nyantler

There is poaching and trespassing everywhere.. no hunting area is immune to it.

Oh yeah.. a little luck now and then doesn't hurt either:)

Trophies with skull plates that have been shattered or split by shooting, dropping, etc., are eligible for entry so long as the pieces fit perfectly back together. Such trophies can only be scored by members of the Club's Records Committee or its designated representatives. This is also true in NY... I believe the same goes for antler points as well. I forgot to mention.. very nice buck!

It wouldn't.. we were talking in general about split skull scoring... just pointing out that in NY we have a place for split skulls.

It certainly is... different goals is good... if we all were the same, life wouldn't be as much fun.. with little to talk about. Getting longer in the tooth has turned out to not be such a bad thing for me... I certainly needed to get a little wiser and slow down some based on my wild younger days... probably wouldn't hurt me to get a little wiser yet! My biggest point here though would be that regardless of how we determine the success of our season... it usually can not be blamed on outside sources, but rather on our own skills and/or short comings as a hunter... I'm sure you're a lot like me that if something isn't working.. you try something different... if we continue to do something that gets no results.. why would we expect anything to change?

That's correct in the hunting catagories... however in NY you may be able to place the score in the found dead or shed antler category where we give the antlers an 18" spread allowance... but it would not be eligible as a NY state record

I get the most kick out of killing a big buck in a place where most guys think there are no good bucks.. I have done it numerous times after being invited to friend's hunting camps where nobody has ever seen a big buck... funny though... I never seem to get a second invite..LOL I have Dairy farmer buddy that can only hunt 3 or 4 days a year... 5 times in a good year... he has killed a mature buck in the ADK's 20 out of the last 21 seasons... in areas where the deer density is so low most guys wouldn't even hunt there... he doesn't let his lack of hunting time or lack of deer determine the outcome of his hunting seasons... predation, limited food source, nasty weather.. etc... don't seem to be a factor to him when it comes to harvesting a deer. Never heard him complain about a bad season despite the limited opportunity.

Sometimes it's hard for me to grasp the "bad" season concept... unlike most hunters I don't judge my hunting experience by deer kills... killing deer is the easy part... making sure it continues to blow my skirt up is a bit harder... I have been fortunate to have avoided being completely skunked for nearly 30 years... each year different in some ways but never bad... a bad season for me would be not being able to get out and hunt at all... as focused and determined as I am when I am hunting I rarely take hunting so seriously that it can't be enjoyed and blunders laughed at... like I've always said here.. some of my best hunting experiences and hunts have been when I didn't kill the deer.. as well as some of my most memorable deer seasons have been when I didn't get a nice buck... usually for me sealing the deal is merely a bonus to an already great hunt... For example.. yesterday I came up a mature buck bedded with a doe in the middle of a huge corn lot... I spent 3 hours slowly crawling about 400 yards in a cut cornfield to get into range of the nice buck... only to have the doe get up just before getting into range and trot off, taking the buck with her. Bad? Not in the least... one of the coolest hunting experiences of my life... disappointed? not really.. I have until next Tuesday to hunt him with the smoke pole... the glass is always half full here.

For the record.. in my personal book that's a 7-point Congrats!

Why is it that when we make a list of reasons for not seeing deer or a "bad" season... one thing that is never on the list is our ability as a deer hunter... 99 times out of 100.. it is something we are doing wrong... For example: Sitting in the same tree stand all season and not seeing deer isn't a bad season it's insane... hammering the same 100 acres of woods every day and not seeing a deer is not a bad season it's bad tactics Whitetail populations can fluctuate everywhere in NY due to many different factors from year to year... a good or bad season is usually on the hunter... unless of course there are absolutely NO deer... If there are fewer deer.. the better hunters will still usually find and kill one.. and if they don't they usually have a heck of a good time doing it and still chalk it up to a good season of hunting. When you have what you call a "bad" season it does much better to look at what YOU"RE doing and what you could do differently to be more successful. The population of deer in any area will always have it's up and down years

http://www.nyantler-outdoors.com/fried-venison-heart-recipe.html

We have a method for getting the continuation of beam across the point... using a piece of tape at the intersection of point and top of beam.. we run a string from one side of point to the other, holding the string on the top of the beam on each side.. then make a mark on the tape at the bottom of the point where the string passes through.. then measure the outside of the point (following the curve of point if there is one) from the tip of the point to the mark made. The image in the last post is just a poor image of the same thing. point must be at least 1" and must exceed the width at the base of the point.. you can call it a point if you like... it's just not a scorable one

if you draw an imaginary line across top of beam through the point looks like the point falls short by an 1/8"... but that's just what I can see from pic..

Yeah I can understand that... I was mainly referring to all wooded pieces...

You really think you should be free to take as many of an endangered species as you want? The whole idea of game regulations and conservation is to keep people from totally eliminating animals with their greedy "take as many as you like" attitudes. That mindset is why many animals are on the endangered species list at all... the rules are there for a reason... not to piss people off... but to preserve wildlife species... oh yeah and sometimes to save people from themselves.

Honestly I don't do much hunting there... mostly a family camp... I would rather be in the ADK's than tughill... that could change in the future though

Redfield NY

Yes... Maine can be some tough hunting... I have taken a few bucks there... tough terrain

Unfortunately most hunters do nothing to improve the lands they hunt or the herds they hunt... and it will always be that way... I don't believe there is a general "hard natural way" to hunt... that is subjective... I'm positive your hard way to hunt isn't even close to mine... and mine may be easier than other hunters I know... the only end game in deer hunting is to kill deer legally... easily or hard depends on the individual and their hunting experience. It's not worse or better just different ways to get to the same end.

I take I you never tried tracking a big buck in the big woods of the Adirondacks with a flintlock rifle? But I will agree, taking a mature buck with archery equipment at close range anywhere is a tough endeavor

I'm sure in some cases the border may be the best stand site... but I think you missed my point... this border stand issue seems to be a common theme when we are talking about adjoining property owners not getting along... my point was.. if you found out the border was wrong and was actually 100's of yards away would you move your stand to the new border just because? As far as deer are concerned there are no borders... so I don't believe that every border is the ideal spot for a stand site... although I do realize that many adjoining properties, because of how the land is used have good edge at the borders which could be a reason why it is a good stand site.. maybe that's why hunters like property border stands... just seems to me that's the reason why lots of hunters don't see deer... they have a terrible stand site because they think they need to be on the border when maybe the best site is in the middle of the property. I'm just trying to understand the whole "put a stand on the property border" thing that seems to be a common thing.

Old bar room deer head and 5' model canoe ... couple more angles in cabin

outdoor sink at the camp... used some scrape hemlock I had laying around and a sink a friend of mine was tossing... still some work to be done on it, but a good start

I have always wondered why hunters like to put their stands on the border line of their property... I would think stand placement would be determined based on deer movement and the likelihood of seeing deer in an area... I find it hard to believe that every border of every property is the best stand site... especially if all the properties involved are completely wooded... the whole stand on my border seems to be the biggest complaint on here when it comes to neighbor disputes... I'm curious if all the borders were moved 300 feet in any direction just as a test... would the hunters move their stands to the new border location? I'm not much of a stand hunter, but I think I'm missing something on the border stand logic.

All butchers hang animals by their feet.. if its good enough for them it's good enough for me... I bet in the scheme of things it really doesn't matter though... kind of a "Do what you want to do, you will anyway" thing