nyslowhand

If I recall correctly, there's a few great videos on YouTube about what to do after you've fallen & suspended by your safety vest. Do yourself a favor and plan out this situation, being suspended in mid-air could be as disastrous as any fall. Those seat & back rest cushions, arm or gun rail pads are a PITA. I collect mine every year after the season. They're attached with Velcro or bungee cords and removing them will prolong their usefulness a few years. I've replaced some pads with pipe insulation and (camo) duct taped it to keep moisture off the foam. FYI - Carry a seat cushion to your ladder stand each hunt. Nothing will shorten a hunt faster than sitting on a wet cushion!!! Do yourself a favor when replacing ratchet straps & splurge on better, stronger ones, at least the 1500/2000# ones. Be surprised how much more secure they will attach the stand to the tree than the ~600# cheapo ones supplied with the stand! Also, replace that skimpy rope the mfger supplies with the stand with thicker rope. They go from each side of upper ladder section, criss-cross around the tree and back to bottom of ladder. BTW - Lot of great threads on this forum over the years about ladder stands; safety, maintaining them, where to locate or orientate them, hiding their outline or camo-ing them, how to erect them safely & easily, etc.

^^Ditto above, NO surprises! With the current events of the past couple of years, can imagine most LEOs might tend to be on edge during any routine traffic stop. Legalities aside - I prefer to not have a Glock pointed at me, so I'm declaring any weapons in the vehicle and my hands on the wheel or out the window as they approach! Just me...!

Has to be some outfitters in the ADKs..!??!

As much as I hate CNN, they did give great advice before collecting the winnings,...if you win. Hire a local attorney to strictly research for the best tax attorney and financial advisor available. Change your name, move and go off the grid. Winnings can go into anonymous accounts that can have withdrawals taken anonymously. You'll still be found...! Extravagant purchases draw attention! Naturally, get very good investment advice!! No NBA, NFL, NHL, MSL, NASCAR. etc teams. None of the above done using a relative, neighbor or friend! God forbid, but you may wish you had a pre-nup..!?! BTW - They also went into a few nightmares of pooled ticketholders winning the big one. Can get ugly with $Ms on the line!

Ahh, the old "a dollar and a dream" fantasy! Just to be clear, it's now ~$1.5B paid out over 29yrs, pre-tax $. Or ~$8-900M in a cash payment, also pre-tax $. Not that you'd be in your right mind if you won, but the annual payments would at least guarantee money for many years and you wouldn't be so tempted to blow it all at once. What a decision to have to make..! The other side of winning..!?! You'd have relatives you've never met, in-laws you despise, HS bullies now posing as friends, every snake-oil salesman wanting s/u money, all the ghosts of your past - Everyone looking for you with their hands out!!! Not sure how'd you be able to go off the grid!??! This is a multi-state lottery, so not sure how your name would remain anonymous!?! Oh yeah, someone mentioned they'd continue working... WTH. Larry302 - You're now on the FBI's watch list. but I'd chip-in for the pediphile & rapist hunts.

Although I don't fulfil the OP's criteria, I do try to hunt mature bucks or ones that provide a thrilling experience. The buck of my lifetime hangs on a neighbor's wall from the 2013 season. Did a lot of grumbling & cursing that neighbor, but it didn't stop me from hunting the past two years, or the next 10! At least for me the great thing about hunting is not knowing what'll step out of the brush when those big boys are ranging far & wide!

Congrats! BTW - There are safety concerns with a crossbow that you don't see/use with long guns or vertical bows. Just saying - Be aware of them!

Probably already know this, but just in case: http://nysipm.cornell.edu/factsheets/treefruit/diseases/as/as.asp Captan is probably the most widely used and available OTC, but a super diluted form of the product used in big orchards. May be other OTC products for fungicide control.

Yeah, you'd hope so! Problem is ALL the major news sources are promoting anti-gun sentiment in their effort to sensationalize the situation to boost rating, solicit advertising &/or justify their 24/7 on-air time. CNN is the worst offender!!

Ditto the above! Found this excerpt from the above link interesting! Sort of a disclaimer to all the whitetail vision science posted. "But it’s one thing to dissect a deer’s eye and make inferences from what you find; it’s something entirely different to have deer tell us what they see."

Like an idiot, I tried to carry my Xbow to/from my stands like a gun the 1st year. Super bulky, heavy & cumbersome!!! I now use a Quake Claw sling and love it!!! Of course your Xbow must have the gun type quick detach mounts available. There are probably lots of other great slings available. Like everyone else mentioned, there is a certain mind-set or technique to carrying a Xbow slung over the shoulder that you have to adapt when walking thru the woods, thicket, etc. Once I get s/u in the stand, always check for any twigs, leaves, etc I might have unknowingly snagged on my walk to the stand, esp near the area of the cams. Also if you happen to use mechanical BHs, make sure they are still snug in their relaxed position!

A suggestion for your existing stands...I use a single orange surveyor's flag to note 25yrd ranges and hang double flags in spots that I can actually shoot out to 40yrds. This gives me a better idea of the range w/o reaching for the rangefinder. Have no suggestions for turkey hunting, haven't attempted that yet.

Too early to put in an order for a Katana? Anyways..very cool hobby!

Correct, any of the (root) sucker growth or what you're assuming is growth from seeds will not produce Empire apples. Most apple trees are hybrids (so to speak), specific varieties grafted onto a donor rootstock. Might want to consider going to a nursery and buying Empire saplings if that's what you want. At least this way you would have some predictable expectations from your effort & time. Your original plan of transplanting will take several years before you actually know what you have.

Whatever happened to the days when we simply went out into the woods and hoped for the best? How in the world did we ever harvest any deer? Is it - lifestyle changes, time constraints, harvest expectations, technological advances, peer or social media pressure....? At least for me, if I needed to be as scientific a hunter as some of you it'd take all the fun out of deer hunting! BUT, do whatever you need to do to get the expected results from the hunt you want.

Hunt a single 60ac piece of private property, so I quit doing the DEC's hunting surveys due to supplying them with misleading data. EX; May have reported to the DEC seeing possibly 100+ deer over the 45-50 day bow season, BUT it was basically the same 8-10 deer seen numerous times. Misleading over-population input!???! Trail cam photos/videos provide the inventory info I use to predict the best stand locations or re-locations. Don't chase the buck sightings, rather try to s/u where the does are most likely to frequent or reside. Routine photos of bucks in the summer & early fall timeframe are fun to see them grow bone and super encouraging, but as we all know their pretty unpredictable after the velvet comes off. Mostly use them as motivation for those long sits in the stand...what if!!!! Do keep a personal journal noting times hunted, stand location, sightings noted with their travel direction, specifically what I saw (doe, fawn, yearling, small or BB, etc), unusual behavior and any other applicable notes like weather/wind/etc. Don't find this info particularly useful for the current season, but it has shown historical trends in their feeding travel routes, nocturnal patterns and when & where bucks begin cruising. As much as we'd like to turn deer hunting into a science project, it pretty much comes down to the luck of the draw, being in the right place at the right time! I'm a devote KISS follower, NO not Gene Simmons! Keep it as simple as possible w/o getting overly scientific. I find rack &/or wgt measurements, jaw bone analysis etc just too much useless info for how I hunt or what I expect from the hunting experience.

Simply out of curiosity... selling them because you don't think they work or you've finally found the perfect one? FYI - Those that are concerned about sharing spit, Listerine will solve that issue!

Typically when a crossbow mfger suggests some bolt/BH combination, it's usually because they've tweaked this s/u to make the supplied scope function across different yardage X-hairs/dots.

I've learnt to avoid viewing the reader's comments because they tend to be from the overly opinionated subscribers with unfounded observances and get my blood boiling.

Slightly off topic but... A lashing rope will remove a lot of this anxiety and I'm not referring to those cheapo 1/4" ropes supplied, similar to all the other crappy hardware included with ladder stands. Do yourself a favor before erecting the stand and buy a thicker rope. Depending on ladder stand's height, usually takes 2X - 20-25' lengths of rope. Tie one end to top of ladder section, just below the platform on each side. Using your normal procedure, after you get the ladder stand up against the tree, rotated slightly if needed and get platform to appear to be as level as possible.,,run those ropes tightly around the tree and back to vert ladder sections near ~2nd rung of the ladder (on each side) and cinch it. Before doing this I'm hoping you've put flat rocks or a section of ~10"w/24"l PT plank under the base of the ladder. Or at least put all your weight onto the 1st rung and driven the ladder into the ground somewhat. I've also found that temporarily installing the horiz brace & attaching it with a ratchet around the tree. Criss-crossed back to each side of the ladder at ~5-6' high takes some more of the freestanding instability away. At times I've also gone up for the 1st time after doing all the above with a long ratchet strap run around the tree and each end in my hands. Cautiously going up the ladder as far as your nerves (or branches) will allow and then temporarily attach to ladder, again criss-crossing straps between the tree and vertical ladder sections. I usually make it to just below the platform when doing this. Trust me, I've venture up many ladder stands w/o any of the above precautions and it can be...nerve wracking to say the least!!! Prefer to not put my heart thru this adrenaline filled experience, so I take the time & added expense to do it in a safer manner.

.... or the couple of times she justifies why she hunts as being a "meat-hunter". Gotta call BS on that one.

As mentioned, Evercalm is a cover scent and will generally not draw deer to your location. I used it for a couple years and really didn't notice any difference when using it or not. Like fasteddie mentioned, $20 will buy a big bottle of scent-free spray! By all means, if you're using it & think it works - keep using it!

Double, DUH!!! This took a federally funded research project to bring this to light? Amazing (sarcasm)...! Surprised that with their infinite wisdom, the DEC hasn't closed coyote season in NYS to help with their assumed whitetail over population..!

Another problem..remembering where the heck you put them out! Esp if you have different properties or relocate them frequently. I have a GPS map of property w/magnets to ID where cams are placed. Doesn't help that I have CRS.

Spouse OJT 101, NO appliances or household items for Christmas or esp birthdays. If it isn't bling, taste or smell good, forget it. Okay, maybe a few exceptions to this rule! Bet those robotic sweepers would drive a family pet crazy!