dbHunterNY

on another note. back to the topic..... apparently nobody here has a neighbor that doesn't keep his fence hot, five territorial cows get out of fence. Said cows stay out and become more wild and free roaming than before. Said cows visit every nice food source the deer do, and where a treestand exists. Costs me three mature deer so far this season and I've only been out a couple weekends.

locals all know it's hunting season and the trails going through our family's land are closed. those who don't learn real quick and it's not us that get all over them about it. it's the others that they may ride with from time to time. reason being if they don't respect that, the access is gone.

I was kidding about the pessimistic part! that's just how I pick... I wanted to be honest.

I'm aware you need a lot of contiguous acreage that's intensively managed and at least a decade worth of time to see any small difference. I never said anything about 1.5 yr olds either. I know it's somewhat of a lost cause. I've gone years without shooting a buck. Never seen a mature one and you can only go so many years with not shooting one. If i'm going to shoot a 2.5 yr old or 3.5 yr old I might as well be the runt of the group. What do I care what he'll do at 6.5 when I was lucky he made it to 2.5 or 3.5 yrs old. You two are too pessimistic! lol

Charlie Alsheimer who lives and studies deer hear in NY has said that a reasonable top end to expect from bucks anywhere in the country would be 130-160. bigger than that and certain above average things need to present to benefit and grow a bigger buck.

look at the new 2013-2014 NY Hunting & Trapping Guide, page 9. Shows the same data WesternNY posted. I'll tell you right now though I've lived in western NY and in eastern NY (Rensselaer county). Soil might help but it doesn't have a damn thing to do with those record book numbers. The mentality of hunters is just different, that's why Rensselaer county is the only white on the map.

I live and mostly hunt in Rensselaer county.... the worst of any NY county to be picky in (just read this years Hunting Season handbook). I'll shoot whatever deer I feel is oldest. Not letting deer get age is our biggest demise of quality hunting here. Recent years have had me just shooting mature 140+ lb doe. I've shot 2.5 yr old bucks on rare occasion but try to take the smaller ones. and rarely even shoot a buck these days. Number of does I shoot or encourage to get shot are 2/3 the number of fawns I see that year. 2/3 because some die of natural causes or stuff like getting hit by a car. Also I might not know of every doe that other hunters took in the area. that would maintain the numbers of deer. my thinking is this... we naturally want to shoot the biggest deer for a given age class that we can find. This is the complete opposite a trophy deer farm manages their deer. So we're managing for little bucks not bigger ones. Where as if you weed out the worst genes and/or the oldest deer you find you're potential for getting something bigger will only increase with time. now away from the trophy side of things. i think doing that helps with age structure and buck to doe ratio. those two things help does get bred and fawn sooner in the year giving fawns a better chance survive winter and predation. bigger stronger bucks will breed the does and pass on their genetics. not everything and hope that was not where you didn't want to go. just figured i'd give reasons how and why I pick.

good to hear they were good to you... a lot of little things snowballed together to cause that failure it seems. Summit makes a good stand and I trust them every time i'm in tree. I will say that do what the "silly" safety DVD says, because it'll save your life. You should be attached to the tree the whole time as soon as you've left the ground. Suspension relief strap is extremely important, as well as having top section tied off to the bottom platform. I've really liked the HSS Pro Vest harness and just replaced it with a Muddy Safeguard, which I like even more. I have kept using the HSS/rope style tree strap with a prussic knot. It's more convenient to loosen and adjust as you work up the tree, but you'd be crazy not to use something even if it wasn't convenient. More accidents happen on the way up and down then when you're sitting on stand hunting.

congrats!

good to hear you like it. I'm a big fan of climbers that have an open front, or no cross bar in the front and ones that are light weight. these are two big things I demand for bowhunting. I've got a Summit Openshot and love it. Even when gun hunting in deep woods I can carry it in and then use a mono pod, bow hanger, or camera arm for a gun rest. that homemade stand is nice! I grew up building and hunting out of wooden built stands. I've formed my own opinion that metal stands not built into the tree are much better both from a land steward and hunter safety point of view. building your own stand like that I feel you're much better serving your needs.

I've installed QADs on my bows, families bows, friends bows, and seen others with them installed. Nobody's had any reason to change. HD Pro, HDX, LD, or basic Hunter model they're all good and will work flawlessly if installed properly as they show you in the installation DVD that comes with them. Not just saying that, as I've dealt with them all.

congrats! crazy things happen when you shoot a deer. there's not much that will never surprise you when it comes to blood trails, exit wounds, or anything for that matter.

your form shouldn't be any different shooting the old bow versus the new one. practicing as if you're in a shooting situation is important. also continue throughout the season otherwise muscles get weaker and form changes slightly. all the while a tuned bow is essential. don't change anything and go hunting without practicing first. when it comes time to shoot a deer, don't think that you're shooting a deer. only decided yes i'm going to shoot it then stop thinking about the deer. it's easier to do this by focusing on the process of making a good shot at a spot you're trying to hit. then after you make that shot count the flood gates of emotion can open.

you'll get different reactions now opposed to later toward Nov. you can grunt year round though. keep in mind every time you make a sound it has to have a story behind it or reason. it might be a contact grunt or maybe it's closer to Nov, two doe just walked through so you give out a doe contact grunt to a passing buck. regardless never grunt at a deer that's coming your way anyway. only if they're walking away from you. not even if they're browsing around in an unclear direction. sometimes you grunt, the deer looks like it heard you, but it continues on like it doesn't care. stop grunting! it heard you. it may be going to get some food or a drink and will come back. just sit and wait.

Winner's Choice and Vapor Trail are pretty good. Like said there's a lot of custom builders out now... ask around and try a set. Weren't bad but I didn't care as much for the America's Best strings that came on my PSE.

deer do jump the string... mostly you're worried about up and down, not left and right. although if you're holding tight to the shoulder a deer can spin around to run away and cause you to impact the shoulder. deer aren't jumping the string intentionally though. it's their reaction to the sound of your bow. they'll "load up" their front legs to jump away and start running. it's similar to when you jump in place and crouch initially to do it. relative to jumping the string... the idea is to never take a quartering towards you shot. the idea is their front half of body drops much more than the back half so your point of aim won't be moved out of the way by the deer as much with a slightly quartering away shot. same thing should be considered when taking a frontal shot with a gun. I don't like to do it, if possible. instead of aiming half way up or centered in the vitals, aim a 1/3 up from the bottom (heart area). this compensates for the deer loading up or "jumping the string". if the deer doesn't react you've made a heart shot, and if it does then you're still half way up or centered in the lungs.

yea even with spraying good if the wind is blowing toward them, they tend to get shy.

yea that's one you don't really want to shoot at all but hey it's your first with a bow. more power to you and congrats!

I've got an Abolt II in 30-06 it's a stainless stalker with walnut stock... shoots well enough but handles great! I think you'll like it. honestly mine gets a scratch here and there. I've been wanting to get a medalist synthetic stock with the aluminum bedding block for it. i'd just sight it in and shoot it... then just keep an eye out for a wood stock.

on my parents farm not many does are shot. there are old massive does that have been around so long and seen it all. they will walk into a stand location with eyes pegged on the stand the whole way. just got to live with them or fill your tag with them. lol depends on how many deer are in your area and if you feel like going after them.

go out and hunt with an open mind while learning from experiences you have. (example: if I deer busts you doing a certain thing, don't get careless and continue to do that.)

good idea... then just use a building as a blind. don't go in and setup a tree stand if deer are coming through there now. building might have wind swirling around it. bring a puff bottle/wind checker with you when you do go hunt it.

depends on the height of your anchor with a compound. mine's pretty much the same between to two I think. I anchor index finger tip to corner of smile with a recurve. with my compound my string goes from tip of nose down, touching corner of smile, with my hand on the corner of my jaw bone. more points I use for reference but that's enough for a description.

not sure if I agree with all that's been said so here's what I think.... recurves are easier to shoot better than longbows. there's hybrid long bows out that are a little more equal but yea. Bear bows are nice... I've got a Super Kodiak. the bows labeled draw weights are at a 28" draw. you gain 2.5-3# per inch of increased draw. starting off i'd get a bow that's 45-50 lbs at your draw length and no more. you'll be able to hunt with it fine and you'll maintain better form until you gain more experience. also arrows should be around 500+ grains of finished weight and FOC will be anywhere from 12-20%. I've got Goldtip traditional .400" spine carbon shafts left full length, 4" fletches, 100gr brass inserts, 20gr adder insert weight for each, and 100gr Hellrazor heads. cut on contact broadheads are the preferred choice. get a finger tab or glove. Damascus gloves have thinner leather and help with feel of the string for just starting off. also get a stringer to string and unstring your bow. don't put it behind your leg or anything like that, it'll cause limb twist and ruin a good shooting bow. Flemish twist strings are nice and allow to be twisted or untwisted to make for easy tuning. throw a couple string silencers on it and put a nock 1/2" high from square. There's a bit that goes into tuning a recurve too, so like SteveB said you've got a lot to learn if you don't think so. First shoot your bow (with one of your arrows). twist or untwist the string a couple full twists at a time to increase or decrease the brace height. shoot your bow at each brace height setting and you'll find that at a certain brace height your bow shoots a lot quieter and vibration free than any other length. now paper tune it at that brace height like you would a compound. adding point weight up front to weaken the full length shaft or cutting in down to strengthen it will correct your left and right paper tears. moving the nock up or down will effect your high or low nock paper tears. then do the same making slight adjustments while shooting field tips and broadheads to get them to impact the same. before doing this you should've matched weight of heads with finished arrows and spin tested them all for broadhead alignment. I'd also have odd fletch out with the broadhead aligned for the least surface area when seen from left to right. it'll act like a rudder when you first release your arrow and you're maybe applying some torque at the shot. the arrow won't start rotating from the fletching until it's left the bow and gone a foot or so. anchor point is huge and it's hard to get a clean release if you're wrapped around the string deeper than the first joint off your finger tips. when you release your hand's relaxed, then relax your fingers to let the string pull away, all while keeping back tension to pull on the string. this will help keep a good consistent follow through which is right up there with anchor point. different ways to aim, but the best way is to shoot instinctive if you can. you just focus dead on the target and shoot as if you're throwing a baseball. this is harder and slower to pick up in the beginning but it'll be more reliable than aiming the tip of your arrow a certain point off your target for a certain yardage. sometimes you might see the blurred arrow in your vision and that's a reference to double check when you first start out. muscle memory and feel can be more accurate than you'd think. another I think 20+ yards is a darn good shot with a recurve. I think more reasonable hunting range would be 15 yards or less. aim small miss small. minute of lung isn't a good strategy. there I think i'm done. sorry.

yup sounds like you missed... odd you didn't find your arrow at all.