Doc

About the only difference I see between hill-tops and valley bottoms is the fact that whichever one I am hunting, it will turn out that the deer were having a party at the other....lol. By the way, don't forget the trails up and down the side-hills. Those can be some super hot-spots. Deer do get very habitual about choosing and using those (especially early in the season).

Be sure to take a couple shots with your bow before you actually wear them out hunting. You probably won't have any problems, but better safe than sorry.

I will get a last minute forecast to make sure that they are serious about all that crappy weather that we got coming. And if it is still the same garbage forecast, I may not be out there super early. It may be a good day for a little combo of still-hunting and super slow-mo scouting.

Saturday just might be a good day to try some of nyantler's still-hunting. I'm picturing a windy, nsty, blustery, day with bowhunters all hunkered down in their stands, and the deer just out of sight all hunkered down and both being miserable and neither one of them moving all day....lol. This might be one of those cases where Barry Wentzel in his video would be recommending that "you go to the deer". I think a little combo of still-hunting and slow-motion scouting might just be in order. Wet leaves and heavy wind should keep movement pretty quiet.

Ha-ha ..... At least he didn't get hit in the back of the head with a paintball. I have watched joggers go running by in their little spandex flourescent colored jogging suits, prancing like some kind of gazelle. I must admit to a certain amount of respect (maybe even a bit of jealousy) for anyone who can climb that friggin killer-hill and still have enough strength left to be running back in as far as I am. After all, after you climb that ridiculous hill, about 3/4 of a mile with a slope that has you almost on your hands and knees (well that might be a slight exaggeration....lol), I am another 3/4 of a mile deeper in. You have to give it to someone with that kind of stamina. However, when you have spent a few hours patiently waiting on stand, that sort of thing is not exactly something that you welcome....lol.

I'm a "Data Nut". I log everything. I keep a spreadsheet that records the picture number, date, time, (buck, doe, unident., fox, squirrel, etc., etc.), heading, camera location, and any comments. I can sort on any of these categories. It may or may not present any kind of predictive uses, that's yet to be determined. But in general, any kind of information that I amass, including pictures, is lost if it isn't organized. Perhaps there are short-term trends that might be recognized and be useful for hunting. For example, I have one particular area where there seems to be a pretty substantial amount of consistant daytime deer movement. That might continue, or it might end immediately, but it is something that's worth knowing. There are other trails that have been seriously mucked up that my cameras are now showing is purely "after dark" movement. Time spent hunting there would most likely be wasted time even though the sign would indicate that it is a hot-spot. Perhaps there are other long term general trends about deer movement that is just something interesting to know whether it helps our hunting knowledge or just fills in a few missing gaps about whitetail behavior. At any rate, the cameras are out there amassing all kinds of information. It would be a shame to just throw it all away.

I wonder how the various parcels of state land have escaped this sort of thing. I'm not talking about an occasional neighbor kid or two. I mean organized paintball events. It's certainly not illegal. And the mood that the DEC is in these days, I'm surprised they are not inviting this kind of participation on state lands. They seem to be in a mode of encouraging all kinds of non-hunting uses of state lands. After all, they have no problems with the big mountain bike clubs hacking a maze of trails and painting trees. Ha-ha.... that will be the next thing. We'll be in our stands surrounded by paint-ball armies ..... lol. They can join in with the hikers and bikers. And by the way, anyone who thinks that such intensive activity doesn't effect deer behavior, doesn't really understand deer behavior very well.

I suppose it all depends on the personality of the CO. If he's having a bad day, I think that shooting a bear that has been drawn to a stand via some food source (gut pile or whatever) has grounds for calling it baiting. As far as "intentions", that word doesn't really show up all that much in laws. However, if intentions were to be taken into consideration, it probably would not come down to the intentions of why the gut-pile is where it is. They might consider to be more important the intentions as to why you are hunting over the gut-pile and subsequently shot the bear. I wouldn't doubt for a minute that many COs would not even question the circumstances involved in the kill. It certainly doesn't show up during the harvest report .... lol. It probably wouldn't be a real good idea to volunteer that info to a CO.

The possibilities are endless. Even with perfection on the archery range, we don't really have control over what the deer will do when the arrow is on it's way. There's a lot of other things that can happen too ..... such as a 25 yard shot that I took years ago that was heading right for the vitals but somehow found one little twig that I had missed when I brushed out the shooting lane. I watched the arrow deflect badly and the deer run into the bushes. I thought I clearly saw the arrow miss the deer, but what I didn't see was that it passed through the deer's neck cutting the jugular (that was back when my luck occasionally ran good). Later when I went out to see if I could find my arrow and assess the damage to it, a slight movement to my left caught my eye about 15 yards away. Yup, there was my deer with his head halfway up looking at me. At that point I completely lost it. I panicked and tried to make a quick shot and I missed. Hard to believe .... 15 yards just isn't something that I would normally miss, but I was out of control. Slammed hard with buck fever! .... lol. The deer staggered up to it's feet and headed over the rise weaving back and forth and almost falling over backward. 150 yards later, I found him. So anyway, when an arrow winds up in a place that we would never expect, sometimes it's just the way things happen. These little "accidents" when coupled with the fact that deer just simply do not stand still like our archery range targets can cause some strange things to happen. In the case of these pictures ..... who knows what happened. It is even possible that somebody tried to shoot him in the head ...... lol. It's not really something you can tell from a few pictures.

Actually, deer screwing up perfectly executed bow shots is a very well video-documented occurance and that applies with modern high-performance bows and arrows as well. The fastest bow and arrow combination is still a long way from the 1126 fps which is the speed of sound. A deer that is spring-loaded and on "set", and ready to react to the slightest sound or movement is still a challenge for the best of archery equipment.

Take a walk someday with snow on the ground and take note of how many sets of tracks you see going up and down the hills. The deer in the valleys are the same deer on the hill-tops (and vice-versa), and they can cover that distance in no time at all (and do).

Those pictures also illustrate just how much non-lethal area there is in the head.

I would have to think that if you hunt over it, you are technically using it as a bait whether intentional or not. If you harvest a bear because of it, I would expect a CO to be enclined to call that hunting bear over bait, especially if it were shot while it was consuming the gut-pile. I think it would make a good question to ask the DEC people.

LOL ......

If you want to check out the scope, just take the ML scope and put it on your rifle and see what happens. That assumes that the mounts are compatible.

I'll just stay with exactly what I said in my reply. I think it was a good assessment of what you were saying and I also think the response was appropriate.

I think you have been given excellent advice!

I feel your pain ... lol. I have seen the state land that I hunt change from a bowhunter's paradise to something that resembles Coney Island with an unbelievable volume of hikers and bikers. Also contrary to documented trends, there has been a marked increase in small game hunters in the last couple of years that seem to be more interested in just shooting up the woods than any real small game hunting. But I have found that the bikers and hikers pretty much stay on defined trails. So if (and that's a big "if") you can get away from those, you have a chance of having a spot to hunt. It probably won't solve the thievery and you may have to make adjustments to fix that problem. For example, for other reasons (a fear of heights), I have become fairly proficient at hunting from the ground using natural blinds. It isn't really the end of the world, and I have found it way more exciting to hunt deer on thier level, eyeball to eyeball. But anyway, there are ways to make the best of a less than ideal set of conditions.

Something that you might want to try to take care of first would be to check with the landowner that has the adjoining corn field and try to get permission to track a wounded deer onto his property. It sounds like you are close enough so that you might need that. Also, you never know you might just obtain permission to hunt his property too. As far as how to get educated on some new land (public or otherwise), how about a little of both? Try a morning stand for a few hours and then start wandering around learning a bit more about the rest of the state land. There's a good chance that you may locate a few another spots that may even be better.

On the ones that have meat removed, I don't see any way they could be anything other than a bullet wound. You know, there's an awful lot of people in the woods that definitely over-estimate their real shooting ability. If only they could shoot half as good as they think they can ...... and I'm not talking about benchrested off sand bags either ..... lol.

I've tried it ........ Drove me crazy. I couldn't really concentrate, thinking about what might be coming in while I was not taking care of business .... lol. Years ago I tried listening to Rush Limbaugh with the little ear thing stuck in my ear. Same thing..... drove me nuts thinking about the snapped twig or the footsteps in the leaves that I was not able to hear. Only one thing to do when hunting anymore. That involves intense looking and listening and concentrating on what I'm there to do .....lol.

Generally, I pack a big zip-lock plastic bag (gallon size??) and butcher them right on the spot after shooting them. Everything just seems easier when they are still warm. What I do is make approx. a 1-1/2" slit in the hide across the back. Then working a couple finger under each side of the slit until I can get a good grip and then just pull the hide apart in opposite directions. It all takes a couple of seconds, Then I open up the belly and strip out the guts. Chop off the feet and tail and into the bag he goes. And then I am ready for the next one.

I just wish I had a bit more confidence this year. Trail cams are a wonderful thing until they don't show what you want to see. Last year, there were jillions of pics of does and bucks....... not this year. I can conjure up all kinds of reasons why what I'm see on camera is not representative of what will be happening once the season starts. But now we are getting real close and the cam story is still the same. I have spent days wandering all over the place, but the sign is still extremely sparce. I think I might be getting a bit worried now ..... lol. A few days from now, we will be getting a first hand look at the real situation. I just hope it all lives up to expectations.

Oh..... lighten up! It was a joke.

Frankly, I have no problem with people putting whatever effort into food plotting that they want. It's not really any of my business anyway. However, I did get a bit torqued at the post that basically said that if you're not food plotting, you are not pulling your weight. That one was a bit over the top and needed a response.