azhuntress

Hey Rookie! Nice post! I've often wondered why NY doesn't have a dove season. Hopefully someday they'll get with the program and let us hunt them. I know there sure isn't a shortage of them as they are everywhere!!!!! I hunt them in PA and enjoy eating them. I marinate them in Italian dressing during the day, wrap them in bacon and them cook them on the grill. Yum, yum good!

I hunt the after Christmas season in PA with my bow and I really enjoy it. It's pretty darn cold but if you can find a good food source it seems a little easier to pattern the deer. I also like that the deer have been left alone for a couple of weeks and are once again relaxed. I shot my first deer with a bow in the PA late season. This upcoming January 6th it will be 19 years ago that I shot that first deer and I can still remember that day as if it was yesterday. I can't wait for Dec 26 to go out archery hunting! I save my doe tag every year for the after Christmas season.

Growalot, you are right on that we need to let our loved ones know that they are loved, hug and kiss them often. Even with close friends it's important to tell them that you appreciate them and how important they are to your life. Life's too short and no one's going to get out of this world alive so treat each day like it's your last and let your loved ones know that they are loved.

Bow tuning will help you shoot tighter groups and also help your arrow completely pass through the animals that you shoot at. I once knew a guy that was amazed that I could shoot a deer at 47 pounds and always have a complete pass through and he shot 70 pounds and his arrow would always stick in the animal. I told him the importance of getting his bow tuned so his arrows would fly straight instead of hitting the target sideways. He had his bow tuned and the next deer he shot at he had a complete pass through and even with shooting through both shoulder blades. He was then a believer of a well tuned bow and the power behind an arrow that flies straight.

Only about 2 inches here in 9R by Jamestown, NY.

I saw 2 spotted fawns about 10 years ago right after Christmas and thought that was the strangest thing but I guess it wouldn't be if the mother wasn't bred until January or February.

My first climber was a Summit. I used it for several years. It worked great but was pretty heavy. I gave it to a friend when I upgraded to a Lone Wolf hand climber which I used for quite a few years. I sold that and then bought myself a Lone Wolf Sit -n- Climb. I like the bar around me and feel much safer with it than I did with the hand climber. I'm not sure what the guys are talking about when they say they have to "climb over the bar" as I've never done that before. I've never had trouble with the cable system and have even climbed smooth trees (although I know that's not too smart). I feel extremely safe with the LW climber. I have never once slid down the tree during the hundreds of times I have been up and down a tree. The stand is so quiet that on numerous occasions I have only been half way up the tree with my bow still on the ground and have had deer within bow range of me. I use my LW climber every single time I go hunting, which is just about everyday. It is definitely well worth the money and if I ever had to, I would buy another one without hesitation.

I shot my first deer with a bow 18 years ago in the PA late season. It was Jan 6 and only 17 degrees that morning. Brrrrr! I love the late season because usually there is snow and the woods is usually a lot quieter since either hunters have filled their tags or have just plain given up. I was out tonight (12/11) and saw 8 doe and 1 buck. I didn't get a shot because I climbed the wrong tree and they were too far away. I'll just have to try again tomorrow.

I agree with everyone about draw weight. Don't try to be a tough guy and pull way too much weight. You'll just wear yourself out and get discouraged. A 50-60 pound bow will be sufficient. With modern bows a high draw weight just isn't necessary. For example, I only pull 47 pounds and my arrows zip right through a deer without a problem. As the others have said, nowadays bows are made so well that one isn't necessarily better than another. I shot my first deer with a York Rampage 18 years ago and have since shot Martin, Darton, Hoyt, Bowtech Mathews and PSE. Every single one of them was a good bow and I wouldn't hesitate to own another one. As someone else said, be sure the brace height is 6.5 inches or above. That will make the bow more forgiving and you will shoot it better. Once you do figure out what bow you will shoot, be sure to get it tuned by someone who knows what they are doing. This will ensure your arrows are flying straight and it will make your arrow groups tighter. Good luck with your search. Shooting a bow is lots of fun and you will love it!

Interesting. I shot a bear with my bow 2 years ago October and haven't received anything back yet either although they said it would be within a year. They are real slow pokes that's for sure! "A Sportman's" post gives me hope that perhaps I will hear back from them eventually.

My husband booked a trip through Cabela's. He went to AZ in 2007 and had a guide named Matt Shimberg. The hunt cost $6,000. He drew a tag on his first try, which is extremely unusual. The elk was a monster 6 x 6 and scored a whopping 416. Matt knew that bull was there and told my husband not to shoot at any of the smaller bulls. My husband thought he was crazy for telling him not to shoot but he sure was happy after he was able to connect with the big bull.

I used to always shoot the first doe I saw but now it seems like all I do is video tape them. It's going on 4 years now that I haven't shot a doe. I keep thinking I just might shoot and then I decide not to. I guess I'm getting soft.

Yes, the antlers are starting to fall off! I watched a buck yesterday breed a doe and it didn't have any antlers. I looked at the buck through the scope and could see the spots on its head where the antlers used to be.

I was the youngest of 7 kids with 5 of my siblings being boys. Not one of them hunted and neither did my dad. I didn't start hunting until I was 23 years old. I shot a couple deer with a gun and I liked it but when I started archery hunting and shot my first deer with a bow I was absolutely hooked! I have since taken over 30 whitetail with the bow among many other things. I got so obsessed with hunting that it was all I could think about during the season. Needless to say my obsession with hunting really annoyed my boyfriend. He didn't share the love of hunting that I had so he gave me a lot of grief about going hunting so much. I couldn't take his crap any longer so I broke up with him even after investing over 8 years of my life with him because hunting meant more to me than he meant to me. Now I'm married to a guy who loves hunting as much as I do. He doesn't give me crap when I'm gone everyday during the season and I don't give him crap either when he wants to go. We have a great mutual understanding.

I love it that in PA there is a 12 day break after gun season before the late archery season starts. The deer go back to their normal relaxed pattern and it's one of my favorite times of the year to hunt. I also enjoy hunting the late archery season in NY but without a break in the deer seasons the deer are still pretty skittish. I have been quite successful in the late seasons. I just turn the bow down a few pounds and do like HUNTINGS IN MY DNA does ...use lots of hand and foot warmers.

I have walked up fairly close to deer before (where they can't see you like in thick brush or if they are over a ridge) by walking with a two step approach. Put your weight down first on your toes and then put your heel down. Each footstep then sounds like 2 feet and the other footstep makes it sound like another 2 feet, which together sounds like the sound of a deer walking. It's a pain to walk that way but it has worked for me a time or two.

I remember several years ago during archery season. It was the last week of the season and I had hunted SO hard that year (but then again I do every year). It had beenSO cold and I hadn't seen many deer. I was so disappointed that night when I stopped on the way home from hunting to see my parents that when they asked how my hunting was going I broke down in tears. My stepmom said "So I guess you're going to give up?" and I said "Hell no!" and Guess what? The very next night I shot a real nice 8 point. Don't give up Paula! It could actually happen.

Not all hunters have tiny balls because some hunters are actually huntresses. LOL!

I look by fence lines because bucks will jolt them loose when they jump over a fence. Bedding areas are also good places to look. Find the food sources and begin there (such as standing corn) and then walk the deer trails as far as you can follow them. I would start looking in February if the snow isn't too deep. A much easier way to find antlers is to build a feeder that is separated by vertical sections of wood. Starting in mid January fill it at least every other day with a bucketof horse feed. A doe will be able to fit its head in the opening but when a buck tries to get some feed they'll knock off their antlers. While we're on the topic of finding antlers I have to tell the story of when I visited a friend in Georgia a few years back. He said "Let's go look for antlers" and I thought "yeah, right, okay" Well after an hour and a half and with three of us looking we found 19 antlers!!! Georgia must not have any critters that eat antlers like they do here.

Here in 9R I saw the most action on October 16 where 5 bucks were chasing one doe around all over the place. Other than that (and I was out almost every single day) I saw bucks cruising through but none were following a doe. It was a very disappointing rut phase for me this year.

I agree that getting info from them is like pulling teeth. I killed a bear 2 years ago with my bow and was sent a package to send them a tooth so I could have it aged...well, I never did receive it. I bugged them a few times about it but just gave up. In addition, they send an archery sighting report to me every year to fill out, which I do. I got married 3 years ago so of course my last name changed. I have put sticky notes, highlighted, put a new address label, etc...anything to get their attention that my last name has changed and to fix it but of course even something as simple as that can't be accomplished by them. Not that it's really a big deal that the last name is right...but I mean geez...how hard could it be to change it?

So glad you found him! He's beautiful! Congrats to you!!!! Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm one of those hunters that have a fascination with antlers so I won't shoot a buck unless it is worthy of going to the taxidermists BUT I don't have a problem with those hunters that don't care about antler size. I can say from my observations from hunting in PA that the antler restrictions that have been effect for over a decade have really made big buck sightings a lot more common. PA hunters really frowned about the antler restrictions the first couple of years but now most hunters are in favor of it since many have killed a buck bigger than they ever had before.

Nice stories guys. Today I walked over to the coyote I shot the other day to see if anything has been checking it out. I found two sets of coyote tracks nearby and 3 sets of bear tracks. The bears sniffed the dead coyote but didn't eat it.

Just curious to how many of you hunters see coyotes during hunting season, how many and what time of day? I have seen 3 already so far this gun season (now there's one less) and all have been in the morning. Most years I don't see any and I spend hundreds of hours in the woods each year. Over the past 18 years I have seen 7 and was able to kill 4 (2 with the bow, 2 with a gun) and all have been killed in the a.m.