phade

Some of the trees in my yard are the first to go, and my driveway is starting to be leafy...not long now.

Use to go every year, but it really is no longer impressive. I'll be visiting Ohio that weekend doing some glassing and suring up ground with the farms. I wish it were as good as it was about 7-8 years ago.

Is cedar common in the area? Seems promising for sure.

Fond memories of seeing that place...first turkey hunted with a young kid and and a middle-aged guy who were national turkey calling champs. THe kid's dad worked at the plant. I hope they don't get run out of town.

I have one, with the first version of field scan. It doesn't go down in delay time to the plot style cams...which to me sort of mitigates the benefit of it. It'll also eat up batteries faster in that mode and you need a sizeable card for it.

That's a huge question. Swamps/marshes are BIG TIME MATURE BUCK BEDDING AREAS. That point really can't be made big enough. For swamps, you want to walk the transition lines between swampy muck, cattails, redbud, etc. Also, you want to look at islands within swamps - even a lone tree a 100 yards out with a 4'x4' knoll can make a prime buck bedding area. The transitions and small high spots are going to be where you find the beds. Do this post season, find the beds...stand in them, and look around. See what the buck can see from the bed. Then, pick your stand site (assuming you know how you can enter/exit safely and hunt with the right wind). Thickets are the dryland equivalent of swamps/marshes for mature bucks. You'd be surprised at how well a giant buck can manuver in there. I really like thickets that are several acres in size and have some variety of "pricker bushes"...whether that be multiflora or what have you. That tends to keep hunters out - and if the bucks have been bedding there for years and no hunter intrusion...then you can take advantage. Once I find such a spot, I'll often to try get the basic deer use of that thick down, and then I make a plan to cut a small path or two that can be hunted by a strategically placed stand. My best early season spot is likely going to be such a location since I don't have much swamp/marsh ground here. Bucks can and will use the trails - some of my game cam pics this year are from such a spot. The trail should be cut in a way that it doesn't destroy the bedding characteristics, but instead makes travel easier within the protected area. You also wouldn't know there is a trail there unless you walked into the thicket itself - I'll make a small cut, make a hard right or left, and then another hard right/left, to screen out the trail from plain view. You can't see five feet into the thicket, and at that point, I made my trail...from a small pond to several apple trees, below an area where bucks are bedding. It it NOT easy work, but snips, a weedeater, and roundup can do wonders. That and a little blood loss. If you can't cut a trail, hunt the edges of the thickets based on why they are using it and where they are using it in relation to food/water. Bucks will push does into the thickets come chasing time and especially when you are on the edge of breeding, as they can court them there and have a better ability to fend off other bucks. Think of times when you hunted along an open area and seen a nice buck tending a doe and all of the satelite bucks milling about...that mature buck was constantly running them off. If a buck has a chance to steer a doe into a thicket, he will more times than not because he can spend less energy defending the doe...

That deer is likely fine. The coat shedding is normal. It's just making the ribs more pronounced than what most most typically see.

First off, after watching this, you did a great job on it. I've watched many of the vids out there, even Guidos...and yours seems to be much more thorough and clear. I can see it getting a ton of hits on youtube. How's the material for scent absorbtion? I like the idea, but assume you can't wash it and early season might bring a bit of sweat. Any thoughts on that. Also, curious to see what your thoughts are on how well the linesman belt slides up the tree, say over prepped screw ins or sticks. I have a treehopper that is nice to use, but it's not the best at sliding over screw ins, etc. I'm likely buying GW this week...I think I could get used to it pretty quick shooting wise. Thanks for the vid...primo job.

I'd check out the ulmers...AT had a thread on there where a member did a huge test of a variety of heads...and edges cam out at the top or near it. Now, that's not to say the test was scientific, but it was pretty impressive. I really like the edges...if I didn't have a stockpile of my current heads, I'd be buying them.

Expecting much challenge with dispersal/shifting range? Having sheds certainly helps...but any idea if he sticks around in the fall time? Great NY buck. People are getting a ton of daytime shots of mature bucks lately. I'm getting an unusual amount myself.

Wow, that is a bummer, for sure.

Adding some from this year. Got a few more on another comp. All my eggs in one basket unfortunately this year.

Sure can use a bow in gun season...

I hope you find something, it's a great adventure to partake in, and one that will carry over into many areas of his life. You learn woodsmanship, how to handle and work with firearms (often that helps when tinkering with other mechanical items around a house), etc.

If you like schwackers...the ulmer edge is even better. I don't shoot them but wow, those are some fine heads. I've had good luck with Grim Reapers. Only mech I like so far, really. I'll try the edges soon enough. I really like the capability to tighten the screw so they blade don't deploy and you can practice shoot them.

Nice, added ground is always a bonus. Good luck!

Do I have to account for any talking she does while in the stand? Sorry, grow...just a friendly joke.

Oy. You're killing me Smalls. And, you're grasping for straws. Although my group is one of the best in country according to most professional associations, I am confident the professionals behind the DEC info are capable and accurate. I'm even more confident if they are hired guns...analytic companies who have government contracts are almost always some of the most highly skilled stats geeks out there. That's where the real money is...even more than traditional for-profit companies. Its guranteed money in most cases.

And trust me, I'm not a DEC leghumper. I think most of the guys/gals there are good, but are hamstrung by regs, money, and politics. I bet if we let those there now run their own ship with no constraints, we'd all be happy. But, suffice it to say, they are shackled and because of that, make some dumb moves. Because I am immersed in analytics and stats daily for a publicly traded company that relies on it...I have seen first hand how things like variable are taken into context, and how decision making can be steered by such data collection and interpretation. My team is now mining facebook and twitter to determine clients who are more likely to buy a certain product/service based on things they say, what's in their business name, how many friends/followers, they have, etc. Now that is something to behold...taking text and turning it into numerical data.

There is a reason that info is not posted - much of it is likely creative property on contract. I doubt they have a "traditional" bio or predictive analytics staff per say...its probably done via contract work so they don't have to pay benefits and (ridiculous) salaries that go along with it. It also goes back to the fact that most people won't understand it altogether, reduces their authority, and is what many call a no-win proposition.

Again, no offense, but it seems like this is going over your head. The reference to CNN was related to the number of hunters who target small game. The DEC does the same with hunters - they have availability to a variety of polls, studies, samples, surveys, etc. and those hard numbers from a minute portion of the hunting community can be extrapolated to a certain degree of accuracy. FYI CNN uses exit polls as the leading input to predicting winners. Previously, they used past elections and party information; however, it had proven to be less accurate than exit polls. Exit polls are scary accurate.

Microcosm vs. Macrocosm. You've also not considered that many species are renumerating. It may very well be that there are a good number of turkey already in the area, and because of that, fewer eggs were laid and hatched. Instead, you attribute that to logging - which may be accurate...or not. It's hard, but you have to train your brain when it comes to this type of data. I'm barely able to hold conversations with some of my team...they are so socially inept it is comical. But if you asked them to extrapolate a random scenario...they can whip it out of their heads. What I can say is that you are focused on the number being accurate to the Nth degree, and really, that's where you're missing the dots to connect. The DEC takes into considerations all of the variables it can, crunches numbers, and uses the data changes in BETWEEN THOSE NUMBERS, to guide decision making. It doesn't matter if they are accurate to within 0.3% or 1.2% or 3%....as long as everything stays the same in how those numbers are gathered, considered, and processed, the changes are where the value comes from.

I bet you they can say within a certain acceptable margin of error the number of hunters who hunt small game. They only need a minute sample to correlate that info...it's basic math. That's why you see CNN predicting a political winner in a state with 3% of polls reporting - and much to the grimace of the average joe...they're right 99.99% of the time. Agreed, this debate can rage. Suffice it to say, I've seen what can be done with analytics. I assure that whatever the DEC attributes to be a variable, they have some model to account for it as best as possible - save for the unknown - such as predicting a population of X and then a biblical winter occurs - but even then they can predict recovery rates with variables on winter mortality.People who are not around predictive analytics reasonably don't understand the power harnessed in that information. It's forest for the trees thing, really. You are getting caught up in the trap of "what if" and not in the year to year consistency in collection, variable accounting, and reliability. Paralysis by analysis...Basically, you account for it in your model, and then move on.And, trust me, I can safely say the DEC has weather and predation variables accounted for in their models since they would be two of the major ones. I bet you could ask their group about the impact of population on a particular game, such as rabbits, with an average winter degree change of .5 degrees, 1 degree, etc. or forecast predation by coyote with an expanded population of 3% 5%, etc....and get a realistic response. Just because you don't know how they do it, doesn't mean it is impossible. I don't know how to fly to the moon...but NASA does - think about the variations in that model before they pushed the "go" button.

Being in wNY, I can't offer assistance. But I can say kudos to you for taking the step to get your son involved in something he is interested in doing. Maybe someone here can step up and consider a mentor capacity to this young man. Also, maybe look into the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). The head of that group is actually president of the NYS Outdoor Writer's Association...and he's is a top-notch guy with a ton of connections. I'm sure he'd be willing to direct you to someone who can help.

NYON just published an article saying it had recently reached the Gov. desk...so the clock is now ticking. Curious to see who is right. If it were anything less than a Regional Mgr....I call it suspect. NYON usually deals with the Admin in Albany.