Nomad

no doubt developement has played a roll in it, but I'm not sure if its as big as we think. Heres why I say that . I live in Webster a inner ring suburb of Rochester, Webster over the last several years has been the fastest growing suburb around by far. But last I read was still only 30% developed, today I guess thats still less then 40 % . Now go to where Doc lives, or where I THINK he lives,the Naples/ Bristol area. Sure there has been some building of homes but that area is still 80-90% undeveloped at least. Now add in todays 4 dollar gas i think moving that far from the city will appeal to even less folks . Where I hunt and own 116 acres , town of Canandaigua just north of 5 & 20 I have lost farms due to leases but zero to housing, and this is closer to the city then Doc's area. Are some tracks a couple miles away ? Yes but no closer yet. I would love them to get closer, renting to the farmer pays the taxes but a developer well that would get me a home on Canandaigua Lake ! But no takers yet .

Around me in 8h a good chunk has gone to leases, and more folks ''doing qdm" and keeping all others now off the land. I know farms that in the past had 15 or more guys hunt it,now they'er leased to 4 or 5 guys . So now the 15 have to lock up some land of their own.... One guy bought the rights to land next to his even though he will not hunt it, he just wants to keep others far away from his land and "his" deer. Welcome to todays deer hunting .

Ran out to Indian Mountain Archery for some arrows and a new sight. Last year I broke my green fiber optic at a friends cabin....So Phil put on a enclosed type one.Took my first shots which were the first ones of the year as well,adjusted the sight ( or is it site?). Then put 3 in an 1 1/2 inches dead center at 20 yards . Man I love todays compounds. I am ready to start flinging a few a week though. Just have to go on vacation a for a few days, move two kids back to college,stain the house,fix a couple cars,close the pool......

One should practice out of a stand because one hunts out of a stand. The old saying " train like you fight ". WNYbuckhunter, brings up a very good point about bending and form. I'd like to add, when on a stand your choices of foot placement, may be really different then on the ground, you may draw and hit the tree with your elbow,or find your harness causes issues. While a shot just under or close to your tree may not be a shot one may want to take, seeing how and where the arrow passes through a target, will make you aware of the risks of that shot . Good luck

The farm I hunt is around 3,000 acres. The part I have to myself, posted etc. is around 200 I guess. Stands very year to year 6 or so. We own 116 acres across the road that is all crop fields we rent this to the farmer. I have one stand there in a hedgerows .

I have a HSS which I used a few years. Lately I just use the ones that come with the stands. I don't have any issues with them . For the first 15 years or so I just used a doubled up rope,clove around the tree and bowline around me......

Use them all. Ladders are nice for fat trees that are hard to get the straps of hang ons around, and being large trees they help one blend in i feel.I like them for gun where shots are longer and being up high is not as important, as when waiting for a buck to give me the right shot at 20 yards or less. Hangs ons I put higher and at spots I know deer pass by close. My climber ( Lone Wolf) lets me move at anytime for those deer that travel where they are not supposed to...... Last year my 8pt bow deer was killed out of my climber after I kept seeing bucks move right up the center of the hards woods. 45 minutes after going up, I was picking out a spot on my wall...... Climbers just give one many options, if you can find the right tree. I've gone from my sofa to showering grabbing my climber and bow and killing deer in Webster in way under an hour.

Myself I have little desire to switch to an inferior weapon,so I'll stick to my compound.Smaller,lighter,less noise,more accurite .Anytime there is a 3 bow meet,trad. compound,xbow the compound wins....... Now injury and age may at some point force a change. Honestly I used to start shooting when the snow melted,today with new bows maybe sept. 1 Couple times a week 15 arrows a day maybe. I'll shoot 5 inch groups out to 40 yards the first day . Not sure what an xbow has over todays compounds.

I agree about many not reporting or saying where they get 'em. But that may be even across the state as well so the effect may not change what counties are best. A farm I know in one year took a 170, 160 class as well as another in the 150's. they certinly did not send pics into the newspaper , post them on line , or enter any contests . "how'd ya do ?" " Oh gotta couple does.......

Hum compound shooter for 23 years, 19 or 20 I shot fingers ,split. Then i got a new bow and one of them new release things and all.

Great news ! I had the same thing happen, the bully on the hill has sold. He's " a big hunter" who was an a hole. My biggest mistake was a couple bow seasons ago last couple days of bow, at dusk deer pour out into the field, I stay on stand hoping they move and I can slip out. Then BANG a single shot from his nearby land and blind . I should have called my dec cop buddy but I blew it. So couple days into gun he stops by to tell me his kid got that big one first day of gun, right where the shot was in bow...... "Oh really" , " say what was that gun shot during bow from that blind "? He had nothing more to talk about........ It still eats at me I could have caught him !

Thanks for the input guys, Doc were on the same page,wdswtr been there. I too did not care what my kids chose to do, but once they start they will finish it just like you ! For me i took a one sat. class back in the '70's. Hunted some during high school then stopped for a few years. When I went to work in a factory tons of guys hunted,so because I had the class years back i jumped right back into it. This is one reason why i feel its important to get kids through the class. With college,the Armed Forces what ever they may stop, but then later on its easy to pick up again. The easier it is to get many through the class the more we'll have now or down the road. I have no idea why this is now slanted......I guess a computer class would not work well for me.....

Thanks for the replies.Jusputtn I did become one 20 or so years back . No not for long though, long story... As far as priorities. Well talk to the high schools or really the colleges. Its very competive they want AP classes,vollenteer work, clubs (if an officer thats better), sports and so forth. Then again the high schools set the homework load . My prioities were good grades for my kids and what was needed to get in good colleges. It paid off in 2 on the deans list and scholastic scholarships. One hunts one doesn't , but would like to but a college load leaves little time to spend 3 nights in hunter ed. For what my other kid who never even read the book said, " was the easist test she ever took in her life" ....... I will send my thoughts on to the dec. Some states don't even have hunter ed. others are all on line.Seems to work well for them .

Well it means water skiing is in full swing! Nothing better then hooking the buoy's .

Lots of talk about the youth hunts and our loss of young hunters, well heres one idea,feel free to add your own. Change the hunter ed classes. My two are now in college but when in high school the hardest part was finding time to take the class !! Most we found were 3 nights, 4 hours a night ,plus travel time during the school week. Well for those with no kids, the demand on their time by the school is great. If you play sports as my girls did you play YEAR round, add in a monster load of school work,vollentier work, part time jobs, clubs and 3 free nights during a school week don't exist . I know kids who never went because of this, they tried but something always came up and they could not make it . Mine had a very narrow window of time and a Dad who did not mind giving up 3 of his nights driving back and forth 2Xs a night 3 nights in a row...... Put most of the class on line or dvd, add some interactive stuff, and have a one night class where the kids show they know safe gun handling skills and test them. Lets keep it hunter SAFETY, remove all the 'history of muzzle loaders', "how to ask for premission to hunt " etc. Put it online and have a one night hands on class and test. Its not 1,977 any more where you got 1/2hour a night of homework and the coach did not mind if you missed practice, because he hunted too.....

Could be real, but TONS of folks,write post and send things like this in order to stir things up,cause trouble, be funny but mainly to see how many fall for it. I know one guy who posts on forums one or two sentences just to delite in the paragraphs and amount of research folks will do to "prove" him wrong. As they say , don't feed the trolls.....

I need to check in more often... My bibs held up ok, my oldest daughter now uses them. For a top I had a long sleeve t shirt I wore over heavier clothes. It did fade some. I really need to see whats out today in ASAT

Not a big turkey hunter, May is the start of water skiing !! But I take one here and there. I say sleep in and head out at 9 or 10 . You'll feel better, and I know a few guys myself included that this works for .

I must be the last guy who still goes into the barn, grabs two bails of straw and stacks them behind the house.Oh I do glue a deer poster/target to some cardboard that I place on the bale.

ok 2 months late, but I've used ASAT for 15 or more years.Great stuff only issue is not too many choices and a lot of its cotton. I do feel the open pattern is the way to go for sure. This stuff does not blob out like all the tree bark stuff.

I had a hot air balloon come down in a clover field 60 yards from my decoys ! Funny and upsetting at the same time. 7:20 got Tom gobbling behind me, then this loud hiss ? type sound on and off. Turn around a freaking balloon just over the tree tops going along a brushy creek bottom. Turns 90 degrees and comes to about 4 feet off the ground in a field. Up over a hedgerow I'm in and down again. Kept flying just above the brush, trees and fields.Hit the 3 best spots where I hunt. Odd really who flys low and slow like that. Would have shot it, but I hear they taste bad in the spring...... Yes I got pics, on my cell have no idea how to post them .

The Rompola thread got me thinking about how many fakes and illegal mounts are out there ? My guess is a fair percentage of mounts are taken illegally. Heres why I feel this . A couple months back in one of the NRA magazines there was a story of some game cops who opened a fake taxadermy shop. 50 % of the heads brought in were found to be taken illegally ! Now did they spread the word that this new shop "did not ask questions" to bring in the poachers ? they did not say but 50 % ! Then there are the almost monthly stories of guys getting busted with walls full of large heads all taken on areas closed to hunting and often out of season as well. We had bucks shot( found them with skull plates sawed off ) with rifles on our posted land before the start of bow season, after talking with and working with the D.E.C cops found out its really common. " Saw him all summer, then just before season started and he just disappeared ! " Ya he's on your neighbors basement wall...... I've seen stories in the Democrat and Chronicle ( Roch. paper) of bucks taken by known outlaws. Guys who's family's i know and they break some game laws ,yet they Refuse to hunt with him...... one sheriff I know went nuts when he saw one of the stories as he has had many run in's with that guy. The longer I live,the more guys I know, the more I learn, the less I believe . "

Here's what I see. Myself and many hunters I know now hunt "qdm" land, except in all but one case its not really qdm just AR's . But they all say "ya we do qdm here." From what I've seen its caused more hard feelings and driven more from hunting then any to other thing . More farms leasing to 2-or 3 guys to "manage the land for qdm" and kicking off 6,8 locals who then try to find a piece of ever shrinking land to hunt . One guy I know with deep pockets and a lust for qdm and big bucks even leases land around his just to keep hunters off it, he DOES NOT hunt it just wants to keep others further away from his deer.... more guys displaced by qdm . I know a couple guys who hunted with the same group on qdm (AR) land for years , then a son reaches age to hunt. It took much arm twisting to let him get the ok to take a lesser buck. The next year the kid still in high school is told no, he already got his one small buck,never mind these guys shot all shot young deer for years . He would be very happy to shoot a basket, and any kid in high school,what with sports, heavy homework load, clubs, vollenteering, senior projects and so forth does not have much time to hunt. That does not do much for recruitment of young hunters. Then when the go to college they might have a couple days over Thanksgiving to get it done, and he or she is faced with a being a young hunter trying to kill a mature buck a week into the season in 2 days. Lets not forget the old either. One guy i know thought it would be nice to get his dad (about 75) back out for a hunt. The son hunts qdm(ar) land and explained things to his dad,well the dad shot a buck not quite up to the standard and was ripped a new one by the other "hunters". More friendships torn apart in the quest for big antlers above memories. That should have been something that camped talked about around campfires for years. " remember when your dad, came here and after not hunting for ten years killed the 6 down by the stream? " That was his last deer wasn't it ? Instead it almost came to blows. 3 guys who hunted with me,had little time to hunt,they are life long hunters and are happy if they can shoot any buck in the limited time they have. If they could get one opening day, they were happy, oh sure they would try to go out a couple more times for fun if time allowed. Then the farm put in AR's two no longer hunt and the 3rd is looking to buy land so he can shoot what he wants. I see qdm as a road block for many hunters, it works for me as I got tons of free time and tons of land , just hate see losing all the others to rules and lust .

Over 100 acres in Canandaigua. Mostly ag land we rent to a farmer . I hunt a 200 of his acres (all posted,just me) That leaves him with 2,000 or so more to himself......... Good deal, rent for land pays our taxes and we clear a profit, get good hunting land to boot !

Indian Mountain Archery in Hamlin/Hilton. An easy ride from Greece,in fact he gets guys who drive in from NYC !! OK? thats 7 hours away and one guy flew in from Kansas to have Phil set up 3 bows . Phil will set up your bow then have you come to the shop when its CLOSED so its just you and him shooting and doing the final tuning. You will leave the shop shooting good groups and your fieldpoints and broadheads will fly the same, as they should. I've seen Phil take bows off the shelf as the season was near because he was to busy setting up bows and teaching guys . He would rather not sell those bows because he would not have the proper amount of time to set up and teach !