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Shooting a deer behind a fence is like paying for sex; yeah you bagged one but it still doesn't mean you have skills.

Why do I get the impression those who speak out against food plots have either no place to hunt where they are used, or the resources to plant them. If you think you plant it and just sit there and wait for the boone and Crocketts to show up, stop watching silly fake tv shows. If you hunt over a food plot, you are pretty much wasting your time if you want a big buck. I have some pics of very nice bucks in my different plots.(12 acres in all on a 450 acre plot of land) All in the middle of the night. It does not make deer stupid and have them walk into an open plot in mid day just to eat. Shoot one deer near a plot and see how fast the deer stop going there in day light. Hunting near a food source is pretty common and a great strategy. Just because you supply the source, does not give you any advantage except well fed deer and good healthy numbers of deer.

Picture. His attention was turned towards another deer...thought it was a doe. Turned out that one was my #1 target...I about cried. Was a solid 160 class typical frame. This guy had nothing on him rack wise but dwarfed him body wise. 209 lbs. guts in. Biggest neck I have seen outside of the rut time (late October early Nov).

Heading up tonight after work to meet my brother at the cabin. Really excited this year, we have some nice ones in the area. I did not get to spend the pre-season time I wanted to up there this year because of work and family obligations, however, I still think we should have a good time. We moved a few stands this year, not all of them, and not all of them to the places I wanted (time). Bow is locked in, and confident with my pin setup. Nothing really changed from last year other then some new arrows. Lots of bear on the property again this year, perhaps we will see one during the season. Hoping my brother can knock down his first bow kill this year as well. My goal is to knock down nice doe early, then concentrate on looking for a buck. Last year I did the opposite and ended up with no deer. I'll post some updates time permitting over the next few days!

I was "too drunk" to get married but I have to deal with it!!! LOL!

i would suggest leaving all your cloths in a tote until you get to your spot, get dressed once youre there. i dont think it would ruin your area for more than one day, the only way i could see it ruining and hightening the deers alert level would be if you flooded their area as you went in with the wind for instance if you smell perfumish even a little and you walk in to the south with a western wind and their bedding area is down wind, you flooded it and probably caused them to move. on another note, ive had a similiar situation happen to me but i took it with a grain of salt and when i was 40 yards from my stand wind blowng directly to my left there was a big doe bedded she was only 20 yards away, i wasnt out for a doe i had been watching a nice buck for days so i slowly kept on and she watched me climb into my treestand it was unrealistic she stayed there for 45 mins before she got up stretched and walk off. point im trying to make is anything could have happened just clean up the truck and cloths and get back to it! GOOD LUCK!!

Actually, if you look closely at some of the posts here, it appears that there are still a lot of places where guys are still thinking that deer populations need some thinning. And actually regardless of what todays population looks like it can change dramatically in year or two. In fact, with the mild winter and the perfect birthing weather this spring, I think the herd is due for a significant spike in population. I do still remember the heavy population densities of the late 80's and early 90's. There were many areas that were way over populated, and so the question that has been posed is probably a valid one. One of the reasons given by the DEC on one of the documents cited on this forum that regarded deer and moose feeding was their concern about inflating populations artificially through feeding to a point where it exceeds surrounding carrying capacity. Their concern was about the practice of feeding, but I would thing that food plotting could have the same concerns. That's particularly true when people start seeing the level of effort and money that can be involved in a food plotting activity and suddenly and abruptly discontinue the practice. That might place a new, undue strain on local habitat. It certainly is an interesting question at any rate.

With my .45 LC, absolutely NOTHING !!! LOL

my 2 cents here.. go to where you jumped the deer out of but get in there on time and wait. I wouldn't bother with hiking a mile in if the deer are right where you begin. Just hunt the right times.

Oh and I've hit bone with the rage 2" and it blows through em. But I shoot a fast bow set at 70lbs. The 2 blades always did the job for me, so I'm excited to see how the 2.3's are. I've shot rage for almost 5 years now and I will never change. I have great faith in them and I have seen what they do time and time again. I'm speaking of personal experience. I love when guys blame their equipment first with out replaying the shot in their head and trying to figure out what it was they did wrong. Anyone who is skepital and wants to try them I say go for it. I love how they are put up against a cut on contact broad head but to be honest I have yet to see my rage NOT cut on contact. They are open upon contact and causing total devistation instantly. And honestly with blades that big, it can help make a marginal shot become a fatal one...

WNY, you can bet you won't be getting his $20 discount! LOL

I don't know. I think we all pay for sex. It's not always monetary payments, but we usually DO pay for it. I think most guys will know what I mean. LOL

Four Season has a discount for the forum members who haven't busted his chops. $20 off. Everyone here knows that NO one qualifies for this discount, since we've all busted on him at one time or another! LOL

BKln I was thinking that was what this was about I was going to say my newest baby My Ruger SR1911 backpack snacks, drink, 2 calls (grunt tube & bleat can) , Bino's, rangfinder, wet wipes, folding knife, T.P. pens, hand warmers, flashlight & spare release

Elmo, mark the trail to your stand. Use surveyors tape. That's what I used to do.

Maybe this will make you feel better, Fail Post #2: Got into my new oak stand yesterday at 1pm...nothing until 5:30. Then a huge doe comes straight towards me, I draw as she gets behind a tree (15yds out 25ft down) but I have no time to do my normal stand/draw and as soon as she gets around that tree she stops broadside and looks right up at me, not spooked yet, but staring, so I close my eyes, count to 5, she is still looking...close em again, same thing, finally she goes down for a munch for a second and then looks right back up, I pick my spot and release...follow the arrow as it flies over her back...UGGGHHHH! Went and checked the arrow after she totally left the area, totally clean and montec broadhead embedded in a stump. Got back in my tree for the last hour pretty hot at myself, but I could smell deer from several directions as the wind swirled so I stayed...at 6:30 I lowered my bow figuring that the rain may come soon and I did not want to wound an animal late with the warm and rainy evening ahead... As soon as I lowered my bow a nice (still smaller than the doe) 6-8 point walks slowly and stops right into my best lane, I never saw or heard him enter my zone (and I had my phone away the entire hunt) and when I tried to haul my bow back up into the treestand I got busted...SONOFA! Went back this morning and saw a doe in the distance but nothing else, and I'm definitely still shook a bit from last night. I relearned three old lessons I've learned in the past, but I guess I needed an early season refresher: 1. Don't rush a shot because you think the deer is gonna take off, if you have lanes ahead wait for a better shot after you have calmed down and the deer isn't staring back and forth in your direction anymore. 2. Practice as many shooting situations as possible during offseason, I try not to do seated shots but I should still practice them as regularly as anything else or not attempt them in the field. 3. Stay in your stand until legal shooting time is over, let the situation happen and then judge if you have an ethical shot and recovery chance.

Death sentence! Useless waste of oxygen Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2

Just because Im checking my phone from time to time doesnt mean Im not paying attention. It takes a long time to read stuff when you are looking around every few seconds lol.

The bullet manufacturers books are good. Read anything and every thing you can find. Plenty of good ideas in all the books. Differing opinions on some things like the post above that says all you need is a neck sizer die. That might be good for him but most other people and VERY knowledgeable ones always full length size all the time. Lots of great info on line of course too.

This got me to thinking...reading the other two responses...perhaps I'm just damn lucky...but 3/4 of the deer I've shot on this hill has been west of me or north west of me...with west north west winds being the norm and swirling.... If I were to..... on a breezy day..... try to move due to swirling winds...I be alerting any unseen deer to my being out in the woods with seen movement and laying a trail of scent at ground level ...where in my opinion is worse...besides pushing them off to other hunters... Increased movement = increase body temps = increase in odor molecules leaving your body I hunt in a heavy human populated area...where deer routinely smell human scent on the air currents...but not so much on the ground...so ground level scent trails left by me and movement is more of a hunt killer...but ppls experiences differ...two of my better bucks I've shot up wind from me...they came in up wind...one shot at 10yds...last year 3yds....I average 3-6 deer a year... still say scent control is most important than moving around trying to beat a swirling wind

That's the Matrix deer I'm talking about.....dodge this .270... biatch...LOL...

Deer are so fast Ive had them duck bullets before!!! Thats my story and im sticking to it.

You mean the same farm? LOL

And the plot thickens.

Ammo.

spoken by someone who is clueless about food plots. Good luck

I like to get in my stand very early and it kills time and keeps me awake. I have a tendency whens its nice and the sun on my face a nice fall breeze breeze and beautiful scenery to fall sound asleep. I wonder if my snoring spooks deer ZZzzzzz ZZZzzzzz

I don't think you were called a anti or a spammer, someone asked or got the impression you were. I agreed. From the post i have read i think for the most part the answers you got were basically the same. everyone always has a little twist of what they take a meaning for. nothing wrong with that. so are you saying that you have not been caught baiting or are you upset that people have food plots near you and that keeps the deer away from you?

congrats to the hawk on a nice kill. Now who gets to eat the rabbit, you or the hawk LOL

Update: I had the pleasure of meeting the new owner (from N.H.P.) of the adjacent property and his cousin (from CT) on Sunday afternoon. They were actually very nice and respectful. He has not hunted in over 10 years but his cousin is an avid longbow hunter for 30 yrs. The new owner plans on building a house to live there year round. When I asked him whether we should pull our stands he actually asked if we coud leave them up and if he could have permssion to use them. I was caught by surprise but of course i agreed. He also granted us permssion to hunt the land. We exchanged our contact info had a beer and chatted about hunting adventures. Looks like we are getting some nice neighbors who can watch over our property when we are not around. I admit I "jumped the string" in my earlier posts.

ok.... so when everyone pants a veg garden, is that baiting?(deer molest them) i have friends that have food plots just to photograph deer and other wildlife, they have never shot a gun in their life....or hunted...... is that illegal? Nope. sure isnt. Is my 5 acres of soybeans, brassica, clover, chicory, and an abundance of apple trees illegal? nope. its been there and replanted just like any other crop over the last 12 years or so. find something else to cry about.

Here: And, nice buck!

If you need to ask this question you will never get why I do it. I take and give back to the land. I'm a steward of the land and want the next person who takes over my land to have prime habitat. It adds a new element to my off season low. I get my family involved in all my habitat work. All animals benefit from it. Do I need to go on?

Congrats, I need to get my arrows and hands bloody soon Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2

SteveNY,Funny you should mention that,several years ago I was sitting in my stand from sun up to about noon,with out seeing a single living thing ,When a nice bear came strolling through,As I was about to fire,My cell phone goes off.The bear pauses for a moment on full alert.long story short,the phone stops ringing in my pocket,the bear continues walking and I drop it.Turns out,the call was a wrong number!.I have the picture and story in the bear section.

I posted this in another thread, but I figured it can't hurt to add it to the official Bow Hunting harvest thread. Yesterday morning I realized one of the biggest lessons ... preparation pays off. Last year I spent countless days in the woods without even seeing a deer. I did no pre scouting and in turn, spent many an hour sitting against a tree just 'hoping' a deer would wander by. I made sure I had things in order this year. Working to gain access to some private land, putting trail cameras out, scouting for deer trail/sign, and practicing every single night with my bow. This morning it all paid off. Was hunting a small piece of semi-private land in Rockland county this morning. I was about 3/4 of the way up a hill, working the edge of a hedgerow where the deer had worn a trail through. The trail cameras gave me a good idea how many deer were coming through. At 8 a.m. I started to hear some activity off to my left in the hedgerow. I had been waiting there since 5:30, trying to catch them coming out of their bedding area. A four point buck stepped out along the deer path and began working his way to my stand. He stepped out, I gave a quick grunt to stop him and let the arrow go. He had just started to turn towards me when I shot, so what I thought was a perfect broadside shot, turned in to a quartering-towards shot. Arrow hit right behind his front leg, right on my mark, and exited out his side, taking the liver on the way out. He ran for about a 100 yards and I heard the big crash. When I recovered him I was afraid the arrow had exited too far back, but there was no gut whatsoever in the cavity. Certainly not a trophy class buck, but it's my first bow kill and my first buck! Video:

i always give the momma and her fawns a pass . i do not have the heart to shoot the mother with her fawns . i also could never ever shoot a fawn. there are plenty of deer in the woods to be harvested.if one knows what they are doing.

About all I got...had to cape it in the field...long long night.

Like WNYBuckHunter said...I used this a couple years ago to find a buck. It is amazing how fast they can find deer. They can tell you where the deer was shot from the hair on the ground. And it's free, they do accept donations though.

Another longwinded unorganized rant which includes many points that show that you are not ready to be an ethical archer in this state. Not sure how they do things in gator country, not sure how that has anything to do with this. You tell how hard it is to track in swamps...what was it about multiflora rose and briar that had you so stumped? You are not doing well for the first day, you did not "get" that deer and it was in no way the "first in NY on the first day." Seeing and wounding deer is in no way the measure of any hunter. And as for my name, check last years live from the stand report and harvest threads and see what kind of weekend warrior I am. You have repeatedly told us what you did to track and we have repeatedly told you nearly unanimously it was not enough time or effort or real skill tracking. Worst of all, you bragged about staying in the stand to hunt on a warm day when you had no visual or even audio confirmation it was dead and recoverable. Then you went on to tell us TWO hours later..."Oh well lost one, darn." and then sarcastically chided a deer recovery service as you are sitting in the treestand ready to wound another. If I had shot one of those doe yesterday morning, I would have had to leave the woods by noon latest to watch my son, I factored that into not taking a so/so shot when I could have. Even if I would have made a bad shot or just had a difficult time finding the deer the difference between you and me is instead of hunting at 4 like I did yesterday I would have been out with the reflective tape and kneepads...and by dark would have gotten my dogs on it with a latern. No one cares about your florida past or your socioeconomic situation and don't presume to know mine. Learn how to properly recover deer before you shoot another one.

I would say a Pine tree

Isnydes do you hunt? If so do not shoot your self in the foot. The anti hunters have enough of their own fuel. We do not need fellow hunters helping them.

no need for a compass know my properties well but the cell phone is in my jacket pocket on vibrate

Four hours? I'm carrying a pillow, 'cause there's no way I'm setting for four hours without falling asleep!

Deer density populations will (& should) vary dramaticlly across the state depending on habitat & available food sources. Can't really make a generalized, optimum density for age structure. Then there is the hunting pressure on already low densities or some local farmers abusing nusiance permits. These situations can drastically skew age structure densities and make certain areas almost unmanageable. Assuming not a lot of people hunt areas (1sq/mi) this big, IMHO makes it kind of irrelevant and meaningless even if an optimum # were assigned. For conversation sake, assume we do come up with a perfect #, what's good for your area might not be ideal for mine.

4.5 + bucks - 15% 3.5 bucks - 20% 2.5 bucks - 35% 1.5 bucks - 30% Doe to Buck ratio - 2.5/1

i would like to hear where all these hogs are. how bout a hog log...

Run them by me. See what happens. Nobody tells me what the phuck I'm going to shoot unless they are the landowner. Is that hard to understand?

OH----bullet puller I use the hammer style.