Guns&ReligionCop

I don't use a lever gun but my hand loads for my bolt action I always seat the head out a little bit further to create less head space. If you have been using this guns for years maybe you have shot out some of your rifling and this will help you out.

Bow's (ready), stands are up (ready), rifle and slug gun sited (ready), cloths(ready), bird gun(ready! good luck to you and evryone else (ready)

Scouting is a HUGE part of bow hunting because you have to get so much closer to the deer then you do with a rifle. I guess you can get away with less if you have well established stands near apple trees or something that really draws in the deer before they start chasing. Its also a good time to get out in the woods now and plug a few squirrels while checking cameras, rubs, scraps, etc..

Great pic

I did that with a rabbit once and screamed like a dying baby the entire time.

I have a savage 17 cal. that I had aboslutely no luck with. I either use my remington fieldmaster with a 4x scope and cci subsonics or my ruger 10-22 with 3x7 scope with cci high velocity.

17-14 bills currently

You forgot high fenced hunts. I was at the taxidermist and there was 50 something point nontypical with a 20 something spread. The taxidermist said the guy paid $28,000.00 to shoot it on a high fenced hunt. Good these high fenced hunts you can actually pick out what deer you and want prior. You also pay for what size of deer your going to get in advance. 100% guarantee. Did not realize there where guaratees in hunting

I use to do that to and stopped for two reasons. 1.)I got busted by a deer that I didn't realize was there yet 2.) I had another walk up sniff my arrow and take off without giving me a shot.

The later the season, the lower my expectations. My dad 2 years ago passed a few beauties during archery and ended his season with a deer last day of rifle that had 4 points on one side and a spike on the other.. I respect what you are saying and agree with you but a lot of other people don't follow that and is where antler restrictions help.

That makes sense and it might not benefit you for that reason in the short term but after a couple of years and you start knocking the those bigger deer the amount of meat will over whelm you. Last year my buck literally gave me as more meet than 2 does. Now the catch to that story was I got that monster here in Putnam NY without antler restrictions. It's better to be lucky than good :-P

Good luck brother, Try and make the best out of it and maybe some new friends in the process!

I hunt state gameland in PA with Ar's and State gameland in NY without. In my experience its benficial to both type of hunters. Trophy hunters and meat hunters benefit because the deer are larger both meat wise and horn wise. After about 3 years of Ar's in PA I saw a tremendous increase in the quality of deer. In between the 2 states I have 7 tags, so I get plenty of meat. Thats 4 does alone for meat so I rather not shoot a little buck that antlers mean nothing to me and use the excuse that its for meat since I have plenty of doe tags for the meat. Let that deer go another year and it will be something that I'm intrested in or let a kid whack it.

Even so a meat hunter should want an older animal because of the size difference. A yearly buck weighs what 130 pds give or take and you take about 20 pds of meats off of it. A 3 year old buck will be over 200 lbs and give 50lbs of meat

Unload them and drive them up yourself in the trunk of your car. I don't trust the mail

What would shooting a button bucks accomplish? Thats the area you are hunting so that deer won't get any larger for you the following year. Cutting off your nose to spite your face. If you are shooting 3 year old deer or older you don't have to worry about antler restrictions because they will have a massive rack by that age.

I like to shoot l summer because I enjoy it but closing in on hunting season I take 10 mins a day to throw 2 dozen or so hairs just for a little muscle memory so when I'm all nervous looking at a deer my body moves on autopilot

BUMPER DUMPER AWESOME!!!!

Quesion for anti-AR people on this thread, do any of you actually hunt areas with AR's? I'm participating in this but a lot of what you are saying is ficticious. Everyone I know that hunts in AR areas prefers it. I'm also seeing comments like "dead small dear everywhere" Last year on salt springs state park one illegal spike buck was found that would have never been mistaken for a legal deer it was someone that jst want to shoot something. All these statements about how hard it is to identify seem like they are coming from people that have never tried to identify and see how easy it actually is. Just curious.

I think it taste like chicken. It doesn't remind me of rabbit at all which I taste kind of sour to me

This is how I do it, First I use a hatchet to take of the feet and then I cut around the neck and pull the hide off holding the head working it all the way down off the tail. When its naked I use the hatchet to chop of the tail and head. Then I take a knife and cut from the ass all the way up through the ribs and pull out the insides. After this I rinse it out really good getting any hair and blood off of it then place it on boiling water. I let it sit in the water at low boil for about 4 hours or until the meet just falls off. I usually take the meat mix it with gravy and put it over bow tie noodles. I know a few fellows that just cut off the legs and deep fry them in pancake batter. This isn't mine but here something to try Dip the squirrel meat into a bowl of Aunt Jemima or Hungry Jack original pancake mix - then dip in egg and then re-dip in pancake mix. Pan fry in oil till brown on all sides Put all meat in a oven safe baking dish - glass or porcelain pan Cover all meat with 1 can of cream of chicken soup plus 1 can of cream of mushroom soup (right out of can - no water) Cover baking dish with foil Bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes Take out and let stand at least 10 - 15 minutes and then dig in and enjoy! I do my snapping turtle meat the same but cook for 2 hours in the oven. Cottontail rabbit is the same but only need an hour in the oven. Jack Rabbit the same but put in the crockpot for at least 6 hours on high setting.

I hunt 3G and 3N and respectively have to disagree. Last year in 3G on state gameland I got 8 pt w/ 20" spread. I realize thats not the normal around here but it happens. The year before I got nice little 6 pt. I've seen some nice ones over in Kent in 3N but never had a shot. I went for a dinner at my buddies hunting camp right near the Taconic in 3N and they had some beautiful deer there last year. A few years before he got a 9pt there that scored 143!!!!!! There is a tremoundous amount of pressure here but drive around at night anywhere in putnam and you can point out big deer all over the place. The largest living deer I ever saw was in right in the parking lot of Thunder Ridge

You completely misunderstood what I was saying there. I tried to give a brief summary sorry for the confusion. When I said size of hunt I wasn't refering to the animals size or quantity I was using "size" as a measurement term for the quality of the experience you have. More or less refering to the fact that antler size doesn't determine the quality of your overall experience. When I said "Size" of the hunt it was an overall involvement such as scouting, planning, out smarting a deer and other hunters if you hunt on state game land. I do agree with you that the size of the deer is completely relative to where you are hunting. That being said by preventing the hunting of smaller ones you see an increase in all sizes.

Welcome, where you going to hunt?

Nothing at all, I was just saying as an example that you can easily tell a larger deer from a smaller one. That from the side you can see points and from a front view if its starting to get wide its going to have some points on it