dbHunterNY

in many NY areas of farm country they'd be just plain silly to put out anyway.

I've got the Sig P226 Elite Scorpion. I like it lot. I think they're very very close to the same. Not sure if the MK25 has a SRT or not but everything else is close to the same thing. I've got a Hogue G10 grip but the one on the MK25 feels pretty close. for a full size pistol it's great in my opinion.

yes most of the land owners are farmers not all of them hunt either but have people who hunt their property. in my mind there's a justified need. I mean if you have to shoot 25-35% to keep the herd from growing then you need them. if the herd continues to grow it's more food they're consuming. if the herd grows just 10 doe, and each doe eats 5 lbs/day, that's just over 9 more TON of forage. most aren't heavily into TSI so the deer eat crops if little browse is in the woods. around here the woods are slightly mature but very bare, showing that there's too many deer.

I could make suggestions based on what I think but hunting tactics are left up to the landowners and hunters on their property. driving an atv around would be frowned upon as well as drives/pushes/nudges. I hear you with regarding hunting smart to kill mature deer but outside of negatively directly affecting other hunters I don't think I'm going to tell others how to do what. success and failure would lend them to taking your advise into consideration, especially if everyone else around them killed deer.

well I said that in the text that it'd be a hunter and not the landowner. they said contractual agreements can be made but sometimes kill deals before they begin. many will stand by their word and a hand shake over the fence but would be out as soon as a contract was in place. it's a case by case deal I think and will only be apparent when we start to form it. mistake shooting the 6 button bucks were their words actually. they seemed very serious and passionate about what they were doing which is why I think those co-ops have been so successful the past 4+ years.

you can try to get what DMPs you can too but.... the co-op as a whole sends in an application for DMAPS. whoever within the co-op is tasked with the work would then distribute them throughout the landowners based on acreage and number of hunters. each hunter can only legal fill two DMAPs they said.

great story! maybe you can go back to the same spot next year. maybe that second buck will be there! it was cool the first time I heard a snort-wheeze. things usually don't get that intense here with such a messed up buck to doe ratio. congrats 5.5 years old is a true trophy he was probably at or close to his peak.

another thing is a goal of harvesting 30-35% of our doe population to maintain deer herd size is going to be difficult. hunter mentality that hasn't accepted killing a doe yet, getting DMAPS, and filling them before does smarten up and make things harder all I'm sure adds to the difficulty.

this seemed very important and brought up .... one big reason many co-ops fail was having goals too high. I do think a hard goal of 3.5+ isn't possible. almost all wouldn't have the education to judge 2.5 versus 3.5 at this point or the near future. think more like half or slightly more of the 2.5 yr olds would be fair game, based on a antler point restriction to start off or maybe even both antler and spread. we were also told that you need to really give it 3-5 years to see your small step goals come to fruition. education will continue and follow. then I imagine we'd go from there with an emphasis on age. there are no AR mandated by DEC here currently. however, multiple already do loosely practice voluntary ARs. for example our property does 3 points to a side currently. once we get into it co-op landowners will have resources and knowledge to improve their habitat. some honey holes are just that and always will be but one of the first things we were told is to drop any negative mentality of worrying about what one of the neighbors will do that isn't participating. we were actually told that if we had set thoughts of "if I don't shoot it someone else will" then the door was behind us and we might as well use it. continued inclusion of that landowner and he/her seeing results usually changes them. over the course of a decade of voluntary ARs I agree 3 points to a side hasn't protected many 2.5 year olds and even some 1.5 yr olds. for ARs 4 points to a side or 3 points with a spread restriction would protect many 2.5 year olds but not all. based on feedback (not always good) I think it'd be easier to have 3 pts and spread then 4 pts to a side. for some reason 4 pts to a side minimum makes others think of a giant 8 pointer and a bigger. absolutely. once bigger bucks are spotted and people are vested in this co-op 1.5 year olds will be free to roam, especially when they know everyone doesn't have those intentions. it was brought up that mistakes will be made. if someone breaks a rule once they aren't shown the door but expected not to do it again. someone who breaks the rules a few times should probably be handled or asked to leave. one interesting mistake was made and brought up by a local co-op. when trying to fill DMAPS many waited and waited throughout the season. this was thought to lead to them shooting about 6 button bucks out of the 100 or so DMAPS filled. this wasn't there intention at all. they thought being under a time crunch, pressure from the season, and other factors led to that result. their focus this year was going to be how to prevent mistaking button bucks for doe to fill DMAPS. I'm sure many of us can relate to this even if we haven't shot a button buck. One practice I use to help not shoot one late in the season is to not shoot what I think is a doe that's all by herself. when a button buck is with other deer you can usually see a size difference.

I think the ported barrel is more to minimize upward movement of the muzzle, but the ported choke is more to prevent blown patterns. I say blown patterns being the gas pushing straight out through the wad and shot cluster, which hurts keeping it all tight together. that's what I think.

I've been thinking about switching to loose powder just for ease of accuracy tuning. then using say Blackhorn 209 versus Triple Seven. I've got enough pellets right now that I want to stick with that. I will probably switch once I run out.

well we're capable of getting almost all deer to 2.5 yrs old now. I believe with truly serious QDM management you're really looking to get deer to 3.5 and up. it seems to me importance of a good age structure is definitely there with it being a key factor to successfully maintaining a healthy deer herd.

nice ... congrats and thanks for sharing!

I think there was at least 9... but adding them all up would be at least double that. some others I know didn't attend but are already willing. we'd have 1000+ contiguous acres by my parent's farm.

so I went to the meeting last night. I thought it went very well. it was basically just what I thought it'd be.... a special requested land owner meeting to possibly start a new QDM co-op. Upper Hudson Valley QDMA members were there as well as those who've had their own co-ops in the area or neighboring county for a handful of years now. QDMA Biologist Matt Ross was there and I thought did an awesome job, especially in comparing apples to apples with the situation that we in the immediate area faced. many area farmer/land owners showed up and left with a good attitude. some didn't and some left early but I'm keeping hopes up that they are still willing. basically everybody said I'm willing to do it if everybody else does and nobody out right said I don't agree. some weren't even hunters but just land owners. there's no reason this shouldn't happen and get started. we added up the acreage and it was well over 1,000 with most being contiguous which is recommended but isn't really a requirement. I even got some verification that rules I've come up with for my parents house are the right direction and now I'm thinking others will take them a little more serious. the co-op video that Matt showed with Kip basically said the first meeting wasn't to start one and instead be exposed to the idea. within 2 months I'm thinking we will definitely have another and try to form a co-op. I wasn't the one that started this despite I should've been but I will be one trying to keep the ball rolling down the court.

I've got a Encore Prohunter but it gets cleaned and stored away by the end of the weekend during late season. I shoot Triple Seven pellets and Hornady SST low drag 250gr sabots. For my primary center fire deer rifle I shoot Federal Fusion 150gr 30-06 rounds. Even if I shoot only 100gr of powder, it still costs me $0.50 more per shot with my muzzleloader. Plus I've got to use more cleaning supplies with the muzzleloader, cleaning it more often.

bobber with a worm on the hook. use a spincasting reel or a bait caster that's tension is torked down a little to prevent backlash with the line from getting all messed up. they aren't casting that far anyway. if your kid gets bored with the bobber, take a second pole put just a plastic garlic and coffee (Striker King Finese) infused worm on a #6 hook for plastic bait. hook into the tip of the worm at an angle and then back up through it so the point of the hook rides along the top edge of the worm. stick the point just barely under the surface of the worm to make it weedless. they can cast it out and jerk it in while reeling. it'll get any fish moving around then if things are slow and it gives your kid something to do that may just catch fish. what Larry said is important.... think quantity over quality.

yup.... like the others said corn isn't a high yield food source compared to planting something else like clover or stuff like brassicas or grains for later season.

everything has pretty much been covered; keep your thoughts of safety first. find another deer hunter who seems to know his stuff and will mentor you both. get out in the woods and experience things first hand. study up on big game hunting and listen to what others say, both with an open mind. if you like reading a very good concise book is called "Strategies for Whitetails" by a fellow NY biologist/outdoorsman..... http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/strategies-for-whitetails-charles-j-alsheimer/1007599604?ean=9780896893313

so far I'm still tinkering but I believe the best has been from a Pure Gold ported turkey choke and 3.5" #6 Hevi-shot from a Benelli Supernova 26" barrel.

yea Joe.. Settings > Notification Center > Edit (top right) > Tapatalk > (turn on add to 'notification center') and you can switch settings in there too. .... I'm not sure how you change the tone though as it's only sound on or off, unlike if you look at settings for other stuff.

it's really easy not to shoot a jake. beard restriction is a horrible idea. I've seen numerous old toms that had a frost bit stub for a beard. like has been said it's easy to tell the difference despite most do it by the beard. the wings and more observable tail fan is clearly not full of feathers all the same length. some say they shot a jake because it gobbled so they thought it was a tom. I've called in some thunderous jakes. heck last spring I called one in and heard it from across the valley like it was in my lap. I filmed and called to it to were I got it to gobble on command for over 45 minutes non-stop at 12-40 yards. that was a great hunt despite not killing anything.

they look like they were done well. congrats on being able to put some nice mounts on the wall.

that's true. a whole lot happens between the arrest part and going to court. who knows anything could happen. you've got a decent case though.

the charger is a nice affordable but great shooting bow. good luck with it!