New York Hillbilly

Anybody else out today?

With the decades long exodus, New York should have as it's motto, "Live Free or Fly".

Happy Thanksgiving to you all from 7M. With the company here, I was kept up until midnight. Although I was running 1/2 hour behind, and tired this morning, I still made it to the ladder stand I had planned to use. I heard several far off shots but nothing close, and I saw zero deer. Came back to the house at 10 to visit with the family and enjoy the day. I may grab the last hour tonight in the stand I saw the bucks yesterday. To those who scored deer today, congratulations! NYH

Yes. The research is overwhelming that cellphones and computer type devices are addicting. They are designed to be that way for many reasons, and very little is meant for our overall good.

Thank goodness you have the generator, Al.

lol Good one! As miserable the deal was, I only have myself to blame. I let my guard down. She never texts me while I'm hunting, so as soon as I saw the text was not an emergency I should have just ignored it or texted "not now". Instead, the excitement of my kids and grandson coming got me off my A game and I got too chatty. I basically quit hunting to start talking. Knowing full well a deer could pop up at any moment I should have kept my eyes fixed on what I was there for, and checking my scope for fogging. I guarantee I will not let that happen again. At least this season! hahaha With all the hard work my wife always puts into making Thanksgiving and the holidays nice for everyone, with all the baking, cooking, decorating, etc., and with our 44th anniversary this December, this one buck isn't about to be a deal breaker. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't trade her for all the deer in the woods.

I'm fuming! Just blew I chance on a buck, by breaking my attention to what I was doing at the critical time. I'm not sure exactly what he had on his head, but from the size of the body he was a fully mature buck. After brush hogging and climbing up in my tractor bucket to chainsaw branches away from stands today, and taking care of chores at the house, I decided to spend the last couple hours in my elevated half house. I had a really good view in all directions since brush hogging, but the fog rolled in making it tough to see after 4pm. From past experiences I knew deer like to sneak around when it is like this. At 4:30 I got a text from my wife telling me my daughter and grandson were on their way, and asking what we might like to so for dinner when they get here. As I'm now responding to her text, I just happened to look up and catching me totally off guard here comes a buck walking into the same area the little spike traveled this morning. Totally broadside, I quick put the phone down stand and pick up my rifle. I put the scope on him and what the hell, I can't see through the scope. It was all fogged up! I grab a piece of toilet paper out of my pocket that I keep to wipe my glasses and scope, and wipe the lens. The buck still walking as if on a mission is not giving me any time to fool around. Just as I go to put the scope back on him, he obviously either saw me or got the vibe something was up and started running into the goldenrod. If I had been freaking paying attention instead of texting, I would have seen him coming from quite a bit further away and would have had time to get straight by the time he was broadside to me. Urgghhh! NOTE to self: No more texting during peak times, and I need to finish this blind. My elevated blind is really big, 8x8, sort of on accident, and with the exception of the back wall and a monster sized window in the front wall, all the rest of the wall space is open from about 40 inches height to the roof. They clearly can see me up there moving around getting in position.

I was almost 5, and believe it or not, from such a young age I have similar memories, even though they are vague.

Cool picture! Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

From 7m. At 9:30 I had the little spike at 50 yards in the wide open and broadside. His spikes would be lucky to hit three inches. I’m surprised he is the only deer I’ve seen this morning. As nice as it is right now and following that storm yesterday they should be moving like crazy. Would love to sit all day but honey do list still has items with the kids coming later today. For those who are out and can stay out, today feels like a good one.

Holy crap! It will be just like me to shoot a deer in the weather so I can suffer field dressing it. The steady downpour of sleet and rain in this wind have the window of my blind covered in ice now. Stay warm and good luck to those deer crazy enough to be out now.

I’m too much of a softy! My plan was to hang tough till 10 then head to the house. Guess again! Here comes a small doe or the little spike I saw before, at 9:55, and I watch the deer walk up the hill about 60 yards. I thought it was going to bed down so I sat tight. Then at 10:05 here comes a big doe. This one I will shoot. So it gets about 40 yards broadside, my cross hairs on its boiler room, safety off, and before I squeeze here comes the little deer bounding down the hill to the doe. Back on goes the safety as they nuzzle each other. I spend the next 10 minutes putting up with the doe stomping her foot and head bobbing as she finally pegs me and tries to figure out what I am. The doe finally turns and slips into the thicket with the little one in in tow. 10:35 with them now gone, I’ll exit too.

7M. 25 degrees and brutal wind. Anyone else out in this today? With all these dying and tipping over ash trees I may nail on this soon. Too much cracking for my liking. Especially given my ladder stand is now tied to one of these now green ash trees.

I's cool with the new time as long as people use good sense and are safe. Myself, I don't really like to fumble around in the dark or sit there forever waiting and freezing, so I probably head to my stand later than many people. I had enough of that in my younger days. I never gave to much thought about the time change since they implemented it, but after reading this thread I decided to actually check the sunrise/sunset chart while on stand tonight and actually learned something. I think I still typically leave before I'm legally required. Unless I'm trapped in my stand by deer I don't want to spook by getting down, I leave when my internal clock and my eyes tell me to leave. Tonight I tried to hang in until the half hour after sunset, but I needed to leave with 10 minutes still to go. There was no way I could see well enough to safely identify anything or shoot, and did not want to risk a fall coming down my ladder.

I sat in my half house on stilts overlooking the mowed areas I did today. Clearing the dry goldenrod and brush with dull brush hog, a tired tractor, and even older and more tired tractor driver was a chore, but really opened things up. The only deer tonight though was a big fat doe with her two fawns. Easy shots but can't bring myself to do it. They really like browsing those trails between my blackberries. I saw something I had never seen before in all my years hunting. One of the fawns I'm guessing was a little buck, because he once mounted his mother like he was trying to breed her. lol Must be a 7M thing!

Yes it was cold this morning. I started out in the spot where there are 6 different scrapes, and have multiple bucks on camera there. With the exception of the big body broken rack buck, the rest are all little fellas. I didn't last long there because I'm just not comfortable hunting close to my neighbors line. I was set up at the stone wall that is my property line, and facing into my land so any shot I took would go into my property and not his. In all my years have never hunted that close for fear a deer might run on him instead on me. I also worried this morning with all the deer up there, if someone on his side didn't play by the same rules they might be shooting right at me. So I pulled the plug and moved further down my hill. Saw deer zero this morning. Came down and took care of chickens and some chores, then 2 /12 hours brush hogging. Time to get back out there for a chilly but pretty afternoon.

I agree looks like a rat.

Only deer seen today was a small doe on my way out this morning, and tonight at 4:05 an equally small spike buck. His spikes were pushing the 3 inch mark, if not a bit longer. He was browsing along the mowed trails in my blackberry patches and kept looking up at something, but whatever he was watching never showed up. Tonight with the weather, it felt much more like the last day of muzzle loader than the second day of regular season.

Sitting in my still only half built elevated stand/building for the last couple hours. It breaks most of the wind and at least keeps the sleet/snow off me. I can now see I have much brush hogging to do. It’s tough to see much with all the overgrowth. I’ll tackle it mid day tomorrow.

I’ve had a few stands end up that way over the years from my leaving them up. And seeing your stand on the ground, the same thought goes through my mind. Thank God nobody was in it! Great to hear the stand wasn’t ruined, and nobody hurt.

For anyone interested in 7m report. Windy, cold, sleet, snowing on my hill.

Yes it was! And with the clear skies here in 7M it looks like it might even feel colder today. Good luck today!

Headed up the hill in a few minutes. Ever have one of the mornings when you just can't decide where to sit to the point where you agonize over it? lol Good luck everyone!

That’s because the people in charge have no understanding about outdoor sports. They want to get rid of firearms, ammunition, and now knives. I even heard the dummies got together and decided to push a program to encourage more people to get into fishing. Because they all talked about how they heard NY needs more “hookers”, and they unanimously agreed!

Adding a little fiber to my diet. That is, the little black fuzzy stuff that lines my coat pockets. My sticky peanut brittle came out of its plastic baggy and stuck like glue to the fuzzy material in my coat pockets. No way I’m wasting my peanut brittle. Trying to rip it off has proven to be quite the challenge, and time passer. I don’t imagine the fuzz will kill me, and it sure seems to me anyway less of a threat than the 209 primers I swallowed on accident once while I was hunting.