Daveboone

spicey food or too much steak eaten too late.

First you start with what you want to hunt, then you go to how you hunt it. Birds: Flusher or pointer? retriever? one that will do both? what sort of endurance/ maintenance? Size? Type of coat? Rabbits ? How closely do you hunt/ snowshoes or cottontails? what kind of brush? Down south they use dogs for squirrels... Sight hunters, scent hunters? Coyotes, wolves, cats, coons, possoms…. Is the dog going to also or primarily be a family pet? Will you be training or having it trained? So far we are just touching the surface of the questions to be considered. A crap load of great hunting breeds have been ruined by the AKC breeding for "conformity" and not what the dogs were originally intended for...looks instead of ability. You are asking the same type of question as if you were to ask what the best gun/ rifle is.

Down in Georgia (and I am sure many other southern states) small hunting clubs are quite common...a loose knit group of guys will lease paper company land. The one I was on was about 500 acres, 12 members. It was about two hundred a year apiece. No permanent structures but trailers were allowed. I have known a number of similar small clubs in NY working the same way, but do not know of any off hand currently myself. I know property lease expense has climbed a lot due to demand. There are a few permanent land owning hunting clubs...Up on the Tug Hill the Mad River Hunt Club (I think that is the name) is quite large, owns and leases land both north and south. They have a website you can google. Several times at the Syracuse sportsmans show I have seen paper companies promote their land they have for lease....a way to start a club, anyway. The more members, the cheaper. Most leasing landowners require insurance coverage.

PS: Not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but it is difficult to buy too much snowblower, but easy to buy too little. Wet heavy snow makes or breaks em, and you never know when we will get a true blizzard and it will get a real work out. Our current one is a bit small for what we are doing....whereas our 12 horse would eat through whatever he had, our present one we have to be sure to plow before it accumulates too much.

Ariens owns the snowblower show...that is what they originally made, and are the standard. The first one I had was over 20 years old, still ran, but was in rough shape. I was given the next couple (off brand) which were allright, but when I went to buy a new one I went online for the reviews. Husqvarna tools I have always loved, but their snow blowers were rated quite low (from multiple sources, stores, amazon shoppers, etc). ARiens consistently had very high satisfaction. I agree, pay a few bucks more from a dealer. They will service it and take care of any problems you have.

I guess in my honest opinion, based on the information they give, it gives pretty realistic expectations. That region is a very high yield trophy buck area, with most of the land held for hunting leases for a reason. I didn't bother to look at the pics, because of course they will be awesome. With any paid hunt, references are everything. Call them, and get references for both successful and unsuccessful hunters. Call a lot of them! I have never been on a paid white tail hunt...never saw the need, the closest I came was buying an inexpensive year membership in a Georgia hunting club to join a friend there for a couple weeks. Five deer limit, max. two bucks at the time. I had a great time, got three...two does. one eight point. I would do it again only to visit with my friend. You can find paid hunts for white tail in Canada for around two grand for a week...one I know of regularly gets awesome big woods bucks. (sorry, I don't pay attention to scorekeeping/ either sports or deer), are great hosts. My biggest priority when I am hunting is the experience and my company I keep. Make that a priority for hunting, and you will allways be satisfied.

Nothing I love more than a day small game hunting! Unfortunately around here, good rabbit country is tough to find. I used to monkey around with pheasants, but no longer have my setter. Maybe again, one day. That does leave squirrels though, which are allways fun!

I had been wanting to get my trapper certification for a long time, more for something new to learn than intending to start, for lack of time. Trapper courses are very difficult to find. Go to the NYS DEC website, and they have a listing of hunter safety / trapper safety, etc. classes. First one you find, call. We drove three hours to get ours. They are few, far between and fill up very quickly, but well worth the time.

Not so much learned as reinforced... 1)Hunt the wind! 2) No such thing as getting to the stand too early, be in morning or afternoon hunt

Over all, not bad. It started early in September with a trip to Newfoundland moose hunting. All 3 of us bagged one, but I had a hell of a time getting around...plantar fasciitis (sic?) made my feet miserable....like walking on glass all day. I passed early on a small bull, but that meant all week to hobble around through awesome country, walking in horse shoe pitching distance of caribou, passed on a bodacious bear (I have enough at home) and on the last day shot a big fat cow. Back home, early on things were quiet, but we had early snow that stuck around from early November. After that deer sightings around the camp were frequent, taking a nice doe in early November and a darn nice buck the w/e of the 24th. The freezer is full, I was out as much as I wanted to, and never got bored. Good enough.

It will come loose...Like Biggamefish said, soak it a bit, then boil it...(Outside if you live with any other humans). If you pressure washer it, don't spray in the nose/ up from the sinuses....you will blow all the delicate little bones out. If you soak it long enough. most everything will come off. I have had pretty good luck with just an air hose...again, careful with the pressure on the sinus / nose area.

All too often the local courts /judge, know the perpetrator, thus a stupid small fine. Up in Canada, violators can lose all equipment....including dogs, vehicles and firearms used in the crime. I think the fines are antiquated, and have no teeth. It doesn't help that we do not have a dedicated game department for enforcement....our DEC is totally overwhelmed with way too much enforcement activity. I am sure if we had a separate game commission like some states (Maine, for one) enforcement could be greatly improved.

I am mixed about encouraging beers (oops, bears) to frequent the area. I love bears and bear hunting, and would like to have the occ. sighting, but a lot of the time bears and camps don't mix. A friend of mine (now passed), was highly knowledgeable on bears, was a veterinarian and hunted them twice yearly, learned everything he could on them. I took his knowledge as gospel. He stated bears were unable to live anywhere there weren't blueberries.... that may have been a bit absolute, but where you find them is dependent on a wild berry crop and mast more than anything else. My guess is if you don't have appropriate bear sustaining habitat, you wouldn't keep the bears.

I read a couple different hunters biographies from the 1800s that referred to hunting elk in south western NY...sorry, cant remember the names. I went to a couple of ROcky Mountain Elk Foundation dinners, (almost twenty years ago, probably) and at that time the speakers were pretty realistic in reporting that elk were never numerous in NY and there were very few areas that would be practical for them. I liked that they were that honest. I guess I am fine with the thought that there are better places for them.

Wow, he is awesome. Unfortunately if we were lucky enough to have the same scenario, the camp rule is any in the yard are safe, and considered guests. Silly, maybe dumb, but....oh well....

I was lucky enough to have the time off at the right time...with changing weather patterns, wind was right, and most importantly....SNOW! I saw more deer this year than in a fair number of years, and I am pretty sure it is because I more so than usual went out of my way to be sure my stands were fully down wind from the area I hunted (I get a lot of swirling winds), and was out in the woods earlier and when the weather was crappy ( I have always had more luck hunting the slop). My biggest weakness is that I just love being in the woods regardless of if I am seeing anything, but by later in the season am getting lazy. I certainly think hunting the productive times (weather changes, conditions) you can optimize your luck, but then you can never account for ...luck. Sometimes the darn deer just do what they want to do.

Great pieces! It is amazing how many families nowadays have no appreciation for the simple but important items from their families history, like your hooks. I have a simple claw hammer which was my great grandfathers....(I am actually lucky enough to have quite a few family items/ tools, etc). I fondly remember the day when I was small, and was helping dad with some project...he bent a nail, grumbled with a smile, and said "Ya know, considering how old this hammer is, you would think it would have learned how to pound a nail strait by now". He then mentioned that it was his grandfathers. My wife grabbed it to do something out in the garden with it, and she couldn't understand the big deal when I found it lying on the ground later.

We already have an early in the NT, but I don't think I would want one in the southern tier. Ample opportunity already, and wouldn't you rather hunt in the later muzzleloading season anyway?

Wonderful looking doggie, but he really doesn't look to happy to be there....Might not like your dog chow. Send him my way..... Is he painted, or do you flame him (is that the term...use a torch for the coloring?)

All the damn hairball hunting shows that try to keep score while selling all their doo dads make a joke of hunting. Why worry about who is best? Who gets the biggest? Are you out there just to show that "yours is bigger?" Thousands of dollars are paid by those who think it is important, to buy show off racks...either from canned hunts or already mounted to maintain their image and show how they excel. BS. I know plenty of darn good hunters, and a lot of very lucky hunters, and very hard working hunters. None have anything to do with how much they enjoy hunting. I had the privilege of sharing a camp with a heck of a nice guy once, who you could say was a professional hunter. Very well known writer. No dang way do we go into who that was. It did not seem like he was enjoying his hunt at all. Too much pressure to perform. If you are looking at the professional entertainers who have hunting shows, throw that "best hunter" idea right out the window. Although there are a couple who I respect, most filmed hunts are done in high yield areas because they need to show results. Going to a prepared stand site on a paid hunt doesn't make anyone a good hunter. Now, I have had a guide or two who I would call best level hunters....knowledgeable, respectful, full of love of the game and their part of the world, and they would never go hungry. They had skills no one I have ever met had.

sigh. This is not rocket science. MANY hunters take full legal advantage of the system. Acquaintances….people who I know, but do not hang out with, does not mean I hang out with them. I have been deer hunting / involved in the outdoors for almost 50 years, one way or another, and am involved with hundreds of people, many landowners and sportsmen of many generation. The more you know, well...the more you know. As I made clear, I feel one is plenty per hunter. It was the law for many years. Our sportsmans laws are changed largely at the interest of the hunters themselves. I am very surprised that there hasn't been more interest in this (one deer limit) but on several different forums / topics, it was resoundingly shot down. It is actually an interesting topic for a new topic? Have at it.

At that time, regular season buck, muzzle loader, archery. For a few years in some units, deer management tags were either or. It has been a bunch of years since. No need, no want, and selfish. I no longer archery hunt, and don't have access to the land (changed owners several times since). Finger lakes area. Generally, one big deer is more than enough for us now. Occ. like this year, I will take a 2nd.

step one...make sure its dead. A buddy got real close and personal with a doe that he thought was dead, when he touched his knife to the peri anal area.... Scoot around the anus first with the knife, as deep as I can go, than tie it off (if I remembered the string/zip tie). Then I stand on the lower back legs to hold them open while I slice through the skin/ abdominal barrier from the crotch to the sternum. No reason to split the sternum, it just opens it to contamination., same as with splitting the pelvis. Reach up and cut through the diaphragm fully around, then reach as far up as you can to grap the trachea/ cardiac arteries and valves, wind pipe, and severe them. The winds will pull right out. (SAVE THE HEART). hold the guts to one side, then the other as you severe the connective tissues, roll em out. the rectum will pull through if you loosened it deep enough, and I pinch off the bladder and cut it loose, tossing it aside. if it leakes a bit, not a big deal. all the blood, etc. will help flush the area. Tip the carcass, spread the back legs and let drain. Hopefully there is snow to then pack in the cavity, and scrub out nice and clean, or rinse with water. I have seen guides field dress without opening the carcass....they cut off the quarters, hair and all, then split the hide down the back to get the straps. Do the same on the front of the chest for the brisket, , and take a hand ax to split the spine to get the tenderloin out. Took about the same amount of time but you didn't have to deal with the guts. There is a lot of leeway on the routine...the critter is dead and doesn't mind, but it is a good idea to allways rinse the cavity when done and hang asap to get the cooling started. The more dirt and crap you get on the cavity/ meat, the more the quality of the meat is affected.

Looks like a small bear to me.

I own ten surrounded by hundreds of acres of state/ county. What do I hunt ? it is kind of a misleading question...I probably only actively hunt about an acre of it....but I have done a lot of woods management on the surrounding areas, and the surrounding state land is involved in the deer patterns. The deer move to and from my next door neighbors land which affects how and where I hunt. Depending on wind direction, I may not be on my land, but off on the public lands. Rule number one of deer hunting....hunt the wind.