coonhunter

I am fortunate to work for a mid-sized machine shop that is owned by the same family that started it. They have always been good about time off and keeping hours down to 40 hours as much as possible. And, overtime is never mandatory. On that note, I never worked a saturday for years when I ran hounds in competition. They had no problem with it. Now that I no longer run the hunts, I repay the favor by working overtime almost anytime it is needed. And, if you happen to be on vacation, you may receive a quick call or text about a set-up or program. Another good thing about this company is that for the most part, everyone works together and has no problem getting a quick question on the phone to take care of something unexpected. When I hear other people's horror stories about work, I feel really lucky. Funny thing about getting treated well by the owners, very rarely does anyone call in sick or bitch about their job all the time. Not the perfect job for an outdoorsman, but it is by far the best place I ever worked for.

Grow, I was in a similar situation last year during early bow season. My sightings were way down and I thought either I had somehow contaminated my areas, or I had some other hunters I didn't know about. About a mile away, there was one big field of standing corn, and I thought maybe the deer were holding in there to bulk up and for security. As soon as the farmer starting picking the corn with a combine,the very next day, my sightings went back to normal. Good chance this is what you are going through. I don't know about your area, but my spots have minimal apples and they have dropped early, and the oak dropped most of their acorns already.

Very impressive. Thanks to Lawdwaz for pasting the story for our reading enjoyment. Congratulations to Jennifer for winning, in my eyes, a very prestigious competition. Hope this propels you to even more success.

It is good that you are asking this ahead of time. If you are not prepared to take care of your deer in the warm weather, make darn sure you have a reliable processor that you can contact and deliver to. Phade is correct saying frozen jugs and soda bottles work good and stay frozen longer. In the warm weather I have a cooler with frozen milk jugs sitting at my vehicle. Just one more thing to get ready, but if I shoot one, it is going to be used, not wasted. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending how you look at it, I have not shot a deer in the warm weather in awhile. The last one was brutal for me with blackberry briers still green, about a half mile from the car, and mid 70's. Lets just say, it will take a special deer for me to launch an arrow in that warm of weather ever again.

Not only do I like the buck, but I love the pictures also. Shows the size comparison between a young and mature buck.

I will save my doe tags for the youngsters during rifle season. I will be mature buck hunting all bow season except for the youth weekend. And, thanks to Bubba, I will remember no youths in a treestand this year. I will be hunting the trails leading to and from the few remaining apples on the one farm I hunt. After the first hard frost, I usually head to the beech ridge. This is usually where I have the most sightings, and best luck. I will follow a member's advice this year, and be more aggressive in my stand placement before the rut kicks in. One other thing that hurt last year in the early season was a huge standing cornfield about a half mile from me. I don't know how many deer were holding and bedding in there, but as soon as they started running the combine, the very next morning I was seeing a lot more deer. It is already being pick this year.

I have killed enough deer that I no longer have to get one to make my season fun. I started out like most with shooting the first buck I saw, and I never had a problem shooting does whether it was with the old party permits, or the newer DMP's. I shot a lot of deer, and a few of them were nice ones because I had good teachers, and good land to hunt. I will say that I had a lot of fun hunting this way. One year I shot a small crotch horn and watched a beauty of a buck come through while I was gutting him. I just had a thought of, "Why did I shoot this little buck when I have shot tons of them?" So, for the last 12 years I have targeted bigger bucks, first by horns, and finally by age. I will be the first to admit, when I switched to age, it got a lot harder and I have eaten my buck tag twice in the last 7 years. Guess what, I still have a ball doing it. Hell, last year I let a couple of youngsters fill my doe tags, and I still had fun. All I can say is to relax. Don't fall into expectations or goals that you are not ready to accept. Keep it fun whether it is hunting on your own, or with friends.

Whenever the Bear "Lights Out" came out. I thought it was only 5 years old, but my wife told me to get a grip because I have had it a lot longer than that. She was right because my picture on facebook shows the last 2 year old buck I shot, and the bow is there. So it was quite a few years ago.

For the first time in years, tonight I had a call from the republican party. I usually get calls or visits from the democrats trying to get me to change my views. I hope they are planning to step it up.

Deer like this are the toughest to let walk. Then, if you do let it walk and don't get one later, you second guess yourself all winter. But, if he shows up next year, bulked up and even more horn on his head, you are happy as can be. It is all a personal judgement call on any hunter's part. If you shoot it, be proud of it. If you let him walk and the neighbors get him, congratulate them. It is all your call in the woods, and enjoy your time and challenges.

I live in Oneonta and hunt mostly in Edmeston(4F). If you have new land or have been having a tough time connecting on a deer with rifle or bow in the area, I would gladly give you a hand. I am an ethical hunter, spending most of my hard hunting during bow season. Gun season is usually spent helping others get their deer. I drag a lot more deer for other people than I do for myself. If you have youngsters that are interested in hunting, I have had great luck with boys and girls. Recent years, I have had the teenage girls in the blind with me shooting the bull, and shooting deer.

How about the simple fact that hunters are still struggling to obtain any hunting ammo if they don't have one of the standard deer calibers. I have not seen a box of .22 shells in over 2 years sitting on a shelf. I hear, if you don't work for a living, and have an ear at the counter, you can get some as long as you are there in the first hour or two. People are still hoarding and or selling for profit around here. I can tell you that I honestly think that this state and country have a lot more important things to worry about than lead ammunition.

Bear Lights Out at 62# for deer. Mossberg 100ATR in .270 with Simmonds prohunter scope for what rifle hunting I do for deer. I have an old Mossberg Chuckster in .22 mag for woodchucks. I think it has an old weaver scope on it. As long as the wind is not blowing very hard, it is deadly out to 125 on woodchucks and coyotes.

I honestly don't know if coons will dig up an anthill or not. They will eat about anything, so it is a real possibility. I know that skunks will dig up yellow jacket nests to get the larvae, so I was going with that idea.

I'm still old school and shoot 4 inch straight feathers, but I am only shooting around 240 feet per second. Like WNY BUCKHUNTER pointed out, the shooter has to do his/her part.

There you go Doc. That is how I see society as a whole, no matter what the race or location is. The kids run the households because goody two shoes have made it abundantly clear that the cops or CPS can be called if you discipline your kids. Once they are involved, there is no guarantee what the outcome will be. When I was growing up if I got in trouble, I got my butt paddled, and was given more work to do because I obviously had too much time on my hands. If I went to a friend's house and got in trouble there was a good chance that I would get my butt paddled there too. Then, I sure didn't go crying to my mommy about it because I would get another licking for getting in trouble at someone elses house. Get in trouble at school? I sure didn't have mommy and daddy storming down there to tell them how it was all their fault. We had a "Come to Jesus Meeting" at home, and then we went to school with a whole different attitude. Now, did all this keep me out of all trouble? No! But I always knew the difference between right and wrong. And, I always knew there were consequences if I was caught. Plus, I was well aware by the time I was a teenager, that trouble may involve the law and jail. I grew up with barely enough to get by, but knew early that welfare was bad. A family was ashamed if they had to get help. I had summer jobs from the age of 13. Mommy and Daddy were not going to go out and spend a fortune on school clothes. Anything extra or fancy I wanted, I knew I had to buy myself. That involved pedaling my bike to the area farms and putting in hay for a couple dollars an hour. No rides from my parents. People young and old just plain had more pride in themselves back then. This country is chaos now, and it will only get worse as more and more of the younger people want the government to provide for them. I really hope I am wrong, but it sure seems like a me me me country now.

I would guess a skunk, but a camera would tell the story for sure.

I'm the same as you Elmo. Yes, it stinks that someone came in to your spot, there is no sense in crying over something as minor as this. I will wave them over and shoot the breeze with them a little because the area is disturbed for awhile anyway. We are hunters, and if it is not your posted property, there is nothing to gain by treating other hunters like crap, or pouting because someone walked by.

This is for guys asking what kind of new bow to buy. Yesterday I was at a bbq where five of us brought our bows to do a little shooting. These bows ranged from darn near, brand new up to five years old. The draw weights ranged from 52-74 pounds, and four different brands were involved. These bows included 2 bears, a Martin, a PSE, and a Matthews. Prices ranged from a little over 400 to a little over 1100. The arrows were just as diverse with Beman, Easton, Carbon Express, Gold Tip, and some pink with black stripe Ted Nugent things. I shot all these bow and arrow combos to try them out and see how they felt overall, and how consistently they shot. Due to differing draw lengths, I had to shoot a few arrows to see where I had to aim. Believe it or not, I never missed the target completely. I was worried because a couple of the guys are quite a bit taller than me. My results and opinion on all these bows and arrows is that all the manufacturers put out a quality product. My bow was the oldest, and I can feel a noticeable difference in how much smoother and easier it is to draw the newer bows, even the two that were set at 70+. All bows shot quiet and I couldn't pick one out as the loudest or the most quiet. I shot out to 40 yards and all arrows penetrated great still out to that range, even the 50 pounder. It was strange seeing the big arch in the shot, but the bow put them in the kill zone shot after shot. The arrows were a mix of vanes and feathers of differing lengths and if I had to pick which ones shot the best, I would have to say the carbon express with feathers. Sorry, I don't know what model they were, but the patterns stayed pretty tight even with a strange bow at 40 yards. I never ruined an arrow, and I was worried about it, but the guys wanted me to see whose bow was the nicest shooter. And of course, one of them takes my bow and robin hoods one of my arrows on the third shot. My take is, get yourself set up by a pro shop, or someone that knows their business, and buy what you like because money didn't seem to matter other than weight and overall feel of the bow. Arrows all performed and penetrated great. The weight forward designs did carry a tighter pattern at 40 yards, but we are talking the difference between a baseball and a softball. I was surprised at how well all these bows were set up and performed. The biggest thing, like I mentioned, is that a new bow is a lot easier on the draw. Most of these guys are young bucks and think they know it all, but they all had their bows set up by a professional and it showed.

Got mine at local walmart today. Just handed him my drivers license and five minutes later or less, I had all my licenses and doe tags on the new camo sort of paper, sort of plastic. I will say that my pen worked fine on it though.

I have bought some modern, base layers that are thin and wick any moisture away for bow hunting. The last two years I have froze my butt off waiting for the sun to reach me some mornings.

It pays to read through even if you have hunted for years. Last year I made a boo boo during the youth hunt. I even knew it the year before, but it completely slipped my mind until a few on here reminded me. So do a read thru.

I don't even know what brand mine is. Just two small pins set for 26 yards and 33 yards. Sounds strange, but that is what works for me.

Doc, I say the same thing all the time. Hell , my area had a stretch where you had to own 50 acres to get a doe tag because we had a shortage. I could go out coon hunting and see around a hundred deer almost every night no matter where I released the hounds. I haven't seen a game warden while hunting any game in over 10 years, so I am not sure where the information and stats come from.

We shot a lot 32 years ago when I took mine. .22's, single shot, pump, side by sides, and semi shotguns of several guages. It was one Saturday afternoon, and there were a lot of kids taking it. This was in the country, and almost all of us were already familiar and proficient with firearms. The best thing in the course was when one of the instructors didn't feel the safety aspect was getting through to us young bucks. He stood us all in a line, took a head of cabbage, and boinked it on our foreheads. He hollered, "Did that hurt?" And it did because he thumped us pretty solid. He took that head of cabbage and put it on a fence post. He stepped back 10 yards and blew it up with a 12 guage. Talk about making an impression.