wooly

Blood trailing dogs usually have a pretty good idea from the start which way they need to follow.... same as their handler and the hunter that points them in that right direction. I'm no expert either, but I would think if you cut those same dogs loose in the middle of a "scent/blood trail", they'd have a 50/50 chance of getting the direction right once it ended at a carcass, or vanished into thin air before they turn around and follow the other way. I don't think dogs can reason the blood splatter direction the way we can. Certainly wind direction can play a role in determining which way a "hot body" can be found while tracking. but that's a best case scenario I'm sure you know doesn't always work out the way we'd hope for. Same thing happens when bucks come into a scent trail mid ways. They got a 50/50 chance of getting it right unless some other confirming clues tell them otherwise.... such as seeing a tail or hearing the chase.

Early season is the best time to rattle IMO. I've only rattled in a half dozen bucks or so I believe were looking for a REAL fight during peak rut The rest have all been drawn in out of curiosity to clashing antlers and the social aspects deer enjoy.. If you have a spot you've observed bucks sparring pre-season, that's a great place to start. There's so much more behind it than just the sound of horns being smashed together. Sometimes it just gets them on their feet earlier or gets them looking for those bachelor buddies they've been missing once they split up. I wont rattle mid day..... period. Hit the horns at prime times when bucks are on their feet expecting to confront one another in certain areas. I know a lot of you guys don't have much faith in rattling in NY, but I'm telling you right now, you likely won't believe me until you overcome your fear of making noise while deer hunting when you're not seeing anything to begin with.

You're gettin' soft Burt,lol

Nonsense... bucks are clueless which way a scent trail is leading unless they got the lady in sight. I couldn't tell you how many times I've seen a buck following the trail of a hot doe the wrong way when she ran by me with bucks in pursuit heading the other way. More than 100x's that's for sure. The secret is to make your move when you see that happen. They can come from either direction, but I've NEVER seen that kind of reaction to a drag rag compared to the real deal.

Nothin' for me, but I'm still kinda new to this treestand stuff. Most times I get picked off from a stand is from being silhouetted once the leaves drop. I think if they ever got a good look at my beautiful mug, they would have no choice but to stop and stare, offering me the perfect shot. The last few years since I started hunting from treestand, I like to cut a few fresh maple branches while they are still green leafed (now) and tie them to the trunk around me and below my platform, and at waist height so I can stand and shoot over it. Once the leaves die they stay attached to the cut branches and make for some great cover to hide behind when the rest of the tree is naked later in the season. That's one of those loose ends I hope to tie up this weekend with my stands.

Seriously..............I'd go Steven Segal on there azz. WAHHH -HO- CHO-CHAW- CRACKAW -MUTHA- POPPA! Never speak a word after that about it.

IMO- woods and thickets are two entirely different things even when in full leaf. Thickness to me is within 1-8 ft of ground level and the forest canopy is everything above that. If I had to guess I'd say 90% of the antlers I find shed hunting come from "thickets" and not "thick forest". That's gotta tell you something right there. Post season bucks are still using those thickets for cover, food, and shelter, the same way they used them to survive the hunting season. Just because you hike in 2 miles to get to your remote hunting hidey hole don't mean jack if they're snuggling up in an overgrown blackberry thicket 100 yds out your back door on a daily basis. Learn to recognize the overlooked areas like that and you wont waste so much time in unproductive open timber areas when all the leaves drop.

This is why I'd never invite someone to hunt the property I have access to. I don't care how good you think you are, or how good I tell you I am....sometimes the deer just aren't cooperating especially in such a narrow timeframe as a 3 day period. Some seasons it takes me weeks and months to have everything come together just right with a deer that I'm happy to kill. For someone to feel cheated even through a free offering would be insulting even though I did everything I could to get them a kill. Sucks you had to pay for it only to come home empty handed, but them's the breaks in deer huntin' when you start shelling out cash to hunt horns. Maybe spend more time trying to lock up a piece of property for yourself, and spend less cash expecting someone to make your dreams come true. Sorry- I'm sure that's NOT what you wanted to hear, but that's my take on this.

Ha- you bring the coffee and doughnuts and that will be your rent October through December! (I like peanut sticks and black joe) I'll have to look into those replacement hubs. I meant to fix it up better but I ran out of time. I'll see how it holds up this year the way it is and maybe do something more with it later.

My sister bought me this ground blind at a garage sale a few weeks ago for $10. All the fiberglass rods to the hubs inside were shattered so it wouldn't stand on its own. 50' of rope and some make shift tent stakes got this baby hurricane proof in about 4 hours,lol It now has an interior sapling frame. Kind of a PITA to get it set up, but the effort was worth it for that price! Set on the edge of an old orchard for those wet icy days I wont climb into a stand. It's surprisingly roomy compared to my little dome pop up blind I used for turkey in the spring

I don't use them anymore either. When I did, I used to put the heart and liver in them so I know they weren't left behind. Now my edible organs ride back inside the carcass, but sometimes they get lost this way.

Lol- I'll bet we could lose a few of our own in that kind of cover!

Congrats on the doe- what flavor were you vaping,lol

Lawdwaz vrsion of the SSS... 1- SHOOT 2- SHOUT 3- SHOW OFF

Nice- and you didn't even have to pack in a shovel!

From DEC site:

You'll be fine. I couldn't find one typo or misspelling in your post.

Good for you guys it's just about coyote season so you won't have to control your secrecy and silence much longer. Make sure to post some pics. We don't usually see more than 5 yote kills posted here a year anyhow from deer hunters. Good luck!

Don't forget to IMMEDIATELY fill out your antlerless carcass tag even if you're going to let her lay as bait for half a day. I could see an ECO strolling by, finding your doe stiffer than a 2x4, 30 yds from your stand with one of your arrows sticking out of her and you don't even have a pen with ya but you're still hunting. That could lead to some misinterpretation of what was really going on- "failure to properly tag game". That would suck!

Maybe I'm confusing this with something else, but I thought they couldn't test for CWD on live animals? How would they know that the elk and deer they were trying to pass on CWD actually had it to pass on to begin with. That must have been some barbecue they had at the close of that study,lol

Deer guts smell like the inside of a deer... basically a "deer fart" when all those gasses are exposed. It may even act as an attractant IMO to some extent. Deer are constantly sticking their noses up each others rear ends sniffing what's going on on the inside..

You should have strapped it to a tree in your woods.. I'm sure somebody would have thought they needed it... even if they didn't know what it was,lol

I try to gut them after I'm done cleaning them up and taking pictures. Sometimes that means I'll drag them a ways with the guts still in to a prettier location. Generally gut them pretty close to wherever they fall though.

Most folks can't comprehend the influence of the pineal gland in their own heads, so I wouldn't expect the average hunter to know what's going on in a deers brain when it comes to something like that,lol We can all speculate our own beliefs until we're blue in the face, and have faith in them from one season to the next until they (the deer) prove us wrong. So be it.... live and learn.

I heard the DEC cancelled the rut for 2015 as a means of population control. It wont even happen this year.