dbHunterNY

based on him asking about the Stinger an Elite might not be an option. it's at least x2 the money. they are nice last bow I bought was an Elite. More over I think the stinger being a 32+" axle-to-axle bow might be uncomfortable to a trad shooter. I'd go with a longer one say a Bowmaddess version with 33-34" axle-to-axle. they go down somewhat low for draw length. definitely shop around on say archery talk or ebay and other places to save some money if you're willing. there's been some used shorter draw Elite Energy 35 bows on ebay cheaper and would fit you real nice. ENS cam and you can change modules to get you different draw lengths from 26.5" - 24.5".

to my knowledge doe fall home ranges are much smaller but if you were to average bucks' fall ranges they'd be in the neighbor hood of 500-600+ acres for 2.5+ yr olds. problem is NY properties, especially in the east, that are bigger aren't circular or square as a whole. center of bigger properties are using ag fields. so ranges usually overlap neighboring properties. so side with gjs4, but Four Season Whitetails isn't necessarily wrong. Pains me but I have to call it how it is.

i thought it'd be cool to have a big lawn nice looking lawn. had a fallow field on either side of the house when I bought it. removed the trees from one of them and turned it into more lawn. other field I mow around the trees with the tractor and heavy duty belly mower or the bush hog once fawning season is over. now I spend an hour every week mowing the lawn and make payments every month on a zero turn mower. wife likes the 2.5+ acres striped too. I truly think it's a burden but don't want it to go back to what it was. some of you sub-urban folks might not understand. the struggle is real.

yea mine's 1 in 9" versus 1 in 12" but I still think it should do alright with a 55gr. just doesn't like them I guess. might try something else around 3100 fps with the same bullet if I can't get a hold of the Black Hills again.

it'd be cool to find something bigger and better but it looks like it was still time well spent. never cared for history back in school, but American history is a different story and local history is entirely different. I've got an old musket that is no longer functional coming to me. it's been passed on down to the first born son or grandson if need be. forget how far it goes back.

great buck. 240lbs dressed is a nice deer to go along with those big antlers. looks like you were hunting in the right spot.

i agree but didn't bother to post it. probably the reason the results differ compared to what has been published by DEC. People can question the results but the results are what they are. i commend gjs4 for taking the time to make and share results of the survey. the more activities like this keep people plugged into DEC in relation to hunting the better.

original but I honestly don't care for it. harder to be consistent with grip versus some other stock designs. despite it's a thumbhole it's really open no obvious place your hand ends up. I was just intending to use the FMJ's for time behind the trigger. wouldn't hunt or sight in with them. i'll probably never shoot a round from the box of American Eagle again pretty much useless out of this gun. blows my mind how poorly they shot.

being an all factory setup I lucked out on picking Black Hills loaded with 60gr Vmax and it being sub-1/2 MOA out at some distance. It's pretty hard to come by though. Managed to find a box here and there each year. SafeAct crap of not ordering ammo online is killing me. I can try others but it's been cheap accuracy. The blue boxes on the table are cheaper then their factory new red box. They're reloaded from the factory and only $35 per box of 50 rounds.

...got pulled from the back of the safe. Heavy. Only really use it to clear woodchucks from hay fields during the warmer months. Hope to have enough time this summer to tally up 100 for the year. Problem is I'm down to my last box of BlackHills 60gr Vmax. Tried some AE FMJ just to practice and box test with but holy hell the stuff isn't a good combo. 6" groups at 200 yrds! Compared to the routine 3/4" groups at 200 yrds I get with the BlackHills. I'll be ammo hunting or getting into reloading quick. Not good.

I've got a "Big Mike" ground blind that's good for turkeys. turkey's don't care if you don't brush it in that much and it's big. it's good because I can fit a two adults, camera tripod, and a couple kids.

that's a deal for that gun. I've got a TC Prohunter that was more than that. I first got it to hunt Oklahoma early season. I think that's a better gun as long as it's legal.

I don't have any of the fancy reloading software like some of you... just shooting stuff. I have a app on my phone that isn't free. I think it was like $11 or something when I got it. It's called BulletFlight. multiple versions but I have the middle of the road one. it's a step down from the real serious stuff but I can put it baro pressure, temp, wind speed and direction, elevation, and crap ton of other stuff. you can setup a profile for each "shooting system". I've got a wind meter for being really picky but wish I really had a chrono. I've had to work backwards and adjust my muzzle velocity based on drop at distance. you can split out a full range card for conditions or do a quick dope to shoot type of thing. splits out MOA, inches, and clicks based on what you put it for your scope, like mine's really close to 1/8" @ 100 yds. I'm an engineer. this crap is my down fall at times.

not sure if others have noticed but when you shoot to say 400 yards your rangefinder should be capable out farther. I had a Bushnell that went to 600 and 450 for "non-reflective" targets but it was more like half the max distance or less. I think the Bushnell was good for critters to just over 200 yards. it was a real pain getting readings that farther. My Nikon now is good to 1000+ yards for reflective and despite not shooting that far it gets readings at say 400 a lot quicker or easier for something like a deer. something to consider I guess.

seems my stainless guns hold up better in lousy weather with no issue and my other blued guns not so much. definitely like the look of blued better.

don't tend to save the spurs but those I would!

classic smoke pole. hope it serves you well.

great buck and awesome first buck! I had my first buck grow legs. Not sure whatever happened to it... think a dog got into the open garage and snagged it and maybe buried it or something. antlers still fresh when it disappeared. all I have is a photo with it in the garage from when I was 16.

awesome... definitely great meeting people with similar interests.

http://www.cabelasspringthunder.com/

you should ditch the tv and just watch Cabela's Spring Thunder webisodes while you're layed up. don't stress. they're shows. a lot of people get hung up on successfully filling tags and not pay attention to other stuff.

listen cupcake we're not talking about what's sweet and well. I've acknowledge people like deer with antlers. it is a big draw for many. i'm trying to only tell you the truth. out of co-ops in this area that practice QDM across probably 50k or more acres I can think of a lot more than 0.1% that could care less about a trophy and frankly don't believe it's even achievable within the QDM based rules of the co-op alone. the co-ops in this area are getting their guidance and resources from our local QDMA branch. a lot of concepts are shared by QDM and TDM but they're definitely different in practice and end goal. we've been over this. fact might be fact in your world. you don't have to believe facts some others tell you in here but you should.

most of the time i'm not that deep in so i almost always pack light. fit everything in my pockets but i usually have lots of pockets.

no idea but I've got all them too.

seems like I'm pretty late to this party. how many people go to the national convention is a horrible way to gage it's support. QDMA is pretty much comprised of grass roots volunteers. Not all of us can afford or are allowed to take the time and spend the money to fly across the country side and attend such an event. i work for someone else and only get so much time off for vacation. if it's m-f I'm probably working. when I'm not it's probably time with the family, hunting, or volunteering for the QDMA. i don't work for free to push someone else's deer agenda and if i didn't think it would benefit and effect the deer on mine property and the community around it i wouldn't be doing it. each branch around here in the NE is doing well. branch I'm apart of seems to sell out around 240 seats every year with others wanting to go but didn't get a ticket soon enough. we're just country folk with nothing fancy so we don't really have many options to hold more people. if we did including 360 seats then we'd sell out then too. we're only 4 counties in NY. the country is big and i assure you this area don't embrace the idea of qdm as much as it should, especially compared to other areas of the US. fads don't continue to grow for this long. another thing is your constant subliminal comments trying to link QDMA and trophy management are blatantly obvious. we both know it's just not the case. they both differ at promoting healthy deer. then again what you do sometimes doesn't. a lot of big bucks die due to health reasons of pushing a big set of antlers on top of their heads. so maybe they aren't even close to one another. every hunter out there can appreciate a nice set of antlers even in areas with no qdm in place or a QDMA presence. no reason to get things all twisted. it's that simple. ...i'll get back to reading the rest of this thread i suppose.