ApexerER

Slow morning doing some small pushes. We only had 5 guys this morning. Definitely not enough guys to do what we had hoped. We did push out this guy and got a small doe as well. Hopefully the rest of the guys won't be scared of a little drizzle next weekend. We still have a lot of DMPS to fill.

Way to go Grampy and partner! Now waiting on pics of your grandson!! Congrats!!

While there are people far more experienced than me, I would say set up on the trail down wind and maybe farther back than you normally would since the little one will be with you. I have never had any luck with scents even in the peak of the rut so at this stage I think I would be skipping the scents. Hope you get to see some with your son. I remember several of the deer I saw while out hunting with my Dad when I was young.

Love seeing your pictures. You are really talented!

Thanks for the replies, I am already out of likes for the day!

I have never met a single person on this forum. I have PM'd with a few. That doesn't stop me from feeling like you are all my hunting buddies. I learn from and pull for all of you....

So I was going through the attachments that I have uploaded over the years on this forum and it made me realize how far I have come in the 5 or so years that I have been a part of this community. I decided I wanted to share all I have accomplished since I have been a member of this community and have learned more and more from the great people on here. My first year deer hunting was 1989. It took me until 2012 to kill my first buck. A small fork horn and I was proud as hell to have harvested him. In 2013 the pic in the top left is the first pic I uploaded to this forum. I posted that 12/2 and the name of that post was "Not the biggest in the woods but I am happy to have him". Reading through that post showed me how far I have come in the last 5 or so seasons. In that topic I was saying how I just don't see bucks that other people see and while I knew there were bigger I never saw them. You guys were speculating as to why that could be, especially with other guys on my lease killing nice deer every year. 2015 was my coming out party. I killed my first deer with a bow, the big girl in the second pic and my first buck with the bow, the 5 pt with the bow. I remember seeing that 5 pt walking slowly toward me and I was shaking like a leaf and believe it or not I was in awe of his antlers. In that post we had a heck of a track job on him, I shot a little too low but I tracked him down with the help of my more experienced hunting buddies and the feeling of holding those antlers was awesome. I also shot my first coyote with the bow that season. Made a heck of a shot on him at about 40 yds. Not a shot I would have taken on a deer but I was super proud of myself for the shot. That opening day of rifle I got my first 8 pointer and today he is on my wall. He came in about 4 o'clock chasing a doe. I didn't know how many points he was looking at him through the scope but I knew he was the widest deer I had ever seen. I had my rifle rested on my shooting rail and was waiting for a shot. I had my crosshairs on his neck as he was behind a tree and almost surprised my self as the rifle reported and I made a perfect shot and dropped him in his tracks. The doe hung around under my treestand even after the shot was taken. When the doe finally cleared out I could finally climb down and go see the deer. When I saw it was a 8 pointer I knew he was going on my wall. I was full of emotion and lots of hugs and pats on the back from the guys as they came in to help me gut and get the deer out. They all knew how long I had been waiting to kill a nice deer. The next year 2016, I killed what I assume will be the deer of my lifetime. The giant 9 pointer. The feeling when that boy dropped was overwhelming and when I was able to walk up to him I was in awe. The guys could hear me woot woot!! in the woods. I believe that is the biggest deer that has been killed on our lease and if I ever drop one bigger than that it will be amazing. Fast forward to this year and I harvested my first deer with the crossbow which is the big doe behind the 4 wheeler and the small 8 that I harvested last Sunday. While I was super thankful for the 8 last Sunday and I would shoot him again if given the chance, it is also the first time I found myself thinking, wow that would have been a great deer next year. Again showing my evolution as a hunter in a short time span. I want to thank everyone on this forum that's insite, posts, time spent, advice, persistence, determination etc have all helped me more in the last 5 years then anything I learned in 20 plus years prior. Its been awesome sharing my hunting experiences with you and learning from all of yours.

Catching up since yesterday and some beauties sure went down. Congrats to all and pulling for the rest of you!!!

Beautiful deer....Congrats!!!

Smile says it all.....Congrats to your sons fiancé!!!

Beautiful deer....congrats!!!!

Alright Turkey Feathers!!! Glad you didn't pack it in! Beautiful deer!!! Congrats!!! Had you laid eyes on him before?

Biz, do you have a recent photos of him? You might have to go find him on Saturday instead of sitting....

Nice Deer, congrats to you Dad.....He sure puts the time in once he gets in the woods. Well deserved!

LMAO, I say the same exact thing!!!

Thanks for posting that...cool story and video

I feel like I should thank Dicks/FS. The only purchase I made for hunting this season was a new wrap for my treestand that I picked up at Tractor Supply. Normally at the very least I would have purchased a new pack of broadheads, evercalm and a couple of bottles of scent killer. I am sure a lot more since I always seem to spend at least a couple hundred bucks while grabbing things I don't need while browsing. I should send them an email letting them know how much money they saved me.

Glad to see other people still do this. Good luck on the drives, knock some down and most of all, be safe!

We are planning on doing some driving this coming Sunday and I assume we will the following Sunday as well. I really enjoy doing the deer drives. I get to see a lot more of the guys I hunt with as we finish up with a drive and plan the next. We aren't as quiet and do a lot of BSing that we don't get to do when we meet up and then split off to our stands for the day. Most of the time we knock down a deer or two with last year being unbelievable killing 3 nice bucks on the last day of the season. Its one of my favorite times to hunt along with early Nov and opening day. The one thing I would like to change on our drives and I am going to try to talk the guys into it this year is I would like the pushers to still hunt while they push. Usually we walk pretty fast and hoot and holler etc. This leads to pushing lots of deer but they are generally running. I would like to try bumping them into the watchers where they are up and moving but hopefully not on a sprint. How do you guys that do drives do them?

Congrats to your Dad. That trail cam pic is perfect!

This thread has sure gotten slow during the week. I keep checking in and there is only a post or two. Not sure what I am going to look at when hunting season is over. I miss Growalot. She was always active during the week and I liked reading about what she was seeing and her trail cam pics. Whether you agreed with her or not she sure kept this page active.

Not sure you could go wrong with that scope. I bought a Nikon Prostaff and wish I went with something different. Nothing wrong with the optics but I really dislike the BDC reticle.

While I completely disagree with the politics of the great state of NY there isn't much else I don't like about it. My family and friends are here. While I complain about dealing with the snow one of my favorite things to do is snowmobile. This state has so much to offer. I live about 5 minutes from Saratoga which is great for going out for the night. Can have the boat launched on Sacandaga Lake or Lake George in about 30 minutes and Saratoga Lake in 10 or 15 minutes. I can snowmobile from my house or take it to the Adirondacks and Canada. I have a great group of guys I hunt with on a lease that produces some nice deer. My daughter is in a school I am happy with , is involved in a great soccer program and my wife and I both have decent paying jobs. When I get closer to retirement I will have to see where my daughter has settled and health of my parents etc. I am sure moving to a different state with a much lower cost of living might be a smarter way to spend my retirement. I don't know at this time if it will shake out that way.

Cool, thanks for sharing.....

Thanks for the post. That actually makes a lot of sense. I am a hunt when I can hunter. Between work M-F and most Saturday mornings I am left with Saturday afternoons and Sundays and those have to be days that aren't filled with daughters soccer games or family stuff. I just try to be in the stand when I can be. Can't kill them from the couch. Hopefully someday when I retire I will be able to pay attention to information like this and make my stand time more productive.