pawle76

Ex- Nassau county here, Hunt upstate and used to hunt out east.You ever hunt in the Manorville area ? I had a spot off hot water street. Great spot. Not sure if it's still there. I heard DEC was trying to take it over. Seen my biggest buck there.

4R mostly, some in 3A. Tough hunting in 4R. It's so frustrating there is so much deer sign in the woods but not many deer being seen or taken. The buck I got last season was the only deer I saw during the day after hunting 11 days straight ! I've never put in so much time in the woods to see so few deer. Anyone else having this problem in the West Kill/ Rt. 42 area ?

I think the most obvious problem you have is that your food plot is not big enough for the amount of deer on your property. I would make it bigger or add some smaller plots elsewhere on your property. I think the rule when planting food plots is about 10%. So if you have 100 acres you should have about 10 acres of that for food plots. It's better if you can, to make several smaller plots to get to 10% rather than make one big one. You should chicken wire a small section of your plot (about 2 or 3 foot circle) so the deer can't eat that little section so it can grow untouched. That can be used as a gauge to see how hard the deer are hitting the rest of the food plot

If it's really cold I'll wear the military fleece base layer. It's called E.C.W.C.S. The ones I have are Red Head brand and they are really warm. If it's windy and really cold I'll throw a mid - layer over the base. For that I use a fleece pullover made to wear as a middle layer. So it's not too bulky. I think fleece is the best way to stay warm. I'm usually hot so I rarely wear all that stuff. I'll wear those thin poly thermals as a base then a t-shirt and then my camo insulated/fleece outter layer. One more tip for cold days I'll always have a gator for my neck that really keeps the heat from escaping your body especially on windy days.