Five Seasons

I know, I honestly don't think he's bad. And so far his approach is legal, I just struggle with killing what you're not going to eat. Yeah this is the obvious problem haha. That said, he doesn't own the land and people get divorced. Regardless, this land isn't mine either so someday my parents wont be there either. the drama has really hurt the last couple years for me. Most of you know I like to hunt to escape reality. Getting a nice buck is just the bonus. This has caused somewhat peaceful sits to turn into the opposite. You're right that I think he's just a killer, but I will add that he's been doing things legally, but is approaching not. I have new land to hunt, but it comes with its own set of issues. Working to secure it over the next few years.

My dad has leased on and off, gifted Costanza's, wine etc and had permission to hunt his bordering neighbors 30 acres for the 35+ years where he's lived (gives us about 50 total). The guy doesn't hunt and doesn't really care about deer. They've partnered several times to log and my dad has even let him grab tops off his part of the property. The relationship is a good one. About 4 years ago, his youngest daughter marries a newer/novice hunter in his early to mid 30's. This isn't great news for us, but he's pretty harmless at first. Every year his effort and time in the wood grows. The neighbor and my dad maintain the same relationship, but it's mostly me communicating with the son in law so that we're not bumping into each other on the weekends and my retired dad hunts the weekdays. In 4 years he shoots a bb, a doe fawn and wounds a doe that I put down. This year he has a good day during bow where he shoots a nice doe, and while he's waiting to get down a small yearling 5 comes in and he drops him too. Good for him, I congratulate him and even offer to help him butcher as he needs some pointers on the process. He takes me up on it and I give up 5 hours on a Monday night (during the bills chiefs game lol) and he comes to my place where I help and even provide the vac bags. We do both deer sans grinding. He learns a bunch, thanks me but isn't overly grateful imo. Fast forward to opening day of gun where he texts me a pic of a decent buck he shoots on another property. I congratulate him and ask what he's doing with all the meat, as he mentioned he had leftover meat from last year when we butchered the first 2 deer and his wife doesn't eat it and they have no kids. He tells me he's donating it to a friend. Ok, I know a lot of people do this. Not my style, not my thing but it's legal and to each his own. Last week he tells me he's hunting. What? You already have 3 deer. Yeah I have more friends that need meat he says. Mind you this is about 45 acres of heavily pressured area. Tells me he really just likes hunting and the meat part isn't a big deal. So long story short he moved a cell cam he has and caught me last night. We chatted back and forth after me telling him how i haven't seen a deer back there in forever and he proceeds to tell me he's gonna try more for another. At this point, given the relationship I've been bighting my tongue but finally give in and state that i'm surprised he's still hunting with 3 deer in the freezer and just him that eats it. He tells me he wants to give more away and that one friend offered to pay him $100 for one which he's excited about as he can put that towards a muzzleloader. I pretty nicely express my concerns regarding the finite resource of deer and then nicely add that it's illegal to sell or trade wildgame in NY. He says that it's the same as his friend paying to process the deer but he's processing it himself. I explain that he is incorrect and that it's illegal to sell or trade so much as a bluegill. His last response is that well, we walk into the woods in the dark and that's illegal. Which I reply that it's only illegal to pull the trigger and then again a plea to just be conscious of the resource and how things have changed back there. That I'm not against his reasons for hunting, as they are his own but more or less... QDMA bro. Since then silence. One final point is he's made a lot of comments about other peoples tags which i always shoot down but come across as him testing my level of care on the legality of it. but anyhow... guys just hunting to donate and make money. Not cool right? Or mind my own business?

Sat for a little over 2 hours last night. Thinking a drizzly day and midweek might change my slump, and alas even the squirrel sightings are down. I haven sat probably 7 times since opening day morning and havent seen a deer since. This is the longest void I can remember in 20+ years of whitetail hunting. Is it 10/1 yet?

I mean that a life is a life. A nice doe will net 40+lb. and as you stated a fawn ~20lb. So you'd need to shoot 2 fawns for every large doe. I can't control mother nature and what happens to fawns from cars, predators etc. but I can control when I pull the trigger. Reminding you all that I am a hunter, I'm not an anti here preaching about the life of a deer, and the time I did kill a fawn was the last hour of the last day of a bow hunt in NY after visiting from the south and yes the meat was needed and enjoyed. I think generally speaking most hunters will have opportunities other than just fawns if they put a little effort in, that's all.

Gobbling was down in my neck of the woods too. Pretty sure @cynthiafu is personally responsible for the uptick. Bird killing machine she is.

This site has a passion for "if it's legal"... There is also nothing wrong with disagreeing with others another's choice so long as you're not shaming. You want to shoot a bb? Sure, it's legal and I wont shame you for it. But if asked if I support people shooting bb's I can also state my opinion is to let small bucks walk. And that opinion shouldn't be met with "as long as it's legal, mind your business". There is nothing wrong with discussing opinions as long as we're civil. Shit, half the mess this country is in is because we can't have a discussion on something if we're coming at it from opposing sides. Conversations are helpful.

they kick them out and then they generally come back together after mom has her "fill" haha.

I don't know if it's crazy, but to take a life for such little meat is an interesting choice. I've done it once and I regret it after the meat yielded was just so small that it wasn't worth it. I try not to take a mom with fawns either, but I have and will if I need the meat. At least the fawns are likely to do ok and with the mom I get a bunch of meat.

I believe the lightfield sabots require a rifled barrel. Totally going off memory, their website is still up I think.

From 8F to 7J it's all been the same story. Those that I know who've gotten deer have been right place right time. I've punched some tags but in general my sightings are way, way down. The weather has really been poor. I wonder how much some of the ancillary effects of covid are affecting movement. More people home, less driving, maybe more hunters? How has covid affected crop harvest? i don't know...

my understanding is that they discontinued making them. They're all I shot for years and always felt they were worth the price. I switched to the Hornady slugs. They're lighter (I think like ~200 vs the heavy ass ~500 lightfields?) but I got better patterns out at 100 and feel with the polymer tip they're probably good out to 150. All that said, every deer I've ever killed with my slug gun is sub 100 and I'd prefer the weight of the lightfields.

you're leaving out the fact that you don't do it anymore and we both know why.

decided that instead of watching football on the couch, I'd take my Sunday ticket to a blind on the farm I can hunt. Didn't see a thing but human tracks. Of all 3 properties I hunt, they're all so freaking pressured that I haven't seen a deer in like 5 sits. Have I mentioned how much I hate gun season?

first thing that caught my attention too hahahahha

Jesus, now I guess we can’t give you moderator delinquency shit haha Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another quiet morning in the gun woods, and about 15 degrees cooler Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Somethings up with the turkey dynamic back here. I’ve seen this limping hen by herself a few times and figured she got in a fight with some other hen for being a slut or something, but today I just saw a lone jake sneaking through. I’ve seen a lot of turkeys in the fall but never solos like this year. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There isn’t much better during gun than the neighbor drive party Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Only 1 shot this morning in 8F. Nothing for miles and no sense there’ll be movement. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

same. the modern mz is basically a single shot rifle that's hard to clean.

Compounds have been around since the 1960's in the hunting world. That's 60 plus years. Crossbows, while much older in heritage have only recently been part of hunting culture. Everything has an acceptable line. For me there is a much bigger leap from compound to crossbow then there is from recurve to compound. Generally speaking the mechanics are all the same. I've never hidden behind a vail disguising how I feel or why I feel that way. If you want to categorize that as elitisim, then so be it.

I don't own 1000 acres, I hunt a bunch of 30 and 60 acre parcels which are very much affected by the actions of my neighbors, some of which aren't even legal today. You didn't answer my question either.

the "as long as it's legal" comment is the argument we're having. How would you feel if they opened up rifle for the week of 10/10-10/17? Hey it's legal so who cares if the extra foot traffic and noise all but eliminates the nice calm peaceful bow hunt and pattern ability. the reason some people care is because they like the sanctity, reward and challenge that comes with being an archer. Trample too much on the season by introducing muzzle loaders, youth weekends, crossbows etc and it's not special anymore. It's like moving Christmas to July. It's still Christmas... and yet somehow it isn't the Christmas we know and love.

a bit of a bust with regards to seeing anything last night. But my first sit in 9 days and it felt good to get out. Of the 3 properties I can hunt, we're seeing very little daylight movement on cams and even nocturnal movement is minimal. A lot of the big guys have gone MIA as well which means they're really hiding or they're dead. Man I hate gun season.

I think you and I are agreeing and disagreeing haha. I too believe that the boastful hunter has something to hide. But I would say that an ethical hunter doesn't actually have to be a good hunter at all. A hunters skill and his ethics are mutually exclusive.