NFA-ADK

The private land owners would love that, less competition. But the flak from closing land to someone who has hunted it for over 10 years would hit the fan. Best bet is to let them go so they can grow. You will never see a giant if you shoot every 2 year old and younger. Many of us practice QDM on our own and it shows in those spots.

Welcome aboard. Good luck this year, hope you get the big one!

Good luck to all and be safe!

All most the mid way point for me, I did the big ADK trip but my back issues are hampering me this year. I might go upstate one more time on an awesome property if invited but I will probably use the bow for the rest of the season till February including the upstate trip if I go. So for me I am a long way from finished with the bow, almost half way there.

Tell them they are not allowed to gun hunt when you are in the blind. If they object then say ok I wont tell you how to hunt on your land if you do the same for mine!

Ear plugs for him at 2 a gun noise will be startling. I would check the regulations on what you are doing, not so sure it is acceptable. Good luck and be safe!

Agreed 2 different bucks no doubt!

Helium because everyone else will be up north.

Sounds like an epic journey. Good luck, hope you get him!

Saw this once before in the ADK, rare for sure but it happens.

Simply put most hunters do not shoot enough. I am at the archery range most weeks and when the season starts it is like a ghost town. The other reality is that we get excited and a poor shot can happen to anyone even the few who practice often. When doing shot placement I always try to tell the shooters how important it is to stop the deer when shooting. Walking shots on a moving animal is a poor choice with a bow and now with crossbows people are extending the distance they think they can shoot just because they did it in practice.

Well I did not get out yesterday as I was awake till 3 am so 4 am alarm was shut off, I hit the rifle range instead. Guns are cleaned and ready, truck is somewhat packed just need to get clothes cleaned and packed and then food shopping. One week of fun in the ADK should be fun we have 6 total hunters this year with my buddy Shawn bringing his youngest son Connor. Really hope Shawn gets his first buck as this is our 30th year hunting together! Good luck to all hope you get out this is an awesome time to be in the woods, be safe, identify and place your shot, again good luck to all hope you get the big one!!!

Man I got the fever! Thankfully I have been out a few times to help curb my anticipation. Looks like I need to get to sleep early, going to try a very underutilized area but it has a brute lurking. Hope he is still around, I will be on the ground all day stalking, should be fun.

Nice! I am in, I have 14 days! Thats if I don't get called back in after the ADK trip. 2 hours and 40 minutes but who is counting. Plan is to get one tomorrow pack up and go get one in the ADK but that is more of a dream than reality, lol.

I am getting ready for the big ADK trip but I will still try to get out with the bow before I grab the gun for deep woods.

We often talk about when the best time is to go hunting (for deer), I have one word, NOW! These next two weeks plus are considered some of the best times to be out in the woods, simply put the doe are coming into heat and chasing has already begun. If you have the chance to hunt these next two weeks get out, it is some of the best times to catch that elusive buck in daylight. This is also a great time to try doe in heat lure and some calling and even rattling. I don't use many loud and aggressive calls but if you do this is a great time to try it. This is the time of year you can even catch them roaming midday simply checking doe beds for scent. If you know where the does bed you can bet the bucks will be traveling down wind scent checking those areas. The young bucks are really roaming now and the big boys will be next, PYS (Pack Your Stuff) its time!!! I hope to see that harvest thread start to light up with new game, good luck and be safe all! Hope you get the big one! Remember when using buck grunts to sound beatable, bucks are more likely to come into a younger buck with a doe VS an aggressive big buck. And bucks like doe calls more than another buck, they want sex not a fight, usually. JMO again good luck and go get em! It's TIME!

Looks like a 4 X 5 I would think 120's.

I was in the woods by 12 today and saw 12 deer so not to bad for a slightly windy day! 2 spike bucks where the highlight I checked their hall pass and it was good so I let them go. Wow those microbursts are crazy, we experienced some camping in Moose River one year after 3 days the Rangers and loggers where able to cut their way into us but we still had a few more days to go. They said we where trapped for 3 days but we just kept hunting. Crazy winds!

Keep at it they are just starting to move now! Good luck, real beauty!

OMG I am hungry now! That looks really good mowin!

Congrats, looks like an awesome season! Epic!

A mature buck is considered 5 years old. They are suppose to get to full body size by 3 and then fill out by 5 according to the experts. In so far as maturity in hunting it really depends on the individual. Some consider any deer that is 3.5 or older mature like me, others who have shot many in that class tend to consider 4 or 5 mature that is based usually on experience with the class of deer in the area. Some area's a spike is mature because that is the only bucks ever seen. Area and experience determine what that hunter deems mature enough to shoot but 5 is the age most deer reach full body size and sometimes the antlers can get larger at 6 or even 7 in extremely rare cases but that has many factors like stress, food and nutrition.

Now those are a bunch of real hunters! Sharing and enjoying each others company and stories that is what hunting is really about, great people and even better times!!! Sounds like you had a great trip and hunt, thanks for sharing! Good luck the rest of the season, someone get that nice buck! Beauty!

I was going to give it a shot but this happened last night. Lucky for me it did not hit my truck! So I went into work today and will try to get out tomorrow. 4 ft in any other direction and I would be replacing my truck or repairing my house! Thank you lord!!! I don't have another 40,000 sitting around right now for another truck! Dodged a bullet on this one, man did the house shake when this fell! I skip hunting high winds due to issues with aiming under those conditions and I hate being in a tree with more than 30 mph winds! Hope tomorrow has good movement!

And to get those speeds you need a 70 lbs bow at 32 inch draw length, most those guys are 6ft 2 plus, not your average size person like the requirements for a crossbow is basically nothing and kid can be taught in one day how to shoot a crossbow. To me that's why its more like a gun, not much skills needed to be proficient. Most hunters are shooting bows in the 250-330 fps range with hunting arrows. Most I talk to are in the 270 - 280 fps range which is about average that is a big difference to 400 + fps bolt from a crossbow well over 100 fps. They also advertise how accurate they are at 100 yards, which is an unrealistic distance for most archers. To me its a vast difference.