ognennyy

Who cares if it was high-fence or any of that other irrelevant stuff. He didn't kill it with a bow so it doesn't count. End of story :p

This pretty much sums up the entire issue. The debate here has somehow strayed into whether or not orange makes hunters safer. The real story, however, is that I don't need or want someone to tell me to be safe. If I want to take a known risk I will, and it's none of anyone else's god damn business. Edit: just to clarify this isn't targeted at anyone in this thread. It's a general statement about the obvious desperate need in 99.9% of the population of this country to legislate morality to everyone else instead of worrying about themselves.

Too many people watching Disney movies and living in a bubble. I really wish we could get someone in office that would make it law that for every Disney movie someone watches they have to watch a movie more representative of reality, and make civil service (military, police, fire, etc. etc.) mandatory. The world would be so much a better place. Instead I'll settle for hoping that a few of the idiots down there in NJ who complain about bear hunting get mauled.

There's one guy who stands out among my hunting friends who has killed more deer than probably the rest of us in the group combined. He kills more deer than anyone I know. He's a logger who runs to the woods when he gets out of work wearing huge, clunky work boots and blue jeans, and he stinks like chain saw lube and gasoline. He just understands how the wind works in the woods he hunts I suppose. And probably because the blue jeans are low to the ground they're obstructed from the deers' view. I dunno what but he's doing something right.

I do agree with this completely. Some blaze orange items have a little more "blaze" to them than others. Normally when I buy a new item that has serious "blaze" to it I will wash it at least 5-6 times in a heavy, hot water cycle to intentionally get some of the dye to bleed out and "tone down" the intensity, until it's basically just orange. Last year I needed a new blaze orange ball cap for a rut hunt I was invited on up at my buddy's family camp last minute. So I bought one and man was it bright, but it was the only option at the store. I washed it a bunch but not enough to tone it down. One morning during that hunt I was still-hunting an oak ridge wearing that hat. I was moving slower than a glacier, being very careful, making no noise, just barely letting my eyes get up or around obstacles then pausing to look for several minutes. I mean I was moving sloooooow because I knew there were deer on the ridge somewhere. After my eyes crested one small blowdown I paused to scan the newly revealed sliver of terran and I saw tails flag and deer bounding off like 200 yards away. There is no way in hell they heard me; I hadn't made any noise. I suppose it's remotely possible they could've winded me but it's such a small chance. There wasn't really any thermals that day, and they were upwind of me (I'm obsessive about checking every few steps using milkweed). I wasn't even skylit; there were trees and terrain behind me. They just went running off. I didn't even get to see enough of them to see if they were / one of them was facing me, all I saw were a couple tails. I haven't known what to make of it. Possible they winded me. Possible something else coincidentally spooked them right at that moment. I think it was that stupid blaze orange hat which I haven't worn since.

I'm always stoked just because it's great to get out in the woods, and the excitement level is high. These past few years though I have had a rough go of trying to find deer for the early bow season. But excitement is still high and so is my commitment to not drinking beer and watching football and instead keeping in proper shape to find deer in the big 'Dack woods!

Yeah I agree. It has the feeling that there are deer on the public land in the woods and I have a chance at killing them, as opposed to once the rifle season starts and you know they've all promptly moved to private land and your odds have tanked haha.

I agree with Rob. If it's four weeks until you plan to hunt it then no harm in stinking up the area now. It's a good time to get intel.

In years past I thought I had to shoot my bow a lot before the season. So I would start shooting 3-4 nights a week in like June or July. If I didn't do that I would get anxious and feel unprepared and doubt myself when an opportunity came up. Opening day of the 2019 and 2020 seasons were years where I didn't shoot a bunch before the opener. I got all mentally jammed up and missed deer on opening day both seasons because of it. Now I've come to realize that I know how to shoot after 7 or 8 years of doing it. I'm comfortable out to 30 yards first time I pick up a bow, and I only need to shoot a lot if I want to increase my effective range. So now I shoot once or twice to make sure the sights are still good to go, or if I get new broadheads of a different weight, and that's all. And I will only shoot at deer out to 30 yards. But I am still unprepared ha. I bought a saddle and ring-of-steps over the winter and haven't practiced going up a tree and getting fully set up. I need to, and will, do that before the season opener. I don't mind walking five or six miles into the woods in 80 degree heat (which it usually is, and looking like it will be this year on 9/27) to get to where I want to hunt. But to do that and then be trying to figure out a new system quickly and quietly, when I'm all tired and sweating and cursing up a storm under my breath, dangling from the tree by my linesman belt, all within 70-80 yards of where I expect deer to be bedded, is just a no-go for me. I gets me instantly right out of the mood. So I have to go in the back yard and practice.

If you're going by the letter of the law then yes, that is technically required. Also by the letter of the law the police can arrest you for J-walking and the judge can send you to county jail for a couple months. I hunt in DEC region 5 and the rangers and Encon officers up here are cool. They're definitely not bored, not out just looking to give people a hard time. I'd have a hard time imagining them giving someone a ticket to someone who is minding their own business, not causing any trouble, and took off their blaze orange once on stand. This law was created in response to groups of idiots that go out 10 deep, cans of beer in their hands at 9am, doing deer drives and shooting at anything that moves (aka "the orange army"). Now they truly will be the orange army even in NY. NY created this law to protect morons like that from other members of their own group. No ranger or Encon officer is going to bring a tailoring tape into the woods and measure how many square inches of orange you have on, or even care if you take it off all together once you're sat down somewhere situated. I wouldn't be caught going into the woods with no orange at all on opening weekend of rifle season. That's probably pushing your luck. But these guys are chill in general in my experience.

Wow interesting. I've heard of deer getting after white cedar woody browse but I hadn't noticed Hemlock before. An ESF author agrees with your Hemlock point here https://www.esf.edu/aec/adks/mammals/wtd.htm I always thought though that deer go after the woody browse in times when the other, more preferred foods weren't available due to snow cover. It would be interesting to see if deer walk by oaks and beeches in October to get to Hemlock stands. I'll keep it mind though even for the bow season. I mean if I were to walk 10-12 miles covering every known beech and oak stand in an area and found acorns but zero deer feeding sign, then maybe it's time to look at the Hemlock swamps.

Thanks for the responses, much appreciated. I'm sure there must be apple trees somewhere on the public land inside the blue line. I just haven't come across one yet. Bet your bottom $ that if I find one I won't forget it. Sounds like I'll be sticking with the oaks and beeches. Maybe the reality of hunting up there is that in the early season it's oak and beech or bust. Guess I'll make the time to take a look at every beech and oak that I know of in the area. I'm still curious... I've seen website after website including a DEC site article on deer preferred food sources, and many forum posts, indicating that deer like Hobble Bush / Witch Hobble. There are huge patches of it though in several places up where I hunt but I have never seen what looked like deer feeding sign to me. Has anyone else witnessed heavy deer feeding activity on Witch Hobble?

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the new early doe season. It's hard to argue against the benefit to hunter retention. It's also difficult for me not to think of the amount of pressure NY's hunting season already put on the deer herd - prior to this new early season even - and just look at how different things are now than when I was a kid. I rarely see deer from my car anymore. As a kid growing up on the Tug Hill Plateau we couldn't drive 10 miles without locking the brakes up three times for deer crossing the road. More selfishly I like being one of the first few in the woods on the bow season opener. So I'm glad I don't hunt a zone affected by the new seasons. Bow is difficult enough. I can't imagine trying to bow hunt wary deer that aren't hardly moving at all while the woods are still green. Ugh.

Hey Culver I grew up in Camden. I used to spend some time in the Herkimer area. One of my aunts is from there. Nice quiet town like Camden.

Hey all. I'm new to the site and I'm hoping for some very specific wisdom. I'm looking for input on early season food sources, in the Adirondacks specifically, when the "big one" (mast) just doesn't seem to be driving deer activity. I often struggle to just find deer - just to even be in the game - in the early bow season up in the Adirondacks, because I can't find the favored food source in the small window of opening day through around October 10. This year is turning out to be one of those where I'm a little frustrated. I love being in the woods so it's a win just to be up there looking around, but I'm less than confident with my scouting results so far. No loaded beeches this year. I've found a few with some nuts but very few. The squirrels will take care of them before the season opens and my hopes aren't too high for finding deer on them. Same with the red oak stands; some nuts but none loaded, and the squirrels are making quick work of them. I've never seen a white oak up in Wilcox Lake. Witch Hobble is everywhere and it's flowering and fruiting right now. But despite what I've been told about deer loving it I have never seen an abundance of deer feeding sign, only moose. I just learned last season that the deer up there love the Indian Strawberry plants that grow around the edges of beaver meadows. Last time I checked my cameras on a few patches of those though (early August) they weren't fruiting yet and the deer were not on them. When I had this epiphany was in mid-November, so I really don't know yet if they will be an available food source for bow opener. They must be somewhere, eating something. I don't want to go back to all known food sources at this point and drop my scent everywhere, but have any of you had experience scouting food this close to the season and think it's ok? My plan for opening day is to head back to the few beech and red oaks I saw that had some mast and just read the sign. If I like what I see I'll play it by ear and come up with a strategy on the fly. Sounds good on paper. This has been my strategy for the last three seasons. 2/3 of those seasons it didn't work out. Two seasons ago the red oak crop was fantastic and I had encounters with several deer. I haven't seen a loaded beech in almost six years. Last season the reds were active but the deer just weren't on them (probably had something to do with the extremely warm fall). This year I've found no loaded beeches or oaks at all. Are there other food sources I should add to my checklist for July and August scouting? I often hear talk of apple trees but I've never seen any up in my section of the 'Dacks. Thanks all