5.9cummins

Congrats. I have three and as much of a pain as they are i cant wait till i got all of them in the woods.

DEC is getting hammered. I work for another state agency and have to work with DEC from time to time. Last i herd the Avon office is running on a budget that amounts to what there phone bill was last year. They have been cut everywhere and staff is the only thing left. That being said there are some other areas (special interest) and agencies that could see large reductions and or eliminations without too much problem. As for the unions they suck the big one. They are just another political power that dosent do anything for there employees. We have gone toe to toe with them on several issues and because we are a small group we get ignored because we have no real "pull" with them. As for the seniority issue its a bunch of crap. If i had the misfortune of having to bump some one or give out a pink slip i know in a heartbeat who i would give it to. However i couldn't do it because that individual has been in state service for over 20 years and the union has there back (i knew there would be an issue when i came in and at less than a year on the job i was training them how to do there job). I would have to cut someone who was lower on the totem pole but better at there job. This is the problem with government - they grow in good times and tax in bad. I am sorry to hear of your predicament bpb. Hopefully Cuomo (for what hes worth) will step up and restore some funding for DEC and find some where else to cut because DEC seems to be taking a big portion of the hit.

I am begining to buy in to Charlys theory of moon phases triggering the rut. According to him the second full moon after the fall equinox is the rutting moon. If it holds true he says that next week should be slamming and the SZ firearms will be hoping for the start. All i know is i saw 3 bucks in 2.5hrs of hunting opening day. I have only hunted 30hrs since then but haven't seen a dam deer (none - doe or buck). I havent even seen much buck sign till just the other day when i found a massive rub line.

http://www.creekwoodarchery.com/ scroll down to the photos section and click on 2010. Then scroll down till you see the photo-shoped pic of a elk guy and cat and click on Cathys name above.

2 more dont know where

Got this from work. I posted it in another section but it should be posted here as well seeing as how it was shot with a rifle.

Here is another one from the Gooey club up north. Got passed around at work - guy took the pic on the way back on Sunday and its been trickling around the office.

Lafayette supposedly

I know the guy in the first pick. That area has excellent nutrition which is key for a big deer. I know where there is one more running around in that area that would give that last one a run for his money. I was debating trying to sneak into his bedroom at 1am and waiting for him to return or chase ducks and geese this past weekend. The ducks and geese won.

Hell of a deer. Now your going to have to beat it. I still remember my first like yesterday and have yet to top it (came close but no cigar). This is my seventh season and I'm am as hooked on bow-hunting as ever. Attached is my first.

I don't think i have much of a shot at finding this one. Grid searched the thicket and came up empty. Searched the entire property and two neighboring properties without finding so much as a drop of blood. I just don't get it. I cant figure out where i hit. I took my time, picked a spot, settled the pin and squeezed the release. Arrow flight looked good and right where i wanted. He jumped at the shot and the only thing i can figure is that he was in motion at the moment of contact and it hit back.

Well i was pumped to go out with my daughter tonight. Went down to the blind got settled in a little before six (i new she wouldnt last so we tried for prime time). 20 minutes went by and i heard a twig snap. Had a small 8 run up the hill from the right and into the food plot. When he hit the edge of the plot at 25 yards I had a shot but my daughter was still in la la land and didn't see him so i didn't take the shot. He walked to another shooting lane and i let fly - with a good thump to boot. Went to retrieve the arrow and had good blood but that was it. I couldn't find a drop of blood except what was on the arrow. He ran into a really thick patch and I thought I heard a crash. Thing that sucks is my daughter says she didn't see any of it. I am a little worried I walked the perimeter of the thicket its bordered by the food plot on one side, a well maintained trail on another, a stone driveway on another and a dirt road on the forth and I didn't find a drop of blood anywhere. Plus after going back and looking at the site of impact i recovered a small tuft of what i think is belly hair ??? . Hes either dead in the thicket or I doubt i will ever find him. Going up first thing in the AM and then back out after church. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I know the breaks on the trailblazer are in good shape. Almost had a 120 class buck laying on the hood about half a mile outside town.

Any one drop one. Had a decent six work in and bed within 25yards of my tree in the golden rod. At first i thought he pulled a Houdini on me but saw tines sticking out of the goldenrod later on. Also had a small eight or big six work in downwind of me and bust me, he didn't blow but didn't hang around. When the beded buck got up and i got a chance to get the binos on him he had a regular three point left beam but the right beam had a kicker coming off the back of the beam between the brow tine and G2 and then had another one that dropped between the G2 and the end of the beam. The left side also appeared to be a somewhat pal-mated. I would love to see that deer in two or three years. Going to take my four year old out this afternoon after she gets up from her nap.

Good luck boys I'm off to bed - Rain or shine (wind, snow, fog or hail for that matter) i will be in a tree at sunrise. Then I'm taking my 4 yr old daughter out to the blind "we" (i use that term loosely) built on the food plot. I don't know if i really even care about the morning just want the afternoon to get here .

I am just getting into waterfowl hunting with a buddy. He is fairly good at it but i got a long way to go. Anyway he had been bugging me to come up to his place for early goose. So this past weekend i managed to get up there for the last day. In the AM we didn't have a ton of action, only called in five birds - three of which didn't leave. For the PM we decided to try a different spot up on a ridge where we saw a ton of birds going down. So he starts telling me about a Alfalfa field that he loves to hunt but the neighbor has given him crap about hunting it in the past. It got cut that morning and we decided to try it out. Before setting up we stopped and talked with another neighbor who knows the property (its split by three land owners) and he tells us exactly where the property line is in the field. We set up in a drainage ditch that runs through the field and used the fresh cut alfalfa that was missed for cover. First flock of birds that shows dumps right into the decoys and we dropped four birds. About five minutes later we here "hello" long pause "HELLO - you can come out now", "YOU HAVE TO COME OUT". I flip open my blind and my buddy does the same and we pop up and look down the field and here comes this guy and his wife. My buddy and i just look at each other with a blank stare and shake our heads. We unload our guns as the guy approaches and he proceeds to tell us we are trespassing. My buddy is about to blow his top but manged to keep his cool and informs the guy that we are on another landowners property with permission. We then ask him if we had the correct definitions of the property boundary and if we were wrong we would move (we were well within the property we had permission to hunt). He responds with "well no one is out here with a transect but that is a rough approximation". The whole time I'm thinking its a transit not transect you idiot. So after he confirms we are on another persons property, not his and that we had permission to be there i inform him that NY has a hunter harassment law and proceed to pull a copy from my pack. Then we tell him that we are trying to hunt legally and that he is disturbing our hunt. He looks at the decoy spread and says "I'm not disturbing your geese". I should have replied with a smart @$$ remark like "because there plastic". At this point he gets a worried look on his face and leaves but before leaving tells us he will follow up on whether we have permission or not. Luckily there were no birds flying at the moment otherwise my buddy would have lost it. He leaves we get up and adjust the spread and stretch our legs to cool off a little and then get set to see if any more birds are flying. Shortly after settling back into our blinds we worked a double in and as we pull down on them i touch the trigger and "CLICK". I pump the action and "Click". Meanwhile my buddy is doing the same with his. We forgot to reload after our little chat. Did manage to bring them back around and drop one but the second wouldn't come in low enough. Am i out of line? Its not rocket science figuring out the boundary lines - the ditch doesn't even touch his property.

http://www.esf.edu/aec/research/bearproject/

I know i shouldn't confuse the two but B&C just seems so un-attainable that i don't even think of it. I just go by P&Y regardless of weapon not that it makes a ounce of difference with the score. I mainly bow hunt anyway so its my stand ruler for measuring things up.

For me a buck that goes 90-120 would be a good average deer. 120-150 would be a great deer and 150+ would be a monster but im not holding my breath. That being said you hunt in the ADKs and don't expect to see those upper end #s. I am more concerned with weight up there looking for 200+ lbs. I know a guy with 44 ADK bucks to his name all but 4 make P&Y if my memory serves me correctly. But no absolute monsters. He shot all of them with a rifle while tracking them - like the Benoits. Except hes been doing it since the Benoits were in diapers.

Had three shooters come by my stand within half an hour of noon last year. Fist was a 10, i walked up on him tailing a doe while i was walking into my stand got inside 30 yards but couldn't knock an arrow before the doe he was tailing winded me. Second was a big wide 7pt that came in as i was climbing out of a stand to move. Managed to get back in the stand knock an arrow and had him within 25 yards but the wind started swirling and i didn't have a shot yet. Third i was setting up a tree in an inside corner where i saw two bucks dog-ing a doe the day before when i had the encounter with the 7pt. I was 15ft up in a tree pruning branches and i heard a twig snap. I stopped and looked around for a minute and didn't see anything so i went back to trimming. A minute latter i heard another twig snap - close. Just then a monster 8pt walked out of the pines within 15 yards and my bow was on the ground. That was the first time hunting that farm. needless to say there will be no need for in season scouting or stand setups this year. I got two weeks off for the rut and i will be in the stand from sun up to sun down every day.

merino wool hands down. just picked up some minus 33 for a decent price. i will second the Patagonia comments. Everything they make is top notch also take a look at Filson. Got a buddy that picked ups some under armor and he regrets it. He swears by Filson and Patagonia as well.

Fist day no way. Last day and i don't have any other tags filled (DMPs / DMAPs) it would be hard not to. If only one other tag is filled it still might happen, two tags filled it would be tempting but probably wouldn't happen, three or four tags filled and it wont happen. But then again it didn't happen that way last season. Probably because i saw a lot of really nice deer. Had a beautiful 8 at about 20 yards while i was setting up a tree and the bow was on the ground. Probably would have come close to P & Y.

DEC will adjust the bag limit but can you eat 20 deer a year? What happens when the yahoos who have what they need in the freezer start to take animals just because they have a permit / tag whatever you want to call it. That's when the Antis get involved and with fewer #s of hunters to fight them i wouldn't bet on keeping any hunting. Getting hunter #s up is a good thing any way you look at it. As for the cost of the Lic - get over it its the cost of doing business. The price of gas, milk, housing, land and every thing will go up so will the Lic. Anyway its still a drop in the bucket compared to all the crap people buy to hunt with. I could buy a lot of licenses for the price of a new Mathews or 300 weatherby but guys have to have it the one they bought two years ago isn't good enough any more. I was just in Ohio visiting family and when i was at wally world i picked up there game regulation guide. For what i have in NY (a super sportsman) it would cost over 220$. NY still doesn't look half bad to me. I am just worried about having a hunting future at all let alone what it will look like or cost.

Its confirmed in Monroe and Livingston. The find in Monroe looks a lot like what where it was found in Randolph - multiple years of infestation.

Yes its so uncomfortable that i outlasted every other hunter opening day last year. When the last one petered out and started his "walk" I had two doe slip in behind me and dropped both of them. Tree saddles are AWSOME Nothing to leave in the woods and get stolen and i can set up any tree anywhere. I use 4-6 gorilla strap on steps to go up the tree (takes about 5 minutes after a little practice). I use screw in steps for the larger trees that a strap wont fit around. If you want to leave the steps in the woods you can take the bottom two and leave the top 2-4 steps because there 9-10" up. Your going to have to practice with it because its not like shooting from the ground or even a conventional platform stand (I am assuming you bow hunt). http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1024581 This thread is from AT (sorry mods) it has just about every thing you could think of covered at some point tips, tricks and all sorts of useful advice.

I wouldn't count on it. Still too many places that you don't need a kiln that are supplying lumber. Not to mention the market is flooded with ash right now its all being liquidated.