sailinghudson25

No buck up there, but was able to get a decent one in ag crop land by the thruway. I was up there 3 long weekends. Passed up a little guy muzzleloader weekend. Kicked up several while being the "goose" on a one man drive. However, our spotters learned their escape routes much better now. So, next season this should be easier to do.... I trapped while hunting one weekend, so that added a little more fun to it. Overall, I had a good season. Our club regained the main loop trail after the loggers trashed it almost 3 years ago. That was awesome. Found a new beaver pond spot I didn't know existed. Found some great rub line veins from seasons past. I also got a mama moose and her 2 kids on the trail camera this year. Febuary of 2017 was my 1st rabbit hunt with experienced dogs, that was a hoot up there too.

Was excited to go beaver and mink trapping, target shooting, and rabbit hunting by the stillwater reservior. -22 deg F low temps and a girlfriend puking her guts out from a stomach bug. Guess I'll work on my flintlock kit a bit more this weekend......... -10 is my general limit up there.......

Well cleaned and oil free with brake cleaner or alcohol before use. One thing I do a touch differently. I leave my breech plug off my inline during storage. I clean the primer side of the hole with a 1/8th drill bit. I don't use any storage oil on the stainless breech plug, I put a tiny bit of the CVA lip balm style never sieze on the threads. On my "modernish" flintlock's like a thompson renegade or a lyman great plains rifle, they have a patent chamber. Both flintlock ansd percussion have this The last inch of the bore is about 36 caliber. It's meant ot make a hotter intiall temperature to make more pressure out of the same powder. But, it's a bastard to keep clean after use. I use a breech face brush to clean out this area. I use a regular bore brush with a small patch on the end to clean the area as well. I use that same brush with a bit of brake cleaner or rubbing alcohol to remove any storage oil from the area before hunting. I also remove the flash hole or precussion nipple end use alcohol or brake cleaner to remove any and all oil. After I did this, I have had very few if any problems. I also increased the flash hole size in my flintlocks to 1/16th of an inch. Makes a huge difference with the hawkens type modern day ones..... I use real blackpowder in my inline too..... Stuff not only works great, but is much cheaper too. I only use 70 grains in my thomspon center omega with harvester sabots and a 44 mag hornady XTP hollowpoint. Still hits good at 150......

1st year doing any sort of food plots in columbia county. I cultivated a poor soil spot with a spring cultivator during the warm spell in febuary. Added lime, fertilizer, and a hodge podge mix of red, ladino, and dutch white clover. Deer loved it in the spring and summer. Over the spring, I rototilled a spot of lawn and made a ladino clover plot with some oats mixed in. Then in the fall, I sprayed with glyphosate, added more clover and turnips. The deer are loving that right now. Although they did take a break mid rifle until a week or two ago. Might be me moving the dogs to the house at that time though..... I can't shoot at any angle in this spot. I screwed up by planting a small spot of red clover in september. This spot is prepping for a vegetable garden. The deer loved that little spot during rifle season....... Did my muzzleloader trick again...... last few days of rifle season, cut down two nice maple trees. Then add a nice flintlock and a canister full of coffee. Drink coffee, shoot flintlock, then drag deer.......... A week after you cut them down, then cut the higher branches lower. If I can't completely chunk the tree, then I cut them into 6ft sections to let them dry quicker..... I usually need 6 good sized maples for a winter's worth of wood. I cut 2 in december, 2 in january, and 2 in febuary. I generally wait until a cold snap to help out the deer.

Great comments here so far. I shoot woodswalk blackpowder competitions, all offhand. A few thing I learned.... Some people shoot well offhand with a shotgun stance, some shoot well with a rifle stance. Basically, rifle stance is both your feet at a right angle to the target. Shotgun stance is off maybe 20 degrees. Basically take an unloaded gun and mount it to you. With your eyes closed twist left and right, feel the strain. Get right between the extremes of strain and focus on your center, where it feels your not forcing it at all either left or right. This stance can be more helpful on a moving target. Remember to maintain rifle movement on a moving target. I shoot plenty, I personally feel 150 on live game offhand is not advised. Focus on 75 or less. With any gun or shooting style. The distance I can comfortably shoot a 6 inch gong most of the time, then cut 33% off that distance. That's how far I shoot with that stance or firearm. IF you spook a deer at 100 or 150 in the woods, then you werent stalk hunting that well. IF you see one, you got enough time to find a tree. Also, practice those leaning against a tree shots. Either offhand or supported, practice like it's a deer there. Slow and smooth movements. Start every shot fresh.... Unmount the gun, step out of your stance, then step back into your stance, mount, and shoot. Your practice rifle should be the same as your hunting rifle. 22lr rifles are too light, I added lead into the stock on both ends of my marlin bolt gun to match my hunting rifle. I did the same with my CZ 455 to match my flintlock rifle. Make sure the gun has similar trigger action and use the same optics. I actually add trigger pull weight to some guns, and tune trigger to act similiarly to another gun. Same kind of crosshairs, similiar magnification, or the same sight style if using iron sights. It's much easier to own a bunch of guns than it is to become really good at shooting one gun........ Usually, the best flintlock shooters own the least rifles...... When I do shoot, I reload quickly, but smoothly, and get the gun back on target. Most times I only do that. Also, folks screw up the safety method they use. Practice the method you use, either it be chambering a round, cocking the hammer back, or moving the safety. We get dumb when we see a nice buck, but we do perform like we practice. If we don't practice, then we dont know what happens. I shoot plywood deer with metal gongs as vitals, and shoot small paper deer. Stalk hunt squirrels. You get months and months to practice, you get many more chances to harvest one, and you have to get a bit closer to get them with a 22.... A real good stalk hunter will enjoy squirrels as much as deer. Camo up your face and your hands...... The year I started doing that, deer and squirrel hunting got a bit easier........

Belo, how's your other items in hunting doing? A lack of an ATV if needed. Rifle and muzzleloader good. No complaints in the clothing dept, or good pair of binos. Got a decent treestand collection. A extra treestand in the right place can produce better results than replacing a perfectly good used bow. Maybe buying a good rototiller or a high quality weedwacker might be an improvement...... I upgraded from a 1994 hoyt to a hoyt turbohawk in 2011 or so. My old bow shot better...... IF anything on new bows, I think their cam profiles in the 75%+ let-off have improved. I like easier to hold drawn for a longer period of time more, than more velocity.......

I cut a tree or two of maple towards the end of rifle. One year cut down and chunked the main trunk 2 big maples trees mid day. Harvested a deer feeding on it towards sunset the same day. Noise can make them as curious as they can be weary. You can do plot work too. I scratch the frozen ground to kill some grass and then frost seed. Commercial farmers add lime in the winter too. If the place is new to you, scouting common tracks in the snow can really pay off next season.

Stibborn1, Have a Forrester check out the logging at that farm. Focus on cover and bedding. Also, focus on making quiet and secluded travel routes for the hunter to their spot. Brushy zig zags...

They're nice. But I think people push the extreme edge with these. They cost a ton, I have seen tons of great 150-200 yard shooters from basic muzzleloaders a third of the price. Each their own. I get picked on enough for using flintlocks even in rifle season.... I even use real blackpowder in my omegs I stead of substitutes.

Right hand

Looking for a bow maybe $200 or under to get a guy into deer hunting. Trade items: -summit viper stand -New in box game camera fieldgame innovation 8 I think it 's called. Maybe 1 year old still in box. -or most any hunting or shooting related item. Got tons of stuff I rarely shoot or use.....

Well, I've learned a few things from this new spot and got reminded of some older stuff I forgot. Overall, I was happy. 1.) Deer love turnips. They hammered them. There's still plenty of bulbs there for later in the season. I sprayed my grassy weedy clover plot, then put the turnips and clover on a lightly scratched soil. They grew fine. Also, when there apples around, they don't care much for the clover. 2.) dutch clover works. I planted a new strip where I am putting in white spruce for privacy. They are hitting it good. 3.) if the season is late, put some red clover down. The deer are enjoying this spot I put red clover down. I sprayed and tilled the area then put the clover down to prep a regular garden area. 4.) This spot is a large backyard converted to a food plot. I have a ground blind 15 yards from a row of apple trees. Good scent free practices and being mindful of the wind pay off well. I got busted several times before I wised back up. 5.) I put a lot of time in trying to get one with a bow. No luck, they came too late or busted me in the early season. However, a lone doe came in a bit too early this sunday...... She did not like the sound of my 450 marlin. Piled up about 70 yards away. Quartering towards shot carefully placed. Punched a lung, poked a hole in the heart, and trashed the liver, It barely punched through the diagphram, but didn't open the guts up. All that carnage and she still ran. Barely a blood trail...... Found her by wandering in the dark. Didn't take long though. This winter I am frost seeding clover around the apple trees and in the turnip clover plot. In april I will be planting red dogwood and white cedar that didn't make it the 1st year. I might add a layer of white spruce around this 70x25 yard corner of a big 200x70 yard backyard. I'm also building a better blind I can shoot through a hole in.

Congratulations. Bow hunting harvests can go really well or really bad. Take clean reasonable ranged shots on calm animals and you'll do good. I focus on bow season, then take rifle casually, then get back to serious hunting once muzzleloading season comes around.

I moved to the catskill mountains about 7 years ago. This is what helped me there.... Talk to the DEC forester. Find a place where they have logged a few years ago. Sometimes the local soil and water conservation has done transplant projects alongside rivers. This is where I would look into. a spot that was logged 5 years ago is ideal. Not every spot is forever wild. Variety s the spice of life. IF something looks different that most of it, check out that area. An open spot on the edge of thick brush. Swamp edges, a general flat area with a lumpy spot on it, and of course peaks with plenty of space on top. Deer can almost go up or through just about anything. IF you own a small boat or canoe, you can get to a remote spot with much less effort in some cases. Also, alot of what is desried about the ADK's can be adapted to the catskill mountains. You can take what you learned up there and do it down here, if thats closer to you. I hunt on a logging lease near stillwater reservior. But, just recently hunted near the northern/southern border. Seen lots of good potential there. What are you looking for an amazing deer rarely seen by man, or a bit more lucrative hunt. IT is nice to see new places, but focusing in one area and learning it over the years can be very fruitful.

IT could work.... IF something ain't working try something else. I find good travel cooridors and hunt the frist 2 or 3 hours of the day, then still hunt. Then stand hunt closer to the cabin the last hour or so. Summer scouting, keeping to one or two general areas, and a jorunal pays of dearly. Id spots where there's good mast potential. A nice spot of beech trees. What parts of the swamp edges have good soft mast. etc.... When a deer goes gih or low to get around a cliff section, they still enjoy cover or atleast like walking through it for browse. Knowing that, I think it would be hard to find them. I would hunt the edge sections atleast. Where a deer deciedes to go go up or below. IF you do deciede to hunt low and glass high. I would definitely prep that spot with shooting and viewing lanes. Bumping into a lucky spot might be tough. KNowing the deer on my logging lease. They will take advantage of every little low drip, track of young brush, even a natural culvert drain edge. I do appreciate you trying to stay low to hunt high. Going high without any weather advantages usually just means they gonna bust you.

Where are these 25mph winds. I am hunting about 30 min East of Utica by canajoharie. 8-10mph winds. Rains kicks in around 9am or so. IF you're around other trees, putting up that umbrella will be fine. One of my treestands is a thin line of trees between 2 cornfields. Deer might pick up that umbrella there. I'd like to hunt that spot, but might not be a good idea. I have a 30 inch tall or so shooting rest I covered up with brnaches for a blind. That's in a wider tree lined area between two fields. I might be better off there. The real trick is to have 2 or 3 places to hunt that got you covered between different wind directions, weather, and any unknowns. Like a nieghbor just put a stand right by yours, they started logging in that area, Heck i went to a hunting spot once and there was a car accident near a stand I was hunting. No chance of getting a deer with fire trucks lights on......

When I first bought my property, I did not have any food plots or other places that offered good hunting. A few days before muzzleloading season, I'd cut down one or two maple trees. Then I'd hunt over them. When I do cut trees down, I try to do them in the winter. I try to do them in early to mid january, so the bucks loose their sheds in them trying to get to the last of the buds. A week later, I come back and cut down the high ones. If another tree might topple over the one you just cut, I usually cut all the limbs off the trunk. I also cut the trunk as much into firewood chunks as I have time for. Atleast cut them into 6 to 8 footers to let them dry out quicker. Not a sustainable options, but if you gonna cut them down, might as well have wildlife benefit from it...... Also, on the DEC shrubs. Expcet 20% of them to be on the small side. I plant the little guys all close to each other, so I can transplant them in a year or two.......

No need to scope...... Check out the lyman 57 peep sight. I have them on a lyman GPR flintlock and thompson center renegade, both in 54 cal. You might need to drill and tap one hole, but it's through the tang instead of the barrel. With the peep and glow in the dark painted front sight, I can shoot about 20 minutes past dusk in the PA forests. The peep comes with a hunter and target sight. I take the target sight and drill it fully open. IF I remember, about .160". I still can have holes touch at 100 yards from a bench with that big hole. IT looks like lyman discontinued it, but several places still have it for sale. optics planet is one. B&H photo might sell them too. I'd be glad to loan out the drill bit and tap incase you need it.

I like the older garming GPS that use AA batteries. Color is cute, but black and white lasts much longer on a battery. One if not 2 GPS's. I own three and let folks borrow them for safety. 2 flashlights that use the same batteries, and a tiny watch cell light. One light is real bright, and the other uses less power so it lasts longer. Spare batteries too. a safety pin mount compass on my pack, a quality compass in my bag. two ways to light a fire, plus some sort of fire starting medium, like waxed sawdust. Extra hat, pair of gloves, and socks. No food but one or two extra bottles of water. I went to a logger supply store and bought other than orange colored marking tape. Please remove it if possible or practical. As I go deeper in the woods, it use the knot to point where I go to get out of the woods. If hanging from a branch, i use a smaller tail section pointing out. I almost got lost in early april. My hunting lease got logged. So, I wander up the main trail about 1/4 mile to my little foodplot trail camera spot. Got turned around from the trail be littered with tree tops from logging. Found my way back, but I didn't have squat except a flashlight. Now I bring my pack out the first night I go out to set traps or check cameras. I mostly hunt my logging land lease and I know it well, but you never know. MY bowhunting safety instructor had his knee blow out in a swamp 200 yards from a busy road when duck hunting. He spent part of the night out there..... I dont bring any overnight food, but tend to bring an extra snack or two. I also bring raingear no matter what the weatherman says for that day. 70 degrees or 30 degrees... Novermber and no raingear if it rains overnight, good chance you wont make it till dawn...... For communication I bring a very small 2 meter ham radio or a GMRS radio, both take AA batteries. Ham radio If I'm alone and got a repeater site available, or the GMRS if I am with folks. I also have a whistle with me too. IF you do have a cell phone, despite the fact it has no signal, still sned a message to someone your lost, your condition, and guess at location and heading. IF you do get a small blip of cell service, that phone will periodically try to send that message out for hours..... I do this at work when I need to communciate at remote sites in the catskills. MY advice over the years. Set boundaries, stay inside of the stream, or this road. Let the boundary be your easy way out. MY club is on the west side of a north south road. Just walk east..... Also, for folks who have familiar place you go with others. Make names for things. This swampy spot is called so-n-so. Our club has 4 hills. 5 beaver ponds, 2 streams, 3 logger landings, and 3 deep brushy areas. Without names, it's easy to mix up where someone went. Dont assume folks in your group know how to use a compass. Quiz them on how to get out of the woods with a compass. I tell folks 3 things about my club. Sun in your face to get out in the morning, sun at your back to get out at night. The red needle stays to the left to get out. All these things are east. Since we are not too far away from a road, listening for vehicles helps too. IF we are out looking for people, we leave the generator running and a radio on. If someone cant go ino the woods for whatever reason. Having them periodically honk their horn can be real helpful... Another thing.... Don't be dead set on you needing to go way out for a deer. The nicest buck ever shot in 30 years at my club was right from the clubhouse door, which was 70 yards from the road. Especially on public land, deer enjoy the road edges for browse. There's some monster bucks way in, but there's nice ones close to the road. Rather than using parking places to enter. I either park on the side of the road, or leave my gear there and high tail it to that spot, then enter the woods. Just circling a small pond's swampy edges can be real successful. Also, make sure your footwear suits your feet well. Loose realy warm boot can roll in your feet and cause you to slip. Also, finding a gun that has a really convient safety it good too. I use lever guns and leave them at half cock. I find that to be real easy and quiet.

Nice groups rachunter. You paint the front sight yet? Those dark sights are tough on edge of daylight shots. MY renegade in 54 cal flint can't load .015 and .535's. I went down to .530's and a .018" patch. If you harvest, show us a pic of what these old timer's guns can do.

I shoot my entire bullet, sabot, primer, and powder for about 64 cents a shot. Hornady XTP 240gr 44 mag bullets 27 bucks per 100 harvester sabot 7 bucks per 50. remington STS primer, plain old shotgun primer $6 per 100 70grs goex FFFg, real blackpowder, $17 for 100 shots (7000grains/lb). Techincally, pyrodex is more corrosive than real blackpowder, and is harder to remove the fouling. I get the gun cleaned in well under 10 minutes. The gun shoots cloverleafs at 100 yards. I have harvested deer at 175 yards with 90grs FFFg blackpowder. I went down to 70grs to keep recoil low for a lady shooter. I use real blackpowder because I also hunt in PA's late flintlock season. Blackpowder is the most reliable powder to use. Actually the black piece on the pyrodex pellets is real blackpowder, to help it ignite reliably. I sight in the gun annually and it's my loaner gun to others. Last year In 6 days, the gun took 5 deer between a few friends of mine. I exclusively hunt with my flintlock now. I even use it during regular rifle season too on good weather days. I've use hornady / TC shockwave before, the hornady XTP hollowpoints expand much better than the 250gr shockwaves. And they kick less than the 300gr shockwaves. I have shot them with 100grs triple seven FFFg formulation. It doesn't shoot too fast where you have problems with the handgun bullets falling apart, or keyholinh paper at 100 yards. I have a 45long colt levergun I handload XTP's for and they work great too.

Toringo crabapple. NYSDEC tree sale in april. Think they're around $66 for 100. Deer love white cedar. Great combintion of cover and food. They're young from them foot tall or so. http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/9395.html I bought prarie willow, chestnut, red dogwood, white cedar, and white spruce from them. This year will be more dogwood, white spruce, and white cedars. IF the bill isn't too nuts, I'm adding toringo crabapple to it. Going to pick up pussy willow or adler for my northen spot up in 6J. The trees come to you local soil and water conservation office 3rd weekend in april.

They'll take a long long time to grow to the point where they'll produce mast... American chestnut, red dogwood, alder, white cedar, and fruit trees will bring in deer much quicker. Saw oak is a quick producer too. Your best bet is cultivate them and then transplant them. Many of them will not survive competition. Even vines just choking them out.

Find a hunting spot near an ATV club. Ride on their land, hunt on your own. Maybe a place near snowmobile trails possibly. Pick the right spot near Agriculture and you just put up stands and be quiet. The smaller the parcel, the more you need to be quiet and have the cabin secluded from the rest of the property. Personally, I am looking for something near some good canoeing and fishing, like the delaware river. Variety is the spice of life. Mixture of elevations, woods, water. Food plots will attract deer, but if the place is little else than a food plot, they'll be there real early in the season, or they'll just be there late at night. Cover and seclusion attract deer more in my opinion.... But, when they get out of their beds, they need to eat. If it has a south facing hill, even better........... Whatever you go with, leave 2 acres or a bit more completely alone. Brushy with a little bit of hilltop. If the spot is not thick, work on making it like that. Clear cut mature trees and let it brush up, or if it's a young forest area hinge cut then down... If it's all field leave a section in the middle alone. Nobody goes in there. Just like a teenager's bedroom. No one's gonna be happy if you go in there.........

They will travel through cover as much as they can. They do in any place you find deer. Those 4ft tall brushy grassy logging trail not only provide cover for bedding and travel, can be a source of food. Any beech nuts? Look up how to ID a beech tree by it's bark and leaves. IF you see some 12" diameter or so ones, they'll be a good food source to check out. I hunt big woods in PA. Spots that are only a few feet taller here n there are usually good bedding spots. Especially a low branched white pine. Check out anything unusual, even a fluke large windfall tree can have an antler sticking out above it....... Deer need browse to live on. If it's windy, places that conceal the wind will have more deer. IF anything, wander with your face to the wind atleast....... That alone will triple your chances easily if your on foot. If you do not see features in the forest, walk slower. Just like a man who's on deserted island, he will use anything to his advantage. Little low spots, like a dried up stream bed. If he's got a foot deep depression or so, he'll prefer to use it. If you notice a vein of lower browse, follow along it. Atleast follow the creek to see common deer crossings.