wooly

Thanks guys, glad you all enjoy the journal! I'm hoping to stumble upon a few early drops soon, but in the mean time, the snow here is just too darn deep for any real "antler hunting"..... it's still WAY early but I know there's a few out there waiting to be rescued and probably even a few I missed last year. We got a good bit of rain today and more on the way this weekend to melt some of this white crap away. Now that I got my legs stretched out the last few days, I'll start to cover some more ground looking for some more deadheads in some of the usual thickets they seem to turn up routinely year after year. I don't like finding all the dead ones after season, but in a weird sort of way I feel recovering someones unrecovered buck is the best way for me to salvage some of that excitement they missed out on, and give those trophies the final resting place they deserve and will be admired and appreciated. Hoping to have something to show after the weekend, but it's a loooooooong season full of unknown ups and downs. I'm just happy shed season is finally here!

Haha- yep, now that classy photo will be hanging on hunting camp walls all across America..., or not! This is just the type of childs play and replies that keeps me away from Facebook. Some days I get enough of that here,lol.

I found that jay laying face down in the snow frozen solid. It was just as dead as the deer in the original post and it looked it. Apparently the fool took just as much time as I did to make his pic appropriately offensive and appauling as I did to showcase the beauty that even a dead animal holds. I understand not everyone is as anal about photos as myself, but to deliberately try to make your field photos look like shit is something I'll never understand.

I took this pic 2 days ago. I need somebody to play along...there is a point to this. Anyone wanna guess what this pic has in common with the one in the original post?

It doesn't have to reflect on ALL hunters to me. Simply the fact I "share the same woods" with some of these fools is enough to make me want to dissassociate myself from hunting some days. If someone is killing to make an internet joke of it, I take offence to the fact they can't respect an important aspect of hunting the majority of us take pretty seriously! It's been said here before..... some guys are just killers, and I couldn't agree with it more!

Bothers me that some guys think hunting is some kind of big joke. The pic is fine by me (although not my style), but the caption is a bit over the top.

Well, it's that time of year again......WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!! Time to kick off the 2014 quest for cast antlers again! I'm running an antler or two behind schedule already since the snow started falling a few weeks ago I wasn't able to get off to an early start..... we are burried under a white 3ft blanket right now, but that will just slow me down and I wont let it stop me! Hopefully this weather will concentrate the bucks and hold them to some prime areas and I'll be tripping over sheds every hike once we melt out a bit! Season officialy opens tomorrow,lol I did find a few yearling deadheads already durring season. Kinda sucks they were both found on my hunting grounds but that's just the way it goes sometimes. These guys were still to fresh and stinky to keep the whole skull so I just chopped off the antlers at the bases and will find something to use them for down the road. First little 3pt I found in a goldenrod field 11/10/13.. ..... then on 12/5/13 I found another yearling that was a regular at the cams all fall. Found him on the edge of another goldenrod field. The good news is, I'm 99% sure the buck I was hoping to see make it through season has made it! Bucks don't tend to winter where he's at right now, so with a little luck he'll shed early, or maybe he'll be "snowed in" long enough to drop 'em for me near bye. I can't wait to get started, and maybe even add a few new antlers to the bone pile again this year! Good luck to all the shed hunters this year! Antlers- 0 Sets- 0 Dead bucks- 2 Dead doe/fawns- 0

Sweet buck! I had to do a double take......your "Freak" reminded me of a shed I picked up with a similar split g3! I wonder if they're related,lol

Here is the meat of it. The second letter I received said that this is a 4 year survey and I'd be getting one every year.

Boy, I couldn't tell you the names of the songs, and I sure as heck couldn't pronounce the band/singers names...., but one of my fondest memories looking back over 20 years now was Christmas at Grandmas. She would play her vinyl "Christmas Polka" albums over and over, again and again! If the record skipped, it didn't matter..... it all sounded like the same song to me and she was too deaf to hear it anyhow,lol Listening to todays Christmas tunes on the radio drives me about as nuts as that accordian filled, foreign language noise did way back when but she sure did know how to get that joint jumpin'! Now that I've spent the last 2 hours listning to Polish Christmas tunes on youtube....I just realized I kinda miss it,haha!

Ahahahaha- that's gonna be the best Christmas card ever,lmao!!!! You're the best Burt!

Yeah Burt- he's all goo-goo-ga-ga over that steve863 guy now,lol

I just had to dig up this oldie but goody for this thread,lol I'm gonna miss open season on Porkers.....

Get back in your bubble John,lol Photoshopped my nuts!

It's hard to find anything tall enough to pokle out of the snow right now for scale...... you guys will just have to believe me,lol!

Oh lord that map isn't even close to accurate! I'd narrow it down to WMU 9h but that would seem misleading to some in the same general area. I know a few miles away they haven't seen half of what we got here up on the hill! BTW- snowshoes are useless when it piles up this deep..... I tried that this morning,lol

I thought for sure we'd have at least 10 topics by now with everyone bitchin' about all the snow... Am I missing them? We've been getting blasted all week. Without exagerating I'd say 4ft easy so far and that's being conservative! I went for a hike this morning and some spots were up to my armpits!

One of the carnies had a baby cougar at the county fair over the summer. He was charging $2 to enter his tent like it was some kind of freak show inside. The line of NY rednecks lined up for a peak looked like 12 o' clock madhouse outside a Walmart on Black Friday! I payed the admission. I saw with my own two eyes. I even took pics. I am a believer they do exist in NY now, and there is obviously a breeding population!

I waited to get my hunting licence (big game and archery) untill the day before the bow opener this year. Right about the second week of October I got a fall turkey hunter survey in the mail from the DEC asking me to log bird sightings.., how many I saw and shot at..., how many I saw but no shot..,how many I killed.., with what weapon.. etc. etc. I just tossed it aside with my other junk mail because this year I didn't bother purchasing the 2013-14 turkey stamp. I had no intentions on hunting fall birds so I'll wait till spring to decide if I'm going to get a turkey tag or not. Today I got another letter from DEC asking me to promply fill out and return my fall turkey hunters survey so they can use the data for determining pressure on fall birds and future management decisions. The survey clearly states the info was to be obtained while pursuing turkey this fall whether successfull or not. While I'd certainly be more than willing to share with them my observations while pursuing other game, I wouldn't want to record data that may sound "incriminating" or insinuate I was actually hunting turkey at some point. I mean, do they expect me to return the survey saying I killed half a dozen longbeards , 4 hens, and 8 poults even though I don't have a tag,lol Oh, just to clarify.., I don't believe they were really trying to frame me. I do however believe they could have done a better job determining who they send these surveys to if they're looking for accurate feedback. I would think they would want these surveys in the hands of guys who actually hold a valid turkey stamp and just might give a darn. Anyone else get this survey but wasn't really qualified to record data?

I think it more about the encounters for me. This year I dedicated a lot more time to summer scouting, tree stand placement and preparation, trail cam surveillance, and accumulated lots of hours afield last post season last winter and spring. I better see plenty of deer or I'm not very good at putting together the puzzle pieces. Killing one or two is almost a given, so that doesn't really figure into the overall season rating for me anymore. Antler size doesn't matter much as I'll save the horn hunting for shed season. I like to at least have a few encounters from the stand with bucks I recognize to make me feel like I know what I'm doing and putting myself in the right areas to kill them or learn more about them. That's what I'll base this season as a success on. The only real dissapointment for me this year seemed to be the weather. Nothing I hate more than doing everything right, only to have an uncontrolable element take away from the fun!

We already got hit with 30" the past two days. Deer will not be moving much at all, and will be bedded VERY close to the food sources. They may not even leave them when snow gets this deep if the path to ideal bedding cover is too plugged up.

Good muskie and pike fishing in the 1000 islands, but I think they prefer a "buck-tail" pressentation! Neat pic!

Post the pic on nyantlers site and someone will give you an EXACT location,lol

I want the names and addresses of all the "Naughty Girls" on Santas list!