upstate

They're moving here, unfortunately my house is just inside 6K and that young spike should make it if he stays on this side of Rt 49. Also hearing of some movement in mornings, young bucks chasing doe in 7F. Time to gather troops and kick them in the ass....

it's nice for long sits in a stand, but it's also a nice time for them to hunker down and stay cool, they're in their winter coats. I'll be one of those old guys kicking them in the ass to get them moving.

Any day in the woods beats a day out of the woods or waiting on next season. My season has been hideous, bow season saw me working more than usual so my time in woods was down. Saw a lot of deer but nothing in tight enough. Then, on my way to hunting, I do $4900 worth of damage to my truck, hitting a 2.5 year old 5 point... I never even drew my bow back at a deer this season, first time in 10 years, but then again, time was limited. Gun season, I had the time in but the deer are not moving and there's not much hunter activity around me. I've had one deer in my cross hairs and it was running, through the woods and towards somebody that SHOULD have been in a stand, but wasn't. I'll be out tomorrow night, Thursday and Fri- sunday as well as muzzle.

The only deer I got this year was a small 5 point that caused $4,900 in damage to my 2014 pick up truck on my way to bow hunt. today was first day I actually pulled up and had one in cross hairs but it was running, flat out and headed to where I "thought" I had guys in stands,,,, they weren't there I have tomorrow and a coupel days this week, as well as muzzle and next weekend. I'm not giving up just yet

Here in 7 M nothing moved, until I did. Gotta hate when your buddies abandon their stands and don't tell you. Should have had a crack at at least two

Access is a critical change. When I first started hunting, in the 80's, I tried state land and it was absolutely crazy packed with hunters and bandits. You saw deer but it also felt like you got shot at, I never went again, until 2012 and I saw one lone hunter all day. Of course, the meat head was looking for a spot to sit 30 minutes before dark 1.3 miles off the nearest trail. I used to hunt in 8 N, near Rushville and it was nothing for us to get 30-35 deer off 160 acre overgrown farm land. I have not been down there since 2010 when we lost the land to the almighty $$ and the group of us that hunted it could not justify the $250-300,000 the land was going for. Finding access from local farmers used to be easy. Now they have a group that "monitors it for us and you'll need to check with them" So as expected they want all 1200 acres to themselves and I don't blame them, I wouldn't want just anybody screwing up my hunting area. So getting permission isn't easy, at all. Now, there's a group of about 20 of us that are all busted up, hunting our own little areas. The as well as the change in hunter behavior. I was always the guy that sat in a spot for a long time. I especially never moved from 10 AM to 2 PM on opening day. When I did move it was just from one stand to another. As the season progressed we'd leave some areas alone for a week and push it. Not drive with cans and rocks and noise makers but slow, easy walks that usually produced deer. Now, everyone sits and sees nothing and its for lack of deer? No, its a combination of lack of hunters and lack of movement. Deer are not stupid, right now they're nocturnal. I've never hit a damn deer with my vehicle, until this year, at night. 2 accidents and $10,000 in damage.

When the deer become nocturnal you have no choice but to go and kick them in the ass...sometimes literally.

There are some great spots in 7M... you need to go deep, very deep. Pressure is not significant, after opener and its the only areas I've ever gotten a deer on state land. Use the DEC's interactive maps. Cicero swamp does have some nice deer. I've hunted near Toad Harbor on the north end of the lake and gotten some sweet bucks. But once it's cold, unlikely this year, and frozen, they're gone... deer do not like ice

If you go to Cicero swamp I suggest that you use a GPS, that place can be miserable and dangerous. Same would be said for Three Rivers, it's a duck hunting area more than deer. I am not familiar with Hamlin You seem to like the wet areas.... bring boots

I don't wear orange in my stand, ever. Not even state land. I don't want people knowing where I am. Trespassers will come in tight enough to identify. On state land I don't because I've been given shit from people that want to drive the area. They don't know I'm there they drive me deer. I'm not sure how it could be dangerous 15-20 feet in the air. I'm wearing orange on my way there, for sure.

I wear camo and an orange hat when I walk to my stand on my own property. a camo hat is put on when i am in my stand. An orange vest is put on when I am still hunting or driving with more than 2 people.... I simply will never understand how a person can be mistaken for a deer.

People can and are dick heads. I'm an older hunter and I have seen the following: 1. Person shot in the air near a person that retrieved a deer that was literally dead on a fence. That's right, the guy rode over on a 4 wheeler and argued that the person who took the deer was trespassing. When the guy would not give him the deer he touched off a round and actually called the DEC. The shooter was eventually charged with reckless endangerment. 2. Had a guy who hunted a piece of property next to us that implied it was his. It wasn't. We had permission to get a wounded deer off the property but he never took off this clowns posted signs. You know it, deer wounded, we retrieve, he calls police who ticket the guys. DA drops charges and charges him with filing a false statement. 3. We bought 75 acres next to the property we hunted and one of the neighbors saw his own hunting acreage drop from 82 to 7! He never allowed us on the property except retrieval, we told him he was welcome to the same after we bought it. He had a great small piece of property, it was all oaks and great cover. However, we now owned the other 35 acres of those woods. This guy posted the hell out of the line, painted every tree white and hung tape. It was distracting as all hell but hey, so what? He repeatedly asked me to move a stand that was 40 yards off his line, directly in front of me. To my right side was his line about 20 yards away. I assured him I would not shoot a deer off his property and I did not. In fact in the 20 years we hunted there, and 40 deer killed out of that stand only 2-3 went over there. After 4-5 years he built a stand directly on the line and in front of my stand. I'll be honest, it sucked to have him trash the woods late and see somebody that close but, hey, it's his land. When asked about it, by him, I told him it was dangerous and he assured me that unless i was shooting on his land it was safe, to go ahead and shoot. One morning a beautiful 11 point came sneaking through, on our land. When he was broadside at 20 yards, with his stand just off to my left, I shot that thing. The deer died on the line. Morale of that story?? We put up with each other. he thought I was an asshole, I thought he was. he told neighbors fibs about how I shot towards him, i was dangerous, etc. 4. Currently lease about 60 acres near Truxton. neighbor to north is a sheriff deputy and the entire area loathes this guy. He's the guy that turns in neighbors for zoning, building permits and even turned a guy into unemployment for selling firewood. He called the company I lease from and told them they needed to cancel it because we were damaging trees and putting stands in places he did not like. (why is it OK for him to hunt the line and not me? After 5 years of being there the deer stay on that line). Lease company actually looked at land, with me and said the guy has ALWAYS been a problem. I was pissed they never even told me about it. My real problem came when he decided to make confidential reports to the DEC every time we shot. I mean we'd come out of the woods to gun, tag, licenses, vehicle checks and after the DEC showed up to my buddies shop with 3 troopers saying that there were reports that we had multiple untagged deer. It was a shit show, we had one deer, skinned and hanging, tag was off it, and a ticket issued. It was dismissed. We turned the deputy in, right there saying to go to the northeast corner at 4:10 and listed to his feeder. Deputy now on probation with department and left us alone, this year. Every hunter I take is 100% legit, no crap.... There, I'm done... :lol

First shot I heard near me last year was at 6:14, legal sunrise was 7:02. Honestly, I shot at 7:10

When I used to hunt in 8 N , when putting on a drive I would check every little clump of brush. Ditches, hedge row, it didn't matter. I pushed out a monster one morning that my buddy got with his muzzleloader.

I've used both grunt and can blindly, with success. When I got my first can I had forgotten about it because I was so excited my first waterproof parka had worked so fine during a cold front coming through. I decided to play with it when all of a sudden there was a 10 point on a rail to my stand, full trot. Took me all day to find him. Lesson, stop a moving deer before you let arrow fly.

Water, lots of water, especially when it's cold.

karma- I always believe in it.

Thank you- Mods, why does this nonsense stay in here?

Left my house at 4:30 AM to hit my spot in Cortland County and when I was about 10 miles out on I-81 South I see a flash of a deer off to my right, it's a decent size 4-6 point headed up the banking to the road, I lay on the brakes and the thing just jumps in front of the truck as I change lane to passing lane. I just clip it's head with the right side of the bumper with a thud. I pull over and my son gets out and tells me to call the police, it's damaged pretty good. I call the dispatch number and they tell me somebody will be right out. I text my buddy and my son says, the deer is trying to get up, in the road. I call dispatch back and tell them that the officer should use care. About 10 minutes late the lights are on and we hear a shot. About a 20 seconds later a second one. She pulls up and we exchange pleasantries. She asks what we're doing pulling a 4 wheeler at that time of morning and I tell her, looking to get one of those guys in the woods. She was kind enough to have me follow her through U-turns as I want this deer in a grinder. Probably $3-4,000 in damage with the worst of it the rear quarter panel where he slammed into after the initial hit. Made it to our stands about 10 minutes before legal shooting and it was best day in woods as we saw 3 different bucks, including a weird looking big bodied spike, looked weird cause you would have though for sure it was a 6 or 8 point, no tines, at all. Excited for gun opener but not excited to deal with insurance company. Second time in 6 months I've had substantial damage to a vehicle due to deer. First was almost $4,000, right around the corner from my damn house. Excited for opener...

Bow hunting without the guns being out seems fair to me. The challenge of bow hunting (the need to generally have them within 50 yards, accuracy challenges, etc.) should allow them access a bit early before the lead flies. I'm not going to get into the recurve, compound, crossbow discussion. Now will I discuss length of seasons here in NY, that's a separate thread. I tell hunters all the time that the excitement of bow hunting can't be matched. The deer act more naturally, are weary but not flat out running scared. Frankly I have a safety issue with guns out during bow season because bow hunters don't typically wear orange.

Saw a lot of deer this weekend. Big boys were all solo, nose down, rolling through last weekend. Saw three different shooters. This weekend Saw 7 doe, all had spikes, 4 -6 points running them hard. Saw one big boy and he was just trailing doe. ot really pushing. This is in Cortland County east and western parts of county.

Disabled hunters that can use a crossbow are paralyzed. I can apply to get an assisted bow, whatever the hell that means. Hunting regulations were put in place to manage the herd, especially with gun. Bow season is awesome and I don't believe that you'll see an influx of people out there with a crossbow that are new to the sport. JMHO

There is no better time of year than now. You can actually, almost see a deer act normally rather than waiting for a barrage of shots. I hunted near Rushville in 8N for years, I miss it horribly, but gun season was nuts.

I won't get into the "intent" of why separate seasons because it happened long before I was born. But bow season was created when compound bows did not exist and I still recall having to use a lead ball, patch and powder, along with no scope on a muzzleloader to be legal. I want to hunt and I know my limitations, so right now I have a 30 yard range with my bow and when it shrinks to 0 I will use a crossbow.

I've bow hunted for 25 years. In early winter of 2011 a ladder I was on slid off a roof and I fell with the ladder about 18 feet. L2-3 and 4-5 experienced severe "burst compression fractures). However, since none of my ligaments tore I chose to brace up and not do surgery. I did not bow hunt that year not because I couldn't but because I knew better. standing on my practice stand (a 13 foot platform I built) I could easily maintain my good groupings out to 40 yards but those were in PERFECT conditions, standing square and facing the target with no twisting or odd movements. In all my years of bow hunting I've seen it all and done it all. I've missed, hit twigs, shot poorly, had a broken rest (I was unaware), estimated distance way off, hurried shots, harvested and lost deer. I've tracked wounded deer for days trying to recover, only to run into uncooperative land owners (2x). This summer as I began practice on 7/1 I noticed I was not doing well past 30 yards. Every night, since 1990, I'd shoot 3 groups of 6 arrows at varying distance deer targets. So, I had my oldest son, who has been shooting 10 years watch me and he told me I was hurrying my shots. So the next time I shot I took my time and was perfect. Thing was, I was in agony. I simply can't hold, even what amounts to a 15 pound hold weight without severe pain, not in my back but my leg, hip and feet. Long story, short I have severe stenosis, a narrowing of my spinal column in the areas injured and it impacts the nerves in my spine which impacts EVERYTHING. I can walk, but slowly. It's having a profound impact on my hunting (like I've spent 2 days in the woods all season and that was early muzzle and gun season). With that said, I will have a cross bow next season and I will use it to hunt, legally, when I can. There are no "permits" that allow me to use it earlier, in the northern or southern zones. It's legal and I will be in the woods until I can't be any longer. For all you purists, I don't necessarily agree with your arguments, just like I don't on QDM. Those are my opinions, which I'm entitled to, as are you. But to think you're entitled to a separate season is a bit much. Let's remember, these "seasons" are to manage the deer herd, not build our egos.