to vote a bunch of our ultra-liberal politicians out......Starting with Hochul. We hunters are an apathetic bunch and get exactly what we deserve. We only know how to whine and complain about being abused. Too many people refuse to put their votes where their mouths are. I do my own reloading and so I am pretty much off the grid as far as the state government is concerned. To me part of the cost of any guns that I buy are the price of the dies and whatever reloading equipment that pertains to that particular caliber. I have a lifetime supply of powder and components, so I am not affected by their silly laws. But that is only part of the battle against those that would try to harass us out of gun ownership and hunting (and believe me NYS is just full of them). We have to stand up for ourselves at the polls. Nothing else will slow this steady growth of abuses.

I specifically took note of the shooting conditions in the evening. Sunset was at 4:47. Add the half hour makes quitting time at 5:17 PM. I was hunting in a section of woods with a heavy hemlock overstory, and I have to say that if I had been shooting at anything at that time, it would have been difficult to even see the crosshairs in the scope. Yes, I could walk through the woods without bumping into trees, but a deer at any distance would have looked like a fuzzy shadow. I am happy that they made blaze orange/fluorescent pink mandatory along with this change in hunting hours. Walking out of the woods would be pretty scary without my blaze orange coat and hat. I also wonder about finding first blood with a marginal wound in that semi-dark time of night.

Yep that’s exactly why I go to PA to buy ammo. No BS ,got pull your own ammo off the shelf and buy it. No wait time or BS fees.

First-light, you've been having some great success around you. Hope you keep up the good work. Well, I just know their in here!

Agree, I’m just not crazy about tracking in low light IF they don’t drop

I have always tried to be in stand well before sun up, and often stay well after...just so as to not spook critters as bad. Even with the old times, I often stopped officially hunting...but may still be on stand....well before legal stopping. With snow on the ground...big game changer. Overall, I dont think it has changed how I hunt.

Yes short term memory loss has gotten terrible.

In the morning I feel more comfortable taking the shot , in the evening not so much !

I was out this morning with a friend in 9A and it was dead, no sightings and only 1 distant shot heard. And the trail cams showing nothing in a week. Where are they?

It has been real quiet here in Bristol. I am hunting state land and feeling pretty lonely up there. Where the heck is everybody? I always thought it would be nice to have all this state land to myself, but there seems to be just enough people to put the deer in the survival mode and not enough people to get the deer up and moving.

Haven't seen shit this weekend. Saturday I saw a small doe moving behind a brush line about 8am Sunday I didn't see shit Was out this morning (Monday), didn't even see squirrels. Never had such a quiet opening weekend, I need to spend some time re-thinking my game plan. I usually hunt the woods, I'm thinking coming down from the hill and hunting some more lowland areas, maybe see if I can get myself closer to water.

Strange thing: no shots this morning. First week of firearms? Must be recouping time from all the celebrations yesterday from the Bills win .

Son passed another spike this evening, 5 doe went trottin through the field with no shots at them.

I shot a 6 pt chasing a doe. Not ideal but I figured as the season went it was the right thing. Nephew shot his first buck a two point! lol We took them to the processor tonight man there are some real nice bucks in there. Oh and I shot a big button buck last hour of bow season.

Here are a couple pictures of my morning buck -- 9 points