LiveToHunt

I think an earlier post/reply was on the right track. I think the guy shot the buck, without having a buck tag, and then figured he'd cut the antlers off so he could put his DMP on it, thinking he could make it look like the buck had already shed his antlers. But then realized his handiwork didn't look too natural, so then proceeded to hack off the head. Why he left his stuff behind? He wasn't thinking too clearly, or he was interrupted and wanted to leave the area quickly. I can just picture the guy trying to explain to a DEC officer why he had a tagged, headless deer carcass in his possession. LiveToHunt

I dont get to hunt northern zone as much as I used to, now that we have moved to the western part of the state, but I was up in the Speculator area this past weekend. Only saw 1 deer in three days of hunting, but was fortunate enough that the one deer was this 8pt on Sunday morning (Nov 9). I was sitting on a ridge overlooking several active scrapes, when he approached from behind me. I sat down at 6:45AM, and he came in at 7:05AM. He litterally came to within 6 yards. He was DIRECTLY behind me, and so I couldn't even get turned around for a shot until he turned to my left and gave me a short 10 yard shot. I was hoping he didn't spook before giving me a shot - two bounds and he would be over the ridge and out of sight. And it was quite thick right behind me. Anyway, this river bottom area I was hunting had excellent scrape activity this past weekend. And this guy was definitely working that scrape line and looking for does. And his tarsal glands reeked. Wondering if you guys are seeing similar activity up north. LiveToHunt

Biggest spike buck I have evern seen (if he is a spike). He is definitely not 1 1/2 year old. At least 2 1/2. But I would guess 2 1/2.

In my humble opinion.....Inside loins are good.....but not nearly as good as those backstraps (outer loins). Those backstraps are heaven!

Just a quick update. . . . I wasn't able to make it to DIck's on Sunday, but I stopped in this morning. Magically, both 7F and 8F were available and I got the extra DMPs. Not sure why it has to be this painful.....but anyways...i got the permits. They seriously need to improve their new license system.

I waited in line at DicksSportingGoods in Webster NY for 2 hours on Saturday Nov 1, to get some extra DMPs for 8F, 7F. Then the clerk told me that both 8F and 7F are not available?! The DEC website said they were, and the website also said that if a WMU is open it will remain open until end of day, at which time they will see if any permits are remaining. If no more remaining at the end of the day,they will close the WMU, and issue no more permits. Since Nov 1 was the first day that they were allowing people to request the additional DMPs, how can it be that there were none available?! It was taking 10-15 minutes to process each customer. To wait all of that time, and have them tell me no DMPs were available for my WMUs, was beyond frustrating, when the DEC website said that they were available. Frustrated in Webster.

One last point I think is worth mentioning. If you compare big woods (Northern Zone) hunting vs Southern Zone hunting, one of the biggest factors to consider in my opinion is the amount of food that is readily available. In the southern zone, there is tons of food - lots of farm land, apple orchards etc. It's a lot easier for a deer to go "nocturnal". They can bed down most of the day, and they know exactly where to go once the sun goes down, to get lots of food. Northern zone big woods is an entirely different ballgame. Deer need to eat several pounds of food a day, and there is not an endless supply of food in the Adirondacks. They'll bed down for periods during the day, but they will definitely be up and about, covering a fair amount of ground to find and consume enough food. This need for food, and the need for them to cover ground to get that food, is one of the reasons that mid-day hunts in the big woods shouldn't be overlooked. I agree with NFA-ADK, an all-day hunt is the best in my view.

Well I failed to mention that during my first 10 years, I killed 0 bucks. I guess you could say that during that time I was learning what NOT to do in the big woods

While I dont have a ton of Adirondack buck kills (9 in last 13 years), I would definitely not "write off" the mid-day and early afternoon hours. While I agree that most of the activity i see is during the first few hours, and the last 2 hours of daylight, 2 of my bucks were killed between 11AM and 1PM. And 1 was killed at 10AM. That's 1/3 of my Adirondack bucks during what I would consider mid-day. Deer will move during the middle portion of the day - especially if you're in areas with low hunting pressure - they need to eat. And of course during the rut, those bucks are cruising at practically any hour of the day, searching for does. When I hunt in the Adirondacks, I generally like to pack a day-pack and spend all day in the woods. It's dark when I leave my truck and it's dark when I return. There is one 4 day weekend each year when I rent a cabin with a group of guys, and during that time we generally head back to the cabin for lunch - but it drives me nuts!!!!