builtright716

Hey SBuff, Where did you camp around Cranberry Lake? I was at Moose River Plains last year for bear season, but heading out to Cranberry with my son this weekend. Hoping to find a nice bear and have fresh backstraps.

Definitely agree. Tommorrow i am tilling a couple small fall food plots. I will put the finishing touches on my 3 man deer stand (for my two boys and me). I may set up my blind and another stand this weekend, then i'm basically done besides checking cameras until opening day. I actually think this helps the deer get used to me. I walk slow with my boys when we are out, sure we bust some deer, but they don't snort, just run. Then I get trail camera pics of them the following morning. I understand the logic of not overpressuring deer, and believe me, it's hard to control when I have a 4 yr old and a 10 yr old out with me in big buck territory, but there comes a time when the joy that my boys get from their biweekly walk in the woods is more important. Plus seeing the progress that my 4 yr old has already made this year in being a woodsman is exciting. My 10 yr old has made his own self bow out of a hickory stave, his own arrows out of cedar dowels and feathers, his own broadheads by flint napping, can start a fire using magnesium and steel, and can build a shelter out of his surroundings. My 4 yr old just started whispering in the woods, and stopped splashing in the puddles. They are a rare breed in the ever growing video game consumed world, and I love it.

Does anyone else out there hunt deer with a pistol? I am interested in hearing your opinions and stories. I just love the lack of having to carry a long gun out in the woods. I hunt with a Taurus Raging Bull in .480 cal. I have taken 4 does in 2 years with this gun, and all were heart shots. There is no tracking involved.

Here are a couple pics from one of my trail cameras. The first of the year.

post some pics if u get them

There is a buck that I've been hunting in the area for the last 4 years. He was a 12 point and close to 300 pounds on the hoof last year. This is a very pressured area. He was shot at and missed from 10 yards last year by my friend, who was new to bowhunting. I jumped him one afternoon heading to my stand, and my father-in-law encountered him while he was climbing up in his stand. I have a cuddeback in the oaks overlooking his trail coming out of the dense brush. It's pointing right at one of his scrapes. I will probably check it tommorrow to see if it is the same monster from last year. I'll post the pics if I can figure out how.

After being afflicted with the "Fever" for the last month or so, I have been spending alot of time in the woods. This past weekend, my boys and I stumbled upon the start of a rub line in a patch of oaks that are steadily dropping acorns. I thought, "no big deal" and figured this was just during the night time feeding patterns of a few bucks, as there was droppings and tracks everywhere. However, it is now Thursday, only 4 days later, and after venturing around the trails and once again coming to the oak stand, we found an obvious scrape line with 6 scrapes spaced apart through 150- 200 yards of trail. All had licking branches broken overhead. We found about 7-10 more scrapes on main travel corridors with not quite the same noticeable pattern as the first 6, and 10- 15 more rubs, a couple of which were on sizeable trees. The area that I'm talking about consists of maybe 15 acres as a core, but surrounded by 4 or 5 hundred acres of brush, swamp, and hardwoods. I have hunted this area for at least 12 years, and have never encountered activity like this so early. We had a drastic temperature change that has coincided with all the activity, and that is what I would guess is the cause. I live in Western NY. Anyone have any thoughts?

I live in Niagara County. We had a bear sighting last week in Newfane. I have seen a cougar myself here 5 years ago, and he's starting to be seen more often now too.

I live in Niagara County, in Newfane. We are having bear sightings here now. We have also had reports of cougars as well. I saw one about 5 years ago down by Lake Ontario.