dbHunterNY

there's a good number of deer yea. you've got more deer there with ag ground compared to getting up into Grafton. big bucks are around but not common. good chance at shooting a 2.5 year old, slight chance at shooting a 3.5 year old, and a rare but possible chance at shooting a 4.5 year old. I hunt on either side of you. the WMU is 4L most likely. I hunt mostly in places in 4C just north... west of the Tomhannock Reservoir (several miles north of you) and also on 350+ acre family farm between west of Hoosick falls.

pushing 140 gross... the picture is kind of tough to judge from.

thanks for posting the link SteveC

I don't think you have to have a DMP to tag out. tagging out in my mind is simply filling every tag(s) you've got, be it one or many. I don't think ARs are as much of a problem as habitat from what others have said that to me would make sense. the OP even had a great idea of opening it up to selective logging in areas to create some regrowth with the understory browse and cover. there's some problems with getting that to go through and pass but it's a good idea. Make it possible to kill any deer in the woods and watch the numbers go to nothing, regardless of the habitat. the problem with hunting numbers going down is the mentality of it's a big buck or little buck.... it's meat or it's antlers. let the damn thing live that's only a year old and watch it. sit back and watch and let a kid or new hunter learn what it's doing and why it's doing it. let them see it as a deer and they'll appreciate it when a bigger wiser one comes along. my dad own's 350+ acres of farm land. he hunted and got me into it. now we've got a bunch of hunters on the property, who happen to be family, that have the mentality of you simply got a deer or you didn't. now during gun season he can't sit there and simply watch deer in any of his fields if there's anything legal without WWIII gun fire happening at the very deer he's watching even if they are out of range. he gets disappointed and then goes back down the house/barn yard to get work done. I hardly see him during the season. he's basically stopped buying a license and stopped hunting. ever since we've gone to a self imposed 3 pts to a side he sees deer have a chance to live and sparks up when we show him some trail camera photos of deer that made it. he was never about big antlers before when he hunted, he just wanted to know there was a chance a big one could be around the next tree or that something was left to look at.

don't take what I'm about to type as personal, but instead as constructive criticism. as an NRA life member, should you really be telling the gun owners of ny that they are to blame and call this state a lost cause? i could see where frustration and hostility toward NY as a whole could come from. I just think you should be pointing these issues out with a sense of remorse and urgency. condemning us NY gun owners, in general, to be left to fend off anti-gun groups and politicians ourselves won't help increase the membership either.

your first paragraph is the point to my last post. Hornady SST's are a great bullet. I've had great blood trails with them at times but more so than not blood trails don't seem to be that great. their accuracy within muzzleloader range though makes me not want to switch. if you shoot enough deer and hang around enough who do, I've found you end up getting some strange results when shooting a deer at times. it's like that with anything you use to shoot a deer though in my opinion. I don't think it ALL has to do with bullet placement and construction though, despite what cdmckane said. although I do agree bullet placement is the #1 consideration, a lot happens when and before the bullet impacts a deer.

mine has a Nikon Omega scope with a muzzleloader reticle on it. I'll take all the help I can get. if I want to make things hard or a challenge i'll use my recurve with no sights and a bear hair shelf for a rest.

Muzzleloaders are funny it seems at times you get little to harder any blood despite where the deer is hit in the vitals. I used Hornady SST low drag 250 grain sabots. I've found that on a good day I've single holed shots at 100 yards out of my TC Prohunter. They'll hold their accuracy out past 200 yards too with the right load. sometimes I get great blood trails and others times hardly anything. I know of others that like Barnes Expanders and Hornady XTP Mags. The buck in my avatar I shot at 104 yards slightly quartering away. no blood but deadly accurate, blowing right through the middle of the heart and out the other side of the deer. I lost sight of the deer too. it was fine though because of the accurate shot, it only went 40 yards at most. we found it within minutes. same if you punched it through both lungs. it'll only go so far if you just give it time after a well placed shot.

my wife grew up in suburbia with pearls and high heels. she's now a fair weather, perfect conditions, afternoon hunter. it's still a hunter though. bow only. no guns. she totes a Beretta though so it's ok.

to each their own. 10 straight days of getting up at 4 am to go hunting would be exactly my vacation. more specifically all of it! so I wouldn't be getting any more.

goes to show how important it is to vote and get others out to vote that share your beliefs and frame work this country was founded on. preaching, "standing your ground", and promises of non-compliance will do nothing except let people know they're others out there that don't like it too. can't change who the Mayor of NYC is but having the current governor we have now won't keep him in check either.

sounds like there was some opportunity there. learn and move on I suppose. if the deer are that few and far between I'd re-think filling all those tags even if you've got the opportunity. it takes deer to make more deer as you know. good luck though! I do hope you fill a tag or two. if you want any input as to a game plan or questions answered, I could try to help... other than that you and your wife are you're on your own it seems. if you can, hunt a different spot. otherwise, maybe move the stand if you've got picked off all the time. more often than not my best sits on a stand or in a blind are the first ones.

it's tough but ARs do help the hunting. you'll get those types of situations when you hunt unfortunately. heck Rangerclay on here filled his buck tag and had to let a 12 pointer buck of a lifetime walk on by. also I'm sure others who hunt the same soil your boots have tread, haven't gotten anything yet. I've voluntarily passed doe and bucks in different places where it benefits the deer hunting. It's bittersweet though because it'll help out a lot if I can get meat in the freezer. I fill the freezer every year but it gets a little stressful toward the end of the season. we're all really in the same boat in that it'd be nice to tag out every year but sometimes it just doesn't happen.

sounds promising. hope he lives and comes back next year joe. there's been some nice ones where you're hunting this year. good to hear it.

many bucks where I am got shot before. I had a wide buck with great potential in front of me for over a half an hour. it was just needed another year or two. others in the area wanted me to shoot it but it got a pass. only buck I saw all weekend.

I've got CCI 40gr Mini-Mags, CCI 36gr Mini-Mags, CCI AR Tactical 22, CCI Velocitors, and Remington Golden Bullets (hollow point mini-mag). they all work well certain rifles and pistols shoot one better or worse than the next. In general I think standard velocity 22lr are cheaper, do the job, and most of the time are more accurate. Actually better if you're trying to eat what you're shooting. The hot stuff and hot hollow point stuff really chews up a smaller critter. If you've got it I'd use it though. 22lr is still scarce and hard to find. it shows up in stock but yea.

I just tried to post a link and it locked everything up. not happy I have to retype this..... David Petzel of Field and Stream did some testing on for Gun Nuts on shooting through brush. He shot through some brush right in front of a paper deer target. He was shooting a 45-70 loaded with 300 grain bullets, a stout load I think. He basically proved that brush still deflects a bullet. my engineering mind thinks the smaller the "twig", the closer the brush is to the target, the faster the bullet, and the heavier the bullet, the less it will deflect and change point of impact. watch the video and come to a conclusion yourself. Search it on youtube... "The Gun Nuts; Brush Busting Bullets". I can't figure out how to just paste it as a link.

slim sports bottle

i'm not dumping anything. my ammo is staying right where it is.

I own two... a Benelli Supernova 12ga with comfortech stock (i adjusted the drop of comb and offset) and then a Mossberg 500 20ga, that I got from my dad and started out with. don't really have a favorite. the benelli gets the job done and is my go to shotgun. However, I grew up learning on the Mossberg. when it's in my hands I just shoot it ridiculously well. I wouldn't give up either and if somehow forced me to use one or the other for a shooting bet it's on like donkey kong. i'm afraid if i were to buy another shotgun it might not fit as well or i might not shoot it as well.

i'm not aware of any rules like those mentioned. I process my own deer. Once I cut it up I use different stuff. for ground venison I use sleeves, spinning them tight to get air out. then everything else gets vacuum sealed in bags with a food saver vacuum sealer. I then label everything by with the date and cut (sirloin, backstrap, round, tenderloin, etc.). that's it. no tag number or sex. most of the time i'll know by the date what was shot. all of it goes into a chest freezer in the basement. I grew up with commercial equipment including learning how to use commercial plastic wrap and freezer paper the right way. I still feel the vacuum bags keep it much better than any other method. everything gets eaten within a year or so. seems to be still very fresh.

at least you got something. can you use it next year?

he was only like a 105" deer last year at 2.5 years old.

I think he's just got a good source of food somewhere and heavy in the front more than normal. I say 3.5 years old possibly 4.5 years old, with a gross score of 124".

yes... it works to accomplish different things. you can release younger oaks to produce better woods to log years down the road. you can improve the quality and quantity of browse for deer. also you can create cover. when you do TSI you're not necessarily cutting whole sections of woods. a forester will pick the best trees to cut here or there. a decade or more down the road you'll work the same woods possibly. trees that were big before might be logged off and the ones that you released will take their place. these trees aren't as mature though and will produce more hard mast for the deer.