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Spring this year she shot a 21lbs bird. They decided to have it mounted. Man did it come out nice. DJ's Taxidermist in Avoca did the work. I have had a number of deer mounted by him and never disappointed. The bird is just amazing!

We have to be proactive in introducing new recruits to hunting. We should start out with our youth who will be the easiest to convert but we should also open ourselves up to taking along friends and even strangers. Be generous and give them any help that you can. As an example this last fall I saw a request from a total stranger on a waterfowl Facebook group who was asking if someone would take him along on a waterfowl hunt. This gentleman was from Florida and worked here 6 months a year. He had hunted ducks in Louisiana and wanted to hunt here in New York. I contacted him and invited him along for a Canada goose hunt. He accepted the invite but didn't have his gun here so I loaned him my backup gun. We had a great day that day. That same day I invited another stranger who had contacted me through this forum. He asked me if I would take him along on a goose hunt and he also came on that hunt. These former strangers are now new friends. There is no better way to promote hunting than to take along new recruits on actual hunts. The satisfaction you will receive is priceless and they in turn will pass on the sport of hunting.

Our daughter’s boyfriend has expressed some interest, maybe grandkids some day. Preparing some tasty meals with the meat is always a good way to generate interest. The overemphasis on big antlers has done more harm than anything else, in my humble opinion. Nobody needs that, but we all got to eat.

In a single word, MEAT. I like eating it and I can’t think of a better way to get it than hunting. It’s a lot more fun than raising domestic animals or shopping in a grocery store. It’s also cheaper, now that the local deer population has exploded, NY state has loosened up on the antlerless tags, and hunter numbers have declined. A better question would be, Why don’t you hunt ? It certainly doesn’t make sense to me why anyone wouldn’t.

I've mentored a few kids that didn't have anyone to take them hunting. Have one coming up this year. My neighbor has a bunch of Grand Children. They all get a shot at hunting. They put the work in and he takes them along. In short I agree with the above and give an opportunity to someone and take them hunting is key.

I am pretty much in step with what Charlie posted, small game hunting and plenty of it. Al

Quality time with Family and friends , Meat - Venison - that does not have Growth Hormones or is fed with Chemically Treated Feed !

No doubt they notice the camera at times but I would guess the scare comes like you say the scent that the hunters leave messing with the cameras. I use the new ones with pics directly to the phone for the most part so leave little scent and have not noticed any changes in deer behavior for the most part.

Not this particular buck. He came out, walked up to the camera, smelled the strap, walked behind it to the next scrape. He was on a mission though. Nice 5 1/2 year old.

Awesome mount.

No problem. That was an interesting direction for the thread to go.

What a fantastic mount.

Does this count???

Very nice. Congrats!

Nice dog work! I'm heading to tug hill early tomorrow morning. Hunt Sunday and half of Monday or more Hare beware ! ( Wish I had a few more beagles or any flushing dog)

I hunt because my family did.In the beginning it was to kill a deer for food. Then it was to kill a big buck. In my 20s and 30s it was to feed my kids . Now its about quiet time in the woods to reflect on my life. When I was young hunters were my heroes.My grandparents were hunters as well as my uncles and aunts. We took pride in the accomplishments of shooting deer. There wasn't as many around and if you were lucky enough to get a party permit you shared the deer. Today most of my heroes have past on. I have one son that goes out once or twice a year and seems he has always got some place else to be . I know my grandsons will never hunt. Now I hunt for me. If I get a deer great I will have some great food. If I don't get a deer great I still spent some time for me. I'm still closest to my heroes when I'm hunting.

Yes, because being it was usually too cold to sit for very long, they were mostly still hunters. I was told many times, "if you think you're going too slow. Go slower!! Keep your head up, and your eyes open! Look for movement, like an ear or tail twitch. You won't usually see a whole deer. Pick the woods apart before you move again!" They wore no camo. Just the clothes they worked in. Mostly overalls with Long John's. Layers of flannel. And always those thin green rubber boots!! There were always folks dropping by to gab and admire the deer hung in an oak or maple tree in their front yards. To this day I prefer a still hunt over sitting in a stand. But do both now depending on conditions. This was mostly done on large farm properties. Corn and hay fields, with many woodlots, sized from a few acres, to perhaps a couple hundred acres. With ridges and creek bottoms and some swamps for topography. Usually the last weekend of the season they would do still-drives. Which was when you walk very slowly, with the wind at your back, to poster's on the other end. The drivers would be staggered. Many times the drivers got deer that were circling back from a forward driver. This all was done with usually only 4 or 5 hunters. Of course there were favorite sitting spots as well. Always in some form of funnel or pinch point. To this day we still hunt some of those spots. And still see deer more often than not from them. One of the farmers had a son about my age. We rode the same school bus together. We have been lifelong friends. And together, own and hunt his family farm. We have around 750 acres available to us. And love to roam some of the same ground those old farmers did. Most of the farms are now gone. But we still have a few beef cattle and assorted other critters to take care of. All the original farmers have long since passed on. We are now the old guy's. And we're proud to have kept, and passed along many of the old traditions and ways. We both have kids, and grandkids who hopefully will carry on from us.

Didn't you see the standoff between the ranchers and the Feds a few years ago? The Feds backed down and the ranchers won what they were after. It only takes about 10% of the population in revolt to overthrow tyranny. I believe less than 10% fought the British during the Revolutionary war.

My grandmother was full blood Cherokee, raised on the reservation. From a very young age, I knew I had to hunt. It was something deep inside my soul, and still is. I would go with her every summer to visit our relatives down in NC. From my great uncles, and others, I learned some early skills. I never had a father that hunted. But the old farmer I worked for since age 12, at the end of our road did! He and his buddies took me under their wing, and got me started deer hunting. I'd already began small game hunting on my own. They were very successful hunters, and killed deer every year, back when deer numbers were nothing like today! I carry with me the traditions and memories from those younger days, each time I hunt. It's what made me who I am today. Now that I've put a half century of deer seasons behind me. I'm most proud of not the deer I've killed myself. But the many young hunters I've mentored, as I passed the torch that was given to me. So that one day they will pass it along as well. The fire from that torch, still burns hot within me. That completes the circle.

Things are heating up and other states are pitching in:

I keep saying I do not believe we are going to be able to vote our way out of this mess. It's time to make a stand. Everyone in Texas should stand up to the Feds if they show up and let them know they will fight if they have to. Then anyone who wants to volunteer to go down there and help resist the Feds should go there ASAP. I firmly believe all of this leftist nonsense will end once people stand up and say this is where we draw the line. Let the Fed know they will have to fight the people if they want to do this. If they choose to fight, then we know they've intended to enslave us all along. "If war is to come, let it come in my time, so my children may live in peace."

CNY weather

Nice! Depending on water levels I might try and get out for some small game with my daughter on Sunday.

Man has hunted for thousands of years. The driving source runs deep in the veins. It just comes naturally.

Your posts fit your user name . Nothing But Junk ! You must live in LaLa Land ! I hear Mayor Adams is looking for places to drop off some illegals that need food and shelter . Why dont you take in 15-20 at your house on your dime. Thats if you have any money left after you pay off all your neighbors student loans . And if you have any funds left by some miracle , start filling the Strategic oil Reserve to replenish the 500 million barrels that Biden drained out of it. Oh Wait ! How are you going to do that when the same idiot shut down fracking and drilling ? maybe buy more from Russia and Venezuela and put 86,000 Americans with good paying jobs out of work ? Or maybe cut down our forests and put up Chinese Solar Panels and Wind Mills that produce less than 30 percent of what they claim ? Yea thats really smart ! Dont get me started the Carbon Credit Scam your idiot signed us up for . Skeleton Corporations run by foreign oligarchs are buying up forestland in Maine and New Hampshire to sell carbon credits to companies around the world . Im sure this is happening in NY also. This does ZERO for any of your so called scam " Climate Change " All it does is make a pile of politically connected thieves richer and the average person poorer which is most likely the end game goal. . I saw Piglosi being interviewed the other day praising how great of a job Biden is doing with the claim he created 15 MILLION new jobs ! What A Scam ! Do this yourself why dont you look up the graph of the US Labor Participation Rate for the last 15 years to cover even the Obama , Trump ,and Biden years in office . You will find that it slid downwards for 8 straight years with Obama while the numbers of people on welfare and food stamps soared during the same time frame. Then look at the Trump years. You would find that 5 million people climbed out of welfare and 4 million no longer needed food stamp assistance . The Participation rate climbed by 7 million . And then there was Covid and total shutdown that has now proven to have been the wrong thing to do. Thanks Fauci ! Is he one of your brilliant scientists you claim in your last meme ? Back to Piglosi's claim of the idiot Biden created 15 million jobs . Look at the graph. On the contrary. Biden is STILL 2 million jobs short from the statistics from January 2020. He hasn't created a single job in 3 years ! Because you let people go back to work doesn't mean you CREATED the job ! Your other climate scientists are even worse ! The real scientist who had nothing to gain pointed to the real cause of " climate change " in the 60's , 70's , 80's , and early 90's . Those scientist were warning us for decades what the real cause was. Deforestation In The World Most Sensitive Forests Of The World . The Amazon and Congo Rain Forests that take in 65 percent of carbon out of the air ! I could post 50 links to their studies and warnings . If you keep cutting them down , the more carbon stays in the atmosphere .They had it right until your hero Al Gore shut them up . Now he is making 100's of millions selling useless carbon credits while cutting down thousands and thousands of acres of rain forests mining Cobalt and Lithium . Hows that frozen battery car working for you ? like the thousands of stranded cars last week ? Im going to end this rant with one last note . I refuse to lower myself to a fools level to prove to them how foolish they are. I would be a fool thinking I could educate a fool . I will stay on higher ground. My apologies to FastEddie for the rant. And Junkman , you are entitled to your opinion even though its a foolish one .

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