Doc

We have a deer anatomy thread that has a pretty good picture of what possibly is the "No Man's Land" that people talk about. I am referring specifically to the very first photograph in the thread at http://huntingny.com/forums/topic/6770-deer-anatomy/page-1 Or am I misinterpreting what I am seeing there. Aren't those vertical things above the lungs the upper parts of the ribs? Or are they the top vertical parts of the vertebrae? What do you all think?

I'm still trying to figure out how short a person has to be to sneak up on deer in a bean field. How do you do that? Maybe dress up in a tree costume and move very, very, slowly?

Good fences make good neighbors. Boundaries are then permanently marked. However, you talked about 200-300 acres. That's a lot of fencing. Fencing is not cheap, so check your budget. If cost is not an issue, I would definitely fence it

First of all, I think the whole plan is motivated by an anti-bowhunter bias. Why do I say that? well, first of all if it was only about increasing the annual doe take, this doe-only activity would be placed in the season where it is most likely to actually work. That would be gun season. So their stated motives are certainly suspect. Secondly, about a decade ago the DEC was championing an early muzzleloader season. That "want" has not gone away, but what has gone away is the honesty of how they intend to force it to happen. Today they are pushing it under the guise of doe harvest management. When you put it all together, the whole deal is about as underhanded a deal as I have seen since Cuomo's midnight raid on the 2nd Amendment. And then from a practical standpoint, a buck spooked off a stand because the hunter can't legally harvest him, is not likely to be coming back for a second try in a couple of weeks. Pretty much, the better buck stands have a good chance of being wrecked for the entire season by bucks going by the stand and getting downwind and learning where not to go. I really don't want to do that. So I intend to stay out of my stands until I can have an opportunity to take that buck instead of simply watching him pass by until he is downwind. At that point I will take buck or doe depending on what comes along. I'll take does as the opportunity presents itself, and if a buck comes along that I want, I'll take that too.

Land that is not lived on will be trespassed on. I think that is a pretty universally true statement. And it might change your thinking around just a bit. Years ago, I bought property that was within commuting distance of work. Granted I had no problem driving a ways. Today, 40 years later, I have had the use of the land (hunting and otherwise), have my house and outbuildings all established, have been able to hunt after work, and everyone knows that they could run into me at any time of the day or night, and anywhere on the hill or down here in the valley. So potential trespassers have figured out that this is not land that is deserted for 5 of the 7 days of the week. It's also worth mentioning that when it came time to retire, there was no sudden need for a financial drain on my retirement funds for all the needed features for living here. It has been all paid for over the 40 years without maintaining two properties. I just thought I would mention all this as perhaps another alternative plan.

And of course the DEC fully understands that. That is why it was implemented in the bow season rather than a gun season where they could actually accomplish their professed goals.

At first, that was my take on it all. It stands to reason that the more years you are around to be exposed to a disease, the higher rate of incidence you are going to see. But one does have to wonder why the positive cases in mature bucks is 18%, but the positive cases in mature does is only 7%. That seems to be a very significant difference based only on gender. So maybe it really isn't all about age.

My season starts on the 16th. I have had a ball hunting squirrels. and probably actually got more meat doing it than if I had been deer hunting.....lol. Yes, it may very well be cutting off my nose to spite my face, but I will not go along with this DEC attack on bow hunting. And yes it may very well lead to an early muzzleloader season, but I suspect that is really what is at the root of all this nonsense anyway, and regardless of what the doe take winds up being, since it is not their real motive, I'm sure the doe take by bowhunters would never have been enough anyway. Anyway, I have re-discovered the fun of squirrel hunting, and have had a chance to take care of fall winterizing of lawns, grounds and some household maintenance. I must say that I have not seen (or heard) any sign of the youth gun season so far, and I have not seen a large crowd of bowhunters. That of course does not mean a thing, and is simply one person's observations in one tiny part of the state.

Don't you just love it when the wind is finally just right for that afternoon stand for almost all of the day and then right at the end of the day when the deer really get moving, the afternoon thermals kick in and start blowing your scent right to the trail you're watching. That's where it is nice to have a lot of experience with some of these stands so that you don't get blind-sided by the thermals. Another thing is that I have certain stands around a huge ravine on the hill where the wind always channels up and out of the ravine, and while it may be a steady predicted westerly wind everywhere else in the world, along that ravine there will be a consistent easterly wind right out to the trail. Eventually I learned about that and rebuilt my stands to compensate. There sure was a lot of frustration before I figured that little peculiarity out. Sometimes forecasted wind direction at certain spots will never agree with wind directions at your stand. And yes there are some spots where the terrain shunts the wind all over the place in ever-changing directions. Again, a bit of experience on the same parcel of hunting land tips you off to these areas and you finally figure it out that there is no way of hunting those areas. It's all the beauty of hunting hill country ..... lol.

I have seen a lot of guys that spend their hard earned cash on anything and everything that has a good marketing ploy. And if they haven't done the wind direction thing, they still get busted. I have an old pair of camo cover-alls that hang year around down in the basement for the past 25 years (never seen a washing machine), and I have been within touching distance of several deer simply because I paid attention to the basics of wind direction. What I have found is that you can't buy success, and that hunting is more about what you do in the field rather than what some chemist sitting in a lab will do for you. I have no idea what works for other people, but for me there are no purchased shortcuts that I am willing to invest in. One thing is probably true, if buying all the scent-free paraphernalia and scent eradication sprays and mystical processes and rituals and whatever, gives you extra confidence without making you careless about the fundamentals, then maybe it has served some kind of purpose for you. But like ApexerER, I tend to try not getting too crazy about buying every product that people are hawking and just enjoy the hunt. Maybe I am too casual, or maybe I simply am not treating my hunting like my life depends on getting a deer. Also, I enjoy my hunting however it turns out, and try not to be too upset if I don't happen to have the absolute latest in what everyone is trying to sell me. Of course, the fact that I am just plain cheap does form a lot of my attitude .... lol. But I generally enjoy an adequate amount of success.

We're probably over-thinking this way too much ... lol. My take on it is always, if I have an antlerless permit in my pocket, and a mature doe walks by, I'm likely going to shoot it. My shooting that one doe is not really going to mean that all bucks will be vacating the area. It also will not cause any significant amount of increase in buck completion unless I just shot the last doe in the woods. Seriously, those one or two does that I might actually be able to shoot early in the season are not really going to have all that much impact on buck behavior, and that is probably the least thing that I really have to worry about.

Look, you wimps can keep your shots within 30 or 40 or even 100 yards, but I am thinking that I may just get lucky with my new shooting style.

Of course old age is not the only factor in antler development, but so much is made of deer management and yet there are pockets of huge deer in places where the only management tool is the motor vehicle. It appears that the biggest factor is simply to allow deer to reach old age. And urban and suburban environments seem to be the most effective way of seeing bucks reach their full potential. I suspect that that is the most effective factor in "managing" for big racks.

Be careful with .270 Winchester. Here are some out of two boxes that I bought the day I bought my rifle. This is some of the absolute worst quality bullets I have ever purchased from any manufacturer. After several weeks of negotiating and waiting, I finally got credit exactly for the cost of the bullets with no reimbursement for shipping, or grief and aggravation. This wasn't a problem with misfires ..... some of these wouldn't even chamber. So, none of these manufacturers are immune from quality problems. Hand loading is the only way to guarantee quality.

It is interesting how many huge bucks are found around major cities and suburbs where hunting is either nonexistent or severely curtailed. And yet, there is nothing about ground minerals or food plots or habitat that is particularly ideal. They all have just one thing in common, and that is long life. These are probably some of the worse managed deer herds anywhere and yet they thrive on not being managed.

You know, I really love that rule that "ignorance of the law is no excuse" and I love the condescending tone that usually goes along with. One of these days I would like to meet that mythical person who knows everything that's in those volumes and volumes of Environmental Conservation Laws. And that would include judges, J.P.s, and even the DEC law enforcement people (and at least those people all have the law books to refer to when they are looking for a "pinch" or conviction). Yes it is true that ignorance of the law is not a legal defense, but please do not try to come across with this holier-than-thou attitude pretending that you know all the conservation laws. Nobody really is buying it. Yes, you are likely breaking laws every season that you are unaware of, so don't be so damned ready to demand the violator's first born, as though it could never happen to you.

46 years for us in 4 days, but I had to do it twice before I got it right. Congratulations Growie. You're off to a great start .... lol.

I have been quite impressed with Runnings. Not necessarily with their pricing, but as far as product selections, they always seem to be reading my mind ..... lol. Their hunting, trapping and fishing selections are not in the same league as Bass Pro and Field and Stream and such, but they do have enough so that anyone who is looking for a certain outdoor item should not fail to at least stop in and check them out. And I should not fail to mention the stuff that I am addicted to ...... their licorice......lol. That's one thing that keeps me walking through their doors a lot!

There sure are a bunch of us in that area. But I have a feeling that Gander Mountain may be in trouble. They are the worst in the area in terms of what they stock or more importantly, what they don't stock. I don't even go there anymore, especially with the Field & Stream store a stones throw away.

We have a very extensive thread on deer anatomy: http://huntingny.com/forums/topic/6770-deer-anatomy/page-1 It's always good to browse through this thread some time prior to the season just to refresh your memory on where everything is and where you should be aiming.

I kind of wonder if you might see some of these stores dropping out eventually. It sure seems like they have the market saturated here locally. Can Gander Mountain really survive?

That one's okay. I don't eat the face anyway.

They do have the reflexes of a fly .... lol. When they decide to go, the first movement is down-ish. They may also be turning at the same time but the escape motion is first down to load up their legs for that first bound. So it is possible that the deer "jumped-the-string". So many ways for the bowhunter to get screwed .... ha-ha. That's all part of the bowhunting challenge and what can make it so exciting, but occasionally frustrating too. That's one of the reasons why the old pieplate-sized target accuracy may not be good enough. A lot of guys are now trying to aim at the lower third of the deer's body (heart area) to kind of hedge their bets a little against the old string-jump trick. That does require some additional precision shooting.

News Article in Canandaigua Daily Messenger says that the Victor Bass pro shop and plaza is still on track now that archeological studies has been concluded and submitted. Still on schedule for 2016. The competition for the outdoorsmen's buck is about to get even more fierce. http://www.mpnnow.com/article/20151003/NEWS/151009897/-1/json Gander Mountain, Dicks Sporting Goods and Field and Stream store and now Bass pro, all in a fairly small radius. All we need now is a Cabelas (sp?).

I don't believe that is a nut at all. I think it is one of a jillion different kinds of galls mostly coming from oak trees. This particular style of gall comes from the sting of a certain variety of wasp. Inside that thing is a larvae. Cut it open and you should see a chamber with a small grub inside. I have found these on the ground after they have detached from the tree. The one I found was a pale pinkish-orange color with dark red spots. It probably was a more mature stage of the same thing you found. It was about the size of a grape. That is my best guess.