catskillkid

Wow, that is an awesome natural feature, I guess the land has been in your family for a long time?

That is a real nice stand Growalot. Unfortunatly, I have to make all of my buddies remove all stands when we are not hunting. I don't want tresspasers using them when I am not around. Stands left in the woods give tresspasers clues to the better areas to hunt. Too bad that I have to do that on my own land!

40, Sidney

Sure, why not

Great video of the bear. He is a big one!

I have seen & shot many bears in my life, considering the bear is a few yards behind the wheelbarrow that bear is awesome. I don't think I have a gun big enough for that bruin. Looking forward to seeing the video. Thanks, Burt

It almost looks like the bear pic was photoshopped into the scene. The legs and paws just don't look right. If it is a real pic, that bear is HUGE!

Unfortunately, some people have the attitude of, what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine too

Unfortunately it has come to the point that as a landowner who hunts his own land. Many intentional acts by tresspasers and poachers has jaded us to the point that we just say no to everyone. We have all heard the same excuses and lies before. If it was not for our past experiences with these people, I would be much more lenient. If asked first, I will always allow someone to retrieve an animal who crossed onto my land after being shot elsewhere. I would appreciate the same consideration in return if it happened to me. We all know that bad shots do happen on occasion. I am fortunate to have neighbors who respect the lines, it seems the people that I have a problem with are friends and family members that my neighbors give permission to hunt their land. Once they have access to one piece of land, they think the whole mountain is theirs to hunt.

I guess if the DEC calls it baiting, no one would be able to hunt within a couple of hundred yards of a completed logging operation and how long would a hunter have to wait before the tree tops are not considered bait any more. 6 months or a year? Also, I don't think that hunting an edge of a growing or cut corn field is considered baiting. Trees are a crop also and recognized as such by the NY Forestry Dept. Just my 2 cents ;D

I asked my forester about that. He told me it is not because timber thinning is part of my forest management plan. It may be a gray area though?

Culvercreek is correct. I have my land in the Forestry Program and have been performing "TSI" Timber Stand Improvement for the last 6 years. The sound of a chainsaw is like a diner bell to deer. I have actually seen deer follow me and my tractor into the woods and wait until I fall a tree. They start feeding on the tops when I leave. A good idea is to thin an area of sapling soft maples after the leaves drop and new buds appear. Then set a stand nearby. This is just as good if not better than a food plot.

To Doc & Culvercreek DITTO!!!!

That's too bad JW. A freind of mine has a camp in Colesville. He has found gut piles 20 yards from his tree stand when he returns to his place to hunt. He is trying to follow a QDM plan but I told him that why should he let the small bucks pass only to have a poacher shoot it. Also it does'nt pay to scout deer paterns when some local is shooting them and disturbing their behavour when he is not there. He also must board up all windows and doors on his camp with plywood and long screws to keep people from breaking in as has happened many times in the past. It takes him about 30 minutes just to get into his own camp. He says they also use his campfire pit when he is not there. It is not like his place can be seen from the road, it sits about 1/4 mile back in the woods but somehow they know when he is not there. I know another guy that returned to his camp only to find that someone had burned it down!

September seems to be the start of the poaching season. They want a head start on the real hunters before the legal season begins. Any deer shot that way is nothing to be proud of. I'm sure they do not know how to get a deer anyother way. Only ilegally. It is too bad that they teach thier bad ways to thier kids.

awesome video, I wonder how many holes they put in that decoy? I think that I would have my gun out of my holster if I was that Con. Officer.

It sounds like the DEC should set up a sting operation in your field. They set up a buck decoy and arrest everyone who shoots at it. I know it is done in Jersey!

I would like to see if these same trespassers/poachers would get angry with me if I used thier truck or house without permission. Same principle. Good hunting Catskillkid

Unfortunalty it is not getting any better out there, I would like to see Fish & Game emphisize the trespassing laws in the hunting booklet.

I also had alot of problems with 4 wheelers trespassing all of the time. They would cut thier own trails through my forest, falling many marketable trees, ie hard maple, cherry and oak. I called the State Police and asked what my rights were as a landowner. The officer told me that I can remove the key from the trrespasser's machine and call him on his personal cell phone and he would come over and take care of the problem for me. He told me he had the same problem on his land until he got serious and started enforcing the trespassing laws. The only way that I stopped the problem was to knock on every abutting neighbor's door and let them know that I was serious about inforcement! Hunting days are very precious to me with having to work most of the time. There is nothing more aggravating than sitting in your treestand waiting for that buck that you have been after to only have some a-hole screw it up on you. Especially on land that you have worked your butt off to own, post and pay taxes on. On another occasion on my land, I was calling in a group of long-beards for a friend of mine who had never shot a turkey. A guy snuck in between the turkeys and us and ruined the whole morning. The guy was from PA and just pulled his truck onto the shoulder of the road, ignored my posters and just hunted it as if it was his. By the time a got done with him, I noticed a brown stain running down the back of his pants as he was running away from me. My friend said he felt sorry for the trespasser after I got done with him. Another time, I confronted a guy cutting wood on my land, he told me that he knew the landowner and he had permission to be there to take firewood. Well I had owned the land for 12 years and never had seen the guy before. They all get that wierd look on their face when they get caught. As you can see, this is a passionate subject for me. Good hunting Catskillkid

It looks to me that the buck is just sheding it's red summer coat. You can see the grey winter coat starting to appear.