steve863

The compliments need to go to my dear old mother!! For years now, whenever she hears that I am going hunting, she cooks up a storm for me to take along with me. I guess she's afraid that I might die of hunger out in the woods! My wife, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be as worried. LOL

I have been hunting a LONG time now, but Ryan's kill will be etched in my memory forever, that is for darned sure! I have seen some crazy stuff while hunting over the years, but the way Ryan's buck just walked up to us while myself, Bob and Ryan were pretty much standing around next to a dead doe like the 3 stooges, talking out loud, etc. was truly one of the wildest scenes I have ever witnessed while hunting. It was downright surreal. You read about hunters concealing themselves from head to toe, spraying themselves silly with scent-killer, deer piss, you name it, and here we are just standing around and a dandy buck simply comes in paying us NO mind whatsoever! We have to give a lot of credit to Ryan here. He was the first one to spot this deer. He kept his composure and made a great shot under some pretty tense circumstances. We were watching this deer for a good distance coming in towards us. And the bucks antlers just kept getting bigger and bigger as he approached. Hunters with many years of experience would have become unglued in a similar situation, I can assure you, but Ryan followed all of Bob's instructions to a T and made an absolutely great kill. One, I am sure he will remember for the rest of his life! Kudos, to Bob and all his colleagues who were involved with this Field to Fork program. As we are seeing all these success stories and pictures here, they obviously did a terrific job in training these folks. Many of these mentors took precious time away from their own hunting to take these folks out and show them how to get the job done. In Ryan's case, he could not have had a better mentor than Bob. Also, many thanks to Bob for opening up his camp to me again this year. I thoroughly enjoy hunting with him and at his camp. I had a great time last year and an even better time this year as everyone just read above in Ryan's story. You just can't make up stuff like that!

I've been amazed at how much time some of you put into it. Heck, if I hunted as much as some of you here, I'd surely start to hate it too. It would be like a job then, which is NOT what hunting should be. I think passing up too many animals leads to hunter fatigue also. If you have tags for it, shoot it. That's always been my motto. What's the point of passing up deer if they give you a good shot opportunity? Your next opportunity may not be a good one or may never come so for me the decision is easy when I do see one.

That's Growalot taking Pygmy back behind the shed to give him a butt whoopin for teasing her all those years she was on the forum!

I don't agree with NY's legal hunting age either, but I don't think it's a good idea instilling in a child at a very young age that violating the law is acceptable. Today he shoots at a deer before legal age, tomorrow he will shoot more deer than he has tags for just because he disagrees with the law and just because he can. Not the road I want to take my child down.

Congrats to the boy!! Please take girth measurement to officially make it a Wolc special.

I have a thicker stache inside my ears. LOL

Do you ride your skateboard to your stand with a path like that? LOL

The size of the bucks in your hunting area is absolutely incredible! You've taken some spectacular bucks and it seems like there are lots more around, too. The size of these bucks can challenge some of the best buck areas in the entire country in my honest opinion.

This is just one reason I will NEVER hunt public land. I'll sooner give up hunting completely than have to deal with any of this type of nonsense. I will add, that it can happen on private land too, but generally is much less likely. It seems like most issues on private land happen when neighbors start challenging each other by setting up stands on property borders. If neighbors can stay away from that, things should be fine. I will also agree with Uncle Nicky's post 100%. You could go back eons and you'd find similar and even worse hunter vs. hunter situations. This type of behavior wasn't discovered last week, I can assure you!

Especially when gun hunting, don't be wanting or expecting that one shot kill. If the deer is still standing or down and getting back up after a shot, don't hesitate to shoot again and shoot quick. You might be in for a surprise if you think the deer will just keel over and die over the next hill. The moral here should be that if you don't want any arguments with other hunters on who should claim the deer, make sure you keep gunning until the deer is down for good. Admiring that shot that you THINK is perfect won't help you if the deer runs off far enough for someone else to take a shot at it. My .02 cents.

I would agree that marginal shots shouldn't be anything to be proud of, but I also don't think anyone should assume that the more experienced hunter couldn't make a marginal shot also. $#!+ can happen to the best of hunters.

Many a friendship have ended over claims on a deer, I can assure you. The first deer I ever shot was claimed by someone down the hill of me. If I am hunting with a group of guys I would never claim the deer that was hit by another member of the group whether it was hit well or not. I would hope the other members of my group would return the favor if I had made a poor shot and they were the ones finishing it off. I honesty would have a hard time claiming even a strangers deer if I saw another wound in it. Of course a determining factor to how hunters will react depends on the rack that the deer might be wearing. Antlers as we know can make hunters crazy, so all bets are off to what might happen in a scenario like that. It can happen even with a doe, but with a big buck things could go south that much quicker.

Although it takes as little as 30 seconds in the bush and out pops the bundle of joy in 9 months time!! LOL

Three kids less than 5, one on the way, you both work full time and wife even goes to school full time?? Wow, I am amazed that you have time to brush your teeth, never mind have time to go hunting. With all due respect, if one wants a big family one has to realize that there won't be much time left for hobbies, pastimes, etc.. Especially when the kids are still young. Life can be challenging enough with one or two kids, but if one chooses to take on the huge responsibility of having many kids, then there isn't much good advice anyone can give you since you were the one who made the decision to have so many.

He was a cut above most others on the guitar.

Where did I repeat myself?? Did I make a double post?

I actually find Wolc's posts entertaining. He sort of reminds me of that guy who sells pillows on TV. Wolc would be an awesome salesman for the PA girth chart and butt-out tool.

So what do you use if steel or fiberglass is not good?? I don't know, I've seen some crowns that looked quite run down and the guns may have not been tack drivers, but surely had good enough hunting accuracy. Definitely weren't shooting the kind of groups the original poster is describing here.

I would think that the barrel would have to be REALLY bad to be shooting all over the place at 50 yards. Unless there is some bad corrosion in there I doubt anyone shot the gun enough to get it to be that bad. Even if the crown wasn't perfect it most likely wouldn't be shooting that poorly. I inherited one rifle from my uncle where he filed down the crown pretty good with a cleaning rod, yet the gun still shoots well. My hunch is that the scope mounting was done poorly where the screws aren't tightened down well enough. Something is probably loose there.

He's holding it down until Wolc comes over with the tape to take the girth measurement.

I'm assuming the buck you are talking about is the one pictured in your first post. I don't know. Somehow that deer does not look like a 4 1/2 year old or over to me. Definitely a healthy, big bodied buck, but just doesn't appear to be that old to me.

The breakdown of the votes for Governor. The other party votes would NOT have helped Molinaro in this election.

Actually I don't think he would have won even if he got the votes that were cast for the Green party and Liberarian candidates. Can't speak about your Aunt, though. I know that there are lots of women WITHOUT balls that can be more masculine looking than uncles WITH balls. LOL

The number of people who vote democrat in NYS is staggering. Of course it's a given in NYC and the surrounding counties, but I just looked at the results from the upstate counties where Molinaro did win the counties, but yet his margin of victory was still not that great. Plenty of people in the rural parts of upstate NY voted for Cuomo which really starts boggling the mind!