dbHunterNY

bedding on a small property can maximize their stay and improve your chances of taking a deer so yea. even when hunkered down they tend to get up browse around a little then lay back down. just trickier the closer you access or hunt near it. I would put more options for bedding east within that green area than west. screening cover of some type for access might be needed. don't know how far you or they when bedded can see. also the crossing of trails is tough but sometimes there's no way around it. any reason why you don't hunt the creek crossing of 5 intersecting trails? those are usually hot spots. if you haven't put a camera there I would. sometimes to can steer deer to go parallel with a trail but closer to you. food to pass by, cover to travel, or making a spot hard or uncomfortable for a deer to get through can all steer deer travel but only if destination is the same effort to get there isn't much different.

call up your pistol clerk. they would know.

with the farms i don't care so much about doing work later into year just before season. however, with small properties I'm much less of an influence on behavior than the neighbors. i don't know how they and deer are dealing with each other throughout the year so i limit my work to the antler growing season. as soon as antlers harden they tend to change ranges and preferred sections of cover and are much less accustomed to people activity so i stay out from then on. noticed that access cuts trails you're hunting right next to. I've seen an old doe walk across my boot tracks intersecting a trail and then back pedal slowly. she sniffed the air with no luck, so she then turned around and left with her two little ones. other doe might keep walking but i know they can tell i just walked through. a big buck is a buck that's been pressured and shot at he'll act the same way.

yes it's in Saratoga right next to Spa State Park (Rt 50/Ballston Ave.)

not sure what the numbers will be in 4C. working on the tally for 11.5K acres of it. we're same as, if not, above last year.

my summit open shot comes in with me and leaves with me. even on private ground like my parents farm where only family hunts. I've got a pack of the Summit replacement tubing right now but haven't put it on yet. go slow as to not put too much heat to it or they get brittle and will crack and break open shortly after. also a pair of cutting pliers work much better than a hunting knife or sheetrock/utility knife.

gotta do something but I could see getting even just turning into rounds of tormenting each other. more respectable than doing nothing though. I definitely would have had DEC and NYSP both their after I showed them the tracks and damage. I would've requested that I go with them to discuss things in a civil manner and are more concerned about their actions causing serious injury or death to someone, all passive aggressive like.

if you're a squirrel hunter that's cool. don't really have the time to fit in that much squirrel hunting to bother. always thought it was a cool though.

I know a lot that hunt with a take-down for destination hunts. they've said it's easier to travel with on planes and what not. I agree though most don't take them down and shoot it like a regular single piece. I don't know too many that shoot wooden arrows. most shoot carbon that look like wood or aluminum. my factory Super Kodiak and other good factory bows I've shot tend to not shoot quite so well as custom bows. not accuracy so much as performance. I'd think not much of anything would shoot a poor quality wood arrow well. I'm sure you'd have to take lots of time to match some up with one another too regardless of quality.

yea grow I live probably 40 minutes from the nursery. good info for other though.

target recurve and all wood hunting recurve are different animals. elite hasn't picked up any recurve target archers yet that I know of. also they'll be similar to the Hoyt Buffalo recurve with a metal riser for hunting. that way most all elite accessories are compatible.

in the future I might get some hardwood seedlings from them. not on my plate right now. I'm close so I think the fact I can pick them up helps cost I'd imagine.

second part I agree with. true to my experiences anyway. first part is just store/company policy. I'm sure they (corporate) knows exactly what the law is and means. being only a small portion of what they provide they just are being a little over zealous to cover their butt. that's what I've been told was the word that trickled down. years ago had a heart to heart convo with Cabelas management up in Maine at a store I go to. I inquired being from NY would they still recognize my permit and let me buy ammo among other questions. He basically told me he feels bad about the stuff we have to go through. he said shop around and know that you can purchase anything gun related we've got in the store hassle free. they have to obey law but aside from that policy is just policy whether it hurts their business or not. their choice.

I whole heartedly agree with you about the voting thing, despite those on here most likely voted. however, getting the ammo you need many times isn't that easy. local shops get what they get and that's it. if you want to pay a lot very very few shops can find it. I didn't complain but just saying "...and get all you want..." isn't really the case. at least around here it's not.

I've found that stores or shops will ask for or if you have a pistol permit. some situations and calibers you can say it's for a long gun and that's the end of it. only exception is a local shop where they know you bought pistols and what not from them before.

we didn't have a lifestyle involved with technology years back and similar means to record it is all. it's really not as in depth or disconnected from the experience as it seems to be from reading this stuff. "back in the day" that older hunter that everyone talks about either remembered things and/or kept a journal. I'd bet most "data" used for hunting is memory based even know. there's no magic formula that tells you a deer will be where and doing what. brief and particular record keeping can just place a bunch of small pieces to the overall puzzle. through the act of record keeping and the repetition the writing usually stops and it's in the file that is your head. thread has been hunting based but with the growing practices of QDM, much of the record keeping is really just for management. as Doc eluded to, the deer world/habitat does change in some ways. although, you have to pick and choose your efforts and info to keep track of. otherwise it'll be easy to get burnt out and cause you to stop record keeping of it all.

maybe the way their system is setup and easier to track? that's different for sure.

my dad's got one that we've used a bit on anything from varmints to moose. ammo is expensive though and it just isn't needed. anchored deer 400+ yards out but it isn't very forgiving if you process your own deer. recoil is noticeably more, but for the previous reasons it's never the first gun to be picked up. old win model 70 too.

all the points have pretty much been said. many retailers won't ship to NY unless you talk to a customer service warm body and have an FFL shop to send it to or one of their retail locaitons. straight up ordering ammo online is a no go that still stands with the SAFE Act. grey area is the intent that you'd have a background check done but NYS will never get the system up and running to support it. meanwhile it's BS recommendations that the FFL can call you in to NICS but don't know how that really works. right now I don't think it says the FFL can't just hand over the ammo to you without doing a check on you.

why wouldn't 30 year old data be that irrelevant? probably could agree it just depends on what data you're collecting and what you're using it for? 30 years ago the weather was still the weather, deer were still deer, and that nearby ag field was probably an ag field. same deer are long gone. genetics might be slightly different. what kind of food and how much for how many deer could've been different. patterns might be different along with timber maturity and composition. some other stuff could've been different too I'm sure.

I could agree. first buck I'd say 3.5 and 2nd 2.5 years old. even for post season he's got more mass up front and like others said neck runs into his chest a bit low. we've had comparable bucks in weight and antler size to your second buck a 3.5 hours north of you. they turned out to be 2.5 yrs old.

good concise info right there.

I'm way better with the where than dates or times. I can narrow it down to the year that's about it. then again i've got a lot more than just my deer floating through my the mast in my head. iPhone updated and lost a note pad "note" with info once that killed my ambition that season. Murphy really likes data collection with technology versus paper.

90% of record keeping I do is for QDM. sets my harvest goals, but only small portion I use actually helps me hunt and harvest deer. two different approaches with two different goals in mind. seems people are discussing hunting based goals so we'll go with that: i've hunted same tracts now my whole life. most if off memory. do use trail cam pics for both QDM and hunting though. record keeping really helps to hunt new properties or completely new stand locations. record weather report wind direction for area, time of day (for thermals), and then actual direction while on stand. much fewer surprises of a bad wind direction once you're all settled in. also recording deer sightings and location on property I found helps figure out a doe family group home range or rotational movement patterns. recording breeding or hot doe actively paired with that can give you good idea of which doe group to ditch or keep an eye on. had this one old matriarch doe come in heat like clock work year after year for some reason and often used the same area for bedding. she helped me harvest 3 bucks and they were always #1 or 2 on the list for the farm. I can get a little into the management part if anyone is interested but there are limitations the less you work closely with neighbors or if you're not in a co-op with multiple properties. this ain't out west not too many have several hundred or more acres.

saw a over a dozen out in a couple fields mid day over the weekend. others getting trail camera pictures of them flocking in fields around mid-morning. plenty cold out right now that's for sure.