A Sportsman

Buck_shooter, I do a fair amount of hunting in the type of area you describe. its much easier if you have other people to hunt with. if you shoot a deer, one man carries the guns and packs, the other drags. And you take turns dragging. if I don't have a partner to hunt with, I make sure that I stay in an area where my drag is strictly down. There is no way I'd be able to drag a big deer uphill by myself. Especially not for any kind of distance and steepness.

LJC, I think you may be right for some regions of the state where there is more mixed private and public land. And I think on average, yes agricultural land grows bigger deer than state woodlands. But each year some big bodied big racked bucks come out of both the Adirondacks and catskills, Where the food source is not great and farmland is nowhere to be found. My guess is that what these bucks lack in food quality/quantity is made up for by excellent genes and minimal hunting pressure. i think genes are a big aspect to the size of bucks bodies. Just like people, some deer just won't grow huge no matter how old they get. Others, living in the same herd, will.

Maytom, I shoot the same release and the same thing happened to me 2 seasons ago. In my case, I had made it to my tree in the morning, set up climber, climbed tree and was just about all set up in the dark when I realized it. Ugh! Made it back to truck for back up release and found the trigger and hex screw sitting in my gear tote. I guess I was lucky I hadn't lost the parts...

Virgil, as the state and county have done more to allow more public access to land, It seems there is a bit less overcrowding and stepping on other hunters toes. That said, there still seems to be a steady dose of BS from other hunters (as you alluded to in one of your posts above). Kayakwilly, if I were a betting man, I'd say that "the locals" are getting back in there. Or perhaps, other hunters are somehow parking in another location (not the numbered spots), much closer to your spot, and hunting in there. on county property, Ive seen this with my own eyes multiple times. the amount of BS from other hunters can be unbearable out there. But still, for me, "not hunting" is more unbearable.

I carry a backpack with a reasonable amount of gear in it, hunting Catskills for all day (dark to dark) trips. Honestly, I like the comfort of using a fanny pack and carrying less but I deal with the slightly less comfort for the ability to carry a bit more gear. Mind you, I am carrying about half (or even less than half) of what NFA is hauling. In terms of my effectiveness still hunting, I don't think it has mattered all that much. As far as a persons size when moving thru woods, I would argue that a taller hunter has advantages over the shorter guy. For the reason that the hunters eyes are higher up. Better vantage point. My cousin is 6' 4 and can spot deer like a son of a btch. more important than hunters size is his/her eyes. I swear that Some people are blessed with a better ability to pick apart the woods and differences in colors and shapes. I am colorblind and definitely not one of these people.

The real tcIII, Seems like every time I do the roast in the crockpot I get that result. Dry and crumbly. It's like all the moisture is drawn out and settles at the bottom of the crock pot. Wondering if any of the regulars here can tell us if maybe we are doing something wrong.

For those of us that love hunting to the core, especially deer hunters, it can be hard to introduce a new guy. There is a commitment and sacrifice. some guys don't want to dedicate the time, don't want to share their spots, etc. I get that. In my time, I've turned down many people who've expressed interest. I guess there are certain qualities you look for, intangibles in a person. You want to be confident they will have the fortitude to stick with it, learn and become proficient on their own. And value it. Not just ride along and reap the benefits of your work.

I have a friend who I met through a surfcasting fishing club I belong to. About 8 years ago he expressed an interest in hunting, so I offered to show him the ropes. He got his license and away we went. 8 years later, guy is head over heals for hunting, barely fishes anymore, his kid took up hunting, they bought property, etc. When I think of my hunting accomplishments, getting that dude Involved means a hell of a lot to me. These days, I'm working on another neophyte. Last year was his first. Kid is driven and will be a hunter. I meet a fair amount of people, particularly young guys, who definitely seem like they want to try hunting (I'm talking Long Island and even nyc kids), but they don't know where/how to begin. It's gotta be daunting if you haven't been raised up around it. A program like doc is describing would be a god send for kids like this. What's cool is it targets kids with a genuine, motivated interest. Instead of trying to salvage (and I mean salvage in its truest form) the kids who've already pledged thier allegiance to video games, iPhones and other refuse.

Regulat0r, The other day I made jerky for the first time. I too read about patting down the venison periodically while its drying in the dehydrator. So I went about doing it and quickly discovered that there was basically little to no moisture sitting atop the venison after the first hour or so of dehydrating. Patting it was useless. I cut my peices a little thinner, probably close to an eighth inch thick. Not sure if the thickness had anything to do with it. My guess is that because venison is so lean there is no fat to liquify during the process. I did pat them with paper towel before I put them into dehydrator to get excess marinade off. And for the record, my jerky came out amazing. I am really kicking myself for not making it all these years. I think I will shoot an extra deer next year just to turn it in to jerky!

If I am going to sit in a tree stand and not see deer, I'd rather settle myself with the fact deer hunting can be difficult and unpredictable, you make the best decisions you can and go with it. This, rather than Getting angry at Charlie Alzheimer for talking me into taking off work to hunt a funnel stand on October 25th.

I agree Larry and Merlot. Last bow season I spent half my time on stand cursing Charlie Alzheimer under my breath. Little Rut activity I witnessed was nothing even remotely close to the wild scene he said would unfold in late October. We talk in circles about moons, warm weather, cold fronts, etc. I give up. Best to just do your scouting and hunt your butt off the first 2 weeks of November. And last week of October.

I have 2 pairs of green wool pants with suspenders that I use for Catskills rifle season every day except when there is steady rain. I also have an orange wool jacket from wool rich that I use as a top layer on cold days or days where I plan to sit more than normal. since I spend the majority of my days walking and still hunting, the jacket doesn't get used that often. Usually I wear a fleece top (non blaze)with a cheap nylon blaze vest over it. I like hunting in wool for the old school tradition of it. Same reason my gun stocks are all wooden.

1C Long Island 1 doe 3A central Catskills 1 buck Season was different in Catskills this year for us. Oddly the buck to doe ratio for deer seen was skewed more in favor of doe than normal. I think it's because season started later into rut than normal. And the total deer seen was down, as was expected coming off the 2 back to back tough winters. Personally I saw 2 bucks and maybe 6 or 7 does in 7 days of hunting. And 2 bears. One was a cub that was up in a tree. The other was a shooter that came scampering down a tree and ran away as we were dragging my cousins buck.

Understood doc. In fact my own rifle season hunting crew Bears that out. Out of the 6 of us, only 2 Bowhunt. I guess I don't see why someone who only rifle hunts would complain about bowhunters or bowhunting seasons rather than hunt with a bow. I'm sure some folks may have their individual reasons. I am generalizing.

Whenever there is a conversation that poses the idea that gun hunters may be against bowhunters or envious of bowhunters, or whatever, I almost start to forget that almost all bow hunters ARE gun hunters. And most serious gun hunters are also bowhunters. I've always thought of it like this: If you are a gun hunter that loves being in the woods and hunting, you naturally pick up a bow, learn how to shoot and get your butt out there. Its the hunting and the opportunity to hunt that you love, not whether you are squeezing a trigger or a release. Outside of physically imparied, I don;t understand why a gun hunter who loves to hunt would not get into bowhunting. For people who dont love to hunt quite as much, maybe the work required in bow hunting, is a turn off. That is fine. But to complain? I don't look at hunting as something that is owed to me. In my, maybe overly naive mind, I still view it as a priviledge. If the DEC wants to give me a long gun season, thank you; a nice early and long bow season to get out and enjoy the woods, thanks again.

I shot a small, ahem...very small, button buck with a rage 2 blade 100 gr head last month. Looked like a 2 lung shot but turned out to be liver and edge of gut. Just missed near lung. Shot was very slightly quartering towards. 13 yards. Deer went about 80 yards. But without much of a blood trail. Usually I've seen better blood with this broad head. To me this just goes to show that every hit is different. You just never know what you will get with a blood trail until you take up the track. But with any head, if you make a good enough shot, you should be fine.

Noodle, I too found bear to be very very good. Especially stew. The topic of whether bear is good eating seems to come up often enough here. Consensus seems to be that if the bear is a woods bear it's good eating. If it's a garbage eating bear, it's lousy. Some guys say all bears are lousy eating. Yet some guys will vote for Hillary too.

Another vote for the short and light gun. If you are hunting mountains it's much nicer carrying the lighter weight all day. Also the barrel doesn't snag on branches as you walk. I hunt with a ruger .308 m77 compact. 16.5 inch barrel. As far as shot distance, as stated by some, shots are almost always under 100. And usually less than 50 or 60. At that range, with a good deer caliber, whatever you lose in velocity with a short barrel is inconsequential. As an admittedly not great shooter, When I see a deer that I intend to shoot one of the first things I do is look for a tree or rock or whatever I can use to steady myself. In a woods stalking situation, with no pre cleared shooting lanes, and a moving deer, even those short range shots are not gimmes (not for me anyway). Lastly, big woods to me means you can walk all day and not run out of land. I like to think where I hunt in Catskills is big woods. It's huge forever wild state land. Tens of thousands of acres. Of cousre the dacks are much larger. sometimes I may stay low elevation, never more than a half mile off the road. Am I not in big woods if I do that? I think It's silly to try and define big woods like that.

And what happens, for me, is I fine my arrow hopefully and start tracking, slowly. But if the blood trail isn't heavy, I start to panic. Its a sinking feeling. It's easy for your mind to start questioning the shot and what you saw as far as impact and deer reaction, etc. It's really best for me not to muck around trying to track without help. I've come to trust very heavily what I saw on the shot and not worry with what I see on the ground until I get a normal persons eyes on the seen.

What Stoneam2006 said nailed it. I've also come to rely heavily on "looking for wet spots" and using my fingers to touch wet spots and then look at the potential blood against the backdrop of my skin to detemine if it is indeed blood. essentially I can see red but it becomes nearly impossible in a sea of other similar colors. When the backdrop is freshly fallen red oak leaves and pine needles, forget it.

I am colorblind too. The only way I could describe tracking blood to a non colorblind (normal) person is..."hopeless". Unless the trail is blatantly obvious, i look down at the ground and a rush of despair comes over me. Luckily I've always had folks to lean on when I need a pair of eyes. Regarding binos, I couldn't agree more. I don't know why but for many years I didnt use them. Didn't think I needed them. But Once I bought a good pair and started using them, I never looked back. Wouldn't think of deer hunting without them now.

Ruger m77 compact in .308 with a Leopold compact 2 x7 scope Ammo is federal 150 gr NP

Good quick-read article. I agree with him to an extent when he says "forget the wind". Because it does change directions often. But disagree with him when he says "to account for it, your scent control system must be bullet proof". you do your best to control scent, but if deer are down wind they likely wind you. Good luck trying to knock all your scent down while hiking mountains, with a full pack on your back. Its just not worth stressing out over scent. Hopefully by the time a deer is in a position to smell you, he is dead.

You are not alone. Between the bumper crop of acorns and now this warm weather my prime spot has been a tough go so far. About a week ago when we had that sharp cold snap one morning I saw 9 deer with a basket 8 grunting the does around. Since then, no rutty behavior and not a whole lot of movement in general. But based on the sign, it's obvious the deer are there and likely on their feet at night.

Sssurfertim, I experienced the same thing. The guys in that club are illegally hunting the county land on either side of the field. I witnessed one of them from my climber as he walked passed me en route back to the club property. You would think a hunting club would play by the rules...guess not. I also found a salt lick in there near a stand. Can't pin that on the club but it was just in off their field, and very far from the county access. Tell ya, Long Island can be one frustrating place to hunt. This season I am sorta "mentoring" a kid who is getting into bow hunting. Last week I had him set up on some hot sign on the back end of one of the county properties. About 5 min before shootable light, two hunting trespassers come in from a random location (not a county parking spot) and both set up upwind of him. Then at about 730 2 does are making their way towards the kid. Of course the deer wind the other hunters and that's all she wrote. These guys ruined a potential first deer for a kid. Then, later, as we are packing up, one of the hunters approaches us asking for some "space". You can't make this stuff up! On Long Island, you not only have to beat the deer, you have to be "lucky" not to get effed up by other hunters.