Splitear

That sucks. Hopefully it's a quick recovery. Good luck.

I'm pretty sure I heard one of them say "What you looking at you jive turkey?!"

I'd be mounting that thing on a board and giving it to him for Christmas

That sucks. I hope it’s mild and you recover quickly.

Way fewer deer, and a total switch in tactics due to food sources. Where I grew up hunting in Illinois, there’s probably a 4-1 ratio of crop fields to woods, and that gets flip on its head here. It was never much of a problem to find a travel corridor between food source (fields) and bedding. If you could station yourself in between, you could pretty much take a deer every day. Some of my stands, you could almost set your watch by when deer would come through. You can compare the photos, one is a section I used to hunt on my in-laws farm, and the other is the area that I am currently hunting. I’ve never been skunked so much as I have in New York, but I think it’s just a lot harder to pattern these deer. It really is a matter of being in the right place at the right time. As far as gun season goes, the almost month long season is the biggest change. In Illinois, there are 2 weekend long gun seasons, with an additional weekend for Muzzleloader, and a late season weekend antlerless only. Bow season runs through January and is only called off during gun seasons. These shorter gun seasons get the deer moving for a weekend, and then they settle down in between. This long gun/muzzleloader season is a marathon rather than a sprint like the gun seasons I grew up with.

Well, that puts a cap on the 2020 season for me. Not the most successful season I’ve ever had, but it was my first season hunting New York. I had a lot of fun, I learned a lot, and can even say that I killed a deer on my first hunt in New York with my bow kill. I appreciate all of the advice I’ve received on the forum, and am looking forward to next season.

Last hunt of 2020 for me. Lots of tracks cut in the snow, and a bedding area on the hill. Hopefully I can catch something moving in the next few hours.

I went out for about an hour this afternoon, and came within 30 yards of having a comfortable shot at 3 does. Made it to about 100 yards before they decided to move off. I’ll be honest, I really thought about throwing a round ball at one of them, but the last thing I want to do is wound one and have to track it through 30 inches of snow. Still, it was a blast and I found half a dozen beds, with about as many trails leading to a creek crossing. I’ll probably sit for a little bit in the morning and watch that crossing before calling it a year.

Yeah, looking like some kind of Domestic Chinese Goose. https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/chinese

I thought that too, but it's missing the basal knob. Cornell Lab of Ornithology app couldn't ID from photo either. Very interesting.

I'm following this, I've looked around on the internet a little bit and can't find exactly what it is...

I think I'm going to try to slog around in the snow tomorrow just to give a last attempt at one with my muzzleloader. We had 30" of snow here, so it's a deep trek, but I'll probably give it a few hours tomorrow.

Same issue when I took a group to Scotland several years back. Fortunately the college I’d arranged with ended up taking us everywhere after the rental had a blowout and the rental company “lost” the car after having it towed. It was really a weird feeling shifting on the other side.

I did not, but I did way overpay for a toll because the automatic reader wouldn’t take my ticket, and the toll worker and I couldn’t communicate over the intercom. After backing up that lane for 5 minutes I just paid the toll for the whole route and went on. That was our first day there, and fortunately the only time I had issues. The drive through the mountains from Parma to Tuscany was crazy, and made all the more dangerous by the bicyclists, but that’s where I kind of got my shifting legs back underneath me.

I learned in my dad’s old standard GMC Jimmy. I also drove a lot of farm trucks and equipment back when I was working on the farm. I’m sure I’m a little rusty, but it’s like riding a bike. I know when we went to Italy a few years ago, it took a little while for me to get my shifting back on par, but I’m glad I was settled before we went to the hills of Sienna. Those Italian drivers don’t leave and inch between you at stoplights, no matter the grade of the hill you’re on.

I was amazed on my drive home after my hunt Monday evening. I saw 9 deer feeding before dark! I'm still not sure what my plan will be tomorrow. The private land I hunt doesn't have any crop fields, mostly pasture and a few hay fields. So far, I haven't seen much sign in the hay fields. There are several really swampy areas, but I'm not about to venture into them, especially in the snow, I'll have a twisted ankle within 15 minutes. I thought about still hunting, I've just never really done it, and I don't want to run everything out of my woods with the weekend still to hunt. I guess I still have some time to develop some kind of plan...

Well shoot, you’re welcome

For what?

At that point I wasn’t hunting, and I felt almost physical pain every time I sent $1.25 down range In all honesty, I more than doubled my money on it.

Very sharp. I hope you enjoy that thing!

Back out by 2:30, a little later than I meant to be. I tried finding a tree overlooking a swampy bedding area, and couldn’t find a thing. I loaded back up and headed up the road a piece, and am hunting the field I killed my doe during bow season. Maybe I pushed something up this direction...

I’m set up for opening day of ML season in our logged woods (was cut last winter/spring). Had a fisher cat come right under me a little bit ago, which was pretty cool, I’ve never seen one in the woods. *Fisher isn’t in the photo.

Charlie was one of the greats. Also don’t want to forget the passing of Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver and Joe Diffie. A tough year for Country Music fans. I’m just praying that Willie can hang on for another 20 or 30 years.

I just couldn't see it taking place this year, too little too late. There would have been a ton of confusion around it. In my opinion, it's smarter to wait until next year and get it in the 21-22 regulation book.

I’m kind of a non-serious collector. My dad and I have always gotten each other knives for birthdays and Christmas. It’s to the point now where we kind of pull knives from each of our collections to exchange. I got my birthday gift from him in the mail yesterday, and it was a Case “Boss” folder that me and my mom got him for Christmas probably 10 or 15 years ago. I collect knives that I’m not afraid to carry, with Case and Western being my favorite brands.