wolc123

Last season was odd in that I did not fill any doe tags but we are still In decent shape thanks to a road kill button buck and a nice 2.5 year old 8-point archery kill that a friend gave us. I gave some of those and part of my own 1.5 year archery buck and 4.5 year, 200 + lb gun buck to a friend who got skunked last season. We still have a freezer shelf and a half full which should take us to archery season at least. IT has been many years since we needed to buy any beef.

I have not heard from too many of the anti crossbow folks who are willing to admit to the far greater effectiveness on the x-bow. The truth will set you free. This ones for you JJ: If my best buddy upstairs were to hunt deer, what weapon would he choose?

You just hit on another reason for the crossbows much greater effectiveness on "live" game. String-jump is a significantly bigger issue on alert deer than it is on those that are totally clueless about impending danger. Many a calm deer has been "alerted" when it caught a glimpse of an archer drawing his bow at close range. I have no doubt that string jump accounts for more wounded deer than any other cause during archery season. Just like a gun, no "in-close" draw is needed with the x-bow. Using a x-bow, there really is no excuse for not shooting at only "calm" deer. From 30+ years of archery experience, I knew prior to the shot in question that there was near 100% certainty that the buck would be in the same exact position when the arrow arrived. In the case of that semi-calm and distracted (by a couple does)59 yard buck last year, he was also about 10 yards beyond the range where release noise would be an issue. He certainly never knew what hit him until his heart was pierced. I suppose his heart was already broken when I hit it, since the two does did not seem to be receptive. I guess maybe I put him out of his misery. His pickled heart sure was tasty. Those of you archers who are so selfishly opposed to the crossbow may want to loosen up a bit. There are plenty of deer to go around here in NY. Hunter numbers are in decline and allowing the crossbow may stem the tide a bit by allowing hunters who are unable to draw and hold a regular bow participate. You may be good with your regular bows now, but there will come a day for almost everyone when the crossbow could add a few more seasons to your hunting. At least drop that argument that a x-bow is the same as a regular bow in effectiveness. Anyone with a spare $30 and an hours time can easily disprove that myth with a "subsonic" BB-gun using the little experiment I outlined in my prior post.

Has anybody else shot a deer thru the heart at 59 yards with a $250 crossbow? If you want to get a hint why even a cheap crossbow is 10x more effective than a conventional bow, take about $30 up to Dicks and get yourself a Crossman 760 BB gun (with a scope). Take it home and place a target 40 yards away. Using a good rest and the scope, fire a 10 shot group (BB's are cheap). Now take the scope off, and repeat, from the standing position using the open sights. For a more realistic comparison, for the standing shots, do a dumbbell curl with about 60 lbs between shots, holding the weight up for a minute or so. Compare the size of the two groups. The ability to fire your shots from a rest with telescopic sights is just a part of the reason for the order of magnitude increase in x-bow effectiveness on live targets. Couple that with the elimination of the need to draw and hold with an animal in close. 10X is actually quite conservative when it comes to how much more effective a x-bow really is. It is actually much closer to a ML than a regular bow in effectiveness on deer. Maybe that's part of the reason NY currently treats it more like one of those.

I don't think the problem is related to mileage, but rather to corrosion from road salt. After about 3 years, almost any vehicle operated on NY state roads is toast.

For beginners, a 410 with #6 shot is the best squirrel gun. Store-bought ammo is more expensive than 12 ga due to supply and demand as previously stated but if you reload, it is cheaper because you use less lead and powder. After you get a little experience, a .22 rimfire with solid lead bullets is the way to go. I still have some old .22 target ammo left over from my high-school rifle team days, when the coach always let me sweep the range after practice and meets. That is about the best squirrel ammo you can get. Skip the high-velocity hollow points as they cost more, make too much noise and ruin too much meat. Head-shots on squirrels are no more ethically-correct than head shots on deer. Just because a squirrel is small, does not mean it doesn't deserve a quick, clean kill. A squirrel running around with a missing lower jaw or a chunk blown out of its throat is a sorry sight because someone wanted to be a hero or thought they could save some meat. Center lung shots with these standard velocity, solid lead bullets will not ruin much meat. Squirrels are great eating, better than rabbit, but my favorite thing about them is they get my shooting in shape for deer hunting each season. You learn a lot more by practicing on "live targets" than you do on paper. I know plenty of folks who shoot paper targets just fine but fail miserably while actually hunting. Its a lot cheaper to learn on squirrels than it is to learn on deer, and a lot faster because opportunities abound. After you get to the point where you can center-lung hit squirrels every time with a .22, at ranges up to 75 yards or so, killing deer with a center fire rifle or shotgun slug gets almost as easy as shooting ducks in a barrel. I like to hunt squirrels from tree stands as that makes it easy to use the ground as a backstop. When shooting upward, I always try and make sure that the tree makes a good backstop. "Knowing your target and what lies beyond" obviously doesn't make exceptions for any shooting situations. Another big advantage of the .22 over any shotgun is the quiet report, especially if using standard velocity or CB ammo. Keeping the noise down makes it a lot quicker to limit out on squirrels, sometimes without the need to move much from a single spot. I am getting more time to squirrel hunt the last couple years since NY made the x-bow legal for deer. Now I have them extra 3 weeks of early archery season to hunt squirrels. The x-bow is so much more effective on deer than a regular bow that 2 weeks is all I need to get a deer. Shooting squirrels with a .22 is also practice that applies perfectly to a x-bow.

I have been trying to get a big Adirondack buck for around 20 years and finally succeeded last year. It is much harder getting one there than it is in the Southern zone where I live. The last few years we have been heading up for the thanksgiving weekend at my in-laws new camp, and that is my favorite time to hunt up there. Here are a few tips I picked up after many years of trying. Most important is food. White oak acorns are #1 on the list and if you can find some white oaks, that is where you want to be. The big, old 8-point I took last fall had a belly stuffed with acorns, most of them not even chewed, as his teeth were so worn. He was probably more than 4 years old. In the central mountains, where oaks are few, grassy road-shoulders provide more food than isolated areas far from the road. Does are far more common up there than bucks and I was able to take a big "lead" doe up there a few years prior as she led her pack of about 8 antlerless deer up onto a ridge loaded with white oaks during the early ML season. That area was so isolated that she had no idea what hit her after taking the minni-ball thru the lungs. She just stared at me, began to wobble, then toppled over the edge of the ridge. Does are the #2 factor to help you get a buck. Up there, they are almost always in large groups. They tend to bed on grassy hilltops below the oaks and above swampy creek bottoms. The far less common bucks reside elsewhere but keep track of their "harems" by scenting from downwind of the doe bedding areas. Last season, I got my big one from up on a downwind mountain ridge that provided a good view of a trail along the creek bottom. My father in law had been watching a large group of antlerless deer for about a week prior, on the other side of the creek. They must have gotten tired of his harassment and had vacated by the time I got up there, but that didn't keep the big buck from walking by to see if they had returned. He was in for a surprise when he felt that 150 gr 30/06 bullet cut thru his rib-cage. The 3rd important item, that I see has already been mentioned, is the importance of keeping yourself in shape physically. I learned that lesson from Western mountain hunts where it is even more important because the altitudes are higher, and the air is thinner. The Adirondacks rise nearly as high from the base elevation as the Rockies however and getting up high is not easy. I do at least 20 minutes of every other weekday morning and 20 minutes of weight training on the mornings between. Also, another 20 minutes on the bike almost every evening year-round. Not only will staying in shape make getting up them mountains easy, but it will really pay off in spades when you have to get your kill out. I called my father in law on the cell phone (don't count on that working in the central Adirondacks, luckily his camp is on the Northern edge) as soon as I came upon the carcass of my buck last fall. He was able to get his ATV about a mile from the kill. I never would have been able to drag that 200+ lb carcass out of that swampy creek bottom had I not been in decent shape.

I would have spent more money on a crossbow if they had given us all of archery season. I do hunt both the Northern and Southern zones. It looks like we still get 10 days in the Northern zone plus the 14 days in the Southern zone, which opens later, effectively giving us 24 days to use a crossbow in NY, prior to opening of gun season. In the Northern zone the early ML season runs concurrent with x-bow for the last 7 days, and I switch over to the ML as soon as I can. Because my family depends heavily on venison, I will always use the most lethal, legal instrument available. This isn't about fun and games or "challenge" for me, strictly killing and eating. I did well with an entry-level, $250 x-bow last year, killing the only deer I shot at, striking it in the heart at 59 yards. I was not satisfied with the penetration (8") at that range however and will limit future shots to 50 yards with it. My in-line ML is effective to 150 yards, my bolt-action, rifled shotgun to 175, and my 30/06 to 350 yards. I will always pick the one that is legal and provides the greatest range. I would rate my entry level x-bow as approximately 10x more effective on deer than a conventional compound bow, so I don't suppose I will ever pick one of them up again. It is nice to have that extra "early-archery" time to do a little more small game hunting with the .22 rifle and shotgun. Because of the order of magnitude increase in effectiveness over a regular bow, it don't take that long to get the job done with the x-bow. I think $10 a day was a great price to spend on a crossbow. I'd have to be a billionare before I would consider spending $30/day however. My x-bow is still in like-new condition so the cost will drop to $5/day this year. Because they are so much more effective, far less practice is required with a x-bow than with a regular bow. I could cover 30 yard groups with a quarter on the day I assembled my crossbow last spring.

This is an easy one. The #1 reason I hunt deer is for the meat. I don't look for any "competition" and antlers do little for me but provide convenient "drag-handles", and reminders of past hunts. My favorite deer to kill are 2.5 year old bucks because they provide the best combination of quantity and quality of meat. Does slow me down when butchering due to all the extra fat that needs to be trimmed away, and do not taste any better than bucks in any given age class. The last thing I want to do is challenge myself when killing deer, and I will always go for the most efficient, affordable, legal method available. The crossbow is the best thing to come along in years in that respect. I am very fortunate that my wife and kids like eating venison nearly as much as I do. Trips to the meat-market are rarely required thanks mostly to the liberal limits of deer and fish available here in recent years. Each season I will hunt until I have sufficient quantity of meat in the freezer to last until the next year. I typically pass a few 1-1/2 year old bucks each season but no other deer get passes until available tags are expended (antlered and antlerless), or season ends. I realize that every hunter has different reasons for hunting deer. I respect them all, but I don't like it when hunters try and limit what others do. That includes placing restrictions on the use of more effective weapons like crossbows, in-line ML's, or center-fire rifles. Regular bows, Side-lock ML's, and shotguns have all caused me problems in the past, and I am extremely thankful to see the regulatory tide in NY turning firmly toward the more effective weapons in all these classes (archery, ML, and gun). There is still a little work to be done there however, until we can get all of archery season open to the crossbow and a few more zones opened to the rifle.

I am a meat-hunting killer so my likes follow my stomach mostly. There is nothing I would rather eat than venison so that is #1 when it comes to hunting. It just offers the best combination of quality and quantity plus provides other valuable "side-benefits". I don't care too much about antlers and 2.5 year old bucks are #1 on my hit-list. Does slow me down butchering as I need to trim off all the extra fat. Older bucks are not as tasty and younger ones don't provide sufficient quantity. To me, fishing is the same as hunting, all about killing and eating. Although technically its not "hunting", I devote about equal time to the pursuit of smallmouth bass as I do deer. We are especially blessed here in NY to have some of the best smallmouth bass fishing in the world, making it no problem to gather up good quantities of those fish for the table which are unbeatable if properly prepared. Again, I am not into targeting real big bass, keeping only 12-18 inchers for the table. I combine my two favorite outdoors pursuits by taking 95% of my bass on lures I make from deer hair. It is so much cheaper and more effective that way than bait or store-bought lures, plus making them lures is a good way to fight "cabin-fever" in bad weather. Some other game I like to hunt includes grouse and squirrel. Both are great on the table but just don't offer the quantity to get them in the same league as deer. I have no use at all for wild turkey which tastes like "cardboard" to me. Rabbit is not bad, but less tasty than squirrel and harder for me to get in sufficient quantity to make a meal.

I have sort of a love/hate relationship with the coyote. The hunters in the zone where I live (9F) are not getting the job done on deer and the coyote helps keep numbers in check thru aggressive fawn and rutted-out buck harvests. By eliminating the weak deer they strengthen and improve the overall health of the herd. Also, they do well on those "feathered rats", the wild turkey which have put a hurting on my field-corn if not controlled somewhat (again, hunters alone don't get the job done here, since only spring hunting is popular and you cant shoot hens then). I do love to eat venison however and the thought of all that wonderful red meat "going to the dogs" is where my hatred comes in. Right now, there is a mamma coyote with pups living adjacent to a soybean field behind our house. I am a little nervous about letting my 11 year old daughters go out back to the pond fishing or play in their fort. There has been coyote attacks on kids in CA recently and even a few in NY I am told. If one of them is ever successful we can expect a year-round coyote season. Lets hope that doesn't happen.

That's something I should try and learn to do better. Fortunately my father in law is very good at it. Last year he gave me an antique Buck folder that he had sharpened up so I could almost shave with it at the start of the season. Field dressing (3) bucks and skinning (4) has taken most of the edge off it now however. I really struggled with it when I dispatched the poor little button buck that a hit and run driver knocked the wind out of at the end of our driveway last winter. I think I will give it back to him for a little "touch-up", prior to using it this fall. I like that knife but am not overly impressed with how well it holds an edge. Maybe I can convince him to carry it, especially when I remind him that it was used on the buck that made the nice shoulder mount he currently has hanging up on his wall up there. Personally, I don't believe in that "Luck" crap. It is the man up stairs who has full control, determining where all the deer end up. I do appreciate a tool that does its job well however. This fall, I will carry another classic that my wife picked up for me at an antique show this spring. It is another classic, an "old-timer" by Uncle Henry. It is a "made-in-USA" version and appears to be in factory un-used condition. Them things were legendary for holding an edge and I cant wait to get it into a few fat does. It also is so sharp now that I could shave with it. I lost my "Sharp-finger" a few years ago, that had been my favorite hunting knife and really held an edge well. I will try and be more careful with this one.

I am looking forward to the fall. The deer population looks to be above optimum up at my in-laws camp in the Northern zone based on antlerless deer sightings by them this spring/summer and the visible browse line all around the lake. I am planning on getting up there for a 4-day weekend in October to hunt 2 days with the x-bow and 2 with the ML. My father in law has not hunted deer in more than 40 years. I don't know if it is because he can get a free license now, or the nice 8-point I took at his new camp last year, but he is exited about hunting up there this fall. It was a horrible year for growing corn at our farm in the Southern zone due to record rain thru June. I tried to get in 3 acres but have less than an acre that looks much good. I don't expect that to even make it to opening day of x-bow. A family of coyotes has moved in along side of a couple of acres of soybean I got in and they are doing a good job of keeping the browse pressure down on that. Mature soybeans just don't seem to have much drawing power compared to corn or acorns once hunting season starts however so I don't hold out much hope for them. It finally dried up enough today so that plowing conditions were nearly perfect and I was able to turn a few acres for a wheat/soybean/clover mix and turnip plots to be planted in the next couple weeks. Hopefully I can repeat that over at my folks farm about 20 miles away (assuming I can get grandpa's old John Deere M to fire up which hasn't run in a couple years now). The deer population is still way above optimum at both of our Southern zone farms, so I am hoping I can fill some antlerless tags this year. I struck out on those last year but fortunately a friend gave us a nice buck and I was able to fill my own bow and gun buck tags, plus a button-buck road kill, so we still are eating good. I have forgotten what does taste like, and hopefully we can do something about that this fall.

I agree that his advice was pretty much spot-on. I know I need to try and take more does up in the northern zone area I hunt. When I was fishing there over Memorial day weekend this year, I noticed that the pine trees all the way around the lake were trimmed neatly to about 5 feet of the water-line. It almost looked like professional landscapers did the job with hedge trimmers. Trying for lake trout, I did manage to catch and release 68 smallmouth bass without loosing a jig on a snag as a result, but that's an awful lot of browse pressure. I am going to try and take two mature does up there this fall during the early archery and ML seasons, even though it means giving up any chance at a Southern zone archery buck. Killing mature does at home in the Southern zone is necessary but easier said than done. Getting them is way harder than getting mature bucks during archery season, because of the "groups" they always travel in, making drawing a bow very difficult. That problem would be eliminated if they opened up x-bow for the whole early season. The wise old does usually go completely nocturnal after hunting pressure is detected by the last two weeks of the archery season when the x-bow gets legal. Last season I managed to fill my archery tag with a buck in the southern zone and gun buck tag in the Northern zone, but did not have a single opportunity for a shot at an antlerless deer. I did manage to knife a button buck that a hit-and run driver knocked the wind out of at the end of our driveway however. Killing them 3 bucks is keeping us fed good but didn't do much to reduce the deer population. I will have to try harder for some does this season. What I didn't like about the video was his emphasis on taking the "evil" does from the "neighbors property". That sounds a little selfish to me, which makes him sound like an evil man. He had better get his act together there or he may be in for a rude awakening when his time on earth expires. "Selfish" is never good in the long run. One should always be looking for opportunities to help their neighbors, especially if you can help yourself in the process. Killing does can be a win-win-win-win deal, as it benefits the overall health of the deer herd, the habitat, yourself, and the neighbors. That is always true in zones where the herd is above optimum, as it clearly is in the northern and southern zones where I hunt. Personally, I take any good opportunity at an antlerless deer. If they are in groups, targeting the largest first, no matter where it beds. Over the years, that has averaged about 25% button bucks. I don't mind, and my wife loves it when that happens as no deer is better eating. That is the main reason I hunt, antlers are overrated.

Even if they don't make changes, if you are willing to take a drive up to the Northern Zone, you can get 2 weeks up there, in addition to the 2 weeks in the Southern zone. In most zones up there you can take two antlerless deer or one antlerless, one antlered deer with your crossbow if you purchase both an archery and a ML tag. I am heading up again this fall for a 4-day trip, catching the last two days of the Northern zone crossbow season, and the first two of the ML (You can use a crossbow thru that 1 week season also, giving you a total of 3 weeks for the crossbow up there prior to gun season). I was up there a couple weeks ago, and the open-for-public hunting land around Kring Point State park was loaded with deer. You can be there in 4-1/2 hour drive from home. Here in the Southern zone, a nice feature is that those two weeks down here include the peak rut "prime-time". I am very thankful for what we got here now with the crossbow, but I have no intention of "letting" up in the drive for full inclusion for all of archery season. I have seen first hand how the crossbow is about 10x more effective on deer than a compound. The last thing I will do is let that small selfish group of bowhunters who are fighting the crossbow relax. They are down, the time is right to put them out.

Right on there Belo/Doc. The OP was pretty reasonable until he made the: ".30/06 inadequate for bear" claim. That kind of came from left field, like maybe he had been drinking a little too much prior to posting. I also agree that he is getting a some bad advise by those pushing the head and neck shots. In fact, ethically, I would call passing on broadside heart/lung shots in favor of a head or neck shot with any caliber, a poorer choice than using a 22/250 for deer when you have access to a .308. Some folks have to see stuff such as the ugly wounds you described for themselves however. It don't take many until they see the error of their ways. Maybe 1/2 dozen times, I have finished wounded deer with neck shots, but out of a hundred or so killed, my first shot struck the neck only twice. Once was from 10 yards away with a 16 ga, scoped shotgun, because that was all I had to shoot at, with the rest of the body covered by a bush. The buck was big, my largest symmetric typical to that point, and the target would have been hard to miss. The slug severed his spine and he dropped dead in his tracks. The damage to the cape saved me some cash by doing a "European" rather than a shoulder mount. The second was a buck that "jumped the string" on a compound bow shot, catching the arrow thru the jugular vane and expiring quickly after a 40 yard dash. Fortunately I am 2/2 neck shots, one intentional the other not. As far as the "meat-saving" argument, a center lung shot ruins less useable meat than a neck shot anyhow.

You are right on the money there Doc on the recoil. For those of us who grew up using a shotgun and slugs for deer, almost any rifle is tame. The .30/06, M77 Ruger bolt-action (identical powder load as your .270) that I use now does not feel much different hitting my shoulder as a .22 rim-fire when I compare it to my granddad's old Ithaca featherlight, 16 ga pump shotgun that I still use on occasion. Certainly I can't tell much difference in "shoulder punch" between the .30/06 and my .22/250 of the same model. The recoil reduction argument doesn't hold water with me. I guess it would make a bigger difference in light-weight, carbine models, but it is negligible in a standard weight rifle.

If you want a "challenge" and a heart to eat, put an arrow thru it. It doesn't bloody up any of that tasty meat.

They are all good eating, is that the theme? Not so sure about the stags, never had any, but they look similar to elk so I suppose they would be tastey. It certainly don't get much better than whitetail so your top three picks look good anyhow. I find elk to be close to top-notch on the table also. As for the birds, the only one I really like eating is ruffed grouse, but pheasants are not bad, at least compared to turkey and chicken.

I have not spring turkey hunted in a long time but I do regret not buying tags for the first time in a long time thanks to the changes and elimination of the "super-sportsman" licence. Naturally, I saw or heard/heard about toms everywhere this spring for the first time in many years. As I was planting corn at my place in WNY, 15 minutes after I talked to a couple neighbor hunters who were packing it in after hearing nothing but seeing a couple hens, a big old tom came strutting across the field I was in and I could have shot him from the seat of the tractor. Over at my folks farm, about 20 mi to the east, they talked about seeing toms out in the clover field behind the house almost every day throughout the spring. To top it all off, every morning over this past Memorial day weekend, at the in-laws new Adirondack camp, as I paddled the rowboat out alone on the lake to fish at daybreak, there were at least 6 different toms gobbling on the surrounding hilltops. I will get tags this late-summer for sure, when the Walmart employee asks as I purchase my new licence. Next spring I will carry the unloaded shotgun and a couple shells on the tractor as I plant. If that old bird pulls that trick again I will hop of, load and let him have it. I will also spend a little more time at the folks place who are always looking to get me over there to do "odd jobs" anyhow. And I will definitely pack the shotgun and a little extra bug spray (they were bad in the woods up there this year, but no problem out on the water - another reason I prefer fishing then) on the Memorial day trip. Even though I cant stand eating turkey, my wife and kids love it. The bugs would make that a "less than ideal hunt" however.

That is the best part of the crossbow which, rumor has it, may be made legal for all of archery season this year. Even if it's not, 14 days in the northern-zone and another 14 in the southern should provide me with ample opportunity to at least fill my buck tag again. The first 40 yard group I shot after assembling it last spring could be covered with a golf ball. About 20 more "practice" shots, and I smoked a buck with it, thru the heart, at 59 yards, on the only shot I took during the 14 day southern-zone season last fall. To call the crossbow a "wonder-weapon" is almost an understatement, given how much more capable even an "entry-level" one like I purchased, is on deer. Back when I did use a regular bow, I would pull out my older one in April and do about 20 draws right handed and left handed every other day during my regular workout time, skipping some of my other routines to make up the time. Around mid August, I would start shooting my newer "hunting" bow 3-4 times a week. By October 15 opener, I could keep it in a pie plate every time at 30 yards, but man did it take time and effort to get to that point. It was ok when I was young and single with lots of free time, but the crossbow is a real "God-send" for us old married guy's. Another huge advantage of the crossbow for us older guys with kids and more responsibilities is the elimination of the need to go high up in a tree in order to hide the close-range movement required to draw a regular bow. No big deal if I fell and broke my neck when it was just me I had to worry about. With 3 other hungry mouths to feed now though, that would be a real bad deal. One more advantage of the crossbow regarding drawing and strength-building is that it is a "two-handed" symmetric draw, and also uses some leg strength. It is a much better full-body workout than regular bow-shooting. You wont end up with a developed tricep on the left and bicep on the right like you would if you practiced shooting a regular bow right handed year round. That non-symmetry is also a real good recipe for shoulder issues.

I don't know if there has ever been a coyote attack on a kid in NY. A week ago I saw an adult coyote along the edge of a 3-acre soybean field behind our house at about 6:30 am. When I cultivated the adjacent 3-acres of corn a few days later, I lost one of the shovel/spring cultivator assemblies from the tractor somewhere on the field. Seeing that coyote kept me from offering my (2) 11 year old daughters a $10 reward if they found it for me. With hungry pups to care for now, I bet them coyotes will be a little less selective about what they try and eat. It sure would be nice if NY state let us shoot coyotes year round as most other states do. This would be the easiest time to pick them off, especially the pups before they get "educated". It will probably take a "kid-attack" here to get them to do that. The poor kid will have less of a chance of survival here against our larger, almost wolf-sized "eastern" coyotes, than those kids out in CA had with them pipsqueak, rodent-eating western versions.

I can see where using such a weapon on deer when you have a better one available shows some disrespect for you quarry, and could be seen as selfish by many. There is no hunter I know who could resist the temptation of shooting at the biggest buck of his life if the situation arose, even if it meant pushing the limits a bit. Talk and words are cheap, I would have to see that done to believe it. I would only use it on antlerless deer for certain, and only if my meat supply was secure. Then I could easily resist the temptation of taking a shot with less than 99% certainty. Of the hundred or so deer I have killed over 30 some years, I have only taken three shots where I was more than 98% certain of the kill and 2 of those escaped due to failure to fire, once from my slug gun once from my side-lock ML. Thankfully NY state has reduced the regulations that forced us to use those handicapped weapons and my center fire and in-line ML have never let me down. They are on the right track with the crossbow now also, and I am 1/1 for that and eagerly looking forward to this season where I hear a rumor that they may give us the whole archery season in the Northern and Southern zone. That would be great because I use it in both. I am a pure killer, and being such, the last thing I want to do is "challenge" myself with the possible result of a miss or messy kill. I will always use the most lethal weapon available and affordable to get the job done effectively. I know there are lots of "fighters" out there who thrive on the "challenge", but being a pure killer, I cant begin to "relate" to that. I think such folks should stick with better "fighting" sports like golf, football, baseball, boxing, wrestling, Wi/Atari, where "food" doesn't get messed around with. I even consider "catch and release" fishing as nothing but the "sensless maiming" of a good food supply. Maybe you can get a Wi hunting game that lets you mess around with different calibers and you could go all the way and try a "pellet" rifle on elephant.

Younger bears, under 250 pounds or so, are better eating in general. The taste is very good, nearly equal to that of a young whitetail. Proper care for the carcass, and diet also comes into play as mentioned earlier. Compared to deer, there is a lot more waste on a bear. A 200 pounder might yield the about same amount of meat as a 100 pound deer. Lots of fat to be trimmed away, heavier bones, hide, etc.. Kind of the same as wild boars in that respect. The perfect bear for me would weigh about 225 pounds field-dressed, which is large enough for a decent rug, manageable to drag myself from the woods and get onto the ATV rack, yet small enough to provide for some "prime" eating.

I have been on moose and bear hunts in Northern Quebec, and elk and mule deer hunts in Colorado when I was in my 20's and 30's. Now at 50, I am in better shape physically and financially than I was then but I won't go on another out of state hunt. Experiencing those places mostly made me appreciate what we have here in NY. The elk and moose were good but our NY whitetail is way better tasting than the mule deer. The black bear hunting we have here now is also getting to be better than in those places. I have never seen anyplace out of state that had scenery that rivaled that of NY's Adirondack mountains. The "High-deserts" of Colorado just don't do it for me, nor does the marshy, swampy, wooded bush-land of Quebec. Give me the tall wooded mountains, and glistening blue lakes and rivers of NY state any day. How great it is to not have to deal with air-travel, or purchase "out-of-state" licenses. After making me appreciate our NY hunting (and fishing) more, the best part about those other places was meeting new friends and strengthening relationships of those old ones who went on the trips with me. That, and a lot of great stories I can tell my kids, and grandkids someday, do make those out of state hunts something I will never regret. As for my ideal hunt, I had that last fall when I killed the biggest buck of my life up at my Father-in-laws new Adirondack camp. I imagine its going to be all downhill from there but I will love every minute of it. It might get better when and if I can get my pre-teen daughters to go along with me someday and they get to take a deer themselves.