phade

I can't tell you enough how common it is. Bow shops get busy but so many do the same thing. A good shop is worth it.

If he's happy...that is all that matters. I don't think anyone would genuinely disagree he'd be happy with one of these bucks. Something is still amiss biz...even in the most skewed ratios there's a 2.5 mixed in... you seem to have no clear 2.5 yo bucks. You are missing something or that property is missing something to the point experienced deer are not crossing.

Only the NEW YORK hunting site would have as many lawyers on it as it does other professions. It wasn't so much the deer and bag, it was the two streaks of blood that ran down the outside of the caddy trunk. It just looked....wrong with a big Italian driving. Belo, what does a Wayne County engineer build? Popsicle stick houses? Macaroni necklaces? Bwahaha. Ever read the Times of Wayne County? I swear that thing is like someone took a page out of West Virginia, Alabama, and combined them together with stories that couldn't be made up because they are so fabulous. I don't even have a stop light in my town...stuff like that just comes with the territory. Similar things can be said from my hometown. Did you hear that they have raised the minimum drinking age in Wayne County to 32? It seems they want to keep alcohol out of the high schools. How do you know when you're staying in a Wayne County hotel? When you call the front desk and say, "I gotta leak in my sink," and the clerk replies, "Go ahead." Ok, Belo, seriously I'm done. Just relax. No need to defend where you come from. Just embrace it. Something to be said about making your own path when many from the same area never do. Just don't feel bad when people joke about it...if you can't laugh about the idiocy (and yourself) then you should learn how to. It makes life a bit more enjoyable.

Pretty much all of the deer you have posted from there are small and seem to be of the same age class. I know you just want a buck with the Xbow. You'll have no qualms getting it I am sure. But, why no older deer at all? Seems funny. Are you missing another, more subtle travel corridor?

Wait, you ask? I just show up in my torn suspenders playing the Deliverance song on my fiddle, let them know I'm a Wayner, and that they best not be hunting on their property cuz we comin' tru. Sorry, Belo. Gotta kick the dog once in a while.

Wait, you haven't heard that I lead a major program for a company on the Fortune list with revenues of $2.5B. Or that I come from the stix, the second in my family with a B.S., and the first with an MS/MBA with a concentration in Strategic Leadership, or that I'm LSS belted. Or that I've been published in local, state, and national outdoors magazines with more than 200 article byline credits to my name. Seriosuly dude, get over yourself. Everyone should be proud of where they come from, but you took a joke (clearly a joke) and went ballistic trying to measure/justify/rationalize yourself. Everyone puts their pants on the same way. If you loosened up the boys a bit, your voice wouldn't squeek so high. Face it, you need to chillax.

Throw down some urea or N-heavy fertilizer. Did you test the soil? PH could be off so that the plants are not uptaking the nutrients available to them. Don't get Urea on your truck..corrosive. Also lay it down right before a rain as it is lost to the air pretty easily. If you think that's going to be a pain, then opt for the heavy N fertilizer and spread it. You are probably around 30 days from seeding? Typically when it shows. If so, good time to lay some N down. They love their N.

My friend that owns the orchard in Williamson also owns the trucking business that carts off most of the apples to Motts and the numerous other places. You'll just have to take my word on it as I'm not out there at the moment...lol.

Apple picking began this week on the orchards in Wayne Co. I ate alot of them off the trees last week. I have a few crabapples bare now after dropping all of their fruit already...they are distressed and in poor shape. Others are holding strong.

Nah, Belo just has ants in his pants today. He's taking things personal when he knows better, especially after the level of back and forth we've had (and he has had with numerous other people). Maybe he needs a reach-around, but not my cup of tea.

I'll be honest with you, I've been contemplating writing a book focusing on gaining and finding access for about a year and a half now. The only other book out there on the topic is the younger Eberhart's and that's the worst book of their offering by far. It tells nothing. I have about 1/3 of the manuscript done. I want to be able to keep as much info fresh for the book content. There is a profit-sized market demand for it, especially from an e-book perspective, from the research I've done. My hope is to finish it by Feb/Mar and get it out. I don't think my letters are anything that a reasonable person would be unable to produce. Oftentime there are a handful of subtle statements that make the difference in getting more of a response rate and some have been identified on this thread by others. But, I will say this again, letters are not always the best way, and probably not even the majority of the time. It's being smart enough to figure out the best medium to communicate through.

Woohoo, pushed your button. You took offense to something. WNYB and others have been trying to do that for eons, I feel the collective pat on the back. Your quote wasn't anything special...merely pointed out that people falsely always believe that it is the best way to go. My point was that, that isn't ALWAYS the truth. Nothing against you or bashing you personally (besides your heritage, which is tounge in cheek - how many times have I said to you I hunt in Wayne, have a wife from Wayne, etc.? Lots.) You can take the boy out of Wayne, but can't take the Wayne out of the boy. Relax woodchuck....errrr 315er.

Apparently farmers generally only own land now? Ignorance is bliss, sometimes. Cliff notes: People prefer different means of communication. Figuring out which one is best for that scenario is the best method. One method is not all-encompassing. Wayne county people...sheesh. Sample Response: XXXX, I’m responding to your letter requesting permission to hunt on XXX property on XXX Road. Please come to the XXXXXX offices at XXXX XXXXXX rd and fill out a registration/disclaimer form – ask for XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX. Any questions please direct them to XXXXXX when you come to our offices. Regards, XXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX Farms, Inc.

Unless the person prefers a letter. I have rights from plenty of lands where a letter was the means of contact. One gentleman owned a financial consulting business catering to high-income clients in Cleveland. I sent him a nice letter and he called me back granting permission because the letter "stunned" him as it was nice to know there's a hunter out there who's educated and can talk business. His ground has turned out to be my best Ohio property. One my FIL killed his first deer on in darn near 40 years of hunting. He let me know that he never lets others on but was so impressed that I wrote a letter he could understand, he felt I would be respectful of his property. I knew writing a letter to him would be the right choice and it worked out well. I have numerous other similar access stories from letters. Same with calls. Same with knocks on doors. No one method is the best universally. Knowing the info you did was a great tactic on that case. Well done. I don't know about 14 acres holding 130, a ten, and other bucks, but still. Usually that many bucks holding on a property means there is a fence around it, lol. Most people have trouble holding deer on a square mile property let alone 14 acres. Either way, it was planned and execture to perfection. Keep treating him right.

Yuck..one of the reasons I don't hunt geese is because I simply haven't had a meal of them that I ever wanted a second bite of. God bless you for keeping their numbers in check as best as possible.

It amazes me to this day how people blatently make generalizations as to how a landowner prefers to be contacted. You are assuming face to face is always the best method and that's false. No one single approach works. It's called communicating to your audience. I have had permission granted via face to face, via phone, and via letter or email. On many occassions, I have been told the method I used was vital in getting permission. My permissions are nearly split equally one third across the board via the various methods. Some general guidelines that can be had: Commerical properties almost always respond better to letters and phone calls. Why? They don't want me taking time away (out of their control) from them growing their business. A letter or call/voicemail lets them decide when to contact me - typically end of day or after hours. I purposely ask for voicemail when calling business owners. Letters also seem to do better in areas where there is higher education, higher income, more development, and elderly folk (at times). A properly composed business letter does wonders - I've had numerous comments on it, even when the answer was a no. Old people love letters, they love getting something in the mail. It's how they communicated when they were youths and young adults. Educated suburban people also like letters because its discreet. Mary Jane and Bob may despise the deer eating the shrubbery on their property, but don't openly state it because of the community yuppies. A letter really opens the discussion instead of rolling up in the truck with Realtree stickers and buck skulls on the window and knocking on the door. Phone calls can work better when the landowner is absent, but you have a round-a-bout connection to them - say a mutual friend. Or, you simply can't physically get to them at a good time. Face-to-face works well when its more rural, a working farm, etc. Some people like to gauge you. Some people HATE being contacted via a knock on the door. I've had as many farmers enjoy the face to face conversation as those who hate it because I'm keeping them from doing something on the farm, even in slow times. Letters work the least with farmers, unless, and this one is a game changer, the wife runs the business end, which happens often. If a woman as listed as the landowner or business owner of the farm, but her husband runs its, a letter works wonders because she is opening it in their office/farmhouse. Farms are the biggest roll of the dice when it comes to method of contact. I typically prefer a call for a guy farmer, offering to stop by and meet them face to face. That allows them to dictate the visit timing and be expecting me. I also prefer a numbers game, the more you attempt, the more you will get a yes. in 2011, I reached out to more than 75 landowners via various methods. Last year was about 40, and this year (10ish) much less because of it just being a bad luck year for me home-wise and because I have quite a bit of new access to take advantage of. My rate of success was low as some contacts I never heard from and got a good amount of no permission, but the sheer number of permissions granted provided plenty of acreage. Several places I hunted a few times and figured out pressure was too high, the property wasn't as good of a performer as it looked on an aerial/topo, or a variety of other reasons. But, weeding them out, I have a handful of parcels that I put into the rotation every year. So really, saying face to face is always the best method is not true. It may be, it may not be. Think a little about your approach, play to your strength and make it happen...if you are illiterate (not joking or being smart), have someone write the letter for you, or focus on your conversational abilities for face-to-face/phone candidates.

Got some recent weed growth there in front of the cam creating some bounce back flash.

A solid buck, but he's got a huge body on him. Can't image the heft this guy is going to have once he puts on the feedbag in the next month. Here's to hoping he sticks around. It's a Code Black transmitted pic, I'm sure the pics on the card are going to be much better detail to see his rack clearly.

Again...find out who it is by using recovery software...free download.

Kind of hard to provide guidance when you don't know what your soil needs and you can only go by what the plant's you've seeded typically need. Going by that, I'd look for a straight 13-13-13 or similar and just see how it goes. It'll help, but I wouldn't go crazy on it. Better off knowing what you need next year.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....take the card, install the program, and see who it is. Might as well know rather than speculate.

Also, if it was your Covert, they can simply view and erase the pics in the cam...no need to take it out.

A 2 second google search showed lots of results and free programs. Not recommending, but just exampling, this post: http://photography.thefuntimesguide.com/2007/08/undelete_pictures_flash_card.php

If you think someone took the card, emptied the pics, and then replaced that same card, there's software that can recover the pics. I believe there's several programs that can do that.

More of the same it sounds...maybe go with an all-oats or a WW/WR.