New York Hillbilly

Wicked shot! Thanks for sharing the video. Now come whack the big ones off my place. I'm thick with them.

With a boomerang!

Nice!!!!

Me and the beagles gonna do some bunny running.

Merry Christmas fellow board members!

Southern Oneida County in 7M. Bow season was seeing some pretty good movement and I passed on a couple little bucks and does. Firearm season, deer sign everywhere, too warm during the day and only moving a night. Muzzle loader season got colder with lots more movement and deer seen, but only had one weekend and two evenings to hunt. I passed several does with ML, and saw one BIG buck when he busted out of the hedgerow behind my house after the first shot my brother in law made at a target trying to site in his new ML. It was the big boy I tried to find all season up on my hill, and here he was sleeping behind my house, no doubt all season long. It figures I put about 150 hours in on stand, give or take, and this big fella watched me pass by him the entire season as I headed up the hill. LOL! Like I said before, they don't get that big being stupid. LOL! Not my best season but sure glad I made it to and through another.

My nick name for years up here has been Baldy. My neighbors from the city (great people by the way) used to crack me up when they would ask me when they came up at deer season..........."Hey Bwaldy wehz da (and a bad word said real funny but I wont write for fear of getting yelled at...LOL!) deeaz?" LOL! What accent? LOL!

Congrats on the good news of a new baby. Enjoy!

Typically I get on stand about a 1/2 hour before light till 10AM then head back to the house. I go back out for the last 2 1/2 hours. I have to so much to do around the house this time of year because of the long hours I work all year, the "honey do" list is long.

The whole story on the land owner being "protected" is not as it seems. The law protects landowners from having to pay damages by those who might sue them, but it does not stop them from being sued. I have a friend who is a landowner (as am I), and he and his elderly (now deceased) dad had to pay out tens of thousands of dollars to lawyers to represent them once, when they were sued by a hunter. It was a heart breaking situation all the way around and I will not going to details, but suffice it to say that nobody won. Did they pay out damages....."no".........did they get sued........"yes"..........is that land now posted....."yes"........and since that time being chunked off and sold as building lots never to be hunted again. For the record, I don't post my land because of "insurance". I post my land because it is my property, my backyard, and I invite those I wish to into my yard. It is a simple matter of respect that I would not cross your yard, sneak into your home, so why would you do it to me or anyone else just because our yard might be bigger than you think is appropriate. If you have some common sense, decency, and respect for others, the "law" would be irrelevant.

Nice job...........enjoyed the video. Also, that place you are hunting looks awful familiar to me but I won't say where in case I was right. I would not want to give up your honey hole. LOL! Thanks for sharing the video.

And Pygmy............if you still need a nurse.......for the record......I am a nurse practitioner..if that helps at all. Oh....and if you take Skillet up on his offer make sure you practice safe snuggling. LOL!

Other than the buck in Ithaca story I have not seen anything other than congratulations to all the successful hunters. I must have missed something along the way but that is OK by me. I like to think this site has been for the most part supportive and entertaining with lots of pats on the backs and sometimes good natured ribbing. But thats all part of the scene. The one thing that does gall me though is the deliberate name calling and mean spirit of some who seem quick to anger when others either disagree or don't subscribe to their mentality. I said before that I have killed more than my fair share of little bucks but have some nice big ones as well. I pull the trigger and fill a tag when it feels right and I know I will be happy and satisfied with the results, and as long as it is legal and fair chase who's business is it but mine? I put in a ton of time this season and passed some little guys and a lot of does but as time drew near for me to return to work I had patterned (as best you can) a group of does on my property over a few days. I also knew there was a buck hanging in the area that kept giving me the slip. After much thought and repositioning myself I was finally able to catch him slipping through a tangle of thicket making his way to a bedding area and connect with him. Big bodied buck to be sure but "just a four point rack". And guess what? I am damned proud of the effort and time I put in to get him, and he is just as much a trophy to me as some of my big ones that came much easier. I love the guys who bumble along and stumble into a big buck and immediately become big buck experts and climb on some high horse when the truth is they were just S A Lucky. Truth be told most of the big deer are shot by pure luck by some lucky schmuck! My self included.....LOL! There are a few out there bent on only shooting big racked deer and that is cool by me and I don't down them for that but they should not be shoving their philosophy down others throats or belittling others who choose to legally take a different stand. It would be interesting to meet each other at some get together sometime in the off season and get a first hand glimpse at just who is who on this board. In my beagle trial days I had a bumper sticker that sums it up.........the BS stops when the tailgate drops. Maybe sometime during the summer there can be a chance to get together, drop some of the tailgates, and find out who are the BS er's and who are the real deal. Peace! NYH

People who throw slugs shouldn't hunt in glass houses! Or something like that! LOL!

Well after not taking time all year, I saved two weeks for deer season, and boy did I put it to use. With the exception of one day to attend to business I hunted 15 of the past 16 days and man do I feel it. At 52 it is not as easy as it was so many years ago to drag myself out of bed to go sit and play in the woods day after day. Sadly! But my love for deer hunting pushes me on. It gives me down time to just think, ponder and reflect and thank God that I was able to find myself hunting one more season. I take nothing for granted anymore as life has taught me some very important lessons about what really matters to me. Anyway, I was watching a couple does today cross my fields and had a thought. It was like a light clicking on in my head! One of the reasons I saw so few deer for the hours I put in had to do with the warm weather effecting their movement during the day (past couple of days been seeing deer everyday......does), the other reason I just thought of was also weather related. I have had a light covering of snow on the ground here only two days out of my 15 in the field and I think it just makes seeing them near impossible. The does would move and as soon as they stopped would seem to disappear. My over grown fields of golden rod, multiflora rose and scrub apple hide deer as good as the darkness of night. My swamp and scrub apple orchards are brown, wet, muddy and all seem to blend together and again unless the deer are moving (and even when they are) you can't see them. I don't know where you guys are hunting but in my world of everything is brown, shades of brown, gray or black, the reason I don't see deer this year is because they just blend in without the contrast of snow on the ground. Not even the crunch...crunch...crunch...to make my heart pound and make me turn head. Just a thought! Back to work tomorrow for me. By the time next Saturday gets here I will be itching to get back out in the woods. Maybe there will be a little snow by then. Safe hunting, NYH

Welcome aboard!

Keep them WARM! LOL!

Welcome to the site.

Hey Fletch.........is that the Jewitts cheese factory over here by me that you are talking about?

Oh for the love of Pete!!!!!!! I've about heard it all at this point! LOLOLOLOLOL! I watched more than one ass kicking fights between bucks in the fields on my farm, and am here to tell you if they can twist those swollen pure muscle necks and throw each other around like they due with such savage ferocity, I'm not hopping on board. Name call if you want to. Call me soft, call me ridiculous, tell me I ain"t much of a man for not claiming to be able to choke one to death.......lol.....but like I said before...to each his own. If you are tough enough to be able to pull off such feats I applaud your efforts, abilities and machismo. For the record I would love to stand back and see somebody try to strangle a deer. That would be a hell of a show! The reason we are the "apex" of the food chain as someone put it, is because we have thumbs...lol..............and the capacity to use our brain to think things through, to plan, to anticipate, and as a result to gauge risk versus benefit. I guess "deer wrestling' for me when you have a gun in your hand is like watching someone sit there and crack walnuts with their teeth when they have a nut cracker sitting right there in the bowl next to them. Good hunting to you all, NYH

Should have grabbed them when I had the chance yesterday. They were running again this morning, but off in the distance. I'll give them this much....they are persistent. I did drive around the area during mid-day and checked to see if they were hanging out in anyone's yard. No Luck! Interesting side note was I saw more deer today than any day this season, and had a chance to shoot nine of the ten does I saw. No bucks again today though but it was nice seeing deer though. Nice day....no dogs........seeing deer.

Well since bow season, I have every couple of days heard dogs (at least one of them a hound) pounding game. As a beagler myself of forty years, I try to give the benefit of the doubt when it comes to running hounds. Rabbits.......nope not how they move it out and the ground they cover (no hare here) so I figured maybe coyotes, but more likely and sadly, deer running. I now know for sure after I heard the pack open at the top of my hill, and then proceed to drive a nice six or eight point buck and three does, at full tilt past my buddy and then through the orchard I was sitting in. I never saw the dogs but my buddy confirmed first in line, beagle, followed by a slower beagle cross and a mutt along for the ride. So here I go taking off my only time off from work all year to hunt, my buddy driving almost daily 50 plus miles each way here and back home, to hunt, and we have the answer to why the deer are not around. If this were a simple matter of a rabbit hunter's beagles taking the almost inevitable, much hated and feared occasional deer run it would not be so bad. But now I know that someone (likely a neighbor) is letting their pets run wild during deer season and ruining the hunting as well as placing their pets in real danger. As a dog owner I would never cause them harm, even if they are pissing me off, because I blame the owners not the dogs. There are others out there who will not take that same position and that is not fair to the dogs. So let just say for myself, my buddy, the other hunters in the area, your dogs and especially the deer, to who ever owns theses dogs......thank you neighbor. Sorry.....board members.......I had to vent!

Enough lumber on that head to saw up and make a nice little log cabin!

Bucko forgive my ignorance at reading these swap things but I can never figure out what someone has and what they want. I must be DMP swap tag dyslexic. I have a 7J if you need one. I need a 7M if anyone has one. Respond to the post and we can make the swap.

7M has been slowwwwwwwwwww! I passed a spike buck opening day and a one antler fork horn the next and a few does. Since then I have hunted every day except one and have seen only a few does and zero bucks. With the warm temps it was a tough start.