Enigma

Wait a minute. Madison County? NY? Prolly one of the top 3 most rural counties in NY? Home of Brookfield, NY and the Wheel Days? Home to prolly the largest redneck and hunting population per capita of any county in NY? That decision is just a big ol crock of steaming excrement. Talk about pandering to the vocal minority. Fearful folks complaining they wont be able to snowshoe or ski or ride because of an army of MZ hunters? What a f'in joke. I m sorry you have to wait 4 extra days to feel "safe" outdoors lol. Al Gore said there won't be any snow at that time anyways. Nauseating but all too common in today's times.

Much prefer nudging them and bumping them a little to driving them hard. Great way to put some down with some company. As far as wounding them, no difference really between methods, bowhunting vs driving them. Its not the type of hunting that matters, its the nimrod pulling the string or trigger. Some are good at killing 'em, some aren't. Just the way it is.

Cut heart into 3 or 4 pieces and clean thoroughly. In a saucepan cover heart with water, add one beef bouillon cube and parboil until tender. Remove heart, saving the broth. Chill both overnight. Next day strain broth with a fine strainer to remove fat. Layer sliced heart and thin sliced raw onions in a jar. Add 1/4 tsp basil on top. Add equal parts broth and white vinegar to the jar to cover contents. Refrigerate and enjoy in 2 - 3 days. Simple and delicious.

If I'm not mistaken he's a very successful turkey hunter.

WTH is going on here! Run with it @Otto. And where is @Water Rat when you need him?

Craigslist has used snowshoes frequently in the sporting section. There are deals to be had there. FB marketplace as well if you're into that. Trekking poles help a lot if you're just traveling and not hunting with the the shoes on.

My lovely better half likes to take a pint of chicken soup to work for lunch. I told her I'd make more but I was short on jars. She showed up two days later with these lol. Funny thing how some soup got made shortly thereafter. She's also loves jerky. I told her no more jerky till I kill a deer but alas, my hunting boots leak. New boots are on order and will be here by the end of the week. I got her juuuust where I want her lol.

Young men are resilient. They bounce back quick. The low today makes the reward so much sweeter when the success happens. In the end he becomes a better bow hunter.

Link to the DEC page https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/6399.html

Back straps, cheese n bacon? How could that be bad? Nicely done.

I've made that before. It's the bomb. Nice job.

Weather looks good down there tonight SB. No rain n cold so no worries there. +1 on letting him lay up for the night. Tough call on the shot. He's surely bleeding internally from a clipped blood vessel or going septic. He'll probably be stiff as a board tomorrow morning when you find him. Keep us in the loop!

Can I quote this? I mean I quouted you here but I need to show this to someone now lol.

Great topic. #1. Chill. Relax. Wait for awhile. Keep a calm focus. Repeat. 2. Survey the situation and think smart. You're 95% of the way there. Don't muck up the last part by being in a hurry. 3. Bring a weapon! To finish the job if need be. If their head is up when you find them shoot them again. No, don't stab them with a knife. 4. Max 2 people on a track. Another set of eyes is always best. One finds blood, the other marks the last spot and scans. 5. See #1.

Another explanation could be he knew you were on to him. He heard you'd be coming by the lease today. He just couldn't take the pressure knowing you were putting up another stand. He knew there was nowhere to hide. So instead of having to worry another day he offed himself. Waited for the perfect time to run across the road and it was over for him. Deer suicide is what I'm calling it. Prolly a hot doe on the other side of the road egging him on. Sad. In all seriousness that's a bummer. Go find and kill his big brother.

I need to replace my boots. Tried on the Lacrosse 18 Grange today. No half sizes unfortunately. 11 was sloppy, 10 was tight. I m thinkin the 10's. Thoughts?

C'mon man! Follow the dots . . . The push for $15/hr minimum has been on the lib wishlist for years. The game plan was to pay longterm federal UC benefits to delay the workforce reentering. Smart yet diabolic move. This was all planned and C19 helped them. The service economy had no choice but respond with higher wages. Bingo! $15. See the videos online awhile back, where President Biden whispers. He say's "that was for the employees, they have the leverage now" (paraphrasing). Backdoor shenanigans at it's best. The RINO's got pasted again.

C'mon man! Just do it! Have you ever bow hunted upstate CNY? IMHO $400 n change for 4 days of hunting private land is inexpensive. You'll spend half that in gas getting up here. No, you're prolly not gonna kill a big buck but you never, ever know right? Unless you're in the stand. It's beautiful up here right now. Things are starting to pop. Corn's getting cut etc. Weather looks like it's going to cool off n rain for Sun and Mon. Might be the weather change we need to get things going. FWIW I don't know the owner personally but they've been around for awhile. That says a little something about guide outfits in CNY. Go do it, see some new country, maybe meet some new friends, maybe take some fresh red meat back downstate. Win/win if you can burn a couple days of vacation.

Pretty much set on gear, just have to make some adjustments to my current stuff and pick up some odds and ends. Really looking forward to going light with minimal baggage. Your recommendations were very valuable. TY. Charles E. Baker state forest in Madison county. 9400 acres. I've hunted there some on and off for 30 years but never tried tracking there. Nice thing (I think) about that place is the truck and horse trails are well marked and there's a lot of maps and info available to look at and develop a plan. It's rough country though, relatively speaking, for CNY. Question. The wind. How much do you consider wind direction when tracking? Obviously you want it in your face when possible but what do you do when the track direction and wind direction aren't in sync? Keep pushing forward? Loop around to try and get the wind back in your favor and pick up the track again etc. etc? Thanks.

This needs an update by the OP and another chapter posted in the tutorial. This is my game plan this year!

Tie off or die. No brainer.

36 years of stomping around.

It doesn't get much better than that right there! Congrats.

You're gonna plunk one this year with that .308 and look down at the gun with a big old smile and think to yourself "Yep, that'll do". My favorite caliber for NYS whitetails and it'll grow on you too I bet. Sure you can kill a deer w .22 with the right bullet, shot placement etc., etc., etc. But you could also pound one with a 130 or 150gr .30 (your .308) and not have to worry so much about being perfect. Much more margin for error than a .22. Save the 22-250 for chucks and such for now. Bust out the .22 for nostalgia's sake when the time is right.

If you've hunted for any bit of time, you should understand that deer hunting makes people stupid. And I'm just talking run of the mill deer hunting. Big bucks make some people delusional. For one reason or another . . .