RTF

Absolutely not. I have had many deer come within feet of my pop-up blinds within hours of setting them up. Heck one year while spring turkey season, I had one bed down 20 yards behind my blind while I hunted turkeys. The biggest of all problems I have with the pop-up blinds is not being able to get the shot you need. The deer must be in the exact spot you need them to be in order to shoot through the windows.Another thing is with the pop-up blind you get lazy and will not want to move around and I find myself going to sleep in them way too much. HOWEVER, pop-up blinds are ideal for taking kids hunting, if the weather is rainy and you just wat to relax and chill. They are also great for those extreme cold winter days were a Buddy Heater comes in handy.

My boy last night came home and told me he tried hunting from the ground with bow. He crawled to within 50 yards of a group of deer heading down a trail. He got busted and it was all over. I laughed at his story and told him he needed one of those gillie suites. his eyes lit up and he said "hey your right". So ironic I came across your post this morning, explaining the gillie suite. LOL.

And firewood dont go up in price? Or the gas to cut it and haul it. How many times a night do you get up to put firewood on the stove? Now that right there is the biggest of all trade off to switching to pellets, because I dont get up now during all hours of the night and never will have too again. The price of firewood has increase dramatically in my area. I know a guy in Oneonta, NY who is getting $80.00 a face cord and it sells.

Of course Im using a bow. If you think you cant kill a deer from the ground with a bow think again. I have shot deer at 3 yards from the ground with a bow. This is what big trees, boulders, hay bales and other natural ground blinds (such as blow downs) are for.

Anyone go to the grand opening last week? I do a lot of shopping at the one in New Hartford since that was the closest one to me. Now the Oneonta store will the closest one to me. Still will go to New Hartford since it's like a second home to me.

I got a Summers Heat stove last year from Lowes after burning wood for decades. I will never go back to wood and love my pellet stove. I buy New England wood pellets which are made right here in NY and are a hardwood blend. Be advise these stoves require a quick cleanout every day and you will want to clean the ash off the wear plate at least twice a day during the cold season.

Have you ever been successful at that with the suit and all?

As age catches up with give me a comfortable ladder stand any day of the week, but I must vote for the ground blind. Even though it is much harder to bow hunt from a ground blind, I find it much more safer and relaxing then putting hours in a tree stand.

I would have called DEC for sure and then plead with them on finding out a way to get a possesion tag for those antlers and deer cape.

If this past weekend was the youth hunt, you could have fooled me. I hunt thousands of acres of state land and between the normal sounds of gun shots heard on any given weekend and the amount of deer I actually saw, I would have to say that the youth hunt had little to any at all effect on my bowhunting activities.

Who mounted it? Is there any other pics?

I got a question. My son bought his 2011/2012 hunting license back in Sept 2011 and purchased his fall and spring turkey tags. Well he was 15 at the time and got a junior hunting license. This March he turns 16. Will he need to buy another hunting license before he can hunt spring birds this year since he is no longer a junior hunter, even though he bought his 2011/2012 hunting license ?

WOW! Thats a huge turkey tail.

Shawn, are you going by the return time that was given to you when you dropped the bear off ? have you called and talked to the taxidermist to see what the progress report is ?

She does excellent work and her prices are spot on.

Your best bet is to visit the shop and have a look at the mounts they have done. Make sure you ask questions that concern you so you are both on the same page.

Chuck is well know in the taxidermy community and yes he is good at what he does.

Skulls must be degrease before being whitened. The peroxide is to be used with powder beach and painted onto the skull but that will cook the skull and it must be done properly. The skull whitening kits you can buy are just that.

Your ears drummed due to over sized earliners, not fully turned etc.... The ear will need to be rehydrate (wrapped in a damp to moist cloth for a period of time) , so it is flexible and not brittle. But doing this would require care and time or you could get hair slippage. If the hide was DP'd and not tanned you will most likely run into problems in doing this. After the ear is re-hydrated it will require a good 2 part epoxy adhesive which can be picked up at any hardware store. It looks to me you have plenty of space to get the adhesive behind the ear. Once the adhesive is in spread evenly and close ear. Now you will card the ear with cardboard by placing the cardboard on the outside of the ear. Get some of those carpenter spring clamps they use and clamp that ear down. There is no guarantee that this fix will be permanent but should hold for some time. Good luck !

What matters here is that this deer was legally harvested. If DEC could find any wrong doing they would have. All this talk about unethical and tame deer is nothing but a bunch of BS. The care taker could have been a good friend of his or yet a family member. I'm sure there is plenty more areas in so called tree hugging community that this could have been done in legally also. With the prices of a NY hunting license, and the restrictions and laws placed upon us to legally hunt a deer in NY that has other BIG deer states laughing at us, the word unethical doesn't exist in my vocabulary.

Oh ya. He has been out all summer practicing in making dirt sets. He took his course back in April at the Hartwick Rod & Gun Club and got his certificate. Went to the state trappers convention this past Labor Day weekend and had a blast.

That buck is awesome ! Congrats to you guys.

This coming weekend at the BSA scout camp in Poestenkill, NY. It's a youth mentoring camp put on by the NY trappers association. I drop him off Friday and pick him up on Monday. He has been waiting all year for this. The DEC issues permits for them to trap out of season for 24 hours.

Good luck hunter. Plenty of deer down in the Gilbertsville area. Don't know if you know this, but there is a gun shop on RT 51 in Gilberstville called the Sherrifs Gun Shop.

Nice doe, congrats