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After seeing plenty of doe and non shooter bucks on stand over opening weekend we spotted a buck bedded down in a field on DEP property about 150 yards off a road while heading to town. We glassed it and saw it was a legal shooter. Sun was in it's face and wind was in my face, so it was the perfect time to make a stalk. I donned my blaze orange, slipped out of the truck and chambered a round. Got to within 50 yards of it by crawling through tall grass until I ran into a ditch. I parted the grass with my right foot and popped it in the neck, as it was the only area of it that I had a clear shot of. After the shot an unseen doe bolted away. I thought it was the .01% indigenous genes that allowed me to stalk within 50 yards, but it was actually a hot doe. After we brought it back to the farm to process a ferocious cow tried to take the buck away, but I wasn't having any of that and it quickly backed away after staring down the barrel of the 500 S&W ! SJC

Son-in-law nailed this meat for the freezer ....

Lots of snow in my area of 7m. Deer moved a lot over night judging from the tracks. And I screwed my self up this morning second guessed getting in my usual stand to go higher in the hill. Only to watch a total of 8 deer, including a really decent buck, walk right past my stand I passed up. Lol. They actually then walked past my bow stand as well! Oh well! At least I’m seeing them again.

Buy this ; Lee Hand loader Then buy a pound of H4350 powder, Large rifle primers and your preferred .30 cal bullet. Having a dead blow rubber mallet, scale that reads in grains and a caliper will help the process. Then watch this ( Load Ammo , More load stuff ) and never ask for permission to buy ammo ever again for your 30-06 rifle. My father taught my brothers and I the reloading process with the Lee hand loader kit. It's bare bones and is only useful for bolt and lever action rifles, but it works. SJC

There is a lot more than 2 or 3 that left, many of them were sneaky and did not want to expose themselves. Al

I have been hunting the same property for almost 40 years 90% of the time, hunting Squirrels early helps me formulate a Deer hunting plan as I can read their sign and figure out a plan where to be for a Deer hunt when I decide to go. I am not picky and just take them as they come. This year I have seen very little Deer sign and thought there would be a good chance getting skunked but I got lucky the first morning and had a buck walk right into my lap. And then there was a year I think I hunted just about every day and saw zero bucks, on the last day in the last half hour of daylight I had a buck show himself and I scored, you just never know. Al

I noticed a growing trend in society, people refuse to take blame for their own actions. They will blame it on every other excuse, except the real one. Everybody screws up, accept it and take responsibility for what is done. Learn by ones mistakes.

For some reason my FB feed has been a steady daily page after page stream of deer recovered (and many of them not) by trackers with their dogs. It seems there are more and more every season. And, it’s not limited to bow hunting. Many of these stories are crossbow and firearms. Has anyone else ever noticed they always preface the story with excuse making like the deer jumped, hit a twig, limb hit the stand, etc etc etc? Never I f’d up, I took a shot I shouldn’t have, my nerves got the better of me, I shot to far, maybe I should have practiced more, and so on.

At this point in time reloading your own ammo is the only relief from the draconian NY Democrats and I am sure they are looking for a way to regulate handloading. It is never too late to get started and I suggest not wasting any time getting into it. Shoots100 suggestion of a Lee Handloader will get the ball rolling for a small outlay of money. From there the sky is the limit for whatever one can afford. Believe me you will not be sorry for taking the plunge as things around this state regarding firearms and ammo will probably just keep getting worse. Al

A trail camera is a tool. Some see a need for them, some don't. If we didn't have cell service to use the cell cameras I wouldn't use them. I never liked having to visit the cam's to pull cards and change batteries. We have a couple of solar cell cameras set up on trails leading to stands and a couple at property access points to keep tabs on trespassers who swear they don't trespass. More than 90% of the bucks we see on the cams are never seen or taken and that's info that I would never know without using them. I set up cell cams on bait piles for coyote hunting and that helps me tremendously in eliminating them. SJC

I got home about 4pm, and to quite a sight. About 10-12 inches of heavy wet snow and slush. We made it into the driveway with a little go quick, hang on, slip, slide, and park it in the middle so you don’t wipe out the porch. I’ll take the tractor to it tomorrow when I get out of the woods. I hope my 4 wheeler gets me up the hill so I don’t have to sweat my rear off walking the whole way up. lol Good luck in the morning folks!

Stateline Bullets. Rt. 81 south if Binghamton.

I have not used them in a few years. I like the idea of being surprised also. The deer will be there, just a matter of when and what steps out. I was in Saskatchewan a week ago. The outfitter had cams on all of his baits and showed the hunters which big bucks were coming to the individual baits. Guess what, hunters waited for the monsters and never pulled the trigger on the good bucks they were seeing. Most went home with an unpunched tag. I'm at an age now that the adventure is more enjoyable than pulling the trigger.

Yep. My favorite excuse I hear is "It was the only shot I had". No dipshit, you could've waited, not shot, not set yourself up for all the drama and extra work, and shot that same deer from the same stand 48hrs later. If you were patient and had some self control. Takes a lot of experience to get to that point though. Antlers make people stupid.

I have like 14 Spypoint’s out all the way from Watertown Ny to Letchworth State Park. I use them mostly to find a couple of the biggest bucks on my properties and then I go all in for those 2. It’s either them or bust. They come in handy when my mature target bucks come back to my property after out doing their breeding for a couple weeks. Knowing they are alive keeps the drive going. Along with keeping track of any trespassers sneaking around.