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.

video on demand? He doesn't hold back on political opinions I love it!

I still believe in the areas I hunt other than hitor in naples it all came down to weather and lack of others willing to walk around in 50 plus degree weather. Deer don't need or want to move with that winter coat on and the abundance of food locally. I saw a ton of deer during bow season and they were seen opening day (just not by me) so I know they are there but without guys moving and keeping them on the hoof sightings are down. Again just my opinion on my areas I hunt. As far as the stateland in naples area I can't explain that never in my 15 years hunting it have I not even gotten a shot. It was terrible and I do think it has a little to do with lack of guys moving but I ran a known bedding area I bump deer outta every year and didn't jump any this year so idk what happened there Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

I just resprayed my clothes 2 days ago, the extra 20$ is well worth it! After going through 500 yards of jungle in some really thick pines I am thankfull I did! Normally I do not bother at this time of the year but temperatures dictate it. Money well spent!

A pig on my property is going to be bacon in my freezer, in a hurry.

Shot this buck on November 28th at around 9:18 am at 70-75 yards. He was running along a cut hay field just inside the woods about 60-65 yards from my stand. I normally hunt with my father facing one way and me facing the other so when I heard my father snoring I turned to check his side to see if there was anything behind me. I saw nothing so I turned around, but as I turned around I saw the buck running with what looked like a limp. He was directly perpendicular from me in a shooting lane when I saw him so I gave a couple bleats to slow him down so I can get my hearing protection on and my rifle up. He was also running into an area that has a few shooting lanes but they are close together and you need to be quick to get a shot there. I had to make a second bleat to stop him from running again. Once I was all ready I had my rifle aimed at a shooting lane I knew he was going to walk through but he started to run again. I tried to stop him but he wasn't having any of it so I knew it was now or never so I shot. I've practiced shots like this so I was confident in the shot. Well as I was getting ready to shoot my father woke up and watched the shot. Well he thought I missed the deer because all he saw was the head. At the time I thought I might have missed as well because he ran at an angle to where I couldn't see him for more then a quick second. He thought we should stay in the stand because he was almost 100% sure I missed, but I felt that there was no way I could miss this shot and he did look hit and I thought I saw a glimpse of him go down. I convinced him that we should take a look just in case, so we got down about 20 min after the shot. I went to where I thought I hit him and I couldn't find any blood but I decided to take a quick walk because if he was hit, he would be down pretty close. Well after about 10 yards I look up and saw a tree that was covered in blood. Another foot and I saw the deer laying maybe 2 feet from that tree. All in all he went maybe 40 yards from the point he was shot. The shot took out the left lung and severed the heart completely. Turns out his right shoulder was dislocated and he had a healed up wound on his brisket so I'm thinking he got beat by a bigger buck. Good thing this happened early because I had 3 parties to go to so I was only able to hunt until 11 am max. I had to rush the gutting and skinning to make it home in time for my father and I to get ready. I got up at 3 and didn't make it home from those party's until 2 am. Great deer and great parties...what an amazing day! Only bad part is my parents convinced me to mount it so now I'm going to be out 500 bucks, but its worth it.

I've never seen one, and I've never hunted them. I spent the summer of 2007 building a barn in Kentucky, and the owner took me out for some coyote hunting. We had a blast, by the way. On the second day out I asked him who had taken a plow and disc to his property over night. He said it was feral pigs/hogs. Almost 2 acres of alfalfa/clover mix gone in less than 12 hours. He called the local 'hog hunters' when we got back, to take care of the problem for him. Apparently these guys knew their chit, and they killed almost 3 dozen in one night! I had to get back to NY, but I certainly would have gone along to watch that.

Dec.3..This mornings hunt I had plans to hunt doe and I knew I had to beat them to the blind area.. Didn't work out so well for by 5:30 everyone was either there or on the way, when I pushed them walking down the road...I was snorted at just as I reached the blind so the last steps I used the grunt tube then took a stick and beat a bush at the bottom of the ladder before climbing...I glassed a doe in the laneway feeding my way at about 7am ...I watched her as she headed my way very slowly.....Oh man 22 mins please please please..nope 7:10 she moves into the slashings behind my blind and heads up hill... Now you have to understand doe are harder to hunt than buck here...always have been and I was mad.Next thing I know I see what I thought was the neighbors dog, I about flipped until I glassed it and it was a nice sized yote...Hhhmmm snorted at, pushed deer,doe left,and not seeing many turkeys..This hunt was ruined.... I draw down on him about 80 yrds Bang!.miss and he's now running at me for he has the fence on one side and brush piles on the slashing side...bang! I see the slug hit just past him WTH! am I blind ! He stopped at the last shot and I shoot one more time and think I clipped his foot he was close and I was trying not to shoot over him.....Off he goes running funny into the neighbors swamp after rounding my fence.. Talk about feeling down 3 misses in a row! I'm sitting there beating my self up and now it's 7:25 and I see deer...Well those shots were like some sort of call because there are deer at the end of the lane way and filing out of the swamp across the fence...I glass and all 8 are fawns!...I just laughed and grabbed my apple to eat, when I look up.....Here comes the buck charging out of the swamp...I can't tell how long the tines are because he's close to my fence and it's now snowing pretty good...I grab my gun and get ready...he jumps the fence and before he barely touches the ground half way across the laneway,he lunges into the saplings and stops...I reposition in another window not even looking at him...The slashings are so thick and hes around 70 yrds out...I settled on a small brown patch on a trail I'd cleared this fall it was my only shot and then he broke.... the second he hit that trail I squeezed off the shot and he never kicked just went on a full stretched out run...I never even followed him the trees were so thick and I was sure I had missed yet again...about the time those thoughts raced through my mind I heard the crash!...glassed out the back blind window to see white belly...Mind you my Browning only holds 4 3" shells and I had forgotten (in my frustration) to reload...So I literally had just one shot....Now this one I could handle...unlike the bow buck......... he hung on the scale at 105...and has very little smell...so I'm sure will taste great!

Wow...just looked...1200 for a lifetime license for non resident hunt, fish and archery....that is pretty steep investment not knowing if my son will ever even hunt. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Opening morning 6 pointer, shot around 7:20. Otsego county. Like a twin to the buck i got with the crossbow couple weeks earlier.

My opening day double. Took these two out of 9 does that walked out into our food plot at 8am. Let my son track the big doe 150 yards to where she piled up in the brush.