jusputtn

You don't have to breed to get kids into hunting. http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/46245.html Not to mention becoming an Hunter Ed Instructor. I think convenient opportunity is a factor. I can't just walk out the backdoor where I live so that means i need to have at least 1/2 a day to make it worthwhile due to the drive time. Thus it makes it harder to slip in some time with competing family activities. But I'm doing to my best to sway my son to the hunting life. I think he's taking the bait. My daughter is a tougher candidate but then again she's 4 so I've got time to work on her too.

I agree. Been shot at, not a fun thing. Just point the flashlight at the ground, any game that would be spooked by the light would be spooked by you anyway.

These days I'll start still hunting in, w/ gun, at or a little before day break. My stands are merely way points that I'll stop at for a while. I've gotten deer @ dawn, dusk, & in between. The only consistancy being that I've always been out hunting when I've gotten one.

I have a red & black buffalo plaid coat, a Johnson Mills. Bought it from a logging supply store in Rumford, Maine in the '80's. It's very warm with a liner so I usually hold off on using it until it's in the mid '30's. That's if I'm planning on doing some sitting, be a bit warm to small game with it in that weather. Got a pair of black wool Canadian military surplus plants too. Wool...been keeping outdoors men alive for centuries.

My own trail mix or a candy bar. If I'm out through lunch I'll bring a can of beans or stew and tea bags. I decided a few years back that I was in the woods to have fun. I also figure that if I have a hot meal in me and I'm having fun that I will be out longer, thus increasing my opportunities on deer or whatever else I happen to be hunting. Not to mention it's good to practice those fire craft skills.

Check out www.crowbusters.com They talk about just cutting out the breast meat.

I agree, get a 243 and he will have a deer rifle, not to mention a varmint rifle, that will last him for his life time.

I don't have the time to read all of the messages on this thread but I think there is an ethical message if you read in between the lines. I arrowed a doe once with a femoral artery shot. Not intentional as I totally blew my anchor point on a chest shot. Anyway, I got a buddy to help and we tracked her down, she was already dead and had traveled about 200 yards. Another time, I shot at a deer coming up the opposite side of a ravine from me. When I found it, within 100 yards, I was surprised that the foster slug had gone through her ham, broke her back leg, and traveled up through the length of her vitals. From my shot angle, I had expected the shot to be similar to shooting down from a tree stand into the chest cavity. Anyway, the message is, don't take bad shot angles but if things don't turn out as planned make sure to put good effort into your tracking.

http://outdoorsafe.com/read/about/ I had the opportunity to hear Peter Kummerfeldt talk yesterday. He was a career survival instructor for the Navy. The focus was on spending a night or two out while waiting for rescue, which means that you left a trip plan of your intentions so that someone knows where you are and when you are expected back. I was very impressed with what he had to say. No b.s. or gizmos. I will be able to give better instruction to my hunter ed students.

I agree that the surest thing to do is play the wind, most economical too. I do have one scent trick that I use occasionally though. A healthy dinner of broccoli, cabbage, some red meat and a few other secret ingredients.....well you get the picture. My ruse is to trick the deer into thinking that I've died and am no longer a threat to them.

I agree. At one time, I thought I was scent free. Had a rubber soled boot, used unscented laundry detergents, was careful to wear other boots when filling up with gas, etc. Then one day, sitting in a ladder stand with a few inches of snow on the ground, I watched a button buck walk by at 10 yds, once he got to my tracks he'd put his nose down to smell me, then he'd snap his head up an look around with alarm (with no idea that I was just above him), he repeated this several times and then walked away. It was a lot of fun watching him. I realized at that time that I was not willing to do what it takes "to be truly scent free". I really don't think it's possible I'm of the opinion that you can not beat a deer's nose, though I try not to be blatantly smelly, I play the wind and roll with the punches.

The Browning Lever Rifle comes in 450 Marlin. It's got a box magazine so the pointy issue goes away.

Remington 870 pump 12 gu. bird barrel, foster slugs. "The catalog energy figures for the common high-brass ("maximum") 12 gauge slug load are an impressive 2361 ft. lbs. at the muzzle". from Chuck Hawks Pointing would be more useful than aiming for close in dealings with moving temperamental bears. Also, I remember reading in an article years ago that some Alaskan guides would get their rifle custom stocked similar to their shotgun. Same concept but black bears aren't as tough as grizzlies. (I heroically type this advice from the safety of my urban home.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-blank_range Pygmy, With how your rifle is zeroed, 300 yds is the point blank range.

Why all this emphasis on the bullet going through the deer. I've killed several deer, at least, with bullets that didn't pass through them. You put the bullet where it needs to be and it'll go down soon enough.

Love that he cooked up the game in the field. Boy that looked tasty.

Mountain lions don't hibernate. They have to move around in the winter. Thus they would leave plenty of tracks if any of them had an established territory in the state.

He tells it like it is whether he has a successful hunt or not. He's not a species snob, he'll hunt whatever opportunity presents. He has a hell of a lot of fun doing it. What's not to like? An awful lot of deer have been shot before camo become fashionable.

1. I'd inundate my representatives with phone calls and letters. 2. I'd start a new religion centered around nature. My church is the woods. Wild game meat is the food of my Gods, which they share with their followers.....perhaps many of us are members of this church, it just hasn't been formally written down yet. Then I'd sue the government for religious discrimination.

Watch the fields where the farmers spread manure in the winter. There will be things like after birth and corn kernels in it that can attract them.

I hadn't heard of calling them like that. Coon can be nasty. Make sure they're dead before handling. A buddy of mine has had issues the last few years with coons killing his ducks and chickens. Seems they like bird meat. Took a bit to figure out what was getting them as he had a decent fence around his coop. Now the fence has a decent top too and he took a couple out with traps.

Toruk-Makto, How do you plan on hunting coon? I hunted corn fields at night to try scaring them up a tree a few times when I was a kid with no luck. Didn't have a dog. Most common way is to tree them at night with hounds, shine a light up there and aim in between the the two shiny spots. Shot is close, .22 is plenty of gun; particularly since they're usually hunted for their fur. The only ones I've seen during the daytime were when the rabies wave moved through my part of the state back in the mid '90's. Also saw a few sleeping in the crotches of trees; that was when they were very plentiful right before the rabies wave moved through. There are people into hounding in the northeast. You could search for some forums on the subject and see what's up.

http://dailygazette.com/news/2011/jul/25/0725_bear/ Pretty urban area for a bear to show up. Though we have just about everything else around here. Just a bit annoying that we can't shoot any of the game.

It's tough trying to get a 100 yd shot at a squirrel in hardwoods. They don't like to sit still on the ground and the trees have a tendency to get in the way. Where I hunt I'd have to pass on most shots up in the trees with a 22. A shotgun or air rifle remedies that. Squirrels tend to be more active at first and last light. In the early fall I'll bring a firearm when I hang my stands. The squirrels will be all around until I'm done with the stands and ready to hunt them. Then they seem to disappear. Need to remember that this fall and hunt a little first. In the winter the greys like to hang near pines. I expect for shelter from the wind and hawks. They're also more likely to be active during the warmest part of the day then.

Been using Sierra bullets over my handloads with CCI primers. Mostly because that's what the dealers tended to carry in the Capital District back when I started reloading & still do. They work fine, with accuracy and performance, so I see no need to experiment with other brands. Powders have been IMR and Hodgdon. "I have tried many "premium" rounds that are more expensive with no difference except a lighter wallet." I agree with Armcomm on this, been an awful lot of deer killed before "premium" bullets existed. People tend to forget that they were initially designed for the bigger critters in Africa that tended to stomp or shred you if things didn't go right.