sampotter

Nope, I haven't changed a thing on it. Works pretty slick. I have done a whole bunch of them this fall and haven't had a problem.

Considering the prior trail cam photos and sheds, the bidding obviously starts at 5 years old... And I definitely see the antler similarities from 2011 and 2014. Good luck Wooly- you'd probably rather find his sheds than kill him though.

4

I would like to think that the chart the DEC publishes would be the one used by the DEC officers... If I used my weather station sunset time I get another minute though. I would like to think no one would get a ticket for being off by a minute or two though. I can't imagine that any hunters have an alarm that goes off on the last minute of legal time or that they spend the last few valuable minutes staring at their watch....

Yes, getting a little of the blood lust out early on makes it easier to let one like that walk.. Just to make it clear- this is definitely the biggest buck I ever let walk and he would been my third biggest by bow if I'd taken the shot, but at the same time I feel accomplished knowing I could've had him but let him go. As close to 'catch and release' as you'll ever get with hunting. I'm also finding that killing one is becoming a little less important to the quality of my hunt as it used to be.

According to the chart I had a minute or 2 to spare. There's a 24 minute difference between LI and Jamestown and I'm halfway.

Finger Lakes, all over. Pretty decent population. A lot of 3 year olds. I know of 2 I think are 5 but one may have been picked off by a jack lighter a week or so ago. I'm trying to hold out for one that I just "know" I want to shoot. For some reason, this guy just didn't trip my trigger when I saw him, although I was questioning when reviewing the trail cam footage again the next day. I can't really decide whether he's 3 or 4 though. I know my Dad would be pretty excited to get him and he's clearly plenty active during the so-called October "lull", so maybe he can get a chance.

It was a weird feeling for sure.

Sorry in advance for the poor gopro footage at the end... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7vlhasXfwM&feature=youtu.be

I am currently hanging out in my Guido's Web. There is no safer or more versatile/mobile way to hunt from a tree than sling style!

I've seen exactly the same thing on the same type and size of tree. No bears, porcupines, or hogs in the area. I want to believe buck, but for some reason I'm thinking coon.

They do in Iowa. They also require the farmer to leave a few acres of standing corn as well.

Geez- we are paying $100-125 and acre here in Cayuga county. My fiancée's father turned down $350/acre in SE MN last year, wishing he hadn't this year.

I would kick the "pilot" in the groin!

I notice them now. That 1st buck has a roe buck rack. Nice shots.

My brother has one. The batteries only last for 20 minutes or so. He does get some cool aerial shots though, but finding animals with it is a whole different story.

There's clearly a lot of ways to get bucks to use mock scrapes, but the only common denominator is the availability of a licking branch (or wick rope as demonstrated by the Wensels). If you don't have that (scent or not) then you won't have a scrape. I think the drippers and scents are really just more gadgets and gizmos that are mostly benefitting the manufacturer.

I've used preorbital gland lure, but I've had as much luck just making a really conspicuous overhanging branch as anything. I usually don't do anything else, just let the bucks open it up.

I've never used the zip-tie method. I've found that the most important thing is providing an overhanging branch at the right height (40" or so) and don't leave your scent all over it. Also, it needs to be in a conspicuous place, like along a field edge or logging road. I also like to make "live" licking branches by one of two methods: 1) find a 3-4" sapling growing about 10' back from your intended scrape spot, climb the sapling until you can bend it over and then wire or tie it to a tree so the top of the sapling becomes your licking branch. 2) If there are overhanging branches that are too high for deer to reach, grab one of the higher branches (7-8' up) and bend it down (without breaking it) and wire or tie it to one of the lower branches so it is angled almost straight down. With either method the branch or tree stays alive and becomes a perennial scrape spot. Here's a clip of a buck my Dad shot under a mock scrape I made by bending over a sapling in 2008. That scrape is still in action 8 years after I made it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEH8nK8BeFQ Mock rubs are also a blast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI-w-M2fXr8

I have it set on a 3 shot burst, but the camera only sends the 1st picture. I have an 8GB card in it and it has a solar panel for juice, although Phade pointed out that the solar panel I have is too small to meet the camera's needs.

Awesome buck! Send the front teeth to deerage.com or Matson's lab and do cementum annuli aging. Tooth wear aging has a terrible track record even among experienced professionals. I'd be surprised if that deer wasn't at least 4. Gray faces, nose length, roman noses, etc. are all genetic, not age indicators.

Thanks everyone! That's just how I roll... I wish my Dad, Granddad, and Great-Granddad had done the same. They chronicled some of their trips to Canada or out west, but there's nothing better than a good 'ole deer hunting story if you ask me...

Morning hunt. With the SE wind I decided to try to sneak onto the hill bucks seem to like to bed on at the north end of a small hayfield. I have picked up 3 different sheds there in the last 8 years and more than once I’ve seen bucks headed in that direction at dawn. The hill offers great visibility from high vantage points with thick mountain laurel escape cover to the N on the downhill slope that drops into a nature preserve. Using my GPS in the dark, I was able to locate a spot 100 yards downwind of the highest point, 50 yards from a massive shed I found last spring, and 70 yards from where I sat just out of the action a year ago. Downhill from me there was a long-forgotten ¼ acre paddock framed by stonewalls with barways through both the north and south walls. A heavy trail ran straight through. I was able to get totally settled just before it got light enough to see clearly, which was a little later than I’d planned. A few minutes into shooting light a doe appeared uphill to the east about 50 yards away. She fed on acorns for about 30 minutes, but I was never tempted to shoot- I hadn’t snuck all the way into this high-stakes spot to shoot a doe. She eventually made her way north of my position where she must have caught my scent, because she suddenly went on red alert and stiff-legged it down towards the mountain laurel to way to the north. A little before 8 I caught movement below me to the northwest. The legs of a deer came into focus below the canopy and as the deer continued in my direction I could see it was a nice 8 point buck. He paused momentarily before passing through the north barway into the stone wall paddock. At a slow walk he angled closer to my position. At 25 yards he walked behind a small sapling that blocked his view and I drew my bow. Directly downhill to my west, I needed him to take one more step and he would be in the open, but he locked up as if he smelled something. He immediately turned around and started to stalk away in the manner that deer do when they know something is wrong and are going to leave but are not necessarily startled. I knew I had to make up my mind fast so I put it right behind his shoulder and let the string drop. He took another step as the arrow flew and a solid “thunk” confirmed a hit. He ran back through the barway in the direction that he came from. From what I could see the arrow struck farther back than I intended but he was quartering away hard, so I hoped the arrow made its way into the vitals. He paused about 70 yards away but I lost sight of him in the dense canopy. A few moments later I saw two bucks in the same area walking away to the west. Shortly after I thought I heard a crash near the last place I saw my buck go but I wasn’t sure. Because of the questionable hit, I decided to wait two hours before trying to find him. After thirty minutes I talked myself into at least looking for the arrow. While on the ground in the vicinity of where I shot the buck a doe suddenly appeared near the north barway, which she walked through right in my direction. Soon she was ten yards away, but my bow was 20 feet up a tree and I wouldn’t be inclined to shoot not knowing the outcome of the buck. After a few moments she spotted me and bounded away to the south and then stomped around and blew at me for ten minutes or so at about 50 yards. In that time period a deer jumped up to the northwest and flagged away, presumably one of the other bucks I’d seen after I shot mine (and hopefully not the one I shot). Not being able to locate the arrow or blood in the immediate area of where the buck was when I shot, I decided to go back up the tree and finish my wait. Not long after getting strapped back into my harness, another doe appeared at the barway and walked to the spot where the buck was at the shot. Again I held off because of my uncertainty with the buck. I noticed she did a lot of sniffing behind a fallen log just beyond the shot site. Finally the two hours had passed and I went right to the log where the doe had been sniffing. Sure enough, my arrow was laying there. Covered in blood, the arrow also had the smell of a gut shot, but the blood made me feel more confident that the arrow had found vitals. I found first blood just on the other side of the barway. The trail was spotty and hard to follow but within 30 yards I found a significant puddle of blood. From there the blood continued downhill to the north and into the thick mountain laurel. Several times the trail switched directions, but when I started seeing a lot of scuffed up leaves, I became confident that he was close. Sure enough, while looking for the next drop of blood I spotted him 20 yards below me. The arrow entered just above the flank and exited right behind the elbow on the opposite side. Upon examining his rack I recognized him as the nice buck I had on a trail camera over half a mile away two evenings before. Although a nice buck I’ll be the first to admit that I was a bit disappointed that he was a 3 year old and not a year or so older, but the hunt was exciting and it was very satisfying to combine prior knowledge with a little intuition and a lot of luck, resulting in catching a buck coming back to his bed. In the satellite photo you can faintly see the outlines of stonewalls that were built more than a century ago (maybe 2 or 3) and you should be able to make out the small "paddock" I described. P.S. Although he came from downwind, I had a significant altitude advantage, so I am guessing my scent was blowing straight over the top of him.

Thanks for the help!

Ok, back to the plot; you're going to knock some trees down and open up some canopy to get anything to grow.