dbHunterNY

I don't know if Swarovski does it but I've always wanted a scope with MOA marks off center cross hair for elevation and windage. Nightforce and some other high end scopes have it as an option.

well it depends a lot on your specifics. hinging the whole area gives lots of options for the deer which is good but doesn't create that segregation between doe groups to make them play nice sometimes. such as only deer can decide which area within the hinged bedding they prefer for certain winds or times during the season or whatever. this could mean the greater potential for them to pick a couple spots too close. also you've created a very unhuntable area. if you've got the space open unimproved timber isn't necessarily a bad thing if you use it to help you versus trying to just hunt it. if you split the hinged areas up and had "dead"/open timber between you might have huntable locations between them as long as your access is clean in and out. you want to let deer be deer with choices but at the same time encourage predictable movement. keep your eye out for converging ridges, saddles, low spots in a ridge, etc for likely travel. also points of ridges or higher ground that bucks like to use as bedding in between or downwind of larger doe bedding. the more you work with what the deer are already doing or prefer the better it'll all take and show use.

http://huntingny.com/forums/topic/31400-deer-evolution/

awesome and rare find.

I'm 32. fortunate enough to grow up on the family farm allowing me to hunt and watch wildlife more than some. living in different regions of NY due to school and work also caused me to hunting different regions which was great in hind sight. still make it a point to do so, both public and private. I still have a lot to learn and when an older hunter tells me something I always listen. then again, when they tell me I'm too young and I haven't hunted or experienced enough in the deer woods I nod with a smile. then I say they're probably speaking the truth, because they forgot where I said all my secret hunting spots where, when we had the same conversation only 15 minutes ago.

some more thoughts. in your 8 acres of bedding and hinge cutting. your plot will probably allow a couple doe family groups to use it at once if they can't constantly see each other. when doing your bedding area break up the cover/bedding locations so they can both use it at once. they won't share. also if you have both bedding locations parallel the plot they can take a different trail to each section of it. otherwise the more dominant doe family group will travel to the plot first with the second lagging far behind. they don't hang out much with each other. that way if the lagging doe family group is attracting a buck he'll come in sooner. also there's always a trail the forms around plots and this is often used by bucks. good setup for limited use treestand when you have patterned a buck checking a plot. I just used this idea to kill a dominant buck this past season with a bow.

sounds like a plan to me. keep up the good work.

yours is definitely the most pronounced I've seen with it being so tall. cool you found old pictures.

close off a 6'x6' section in the middle with chicken wire or something to tell much browse pressure the plot is getting. it's hard to tell sometimes without walking through it and looking at stems close up.

looks good. only thing I would've done different so far is leave tops in intact. a lot of fire wood probably but use dozer to push them to the edges. it's temporary deer food. it'll break down on it's own after that. that'd give small game habitat as well as help create entrance/exit points into the plot. more importantly you don't want edges to be open. You can plant Egyptian wheat, sudan grass, or similar function planting along edges and/or hinge cut. continuous curves or your hour glass shape is good too. you want a deer to enter and travel through the plot to view what's in it. easy to keep up mix of seed like DeerAg Back40 that's tolerant of shade and lower pH would be probably be good for the plot itself. then lightly frost seed it with late season annual like turnip or something. do some cutting to make better bedding on one side further away as possible and access it from the other end (open timber with not much cover, steep terrain, or anything else that would limit chances of bumping into deer in and out). all that hard work will definitely pay off. ...just thinking as I type not telling you what to do.

draw length (arrow length), draw weight, point weight, IBO speed, release or fingers, and brace height are what you really need to get a good idea. I attached Easton's chart. it's never steered me wrong.

I switched a long time ago. carbon arrows of today aren't the ones of old. shoot the right spine. then like people have said flex them a little to find cracks. most people I know shoot them into dirt, trees, hard surfaces, through deer, deflected off things, etc and don't ever check them. I mean they're not made to be invincible. similar reason I don't like arrow wraps. can't see a crack at the nock end. I got sick of bent aluminum arrows so I switched. indoor spots sure I shoot aluminum.

whatever caliber deer rifle is in my hands when a deer is in front of me. I really don't care. if I favor one gun over another I'd give me reason not to want another one.

many days I'm in places where you can't have that stuff so I don't usually carry a knife. pulling a knife on someone here in NY isn't any better than pointing a gun in their face. better be really sure you need to.

that's pretty much any folding knife I own. that doesn't make sense. not saying you're wrong. I'd just be a bit dumbfounded and have to take a minute to process it all. that'd be crazy.

i use them for a lot of my hunting. my savage model 12 varmint rifle carries a Caldwell attached to the front of it on a 3rd stud. i forget how long it is but it's long enough for me to sit and use it unless i'm on a fairly steep down hill bank. it gets me 3 stable points of contact where I can make head shots on woodchuck past 300 yards. varmint hunting is usually setup friendly though. for deer hunting I've tried using it but a bipod pair of shooting sticks works much better. I have to setup quick and dead silent. I have a pair that goes from standing height to a bit too long for level ground prone. I can pull legs in close or stand them more upright to add length quickly. to shorten them on the fly I can spread the legs or tip it back toward me more. I've found it big no no to plant your attached bipod on a hard surface. with the guns recoil it changes the POI. that's what seems to work best for me anyway.

most people look at and define carrying capacity differently. some more like Buckmaster7600 look at it as deer can be sustained and I'm not seeing winter kill or malnourished deer with ribs showing during the winter. deer are in good health but signs of stunted growth is apparent. others like forest interested folk consider all is good when various plant species aren't getting over browsed and have successional growth for each every year. those wanting bigger racked or heavier deer want supplemental food sources (feeders or in NY's case food plots with high energy food throughout winter), in addition to successional growth to hold and feed deer throughout the year. Bucks and doe meet spring with less energy needed to get back up to optimum weight from winter, so more energy goes into racks and fawns. it's all relative I think. however, if you were to ask me what I truly think carrying capacity is I'd say the middle one. so as long as you have successional growth and a species of browse deer take to isn't getting or did get wiped out then you're within the carrying capacity of the habitat. I work toward the last one though to give the deer the best nutrition. I like antlers and more importantly I like respectively big heavy deer to fill my freezer.

I had a mini Buck knife like Roadkill posted. mine was black though and I lost it. since replaced with an equally small folding knife with the Lansky name on it. One year I misplaced my bag with all my game processing stuff. I use that little Lansky knife from field to freezer and it really wasn't even much of a burden. It helped to touch up the blade quickly a couple times but that's it. I've got a few knives but that's normally what I use. to be clear here we're talking deer. something like a moose would have me a little better equipped despite I could deal with it.

the bow wanting to take off is more what it is. don't think there's much you can do about that.

if you truly know what you're doing you can help that short valley slightly. you can lengthen the valley some by adding twist to cables (will make the AtA length slightly shorter) and moving the draw stops out slightly. letoff is also effected though. they go hand in hand. I always right down all specs at the start and twists as I go. that way I can get it back to where it was if I don't like the results of my tinkering.

yea I'm moving the clamp up or down the cable to change the timing. it's as loose as i can have it to still fully cock the rest prongs back, setting its timing the same every time. once it's in the right position the clamp gets tightened/snugged down. when walk-back tuning and fine tuning at distance for groups i move the rest very slightly. using the clamp lets me do that and still keep the same timing. if the cord was served in the timing would change slightly.

it varies between bows but seems it's always at a some height close to the bottom of the grip when undrawn/at rest. gives you a good downward angle for the cord to let the rest drop versus cord going more straight back to the cable. you want to avoid contact between the clamp and the string stop/tamer at rest, also at full draw between the cable clamp and the other cables. i also make sure the clamp is facing the rest, so once the cord gets tight it's not twisting the bow cable. it's all pretty straight forward once you get the idea of how it works.

another thing. maybe just me but i always time it so the prongs come back in the last 1/2-3/4" of draw cycle when coming to full draw. before I've slowed it down as much as possible to still maintain clearance with arrow. I've since ditched the idea. puts more stress on the rest itself and more importantly torques the cable it's on more. i partially tighten the cable clamp so i can come to full draw and the cable slides through the clamp to a position for the exact timing every time.

it was moved to a bow with an inch longer brace height making the cord too short. it was already a tad on the short side with the other bow (a shop installed it not me). plus slight contact was being now made with the cable clamp and the other cable. color didn't match either. I've got a new Elite bow and QAD Elite drop away that are going together. probably change out that new cord to a flo-green color before it even gets fully installed. it's a black bow with a black and flo-green HHA sight. the timing cord and probably d-loop will be flo-green to match. usually not crazy about color accessorizing a bow but this is a 3D rig not a hunting rig simply to get the job done.

D-loop material similar in thickness of BCY #24 d-loop used for a replacement cord is cheap. i gave myself a good 9+" or so to work with. melted and pulled both ends to a point to feed it through. Gibb's super loop material was stiffer and easier to work with then the spool of BCY loop I've got. if i were to use that though I keep a length of thin Christmas tree ornament wire to feed and pull things through tiny holes. otherwise for things like soft nock sets i use dental floss. i always use the clamps that come with the rest versus serving in the end of the cord to the bow cable. rest prongs should come fully back only within the last 3/4" of coming to full draw.