Daveboone

I dont have a chance to chase them much anymore, but they are some of the first critters scampering around in first light. Once the sun is hitting the tree tops they like to soak up what they can. Then the last couple hrs before dark.

We had a very busy last year, selling our old house and moving in/getting established in our new (to us) home. Time is opening up now, so I am working on completing a flintlock rifle I have been building, catching up on some reloading needs, similar projects. I have to make time to get up to our camp buried in the Tug Hill to check on things...I have to hike in, so it will be at least an overnight. I want to heat the place up well to melt the snow off the roof.

When we are up to camp, any deer seen in the yard/neighbors yard are off limits. They are visitors. When I was hunting in Georgia a bunch of years ago, some of the guys there talked about using dogs (legally). They hunted huge tracks of swamp land, which was pretty much inaccessible, so dogs were allowed to move them out. Ok, I get it. But they had one hell of a lot of deer down there, with amazing bag limits. Not my game, but it is thier neighborhood so ok by me. High fence/pay hunts. Nope. Not a hunt. Its a shoot. I have no need to have an engineered freak on my wall. I will be happy with what nature intended them to be. It may take more time given the size of the area, but if you are paying, you are shooting

You be asking, so you know it is time to get it checked out. May very well be just overdid something, but if it is unusual for her, worth getting it checked.

Good luck finding it. It is cool enough if it dies overnight it should be fine. Even if gut shot...and it dies, it would likely be bloated, but that doesnt mean the quarters/etc. were ruined.

? New York has an overabundance of deer with declining hunter numbers, so the length of the season is moot. I start hunting the first week of NT muzzleloading, but dont get serious until snow is on the ground. the past few years it has been so warm early on I didnt hunt much at all...then, right before my last week of NT that I always take off, we got 3 feet of snow which effectively put an end to my hunting. I was delighted at the chance to get out with the late season in the southern tier. My problem is, I am new to the ST and am still working on access sites that are worthwhile. I dont know how any one would critique an increase in hunting opportunity.

I used to enjoy "The Last Alaskans". The first few seasons they were real sourdoughs who knew what they were doing, Really though, even they didnt live year round off the land. They had summer jobs and homes. The show only showed the fall/winter lifestyle on their trapline. they brought staples, but depended on caribou/moose for meat, and several seasons some of them didnt get a moose and ended up needing to go out for the winter. Very tough to even come close to living off the land. Granted, living above the arctic circle is the harshest environment imaginable in my line of thought. Probably the most limiting factor in the lower 48 is living within game laws. I love reading of early pioneer/ settlers in Alaska, or most anywhere. I have read quite a few times that a lot more wanna be sourdoughs and just plain old sourdoughs just disappeared over the winter, starving in thier cabin or freezing to a stump. illness, injuries, etc. with little doubt that contrary to Disney line of though, more than a few burials were inside a wolfs scat pile.

Unfortunately, zillions. All it takes is a dollar and a dream. And in the same sense, many a business man boasts of his trophys on the wall, which are only resin replicas of another buck.

It looks very active and family oriented...I particularly took notice of the monthly winter steak bakes and sportsmans flea markets!

Looking on line, actually they look to be one of the more varied clubs, with a decent rifle range. Many in this area are almost exclusively geared to shotgun sports with the rifle ranges (if there is one) minimal. I actually spend most of my time with traditional ML, and spend a lot of time with the bench with them. I am going to check them out my next w/e off.

We moved to Cortland last May. I have been trying to find a shooting club in the area without much success. I have found a few, but most seem to be very skeet and trap centered, and both of those also have a lot of shooting time restrictions due to an agreement with the Cortland Police Department for training. I can appreciate it, but at the same time, the times they have reserved are the times I would be wanting to shoot...mainly weekdays. i bench rest /sight in centerfires, but do a lot of black powder/muzzleloading (traditional cap and ball/flintlock) too...more than anything else, with some handgunning (target) work also. Can anyone make any recommendations? Oxford is a nice club I have shot black powder at, but they are an hour away...

Great season! I was able to get a big bodied 2 1/2 year old up in the NT ML opener. It was very warm with not much moving, but I hunted the oncoming cold front and caught him at about 30 yards, dropped him clean. I held off going out most of the rest of the season, having the last week of NT off...but wouldnt ya know...3 feet of snow in the week before! I got to the camp, but it really wasnt practical to get out...I would have had to drag anything back through 3 foot of light snow! Well, that is hunting, glad I put venison away early.

I didnt see one big enough...I only shoot 14 points or better.

how long do they work for? Sound like a good idea, but when they go dead...how long to charge back up?

Sure isnt any two year old. One heck of a lot of venison walking around there.

You were in my neck of the woods....I spent most of the fall tromping Happy Valley and surrounding areas. I headed up to my camp further north (East of Mannsville, Winona State forest area), for a long awaited week of deer hunting...I always take the last week of the season. I had to walk in to my cabin...about a 1/2 mile, as it is on an unplowed road. And my snow shoes were at the camp. GRRRR There were recent deer track, but they had to plow through the snow. I went out on stand, but called it quits this a.m.. I was concerned about leaving my vehicle out on the main road (there is a wide plowed area for parking), but the snow was still coming down, and if I shot something....how the hell am I getting it out through 3 feet of light fluffy snow? I was lucky enough to get a deer up there during ML season, so I am ok with that. I am always happy to see the small game hunters. I used to be one of them, and hope to do more again. They may just move a deer around for me. It used to be that there was no sunday deer hunting to allow the small game hunters a chance, but there are darn few out anymore.

Hunting is my ...mental therapy. I dont think about anything except being out in the woods, what the critters, weather, whatever are doing....It is about the only time I can really clear my mind. I particularly love hunting the slop. I tend to shoot more deer during fronts, or when it is really nasty...short of a gail. I love being out in the force of nature....but then love even more getting back to the nice warm cabin to enjoy ..not being out in it! I sure as hell though am not very happy about the storm just hitting up north, where I want to be come sunday night after I get out of work!

I remember wearing two pairs of jeans over cotton Kmart long underwear, two pairs of socks in Kmart rubber boots...with bread bags over my socks to help me slide my feet in and keep dry...Wearing dads thoroughly worn out wool coat and Filson style hat....a bandolier of slugs (always lost half of them by the end of the day).

Remember the days of seemingly bumper to bumper traffic , cars and trucks filled with orange clad hunters on 81 and the thruway? Opening morning, I didnt see any, and darn few vehicles in all the old road side parking places. When either northern tier or southern tier opening day came around, those were the days by far most hunters got out. Now, i know few hunters who arent multi season hunters...Bow, ML, regular season....Bow season for most now means crossbow, ML is modern inline. Effectively, people start hunting in september. I was very surprised last week end to go through a DEC traffic stop in the north country, southern Jefferson county. First game stop I had seen in probably 30 years. I was glad to see them, but at the same time I wanted to know why they didnt have it a month earlier, when the camps were way more full. Darn few hunters out at that time (last week end).

BS. When they catch poachers red handed on feeders at night with multiple deer shot from a car, they get a slap on the hand. Myself, I believe game law penalties are woefully ineffective....when you read about the "cuffs and collars", most are repeat offenders.

I am a total hot dog snob....Hoffmans or nothing! I ate way too many weiners as a kid.... That said....the only venison hot dogs I ever had that were worth comparing to a Hoffmans were from Costanzas in Webster NY. But all thier sausage products are a huge step up from the normal venison butcher sausage.

I have used both Williams and Lyman apertures quite a bit and love them ( I sometimes forget without looking which rifles I have wear which...I have used them on Mausers, 94s, Krags, and on my Lyman Great Plains caplock, which I shoot in league with. If you arent used to open sights, they take getting used to, but much greater accuracy potential than with just open buck horns....Hey, Just ask Quigley!

94s were top eject until their last run, when angle eject came out..that is, under the long time ownership before they went bellyup in the nineties. Before then, you could use an off set scope mount, but they were alwasy very clumsy. I had never heard of the AR...is that the angle eject? My own thoughts...I dearly love my 94s (I have owned four), but to me ...a scope kills its easy natural handling. I have a Williams aperture on mine, and it is amazing the improvement in accuracy. They used to be all pre drilled for them.

For a lot of folks, hunting is all about the toys they can buy. I enjoy one game camera in a popular area, just to know what is in the area, as well as the other wild life that is around. I know some guys who use them so ...scientifically, they will not hunt at all unless critters are showing at those times. Thus, some years they almost dont hunt at all...instead of just putting on the boots and ....Hunting!

I have shot quite a few with neck shots...but only when I can place it from behind at the base of the skull/neck, from a rest, when a good broad side shot was not available. Not much margin of error.. No meat wasted, drops them in their tracks. BUT>>>>Given preferences, give me a broad side boilermaker shot every time. Larger margin of error with quite a large kill area. I am not proud....I have goofed "gimme" shots trying for the fancy shot. Go for the sure thing, every time.