BillJohnson

that is a bobcat, and the largest I have I have ever taken was 34 pounds, I couldnt guess the weight of this one in photos other than to guess it was an avg size, as most animals and people are...average. L.O.L. for photo references I recommend asking RJW for photos, he trees over 100 bobcats a year, very close to 100 bears a year and more than a dozen lions each season with his hounds and has done so for over 30 years. I am having a coughing fit so must go, have a wonderful day all, Bill

in 84 years of being outdoors I have never yet had a reaction to poison oak, ivy, sumac, or any other rash creating foliage. deer, and squirrels, make good use of poison ivy, and I like it as it turns red in fall and is very colorful. where I lived most of my life there isn't any poison ivy, but here in vermont and this part of new york I see it everywhere. jewelweed was mentioned and it works but not as a tea, simply cut off a few stems of jewelweed and roll the entire plant up in your hands making a mush of it, then put that on the rash, it works but must be applied often . one of my kids used to get into poison oak and ivy very often fishing the AuSable, the banks in places are covered with it. to remove the vine, go to the source, find the largest vines and at the ground make a deep cut with a hatchet or axe but do not sever the vine, in the cut pour kerosene, do this to all vines where they enter the ground, apply each day and you will see the vine take in the kerosene and kill itself, keep in mind birds love the berries and will spread ivy and oak all over your land if you dont keep up on the vine killing which limits berries. good luck and sorry about your luck. Bill

for more years than I can sometimes fathom I and my friends for many decades have hunted squirrels, grouse, woodcock and bears as well as many other furbearers with and without our hounds all throughout deer seasons and we also took many many deer during that same time period, they have their home area and do not move to florida when disturbed, how many times along our highways do you see deer feeding placidly while millions of cars and trucks fly by them. I like the crossbow idea but the price tags and their awful weight are my reasons for passing on one at this late date in my hunting life. the coffee house is bitter cold today so I am gone now that the coffee is. have a wonderful day. Bill

I have always favored a 32 caliber muzzleloader or a 22/410 combination gun. I like the option of the .22 barrel and then .410 barrel is there for a fast follow up if I miss, also makes for a handy woodcock and grouse gun, with a good fast chance at bagging a bunny, fox , coon or squirrel, even woodchuck with the rifle barrel. I gave my three stevens and savage 22-410s to RJ to sell for me, I hope they will find a good home with a hunter.who likes the old ways.

the best place I think to learn how to outfit for winter RV camping is Jackson Hole, WY, the campgrounds near Teton Village, and also most of the ski areas in northern CA, even vail and aspen, CO to a lesser extent. for many years residents of nearby towns go to the ski slopes with their families on winter weekends and they all camp in RV units, if you can successfully use your RV at 10,000 feet all winter long in northern CA and Wyoming then a deer hunt in new york state should be easy peasy. obviously it is easier to begin with a 4 season RV than one designed for 3 season use.

put 20 hunters in a room and you will likely get 20 different opinions on where how and when and with what, one thing that never changes is real world experience and nothing beats experience gained by boots on the ground. squirrel season is on and that is a perfect excuse to grab your bow with small game heads and sit your stand, see what comes by and when, from where and would you have gotten a shot? one of my friends is a legendary guide from a legendary family of guides, each member of the family hunts in a different manner and with different weapons but they all have one thing in common; they spend an extreme amount of time in the woods and on the waters. it is common dialogue for a sports instructions to be " follow the markers until you reach the tree with three tacks in it, then sit down facing such and such and between 6:10 and 6:30 a 6 point buck will come from teh cedars on your right and pass right to left in front of you and cross the creek at such and such location"...many sports are dumbstruck when everything happens exactly as told, but having sat in that spot and watched the buck do that very thing at those very times many mornings it is as challenging for the guides to forecast his movements as it is for a metro commuter to figure out when and where to catch his daily bus from A to B. go sit the stand and also move about and still hunt the property, spend a great deal of time sitting quietly and letting squirrels approach you, soon you will find deer and other big game doing the same, then its simply a matter of open season allowing you to take deer in addition to small game etc.

don't rule out long island. in the 50's I hunted for ducks and deer and pheasants out and around the grumman plant. granted things change in 60 some odd years but I am certain the woodlots on "the island" are still holding deer for archers to pursue.

very nice smoothie, I am wondering where you live Renegade? Upstate seems to be everything from walden to lake george and malone. I am meeting several friends here today and they are going to be removing all ov my hunting and fishing items since I will be moving into the veterans home due to health issues. of the many hunting implements I am passing on to them to sell or trade for me are 12 gauge and 20 gauge ( 72 and 62 cal) smoothbores. I have enjoyed hunting and shooting with them for many years, building my first smokepole in 1952. Enjoy every day with your new smoothie, make all the memories you can is my advice. One day they will keep you warma nd good company when your legs are no longer able to make more. You are more than welcome to browse my gear, young RJ who is new here will be taking over the sale and trading of my possibles, I'd be glad they went to another hunter of true muzzleloading. Bill

and this is why i live in vermont

I have hunted the western states for over 60 years and been going there for over 74, my personal choices are for archery mule deer or whitetail, Utah, followed by Colorado and Wyoming. Archery elk, Wyoming and Colorado any moose, Wyomiong and Colorado, 10 points is a lock, a decade goes by very fast too. muzzleloader elk Utah then Colorado rifle elk, Colorado naturally, then Wyoming, and Utah then Idaho, maybe Idaho before Utah. many tags are easy to get in idaho and famrers are happy to have hunters kill the elk and deer in their fields. bear is colorado then wyoming then montana big horns is wyoming with the bow bison is utah then south dakota stop in any fish and wildlife office and they are happy to help you likewise all the BLM places for camping and access, national forest offices are very good too if you get permanent employees not seasonals, and all national parks except for Teton are pricks.

Hello, Bill here, I do have some information on those area. I have hunted them for many many years, over 70, or very near it, yes, since before the state bought it. my father's farm is in the middle of mt. tom state forest now, it was the lincoln hill farm before the harrington's bought it around 1910 or 1920, I'd have to think on that a bit to nail it down. my grandson's farm is on the north edge of mt. tom, we lost him in 1991, the farm sits there empty, sometimes I hunt it for birds. carters pond is hunted very hard by the neighboring farmers for stocked pheasant, ducks and deer in rifle season though archery sees very little use since the pheasant seeking army really moves the game around. If you've never seen pheasant season there they close the road and Rangers usually direct traffic and as two guys leave the parking lot they allow two more to pull in, Its a helluva sight that much orange and I have been told it looks like southern NY or CT or MA on opening day of deer. I have a chest problem going on right now and am recently 10 days in the hospital, my very good friends in Vermont visited often and told me they have sold their guide business after 118 years being open, he will likely be happy to point you to many hunting places private and public around carters and especially mt tom where he owns alot of leases for guiding, also his families farms are extensive right in that spot. They ahve always guided for the love of it not the money and are fast to help anyone. As Robert has always said I know you will take more game and fish with me than without me so I have no problem telling you where to go, there are no secret places in the northeast anymore. I connect here at a wi-fi spot and usually see him here in the morning but earlier, I will tell you his private email as I think the busniness one is transferred already, iit is "SlickRockHounds" then the at symbol "at" hotmail I think it is then period and the word "com" there are no spaces in any of that. Hope I explained it well enough. His name is Robert. If you in that area and see a truck with VT plates and a pack of bobcat and bear hounds hanging out of it stop him and say hello. He is easy to miss 6 foot 8 and 400 pounds. looks angry all the time but thats the pain not his attitude. I dont know if I will be back on here I stopped to say goodbye to the coffee shop owners and thought I would say the same to you people on here. I will look for you in the coverts this year if I am able. be safe and have fun. Coffee is gone and so am I. Bill

agriculture is where they gather in large numbers. If you have a field that you can hunt in you can decoy the pigeons with rolled up socks or painted soda bottles. scatter some grain around, shelled corn works well, then set up your decoys as you would a field spread for ducks. The guide near me uses childs toys to make some of his decoys spin in the manner that male pigeons spin to display to the females. it is very effective. well, coffee is gone and so am I. have a great day! Bill

juicey fruit gum. they cant resist it and it binds their intestines up and kills them like a non toxic poison. 30 sticks of unwrapped juicey fruit around your shed will rid you of them.

A great deal of how the arrows will fly field point versus broadhead depends on the distance shot. I hunted once from the same camp as Fred Bear though not in his group, and the camp keeper showed me the targets Bear and his friends used, they were fully 100 yards away from the camp porch where they shot from. The camp keeper explained that the entire group with Fred did not hesitate to fire an arrow from their recurves at game a full football field away. At that time, the early 1960s, I had unlimited arrows though i still marked them with my name and address should I lose one, but letting them go at that range was not in my mind at all. Over the years I have taken game and many shots at Fred Bear distances but as my arms age I can no longer pull the heavy poundage, I keep my shots to ranges I know my bow will work at, 40 yards and under, and even with a 40 to 45 pound bow with razor honed fixed broadheads I have complete pass throughs on deer at all angles unless I hit the shoulder or spine, which happens. I have teken moose and elk with the three bladed magnus broadhead and have never had a lost game animal due to the broadhead.

I don't know about "good" these days I hit about 50% on average for the year. The younger man that introduced me to this site is a guide and I have hunted with them many times but find it frustrating as they will have 6 or 8 birds falling while I am still trying to locate the birds and get in motion! Yesterday I went fishing then stopped and shot pigeons and starlings for four hours, in the bag at the end of the day I had 127 pigeons and stopped counting the starlings. I did not eat them as the barnyard was filthy and thick with manure which all the birds landed in when shot. I did take some starlings home where the feathers will be used for tying flies. I was using my very fancy Spanish 410 double and would have done much better had I been carrying my 28 or 20. I did catch a 7 pound largemouth though it was on my heavy pike rod so did not give me much of a fight. overall a good day.