NFA-ADK

Came home Tuesday from the big ADK trip up to Moose River Plains. Really wish I could have stayed longer but a few issues caused me to shorten my trip. Only sighting was 2 doe for Dominick one of our new hunters. This is the entire trip so its more of a log than anything else. I arrived Wed the 11th and set up the entire camp including the cook shack, stove and steak down everything. I was exhausted and slept well. 11/12/15 Happy that camp was set up I went out to hunt for the day. I did my traditional stalk after hiking up the mountain with a slow still hunt the entire day. I covered little more than a mile in that stalk and with the rain it was quiet. Good sign of deer activity kept my hopes up. I exited the woods by dark and was only 400 yards from camp. Relatively easy day of hunting good tracks top of trail and in the area. No sightings. 11/13/15 Woke up to a tremendous downpour of rain and drips on my face! 100% humidity from the rain combined with the pot of water on the stove and the inside of the tent was wet from condensations and precipitation. Panic that the inside of the tent was wet I removed the water from the wood burning stove and hoped the rain would let off enough for me to put the tarps on. I packed the stove and reheated the inside hoping to dry it out. At first light the rain slowed and I was able to put both tarps on and secure the tent more. Happy the tent was ok by 11:20 am I was able to head out expecting one more hunter to arrive at noon. Upset I missed first light I figured it was time to check the swamps. As expected I found some nice rubs and what I thought was a scrap but later turned out to be a bed, kind of felt sorry for peeing in it, lol. As last light was close I stayed by the swamp hoping to see the culprit killing those poor trees. No sightings. Shawn made it up and I showed him the rubs, shortly after getting back to camp Mike and his nephew Dominick arrived. It was a nice early night and snow began to fall, I was in bliss! 11/14/15 SNOW!!! We tried to all hunt the swamp and see if anything was present. Dom jumped 2 doe heading in and Shawn saw multiple tracks. The spot I asked them to go down into had no tracks(From them!) and was about a half mile from camp that I hiked to give them some time. I found 2 sets of fresh deer tracks that looked like doe so I passed them to check what I thought was a scrape and turned out to be a bed, lol. At that point I left the swamp and headed up hill. After about 800 yards up I saw a hunter stalking below me. He sat about 30 yards from me and I tried to alert him with a doe bleet but I think his hat blocked his hearing. He sat for 5 minutes then headed up and back to my right so I kept on my path away from him and found another track and hunter with different boots going in the same direction. (They where going back from where they came in stalking the woods together.) As I pass both these hunters below all of us was a doe track but it was going in the direction they where in. I back tracked her for about 900-1000 yards she liked the thick stuff but walked on a foot trail for 300 yards. I left the trail and still hunted to my honey hole and then still hunted it until dark. No sightings. Greg and George arrive at camp and the Rush is played until midnight ARG. 11/15/15 With snow melting I figured I would pick up on a track and see where it would take me. Planning on heading up the back of this mountain I head in and find a nice doe track and it takes me back down into the swamp and across a river. Then it takes me up that side of the mountain. I jumped her one time and could see she saw me from a distance away. I slowed my pace on her and found one more bed. As snow was rapidly melting and would be gone within the hour 2pm I cut across the mountain for a river bed ridge and headed towards the road. I found more tracks as I cut across and headed towards the road because I was not sure if I would come out past the swamps. I came across an old logging trail headed in the exit direction and was on the road 15 min before dark. I headed to another pinch point and hunting till my buddy Shawn came down the road and the day was over. No sightings but this area held doe for sure. 11/16/15 Late night music did not help us get up early and a late start ensued. We tried to push this mountain the entire day with no luck. I heading up 4 ridges to about 2600 ft trying to basically push deer. With no snow it was fun tracking in the wet leaves hard but not impossible especially if the deer was bigger. I tried a few call sequences then at about 2 pm I headed to the back side of the mountain to explore a bit and still hunted down until dark. Some good tracks again but no sightings. RUSH again until midnight. With a sore throat and being run down a bit I determine its best if I let everyone else help me with the camp brake down the next morning. The morning conversation about the new invention called HEADPHONES did not go over well. Needless to say I will make a statement next year if music is keeping people up EVERY night. I got a real good grilling from my LI hunting partner Chris for not seeing any deer all week. I invited him next year and said I would set him up in a couple of sweet spots and he said ok! Not sure if he would do any better but I can't sit in a stand up in the ADK! Hope he comes next year, any serious hunter is always welcomed and Dominick and George are the two new guys, hope they come back again it was a pleasure having everyone at camp! Except that jerk Greg who kept playing the music! Just kidding, you know I love you like a brother and sometime just want to hit like one too! lol Fun trip, the porcupine looking rub threw me off a bit but I only saw pictures, funny that day I kept saying NO WAY! I was right. Had some cool bird sightings and had a moose in the area, now that was an easy track to follow, lol. Happy to see good tracks indicating a few deer traversing the area that survived last years winter. Good times with good friends!

LMAO

So you think closing the season during rut and having multiple opening days will get hunters into the woods more for the 2nd and 3rd opening day? LOL that is funny! Shortening the season will do nothing for the deer, all you would be doing is causing more presser during that time. And most gun hunters would still only hunt opening weekend and be done. That second and third opening would have no affect on hunter participation. I say allow a longer season, give out more than one buck tag. 1 for Northern, one for southern and one for LI with earn a buck tag program in high population areas. Extend the season because hunting from October to January is just to short! And make antler restrictions state wide so I can shoot a buck easy from a tree stand and not have to actually work to get my deer. Yes that last one was sarcastic. Funny to me but any way you twist this post it still seem like this to me. (Well if I can only hunt 3 days then the season should be much shorter, so my bucks can survive for my next 3 day outing next year.)

Yes it worked for me. He came in after using a doe call then one grunt. This was the story if interested. http://www.nyantler-outdoors.com/calderone-buck-2013.html I grunted one in today but he needs one more year and he will be a brute! If they are close just don't overcall they will pinpoint you! Even today I only used the call 2 times with only one grunt in 3 hours on stand.

If you think last years winter was good for the deer because hunters did not persue them, I think your wrong. Even if we say we are seeing more bucks in our area does not mean the winter was good for the deer. So many factors in survival for deer that one snow storm is irrelevant vs a brutal winter. Shortening the season like Lawdwaz said will make the orange army go brown and down resulting in more buck kills. We keep losing deer hunters every year, ever think that might affect the buck population?

Welcome aboard! I just came back from the ADK, I just wish some of my hunting friends where more into deer hunting vs playing RUSH music. And I love RUSH! Anyway Welcome to the site, join in have fun and don't worry if someone disagrees, its just a forum but we have fun!!!

Very nice bucks! Get one of them down!

Nice buck! Thick beams!

Real beauty! Hope to see a close up with you and him! Very nice!

Concentration on shot placement is how I try to control myself. But it is funny when you are in the stand and hear a shaking and find out it is you making the noise, lol. Keep at it, that is one thing most good hunters do is keep improving. And most of us can mess up with the best of them, just not everyone will admit it! I just hope if I get a nice shooter I can at least keep the stand from shaking out of the tree! Good Luck and go GETSOME!

Nice bucks! Looks like a great spot.

Thats not proof, lol. J/K Nice one, did that my first time. Still trying to duplicate it!!! With the bow it looks even sweeter, very nice!

Nothing excites me more than reading others success stories! Really gets you in the mood!!! ADK Here I come!!!

I would try just using the doe in heat call just before shooting light but you need to get into the stand early. This is the time of year for doing a drag with doe in heat and the drip. If you do not get anything 15-25 min after first light I would try again then add the grunt 5-10 min later if nothing happens. If that fails then try the rattling 25-30 min later. Sometimes doing nothing is better than trying to bring them in, especially if you are not doing it right but the more you try the better you will get! The can has worked more than once for me over the years but the grunt is something I only use to give the illusion of more than one deer or in response to a grunt from a deer. If I do use the grunt I try to be very subtle at first and try to listen for any response. Usually the response is hard to detect but is typical for deer. I don't rattle that often. When I do it is usually just tickle and rarely make a full on fight sequence but it is fun when you do it right even if it does not always work. I don't really like using scent for hunting, I just feel most of the time the deer knows something is not right.

Very nice, Congrats!

Nice Red Congrats! That pic is priceless!

Simply put we are all human and by that delegation we are not perfect. Add the fact that you are hunting a wild animal that will not always pose for a shot, accelerated breathing and heart beat. This is why making a "perfect shot" is such an accomplishment. Don't sweat it, we all make mistakes, EVERYONE! Anyone who claims to be perfect is basically a stuck up idiot and if they want a challenge I will film them and prove they are not! Even the most seasoned of hunter make mistakes. Glad you found him!!! Now get back on that horse and go get him! Good luck! Ran out of likes again so to your last post, LIKE!

"It's a good thing we were strapped to the tree, because we were jumping around like little girls at a Justin Bieber concert." You had me rolling with this one!!! And I can picture the grin on your faces! To cool, and an awesome (PERFECT) shot to boot! This is what hunting is all about! Size should have nothing to do with your enjoyment, if you are happy with your game then you are way ahead of most hunters!!! Epic hunt, shot and two best friends/father son, it just does not get any better than this! Thanks for sharing you just made my day, and I will not even be in the woods!!! Congratulations on your first deer Hunter!!! That is just plain awesome!!!

Is the deer in the top picture suppose to be the same as the one you took last year? Because the G3 on the RS does not match and neither does the main beam on his left side tip. Those look like 2 different deer to me. First one looks like a 2.5 second looks like a 3.5. Do you have any better pics of the first deers rack? Again I think they are not the same?

For hunting applications where you know it will be basically 30 and under this how a friend does it and it works great. If you practice shooting from 10 yards to 30 with it you will have no issues. I think I might just loose a few pins as my shots will be under 40. Keep my 25 and 35 pins and loose the rest below. Can always put them back on for target later. I like the HHA for target, takes the guess work out of in between shots.

Next year I am going to set up every stand we use with this system. Looks like the best way to go, good luck!

Love the pose! Looks like his is smelling something! Very cool, looks great, congrats! Great job especially for your first!

If THIS does not get you pumped for hunting season I don't know what will! GETSOME!

Hunting partner has two separate doe come in, one was chased by one buck and the other 2 where chasing another doe. Other guy has a nice buck come in that he missed. 1C

1C 11/7 I only hear one snort about 50 yards away for the pm sit, about 3 hrs. My friends had all the action with two hot doe being pushed by 1 and 2 bucks, one was a shooter but he had only a head shot at 40 so it got a pass. The other hunter we where with shot the doe fawn I was observing my last sit, lol. It might have dressed at 50 lbs and that is being generous. He missed a nice 140 class, would have been his biggest to date! Great action, IF your sitting in the right spot!