Leaderboard

The 10.5 acre parcel bordering me to the west would be for sale. A lovely elderly couple owned the property. They loved the property as a camp should be loved. They had such wonderful memories of the camp but as time marched on so did the age of this couple. We became good friends and I helped them out as much as I could. A few skipped years at opening day had me worried. Health issues became a great problem for them. I received a phone call a few months ago from them telling me the place is going up for sale. They knew I would be interested and really they wanted me to end up with the place. It was unfortunate for them but a blessing for me because the property is a major bedding area that I knew if in the wrong hands could really hurt my hunting. The place consisted of an old single wide and a few out buildings. We agreed on a price and got the closing done last week. I have no plans for the trailer and offered it to them when ever they wanted to visit. I guess my point here is give what you can to others in life because one day it will come back to you. I always believed in this concept and will continue to do it. Just today my niece harvested her first deer at my camp off of the new property. FL-

Well i guess you do. I don't know how to make this story short 33 years old and never hunted until this season. No one in my family has ever been into hunting so it never really appealed to me. in the last 10 years I've always thought I may enjoy hunting but never had time to take the safety course. Recently my 5 year old has been so interested in hunting that I decided I needed to learn so he could have his dad be his mentor even though one of my closest friends is an avid hunter. My friend weather he knew it or not was going to mentor me. I managed to get a safety course finished the day before opening of gun and bought a crossbow so I could practice quietly for a few days. I got accurate enough that I decided to go out sunday am of opening weekend. Spent every morning and afternoon I could sitting quietly after that. Saw lots of doe. 11 walked through one day but I didn't have the range. Even had a small doe walk almost right up to me on two separate occasions but didn't feel right about shooting such small deer. Finally my friend tells me I have to sight in the shotgun I bought, practice and get up off the ground in a stand. Okay so he sights the 12 gauge in for me. I take a shot at a target at 50yards and hit close enough that I'm comfortable. I don't really like firing the gun so I leave it at that. One practice shot. Please don't judge me or my friend for the lack of practice. I get in a stand on my property with only a small area that I can hunt legally but I feel comfortable with. I begin using a new trick of rattling fake antlers and using calls. 10 minutes before sunset I wipe my nose and sniffle from the sinus infection and bronchitis I happened to get and decide to climb down when I realized my calling was working because all I saw were white tails running. I stop, call a doe noise and they all stop. I waited 5 minutes and did it again and they started back. One nice doe makes it on my property. She looks up at me, kicks her front hooves at the ground a few time. I stayed very still at the ready. She put her head down and turned. I shoot. I do all the safe things you're supposed to do next and go to the spot where she was. No blood, no fur and dark now. I call my friend and get a flashlight. Found tiny bit of blood 25 or so ft away and start tracking. not much blood but I did find a little frag of bone so I knew I must of hit her somewhere decent. Finally found her with the help of my friend and come to find out it was a high hit through the lung so she had to fill with blood before letting much out. 2nd bullet ever shot besides a .22. My 5 year old came out to the barn while it was hanging and saw it after warning him it was bloody and dead. His reaction surprised me. "awww cool....This is a nice deer daddy. Nice size. good job." what 5 year old is so calm and collected like this. Family liked how it taste so I went back out for Sunday the last day for gun. No rattling but just calling because I figure with all this talk about no deer around I would just try for another doe. As I'm about to leave my stand and call it a morning I hear something in the woods so I hang out and call like a doe. I see antlers for the first time in my life as a hunter. Heart pumps very differently than when I shot the doe and this thing is still deep in the woods I can barely even see him. He heads away so I call the best I can. He turns and I finally get to hear how a buck really grunts. He cautiously heads towards me. Shots go off way in the distance. A large doe comes booking across the field from where the shots fired and right at me in my stand. I call again to stop her. She stands 5 yards from the tree I'm in and the buck now sees her. All of a sudden my sounds were very real to him. He head straight at me and I have to shoot before he gets too too close. He jumps into the brush and only makes it maybe 20 yards away. Shot through the shoulder a little and got a lung. Third bullet ever shot. My friend and his dad come over to help me out. This time my 5 year old comes out to see the entire gutting process. Again very calm and a little excited he said because this one had horns and again was a good size. I gutted both deer myself due to the responsibility I felt in killing these two animals. With the coaching of my friend of course. Apparently this is a big buck. They told me I need to mount it so I guess I will even though that is not really what I did this for. That is also why you won't see me in a picture with the animal. I did it for my son who has such an interest in hunting and to have good quality meat for my family. Wegmans is right down the street but this meet came from our backyard. How's that for a carbon footprint. Thanks for reading

I was really happy to get this doe today, she's my biggest ever. If she walks into a bar the bartender will definitely ask "why the long face?"

The young man is my friends son in Seattle. My friend is a traditional bow hunter and has killed deer, elk, caribou and a mountain lion with his recurve all from the ground, well the mountain lion was in a tree ! Although his son uses a compound he claims to still love him. How he killed this doe is a remarkable tale. My buddy has a friend who is a professional wildlife photographer , who's work has been in National Geographic along with countless other magazines , books, wildlife journals , he also bow hunts. He told my buddy that to get close to animals to photograph he doesnt act like a hunter ! When they see you don't try to hide or stalk , stay in the open and act disinterested . It may take hours but they get used to,you and move closer. So they are out in the open barren rolling land when they spot a small herd 200 yards out, so the hunters stand up straight even moving and stretching , the deer just watch. They stand there for and hour and a half, then as the deer move the two hunters parallel them. This goes on for hours, finally coming around a knoll they find the deer 60 yards away ,again wide open land. My buddy and his son turn away not paying any attention. Then my buddy walks directly away from the deer while his son stays put. Two deer break off the herd and follow !!! They come to 20 yards from the son who drills this doe ! I told him if I stepped into a field in NY with deer 200 yards away , they'd still be running ......

Nice finish for me, my biggest doe ever

Now that deer season is most likely done for me, Ill take all of the warm weather I can get. Furnace isnt running much, dont have to shovel, gonna have time to get a few things done around the yard. Not too shabby.

It defiantly made deer hunting interesting but this weather should be really good for the deer heard. A combination with a warmer winter and a ton of acorns means we should have more deer making it through the winter this year and healthier deer next year.

Would rather be warm and not see deer as to freezing my butt off and not see deer.

"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue." -- Barry Goldwater, 1964

My Niece connects on the last weekend! One happy family!!

Oh, there's no question about it. Someone has leaked a copy of the syllabus out to the deer population, and has supplied them with calendars and wristwatches. Anyone who doubts that, just check my front lawn on the day following the close of the season. If there are deer grazing there, it will not be the first time that has happened. That doesn't bother me so much as the thumbing of the noses and the raspberries. Last year one of them gave me the hoof. That was uncalled for.

Guys aren't hunting doe at camp...but I know if I were a real trophy hunter,I'd be out there right now. I'd be hunting as hard as ever trying to get one of the many mature doe in the area....for no one can convince me they do not know how to tell time.They set themselves up on a schedual of 15-20 mins before and after the sunrise/set, on any given day.

Finally after an absolutely stressful season full of problems I put this big bodied 8pt on the ground. Catt county ridge runner And I got some blood on the new rig!!!

Oh well...........maybe next year.

Anyone watch this show? I don't usually watch sitcoms, but I came across this a few months ago and have been catching up on VOD. I like the show. Tim Allen is hilarious and his jabs at the Govt. are spot on.

After my best trailcam buck on the farm got shot on the opening morning of gun season, I was really hoping that this guy would pull through for me. Sure enough, he beat the odds again and showed up this morning. He's missing his signature curled back browtine but otherwise appears no worse for the wear. I'm hoping he puts on those G4's next year as a 5 year old...

I buy the Costco brand whole beans which is roasted by Starbucks. It's $10 for either a 1 or 2 pound bag and I grind it fresh every morning. Great deal and great flavor. The Starbucks beans are better but this the Costco brand is a great balance of quality and price.

First off, I don't fear them. I hate them. 2nd, they don't fear death, but they do fear how they die. If they want death, give them life, at hard labor. Regardless, these are the people due process could target and intercept, if it's energies weren't being wasted trying to persecute responsible gun owners. The government is not wasting this crises on criminals and terrorists, that's for sure.

Prosecute the people who use guns to commit crimes. The laws are already in place, they're not currently enforced.

Just checked , still there !

That is awesome. I like the part "If you find this offensive you're the person I'm talking about"

I've never seen or shot a deer with a black rectangle instead of horns so I'm perplexed on trying to age him

Time on pics is an hour later than the pics were taken. I have lots of daytime pics from the last week or two. They are there, just have to be in the right place.

So the last weekend of the season was pretty uneventful. Saturday my daughter and I got out to an area that has seen very little pressure this year. Its a large brushy area with horse trails carved out, and the deer normally bed in there and then stage before heading to the open fields to feed. We ended up seeing 2 does at about 200 yards, but had something down in a draw that I couldnt see spook them and they went back into a thicket without stopping. That was it for us that hunt. Sunday my daughter wanted to head back to the same place, so we did. We saw one deer, but it was too late to shoot. I really doubt I will go out next weekend, though the weather so far looks very promising. I might have to sight in the front stuffer and get out there for a hunt or two. We will see. If not, its ok, my freezer is pretty full already, and I cant shoot a buck if I hunt the farm anyway. I hear so many guys complaining about their season this year. Im not sure if its just that Im in an area with good deer numbers or what, but I feel like I had a pretty good season overall. I pulled most of my trail cams yesterday so that I can go through and replace batteries and move them all to food sources so that I can start getting an inventory of bucks that made it through the season. Ill get them back out this coming weekend. Theres two that I havent seen in a while that Im worried might have gotten taken by a neighbor we havent heard from, or went on an excursion and got shot. Time and cams will tell though.

Damn! I hope not. I have shelves full of racks, antlers, pieces of antlers, animal skulls, etc. that I have been collecting for decades since I was a kid, and there are no tags for any of them. These are just little oddities and items of interest that I pick up whenever I find them in the woods. No tag or licenses ever involved. I know I have seen threads on this site, and other forums about guys that collect sheds, with some even having trained dogs for such activities, and I am sure none of them ever have tagged any of them. It is a bona fide collection activity that a lot of people engage in. Tags for antlers? Not that I'm aware of. The fact is that I have whole wall mounts that I would never be able to find tags for.

Lots of false bravado on here . The difference between just finding the buck laying in the woods vs what happened here is that the dots got connected as to how the deer died and ended up where you found it. If it was me I would give the hunter the rack. he has more connection to it then I do, I just finding it in the woods vs him killing it and doing his due diligence to find it. And if your sure the story of the other hunter is true and you can give closure to him then it's worthwhile gesture Further more if your a hunter of any experience you should be somewhat empathetic to another hunters misfortune after all the some maybe on the other foot some day.

Ahhhh No! If he found that buck and finished it off he would have had that thing in the back of his truck and the to the P&Y scoring sheet. I cant see him finishing off a buck and then just cut his head off. You do not need to tag a rack found in the woods. Good thing as we would be low on tags from the 3 we pulled out of Letchworth this year.

They built their winter reserves with a great mast crop during a cold fall start- less daylight and earlier rut phases and winter coats- and no reason to move now. Factoring in two horrendous winters, ever increasing coyote numbers and people pressure it's a no brainier numbers are declining as well. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

So if you found a dead buck and took the antlers you'd put your tag on it? Come on man.... Its not even relevant to the story. Do you think the original person that wounded it would've tagged it a month later? Doubtful. Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

Some of you have me wondering what you consider "Big Woods"...

Well what I did was quartered it at camp put the quarters in trash bags... Brought them home put them in the fridge.... Wrapped my patio table in plastic wrap set up cutting board got a bucket with a gallon of water and a TBL spoon of bleach brough out and broke down one quarter at a time and wiped up between quarters

Deer collision claims are a tiny fraction of their payouts - not enough for them to worry about or spend money on to reduce. In areas of higher claims, they simply raise the comp rates to adjust for the difference. They lose no more money in high collision areas then they do in low ones.

I dunno. If you fail to track and retrieve a shot deer, it's fair game for whoever does recover the carcass in the end. Once the blood ended on a deer like that I would have circled and circled until I was sure he wasn't close by. It sounds like a full 3 weeks passed before the carcass was discovered. I would have gone back every day for a week.

Some class on the part of the guy who won't give the antlers to him. What a loser.

Yeah... I wasn't really referring to anything going here as much as hunters on other hunting pages and other forums. Seems to me that hunters on this forum tend to be more responsible than elsewhere. Oh NO... I can't believe I just said that!

But, for the most part you are 100% correct, Joe.

Technically they poached it

I'm thinking this is appropriate.

11/28/15. 8 pt. Erie county. Snuck in to about 15 yards. Heart shot with the 16 gauge.

Think he's 3... Even though he may be bulked up a bit for the rut def not older than that ... Got that race horse look and not the lanky long legs like a 2 year old ... Decent neck on him but not enough for a 4 year old ... 3, final answer. [emoji4] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't mean to scare anyone with my masculinity, but I really like Green Mountain Pumpkin Spice.

I tend to do it at the same time as Im home anyway doing things like laundry or whatever. It doesnt take long to do, maybe 1/2 hour to skin and quarter and another 45 mins to debone and trim. After that it depends on what you are doing with it. I can vacuum seal roast, backstraps, etc from one deer in just a few mins. If I grind, it takes maybe 1/2 hour including cleanup of the grinder and bagging up of the meat into 1 lb portions. So for the average deer, I have a shade over 2 hours of work, and Im home doing other stuff anyhow. I have no special setup, just a gambrel in the garage, 2 knives, a sharpener, cutting board, grinder and vacuum sealer. I know where my meat was, how it was handled, that its actually my meat, and that Im getting all of it. More than worth it to me. Whatever works for you though, someone needs to keep the processors in business.

Having grown up when the Cold War was waging, being told to fear nuclear war, I learned to calculate the odds of my demise, and also how to increase my odds of survival in case of attack. Attacks can not be prevented by taking rights and freedoms from responsible citizens. "The government may not descend to the evil of preventive law. The government cannot treat men as guilty until they have proven themselves to be, for the moment, innocent. No law can require the individual to prove that he won't violate another's rights, in the absence of evidence that he is going to. But this is precisely what gun control laws do. Gun control laws use force against the individual in the absence of any specific evidence that he is about to commit a crime. They say to the rational, responsible gun owner: you may not have or carry a gun because others have used them irrationally or irresponsibly. Thus, preventive law sacrifices the rational and responsible to the irrational and irresponsible. This is unjust and intolerable. The government may coercively intervene only when there is an objective threat that someone is going to use force. ... Statistics about how often gun-related crimes occur in the population is no evidence against you. That's collectivist thinking. The choices made by others are irrelevant to the choices that you will make. ... The government may respond only to specific threats, objectively evident. It has no right to initiate force against the innocent. And a gun owner is innocent until specific evidence arises that he is threatening to initiate force. Laws prohibiting or regulating guns across the board represent the evil of preventive law and should be abolished." --columnist Harry Binswanger The same goes for the "No Fly List". When you are put on it after due process, you belong there and your rights can be limited. When you are put on it because the government just doesn't like you, that's a BIG problem!

Belo, I believe a lot of our freedom has vanished, and society's violence has gotten worse, precisely because we allowed it to happen in the past. There is no reason to believe the anti-gun opposition will ever stop demanding more "compromise" regarding gun control. They will always ask for more restrictions until all "gun violence" ends. What they fail to admit is places that have total gun bans prove violence, in general, always increases, because people are defenseless. Why is it that so called "common sense" legislation can never be proven to actually accomplish any reduction in crime or violence? Why would anyone support restrictions on freedom that will not benefit anyone? We are not pushing back on everything. We are pushing back on legislation that only reduces rights of responsible gun owners and leaves innocent people defenseless. Calling it "common sense" is just the anti's tactic of marketing it to a gullible populace. When we have over 10,000 gun laws already on the books, that are NOT being used to lock up violent people, there is no room for anyone to believe "common sense" has any place in the affairs of the anti gun agenda.

Well done and thanks for sharing your adventures! I enjoyed reading them!

Reminds me of Ron Whites stand up routine where his cousin is bragging to him about going to the woods and shooting a big buck with a 30-06, and Whites response was "well I got one with a van, going 50 miles per hour with the lights on and the horn blowing"

I carry my rifle for 99.99999% of the season and shoot it at a deer for .00001% of the time usually at moving deer so light and handy wins out for me every time. If I hunted out of a blind that I drove my truck to I would use different rifles but while wandering through the adk's for miles a day a short light rifle will be in my hands.

Traditions Deerhunter 50cal percussion. 90gr of 777 FFG. 385gr Great plains conical. It has a brass blade front sight.

^ Nice fat doe but your bolt is on the wrong side, I bet you stand on the wrong side of the golf ball too!