Daveboone

Not quite sure what qualifies as an old guy, but closing on 40 hunting seasons count? My advice if you want to be a "real" hunter... Be out there year round, know what the dear are eating, and where they are bedding. Shoot your firearm...a lot (not in one sitting)-know your gun. Have patience to be out all day, regardless of weather, but still know that it is the first few and last few minutes of shooting day that are most important. Be out there, every minute you can! I have shot them two minutes into the season (which sucks!) and at last light the last day of the season many times (which is perfect). A traditional hunter is out there for meat- the bones can boil all day, and you still cant eat em. Don't get deceived by the TV and magazine mutant monster deer. Understand a trophy is in the respect the animal gets from you, not the oohs and ahhs from the crowd. Hunt the wind. Always. Be still. If hunting, hunt. Give it your 100%. And I do use a game camera, but it is more for my own entertainment. Every year I see mature bucks roaming rut time that I never saw previously, and I never seem to see the average to middlin bucks that I do get on my camera.

Google earth shows my land pretty darn good.

The scent was a big concern when we started using them too, but in enclosed ground blinds, hunting with the wind, they worked. Rule #1 of scent control....watch the wind.

I have used one religiously the past four years bear hunting in Canada (spring). I used to use a head net, leather gloves, heavy canvas coverall, and tape all the seams shut, with fair success. I was given my first Thermocell by another hunter. I reluctantly tried it in a ground blind. I was amazed. Within five minutes of lighting it, all bugs had left the blind (mosquitos, black flies). I was able to hunt in a T shirt after that. I still bring all my battle gear for back up, but they absolutely work, and haven't seemed to affect the bears at all.

Sure. Nice pile of venison. Boil the rack all day and you still cant eat it.

For over 20 years, my Ruger ultra light .308 bolt with 1.5x5 Leopold. I added a competition firing pin and spring and Timney trigger, glass bedded. Strictly my own Speer 165 gr. Spitzers. I am hoping to have back from the gunsmiths with time to final tune and sight the rifle Dad always carried, and I shot my first buck with, an Oberndorf 8x57 Mauser. It is being drilled and tapped, and will wear the same scope as my Ruger. Another Timney and firing pin/spring will be added. Also my own reloads- 175 grain Sierra spritzers.

AS someone else mentioned, don't neglect basic obedience! It goes hand in hand with the field training. Find a local obedience class and start there (or along side) for the field. I raised pheasants for my Llewellyn Setter. Even as a pup, she had no problem. I found them easy to handle, and even as a 6 mo. old, she had no problems. As an added bonus, up in your neck of the woods, a number of the WMAs stock pheasants. Get her out in the field a lot and early, to get used to all the new signs and smells. Make sure each training session/ outing is FUN for her and you both, and nevernevernever get angry with her. Any dog problem boils down to a people problem. I am trying to remember the name of the book I got the most out of...I believe it was Delbert Smiths. The Gundog series of books is also very helpful.

Hell, go to the ADKs anyway. I agree there is no such thing as spot and stalke in the NE, and in NY almost all bears are incidental to deer hunting, but there is nothing like big woods hunting.

My books don't list it. I would go to the manufacturers website and find a techie # to call. They should be able to help you out.

Per my manual, I load 55 gr. of 3031 for a 350 grain hornady RN. This is a load only for modern single shots. The Speer manual lists three diff. tables, one for traditional (older) weapons, one for modern lever, and a separate table for Ruger #1 and Browning single shots, due to their heavier actions. I have only used mine for bear so far (4/4, single shots). I always intend to use it for deer hunting, but the darn thing is so long it is a bit clumsy.

My Rottie is a constant companion when I am in the woods. She stays close, and is very active with her nose. She has found and flushed quite a few grouse and woodcock for me. I highly doubt I can train her to point, but she works fantastic as a flusher. I do at least as well with her as I did with my English Setter, who tended to range much further out in the woods. I actually enjoy jthe time with the Rott more. I am very casual in my grouse hunting, as is the dog. We have a fun afternoon in the field. Actually quite a few Rotties have been used for hunting. Go ahead, have fun with her.

I bought a used 1.5x 5 VX3 several years ago. As it was going on a heavy recoiling rifle, I called Leupold and asked if they could inspect it before I mounted it. They told me to ship it to them and they would take it apart, clean, inspect and return to factory new specs, and return it to me free of charge, within a week! Amazing..

I have served it prepared pot roast style to 3 different sets of guests this summer, all knowing it was bear. All agreed it was hard to distinguish from beef. A friends family gets bear yearly, and they prefer it to venison.

Saranac makes world class stuff, reasonably priced, but I can do without the "fruity" types. Black and Tan is my favorite, but tough to find. Old reliable Guiness is my go to beer, with the advantage of being amazingly low in alcohol which lets me have a couple extra. I am in to beer for the love of beer, not an alcohol buzz.

Wisdom dictates not handling any firearm at any time after having a few...little need to actually justify the reasoning.

I would inquire with your pistol permit office. They let me do a transfer from a friend to me directly through them without a FFL. It maintains its registration through the process. (I actually did it twice).

Plenty of thermocell refills. I usually slide a new pad in about 1/2 way through the shift. A big mouthed pee bottle will be handy!

Whatever gear you choose, try it all out before the trip...preferably on another overnight. Even the "best" gear can end up useless if it isn't seriously tested to purpose ahead of time. You may want to try some of the larger and little used game management areas the state offers. We used to overnight in Happy Valley for a w/e of hunting, which was easily done from the car.

And I agree totally that the perpetrator has gotten way too much media attention...which the terrorists hope for. Somewhere out there is some poor twisted young mind looking at his new terrorist "idol", and wondering how he can join him in martyrdom, just as my kid used to watch Ken Griffey and hope to swing and hit like him.

And here is the funny part...I don't feel the recoil is all that bad out of the .300. Shooting 180 grainers out of a Ruger 77, my handloads...off the top of my head I cant quote the exact load, but it is in the upper 25% of capability. The 45-70...I load a 350 Hornady at about 2100 fps out of a telephone pole of a Browning single shot. The 350 is lighter than what most like, but it works dang fine. What I like about it as opposed to the .300 is that it has sure fire penetration with very little collateral damage...much like what I like about the round ball out of a muzzleloader. For me, it is a specialized close range (75 yards or less, usually) bear banger. And lets face it...it has a hell of a lot more personality than the other.

Again every other major paper, magazine and website has used this guy to sell themselves (yes, news is a business), and Rollng Stone cant? And the magazine- just as Time also reports on music, as well as politics, etc., reports on much more than just music. I "get it"...but many out there despite what they think, don't see their own manipulation. Adolf Hitler Charles Manson and Saddam Hussien (sic?) all shared Times cover... Interesting that no one here has read the article. Again, I have no interest in it myself, so I don't buy it. Even more interesting is the labeling of the magazine as "low quality" while never having read it. Sad, and that...is a shame. And I apologize for that statement, because I would think a discussion about current events can be about that, without slamming the individuals opinion.

Jack O'connors Big Game hunts is one of my favorite reads, with stories of his trips throughout the world, but one of my all time favorite books is "Horn of the Hunter", by Robert Ruark. He writes of his first safari, and you feel like you are there with him, and he is splendid company. Elmer Keiths "Hell, I Was There" is his biography, from infancy in Montana at the turn of the century (18th to 19th), growing up cowboying, hunting and shooting, guiding, and his adventures hunting around the world. Great stuff.

I don't get the hoopla. The kids face has been on every newspaper and major magazine for months, the picture used is a stock picture widely printed, the cover printed story statement certainly isn't glorifying. Myself, I have bought the magazine a number of times in recent months, and find it still to be an excellent source of info on music and politics, while not bowing to political correctness. I regularly see it on newsstands, and ALL magazine are suffering from declining sales (especially hunting fishing oriented). Myself, I wont buy this months for lack of interest in the primary articles. What I do find disturbing is that magazines such as "Mother Jones", that used to be far more politically controversial, now are more mainstream than the evening news.

I bought a 300 win mag about 10 years ago, being assured it was necessary for bear hunting. My first year bear hunting I shot , horribly mangled and killed...though not immediately, a small bear. a six inch chunk of three joined ribs and a lung were left on the ground where it was hit. The bear was about 170 lbs, about the same weight as a fair NY deer. It was the last thing I shot with it. I stick with my 45-70 for tree stand hunting and bears (four one shot kills, dropped on the spot without unnecessary carnage) or my .308. Far lighter than any .300, more than enough range for anyshot offered in NY, available in a short action, much more inexpensive ammo. There are folks who preach never too much gun....there sure as hell is.

This is Daisy, my 18 mon. old Rottie and almost constant companion, looking much more serious than she usually is.