dbHunterNY

two hunters took doe from local QDM co-ops around here that were aged from a lab to be 15 and 20 years old. in terms of jaw bone aging with labs it'd be useful to know all molars were worn down so infundibulum and lingual crests on each were none existent, so each tooth was a flat cup. that in theory gets you to 8.5+ but it's important to know that both doe had incisors worn down flush to the gum line.

....you send in both center incisors but they treat one as a backup. so you pay for just one out of the two as long as their correctly labeled to be from the same deer.

I've decided I might post pictures on here for a learning to age a jaw bone. maybe periodically. all would be deer locally here in 4C. probably have around 150-200 worth for this year so there's plenty. I'd only post ones where those of us aging them agreed 110% on an exact age and they weren't too encased in dried up tissue. I've found that it's really hard to just look at dentine width and there's a few or so more stuff to look for that'd tip you to one age or another if you're on the fence.

Matson's Lab. not sure cost. around $9 per tooth plus shipping, but teeth would go with others cheaper to send in half dozen. otherwise I think 1-5 teeth is double that. send in center two incisors labeled (I1 left and I1 right) with a deer description in case one gets damaged its harder to analyze to maybe get a year worth of error. get them in before mid January for a quicker turn around. ....to clarify minimum order is 1-5 teeth at $60 plus shipping costs.

if the string is that bad I would also replace the cable or cables too with the same as the string. a good one shouldn't stretch or rotate much at all after a handful of shots. some single cam bows with asymmetric wheels on top will get rotation with a new good string but it will be consistent every time and come to alignment at full draw. sometimes after a string settles you have to twist the string once or flip the loops at both ends to spin the whole thing around. I don't have any problems with tubeless peeps on any of my bows shooting all year long.

I've hunted with and shooting competitively with a single pin. I've got the HHA sight with a dial yardage. solely for hunting you could get away with using a fixed single pin. biggest part about the HHA I like is the adjustable pin guard cover for the wrapped fiber optics. you can adjust it as needed to reduce pin glare in any situation. sounds like you've got a good plan though. be gentle with the pin fibers though, don't want to crack one.

still looking for my first bow bear in NY. heck of a trophy. congrats!

did he break 200 lbs dressed?

hoss of a buck. definitely seems mature. I'm sure you'll find lots of dentine width for each molar on that one. plus the infundibulum on a molar or two should be pretty much gone. awesome buck with character. congrats!

despite it's best to see a whole body broadsided photo. the neck is not real thick, connects higher into the brisket, legs look pretty lengthy, etc. don't forget by the time snow flies and us being in NY (northern deer) even a 2.5 year old can look bulky. know what to look for and certain things will make a light go off.

hard to say what the loud thwack was. it's possible you just hit him back and high. muscle tissue like wound with no arteries or intestinal damage. clots fast unless you're pushing hard. don't do that unless you're gun hunting to get a follow up. he'll do what he continues to do. we had one happen like that. it was taken later during rifle season. acted normal with just a hole in the hide. you saw it not limping but I would've guess leg shot as that's a loud crack with little droplets of bright red blood. I just center punched one this weekend through both lungs. two 3" diameter holes. couldn't find any blood and it ran like heck until it fell over. probably over 200 yards from impact. lots of pinkish red bubbled up blood coming out where it ended up. just keep learning what to look for and what things mean. also know that if you're focused hard on the spot you're aiming at and follow through many times you'll see the arrow impact that far out. crazy stuff happens to deer when shot... keep learning, keep with it, and don't repeat mistakes you know you're making. good to hear you got some piece of mind!

that HSS rope style tree strap is the same one I use. works get and it'll fit in a pant cargo pocket for the walk in. adjusts on the fly very easily. if you're seeing lots of activity on your offside you can give yourself extra slack to easily draw your bow without the tether getting in the way. otherwise you can give only what slack you need so if you do fall it won't be so harsh.

this ain't Europe or the movie Hangover. if your "bag" doesn't have a leather bull whip and a priceless artifact in it then you haven't earned the right to call your purse a satchel. haha I wonder in that fictional world if a student at the beginning of class was painfully staying alert and awake as to not fall asleep, knowing full well that satchel was within reach and there was the real possibility of it containing a 10+' long bull whip.

oh hell yea. yes I'm a grown man that cares to match his accessories. they're all camo, leather, or metal.

depends. I have a couple permanent stands with the exact same small screw in holder like WNYBuckhunter posted. stays still in the wind. most of the time though it's sitting in my lap with the wrist around my wrist. none of my stands have "shooting rails" they're pointless and in the way for bowhunting in my opinion. if I hunt out of a stand with a gun it's usually close I don't need the rest or I have a part of the actual tree trunk to rest against.

yea I do something similar. I've got a Cabelas Commercial Vac Sealer with a "wet setting".

I'm an electrical engineer and reluctant to get the newest and greatest electronic devices. I do have an iPhone though. have the weather channel, DDH Shot Simulator, Tapatalk, facebook, food network: on the road, and Bullet Flight L2 (rifle ballistics) apps that I use regularly for various reasons. they come in handy. ...there's other trail mapping apps out there if you hunt bigger woods or tracts of land. also scouting new property.

I do on occasion depending how bad things are and only to an extent. I mostly wear rubber boots and use access roads or atv trails to get in and out. I clear a trail in to a stand of some leafy duff and mostly sticks and branches so I don't brush up on anything going in and don't have to avoid things that snap. I've figured out that I can go slow enough that leaf crunch is not as bad as frosted gravel/dirt with respect to noise. also as you said deer get curious when in comes to bare dirt trails. so I don't worry about a leafs on the trail. i'll use a rake. don't know if I care to tote a leaf blower into the woods. also I don't think my leaf blower would get the sticks and loud crap out of the way as well. rather sound like a cracked out energetic turkey than a leaf blower.

- you've learned that nothing under any circumstances should touch your bow other than your face, release, and bow arm hand. the slightest contact anywhere and you're screwed. don't think about what it will do where, just don't do it. - another thing you haven't figured out quite yet is that there's a lot of crap deer do upon you releasing an arrow, including just before getting hit with it. darn good at 40 yards on the range doesn't mean much up in a treestand. lot going on. I'd knock your yardage down to under 30 yards and preferably at 20 yards. hunt off trails with that goal in mind. it'll help reduce the effects of error in everything you do. - also keep in mind deer have crazy reaction time especially when in close to you with something seeming off. they aren't meaning to dodge your arrow they're just lowering the body to preload the legs to take off running if need be. this in mind aim a 1/3 up from the bottom instead of centered on it's body from top to bottom. if the deer doesn't react your drill its heart and if it does you're center punching lungs versus sailing your arrow over its back like a warning shot. - don't shoot straight down or at a deer right under you. angle makes it hard to hit both lungs and harder to maintain form to put the arrow where you intended it to go. one lunged deer only is as good as gone. - pay attention closely to angle. quartering say toward you can look pretty slight compared to what it actually is. also remember to think about where the arrow will come out, not just where it's going in. a deer has depth and vitals change in size and position depending on angle. - download the DDH Shot Simulator for your smart phone if you've got one. play with that instead of crap like candy crush and slot machine whatever. that's my advise. good luck. still opportunity left.

yea I've seen Mark Kayser use a pressure washer for a European mount. figured it'd work good for cleaning off jaw bones left at our QDM co-op check stations. we get around a couple hundred each year. clean jaw is less of a mess trying to handle it to estimate age of the deer, even if the jaw bone is dried up.

http://wiredtohunt.com/2010/05/06/quality-deer-management-on-small-pieces-of-land/ see if you can do these things to it.

look to see what the neighbors are like.... is it a neighborhood, farm land, or public land. you're only 25 acres so what does the surrounding land have to support the deer and how does it make them use the property. also is where you're at huntable. not all properties that get deer traffic are truly huntable. will the wind at some point be predictable. neighbors can make changes to positively or negatively impact your 25 acres but things like an ag field, water source, or standing oaks stay the same 99.999% of the time.

depending on the stand you might need to stay. I just hunted a stand yesterday that I show up before dark to maybe check a buck headed back to bed early. most of the deer come through between 9:30-11 though. they're showed up by feeding on acorns across the ridge before they get to me and then others stretch their legs and come from the bedding area to hit acorns. unless the wind is bad, I know target deer passed through and are feeding out in the field above, or get late lunch I never leave. if you're cold or just can't sit still period like some people get then get up and move to be refreshed for another sit. I've watched people leave stand at prime time hour before (pm) or after dark (am).

opening morning of rifle season I've had a guy couple years in a row setup shop in less than 100 yards of me in the woods. I could look over and see him. one neighbor had him hunting on another neighbors property right next to were I have a permanent treestand. saw less deer because he didn't pay any attention to wind. nice guy though he just didn't know.

you did good taking care of it. timing is too bad. still going with the notion of you and a conspiracy to stick it to DEC by tipping harvest in favor of guns versus bows. hope you heal up quick before the trigger finger get too twitchy.