First-light

Way to go G-man. I might start that log. I have owned my camp for 6 years, 5 hunting seasons. We have taken 17 deer. Old and young have participated. Your camp sounds like a real nice place, congrats!

Engineer, will I see you on the 7:37 out of Huntington? If so tell me all about it. 2nd to last car, look for the guy reading Outdoor News.

Only had two encounters in all the years hunting and fishing. State land in Roscoe NY. My brother and I set up camp off the road and put a couple of nails in the trees to hold up lanterns and such. Game warden came by shooting the shit with us and after 20 minutes, winked, and said remove the nails from the trees. That is illegal and will cost you if I come back tomorrow. Well tomorrow cam and I shot a buck. Hung him in a tree from a.... no not a nail...heavy tree limb. Different game warden stopped by, jumped out of his truck ran up to the deer and turned the tag back and forth, to me it seemed a hundred times. Looked at me and pointed is this your deer, I said yes, come here son he replied. I didn't fill out the DMP zone where the buck was killed. I quickly fixed my mistake and on he went. These guys were cool but pretty much down to business when it came to screwing around in their neighborhood.

Got to love the Moose in NYS.

Trail cam picts?

Honestly for me I saw chasing as early as Oct 17th and it continued right through Nov 22nd. I think it is impossible to nail down a 1 week period that would be best. Keep a log for your area and go on that for years of experience. One thing I know, you gotta be in the woods to experience it!

Good luck Sam, have fun up there.

Doesn't look like my Mossberg. My gun is bulky/stocky looking. Got to love old guns!

Nice deer Joe! Nice pictures presenting your deer, keep up the good work.

We have one of those Sears shotguns. Bolt action and has a clip. The 22 sounds cool. I have a Mossberg 22M from 1950 with the peep site. Think a lot of the 22's back then were made the same way. Picture would help.

Real nice buck-way to go!

If you look at most of the trees that came down from Sandy they all looked healthy on the outside. Most of them were hollow at the base causing their demise. Soft woods and pine will snap-good point to stay out of these.

One more congrats to the kid for getting his Dad into hunting. No need for a "youth hunt" we have the "old man hunt" way to go!

Take a look at this picture. This is my tree stand 3 weeks ago after some wind. The top of the tree broke off and slammed the stand. Thank God no one was in the stand at the time. The top of the tree is at the base. Tree looked healthy to me at the time I set it up. There must of been some heavy duty wind come through because there are other trees that this happened to. Maybe Sandy, this is in the Finger Lakes.

Real nice! How was the drag back to camp??

Very nice, love the rack on him! Enjoy Turkey day with the family!

Yes private.

How do you come up with that figure?? Were they huge deer?

How many of you on your own land tag the deer after you pull it out of the woods and over to the deer pole? I have and should change my ways. I can see a ticket on the horizon........

So in the wake of Sandy all you heard on Long Island was the noise of generators and more generators. I get to camp looking forward to the quietness of the woods on opening morning. What do I hear!!!!!!!! My neighbor to the east and his #*!*^% generator loud as can be until 9:30! In the end I laughed and when on about business.........

Happy Thanksgiving, I love this holiday!

Noodle one, I wish you luck. I think what your talking about hits some harder than others. I have had those feelings for the last few years. I made up my mind to get more youth involved at my camp. I would rather see a guest get one for the first time rather than myself. I let two walk Monday morning after doing 2 all day sits and only seeing a small button buck. Good luck my friend and continue enjoying the outdoors in your own special way!

First question yes their hide is thick and it could stop the bleeding somewhat. This happens more in archery season. Second it sounds like that was a sow and cub you shot at or two yearlings orphaned because the mother was shot. which is illegal. Two bears in the same area???? I have learned through the years to let the bear hang around if possible for a bit. Sometimes the cubs bring up the rear and it could be a good 5 minutes. I hope you took some hours to looks for these animals. BTW I usually don't bust chops but you saying you buddy took two shots but it was way too dark is not a good thing.

Each group has its own bad apples. A lot of hunters come from downstate so its easy to stereotype them. Some may not be the type you like but they help the economy in some pretty depressed areas. I have been hunting for a long time. I come from Long Island and own a camp in the Southern Tier. I have seen it go both ways with the upstate and downstate thing. One thing I do have to talk about. My brother in law moved upstate from Long Island over 35 years ago. His father in law took him aside and told him we do things differently up here, watch and learn and keep your mouth shut for a while. He did just fine. My brother in law told me this story because I too needed the lesson when I started hunting and spending so much time up there. I built up a great circle of friends and it continues to grow. I hope your situation gets better, get through Thanksgiving weekend and you will probably have the place to yourself again.

The south/south east wind really killed some of my better stands. Now it wasn't blowing that hard but still enough to screw things up. We (4 hunters) saw a total of 5 deer in 2.5 days of hunting. Not good this year..........