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Hey great news!!!! So we backed out tracking that doe for the second time. Thought was let her lay and die and we would go back to last spot and start again. We called up an overhead shot online and made a plan upon the last blood. We did sleep in and got out there at 8am. Don't you know our cameras blew up with two chases and that same food plot had 8 doe in it at 7:45! Hunt the storms! So we started at a point that would lead us to last blood. We were 30 yards apart and after 5 minutes my brother whistles I found her. She was about 40 yards bedded under a tree. The shot entered her mid section quartering to and exited out the the back leg. Caught the guts. Shot was high my Brother was lucky to get her. I'm glad we didn't push her last night. Learn from this but it was a gut shot but the shot was high and drove through and exited the backside. We didn't know she was gut shot even at that first blood bed. No evidence of stomach waste in blood. I say she is 140-150 mature doe. A Thanksgiving blessing for sure!

I remember when I was a kid waiting for the school bus and hearing what sounded like a war down through the valley. I remember sitting on stand 3/4 of the way up the hill watching the highway down below. It looked like a snake of headlights going south on opening morning. I remember the orange suits seemingly everywhere. I remember being able to track the progress of the deer groups just by the shots across the hill. I remember areas of the hunting spots where there were several hunters visible all at once. I remember some of those big drives that neighbors would put on that kept deer moving all day long. I remember knowing deer were coming just by the advancing pattern of shots. I remember having opening days off from school as an excused absence. I remember my hunter safety course being held in the school bus garage. (imagine that!) I remember State parking lots being filled up with cars lining the sides of the road because there was no room to park. I remember our driveway being full of hunters cars. I remember the large groups of us hunters gathered every Monday morning at work talking about the deer we saw or got. I remember seeing all the deer hanging from trees in the yards. I remember the deer that were proudly strapped on the cars instead of hidden in the beds of pick-up trucks. I remember when posted signs were a rare sighting. All the land was open and farmers were damned glad to see you. I remember when during Thanksgiving get-togethers the primary discussion was all about hunting adventures. I remember when hunting leases that locked up huge areas were unheard of. I remember when so many of my hunting spots didn't have houses on them like they do now. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh gosh, these memories just keep flooding back into my 80 year old brain. They are remembrances of times when hunting reigned supreme in the rural areas. Times change, and not all changes are for the better.

I simply don’t go out in the crap weather anymore. My entire way of hunting has changed since purchasing my own land. I have 200 acres in the northern zone surrounded by big woods and Ag that does not get hunted. My wife loves to accompany me…so we go out on dryer days and sit together in one of our several box blinds and enjoy our purchase and immense amount of hard work we put in all spring and summer maintaining the woods…fields…plots…and planning our next project. It’s less and less about killing a deer, though I am blessed to connect with a good buck every year. We sat last evening and had 17 deer feeding in our plots, not a shooter among them. It’s a pleasure to watch them interacting. Had about 20 bluebirds feeding around us as well. Once the southern season ends I will focus on crows and pigeons. I won’t shoot up the farms while guys are still out trying to fill a tag. If I get decent snow next weekend I will still hunt a bit if I haven’t killed one yet.

Them days are gone for me, I have done just about everything I wanted when it comes to hunting and fishing. I do take a few game animals to eat but nothing like I did in my younger days. From here on out I just want to enjoy myself being in the woods and give a lot of free passes when it comes to taking game. Most hunting now is more about using and testing new rifles and ammo to see exactly how they perform or training a young hunting dog. Al

What is it that drives you to go out in this crap weather and sit there with the rain dripping from your nose waiting to kill a critter? Is it the meat? Is it the challenge of man vs. animal? Is it just to get away from the old-lady? What is your personal reason for hunting?

I’ve never seen this brute before unless it’s the same one in the night pic its the same spot

I have asked myself this question so many times, and still come away with no one single answer. Yes, there is the challenge of man against animal. Actually back in my trapping days I experienced that challenge thing the most. But even with hunting I have my best times during bow season where the odds are clearly stacked in the deer's favor. I do love to stand there eyeball to eyeball with a deer or even a squirrel. It's a contest between me and them. There are other reasons though. I have always had a feeling that hunting was a link back to the natural predatory nature of humans. There is something primal about the chase. The plotting and planning that are involved and the feeling of conquest when it all comes together in success is the reinforcing motivation to get out there year after year. Then there is the fact that there are those days of calm and sunlight and changing colors of the foliage, and the peace and quiet that makes the hunting woods the place that makes you feel like you would really not want to be anywhere else. There is also the tradition and culture of days way before me when hunting was a way of independence and survival. Even though not much of our equipment comes close to resembling that which our forefathers were stuck with, there is still something about getting your own meat that provides satisfaction that relates back to our roots a bit. Sitting down to a meal of wild game that you have gotten yourself is also a satisfaction that will drive you out into the woods and brush-lots year after year. Even if it is only squirrels or rabbits or game birds or venison. There is also the fact that for our family it has always been a family tradition for generation after generation. Yeah there are a lot of reasons why I get out there every year and get into the hunt, even at 80 years when the struggle to get up that killer hill gets harder every year.....I still do it.

100%. I myself won’t shoot anything but mature bucks and they just don’t make a lot of them in Ny state. Let alone a number of them on one property. I have like 14 Spypoint’s keeping track of their daily activities the best I can and it’s a rare occasion that they show up in the same place to many times. Now to just shoot a deer….any deer I’m sure it would be fine. I also think in states like say Illinois or Ohio kinda states where there are many more mature bucks because the states care about their herds a guy would get away with using blinds. But then again guys like Don Higgins has them all over his property

Took to my dad I’ve seen deer every sit this year 3-14 of them. Tons of tracks but nothing seen. He’s gonna hit a few spots this weekend I told him too. I’m heading to PA camp.

I remember wearing two pairs of jeans over cotton Kmart long underwear, two pairs of socks in Kmart rubber boots...with bread bags over my socks to help me slide my feet in and keep dry...Wearing dads thoroughly worn out wool coat and Filson style hat....a bandolier of slugs (always lost half of them by the end of the day).

I’ve had hot dogs from log city meats (Dundee) and Wilson’s Beef Farm (Canaseraga). Both are quite tasty.

Never used but everyone swears by this one to be the best https://costanzasausage.com/retailsite/

For me it’s the challenge anymore. I have to find one or two of the biggest in my area and hunt just them one on one until someone wins. He beat me all thru the archery season and almost 2 weeks of gun before he made his fatal mistake. Makes for a sense of accomplishment taking the best of the best in an area. Even knowing I got beat by the best has a great feeling to it.

Glad to see you went back, and were able to find her.

Looks pretty dumb to me.

Fewer hunters.

Got r done........ Sent from my SM-G975U1 using Tapatalk

I was in A double ladder stand . I saw 2 bucks coming from the neighbor's North property . A bunch of saplings block any shot But I Had the scope on in the bigger buck as it was walking along . i expected to take a shoulder shot but there was a dip in the ground . when it hit the opening , I shot and it dropped on the spot . upon further review , i shot him in the neck as he was in the dip . No meat wasted . some time you just get lucky . It was only about a 90 yard with the NEF 20-06 single shot . Here is the buck laying . I zoomed in on it as best I could with the phone camera .You can see the deer laying in the middle of the picture between the 2 big trees .The entrance Hole was hard to spot But not the exit hole .