dbHunterNY

i think it's still fine with one exception. everyone has the biggest bucks in the area of otherwise at their finger tips. it's hard to swallow when your season's slow and you're trying to grasp your own standards are from season to season. confirmable news of a particular buck kill can spread very fast now. there's been seasons where practically all the deer i know of and are after have hit the dirt and my drive is a bit less. shouldn't be that way but it is. i feel the mystery is what could be out there is gone at times.

so i picked up some arrows a while back that i think will fly a little better out of my primary hunting bow. managed to sight it in last night so that's good. work and house stuff keeping me busy but i'm thinking it's time to bowhunt or bust. hopefully i can make it happen where i can get out some.

i've figured that out moving back to eastern NY. it's all good and relative.

the largest framed doe i've shot was a horse of a thing that ended up being over 8.5 yrs old. didn't send in teeth of what little she had left. she only weighed 95 lbs. doe seem to peak in weight just like bucks at around 6.5 yrs old from the data we've gotten so far.

my uncle did that same thing in some thick stuff and it turned out to be a 120 class 10 pointer. some dumb luck there.

Weight has seemed to vary a lot. Mature skeletal framed 4.5+ yr old doe seem to vary in weight from 120lbs-150lbs for a lot of them. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

on the co-op we get around 100 doe every year in WMU 4C. the biggest doe are in the 150's and 160's for dressed weight. haven't gotten any heavier yet in the handful of years we've been checking all the deer in. i'd believe she's around 160lb dressed weight.

i try to use terrain and not go in fields. couple years ago i think now i had to use a field. had a crap headlamp on. saw eyes. kept on them with light. eyes got curious and a lot closer. coming from darkness ended up being a target buck that got waaayyyy too close for my liking. thought it was going to come at me rack down. bounded off a ways. i kept the light toward him until i got over the crest of the field and then entered woods down into my stand. late morning he came through by the stand just out of range.

Water and trail mix, jerky, or Cliff bars repackaged in ziplok snack bags for silence. take a leak from the stand. don't even get down. all turns to ammonia anyway and there's enough of it around from the deer. no #2 until i'm at least back to the truck.

we have one. it's like a toaster oven but better.

the amount of meals that's provided is amazing. as a successful hunter year after year it's hard to rap your head around people going hungry. yet here we are.

closest processor around are area is over an hour west of me. our group was pretty down that there wasn't more processors near us. nobody's donating or getting deer out this way if there's nobody to bring it to. still we donated and tabled a matching amount to somehow get to local food closets here. it's a crazy idea hitting so many hurdles for the associated work we do. seems like it's more of a suck hole for efforts the closer you get to the capitol. still this is a good program not to lose. it'd take a lot to get something up and running if this had to be resurrected from the ashes.

Bob i just noticed that once you go to the page theirs a prompt with a challenge from your branch. good to see your goal is almost met.

it's a Dominican sweet pepper that's not any more heat than a very week jalapeno. i just gave away some fully mature red jalapenos that would blow them out of the water for heat and they're still jalapenos.

i'd take it to the local state police barracks. they have ranges and dispose of that stuff on a a regular basis. for our local range if we get a dud that doesn't go off during any course of fire we toss it in container full of water with sand at the bottom.

i'll watch a lot of different sports. have gone to games for sports of all kinds traditional to motorsports. i don't watch anything religiously though, accept for my kids sports. i'm with some others i'd rather go out and do it. i have co-workers where that's all they do on the weekend and know every stat there is. not for me. i don't even watch hunting shows of any kind anymore.

if your processor you use isn't on the list, ask them to get involved. their bare costs are covered, just a phone call and someone from VDC comes to pick it up. processors are always needed. i know of one that did it and would still be doing it if he didn't stop processing deer. couldn't keep up with demand for hundreds of deer coming in, yet only would be asked to do a handful for donation. http://venisondonation.com/find-a-processor/

can't wait... from what you said you'll come back broke if you're shopping for RV's and if you aren't you will be after owning one. lol

continued effort to lighten the big chest freezer before the move. tonight is venison chilli with peppers, onions, etc from the garden. pictures later if i remember.

3 pellets was always pretty dirty and felt like you didn't get an efficient burn. i ended up picking up 30gr 777 pellets to combine with the 50gr ones. 120gr or 130gr seems to work well. haven't settled on a load yet. honestly it's turning into a safe queen because i'm tagged out by late ML.

you'd think etiquette is common place on private ground but it's not. other hunters (family) on the farm don't pay attention to wind and other things like i do. i don't get much time to hunt either. My climber is my go to stand. leaves less scent and other hunters can't burn out my stand i worked hard to place and put up before i even sit in it.

yea it eludes what type of tree it was but it met your description. it was an old climbing stand i borrowed. i got up there 15' and slide down 10'. happened very quick and was at the bottom before i could process what happened. i went out and bought a Summit the next week and passed over that tree despite being in the perfect spot. now with more experience you know if the climber is grabbing as soon as you start moving the bottom section up the tree. some i have to about kick it free the stand is dug in so much.

I use Hornady SST sabots now. blood trails and tracking is hit and miss. 200+ yard accuracy is why i still use them. I want to try the new Federal BOR lock Trophy Copper bullets. seems like they'd have explosive expansion yet still be tipped to reach out there at distance.

scent free. that manufactured stuff you buy is like a cheap knockoff to a deer, with at most it banking on curiosity more than anything.

look for a small high and dry spot downwind of larger bedding that's adjacent to a trail. even the least used secondary trails are easy to spot in a swamp. stay down wind of that and pick point coming from that location that exits/enters the swamp that makes sense. won't see as much activity but a buck might use it to hunker down and keep tabs on doe when he's there. swamps are great in highly pressured areas. what time or part of the season will vary but in the next few weeks they won't be just laying around much at all. also find treeline edges that skirt the downwind side of the whole swamp. where it could be a travel corridor to another patch of cover or destination. bucks will use that to scent check to the whole swamp while on the move. hard to tell topo as you mention points. be careful of thermals and swirling winds. swamps are often hard to hunt for wind and get in and out quietly to stand hunt.