phade

OSU Edit: I'm kidding of course. No idea who he roots for. It's his safe space I guess, lol.

Amish are fascinating, friendly, creepy, weird, rude, and crazy, sometimes all in the same person or interaction. It's unexplainable. Crop farmer leases ag fields from our farmer on one parcel. That farmer rents a second level room in a barn to an elder Amish guy who runs a construction crew. That Amish guy framed in the entire second floor and finished it into a bachelor pad that any red blooded English (white guy) would be envious of. I'm talking pool table, big screens, Lazy Boys, food/drink, etc. Place could entertain 10 guys on a bachelor weekend no problem. He did it all himself. Turns out, he tells his wife/family he is working on certain days and goes there and spends all day there by himself. He has never had a single guest there, ever. Did all the work, and just hangs out in there watching TV, sports, and what not.

We're the opposite. Have the woods but not the field. Trying to figure out where the guy is hunting based on the bait pile in the field five feet from the woodline. We have no stand in that vicinity and are learning how to hunt that section this season. The guy is a landowner a few lines down and for some reason is over here which isn't making sense. This part of the farm is rough terrain - behind the woods is a steep 40-60 foot drop about 20 yards in. Hunters along the borders have taken some liberties of hunting the line and likely shooting into the property due to prior hunters who hunted here over the years not actually going back in there. One amish guy has a blind on the line with only one window - into the bottoms of our farm, lol. We'll address that one this season, too. I'll probably sit in the bottom one day when I see him there. They avoid confrontation or become irrational based on what I've seen and been told by our farmer. He thankfully is willing to go nuts on them which has helped thus far. I had a photo of one Amish guy 100 yards into the property and knew what stand he was hunting on the line. Told him I captured his soul and he denied it was him in the photo. Despite him literally wearing the same outfit down to the boots. The cam was 5 feet away from him when it sent me the image.

I'm struggling to find a specific buck on that farm that I had an encounter with in late November. One that I know made it through the legal season as I have photos of him through mid-Feb. I believe I got one crummy photo of him in June, but I am not 100% positive it's him. Outside of that, no sightings. It's possible the June photo isn't him, but he's essentially been a ghost either way. Buck is most certainly 5.5 and older last year. I am really hoping he shows up because I would hunt him only and be OK with striking out. I did have early season images of him last year. If not, this guy is probably on the radar. A large 4 point is a bit of a misnomer, but he is at least 3.5 and very possibly 4.5. It's been a rather down year for good bucks on cams and scouting across multiple states and properties.

I'm guessing 12 feet. Normally don't do that, but the field isn't ours, the woods are. It's on a tree on our side of the fence and done for two purposes. One, the deer like that corner, and two, the hunter who hunts that field likes that corner too. We're working to resolve an occasional line crossing on his part. He baits in the field - it's there in the pics but you can't see it.

Agreed as well. 120" is NYSBBC for bow if that says anything. Less than P&Y. I have had a few people who thought they shot a 120-125" in NY get bummed when it tapes out at 110-upper teens, and I always make it a point to remind them that they likely shot a top 10-20% buck across all hunters in the state that season. I know of a few people (four) who let 140s go in NY if they are chasing a bigger buck in the area, but they all have one or both characteristics - they have access or control the most prime ground in the best parts of the state and/or they hunt out of state. They all also have deer over the 140 class on the wall. For the ones that go out of state, if there is no giant on their radar, they smack the first 120/130 3.5+ they come across so they can focus more on out of state for the season. 3.5+ y/o bucks are hard to pass in NY IMO, mostly because 4.5+ are much rarer. I would say that is one of the primary reasons I have enjoyed hunting out of state the past few years. I've seen more 4.5+ in those two seasons than I have in the past 10 in NY. Our age structure just isn't where it could be for multiple reasons.

We recently started getting this buck on cam and might be able to go after him based on a few other cams showing he is making appearances in daylight. Best cell cam pic we have but he is only a 4 pt. We checked and double checked other cam pics but no brow tines at all. Ohio buck though.

We were trending toward a move Saturday morning for 10/1 opener based on movements we're seeing going back to bed. S winds are putting a pause on that if the forecast holds. PM winds shift to NE so that will work for then, but dang, we were hoping to get in, in the AM. I hope it shifts. We have another spot where S winds are fine for the AM but its primarily a doe spot this early on.

I was fortunate to grow up as a pre-teen in the Scottish Highlands. I was too young for the hunting and it hadn't bit me yet as I was big into fishing at that time. That said, stag and roe deer hunting was quite popular locally and I can vividly remember them using darn near every part of those animals that could be consumed. The Highlands are impressive and would make for a good family vacation where you could also get hunting in. It is a social experience for sure. Pricing isn't as bad as you might think. Do prepared for the physical exertion there. It is not flat ground. Also, it's wet all the freaking time there.

Spent alot of time trying to find something in NY this past week and nothing. Deer season is underway now in Ohio so I am trying to balance hunting-related time spend and searching for a purchase property. Logistics are not friendly as a few parcels I want to look into are 3-4 hours away from our leases in Ohio. Hard to hunt PM and look for property in AM that way. Interest rates keep going up so that is not cool. Cheaper Ohio properties all seem to be hilly/contiguous woods. Not alot of primary edge or transition habitat on the market. Still interested in 2-3 parcels and will try to make a visit second weekend in Oct. if still on the market.

Went to other farm for PM. Looks like he made another appearance.

In. Four doe so far. Sitting til 930. Went across me in front and right through knee to chest deep water. Was looking for this guy. No dice yet.

turkey set ups...yep.

I doubt that is right. The $129 at those spots is usually for ladder tree stands.

Look at the shady areas more closely. I've recently become more in-tune with how deer use shade for evening feeding and entry/exit. If you have low spots to enter fields, they'll often use that for security, but I've also seen where deer will use the earlier shaded areas to come out and feed more in daylight, esp with winter coats coming in. You may have less "weeds" because of better growth, but you may also have less weeds because the deer are feeding there on it and regenerative properties are kicking in for the food plot legumes you've planted. I'm paying alot more attention to shaded areas in late summer and early fall now. Starting to see some connections there.

I belonged to a hunt club in VA that went through EHD bad twice, and BT seemingly more often. I remember BT being more of a regular occurrence with "bad years." EHD was more on or off. Surprised it took this long for NY to get it with EHD showing up now for several years.

PS. Dolphins IMO will be a real test. Strong receiving corp against a potentially depleted/inexperienced secondary. Hyde dinged up, and at one point Bills had their first and sixth round drafts running point on CB1 and CB2. Taron will need to step up IMO.

I wonder if there is focus on the strength and conditioning coaches, strategy, and processes. Alot of injuries in two games. The Dane Jackson one obviously doesn't fall into that, but still. I hope he is OK, that was scary. I wonder if Edmunds will have an issue with that in completing tackles going forward. Friendly fire so to speak.

@Belo you knew better than to start this forest fire right as season is coming in. LOL

Hate doing it but made a choice to go in and fix the cam in our hot spot right now and to add a second stand in a spot just south of it based on what I thought was happening. We did our best and got in and out as clean as we could. We will let it chill out for a while and monitor with a trio of cell cams. Of course as we entered we found a scrape right on our entry point. Early but significant. Our place is surrounded by standing corn and it’ll cool off once the corn comes down. Until then it has alot of action on a clover plot we put in last year but couldn’t get into, to mow or work due to the corn planting boxing it off this year. Low and behold they are hammering this red clover. Weedy but it’s drawing big time. Might be opening PM spot.

Winter Rye is coming in. Wish we used oats but left them at the house accidentally when we went to seed. I think at the least it’ll fill in parts of two plots that failed to take. One buck in particular that we had our eyes on and whom I have a shed from this past season broke off a tine pre velvet peel.

Had a deer screw with the cam two nights ago. Knocked sideways and off angle. Better lucky than good I guess to pick this one up on cam.

That’s a good pull. Looks like a great group.

Looking into a small piece in Ohio in one of the top flight deer counties. Sets up well for hunting with predominant wind, has some fields for cover or food plot, elevation changes, creek bottoms, etc. About the only thing it is missing is a second access point for dead wrong wind and maybe some natural funnels along field edges. A bit light on thick bedding cover but that can be worked on. Called the land specialist - I asked him to share more details than what is online. He pretty much said all he knew was online - so I inquired about neighbors, and he knew nothing. I assumed he would be familiar with neighbor situations given the land specialist angle. I knew more about the neighbors from online than anything. Asked him about the trails leading into the three bordering properties and he couldn't tell me much. Didn't ask for my number to call back either, despite answering the questions as best he could. Property has been on market since June-ish. He said the owner inherited it and has owned it for some time, yet tax records show two sales during that time period (found out after I got off phone). It looks like it lays very well but I'm trying to decide if I want to go visit it or not this weekend. Part of me is saying potential flags, but the other part is saying - good county, right layout, price is OK, etc. 50-50.

They're amazing to see in person and even in a side by side comparison with say a 3 year old. The scale of the head alone is big time. Pretty rare in NY though. Even by DEC's data collection standards, you're talking less than a few percent points of all bucks taken in a season.