Nomad

Any time ! But sadly the farm doesn’t want drives anymore till the end of gun, and I don’t have the 8-12 guys we used to , to do the big drives . These little pushes still work well with 2 -3 guys . But it was grand fun , and productive ! If you were a watcher you knew you would get an opportunity . Where else in hunting can you know in half an hour of hunting you’re going to get a shot ? Ive used my daughter to walk a drainage ditch ,it’s over grown and runs from a road across open crop fields, to a woods . No body ever hunts near it, because of the road and my wife’s old house that’s near it . One of my best hunting memories, she was 14 walks it and I shot a 7 pt on a flat our dead run at the end of the ditch . Drives were so productive. But if you’re a guy who shoots 5 rounds off a bench prior to season , you may not be cut out for the shots . I’d run at least 100 slugs through my 12 ga, many at moving targets prior to the season . Duck hunters and others who can swing a gun do fine .

It helps to be on their escape route . Here’s two ,two man pushes. If I walk the yellow line, the deer will run the yellow dots right to the red X’s . I can place a guy almost to the exact tree, I’ve seen guys drop two more than once . They tend to slow up and look into the woods before entering many times, which is a fatal mistake . dont drive anymore but we’ve done those two for decades, and it’s always the same .

It’s their full line . Being retired I no longer qualify.

I miss them too ! Best hunting memories ever ! Stand sitters have no, idea what they’re missing . My best hunting memory is dropping a full out running doe at 90 yards ,with a smooth bore12 ga .

Well then you’re doing it wrong . Our watchers are often 1/4 to 1/2 mile or more away from the drivers . We drive them out of one woods across massive farm fields to another woods ,and we can place a watcher ,to an exact tree or bush . I got several guys their first deer by placing them at a certain tree or bucket that I placed ahead of time . I couldn’t possibly count the deer I dropped on drives .

Savage 7 mm 08 , don’t know model. .380 in pocket same as bow ...... It’s gotta be a really big buck for me to pull the trigger, gun season fun season ,freezers full, I’d keep,the backstraps and give away the rest .

Ha, I started with chunks of 2x4 with a drilled hole that you passed a clothes line through and tied to the tree , so you stood on the end of a 2x4 as you climb up with a mouth full of clothes line with blocks . Once up I pulled up a 30 pound steal stand by a chain which was used to secure it to the tree . There was no such thing as a harness , but I did use a rope on stand ,clove hitch around tree , bowline around me , ha ha ! This guy got all fancy by cutting bevels on his blocks . Greensider, it helps if one has a lot of experience with ladders and or strength, you seem to have both !

I’m 60, here’s the ones I use ,18 footers pretty big chair and platforms . I carry them in and put them up by myself , well this year I needed help putting one up as the terrain and thick brush made it hard to get a good footing and it kept getting caught on brush as I raised it . When new I gorilla tape the sections together and carry in as one package, when moving to another location , a carry them all assembled, find the balance point and stand in between the rungs garb the beams and walk . I sink the beams as deep into the ground as I can ,put on lower bar to tree, then tie a rope around tree to beams 2/3 of the way up , climb up the rest and tighten ratchets .

If you qualify Leoadventures is well worth joining . 40% off Sitka as well as many others . https://leoadventures.com/sign-up/

Loved those days ! I’ve hunted that spot over 30 years , sat till 9, met up with others and drove ,drove ,drove till evening sit . If you bumped into another group, you often teamed up . I’ve had strangers help drag my deer out, and then toss it in their pick up and drive us to my car . I hunted miles and several roads over from “ my spot .” If someone hit one everyone teamed up,to get it , and the guy who hit it first got the deer, no matter who killed it . Those days are largely gone . Today it’s mostly about big bucks and keeping them on “ your land . “ 1 or 2 Guys lease a spot where maybe 6 or 8 locals used to hunt , then the farmer down the road hears he can get money for letting guys hunt and so it goes . Everyone is down to one spot, that they’re protective of . That said I’ve let others hunt the land we own , as I don’t hunt it , I hunt another’s land that I somewhat have control over . The young guy who works on the farm nextdoor , sets up,on the line with my blessing , he can come over to recover anytime , and frankly if he hung a stand a bit over the line I wouldn’t care . A guy I used to work,with and see once or twice a year , just told me he lost 2 out of 3 of his spots , I opened mine up, to him . Edit . my buddy Joe born up North still uses that gun and load ! Although he lost a nice buck with it last year .

Doc’s in Bristol . Friend just sold his camp and 90 acres basically across from Bristol mtn ski slope ,yep steep, but very good hunting . Go just a bit North and you’re in prime farmland hunting , since you’ll be working at Canandaigua VA ( wife worked there many moons ago ) that would be much closer to work .

Well so far so good, but your post beings up a common issue, that is so many don’t really know where their own property lines are . Many just post the outer edge of a woods, when over the years the woods “ expanded “ , which is why you often find old downed wire fences a few yards inside the woods , because at one time that was the outer edge too . The hunting apps are pretty good , but not that precise. Here’s my spot look at the top orange line , it appears to run through the woods, but how far ? Which tree could the neighbor hang a stand on and still be on his property?

Sitting in the green hut with my daughter , I really don’t care if I shoot one in gun, two big deers last year so left over meat ,and I got 75# off my 10pt in bow . My cam showed bucks in front of hut 3 out of last 5 mornings , wind is right for me to hang scent to draw them out as well . It’s all about her , and hunting with friends, going out to lunch ,total low pressure gun season .

Hazy Knucklehead IPA , after a two mile in the dark hike on some Webster trails .

Buck I watched today should have passed by my camera, looking at card, it seems I brought home card I brought down to swap .

Been there ! Then I drove two pipes into the ground , screwed two eye bolts into hut , and ran two ratchet straps .

When you’re carrying an office chair across a cut bean field and a buck just stands there and watches .

The front opening is to big so it doesn’t get that warm . Im going to add two more hinges to the flip up wood , then cut it in half , after the season

I had to move the heater away from my chair , my legs were getting to hot .

Nov 4 th anniversary here ! We celebrate it after New Years , well I did give her a scratch off on the 4th.

Opening day dry run . Sitting in green hut to see if there’s any movement , that heater works etc . solid 2 1/2 8 pt hung out at 60 yards perfect for my daughter.

Shooting sticks . My friend in Montana took his mule deer at 225 yards and his antelope at 375 this year . He never steps foot In his hunting grounds without them . We tent camp ,but it’s a wall tent with wood stove ,lowest I experienced was minus 6 . My two buddies are out right now , Sunday high is 17 low of -10 .

Other Half , Not Hotdog . Really good, classic Other Half taste very drinkable .

I’m going Sat. Morning just to sit in the green hut , to see if there’s any movement there . No bow, just coffee and Binoculars.