NYBowhunter

Thx. Im sure seeing things like this bring back a flood of great memories. I cherish what I have each day, fortunate to still have these traditions. Thankfully my wife has alot of the recipes along with my 3 sisters and they all love to cook and carry on the traditions.

Cookie porn for all my Sicilian brothers. Swung by my parents house last night to pick up my share of our traditional Italian Xmas cookie called , Cuccidati. Its a traditional Sicilian cookie made with dried figs and various dried fruits. Its amazing. Yes my dad loves his food...lol..

Omelet with sausage, broccoli and shredded cheese topped with some hot sauce, 5 grain bread with butter.

The 7 point i shot this year was trailing a doe with a 6 month doe fawn, not sure which one was coming into heat, but he was on thier trail. To answer your question either doe fawn or mature doe, if thier in estrous a mature buck will give chase to both or either of. Few years back in the late season with the ML I shot a mature 9 point, his demise believe it or not were two 6 month old doe fawns. Even though he was in ruff shape weight wise, he was very mature and looked ridiculously big compared to those two little does but obviously one or both were coming into estrous. He kept nudging and trailing them, but they seemed jittery. What I'm trying to get at is a buck will give chase to a doe, doe with fawns, just doe fawns if the timing is right.

I have witnessed protective does, many years ago me and my uncle found a newly born fawn on our logging road in the spring. We had to move her to get by with the UTV as she wouldn't move an inch. I picked her up to move her slightly up hill, she let out a God awful bawl . What do you know here comes mamma charging down off that mountain looking to kill what just touched her baby, mamma just stood there and stared and me and my uncle until her fawn climbed up the hill to her and off they went. That doe stood there and didn't run off until her baby was safe. So yes does can be very protective. I think in this instance with firstlight that doe was either being pushed by a buck or pressured by hunters, I have seen deer continuously look back where they came from to keep a distance and tab on whatever pushed them. Deer get that jittery and "weird " when pressured by hunters/bucks.

That place looks very deery, it amazes me how diverse NY woods can be. From the looks of that place looks very thick with underbrush and not much in the way of big timber. By me in central NY seems the opposite not much on the thick stuff, lots of fields, ag fields, pockets of big pine standings, open hardwoods, lots of crab apple trees. The only really thick area I have is my sanctuary and the ditch which has tons of alders, brush and thorny blackberry. By you it just seems everything other then the trails its thick and nasty. Other then those trails, can you actually walk in those woods? Just curious thats all and living vicarious threw you guys until the ML opens...lol

Guess thats not a bad thing, keep at it!!

Gut piles don't bother deer at all, but one of the reasons I take my deer back to the cabin to gut them, hate having those crows chirping all day. Gets annoying after a while.

Jackalope

Lol..

That tree came from Oneonta, NY, 20 minutes from my camp.

I would take a 2x4 the length of the rails, then take those u shaped pipe clamps with the two holes and place on bottom of rail and screw from underneath into the wood. Hard to explain when writting...lol...but its a very simple cheap fix. If your not understanding I can draw a diagram.

Nomad I'm curious, what seems to be the issue this year vs. Others in deer sightings. Seems your have an unusually difficult year.

Most of the double and single stands i use all have the flip up rails. Never had an issue of a rail being to low, I rest my arm on the rail and the rifle is in my hand. I have had shots behind me as well and in those cases I rest one knee on the seat and rest my arm and rifle against the tree. I dont have ladder stands where I find the rails to be too low. I always rest the foreend of the rifle in my hand and my hand rests on the rail.

Good luck , slam a big one and Happy Birthday. I cant think of a better way to celebrate a birthday.

That really sucks but not much you can do when it enters another property. If he shot it or not he could still deny you access which in turn he can still keep it. Don't beat yourself over it, even if you did trail it last night you would have still needed permission form the neighbor to retrieve.

Not all hits by a car are apparent by looking at the surface, most times it will require removal of the hide to reveal he was hit by a car.

Good luck getting the big 8.

Did you shoot him?

This was my first attempt at camo dipping my rifle buck, using a tote of water and 4 different colors of spray paint. Came out pretty good.

Food and undisturbed bedding areas are key. People that don't see deer think they bed down all day, thats not the case. Since bow i have watched a doe and her doe fawn stay on my property and throughout the day only move in a 100 yard radius. Its a mountain side, secluded spot with a foodplot and a sanctuary. They would eat in the plot and go bed in either my neighbors tall grass or into my sanctuary and repeat that in the afternoon. They did that countless times. I used them as live decoys and it paid off the day after the gun opener as a 7 pointer came looking for them. In the same location during the last week of bow/crossbow I had 6 does and a 3 pointer around me and literally in a 2 hour period they moved a total of 10 yards picking through the leaves eating red acorns. If they have food, bedding, water and no pressure in one spot they will literally not move a whole lot.

Just like a 6.5 creedmoor. Happy Thanksgiving.

Okay we are neighbors, not far from you. Thats a great buck for that area.

Wow, nice buck. Was he taken in Jefferson,NY. Whereabouts? I hunt near Harpersfield.