Lawdwaz

Remember when loading; bullet, powder then primer.

Shot a nice doe this morning around 8:45……..she dressed out at 125# I don’t like to post lousy pictures like this. I MUCH prefer a field photo before gutting but my phone was out of juice.

Yea, that dreaded .243 strikes again. Lol

(Aren’t horrible!!)

Winds are horrible and no rain presently in 8H. Saw one big bodied deer while walking in. Opps, here comes the rain!!

IIRC we have a member here who is a well traveled hunter of canine and feline species. Hopefully he can find time in his hectic schedule to opine.

That one is a fox fo sho….

Lucky you?!?!?!

To me it's interesting. I found this in a quick search from the DEC: "62.6 percent --- portion of the adult buck harvest that was 2.5 years or older, the greatest in New York history and up from 40 percent a decade ago, and 30 percent in the 1990s." So I'd guess by year "age", that the 1.5 YO buck is the majority of what is killed here. As the deer get older, the 2.5 is the next age class to be killed and so on. It stands to reason that the 4.5, 5.5, 6.5 etc are more scarce as the get older. When you kill a bigger bodied and possibly bigger racked buck, it's just neat to see approx. how old he is.

Chicken

Great program!!

How many acres do you own?

If you think he’s legit, go for it.

Zero to hero in mere seconds. Thumbs UP!!

Sorry you’re confused. Thanks for your input to this point. Merry Christmas

Ya beat me to it!

Thanks for that tidbit but I don't know where else you've hunted but this is the first year NYS has given us the 30 before/30 after. I hunted Pennsylvania for lots of years and never gave it much thought as they had the 30 before/30 after and didn't sweat it with my 2.5x8x36 Leupolds.

Understood. The Tract is interesting......and gets great reviews. https://tractoptics.com/all-products/toric-uhd-2-10x42-t-plex-rifle-scope

"HAD"..........?!?!

Well damn it all.

30mm tube adds nothing to light gathering from what I’ve found.

With the addition of the extra 30 minutes at the start and end of each day and the fact that one of the places I hunt has some big fields that the deer will pile out into at dusk I'm thinking on changing out a scope on my primary rifle. A couple evening sits had me on a field edge right up to quitting time and the old Leupold VariX III 2.5x8x36mm is lacking a bit. Yea, if there was snow or a moon lit night it'd be sufficient but it hasn't been either of those conditions for me. A couple friends swear by the 50mm Leupold scopes (older models by 10+ years) but I've been looking at a couple others of late via the web; the Tract Toric UHD 2-10x42 and Leupold VX-5HD 2-10x42. I may not do anything but was just curious on thoughts on light gathering and if I need to just go to a 50mm objective or these more "Modern" scopes with 42mm objectives will give me an optical advantage over the 36mm 2.5x8? Personally I don't like the aesthetics of a 50mm objective especially with a 30mm tube but whatever, I'd consider slumming one.....(TG is going to have a coronary) So, anyone have experience with either scope above or just chime in on your light gathering thoughts. Muchas Gracias

You have to speak his language……BEER.

We’ll done!!!!!

Lots of time left. The big question is; how much gas you got in the tank?!?!? Enthusiasm start to really fall off as it gets closer to the holidays and the cold weather hits. You’re down Amal without Hank in the saddle……you’ll need to step it up a couple notches.