Doc

I think a lot of people would be talking behind your back about how you really got took by the taxidermist that screwed up your deer by mounting the antlers upside down....... I think that really might be a challenging thing to mount. It looks to me like the shape of the skull may be distorted too, and the eye locations look like they have a big difference vertically. It probably would require a lot of modifications to any standard form.

Talk about having a bad day! My gosh that is horrible. They didn't say what killed him.... the fire or the fall. That does make you wonder how flammible the pop-up ground blinds might be. Anyone screwing around inside of one of them with a propane heater or some such device might want to think about that. Might just find yourself zippered into a ball of fire.

First of all, AR is not a population tool ....... that is the job of antlerless permits. As far as the current state of the deer population, I am not even going to try to second guess your assessment of what is going on in your particular local area. Chances are pretty good that you know what you are seeing, and I won't be disputing that. However, I would think that if you are experiencing a diminishing herd in western NY, it most likely is a very, very, local problem ...... And, I have seen that happen on specific high pressure, heavily hunted parcels. Anyway, I don't think you really are looking for any kind of statewide or even areawide regulation type fixes. Believe me, there is very little danger of "losing our deer herd". You may have something going on in your part of your hunting area, but that is a bit of a too-small scale for the DEC to provide any practical fixes. At any rate, AR is absolutely the wrong thing to go after a population problem with. I would suggest that you contact the regional DEC headquarters and have a conversation with one of the biologists. I think they can be a lot clearer on population control and what the practicalities of micro-managing herds by neighborhood are.

Back in the early 50's, my dad bought a brand new Ford 8N along with a full line of tilling implements. He paid for all of that stuff in his first year's harvest of beans, but that's another story. He hung on to that tractor for decades and then finally gave it to my brother-in-law who is stil using it today. Never once had it re-built and it still starts immediately. I bought one in the early 70's and used it for years and finally sold it for more than I paid for it, and as far as I know the new owner is still using it. The point is that they are nearly indestructible and very cheap. Old Fergusons, Olivers, Farmalls, Cases, John Deeres, etc., are the same way. For someone who is only interested in putting a couple food plots each year (and perhaps not even every year), I would think the cheapest option would be the smartest option. Unless money is no problem. That is why I brought up that as another option. Also, there is another potential alternative if the right circumstances offer the possibility. That is to rent land to a neighboring farmer. You lose a bit of control over crop selection and harvesting time, etc., but it is free and perhaps might even provide a small amount of income. No it's not the "high price spread" kind of professional deer food plot, but is a good alternative for someone who has more land than money. Of course, like I said, you have to have the right set of circumstances. Another option may be hiring a local farmer neighbor to do the initial tilling of your food plots for you. That initial opening of fields can be the toughest and require the bigger more professional kind of equipment. Once tilled, the annual maintenance tilling after that is easier for recreation vehicles to handle. These are just a few of the alternatives to diving in neck deep into multi-thousand dollar new line of equipment. Not every one needs to worry about that, but I sensed that finances might be forcing Single shot's choice between a tractor vs. a S x S rec vehicle. I just thought I would bring up other options that might not break the bank.

I don't care what that buck MIGHT grow into, he's a mighty fine buck right now. Chances are pretty good that most of the guys telling you to let him walk probably would shoot him if they had the chance. You'll just never hear about it....... lol.

Nice job with the buck. So now you understand the thrill of shooting these critters from the ground, eyeball-eye-ball, on their level. It just adds a whole lot more excitement to the whole thing. And when you get a chance to do it almost within touching range..... well it just doesn't get any better than that. Congratulations!

I often see geese out in fields that have just been planted. I know that seed is treated with all kinds of chemicals that most likely are somewhat poisonous. Is there any possibility that the toxins from the seed can be concentrated and maintained within the meat of these geese?

I hear a lot of specs being tossed out there but I haven't seen any prices being mentioned yet....lol. Cost is no object? If that's the case, get one of each. Last time I checked the cost of any new tractor and a full complement of fitting implements, the cost was pretty ridiculous for hobby-work. To me the perfect solution is to get a good Ford 8N, 9n, or any properly priced three point hitch old tractor and a used plow, disc and drag, and have at it. Even at that, when factored into the final cost of those food plots, it should be understood that the cost per acre is still pretty high. Add that into the cost per pound of your venison, and it would be cheaper to take a trip to NYC to one of those upscale restaurants and buy a professionally prepared venison dinner for the family a few times a year.....lol.

That buck was valued at $35,000.00. That's not poaching, it's grand larceny .... lol.

What a handsome buck! do you suppose the other deer made fun of him? That almost looks like it could have become an eating problem.

I don't suppose you ever bought some of those Browning Serpentine heads (We used to call them "apple-corers....lol). That was probably the wackiest head I ever saw. I had a few of those Hilbre heads, but was turned off by the plastic body. Never had one break, but I never trusted them. I think I have killed more deer with the Bear Razorheads than any other head. In fact a couple of years back, I dragged out a bunch of them, sharpened them up and took a nice doe. I have quite a collection of broadheads myself stuck away in a box (many of which are no longer made). It's interesting to look back and see what the hot set-up was at various times. I saw a guy at the National Hunting & Fishing days at Avon a few years back that had an amazing collection of broadheads. He had quite a few big glass faced, plywood cases full of rows and rows of everything you could imagine as far as broadheads go. It was pretty impressive to see all those different designs in one display. A pile of money has been spend on broadhead R&D over the years, but some of them survived strictly on marketing techniques.

As an alternative to my milkweed seeds, my wife donated a small spool of her least wanted sewing thread. I tie one end to a small leaf, and tie the other end to any overhanging limb. Actually it works well without the leaf. It's a lot like the feather idea above. Gives me a constant monitor of wind direction at my immediate location. These things are not good for those that are easily discouraged. Almost every time, the wind takes an occasional "back draft" sending scent out all over the trail that I am expecting the deer to be using. I often wonder just how long scent molecules stay stuck to vegetation out there where the deer are coming from. In other words, if your scent blows all over the trail (even if just a brief time) is the stand blown for that particular hunt? I know if I walked down that trail, scent molecules would be sticking to every goldenrod, blade of long grass, and sapling that I might have brushed against and even in my footprints. And I know from personal experience that deer do detect those scent molecules. So I know scent does stick and remain active and detectable by deer for some period of time. The question is does the same thing hold true for scent molecules that get distributed by an occasional "back-blow" of the wind.

If you ever run across a milkweed pod, be sure to stick it in your pack (preferably in a zip-lok bag). Setting one of those seeds from the pod loose at your stand will tell you exactly what the wind is doing .... not only right at your stand, but also a ways from you. You will be amazed at what the wind really does as it gets farther and farther from you. Those milkweed seeds will lay the whole thing out for you where the commercial sprays only give you a result of what is going on within a few feet of you.

Over the years I have read a pile of articles on broadhead design and the one thing that I have not seen discussed here is something that all the broadhead articles of years past always emphasized. That is the angle of the cutting edge relative to the axis of the shaft. I recall reading articles over the years before mechanicals were even thought of that stressed some basic principles that seem to have been ditched along the way. And this idea of having a slicing angle rather than a "chopping" angle used to be one of the big items in broadhead design. I remember a lot of tests that attempted to get at the perfect cutting edge angle. Look at the deployed profile of some of these heads and it is obvious that they are going for the "chop" attack of the blade on the hide meat and bone. That can't be great for penetration. Also today there seems to be an emphasis on cutting width. Some are close to ridiculous in that area. I suspect there is an optimum size for cut width that does adequate tissue and artery damage and yet considers the effect on penetration. Another thing that was always big on broadhead design was the idea of cut-on-contact. Rather than trying to wedge the skin the hide apart to start the cut, it was always understood that slicing the skin was better for penetration. It takes more energy to pry the skin apart than it does to cut your way in. That lost energy relates to penetration. Those basics were of most importance in the pre-mechanicals era. Logically, it seems that those principles are still valid because our intended end result is still the same. And of course the energy lost deploying the blades cannot be ignored either. That is just one more piece of the puzzle. However, there already has been mentioned the importance of striking the hide muscle and tissue with the arrow flying as perfectly co-axial as possible. Every degree or part of a degree that is not straight behind the broadhead is another impedance to penetration. Optimizing this feature involves bow tuning, arrow tuning for as near perfect arrow flight as possible. This is where the mechanicals can give an assist. Given some of the unpredictibility of hunting shots on arrow flight, it is important to get as much forgiveness in your shooting setup as possible. Eliminating the planing surfaces on the broadhead helps to compensate for some of the torqueing, clothing interferences, or just plain stance and drawing form errors that can happen during a heated bowhunting encounter. Let's face it, that is really the primary advantage that mechanical broadheads really have, but it is an valid advantage that might make the difference in point of impact and also co-axial flight both very important features that relate to penetration. So there is some justification for mechanicals. However, the proof is in the pudding, and apparently some of these mechanicals are not abiding by the basics. One thing I have noticed on a lot of our Saturday morning deer hunting programs is more and more deer running away with most of the arrow sticking out of the near side. Somebody is not getting the penetration that we used to take for granted. So, all these heads are not created equal ..... obviously. So there you are. There are pluses and minuses for the mechanicals. I suspect that the future of broadhead design still lies with the mechanicals. However I also believe that the ones that will do the best in the penetration department will be those that do not abandon history's basic design principles. Today the designs are all compromises of those things that the past has shown to be important to penetration. So, we have to sift through all the trade-offs and guess which ones are more important. Your guess is as good as mine as to the relative importance of each feature, but no discussion of broadhead design is complete without considering all these features.

I too am "ground bound". It's not because of safety concerns necessarily. We have the technology to take care of that concern. However, I do have a powerful fear of heights that has driven out of the tree-tops a couple of decades back. As careless as I was about treestand safety, maybe this fear of heights thing was a blessing in disguise .... lol. In my younger years and back before anyone ever even thought about harnesses, I used to climb through the trees like a monkey without even thinking about falling. Then somebody mentioned that I should be tethered to the tree while in the stand. Of course there was very little info about what methods were safe and what weren't. So I pulled an old lap-belt out of a VW Beetle, put it around my waist and fastened it to the tree while I was up in my stand, and thought I was being pretty smart. Little did I know that that arrangement was probably more dangerous than a fall.....lol. However, over the years things have changed to the point where people have actually done some research on the subject. So now we have true body harnesses that won't leave you suspended upside down by your waist when a fall occurs. We have units that will keep you attached from the ground up to your stand and back. We have devices that will lower you to the ground in a controlled fashion. We have all these things and all we have to do is use them. Believe me, if I were hunting in the tree-tops today, I would have every bit of this technology and would use it everytime, with no exceptions.

Regarding this topic I must mention that a treestand fall death touched our family very closely last year, and I am probably in a pretty good position to point out that these kinds of incidents do not simply affect those that are killed or maimed from treestand falls. That lapse in judgement affects all kinds of people that surround our lives. It's not just a single victim incident. So just like anything in hunting (or anything else in life) that involves safety, it's not only our lives that are impacted by those choices when things go bad. I have seen the pain and anguish on the faces of those loved ones who had to carry on after such a tragedy. So for those that may be considering foregoing safety equipment I would just like to say that there are many others to consider besides yourself. No, you cannot insulate yourself from all harm, but there are some things that you can easily apply to hunting safety. It seems unnecessary to take risks that you don't have to. You owe it to your family to use whatever hunter safety equipment that is available.

Yeah, I guess I am kind of curious about that remark also. Was that just something weird thrown into the discussion, based on absolutely nothing for absolutely no reason, or what? ...... pretty strange stuff!

LOL ...... That is a common theme on a lot of my posts lately, and that is not only true for newcomers to the sport. We all encounter some added challenge when the target is a breathing, moving, thinking, thing. But here is something that has helped a lot of bowhunters, and it's not really any kind of new idea. "Pick a spot". I know you have heard that before, but it is amazing how even seasoned hunters will occasionally forget that old basic rule, and get lured into aiming at the whole deer. I suspect it is part of buck fever or something. But restrict your aiming spot as much as possible. Some guys say aim at a specific hair ...... well, I usually am not close enough to see individual hairs, but the general point is well made. So, I am not saying that this was the problem on this particular shot, but just offer it up as a reminder that sometimes this sort of thing happens, and maybe this is an explanation for an occasional mysterious shot that seems to just go haywire for no obvious reason.

I hadn't even looked at the comments until you mentioned it. Pretty shocking stuff! It kind of puts the mentality and values of those animal rights wackos in perspective. They certainly are a twisted bunch.

I have no problem with discussing shot selection, and weather considerations and such. I just think it is poor timing to pick a thread where a guy has just had one of hunting's worst scenarios happen to him, to be making that kind of a point. Such discussions are better left to a separate thread that doesn't wind up feeling like someone piling on to a bad situation in kind of a personal way. I don't know whether I am being clear as to the distinction, but this whole thread has turned into a "well dummy you did everything wrong and I'm here to explain it all to you" kind of a thing. Yeah, I think the guy might get a bit defensive over that kind of reaction. I think I might have started a new thread to discuss errors in shot selection and weather conditions where it might not have been taken as a personal attack on his choices.

30 feet in the air ........ I can't even imagine trying to shoot from that high....lol. Of course in my case, with my fear of heights, I'd have to learn how to shoot my bow with both arms wrapped around the tree ...... lol. But seriously, do you suppose these guys practice their shooting at home from 30 feet in the air just to get familiar with how that kind of a shot has to be compensated for? Anyway, the guy is just lucky he is still alive with a fall from that height. Or who knows, maybe he will not really consider that to be a lucky thing depending on what his final condition turns out to be.

Yeah, I can understand not allowing metal items to be permanently screwed or driven into trees. These things can become forgotten or simply left behind causing quite a hazard to loggers or sawmill operators (I have heard some pretty ugly horror stories). I can also appreciate rules against hacking on trees and doing damage that will eventually lead to health problems of trees. However, it is unfortunate that some common sense can't be applied somewhere along the line. As I said earlier, I have never seen a decent bowhunting spot that didn't need some kind of shooting lane trimming. That just isn't a normal scenario in a normal woods. That also applies whether you are in a tree stand or hunting from the ground. Also as I pointed out earlier, it would be nice if there were some commonality in DEC philosophy between hunting situations and non-hunting situations on public forested land when it comes to modifications to trees and brush. I have seen much worse damage done to trees, vegetation, and the natural state of public lands by the construction of mountain bike trails than anything I have ever seen done by hunters. In fact, the lane clearing that is done by hunters is seldom even detectable by the following spring.

I'll tell you what ..... this whole thread and the replies that have come out of it bother me. I know from personal experience that a wounding loss is a pretty traumatic experience for any serious hunter. It is the kind of thing that in some cases has caused people to quit the sport. I really don't see any reason for anyone on here to feel it is their duty to make that experience even worse by nit-picking the hell out of every little detail. I don't get what people enjoy about doing that.

You guys that run trail cams automatically have a printed record of when the deer are moving in your area. No need to guess or theorize or try to remember the past..... just check your data. I have been amazed at just how regularly deer are showing up in legal hunting hours. And my records show that the split between mornings and afternoons is pretty much equal. Also, I do not have very many pictures that are taken between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm. Of course as rut comes into play, that may change.

Things are already starting to get better. I've seen a huge improvement ever since she mentioned sticking a needle in my eye .... lol. No seriously, most of the vision problems now are from the eye-drops themselves. The redness has almost completely disappeared. The problem is that from the other times that this has happened, I know that they want me to continue the drops quite a few days after the thing looks cleared up.