sailinghudson25
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Posts posted by sailinghudson25
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Get there early and be patient, the squirrels are there, look down more than up. Many people walk past winter squirrels, they can hear you and see you much easier, and most folks are not looking on the ground. I do better in trasitional areas rather than right in the middle of big oak stands. The oaks are their home, but may be in the bushy area if they cant find acorns. Same goes for evergreens. Sit at a base of a tree and wait. Learn how to make a cutting call with 2 pennnies. It helps. If its real cold, then then come out a touch later. more like 9 am rather than 7am. If you got 2 willing hunters, you can drive them from ridge to ridge, or circle a tree to get a shot.
I'd keep going up to the waasaic or the taconic hereford area in dutchess county. DEP can be a busy place, but not too bad after deer is done. You're going to have to work for squirrels in public places.
Thing could change over the years, and I no longer live in the NYC area. I'm already in the hunting land now.
Use the maps and check google maps overhead views to compare. Dont think youre alone in them woods though. People will pop up, DEP police and DEC officers pop up there often, so keep your tags handy.
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Curious if anyone hunts out there on those leases? If so, do you guys put trail cameras up. IT seems I have trouble getting them on camera in the winter, not sure if they relocate out of the area and yard up, or they just live in the thick young evergreens for the winter. I see little snow track in the winter, but see some more in the thick stuff. I do see deer on camera and on my own eyes elsewhere during the other 3 seasons, but they're real hard to find when the snow is thick.
If they do yard, where do they travel to? Down by Eagle bay?
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It all depends on things.
Annual hunting lease guys can ride ATV's and camp in the summer? Entire hunting season only?
What the land and whats near it. Is there pressure. Also, if you lease land, someone legally needs insurance. You can ask them to get their own, or get it yourself.
Nice deer, they get those every few decades on adirondack leases.....
Your offering a semi-tangile product. 25% of the price is the place, 75% of the potential price is reputation. Trail cameras, food plots, etc...
Also, are you going to require references or not. Any rules to this, limit on game, minimum rack size, required does to shoot, and so on.
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Go with the 25-06 way way over the 257 weatherby. You do not reload, and we live in NY. You'd be hunting from store to store or waiting weeks to get a box of ammo because we cant order it ourselves. I absolutely love my 450 marlin lever gun, but cringe when I need to find a box. You'd be in the same boat with the 257 weatherby.
I agree with a previous poster, get a 270 winchester. Even 25-06 can be tough to find locally from time to time, but it's still better than the 257 weatherby. Affordable calibers are common ones, not just cheap ones. They have stood the test of time because they do the job. The best caliber will be the one you practiced with the most.... 200-300 yard is not a stretch for most modern calibers. I have coyote and woodchuck hunted with a 30-30 upto 300 yards, not ideal but not a insane stretch for the caliber either. If you don't mind 3" high at 100 yards, most common calibers you can point and shoot without compensating for bullet drop.
If you're not keeping the pelts of a coyote, then caliber is moot.
A coyote gun that deer hunts, 243 should be considered too. It's a real ideal coyote gun caliber.
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I have a half acre food plot on an 8 acre property and I am looking to add shrubs to provide cover and food for deer. I will be ordering from the local DEC nursery or soil district plant sales. I am thinking 2 rows of red dogwood and then a row of white cedar to surround the food plot. It's a very open area and looking for a way to make it more private in a quick way. I am also considering the cranberry bush and possible crab-apple. The soil is pretty good drainage and decent amount of clay. Its a previous apple orchard that has been converted to a lawn area. Should I do anything different.. suggestions? How do you recommend planting? I am putting wheat and clover in the food plot which I want to turn to clover for a few years....
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I got a spit like yours, except I don't own the hay and corn fields. My backyard is the "morning coffee" before their meal.
Pick a big tree, put a stand up. Then put 3 plots in the scrub breaking them up. Like 10 yards between them.
Then make a private entrance to the stand.
Also, the old times would maintain they hay fields. Run a spring harrow to cultivate it every other year, then every 5 to 10 years plow, lime, and reseed. It's expensive to do the whole thing, so just do a corner of it.
My coffee spor is 1.5 acres. A 1/2 acre plot to the right, manicured edible brush with lanes ahead, a wide shooting lane plot to right 10 yards by 60 or so. All oaks are lime and fertilized, the maples in this spot are my firewood. Last Friday of rifle season, I cut one or two down. A few days into muzzleloafing season, I cut the high up branches to deer level on the cut down maple.
Most deer I harvest is while I'm walking in.
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Zag is right. Any implement will improve the area. Slashed up shrub and small trees will clog fine implements.
Even bag dragging a bucket works.
The smaller and cozier they feel with cover, the more they'll like it.
My neighbor just mowed the heck out of some fallow fields, totally ruined the deer pattern this season. Mow in thirds annually.
Keep in mind access. Mow so you can enter your hunting spot secrectively, but can squeeze a shot in before heading to the stand if they're already there.
Variety is the spice in life.
Instead of oaks and fruit trees, plant the right scrubs. I plant scrubs from the nysdec nursery in saratoga. I usee their deer mixed scrubs.
Look up prefers winter fobs forage in the nysdec website.
It helps you on Adirondack hunts too if you ever go.
Deer during muzzleloader week eat these little hard red berries growing on dead apple trees by me.
Make a curvy walking course. It turn hunting into a stalk hunting version of golf. I got a course I walk and hunt on my lease left by logging trucks.
Mow the center a few times a year, mow 2 or 3 passes on the left one year once, then on the right next year.
Brassica and clovers, I think a spring harrow is great. S tine, c tine, old drag behind spring harrows, or those spring trip claw cultivators. Use a chain link fence or a series of 4 inch logs chained behind each other to drag the seed in.
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Ideally, a traditional tractor and implements would be great.
2-4 acres isn't a huge order though.
Buy in order
1.) A mower. A 4ft gas engine tow behind would be just fine. Hydrostatic front skid steer mower are $$$$$. Although you're planning 2-4 acres. I can see you mowing more than just the plots.
2.) Again keep $$$$ low. something to turn up the soil. Is this brushed up crop land, or brushed up cow pasture. If it was crop land with rocks under control, something mild is fine. A tow behind C tine rake, or a used tow behind spring harrow would be perfect.
3.) something to spread material. I do small plots, but several. I got a really good walk behind spreader, but I'm looking for an ATV spreader. My 1/3 to 1/2 acre plots I like to grow each use 15+ bags of lime and maybe 2-4 bags of fertilizer each year.
Corn is nice, but not hugely needed. Some small plots of cereal grains or clover would be fine. I plant cereal grains with clover in late summer. After about 3 years, it's gets weedy. So replanting is usually in order. I'm anti spraying, just feel bad about it. But, it does make good results.
I do 2-4 acres, but only do an acre for myself. What I got. a 32hp kubota with front loader, york rake, and 5ft flail mower. a DR walk behind brush hog, love that little thing, but it;s a workout.... I got a honda 400cc honda ATV with a 42" tow behind signle row discs.
Get it mowed and test the soil. I'd get someone to disc the soil or plow it to start. Brushed up soil is tough work for light things like smaller discs or harrows. Same goes for mowing. Might want to hire someone for the first mow. Don't sweat those trees. Take a small square of plywood, cut a v notch in it. Lay the wood down around the base, and slice the tree flush low. The wood keep the bar and blade for getting wrecked by dirt and small rocks. A disc or tine rake will bounce around it and the plot will grow just fine with the root system in the there.
Do your homework on the property. Keep the plots small. IF there all going to be in the same area, atleast have a small break in the plot. Like make a 4 small 1/2 acre plots in a 2x2 square with 10 yard of brush breaking them up. The more comfortable and secluded they feel, the more likely you'll see animals in the day. Look into fallow plots too. Just mowing down the brush and discing it every 2 or 3 years. That alone makes a difference in itself.
A neighbor had a rtv900 with a tow behind mower and a tow behind s tine tiller. He makes great cereal grain, clover, and even turnip / raddish plots.
I stress do your homework. Plan you plots well. Don't level the whole place. Think of seclusion, bedding areas, keeping the plots hidden from the road, keeping you hidden while you walk to your spot. However, plan for the future, brushy spots get worse each year.
Look into frost seeding..... Just mowing, applyl ime and fertilizer, and frost seeding can do wonders.
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I shoot both modern in lines and traditional flintlock with goex fffg. You take care of what you have, there's never a rust issue.
My 40 year old 45 cal flintlock looks better than my friends 5 year old savage. My gun had seen 100 tomes more rounds.
Each to their own. Newer doesn't equate better.
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Rye roots deep to bring nutrients up and help break soil down deep. Great for choking out weeds too.
Buckwheat is a good summer forage and weed killer as well as red clover.
You have a good mower deck?
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Bk hunter,
The hornady sabots appear to be identical to the Thompson center ones. You can get 20 round packs for the same price as Thompsons 15s.
Again, harvester sabots and pick what you like to put in them. Powder is cheaper than pellets. And plain shotgun primers work just fine.
Let the paper answer questions about it, not the latest hoopla hype
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I spent $1300 on a pile of parts. Brass furniture, curly maple stock, rice 54 cal swamped barrel, chambers lock.
I got a modern t/c omega. I stuff it with 90grs of goex fffg blackpowder and a 44 cal 240gr hollow point. 100 yard zero I aim at the spine for a good 150 yard broadside shot. Works for me...
I hunt in PA and do blackpowder competitions. I want a flintlock for that.
These high end muzzleloaders are for warly elk season out west, not needed for NY really.
Surprised these modern guns don't employ false muzzles. Especially some elk states ban sabots, pellets, and scopes.
Good luck with 300 yards with irons.
That thompson is a loaner gun only. Always debate selling it. I got 3 roundball guns going on 5.
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Its not what to grow, its where your growing it. How much sunlight. How much ground prep has been done. How rocky is it. Whats the soil pH and basic nutrients.
The more your learn about food plot seeds, the more you do not like mixes. Seems many large commerical mixes have something you dont like it in.
Also, the first year it's best to grow an annual, not perennial. It chokes out weeds and gets the soil ready for next year. If the soil isnt too bad and you have no heavy equipment. Blow the leaves and mow whats there. Scratch it with whatever you can now. Put atleast 25 bags of lime per acre. Or even 20 bags for a half acre, very few places in NY wouldn't apreciate that much lime.
Get that light work done now if possible now. Then in febuary or so, when the soil makes those broken shards of glass like look from the frost, put down some sort of clover. and maybe 4 bags of 6-24-24 per acre. Red clover is a great annual. Will be there for deer in the summer and fall.
Then, the next season will be quite weed free and then schedule a good turn of the soil, some more lime, and then put what you like down.
If you have a 1/2 acre and no equipment except basic lawn maintenace tools, clover is the way to go. buy a quality weedewacker with good string and its mowed in an hour.
Give us some good details and pics of what you got for a spot, what you have to prep with, and whats in the area.
Also, seed mixes suck for another reason. Certain seeds need to be cetain depths. Impossible to do with a mix. A good mix is a annual cereal like oats and wheat, then put some clover in and maybe some brassicas like rape or turnip for a bit of a late season treat. You disc the soil, then broadcast the cereal grains, either drag the soil or lightly disc the seed in, then spread the clover on the top and lightly drag it in. The cereals get to be 1-2 inches down, and the clovers 1/4 or so. With good prep and good rain, sowing everything works ok.
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100 round pack of hornady XTP 240gr HP bullets. About $30. (2) 50 round packs of harvester .429" to 50 cal sabots about $15. Shoot it with real balckpowder, it is the cheapest I use 90grs goex FFFg If you want modern powder, forget the pellets, go loose, it's 1/2 to 1/3 the price. Plain old shotgun primers too. My 90gr loads don't know the difference. Even if you shoot 2 inch groups, who cares at 150 yards or so. Offhand practice is what deer hunter in this area need to do much more than nija bench tricks with a close range firearm.
I shoot for about 50 cents a trigger pull all said and done, and they group just fine. Zero the gun at 100, then aim as high as the spine for good broadside shot. Smashed it right in the middle of the heart right at 150 yards with that combo 2 years ago.
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How deep did you till. How's the soil pH, how much and what kind of fertilizer did you use.
Cereal crops also help the clover from getting too badly hammered.
On a positive note, deer prefer the fresh young growth over mature stalks of clover. So, you should be good to go.
If you used perennial clover, I would expect you need a frost seeding come febuary or march. Most clover would be about 3lbs and acre. If drainage isn't an issue, mix up that clover with about 2 bags of fertilizer per acre to help spead it more evenly.
Fancy stuff is nice, but they keep coming back to my clover plots.
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having hunted in the Catskills for 30+ years, I fully expect the deer take to decline this year..........it's gotten worse and worse every year, blame it on winter kill, Coyotes, lack of food, too many doe tags in years past....whatever. The deer numbers just aren't there anymore.
Lack of farming..... Many corn planters rusting in the weeds. Even hayfield turning into brush. Ontop of that, NYC DEP buying every inch they can get their mits on, and then making it mature woods with no browse.
Now, people got to shoot 6 pointers on top of seeing less and less deer.
I feel bad for you guys, but this proposed early muzzleloader season, have they insinuated to the regulations. Pretty much anything goes like the late season, or a primitive season, much like PA's flintlock.
Doe tags don't link with common sense. Places that barely have deer get thousands of tags, while a place where the DEC officer hits 2 deer in the past year has no doe tags. Afraid to drive the classic car at night in that area.
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First trigger pull, 40 yards with a 870 Remington with a scoped rifled slug barrel. Jot the buck jitters and shaved his belly hairs.
The next season, a sloppy, but strangely humane shot with a 50 cal muzzleloader. It was too far, about 140 yards, but got frustrated with no luck and took it. The herd looked like they all ran off. But, I ended up hitting one in the hip square in the fermual atery too. It drop like a rock in a small dip in the hillside. Kept looking for blood in the snow, nothing. then tracked back my shot to see the bullet hole in the snow. Dead button buck layed out in that dip.
A lot of deer has been harvested with muzzleloader and that one in particular. I take most of my days from work for hunting in December for it. Less people and snow cover. Much easier to find a decent spot in unfamiliar territory, tracking game is easier, seeing deer is cover is easier, and more times than not, walking is much quieter too.
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My oats are dead in my mixed cereal and legumes plot. Clover hasn't grown an inch in 2 weeks. I fell like my clovers going to die in 2 or 3 days. My food plot clean-up spot of winter rye and clover is doing good. However, it's by the septic tank leech field and it's a small 20x20 yard area, so I can give it a light drink with the well's capacity at the house.
This is in the Northeastern Catskills. How's your spot.
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I mainly use a Craftsman 18hp lawn tractor with weighted mud tires and a single row 3ft tow behind disc. Where it's flat enough to do so, I got a Kubota L3200 with front bucket and work rake. The York rake surprisingly makes a half decent seed bed off the bat. The front bucket sure is helpful for rocks and leveling off lumpy spots. Even dragging the bucket backwards can make a seed bed.
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Just curious about your adventures in this hobby/addiction/lifestyle......
I'll tell you about mine.
Where I hunt: I moved across the Hudson river to the catskill foothills, but still bowhunt in Columbia county. I am getting more on private land now. The public land I hunt has been getting better. It seems the DEC is more agreeable about logging out spots and I believe why and how they do it for habitat reasons. I also bow hunt over food plots now, so the deer hunting shots are easier and I get a tag or two knocked down in no time. I like to spend my October chasing the released pheasants. I also have the pleasure of being in a hunting club in the Adirondacks. My main archery place is not as it used to be, but is still good. The swamp behind the property has lowered about a foot. I used to get a massive bottleneck of deer because it was the only spot for about 2 miles where a deer could cross easily across the swamp. I think they're toughing it out on other spots, but still use my spot. Most years I get a PA hunting license. I like the late flintlock season in January and I am about 90 minutes east of the Upper Delaware river valley area. You got to really like hunting to put up with hunting in January.
What I hunt: I have been taking a shot on out of state lotterys like NH Moose and CO Elk. A bit pricey venture, but I think it would be worth it.
How I hunt: I've been going more primitive when it comes to gun hunting. I'm getting into old flintlocks, My distance hasn't decreased because I small lot and woods hunt, but I need to practice more because I only have 1 quick shot and I am using open iron sights. However, I have put 2 shots down on the same animal and harvested it once. I've also had the chance to shot a 2nd deer after reloading, if I desired to do it or had the extra tag for it.
Added things: As said before I added the hobby of building old flintlocks, but I'm also learning gardening skills, plant identification, as well as forestry techniques. My other hobby of hot rodding has drifted into getting a 4wd old car going so I can go there and tow my tractor or ATV in there too. I also added the interest in camping in the winter. With a woodstove outfitters tent of course. Now I can enjoy the outdoors year round.
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This is what I used to make that plot with.
http://www.tractorshed.com/gallery/uptest/a17690.jpg
I was thinking of this for the 32hp tractor. A 6ft s tine cultivator with 13 tines.
And this for the 18hp one. A 4ft C tine cultivator with 5 tines.
I have a 2x14" plow for the 32hp and 1x12" plow I welded onto the frame of a 4ft backblade.
Also, if you recommend disc cultivators, do you recommend the smooth front disc or the toothy type. Also, do you add weight to the discs. MY tractor is hydrostatic, so it only puts 24hp to the wheels versus a few more with the manual shift model. Think a 6ft double row be fine. My track is 6'3" wit the tires on the wider setting, it's loaded with beet juice, and I typically take the loader off when using it at my homesite food plot on the side of a mountain.
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I recently got a 1/2 acre spot ready for a friends woodlot. we used a 10ft 3pt spring harrow. It worked great at turning the first 2-3 inches of soil and loosened up the rocks so I didn't have to fight them out of the ground when hand picking them.
I thought this might be the ticket for the perfect one thing does it all food plot maintenance for clover, cereals grains, and maybe turnip plots.
I don't have any experience with discs on rocky soil that hasn't been picked yet. I got a cheesy set of 3ft tow behind single row discs, but these might be a good bit different than a 6ft 3pt disc setup.
I am haggling for a 40 acre spot near me with similar soil. I may do a 2-3 acre food plot there in a brushy overgrown field. However, I may just leave my 2wd 18hp Kubota there and get a separate implement for it. My SUV and single axle trailer can't handle the 32hp tractor, but it can for the 18hp one.
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I have a 1/2 acre clover plot I planted august of last year with a wheat and oat nursery crop. The stand is doing great, a bit of weeds, but mowing when they flowered helps a lot. I put down 2 bags of 6-24-24, 3lbs of borax very well mixed into 4 bags of lime. I also hand pull the bad weeds or spot eradicate them with the weedwacker.
Do you like to plant something else once the nitrogen is built up from the clover? Put something to kill the weeds? Or just freshen it up with maybe a light discing and a frost seed?
Every year I ad 1/4 to 1/2 acre to my overall plot size from cutting down firewood. I got another 2 years to go. I'd really like to not fuss much with the plot until the remaining food plot acerage is done. The plot in question still has big stumps in it. I picked out the rocks good enough to run a lawn tractor on high setting without breaking it. There are also a few large rocks the size of a loveseat I was too afraid to move with the tractor, but I am more comfortable with it's limits on hills now and can get them out of there.
I am shopping for a 6ft spring harrow for my 32hp Kubota. I got a single row 3ft lawn tractor disc, a 2x14" plow with coulters, and a 7ft York rake at my disposal. I know farmers use the spring harrows like discs, or drag one pass into existing fields to freshen them up, mix up fertilizer or lime in them, or to do a reseed, but keep the field going.
I got a 2 bottom plow, but I am afraid to use it there. Rocks and rocks and rocks........
I am on the fence about using herbicides. I'll use them if needed, but like to keep it down to a minimum. There is weeds, but not a weed problem that frequent mowing doesn't fix.
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I wonder why you don't seed winter rye in big name food plot mixes?
It just seems to be a perfect seed to grow for the market they're after. Easy germinating, doesn't need much if any fertilizer, can handle less than ideal pH, and roots go down deep.
Converting shotgun from deer to turkey
in Turkey Hunting
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Start collecting cardboard. I've had guns pattern good with a plain old full choke too.
A tight pattern is a small one. People miss birds close up because they don't know where it hits. Practice with plain target loads at 10 15 and 20 yards.
Start collecting cardboard. I draw lines to get square grids, then take 3 or 4 shots , then look at the pattern.
Far as hunting goes, use a decoy. also, tom come near a noise, but the hen is generally expected to seal the deal the last few yards or so.
I like the hen box call you put on your gun. You make the purr call of a happy hen.
Also, 100% camo, your face and hands. A netting hat can be a real good investment, bugs are out.
Focus early in the season. Toms seems to calm down early in may by me. That first day or weekend will be your best bet.
Toms are really repsonsive before opening day. Get out their with your calls and tempt them in.