dave6x6

Jennifer, Some great photos.. Look like they could be in a magazine..

OK Doc, i'm back on my meds so i'll keep this civil. Please try to understand it THIS TIME. The only ones that ever get belittled are the food plotters who always have to get the alterior motives speech. We never claimed to be heroes, we just are trying to make our slice of hunting heaven more enjoyable. For someone who doesn't really care, you still can't make a post without talking about our motives. Read the original post and then follow the non plotters reaction. Why couldn't ya'll just either stay out of this thread or say something like " nice looking plot buddy, hope you have some awesome hunts this year!" NOPE Instead it's just another oportunity for you to give your opinion about something which you have no clue about. Unless your a mind reader. Just another opportunity to give your opinion about us being one step away from being Texas Whitetailers. My point about plotters at least doing something for the wildlife as compared to most hunters is also pretty un-deniable as well. If there are 750,000 hunters in NY State, can you honestly deny that at least 1/3 of them do anything other than buy a tag and show up to hunt? Were not looking for a medal, i just think you should find someone else to argue with cus you don't have a clue why we do what we do? Seriously, I'm trying to be less arguementative.

Big Buck, I know that my last post sounded sarcastic but i'm being serious!! Really!! I'm not trying to be an ass it's just i've been thinking about this subject and there were things i didn't take into account when expressing my opinions on head shots. My point was that alot of todays hunters dont spend the time shooting yr round and only head to the woods on opening weekend and then let er rip. Double lung shots are their best option and should concider no other shot. And i dont know what blew up you skirt. you started this post , i thought your original comments were wrong, and then i came around a bit to your side .

Ya know, I think ya'll may have changed my mind on this subject. I guess i've been lucky enough to hunt with guys that wait and take only high percentage kill shots and so thats what is on my mind every time a deer worth shooting comes my way. I've simply been arguing for a hunters rights to choose his own shots but after reading all these horror stories , it reminded me how many people there are out there who really have no business toting a gun in the woods. So far be it from me to give any ideas to any of those beer drinkin' , deer driven' , lead emptyin' guys who have only one thing on there mind and that is to shoot at anything they put their eyes on. I'm going to start a new post with scientific evidence that proves that the most efficient way to kill a deer is to shoot the ground 5 ft in front of the deer and they will instantly die of a heart attack. Hopefully they'll all believe it and spare some wounded deer.

hey gjs4 , D-BAGS who said anything about shooting Bambi in the head and who said anything about taking tasteless pics of head shot deer?? If i had a nickle for every deer that i've seen with the front leg blown off i'd be be planning my Brown bear hunt. Or how about gut shot deer? Choose the best, most humane shot that presents itself and know your limitations. Like i said earlier and people i hunt with do the same, one shot kills , 99% of the time that's right through the boiler maker. But heads are not off limits

Sure looks like it could be the same. Good luck huntin' him.

Nice shootin' Joe, You took the best available clean kill.

Cummins, i'm not loving the way the calendar falls this yr. I'll be starting my vava. on the 29th also but in a perferct world i would love the 2nd-9th. When ever there is a calendar issue that doesn't work out perfect, i will always choose the earlier dates. In my opinion if i've choosen early and it turns out to be too early, at least i'm solidly still in the seeking phase. But if you choose late and the woods explodes before your vaca., then you run the serious risk of being in lockdown. That can be tough, frustrating huntin'

As i've stated before, at least food plotters can say one thing. The only guarantee you have when you put in a plot is that wildlife will benifit from it. What can you non plotters say you do?? Most hunters don't do anything more than your average green piece member. Thank goodness they at least buy tags. Maybe $5 will go towards wildlife and habitat improvements. Thanks for the effort guys. Then there are you guys who all last week were lamenting about how the hunting #'s are low and kids are not interested in taking up the sport. Well how would you like to be 16 and dads got you convinced that hunting is awesome so were going together this year. When the son asks what to expect dad says "well son, were going to get up at 4am and head to our stands and sit there til 11 and maybe we'll see a squrrel which will be really cool and then will go back after lunch and sit for 4 or 5 hrs totally motionless so we dont spook the chipmunks. Then we'll do it again Sunday. Doesn't that sound great. If we get cold then we'll get down and still hunt really slow and maybe if we are lucky we will actually see a deer. Well a fawn and button buck. What teenager in their right mind would ever want to try that again next yr.? I have clients who have hunted that way for years. They have worked their whole life and bought a nice piece of property and because the nieghbors shoot everything that moves, he calls me and says i'm sick of hunting a barren waistland, is there anything you can do to help my hunting experience to be more enjoyable? I don't need to grow monster buck, he says, but it would be nice to bring my son or friends out here and have a chance to shoot something. Maybe a food plot would keep the deer content on my property during more of the yr, so Joe lead-slinger doesn't shoot them the minute they drop their spots. And then when they do and mention it to someone like Steve, they get the whole baloney, stickup his arss attitude about food plots. It's no wonder the DEC can't get anything right in this state when every little issue is followed by public meetings filled with blow hard hunters who are either jealous of what some other hunters accomplish by doing things different then them or they are totally unwilling to give up their ways even if it is for the good of the hunter and wildlife. God forbid you try to move the archery season. God forbid you allow cross bows. God forbid you implement antler restrictions in some zones. nyantler i know you have been doing things for the wildlife and hunters for a long time but some of you others who like to mock someone and call them full of crap when they mention plots benifitting the wildlife, Id like to know what the heck are you doing? Anything?? Maybe you should be thanking them for the rest of the freeloading members of the hunting community. You know who you are.

Atta boy. We've done side by side tests with different clovers and the deer would litterally feed through the W.I. stuff until they got to the next brand and then turn right around and feed to the other side and turn around again. Have become a pretty big fan of the Pure Attraction if you dont mind doing annuals ever yr. If you haven't tried it you should try a test plot next yr. Keeps the deer happy from late summer through January...

Joe, What about the thousands of hunters who hunt the commercial apple orchards and wineries in the fingerlakes. Is the fact that they slam some awesome bucks every yr. somehow tainted in your eyes?

G-man, Love the plots and i agree for the most part with corn and clover. They are certainly King in Queen in the food plot kingdom. I would agree with hb about some of the W.I. products though and have had great success on our properties and for clients with some other blends. Sounds like you're no rookie at this and so i'm sure you've narrowed things down to what works best for you. If I anly could plant 2 then they would be it..

burnjohn, thank God you are still sane. Steve, clearly you have some bug up your hole over food plots and it's clearly clouding your judgement..

Phade, I personally had the exact opposite experience as you last yr. and if you hunt Livingston county then we probably are less than 20 miles from each other. In my opinion early Nov. is the best time to hunt big bucks on the move. The 1st through about the 10th with the 5th - 8th being traditionally the best every yr no matter what the moon phase. I would even argue that warm weather wont even stop the bucks on these days but it will mearly slow them down a bit and limit them to chasing does in different ways , but make no mistake they will be on their feet at some time during daylight hrs . Their biological needs will push them to look for does but they may not be in areas that you would expect to see them. Last yrs chase phase was off the hook for me on these days to the point where i was standing with my bow in hand for hrs at a time just watching the parade of shooter bucks. So i would agree with those that believe that decreasing light triggers the phases and it is around the same time every yr. Therefore i would not be choosing any date after the 12th or 13th if i could choose the 6th or 7th.

Great photos Dave, It's funny the debate about flash and inf. red cameras but i've experienced similar things as you did with this buck. I can get multiple pics of the same deer just hangin' out and eating for 45min - an hr in front of a flash cam but almost every deer taken with my inf. red ones they are starring right at the thing with their eyes bugging out. Maybe its just my cam but i still kinda trust the flash ones a bit more.

Cool pics Steve..

You go down south and it's all about the neck shots. To me ethics plays no part in this subject. The laundry list of ill-advised shot on deer could be endless. Maybe we should debate the empty your auto 12 at a deer carrying the mail from 150yrds subject. My personal rules are kill them with one shot.. What part of the body i choose to shot at is up to me..

My dad is a meat hunter and has been shooting deer in the head for as long as i can remember. Not every deer but certainly the ones close enough for him to feel confident with the shot. Cant ever remember any of his head shots ever going badly but only by pure luck. He also is notorious for wrestling his bucks and finishing them off by slicing their throat instead of plugging them with another bullet. Not bragging about the methods but he is old school and not politically correct. Only ever shot one doe in the head and that was the very first deer i ever shot. Dad dropped me in my stand and the last words he said to me was "If you get a chip shot at a doe then put it right in the ear and you wont ruin any meat." Two hrs. later a doe waltzed 25yrds. in front of me and i dropped her in her tracks. Dad hearing the shot came over and slapped me on the back and congradulated me on my first deer. Looking at the doe he said : where did you shot her?' At that point i lifted her ear and showed him the hole right where he taught me.. He looked at me and said " geez Dave, I was just Kidding''. That was my first and probably last head shot. Don't have anything against it for others though..

ny. thanks . That cam is about 50yrds. from my absolute best rut stand so i had to pull it and not risk anything getting spooky. It's one of those magical spots where when the bucks get franticly chasing the does, this is were they corral them up. Its a 4 acre bowl surrounded on three sides by sanctuary bedding area and the creek makes up the fourth side. between the 1st- about the 10th of Nov. the parade of bucks is amazing. The only downfall is that at this time of yr. the bucks are hard to stop cuz they're all cracked out on estrous nose candy..

I seem to have a hole herd of 3.5 yr olds. Not compaining or anything but with so many good pics this summer, i was hoping to see one to put on the top of the hit list. Probably won't get many more pics that i can use to my advantage come the bow season because i pulled all my cams out of my hunting areas and put them in areas that wont spook or educate any big boys. These will all be tough to let walk but have to remind myself what they will look like with another yr under their belt.

Great buck and photo G-man. Love the steam comin' out of his snout. Looks like a bull ready to charge. Can't wait to see your hands wrapped around that beast. You seem to have his core area pegged..

I was joking about the one on the left being a 2.5, thats why i put the winking smiley face. I'm hoping you forgot the winking smiley face when you said "cull buck"..

When i got this picture, i found myself just thinking that God sure outdid himself when he created the Whitetail deer didn't he!!

cwhite, Here is a pretty common 1.5 in our area. Granted he is not a foot wide with 6in. tines but he has brows and pretty close to the same total inches as a fork with those features. Next to it is the 2.5 that will let grow another yr. or so. just kiddin'

Geno, Got this pic off the cam and the position of the ears reminded me of your 14 pt. I've not seen many mounts like that but i think it's going on my next big one. Looks good on the wall and in the wild don't it... Who did your mount for you if you don't mind me asking. Sorry eddie for the temporary side track on you post. Love the pics though..