Leaderboard

This guy showed himself this morning and tripped my trigger. Another heart shot, so we’re gonna be out after another doe for the rest of the week.

She looked bigger at 70 yards, but I'll take it. Heats off, now I can stop stressing and look for a big buck or bear.

Had a bunch of does feeding in the cut beans last night. Waited to the last second for a big one to show. He didn't. At 200 yds the 165 grain Nosler BT exploded her heart.

My two for Thanksgiving week. The doe popped up when I was headed to a blind on Monday, and the buck stepped out on Wednesday. The buck is most likely a 2 1/2 year old 8 point. I’m extremely happy to have taken both of them after 2 years of basically not hunting, and with limited time to hunt this year!

In the spot my Dad’s tree stand was. I first started hunting here which him when I was 6 or 7. His tree fell many years ago but I decided to put a ladder stand up. Let’s see what happens.

72 yard broadside on mid sized doe, dropped her where she stood. No tag soup this year, now I can relax and hunt trophy bucks and bear. Was hoping a buck would swing by and check out the crime scene, but no such luck.

A friend of mine brought his 1 (his birthday was yesterday) year old home trained Labrador with him on our duck hunt yesterday. The dog was well behaved and did a good job getting the ducks. No whining in the blind or barking ever, really good for a young dog. Video shows a couple of his retrieves.

I’ve heard guys say it scares more than it attracts

The RCBS chargemaster came yesterday, I got it setup on the bench, watched RCBS's video on how to operate it and today after I got my chores done I sat down and put it to work weighing and charging about 100 256 Winchester mag cases. Right off the bat I could see this electronic job is not as fast as the old tried and true beam scale, drum powder measure and bench trickler. After using the old stuff for over 50 years and thousands of loads I got pretty good at using it with both speed and accuracy. That being said I do like this gizmo even though it is slow. After I changed my loading routine I became more familiar and got things moving along. When powder charging I always did the whole batch at once and then moved on with the whole batch to the press to seat the bullet. With the electronic job I started with a sized case, charged it with powder, then set the powder pan right back on the electronic charger to get a new charge and continued on with the newly charged case to the RCBS summit press where I seated the bullet. This charge master is very accurate right to the tenth of a grain, A little bit of a learning curve but once I got into the groove I started cranking out rounds at a decent pace. So while I do like the thing because it is all in one and takes up less bench space I do not believe it is any better than the old drum measures and beam scales. Maybe as I use it more I will shine up to it. So as far as loaded ammo I am set for awhile, I have some 60 gr Wichester open points, a pile of Missouri Bullet company 85 gr lead hard cast that duplicates the old 25-20 round, then some high octane stuff 90 gr Sierra HPs and some Barnes 80 gr copper, I had to remove the plastic tip so they would fit in the magazine and so they would function in the rifle. Al

Haven't made it out hunting much yet but have worn my knuckle raw from scraping against deer teeth skinning heads out over the past 3 days...

These guys are the real deal. No shit they have hunters from 14 to 90 at camp. Been around a long time. Family is from Maryland. Has property here in NY then they go to PA opener at another property and finish it off back home in Maryland. I'm blessed to have them as neighbors. They are a second family to me. You should see the racks from the 90's in this camp.

Was a tough opening weekend with some crazy winds in 8F, but it finally came together with an 8Pt yesterday at 2:55. Watched him make a scrape and then he came over looking for the doe that cruised by about 5 minutes earlier. The 30-06 did it's job at about 70yds, dropping him right there.

Started at 14 coming up from LI to hunt in Dutchess County. We stayed at an Inn about 20 of us. Hunting camp was a blast and the memories and stories were something else. We started in 1974 and did this yearly ritual for decades, seemed it would never end. Well now at 66 it's down to me and my old friend Frank. We're the last two and hunt my property in Ulster Country now. We've hunted together for 50 yrs. All the other guys are gone, many sadly have died off, many just lost interest, others moved south. My buddy Frank will be retiring come summer and his wife is going to drag him to Florida. We don't talk about it much, end of an era I guess. Sitting out in the woods I can still hear the voices and stories of our long gone crew and think of the good times we had. Almost a bit erie when I'm out in the woods now. Now I realize it wasn't all about the deer we shot or that new rifle, it was about the people. Those were some times.

Been measuring and weighing my powder charges with a beam scale and typical drum style powder measures, have zero problem loading larger cases and charges, it is the little light charges along with small cases and large quantities that I do not like messing around with anymore. Decided to try modern and go with an RCBS electronic job and speed things up. It is rated well so I hope I like it. Al

Weirdest situation I ever had with scents was with Tinks 69. I had a doe come in to a fake scrape that I had made with a horny 4 pointer following her. She came very close, went over to the fake scrape and grabbed a Tink's saturated cotton ball I had hanging over the scrape and, I believe, ate it. I turned my attention to the buck, and when I looked back at the doe she was running off and the cotton ball and string were nowhere to be seen.

A lot of nice deer taken so far, congrats and good shooting. Anyone having much luck in Letchworth yet? I was out there Sunday morning, saw a doe and a few hunters tracks. I'll be in the park tomorrow am, then Fri and Saturday, hoping to see a shooter. Where is Daniel T? He usually started a letch~thread.

A doe caught me off guard this morning as I was getting ready to leave. Figures, the whole hill is snow covered except where she was standing. But the wind was in my favor so I just stood still and she drifted off calmly. Managed to put another couple hours into this elevated blind I’ve been working on for weeks here and there. In it now, and being mostly closed in it feels pretty nice out of the wind. The one draw back though is; I am not a builder, so it feels a little wiggly to me. And, now I can’t get the theme song and opening scene from F Troop out of my head! : 0

@WNYBuckHuntergreat buck man!! That ain't no 2 year old where I hunt!

Congratulations John. Very nice buck.

You could land a airplane with that marking

Geez, that is not a blood trail… it’s a blood highway. Congrats

I would love to join a camp like that. So much to learn

This year has been my best year yet. 5 Deer in total. 4 with the bow 1 with the shotgun 2 bucks, 3 does.

I saw 28 deer opening day from my tower stand, and not one of them had an antler...Second day I saw one deer, a buck,but he was tiny...I doubt he would dress out 75 pounds, so I let him walk...Yesterday I saw 12, but again no bucks... I have two DMPs, but I prefer to hold off on shooting does this early in the season...All in all, I am having fun seeing lots of deer.. Sooner or later a decent buck will show up.. I am not a trophy hunter by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd like to shoot something with a little MEAT on it, unlike that little skipper I passed up Sunday..

Lol, nope. Deer change with the seasons, our strategy has to change too. This year was really hot and primarily south wind, those are 2 really important factors in deer movement and location.

Been slow on my property. I saw a fawn yesterday that's it. Neighbor behind us shot 2 8pts a smaller buck and this giant. 23 inch inside spread.

Finally came together!

Kid we took out for youth got the 3.5 we’d been letting age up. Rather than be salty he didn’t make it to 4.5 I’ll post a pic for others to enjoy. Seriously, if someone is happy with a buck don’t be a douche bag. You win some you lose some but act with dignity. Wouldn’t want that loser mindset as a neighbor.

Hey everyone, got it done today with very limited time. Story in the harvest thread. Hope all is well with everyone!

Hey everyone, haven't been on here much with the new job and have had very little time off. Missed all of bow season. Made sure I was off this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Sat dark to dark on Friday with the crossbow and didn't see a single thing. Went back to the same stand this morning, not sure why since I saw nothing yesterday. Well I sat thru lunch without seeing anything. Finally about 2:30 I look over my right shoulder and there is a very small deer just outside the thicker stuff. Think it was probably a button but not sure. Was just glad to see something, it quickly went back in the thicker stuff and I figured it was bedded in there. At 3:30 I thought I heard a grunt but with the wind I wasn't sure. I waited till it was calm so it could be heard and hit by grunt tube a couple times. 30 seconds later i hear crashing and see the white tail of what I assume was the button bounding away. Crap, that wasn't what I wanted. Not even a minute later this guy comes out of the thick behind me on my left, I look saying what are you, get a glimpse of the rack and say to myself besides dead...lol. I shoot and he runs 30 yards, starts plowing and I put another one in him. Was a little disappointed to see the 2 on one side but the rack is unique. Glad I could punch a tag with the limited time I have.

Buck down! He came strolling in, nose to the ground the entire time. I hadn't even planned on hunting today but my wife encouraged me to go out later in the day. No treestand, no blind, I sat on the ground just waiting to see if anything would come around. As dumb luck would have it, this is my first mature buck I've ever killed and I wasn't even trying. 20 minutes after I sat down back against a tree, boom. I had been seeing this buck on a few of my cams, one in particular that I took down awhile ago as movement went cold. Bullet went in from the shoulder and out the opposite side, he went about 10yrds before I heard the crash. His heart was a jellified mess. Savage 220, 3M.

Nifty setup Rob, looks good and I like it, I have one of those Lee presses myself, I used it quite a bit for loading large quantities of handgun ammo. I have no problem with the quality of the ammo it loads but for me it is one of those can't teach an old dog new tricks deals. I have been loading so many years one way (single stage Press) my routine is so ingrained in me I kept going back to techniques I know best and use the old single stage Bair Kodiak press. Hope this new fangled powder measure works out better for me LOL. Al

Thought I’d post my semi diy powder drop since we’re talking reloading . I got a smoking deal on a used Lee classic cast turret and wanted to drop my powder on the press as I’m loading . So I bought the Lee deluxe measure and welded up a mount to position it over my thru expander die. The upright tube is scrap I had laying around with a nut welded in the bottom and the extension is actually a 7/8 box end wrench that the powder measurer body fits perfect in . It’s held on to the press by a bolt threaded up through the press base and then I screw it on and tighten into position. I used to load all my rifle cases on a single stage , but I’ll tell ya the ammo loaded on the turret is just if not more accurate than the single stage.

So after missing on a doe with my second missfire of the year the deer gods more than made it up to me. I was blessed to be able to take this beautiful 10 point. Prably my biggest deer to date. Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

Went out today and didn't score (plenty hunting time left ) Apparently the local Coyotes are eating good !