LET EM GROW

Soil quality, to me is a must if you want the difference between B&C and P&Y as far as ive witnessed in my years. I hunt from Steuben to Wayne counties... and the soil quality changes big time from north to south. North being much more rich than the "stuff" at my place in Steuben Co... Granted we have "nurtured the soil, lime and fert.. We manage to the best of our ability in Steuben with sanctuaries, food plots, Water sources you name it, the deer basically have it all. Attempt to only harvest bucks 3.5 yrs and older, our avg. 3.5 yr olds are around the 100-120" range.. Long story short, Our best bucks produced through the last roughly 10 years of practice, have never really exceeded 160" ... minus the one exceptional freak that does better.. In Macedon, NY we own 150 acres, No management practices here because no one around us wants to pass younger bucks and or shoot a doe. hence why i don't hunt much here.. The land is Ag fields, hay fields, "blocks" of woods/funnels and creeks, with the village not far away, prime land.... but way too much hunting pressure...The soil quality is much better than that of My Steuben Co. soil ... To sum it up, when you do actually get to harvest or even see a buck here that makes the 3.5 age criteria, with given "decent" genetics.. The antler score is greater. in my assumption the avg 3.5 here would be 120-140" easily. my living room wall shows a couple of them.... An old friend killed an 18pt buck a few years back that scored 183"... Dec showed up and aged it at 3.5 yrs. This happened 3 years in a row from the same "block" all 160-180", all 3.5 yrs aged by dec... and you could tell just by looking at them, they were not that old of deer... A buck is taken here every year at 3.5-4.5+ years, that will sport head gear a deer at my camp would have to live 6.5 years, yet barely grow the same bone.. i have the pics to prove. I don't prefer score, i rather chase the age class.. the challenge is fun, also i have ate my buck tag 4 years in a row now.. doesnt bother me a bit.. only filled freezer with doe and the fiances harvests.. I firmly believe that soil has every thing to do with producing giants.. like mid western states do.. along with genes and age..

after my brush hog rotted out, i used my zero turn with the deck all the way up (around 4.5"). worked just fine. but from what I have been told, ideal height is like 6-8", i believe..

I downloaded the firmware and will be updating the cam this weekend.. Just curious as to what i should expect to happen differently or what not after its been updated.. never updated any camera before. Camera performs flawless so far

Bust up the flocks, then softly yelp them back.. Yesterday i bumped 5 longbeards off my Whitetail Oats plot while going to pull a SD card from a camera.... About 5-10 mins later as i was moving the camera to a different tree on the plot, i could hear a couple of them yelping softly, trying to locate each other after they dispersed different ways.. I don't fall turkey hunt but it seems like this is the way i would try after seeing this happen quite a few times in the past..

Congratulations! No not selfish, my 1 yr old daughter will be getting hers this year as well!

looks like a child walking trhough the woods, at dawn or dusk.. nothing creepy.. sit in that stand.. your the biggest baddest in the woods toting a weapon to and from the stand!

congrats grow! i live just a couple minutes from dansville, and those meals sound so delicious ... Never heard of this place, i think i may have to bring my soon to be wife here asap!

i have only hunted and still hunt, from Wayne county, south through ontario, Steuben and Allegheny county.. and have seen plenty of P&Y bucks in all of them.. as far as DMP tags go, the closer to Lake ontario you go, your chances seem to be great. The WNY/Finger Lakes region produces a ton of deer every year

Been out twice so far this season, and havent seen a deer yet. Plenty of trail cam pics but no sightings yet... only have seen 5 coyotes so far, harvested one of them. heard them howling last night.. i think i need to break out the pup distress call this week and the rifle.. unreal the amount of coyotes this year.

i practice with pins out to 60, id go farther if i can find more pins.... I had a coyote @ 54 yards last night... calm, walking around looking for dinner in the golden rod.. which was pretty cool watching her pounce a few times, let one fly after a bit as she was quartering away and drilled her perfectly! watched those tracers sift right through her

oh and my phone died suddenly, dang thing!.. so i could not take a picture of course!

Forgot my binoculars, face mask and gloves.... i wasnt impressed with myself, haha any who.. I smoked a quartering away coyote @ 54 yards about 545pm, and right after had to climb down for daddy duties at 6:00 pm. Fiance had to rush to work for some employee issues to be taken care of.. and no sitter to be found but dad

So far i love it, put it up Monday, Still have to check the firmware.. But I checked it quick last night, trying to determine where i sit tonight.... and i finally captured the animal I've been waiting to get on cam..

We do not use gloves.. no need to wear them, not worried about the mess.. and its more fun.. Speaking of this, i took my fiance out 2 years ago and she harvested her first deer ever that evening in December, when it came down to field dressing the doe, she didn't hesitate or anything. Grabbed her knife and started opening up that deer,( she knew the insides would warm her hands, that was her main reason haha! ) with me just telling her where to cut as she got into it, she did the whole field dress herself. That was quite impressive i thought.. no gloves, just adrenaline! she killed her first with archery tackle last year and did the same.. It did kind of worry me some that if i ever pissed her off, she would probably do the same to me haha! I may wear gloves when processing the venison, only b/c i do that out in the cold garage, and that thin rubber glove actually does keep the cold away from your finger tips, better than no glove. But that's the only reason i ever wear a glove..

Looks great, I predict some plentiful whitetail action here very soon! Good luck!

My Heaviest was this guy... dressed weight was 209lbs

Ok, i will check. They had the "recon ops" or however it is called.. for $99.. but the extra 40 ft in IR range was the selling point for me. .

So i just picked up one of these Browning Strike Force HD cameras @ Runnings in canandaigua for $129... I set it up and got it in the woods last night, so far with just setting up. I really like this cam. Lots of features, Pretty straight forward. I Took a few test pics before setting it out and it seems good to go. We will find out. Anyone else run these cams?

I Planted my "murder plot" with WI oats and overseed w/clover, a little later than usual, September 16th, but they seem to be doing well, they're about 4" tall and getting hammered on already, But the other "evolved" oats as mentioned, have been untouched it seems.

the apples have been falling like crazy here last few weeks. But there are a ton left to fall still. Should be a good early season with all the food around my place. seeing deer and turkey every time i go to pull cards. we have a good crop of bucks this year... just a few does though..

Well i checked the plot a week ago, Peas, oats and clover are all growing. about ankle high, but they have not seemed to eat any of it.. which i don't mind, hopefully they wait until October 1st ..

With all the corn, clover, soybeans and alfalfa around us, I cant believe there hammering on my rape this early. my big leafy plots are looking pretty thin already.

This happened to mine last year.. soybeans and young turnips/brassicas.. days later I found a family of woodchucks just laying in them eating them like crazy.. a phone call to my retired grandfather later and he sat there and picked them off for me, this year they're getting nibbled on some still, but not near as bad. so I thought. checked my brassica plots 2 weeks ago, and the deer are absolutely hammering my brassicas, they never have in years prior, not at least until after a few good frosts. Its kinda sad they couldn't wait until October 1st.. haha

The soap came in 2 packs and i believe she got them for a nickel a pack. I know it was damn near free after the coupons.. so it was pretty cheap compared to the price of a hot fence.

Thanks to my fiance and her coupon hobby. i have hundreds of irish spring bar soap. I put a stake in the ground every 40-50' apart and hung 1 bar of soap about 1.5-2" high per stake around the perimeter along with a pie tin. a month later, a dozen or so throughout the middle of the plot.. ( I found out they would walk pass the smell-> into the center of the soybeans and then start eating.. they wouldn't touch the outside plants anywhere s near the soap stakes) must be the smell wasn't as strong in the center... And then refreshed them with new soap after about 30 days. just to make sure they would stay out. I will tear down the stakes either once bow season starts or after the farmers pick the surrounding beans.. not sure yet. But this has worked great compared to last year where they ate everything once it was 3" high with no source of "fence".. I have beans in some spots that are up to my chest, but the majority is waist high.. and I am 5'9, but a ton, and i mean a ton of pods per stem!