Backyard

It was pretty gross but I couldnt help but watch the whole thing! Figured it was probably a rendering plant or something.

My concern is that the nice calm, quiet, enjoyable bow season will become the annoying, frustrating, busy type like gun season is around here. It is easier than long or compound bows in regards to the equipment itself so that will draw in that many more people. Kinda hard to hold your bow at full draw for too long waiting for that perfect shot but just rest your crossbow on a gun rest and you can hold it all day. Shooting a gun is easy and thats why there are so many more gun hunters. I am sure I am not alone when I say I enjoy bow season a whole lot more than gun season and would like to keep it that way. As far as using xbow during gun season I have no problem with that.

The last day of bow season for me, Nov 16 I guess it was. As daylight broke I saw a big 10 come out at about 100 yds+ sniff around scrape then back in the woods. Long about 9:00 I was thinking of getting down out of my stand because I had some work to do in the AM but just then the big 10 stepped out again. He came across the field then back the other way and turned towards me. He came to about 60 yds then turned and made a perfect half circle around my stand. He stayed just out of my comfortable bow range and headed down the trail right towards my house. No amount of grunting even made him look my way. After my heart stopped pounding and I calmed down a bit about a half hour later I was going to get down again. This time a nice six point came out and did just about the same thing. I tried to grunt again but had left the tube outside of my jacket and is was froze! He stayed just out of range too. About the time I cooled down again and was gonna go back to the house a 4 pointer came from directly behind me and stopped at less than 20 yards and looked right at me stomping and snorting. I wasnt ready for him so I had to stand up and draw while he was looking. I went as slow as I could but he spotted me and ran about 30 yards and stopped again. Since my grunt tube was still froze I tried the deer calls on my cell phone and the little buck looked interested and came back a bit then turned and walked away. It was the most exciting day of bow hunting I have ever had and after being away from hunting for 10+ years and coming back this season, it made it all worth it.

Welcome Metalslayer! I actually found a spot on state land where you could do both but would get some wierd looks walking in to the woods with a gun/bow, tackle box and pole. Maybe try it next year.

I wont argue with you 1 bit on that one! At least not 5 during hunting hours anyway. Since the beginning of gun season I saw exactly 2 deer. One running across the field just after I unloaded my shotgun to get down out of my stand and the other was a big 10 that waltzed across my front yard a few weeks ago. During bow season I saw deer every day though.

Does anyone leave a stand up all season on public land? I read in the regs for a couple spots by me that said stands need to be removed by the end of the following day the season ends. Dont think I would be too keen on doing that as you never know who will get in it or take it.

Since the season ended yesterday, I was out in the shop working on my snow plow tractor because someday we may get snow. I heard about 5 shots coming from different directions towards sunset. Now this may be illegal hunting or could it be guys unloading their muzzle loaders? Not too familiar with them so I dont know if it is standard practice to shoot the gun to unload it or do you remove the bullet and powder manually? Maybe folks didnt want to shoot in the woods after sunset yesterday or what.

Pleasant last afternoon in the stand with the bow. I got out just as the rain stopped and I stayed dry. Saw a couple squirrels and that was it. Havent seen a deer since the gun season opened. Still have 1 in the freezer though. Cant wait until October 1st 2013!

I'm all for the youth hunt too but I do think the timing could have been better. I think a better Idea would be to shorten the bow season by a weekend and have a youth only weekend. Putting youth hunters with guns in the woods at the same time we are in full camo just doesnt make sense to me. As a bowhunter thats been away from the sport for 10+ years or so and just returned at the beginning of this past season I am not familiar with the stance of NY Bowhunters. Did they want to eliminate the youth season all together?

This is what aggravates me about governtment. Why does the youth hunt have to be put into this bill anyway. They are 2 seperate issues. Does this veto mean no crossbow at all now? I have no problem with crossbows during gun season but not really keen on use during bow season but thats beside the point.

Shame on them. I am sure there are lots of folks wanting to take up arms now to protect themselves in that area and they wont get the business because of thier own stupid decisions. I bet all of the black market dealers stopped selling too right?

Nice job with the pics! and the deer of course! I was hoping that could be me this morning but looking out the door to a steady fairly hard rain and no good news on the radar I just went back to bed. I hope the rain lets up for the afternoon and I can get in my stand 1 last time for the year.

Me and a friend of mine bought trees for our parents houses when we were in our early 20's. The one my buddy cut was too wide to fit thru the tree baler and it totally filled the back of my Ford Ranger I had at the time. When we got to his house it took both of us to push it in the front door as it was a mighty tight squeeze. His Dad didnt say too much about the gouges in the paint/wood of the door frame. This year I am going out with my 2 little ones and cutting a tree off of our own property as we have a bunch of them perfect sized for Christmas trees. There is one good sized one that got rubbed pretty good by a buck that might be kinda cool to have in the house and it has a big sparse area for decorating. Merry Christmas everyone!

Well I hunted Darien Lake SP yesterday afternoon and had no luck. I believe I was the only guy in the bow only section so it was pretty quite. I only saw 1 other hunter in the distance on the gun side with a muzzleloader but that was it. There was a ton of deer sign and some trails that looked like they were used ALOT. Even the mowed paths looked like they were heavily used by deer. Having never hunted there before I basically stalked around as quite as I could and then would sit for a bit then move on. It appears there are alot of deer there but unfortunately I didnt see any. It was nice for a change of scenery and nice to see fresh deer sign which has seemed to almost vanish from my property at the start of the regular season.

I think if I stick to the bow only area in theory there should be deer there. I wouldnt think too many guys were using bows during gun season but some of the gunners may have wandered there but we will see.

Hey guys/gals. Since I didnt have any success with gun season this year on my property I was thinking of taking my bow to Darien Lake State park for the late bow/muzzleloader season. Has anyone hunted here and is it going to be a waste of time? I dont have a portable tree stand so I would be hunting from the ground. I have heard there has been ALOT of hunters there for the regular season and I would think it will calm down some for the late season. There are parts of the park where you cannot carry a firearm so I would think the pressured deer have been hiding out there. I have never hunted here but I am just looking for a change of scenery and a last chance at a deer for this year. Any tips will be appreciated as I say I'm done for the season but I just cant manage to stay out of the woods! I'm addicted!

I agree. Thats all I hear by me is multiple shots in a row. Seems like everybody has to unload their guns on everything.

I would have to say my Mossberg 500 12 with rifled cantilever barrel and Bushnell scope shooting Hornady SST's. Mostly because thats my only shotgun. LOL

Great story. My Uncle has all of my Grandfathers guns and maybe someday I will do the same thing as you I did hunt with him when I was young and I do remember his favorite was a nice Remington 1100 12 gauge. I might be inclined to use that old rifle to take a few more deer!

Had a 10 almost that size that I saw on camera a few times and once in the field then not a trace after gun season started. That was until I was sittin in the house eating lunch a few days ago and he pranced across my FRONT yard like he owned it. Couldn't believe what I was seeing and couldnt get to my shotgun and get out of the house fast enough. Good to see he was still around though!

Thats kinda what I have been doing in the morning when I get down from my stand I will usually take a walk around before I head back to the house. Never really did any big drives. I have seen 20+ plus guys push a bunch of deer out of the woods and then they all open fire and that doesnt seem too sporting to me. Part of the reason I like bow season better.

Where I hunt it sounded like a war zone all around me opening day and a few shots during Thanksgiving week but has seemed to quite down alot. There is an amazing amount of scrapes, rubs and trails on my property and I saw alot of deer during bow season. Sometimes I would get 50 pictures in a single night on my trail cam and now I dont get any since the gun season started. I tried hunting on some federal land the other day but didnt like the amount of people there and didnt see any deer either. Almost ready to give up on this season but I just cant stay out of the woods.

Hey guys I was just wondering. At this point in the gun season is it best to sit in a stand or do you pretty much have to push deer at this point. I almost always hunt alone and prefer to sit but sometimes get down and creep around the woods some. I have gone from seeing deer almost everytime I was out bowhunting my property to seeing only 1 since the gun seaon opened. I heard that yesterday that the only way to find deer now is to push them out especially if they have been pressured. Just want to get your guys thoughts on that.

New to forum here and I guess new again to hunting this year. I started hunting at 14 and hunted into my early 20's and for various reasons got away from it. More than 10 years later after bow season had already begun this year I decided to get back in the woods. I got my dusty bow case down from the rafters of my garage and opened it up to see what time had done to my old bow(1991 Bear Black Bear). Everything looked good and after taking it to the local bow shop and being told it was safe to shoot, he changed the draw length and ordered some new arrows. I found that I was still a pretty good shot with it and after a few days of practice I was ready to go. Some may be saying that is not enough practice but I have been shooting this bow since I was 12 (I'm 35 now) and it is quite familiar to me. I had a trail cam on my property for a few months and there were tons of deer around and some really nice bucks too. I saw deer almost every time I went out and have never enjoyed hunting this much before. It makes it real nice I can walk out the door and be in my stand in 15 minutes too without driving anywhere. I let several small bucks walk and unfortunatley now regret it and although I didnt get a deer with the bow I am really looking forward to next year. The last day of the early bow season was the most exciting hunting day I have ever had. I had 3 nice bucks come in close but just out of my comfortable bow range including the grandaddy 10 pointer. That really got the blood pumping! The next day was the gun opener and I decided to gun hunt too. I was really excited because all the deer from the previous day would have been in easy gun range. As soon as dawn broke it sounded like a war zone. Gunshots all around me and only saw 1 deer off in the distance since the season started. I also stopped getting any pics on my trail cam which stunk because I was getting sometimes 50 pics in a single night before gun season! On the up side I did see the grandaddy 10 the other day, he casually walked across my FRONT lawn in the middle of the day like he owned the joint. I think he was laughing at me. Needless to say I cant wait for the 2013 bow season to be here!