Napping in the woods

Interesting, thanks ATB...maybe I just suck at stand placement/selection and should revert tying flies again, rather thanwait until January or February. Back out in the AM. Friday will be horrible with 20 mph winds, so probably final rifle scouting and, dare I say it, stand placement. Saturday and Sunday...back at it again with planned (and wife/daughter approved!!!) dark to dark sits.

In eastern 3M, it still seems dead. had a doe and button buck under my stand yesterday and Mama and two baby girls came in pretty fast and on the wrong side of me just as I was reaching for my bow to pack up and head out. Still haven't seen a set of measurable horns. Feeling like 2015 all over again. I've only been hunting this area for 2 years, so I still have a lot of nuance to figure out, apparently. Congrats to everyone else seeing and shooting deer!

3M appears to be a void as well, at least the eastern portion of it. Hoping to check out the western portion later this week, even though the weather is going to stink (10-20 mph winds!).

This time of year, doe do everything they can to avoid the harassment of bucks, especially young ones. The does probably moved out, which MIGHT be a problem since the boys are desperately seeking girls. A girl walks into a bar and is immediately swarmed by multiple suitors....day after day after day. Eventually the girls leave or figure out how to avoid them, they boys will eventually leave in search of but if you've created a bedding area for the bucks, they'll be back every night. So you could have a good problem on your hands if you are a horn hunter...assuming the bucks all continue to "get along," you have a good population of ladies not far off, and you and your neighbors relax the trigger fingers this year and set an antler restriction. A "brown and down" mentality change things completely next year.

That sounds like my mom, my sister and my wife....and in a few years my daughter!

dead, dead, dead, haven't-seen-a-deer-since-Tuesday dead. Scrapes and rubs are few and far between, zero mast, 60 degrees and 10-12 mph winds, gusting to 18 - 20. Can't believe I'm going to say it, but I think I'll earn brownie points at home rather than waste them sitting in a stand tonight. Wife might actually have me admitted for a psych eval when she hears that.... Anyone else having or seeing anything different?

If that is an honest question, then: feeding wildlife is illegal...so is baiting for hunting purposes. There is plenty of food in woods for them, no need to get them congregating and then passing diseases back and forth, among other things.

Not much to report in eastern 3M, seeing does and fawns still in family groups, only buck activity still seems to be at night although bachelor groups seems to have broken up. Was out during the early part of yesterday's snow and used a "young buck" grunt a few times with no response, not that I was surprised.

I have a Smokey Mountain propane smoker; 5 racks and sausage hooks; you can find them for about $250. Once I dial in the temp and get the food in, it's pretty steady; gets a bit more challenging when temps drop and wind picks up. wood chip box and water pan drawers are great and I generally only need to add chips once every 3-4 hours. I love it, when combined with a remote thermometer. We have an igrill which runs, via bluetooth, into my phone (it was a gift), but I prefer the set from cabela's that has a base and a dedicated receiver. I'm not a fan of the electric units, but I know folks that swear by them. Smoking food is a commitment, I tend to grab a six or twelve pack (depending on what I'm smoking) and plan to sit in a camp chair or on the couch all day. LOVE IT...and the wife, baby and dog all encourage it! Oh, smoked turkey on Thanksgiving is awesome! You don't stuff them so it only takes 3-4 hours and leaves the oven open for the wife and guests to cook/heat up all the sides; I get brownie points because of this little nugget which usually get used up the by the weekend for hunting purposes, of course. Buy one!! Smoked venison backstraps are incredible...melts in your mouth better than an M&M!

I'm in southern Ulster and would like to explore some the NYC up that way this year. If you are interested, let me know. My advice....get in the woods and walk, walk, walk. The more I see the more I'm able to connect the dots and develop a plan.

I really depends on where you are. In the Orange/Ulster/Putnam/Dutchess areas its variable, due in part to the lack of private property access, blah, blah, blah; but go to Stewart on a Saturday in gun season and 50 cars are lined up with 2+ hunters in each one. I grew up in Southwestern PA, and still hunt there. Hunter numbers there are way down same there and the same with Central PA. I think a couple of things are coming to a head at the same time: 1. Many kids are way more involved in organized activities than ever before, and parents seem to be at the mercy of their kids schedules....yes, electronics also play a role, but I know a 19 year old boy/man (feels weird calling him a man now) and a 15 year old girl who drop everything when I call and say "I'm heading out <insert place and date>, want to go?" 2. Some folks get dejected now because there isn't a wall-hanger behind every tree. 3. The rules keep changing and I have first hand knowledge of folks getting fed up to the point where they just hang 'em up. 4. Hunting, and practicing, takes a commitment to relationship building, the tools of trade, and the toys...oh, the toys! 5. Hunting is more difficult now due to changing forest conditions (no more clearcuts) and the weather is also changing a lot...snow on opening day is a rarity anymore! This takes a bit more understanding of your prey, which some may find difficult to comprehend. 6. Access to private land is hard to come by. I didn't always feel safe walking onto public land, but I do now. just a few observations and anecdotes to contribute to the discussion, nothing scientific or "credible" here, so please don't blast me for any of them.

I've spent a bit of time in the Fahnstock area, with some good success. Brow tines seem to be few and far between, but good body size, generally. Racks aren't going to break the record books, but it's not easy hunting so you will have to "earn" your keep and thus anything you harvest will be a trophy. You will need to change strategies if you are used to hunting in more Ag dominated regions; not many corn or bean fields in Phillipstown...in fact there are none. You will also need lots of patience...ready back through some of Biz-R-OWorld's Journals.

NAP fixed blade Razors 100g, NAP fixed blade hellrazor 100g (short BH) and NAP thunderhead 100g. Yes, I have an addiction. I got a new bow last year so I have been messing around with different arrow/BH combinations and I have an older bow I like to take out for "old time sake." All three of these are more than effective on a well-tuned bow.

Noticed you mentioned moving pins to poi, that's not going to help you tune as your BHs and FPs will still hit in the same pattern, just at a different spot. You should be moving your rest or rest/plunger to get BH and FP to same POI, THEN move your sights to slide POI to bullseye . Paper tuning is great but only tells half the story, try a "walk-back test" or follow the easton guide pinned to the top of the bow hunting section, awesome resource and the moderators are brilliant for posting it. fliers more likely due to spine alignment issue, try rotating nocks as mentioned above. You may also be getting some vane contact with the rest, try spraying vanes with aerosol foot powder, shot the arrows and look for streaks in the powder. If neither of those work or give an indication, it's probably a form or concentration issue that shows up once in set...for me, it usually indicates that I'm getting too confident in my abilities. The only way to know for sure is number your arrows on a vane and if the same arrow keeps flying to the same spot, different from the others, it's the arrow.

Thanks Gents. I am using a drop away rest (QAD HDX Ultra). This spring I did the whole tuning process from paper (2-3 yds and 10 yds) all the way through walk-back broadhead tuning. Then over the course of shooting this summer I had a timing issue develop. Got that fixed and then my groups started falling apart a couple of inches at 20yds and 6 inches plus at 30 yards. felt liner on rest was worn out, changed that out, which helped a bit. Knowing I had some work to do, and I wasn't happy with my BHs anway, I figured now was a good time to make the switch; I also tweaked my bitzenberger and switched to a right helical (powder spray test yields no contact). Started all over again. paper checked out pretty good so then went to bare shaft/fletched tests, also wanted some insight to my new BHs. then my previously mentioned issues. From I what I surmise from above, I should leave my pins where they are for now, and continue making minute changes to my rest until the groups are at least on the same vertical plane if not the same POI, leaving my nock d-loop inplace...i think moving this is the last resort. Can't try the leveling test because I don't have a bow vise. Hate going to "the shop," it's 40 minutes away and the folks don't seem that interested since I bought my bow over a year ago now. I learned of this lack of interest/detail the hard way and now make all of my arrows from full-length bare shafts, on my own saw, with my own fletching jig, etc. everything is square and uniform. Oh, I switched from 100 gr NAP Hellrazor to 100 gr. NAP Razor ; also have several NIB Thunderheads from days gone past which a I tinker with every now and again.

I should know better than to mess around with my hunting setting up this close to the season as our new 7 month old baby girl (our first) isn't going to let me resolve this quickly, or at least to the point where I stop second guessing my self everytime I step to my shooting lane. I decided to change to different broadheads, and, as anticipated, I opened a can of worms! Fixed position broadheads were hitting 2-3" lower and a tad (1/2" or so) to the left of field points (same fletch). Moved rest up and a touch to the right, grouping improved by about 3/4" but placement moved high right of aiming point, as expected. should I keep moving it until they synch up and then reset my sights? Then my crazy brain started troubleshooting and wanted to start checking all tuning variables. I just completed a bare shaft planing test (shot a fletched group at 15 yds and bare shaft group at 15 yds, multiple times). My bare shaft arrows entered foam target nock high and about an 1.5" below fletched set. The handy easton guide says to lower nock point. I have a rope d-loop with no replacement, yet. are moving the nock point and adjusting the rest vertical position the same? 2014 Bear Method (68#, 27" DL) 340 grain, 28 inch Easton Axis Arrows (6 with blazers, 6 with NAP quick spin) NAP Razor Broadheads 100 gr; 100 gr fieldpoints 3

saw the quads on new rd today, one was a bright green quad and the kid was wearing a white or silver helmet. Shouldn't they have been school? Haven't seen a deer yet in Stewart...that includes archery season!

which part? dead quiet in north-central and north-western 3M...haven't seen a deer during day light hours in over a week. I haven't seen any road kill on 84 between Newburgh and Port Jervis and I'm on it nearly everyday. it's as if they all just vanished...I still have 4 tags to fill. At this point I'd be happy filling one. I'll blame it on the weather, but I'm probably doing something very wrong.

Sounds like you found a honey hole, great job. Glad it worked out for you and sorry I wasn't able to come through with a spot, I tried but the place was booked up (reservation system).

First shot was at 6:47...way off in the distance. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

5 doe near port jervis, a few shots but none since 8:45. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

80 grains loose 777 in my traditions PA Pellet Flintlock with 285 gr Powerbelt hollow point...can take the boy from PA but not PA from the boy; love my flinter! 100 grains 777 pellet in my CVA Optima V2 with 300 gr platinum Powerbelt

Really glad you like it! I think they are the best rig out right now. Be careful though, very easy to fall asleep in them so make sure you are tied in. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

it'll be fine. if you are still hesitant, try and do it during today's rain. That'll wash out the scent and cover the noise you might make.

converting my gear selection from archery tactics to rifle/shotgun tactics...and hopefully colder weather. pulling archery stands so they don't get swiped. Making my opening day samiches and making a final decision on where to hunt opening day...my honey hole (which is a public land and hell on earth to get to) or a new place I've been wanting to hunt for sometime, but just haven't.