wolc123

The platform is about 9 ft up (those are 8 ft pt landscape timber’s that I bought from Home Depot in the spring for $ 6 each. There is a little bit of blocking below each timber. I only have $12 invested in that blind, because I used an old chair in it that I already had. I had to spend an additional $ 8, on a fancy, adjustable office chair on other new one just like it, that I put up this year. I am not complaining, after shooting two deer off that $ 8 chair. I just saw my first two deer of the Holiday season at 2:15 pm. Rather than walk back along the corn and risk spooking a deer out of it like I did last Saturday, I took the long way around. There were two of them standing on the edge of thick brush “sanctuary” area over on the other back corner. They ran towards the corn and I am “boxed up” in my blind over there now. I had to make quite a racket breaking loose the ice on the windows, to open them, so I think the odds are low that those two will come out. Probably better odds of seeing something than if I had stayed in the house though, because there is still some corn on the stalks back here, unliked the stripped bare ones in my front plot. I put a finger condem over the muzzle to keep the rain out on the way back. Good luck to all those who are still out there.

Freezing rain and no deer in the acorns, so I am heading to a box-blind overlooking standing corn and brassicas, as soon as we get thru the “deer-less” 10-2 period.

Trying to finish out the year a little healthier and wife’s not home to cook. Cold venison steak sandwiches on wheat bread with spinach for lunch:

The 3 hours total that I spent in NY city were all in bumper to bumper traffic in Queens. What’s not to love ?

Watching over a crappy little corn plot this morning from one of the two new blinds that I put up this year. I have not had any action out of this one yet, but I have been able to kill a bb and a BB from the one that I put up over at my parents place, about 20 miles away. I am saving my better corn plot out back for this afternoon. I planted that one a couple weeks earlier and it has more then double the yield of the one I am watching now. It was still holding lots of corn (and a deer ) when I was back there last Saturday. I moved a big box blind to the south end of that plot this summer. I made that about 7 years ago, but haven’t killed nothing out of it yet. Chances of that ought to be good this afternoon. I don’t expect much this morning, but this sure is a comfortable open top blind. I will have to try and do a better job with the food plots around it next year.

I didn’t see anything tonight either, not even at squirrel. I think I will hunt here at my parent’s place (se corner of wmu 9F) again on Thursday. I am going to mix it up a bit then, and try my field edge stand, behind their house, in the morning (they haven’t seen any deer out there on the clover in the afternoons in a few weeks), and my trailer park stand, on the opposite corner of the woods, in the evening. There is lots of oaks back on that corner and I saw a lot of squirrel activity back there this morning. Hopefully, some deer will show up foraging for hidden acorns in the late afternoon. Most all of the corn around that area had been harvested. Tomorrow, I am hitting a couple of standing corn plots at home (20 miles away on the nw corner of wmu 9F). I will let the wind decide which one I hit in the morning, and hit the other in the evening. I kicked a big deer out of one of those last Saturday at 3:00 pm, but couldn’t tell if it was a buck or a doe. I know they are hiding in the corn by day, and I am hoping they come out of it for at shot, sometime in legal light. Usually ,they start doing that by late ml season. It has been tough this year, because it has been so warm.

You ought to run the bunny suit for the rest of the season. That way you will be in full compliance with the new hat or vest regulations. You could get busted if you head out with your smoke pole with that red Santa hat on.

33 B 21 P final .

Bellicheck just cried “uncle”. I don’t have sound up here in my stand but I read his lips .

Congrats on the beautiful buck. I would like to get a deer in the back of my dad’s Ranger yet today, but so far it has just been my chainsaw. I heard someone say those work as a deer call, but none have shown up for me yet this afternoon. There are now trails cleared to this stand in multiple directions, so one would have an easy walk in. It is kind of cool, watching the Bills game on my phone up in the stand, anyhow. I am giving it until it is too dark to see thru my Redfield. Usually, that has been about 20 minutes past sunset.

The deerless 10-2 period is over and the Bill’s have the Patriots under control, so I am back out till 1/2 hour past sunset. I probably won’t see anything, but at least I don’t have to worry about falling out of this stand, if I fall asleep.

This still works good enough for me.

I got most of the trails open in my parents woods, that were blocked by trees and branches that fell during that big wind storm a week or two ago. I went as far as I could with one tank of gas in my chainsaw. The only spot that I couldn’t get open, was where a real big one fell into a wet spot. There probably shouldn’t be a trail thru that mud hole anyhow, and several bypasses around it are now open. Luckily, this big one fell opposite the direction of the trail back to where I parked my wife’s mini van, on the dead end road in the trailer park. I am hoping a nosey deer comes in to see what all the noise was this mid-day. I will go to my most comfortable stand, in the middle of the woods, with my muzzleloader around half time of the Bills game. Good luck to everyone hunting that special 10-2 period today.

That is a 2014 recruit that came in just above the state minimum at 17-1/8” tip to tip, uncocked. With 7 years of stretch on the strings, it is probably well over at 17-1/2 or so by now. I am not sure if they still make this model but most manufacturers are well aware of the NY regs an offer compliant models for reasonable cost. I really like this one in tight little stands like this, compared to my CP sniper 370, because it is so compact and easy to handle. I have killed 5 bucks with it, and never failed to recover one that I shot at. The longest was at 59 yards, but I would not recommend using this 300 FPS model at that range. Penetration was just 8 or 10 inches, which fortunately took the mechanical broadhead all the way thru that 6 pointers heart. I am using it as a tape measure right now, so that I can make up a new board seat for this stand back at my shop later. No deer seen this morning and it is almost the start of the 10-2 “deer less” period, so I am going to pull the plug and break out the chainsaw to clear some trails on the other side of the swamp.

I am pretty sure that it says to the tips of the limbs, but it may be to the widest point, which could include the wheels.

Happy birthday.

It is tip to tip uncocked, not axle to axle. My recruit measures 17.125”. That, and the maximum draw weight regs were also part of the NYB settlement to allow the crossbows in for the last two weeks (peak rut) of archery season back in 2014. NYB must wield more political influence up in the northern zone, where the poor crossbow hunters get only three days before the guns come in, all of it way before the rut.

Most likely they just tacked on that orange hat OR vest requirement to make a safety improvement to compensate for a possible loss with the added half hours before and after the sun.

Only action so far was a turkey taking flight from a tree top 40 yards behind me at sunrise and several appearances by this little guy 10 yards to my left. That’s the edge of the swamp, 10 yards past the grey, and the closest double-wide trailer is 125 yards to my right. It has warmed up a little now, so I removed my face mask to improve my radar (hearing). Last time that I hunted this spot with my crossbow in prime-time, a big 8 pointer was able to sneak in to 15 yards undetected. I don’t want a repeat of that today.

Sorry charly you are dead wrong on that one. Look up the dec regs, where it shows 500 ft setback requirement for shotguns, rifles, handguns, and muzzleloaders (all considered firearms), 100 ft for a vertical bow, and 250 ft for a crossbow. I assume that was the settlement that was reached with the anti crossbow group NYB. I am good to go with no orange where I am because a firearm armed hunter would need to be in a boat or wearing hip boots to be more than 500 feet from the nearest trailer. Your confusion is understandable considering that in other ways, ny’s laws consider a crossbow a muzzleloader. Your not the first one who is mixed on that. Rules confusion runs rampant on this forum.

Ready for some action 20 minutes before sunrise behind the trailer park. No gun so no orange hat needed.

The anticipation is killing me. This is worse than opening day of gun season, as far as that goes. I am packed and ready to go. I just finished a shower with scent killer soap/shampoo and my Evercalm and grunt call are packed. The cargo carrier is loaded into the back of our mini-van, in case its needed to haul back a carcass. I am bringing my small crossbow for the morning hunt. There is not much room, up in the stand where I am headed in the morning, and it is too close to about a dozen mobile homes to use my ML. Tomorrow will be my first hunt there this year during a "prime time" (outside of the nearly useless 10:00 - 2:00 time slot). The only other time that I hunted in that spot during prime time, was back in 2018, when I blew a great chance at a fine 8-point with the very same crossbow. A week later that year, when I killed him with my shotgun, he was down to 6 points and 182 pounds field-dressed. Had I been able to take him before the rut, he may have dressed over 200 and he surely had all of his points then (they were easy to see and count from 15 yards away). I am also bringing my chainsaw, to clear trails in the woods, that were blocked by the big wind storm a couple weeks ago, and my in-line ML for the afternoon hunt down on the south edge of the woods. I hope that I can find an empty Remington slugger under my new box-blind stand over there, so that I can complete a "shop project" that I have in mind. Even though I am a meat-first guy, I would be about 1/10th as excited about tomorrow, if I didn't still have a buck tag. One thing that antlers are definitely good for, is cranking up the anticipation and making it harder to sleep. Good luck to everyone who decided to take advantage of this special Christmas present from the NY state DEC, and get out there tomorrow. Hopefully, this thread gets lit up with lots of action.

How did those turn out ? I hope to get one or two more added to the Valentine’s day pot over the next 7 days.

Merry Christmas to you and your family also. I will probably be down-state a few more times, over the next 3-1/2 years, so there should be time for that. Lite beer from Miller is my go-to at joints that don’t carry Genny. My wife couldn’t find a Genny scarf. I like the journal section, on the forum here, and yours is a good one. I aim to start one of my own in 22, hopefully with a Holiday ML deer on January 1. It looks like bear can not be taken during the “Holiday Deer Season”, because that’s what they call it on the DEC website.