Meat Manager

Thieves be damned I brought the climber to my fav tree...a little more effort than normal but I'm 15 ft up it and ready to kill. Got in at 6, looks like a perfect morning

Well atleast your stand was there when you got there this morning, ha. I hunted the evening at my lease and saw zero, still an ocean of corn up over there (300 acres)...sleeping in tomorrow and then doing a PM in the tree my stand was stolen from and then leaving the climber there and doing it again Monday AM.

+1 on Kids as Good Luck Charms, either that or they hone your patience, endurance and physical strength. +1 on Stimulants...I chose to go back to my old college friend, Red Bull...20 months later still on them like daily vitamins, no choice its either that or daily adrenaline shots straight to the heart, only way to keep up with my kid.

I agree that all signs point to low...still keep at it as long as possible, try concentric circles from last blood or fur. Also with 2 people I do one person on all fours looking for blood from last blood and looking down all potential trails and the other person doing big sweeping circles around last blood looking for sign on trails that come from the last blood. This way both the slow approach can confirm exact trail heading, and the guy doing big circles can find sign sometimes jumping 20 30 yds ahead.

I've had deer double lunged as well as liver exits with 12ga slugs run 100 + yds...I don't like to waste meat with shoulder shots, but if they are inside 20 I shoot for the neck in order to drop them. Blood tracking is part of hunting.

Yeah well, I'm not letting this keep me down. For this weekend I was planning on two more hunts out of that tree before I call it quits there for gun season. I'm sticking with that plan and I'm taking my climber in this afternoon, and I'll lock it on there with a master lock snake cable lock when I leave this evening and then hunt it again tomorrow morning and pack it back out. If the hunting gods are with me I'll fill this last 7J tag with deer #5 this weekend thieves be damned!

Just called the Officers at Highland Forest which oversees the County Parcel I hunt, Stands are allowed and they have not and do not remove Treestands.

With a group of guys I bet you'll get it done, hope you find him and that the yotes stayed away... I left this 6-8 point overnight 4yrs ago after a big thunder storm came in 1.5 hours into my track job, it was already after dark when I had to stop...first thing next morning I followed the sound of the crows down the trail I saw him go down and found him like this: Yotes had chewed the head off at the neck and took it for a prize, they also dug into the ass combined with the blood getting into the backstraps that left me pretty much nothing but shanks and shoulders. I have not left one overnight since.

I think you just gave away a million dollar idea...thanks for the discount!

This is exactly how I feel and exactly why it burns...I don't want to accuse, but my mind will go, and that stand was 15ft up and locked... But I do have a small climber that I used to rely on in public land until I got comfortable with a couple spots for hang-ons. I also found that people like to follow my reflective markers and put their ladder stands where I use my climber, which besides convienience was the reason I started using hang-ons to mark my spot. Seems to come down to some people are awesome, but most seem to be jerks.

Not during the season, technically they should be removed in between seasons, but there are stands as old as Betty White on that county parcel..I also leave a tag with my DOC# attached as is required.

I was actually just thinking yesterday how I was going to have to pull that stand and check all the hardware this offseason. I hope they are as thorough with maintenance as they were with their pilfering... Like I said I buy cheap stands so they don't burn so bad when they get ripped off, but my lucky brother helped me set this stand and it rubbed off...and I just keep thinking its one of the guys it probably isn't which also bums me out that I would mentally accuse otherwise nice dudes.

State Agencies have a lot of variables to consider, especially in states as diverse and as densely populated (even the more rural areas in contrast to the midwest) as NY, PA and NJ. QDM or Trophy can be done the same virtually anywhere because the deer basically stay on the large properties. Though I agree that NY has some pretty good regs...it certainly is not as tight as some other Northeastern or even Midwestern states in terms of 2 Bucks, No Check Stations, Sundays Allowed, Almost No AR, and especially Uninterrupted Deer Season from Early to Reg to MZ. For example PA has AR that vary from WMU to WMU, Seasons that Vary from WMU to WMU, Interruptions of NO Deer Hunting in between Archery, Reg, MZ, Flintlock, and during Bear, no Sundays and 1 Buck/year. Alternatively Central/Southern New Jersey is basically Doe/Day Sept 15- Feb 15 with a couple interruptions but with legal baiting and no AR. Jersey is earn-a-buck for the first two weeks of the season though.

Nice work, even if you're lady did 99%! I got one 20 months ago, cut my hunting time in half, but I've harvested twice as many deer since.

5:30 AM I made a perfect 200 yd uphill up-creek approach to my best public stand, I've harvested 6 deer (2 good bucks) in 3 years from this stand including my nice 8 last Sunday. When I got to my tree this morning the stand and single ladder stick at the very top were gone. It had been locked and 15 ft in the air, I pack 2 ladder sticks in and out with me. I was pissed, so I went home...I am still pissed. It's not about the money or the deer opportunity lost this morning...I've harvested 4 this season and I'd gladly give up a $39 hang-on for those results every season. It's about the fact that this is a good hunting spot, but I have actually been pushed away from gun hunting it by other idiot hunters, and now I feel as if I should just totally stop hunting public land around here and just focus on my lease and getting permission to hunt private elsewhere. The worst part of all is that I kind of like the small group of guys that hunt this little county parcel in archery...however I also know that I am one of the only guys that consistently harvest multiple deer there. So now I am left wondering whether this was a random theft or some jealous jerk. Again it was 15 ft up and locked, seems like it may have taken a little forethought. The thing is I love hunting on public property, with a climber and some good intuition you can bag an animal at a place you've never hunted anywhere near before...and then when you find a good repeat kill spot, it feels like you really know what your doing. Also there is plenty of it, so when stuff isn't working out at one place (like my lease where it has been feast or famine with 300 acres of corn still standing near by)...you can easily try somewhere totally different. But crap like this reminds me that not only is my gear not safe, but during gun season neither am I.

The loss of my lucky stand coupled with me not being prepared to hunt from the ground sent me home... Gonna do a pm at the lease...hopefully all my stands are still there...ugh

Just had a perfect approach to my 7j public stand that I've harvested 6 deer from in the past 3 years including my nice 8 last Sunday....it's gone. I always pull two ladder sticks and take them with me back and forth, someone needed a ladder or climber to get this set...ughhhhhhhhh! Guess I'll sit here a bit, my climber is in the truck but ughhhh....

Trying to bag deer number 5 this weekend. Gonna do two more public land AM hunts this weekend to try and fill my wife's 7J DMP before the orange army invades next Saturday. As of the 16th I'll be posted up on my private lease up in 7f thru late bow.

From the description I would say that deer is deader than a doornail probably within 20-100 yds from the last arrow segment. The fact that the front half of the arrow was out first most likely means it was a ribcage pass through that lodged on the opposite leg until he broke it off when he took off, if that is the case that is double lung and probably heart. You might consider doing concentric circles from the last blood, even if you dont find blood you should find the deer...get down on all fours and look down every trail, you will see a white belly and/or big horns sooner or later. Sounds like a perfect shot, just need a recovery for an awesome buck. Good Luck!

Nice work.

Got snowed on at the 7f lease for the first time this season...seen zero. Heading home to make some venison sausage.

I can only speak for myself but, I have a small 3.5 cu. ft. chest freezer...it has about 3.5 deer in it right now and could easily fit another 3.5. Also a deer in someones freezer is a deer not on someones windshield. All that said personally I would not shoot a deer if I did not intend to process it. I do give meat away to family, but only after I have butchered and wrapped it myself, even when I am giving it to fellow hunters.

My opinion is fill the tags if you have something to do with the meat....and go ahead and go for the double or triple if you can manage the drag and processing of the animals without letting anything spoil. All serious forms of Deer Management (QDMA, Trophy, State Gov's) involves the shooting of does (even fawns) early and often for the purpose of balancing and/or reducing the heard. I saw somewhere something like only 25% of deer hunters actually fill even 1 tag. I also like to hunt DMFA and also prefer to use DMAP's when I hunt in the Delaware State Forest in PA. Tagged out of my own Bow/MZ's and DMP's this archery season, and I still have 3 tags left (1 Reg, 2 Wife DMP's)...I like to think I'm doing my part.

I have a cabin in the Delaware State Forest in PA...it is a mountain big woods tract with virtually no agriculture anywhere. Harvesting one deer of either sex (there are AR) per season is an accomplishment. The deer do still tend to move in patterns, but they are wider ranging and it is much more difficult to pick up on the patterns...we stick to some trusted stands after many years of trial and error and plenty of preseason scouting, we are also lucky to be right on some natural funnels and in one of the only major pine stands in our area. If we put in the time most of us usually get one there, but it is not like hunting a 12 acre woodlot sandwiched between 100's of acres corn, alfalfa, beans and orchards.

When I was a kid I did all day sits and they made me never want to hunt again. As I got into archery on my own I switched up regiments. In order to maximize my opportunities and hedge my weather bets, I tend to only hunt mornings and evenings. I can hunt a lot of 3-5 hour sessions, I doubt my wife would let me get away with too many full day sits. I also hunt light, and hold my bow or gun at the ready at all times...thats hard to do with a thermos and sandwich. It has worked for me in that I see and shoot way more deer doing as many short sessions as I can rather than sitting all day long a couple times a year.