PREDATE

Joseph, @ 15 years of age you show exceptional enthusiasm for hunting, which I think is great! I had a few "wild years" spent partying n' such starting when I was 15-16. Looking back, I wish I'd spent that time in the woods! So I can say that there are alot worse things than spending time on HuntingNY. Keep with it bud! You're on your way to being a great hunter!

While it will take immense focus and manual dexterity to make legitimate replies/posts, it will not increase any skill other than typing. Reading on the other hand will lead to vast knowledge!! LOL I say be a gentleman and let Growalot take the lead!

What I was thinking too

That's a nice bear. Trap set?

Scent free bath? LMAO

I'm sure Witty's got a funnel or two that you could use! The black arrow points to your your funnel. LOL

That is unfortunate. Just more reason to get out and stock back up!

It does look like good hunting ground. I agree that at this point trailcams are just for observation. This is a good time to plan a few stand sites overlooking good sign and to start planning your routes to/from stands. There are deer there and if you keep your scent outta their noses, they will come by at some point. I like to get an early mock scrape or two started in late mid/late September. I practice scent control while making scrapes. I'll add a few drops of buck urine/musk to the scrape, but most importantly put some buck preorbital scent on the overhanging branch. This will aggravate the dominant buck and cause him to cruise by often to catch the intruding buck. The does will start visiting regularly too. Throw a camera at the scrape, you might get a surprise visit from a P&Y buck! Get in there and scout. You should be able to topple a good buck in there and remember that there's nothing wrong with being picky. Take your time and it will happen!

The Maine state record brookie is 9.02lbs. Now how do they verify the location of the catch? Just wondering because Maine isn't that far and they obviously have bigger brookies! I read the criteria for the NYS angler awards and it seem as if it only needs to be weighed on a certified scale by the owner of the scale or an employee. They give mention to the fish needing to be identified by a DEC biologist, but without extensive testing how can they be 100% certain that it was caught in NYS? Not to mention the catch and release category. All you need is a pic of the fish and you get a schnazzy catch and release award lapel pin!!!! They must owe me 50+ pins! lol

I'll second that

Thank you kindly! Had a great day.

Sorry, PREDATE don't go with just anyone, Lawdwaz, if that is your real name! LOL

lol nice one!

Do you have any second choice forum usernames? or even any regrets for choosing your current one? Mine would be Jackal Shackler for my fondness of trapping canines. Post yours here so that it will remain yours. Sort of copyrighted. If you see someone using your "coined" username, call them out and after they've been found guilty of copying, they will be subjected to a "red belly"! lol

+1 It seems like you realized most of the errors. We're all still learning every time we set out no matter how many years we have under our belts. Experience only comes with time. Stick with it and you'll get your deer. If time/work constraints are an issue, you may want to start bow hunting too. That way you'll have 2 months to squeeze in trips upstate. I'll add that you don't need to hike into unchartered terrain to find awesome deer. Many suburbs/backyards are giant buck sanctuarys!

There are supposed to be eastern Copperheads in NY too and a small area near Syracuse with another species of rattler called Massasauga. All snakes in NY are protected.

I'm cusious to this as well, but also wondering if Mike doesn't want to give up his new bear spot!

cool maybe the history books mean cougar or mtn. lion when they say panther. but really who is to say that black cats weren't here at one point? I'm not saying they are here now, but seem to recall historical books giving mention to black ones.

Very cool! I don't care for snakes up close but they are cool to watch. I respect them as wild creatures, these ones just command that respect due to their nasty bite and venom! Killing an animal out of dislike is nonsense and has no place in our sport.

I think it's that feller over at Gus's Gas n' Grub with the all you can eat steakumm sammiches! lol

Who's to say they were never here? There was a bounty on panthers in NY. There weren't photos and forensic scientists 3-400 years ago

LOL I'll reword my statement. The DEC has denied that there were ever "large black cats" in NYS. I wasn't speaking of cougars. I study NYS history quite a bit and there are many personal accounts of "large black cats". The excerpt in the link I posted that mentions John Buck is only a small portion of written history of his hunts for "black cats" in and around Chenango/Broome Counties.

I've heard that packs of wild dogs will do more damage than coyotes. Much more aggressive and usually mangle their prey. That's not to say that what you guys saw wasn't a wolf.They were once here and thought to have been eraticated by the mid 1800s, but maybe a few did survive. Bounties were paid to nys residents for wolves, panthers, Etc. and the DEC still denies that panthers were ever in NYS. Baloney! Here's a short article I found about bounties in NYS http://coyotes-wolves-cougars.blogspot.com/2010/10/brief-history-of-bounties-paid-to.html

Thanks for the tip, though they're about a 2 hour drive west for me.. I'll ask around or even order offline if I have to. My local Home Central usually carries powder/pellets.

Awesome mounts! I like the Lynx too.