accman

I remember last years rut was awesome with deer running all over the place. Was positioned in the corner of the property, all the activity with the bucks was between 40 and 80 yards away, although a couple of does (one a white one) walking right by my stand. I placed it back in the same place at the beginning of the season. Had one spike about 25 yds away and everything else was in the middle of the flat, between 40 and 80 again. So, I moved it to the flat. Seen the same 8 pointer a couple of times out of the old location. After blowing the last opportunity at the new area, I can only imagine with all the deer running around, going crazy like they did last year, it'll be hard to set up properly without them being on all four sides of you. I'll take a look and see if I have enough black outfits and just keep the one side closed. (maybe just a slit to to look out). Hopefully the snow will still be on the ground on Saturday, my tent will still be there, and the deer will cooperate and put on a show. Good Luck !!!!

I, also, think less than a 100 on each. But it's easy to see they come from some nice gene pools. Real nice bucks.

The hardest thing from the ground is scent control. Normally, I wash the clothes each week, scent up, and try to be as cognizant of the wind as possible. Last weekend, when I missed the chance at mine cause he got wind of me, and hightailed it back out, I now realized I hadn't washed the clothes cause of Sandy. In fact, I just got the power back on last night. I'm sure he smelled some fumes of gasoline and exhause fumes from our generator cause I didn't have the clothes bagged up. I'll be washing everything tonight and getting ready for Saturday morning.

I would be a little leery of shooting through a mesh, even with a regular broadhead. This tent is a little doghouse blind, no frills, no mesh. If a little twig can deflect an arrow, I wouldn't trust shootin through em with the shot of a lifetime. Besides, I use the two blade rage expandables, so it's a mute point. The advantages to the blind are you can move around relatively easy without being seen, up to a certain point, less exposure to the elements, comfortable seating, and more. But I think it's a disadvantage when trying to set up for a shot. Ya know, ya can't have everything. We'll see if he comes around again this weekend. This storm may drop some of the white stuff around Westchester, might get em into some heavy rutting, like last year, and hopefully, he give me the opportunity again. Good luck to all.

I bowhunt out of ground blind and have a line of sight around 100 yds in all directions. I leave my window flaps open only a few inches and when I see them coming, I have time to close the flap behind me, adjust the windows in front and in the direction of the deer, garb the bow and get ready. Or at least, that's what's suppose to happen. I've seen this eight pointer every weekend, comes to about 50 and always seems to head in a different direction. This past Saturday, I'm checking all the areas cause he can come from anywhere, and suddenly, he's there 40 yds away and heading for me. Adjusted the front window flap, grabbed the bow, he's at 30 yds. Drew back, and I didn't make the opening of the window big enough to shoot out of (owhatanassiam), released, he stood behind a tree, fixed the flap, redrew, and he quartered away, nose in the air, checking like something was definitely wrong, turned around, and ran back the way he came. Alright, the wind was heading right at him, but that's no excuse to miss out on that opportunity. My son sons to completely close off one side, half the other two sides and concentrate on 180 degrees. Next year, I guarantee I get a ladder stand again and chain it up, cause this blind's nice, but I don't think it's the best for bowhunting this area. If you hunt out of blind, how do you guys keep your windows ? It seems it has to be at least a 7 or 8 inch opening to properly shoot out of, and can give away a lot of movement.

Saw a white doe last year during the rut. She came from a long way away, running around, and I, at first, thought it was a horse. Then, when she got close, she had a little brown on her back, only just a little, not a pure albino. She was being chased around by every buck in the area like she was the queen of the crop. I hunt close to a lot of houses and the people there are probably feeding deer and everything. They had to have seen her and all claim her as a pet. A couple of bucks were fighting it out about 50 yards away and all the does were standing around watching em. She walked right up to my tent. I dropped down, watched her image through the tent wall, and if she peeked in, I was gonna give her an uppercut. She just kept on going and walked off with the rest of the does. I've hunted for 45 years, never shot a doe cause at our gun club they don't allow it. Therefore, I never had the urge when I took up bow hunting 8 years ago. Scout: "Atikus, it would be sort of like killing a mockingbird, woodn't it ?" Best thing is I got to see her. Hopefully, she's got some fawns, and we'll see if she's still around.

Last Saturday, in Westchester, had a nice 8 point walk through bout 125 yards away, scraping his route, nose to the ground the whole way. Did not answer to light grunting as I didn't want to seem to aggressive this early in the season. My son went up to Orange county on Sunday, had a huge 8 come up his hill only to veer away from his side. He called twice and let out one big grunt. That turned him around and headed right at him. Shot him 15 yards from the stand. Real nice size 8 for that area. The running around by me doesn't get into full stride till the end of October, then they just go crazy.

I like to get in an hour ahead of time. Bow hunting it's almost mandatory, not that I haven't seen deer late in the a.m., but you've got to let the woods quiet down as much as possible. With the gun, I like to mooch hunt anyway. The other rule of thumb is, I wait close to 300 days for the season to open. I guess there's plenty of time to "sleep in' during that time period. I want to be in the woods as much as possible and give myself the chance to at least have a shot at it.

The rut was heavy in lower NY. I saw 5 bucks and 10 does chasing for 5 hours straight. Then, on a trip up to Port Jervis and back, I saw 12 dead deer on the roads. Normally you can see 2 or 3, but every day of the rut, it gets to be abnormally high numbers.

I have a small green LED, but try not to use. Toughest thing is your footing, especially after bad weather. We've got bears in our area, but they'll run away as soon as they hear the quads. We're in our stands an hour before sunup. I get dropped off and walk in about 150 yards, but I still like to be quiet walking in. If the deer are bedded down in the area or walking close by, they'll let the quads go by and couldn't even care less. But, step on some twigs or branches heading to your stand, and it's like a bomb went off, their gone. I think it's just that they see quads and cars all the time, and they know their safe, but if your on the ground, you've gone from passerby to predator.

This weekend was the rut city in Westchester. Saturday, saw about 5 bucks riling em up and 10 does just running all over the place. Then I see this big white thing running toward the middle of em. A young albino with patches of brown on it's back was having a field day running all over the place, and these bucks were chase her like she was the queen of the ball. I couldn't get a picture with the phone, tried, but was being watched like a hawk by another doe. The bucks, a big 5 and 6, started going at it, and they were all standing and watching like it was a prize fight. Whitey and another doe run right up to my tent. I had to croutch down cause I thought they were going to come over a peek in the window. Heavy rut from 7:30 till 12:30, quiet time from 12:30 to 5, then the bucks came back, sniffing the ground, and all heading in different directions. Had a three and 2 four pointers close, but figured the other two would head over sooner or later, but didn't. Sunday afternoon, got there at 2:00 and saw two bucks, and the rest all came out at dusk. Love the action. Wish I could hunt during the week, cause this kind of action doesn't last too long.

I didn't use the tinks on Saturday before the storm, figured I'd wait till Sunday. Instead of a drag-line on Sunday in the snow, I just hung a cotton scent in a tree. The buck was below me and heading away. The wind was blowing in that direction. I bleated, he stopped, sniffed the air for awhile, then headed back the same way he came instead of coming up the hill toward me. If I had placed a drag-line down, he may have come up to me. Sure, Hind-sight is everything. I guess he was heading back to where he last saw some does. Who knows ? Same with my son, he listened to me putting the climber up in the valley, instead of 30 yards further up the hill, and sure enough, he saw two bucks, real nice size to em, 55 yards up the hill. If he would of done what he wanted, he would have been 25 yards away. Hey, ya just never know.

I hunt from a pop-up tent during bow season. Like the cover, consealment, and the ability to move around a little. A ladder stand would be better, but my first year in this area so I want to see if anything happens to the tent before I put up a ladder. Was in the tent on Saturday morning, son was in the climber. We saw quite a few deer, one nice 7 pointer, just out of reach. Weather got bad about 11:00, so we called it a day. Went back Sunday morning after 4 - 6 inches fell and a tree limb fell right on the tent. We got it off and took off all the heavy snow on top of it, but it bounced right back to shape. One of the inside folding spines broke, but was still useable, at least for this year. Good thing I wasn't inside when that limb came down or I'd be a goner. We did see 3 bucks that morning, as well as 4 does, but when the sun came up and started melting the snow off of everything, it seemed like it was coming down in snowballs, and hail. Too much noise going on, so I figure I'd get out around 11 and wait for the next weekend to give it a try. I love hunting in snow. Would even consider buying snow camo and stalk, if we had enough of it.

I guess you can't yell back when you hear the bell ? Anyway, when we get to the range, we ring this good sized bell, get the table set up, walk the 100 yards through through the marsh, put up the target, walk back, get situated comfortably, load the weapon, and fire. I'd say it takes a good 15 minutes. We can hear voices in the woods all the time, yelling, or whatever. But, when you hear the bell, you KNOW what's coming. We hunt on 650 acres of land during rifle season. I'll bet I can be anywhere on the edge of our property and still hear the bell. If it was me, I just wouldn't hunt near a rifle range. If it's a prime area next to an apple orchard, then work something out with the members that since they know you hunt there, put up a sign at the range saying your in your stand. They don't see the sign, your not there. Generally, with hunting clubs, some kind of arrangement can be worked out.

I'm heading over to Dick's today to pick up some TInks 69. With the weather looking like snow and rain tomorrow, who knows how they'll react. Drag may work for an hour or so, but could be washed out by mid-morning. It'll be interesting conditions if it starts to snow pretty good. They could be browsing and rutting all morning. With my luck, they'll just go and hide until Sunday. I hunt from a tent, so at least I'll be covered. Will let you know how it went down here.

This weekend should be good, hopefully. Should be dark enough going in. I'll set up a drag--line, hang it up, re-fuel the mock scrapes, and hope for the best. I would like to see a few bucks come in with their noses to the ground. If there is something to the moon phase theory, then it'll be thrown out the window when they get into rut. Only get to hunt saturday as my I have a work day at the hunting camp on Sunday. Could get back in time for an afternoon hunt. Good luck to all.

We don't allow bowhunting on our property, landlords wishes, (c'est la vie), so we can sight in up to one week before opening day. If you drop your weapon and need to sight in anytime after that, you have to get permission from an officer of the club to make them aware of the problem. We've got a bell by the shooting bench, just ring it when you start and when you leave. Our guys hunt turkey during the mornings up there, and you can hear the bell a good distance away.

Great Read. Don't forget to set up a drag line as you walk in. I've had them walk up, nose to the ground, and follow the exact path you came in on. I'll be trying a little bit this week and will start using the bleets. Hopefully, they'll be a little more aggressive. Have seen them in heavy cover this year, but they seem a little skittish.