Doc

First the pop-up blind question. The answer is absolutely yes! I set my blind up just inside a stand of pines the first time I used it and about half of it was exposed to a grass field that I was watching. My intent was more for scouting and seeing where the deer were entering the field. Sure enough three deer came out of the swamp below the field at about 100 yards. The grazed their way to within about 60 yards of the stand, and one of the does stopped, started doing it head-bobbing thing along with the foot-stomping game and eventually had all three of them looking stomping and carrying on. Next thing I knew they all took off. Lesson learned: conceal that thing. Now I tuck that thing into the bushes, and brush it all in with goldenrod, pine boughs or whatever I can find in the area. When I get done, even I have to look close to see where it is. That just simply is not an option. When properly done, I have had deer a few feet away that never knew I was there. I suppose if you're rifle hunting over a longish distance you might be able to get away without super-concealment. But for bowhunting, there is no choice. Second, regarding your fear of getting busted when you draw your bow, the trick I use involves the blind construction. We have a lot of double or triple trunk oaks that have provided a rather wide wall all by themselves. With a few logs pulled up and some brush with leaves still attached, you can create a wide wall to stand behind. Blow-downs also make good framework for a brush and log blind. I usually have these constructions about 20 yards away from a trail that runs crosswise to the way I am watching. A deer coming down the trail does all the moving for me. I simply stand behind this wall, draw my bow and wait for him to walk past. When the heart/lung area is exposed, away goes the arrow. That's the way it is supposed to work. lol...ever notice how bucks never seem to be walking on trails? Sometimes you just have to wing it when things don't go according to plan.....Ha-ha. Occasionally I have built "L"-shaped blids to get some options for the deer that doesn't want to play by the rules. I also always clear out the leaves all the way around the blind so I can use either side depending on where the deer comes from. You can see why it's important to see the deer coming from a ways off. There is some pre-positioning that you have to do.

Keep your eyes out for just one milkweed pod and strip out the seeds, put them into a small zip-lock baggie and then stuff the baggie in your pack. It is amazing to watch those little critters take off. I just send one out once in a while when I am on stand just to feel good about where my scent is really going..... Or .... to learn the ugly truth about how its going in a place I really wish it wasn't.... lol.

That's an interesting thought. Pay the farmer the market price of the beans left in a half acre or so of the field (plus maybe a bit extra). He gets his money and saves the harvesting costs for that section of the field. You never know they just might go for it. Good idea!

I think the powder style wind indicators are great for a quick idea of what the wind is doing in close to you. However, maybe you can educate me a bit on those things since I have never used any of it, but is the stuff still visble 15 or 20 yards away from where you dispense it? I ask that because the milkweed seeds that I spoke of a while back stay aloft for a long ways out and can be seen from quite a long distance. I often am surprised to see just how different my scent path is as it gets farther and farther away from me. My only experience with the powder stuff is what I see on TV and it looks as if it is fairly dispersed within a couple of yards. So if the wind is taking any turns and twists and reversals 10 yards out or more the powder never reveals that.

No lock or no metal box. I was relying on the fact that it would take someone with armor on to come in from the state land side. However, I have a driveway that is about 1000' long and it passes within view of the camera. We are constantly getting people driving up thinking it is some old 1-lane dirt road. I'm starting to think it was somebody that came into my driveway and somehow spotted it. In fact it may be that it wasn't even a hunter. But anyway, I mistakenly counted on the fact that no one but me can really get to that spot. It really is acres and acres of multi-flora rose on the state land side with no trails through it. It's way more likely that the thief came in from my side.

I generally chalk it up to an interesting event and keep on moving to wherever it is I was heading to. Unless I can figure out a reason why the deer was there, or a reason why they would ever come back, I simply chuck it into my memory banks and don't really act on the event. Most deer that I have ever noticed seem to plop themselves down pretty much wherever they feel like it and that does not necessarily make it a consistant bedding area or anything other than the place where they finally decided to take a load off their feet. Depending on the level of pressure they are experiencing, they may chose more secluded or thicker cover to flop in, but I have also seen them right out in an open woods. They do not re-use beds. So be happy that you have evidence that deer are in the area, but that's about as useful as that encounter is likely to ever be.

I certainly hope they get wiped out, but I know they are a very well-financed organization and they could (and apparently already have) drag this out for way too many years. However, it is good to hear that somebody is fighting back and taking the offensive for a change.

No, there already is a bunch of things that you have to put into the camera during set-up. A five or six digit code literally would cost no more. And not everyone knows how to hack codes .... lol.

And for the most part, those small game hunters don't even know they are there.

For me, the challenge of bowhunting is the fact that I have to get close. That's what I got into bowhunting for was to take on the challenge of a short-range weapon for hunting. Maybe I'm in the minority on that these days. But I think I'm much more impressed with a bowhunter that gets his deer at 10 or 15 yards than some guy who had to "settle" for a 50 yard shot.

Actually it was the best camera that I had. Far better than my Bushnells and my Primos. It was not the IR model and was meant to take some frameable night pictures. And it did a very good job of that. I used it more to take pictures of critters other than deer, and it was the only camera of that quality that I had to do that. I have to wonder why they don't make these cameras with some kind of code that you have to put in during the initial set-up. That would make the camera useless to anyone other than those that had the code.

And once again, I will drag out my old story about a work-aquaintance who could consistantly hold a coffee cup sized group on the archery range but had the most unbelievable record for wounded and lost deer. 5 different deer wounded and lost in one season. Why? .... because be was over-impressed with his target range success and tried to transfer all that over into hunting season. I don't know why people can't accept that a bow is a short-range weapon. Yes sometimes people get lucky and shoot a deer at some ridiculous distances. That does not mean that it was a smart shot regardless of your abilities at stationary targets in controlled archery range conditions. It just means that if you shoot enough arrows, sometimes you will get lucky.

That's the first thing that popped into my mind. It should be reported to the DEC and let them try to figure out what caused the death. They might be interested from a law enforcement standpoint, or from a health standpoint. You never know what kinds of things they are trying to track in that area.

I'm sure there are some wacked out bowhunters out there just like there are in the gun-hunting community. I haven't run into them yet, but will not deny that bowhunters are people and like any segment of people there has to be a certain percent that acts badly. But I really don't see the value of starting a thread which paints a whole group of hunters with a broad brush that makes it sound like all or even most bowhunters are a bunch of crazies that hog the woods and rant and rave at every other hunter that comes near their stand. To me it is just more of this anti-bowhunter mania that seems to be so popular these days. In reality, bowhunters share the woods with more different kinds of hunters (and non-hunters) than anyone else. Whatever needs a season, it is thrown into bowseason. So these accusations about bowhunters being selfish are pretty much B.S. and getting just a bit tiresome.

I have to use ground blinds. Usually they are just a small wall of brush and logs built from stuff on-site. I have just begun experimenting with pop-up blinds but have not connected yet. To me there is no doubt that treestands have great advantages. There is some scent advantage although I believe much over-rated. Being out of the line of sight has advantages also as long as there is adequate back-cover. I spent quite a few decades hunting from treestands until a fear of heights finally took over. Eventually I realized that you can't shoot a bow with both arms wrapped around the tree trunk. I went through a transition stage where I built a huge treestand that was 4'x5' with a railing all the way around. You could hold a square dance up in that thing. It was all built out of pressure treated 2x8's and held to the tree with 6" heavily galvanized lag bolts. I'm sure that will be there for decades after I'm gone. But eventually, I couldn't even get comfortable in that either. What I have learned in the years since, is that there is absolutely nothing more exciting than hunting deer from the ground, eyeball-to-eyeball. I have had deer almost within touching distance, and there isn't anything that will get your heart pounding more. So now, even if the fear of hieghts was to leave me, I'm not sure I would ever get up in a tree again.

I have a ghillie suit that is a "poncho-style" and I have to be darned careful when I shoot the bow with it. In fact it is mostly used for turkey hunting with a gun. If you choose the right style and pattern, it can make you blend in so that someone has to be specifically knowing what to look for in order to see you. It's the most effective camo going. But yes, you do have to be very careful when shooting a bow with it. I have never been shot at or photographed, but I have scared the hell out of a few hunters that got too close. When that non-descript lump waves at you, I guess it can be a bit un-nerving until you finally figure it all out.

The strap was still there. It had been cut with a knife. Probably in a hurry.

Ever wonder what it would take to orchestrate a statewide cover-up. Imagine the volume of DEC personel that would have to be sworn to life-time secrecy. Imagine trying to control that information and contain it from all of NYS. Let's face it, this is not the CIA that we're dealing with .... lol. And of course there is the motive ... what could that possibly be?

Just found out that my $200 Cuddeback has been stolen. I suppose it was my own fault. It was a few yards over onto state land, but within sight of my driveway. I didn't think anyone would find it since it was buried back in a huge area of man-killer wild rose. The only way I think they could have seen or even gotten to it was if they came up my driveway and looked off to the side. Well anyway, I guess I learned my expensive lesson. I hate thieves.

Your welcome. That's what I am here for....lol.

Ok, you've made that clear .... lol. Your hostility makes absolutely no sense, but hey, whatever gets you through the day.

I went there once at night during their Christmas decorations, and the lighting was spectacular. It really is a fantasic thing to see.

My gosh Paula, you really are on a tear these days. Seems like you have nothing to do but hop in and out of these threads making your little unprovoked snide remarks. Do you ever have anything useful to say anymore or are you just here to see how many people you can irritate?

Well, in my little corner of the hunting world, it has come off as a non-event. State parking lots are empty today, and the couple of cars that were there over the weekend may very well have been bowhunters, small game hunters or hikers or bikers. It's actually quieter than usual.

That is the real problem with over-lapping seasons ..... you have to make choices, which means that you are going to miss out on something. I am a real fan of squirrel hunting but bowhunting is my real passion. Now with the early start of the bow season, I guess that activity is stopped right from the first of October now. I just have September for squirrels, and most of that month is a bit slow for squirrel activity.