steve863

Looks like they aren't as "fast" as their daddy? LOL

Overall finish wise, I don't think guns are what they used to be. It seems like you see many more tooling marks on firearms these days compared to the past. Accuracy wise, I don't think guns have ever been better. Even inexpensive ones can outshoot guns that were in the higher price ranges in the past. So these days we get the good and the bad as far as guns go.

I hunted in Texas twice back in the early 90's. At that time you didn't need a darned thing to get a hunting license other than your drivers license. We stopped off at a WalMart on our way to the ranch from the airport and simply picked one up. They didn't ask for my NYS hunting license or safety certificate or anything. I don't know if it's still that way, although knowing that we are talking about Texas, I'd bet it's still that easy.

I don't know G-Man, I would think some of the fawns that do frequent his food plot were bucks. You would think some of them would be showing up the next year as spikes or small racked bucks. Maybe big bucks can do disappearing acts, but the young bucks are many times less wary than does. To me it simply doesn't make sense that there are no bucks to be seen in an area that sees plenty of does and fawns. Where there is does, sooner or later a buck will be seen.

Actually if you were to go to the new CitiField where the Mets now play, you would think the Dodgers WERE still in NY. The park was made to look like Ebbets Field and even has the entrance dedicated to Jackie Robinson and is called the J Robinson rotunda. More tributes to the old Dodgers than there are to past Met players. Which is actually understandable since the Mets have been nothing but a bunch of losers for close to 50 years! LOL

Well, maybe I am, but if you even have food plots and see plenty of does and fawns, I don't know if anyone will be able to give you a definitive answer to why there are no bucks around. I think in such an environment there should be some around. I hunt a place that is 180 acres and mountainous, with NO food plots and doesn't exactly hold many deer at all, and I have NO cameras on it at all to monitor it, yet I still manage to see at least one buck almost every year in the limited time I spend up there and even have killed one the past 7 seasons straight and a good many others in the years before that although I do predominately hunt with a gun. In general I really don't see too many deer on this property at all. In my opinion I think your setting is better than mine, so why there are no bucks around on yours is surely a BIG mystery.

Well, not seeing a 6 or an 8 pointer in 8 years surely IS possible in many places around the state. I think hunting in a place like Putnam where you hunt is not an example of what it's like for everyone out there. Go to some deep mountainous regions of the Catskills and Adirondacks and it is VERY possible.

OK, so if you have seen bucks within range during hunting season, it doesn't sound likes it's as bad as your making it out to be. It's only a matter of time then And if you really want to put one down, pick up a gun. I'm sure you'd get one.

So it sounds like you haven't even had a shot at a buck during the hunting season for the last 8 years on your property if you aren't getting pictures of them?? Gosh, I'd be pretty disappointed if it was me in your shoes. You'd think a buck should have shown itself somewhere in that time frame, especially since does have been seen.

That sounds like a great deal, WNY, but since I already ordered the mouth call I think I'll give that a try. I checked out some on-line videos and it doesn't look too hard to use those rabbit in distress mouth calls. If all else fails, I will let someone stick me with a pointy object and maybe I will sqeal loud enough to attract every coyote in the county? LOL

I'm sure they work great, but I surely ain't gonna spend that kind of money just to kill one coyote or fox pelt that my wife wants. I bought an inexpensive mouth call. I'd sooner let someone stick me with a sharp object to make me sqeal than pay a good amount of money on an electronic call I may be using once or twice! LOL

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I have ordered a rabbit in distress call from Cabelas, so if I get the chance I will give it a sqeal. I'll let you know how I make out.

Geno, I hope you're singing along with us!! Kum bay yah my lord, Kum ba YAAAHH!!! LOL

I think this calls for my favorite link, you know the one. The one of me and Doewhacker singing when we were children! Enjoy!!

Every hobby or pastime has a cost associated with it. The 2K that someone pays for a lease would be this cost, thus many will never see it as money wasted. Yes, if you buy land you can potentially make a profit on it, but I honestly have yet to see anyone make out like a bandit selling hunting land. The only people who might have made a decent amount of money were those who sold it to developers who in turned turned hunting land into a row of houses, malls, or any suburban type developments. That surely doesn't help hunters or hunting in the long run either. The very same thing could happen to the land right next to yours, so YOUR hunting land might not be the same pristine setting a few years down the road from when you bought it. Of course everyone looks at it from their own perspectives and does what they think is best for them, that is why this thread turned into a good one. Many points have been brought out that one should consider before making a final decision on buying.

That is for darned sure!! What is the divorce rate? Close to 50%? I doubt hunting is top priority for most of these families. Stuff like this is surely NOT PETA's fault either or any other such anti-hunting group who many like to blame for huntings demise. The times are just changing and hunting in not what it once was for people. If we want to take it even further, since when has hunting actually become a pastime? Maybe since the early 1900's in this country although in europe it may have started earlier by the nobility. The rest of time in human history hunting was done for either subsistence or for market hunting. So why should anyone think that hunting as we have known it in our lifetimes has been something that has been around forever?? It surely has not been. So maybe it's simply a human pastime that is slowly just going by the wayside with other new things coming in to fill humans needs for enjoyment??

No kidding! You'd have to be nuts to buy land in any of those counties exclusively for hunting. Well look at it this way. If we all come up to hunt your 1 acre, any deer that might come in has absolutely NO chance of escaping alive. One of us 20 hunters is bound to put a bullet or arrow into it!! There will surely be some backstrap for supper every day we are all up there! Mmmm yummy! Thanks Geno for inviting us! LOL

I'm sure you are right. That is why Putnam or Westchester would be the LAST place in the world I would ever buy hunting land in even if I were loaded with money. These counties to me are suburbia. I really have very little interest in hunting in suburbia, never mind actually buying land in it to hunt. Putnam and Westchester are a far cry from what I consider a true country setting.

Well, you are right on Dutchess county being over built. I can't see it going back the other way, though? Plus, the cost of land in Dutchess isn't in the same ballpark as land in other regions. One would have to cough up big money even for a few acres. Most people will probably buy land for hunting elsewhere where they get more for their money.

Who's stopping him?? It's his money and he could do whatever he wants with it. The thread just sort of took a turn in the pros and cons of owning land just for hunting, that's all.

Holy Jesus, I'd better run home and hug the wife and kids. The world just might be coming to an end! LOL Now only if VJP would crawl in and also agree, then there will be NO doubt that we are all doomed to hell!! LOL

Very true, but if the place is too far away, the trek will get OLD real fast. Children grow quickly, go to school, get into so many activities these days, there is less and less time to regularly go to a place a good distance away. I have seen it all before. I couldn't imagine having my wife and kids make a long trek weekly, monthly or even every other month. Everyone is different of course, but I for one would never count on wives and kids to like going back to the same place for any lengthy period of time. If you are going to use something for family vacationing purposes only once or twice a year, then you are WAY better off just renting a country house somewhere for a week or two at a time. Will cost you NOTHING in comparison to buying, maintaining and paying taxes on a place of your own.

Good points, Virgil. I don't think I'd like the uncertainty of whether or not someone was going to let me tag along or not, but like was mentioned in another thread, there is also plenty of state land these days that goes virtually unused if all else fails. After opening weekend many of these places are almost untouched. I pretty much hunt these days just to get a little venison for the freezer. I know a lot of state land isn't prime deer habitat, but I am still confident enough in my hunting ability that I could bag something on it if I absolutely didn't have any other place to go. If it were only $800 in taxes for 20 acres of land I'd bet we would all own some. The big problem is the initial cost of the land. To pay some of the prices I have seen for nothing but woods, just isn't worth it in my opinion.

I do consider myself lucky, since me and my uncle pay a friend of ours $800 each for the exclusive use of his house and 180 acres of land for the entire hunting season. Now where would I get that much land along with a house on it for less than $800 in taxes per year?? Nevermind what the initial cost of such a property would be! Yeah, it's probably not the greatest hunting land in the state, but with persistence we have never gone deerless in any season up there. Yeah, I realize that this friend could one day sell this land or decide not to let us use it. That is always a possibility, but until that happens I myself could never justify buying even an acre of land for hunting. Even the smallest piece of land would end up costing me way more, plus all the other headaches associated with owning it. If I one day ended up without a place to hunt, I would sooner go on an outfitted hunt somewhere each year, than pay thousand upon thousands for the property and taxes for something I will be using only a few weeks out of each year.

OK, then it's a scope on top of your shotgun! Shotguns can do the trick also. LOL With bandits like you guys up in that part of the state, Geno better stick to Long Island. He might have to chase off a bunch of hillbillys with banjos every time he goes up there! LOL