RichZ7

Striped just for future reference you have to have your envelope to the check station by 4:45 PM on the Monday before the first Tuesday in December. I believe they always do the lottery on the first Tuesday in December. Good luck if you go out on standby.

I'm going out to Barcelona Neck on Jan.17th. I'll have my trusty Mossberg 500 with me.

Great to hear Geno. Congrats on the land. Best wishes and best hunting on it. Rich

I went out today to pull my trail cam and I just want to wish the wise ass jerk off who stole my SD card from my camera during this last week a wonderful Happy New Year!!!!! Hope you use it in good health. If there was any good pics on it be a sport and at least post them. Guess you can't figure out what goes on in people's minds.......steal a $20 SD card and leave the $120 camera there. Makes a ton of sense doesn't it???? I guess I should be happy that the moron left my camera but it still pisses me off. If you needed to steal the card you should have left a note and I would have given one of my extra ones. Sorry to all the honest people out there but I just had to rant. A truly Happy New Year to all the good people out there and good luck this upcoming year. Rich

Merry Christmas to everyone. Have a great day with family and friends. Rich

I blew off going out today also. Too much last minute Christmas stuff to get done. Monday and Tues will finish up the bow season for me this year. My last shot though will be Jan. 17th..... shotgun out in Barcelona Neck. Merry Christmas to all members and their families.

Thanks!!! Good luck to you also John this last week.

I was out with the wife Christmas shopping about an hour ago. The temp on the rearview mirror display said 58 degrees. LOL....almost 60 degrees on Dec.21st @ 9 PM. I'm on Long Island and thats definitely strange for this time of year.

Well its getting down to the nitty gritty for me this bow season. I'm off this weekend Sat, Sun, Mon and Tues. Hoping to do a short morning hunt Christmas Eve and then get out Mon and Tues. I have to work New Years Eve so this will be my last hoorah for bow this year. Was out with my buddy this past Monday and we saw 12 deer between us. Of course no chance for a shot at any of them. One I believe was a buck but he was too far to confirm...could of sworn I saw a quick glimpse of antlers. It was pretty windy so they all seemed pretty skittish. We saw at least 2 small fawns in separate sightings all by themselves. Wondering if there is some late rutting going on and that the fawns got pushed away for a bit. Reason I'm thinking that is we pulled my buddies card from his cam and he had 5 pics from Sunday morning.....4 does within a few minutes of each other and then a pic of a real nice 8 pointer a few minutes after the does had passed thru. He looked like he had his nose to the ground sniffing where the does were. The does had come from a North to South direction and the buck came in from the opposite direction so we figured he picked up there scent and was trying to trail them. His tarsals were jet black also. Were gonna try to get a crack at him this weekend. Merry Christmas to all.

Me and my buddies took spots 1,2,3 on Jan. 17th in Barcelona Neck. Been a long time since I've been out there but the last time I bowhunted there I saw 4 massive does just past legal shooting time as I climbed down. Figured we would give it a whirl. Has anyone hunted there lately???? Good luck to all

You need an access permit to be on State lands which is free thru the DEC.They also give you a parking permit that you have to display on your dashboard. FYI though......bow season is open through Dec.31st and then the January shotgun lottery season starts on Jan.9th I believe. You may want to wait till February to do some scouting so you dont mess up anybody hunting and also safety reasons with the shotgun season in Jan.

Congrats 5.9 on the future hunting partner. I had to laugh hearing about your daughters. I'm in the same boat as you but I did it the opposite way. We had my son first and then 1 year and 7 months later we were blessed with triplet daughters!!!! My son just turned 16 in November and my girls turned 14 back in June. I'm not sure how old your girls are but I guarantee you that "HELL ON EARTH IS COMING"....LOL. Trust me...... I'm living it everyday brother. Good luck again with the baby boy.

Congrats Geno. Hopefully I'll get some action Sunday and Monday coming up. I did a little scouting this past weekend and found an area full of rubs. I lost count after 20....some were old, some from earlier in the season but i found at least 7-8 that looked real fresh. My buddy set up his cam on Sunday and had pics of at least 5 nice does and a fawn in less than 24hrs. so I'm hoping they go into late estrus and pull one of the boys in. If one of the nice does come by close enough I'm gonna try for some meat for the freezer. Even though this has been a real slow year for me personally I have really enjoyed having my son out for his first season. He has really liked being in the woods and he even missed shots twice this year on does but it hasn't affected his enthusiasm. The memories of being out there with family and friends is what it's all about. Continued good luck to all for the rest of the season.

I had to work today but one of my buddies was out and saw a nice 8 pointer around 12:45 PM. He was just out of range of course. I haven't heard back from him to see how the rest of the day went. I'm sure if he had something down I would have heard. I'll be out tomorrow and Monday giving it hell. Gonna be cold but can't shoot em from the couch.

I tried to mix it up this year. Some morning sits, some afternoon sits. This is the first year my son got to bow hunt so I didn't want to overwhelm him with all day sits. I have done it in the past and I never seemed to mind being up in the stand all day long. But I have to admit this year has been a bust for me personally. I've had a lot less deer activity this year where I hunt compared to prior years so sitting all day and not seeing any action can take its toll I guess. Does anyone try to do a late morning say like 10-10:30 AM to early afternoon about 2PM sit? I hear alot of times you'd be surprised by some of the larger dominant bucks that move during that time frame because they pattern hunters who do the early morning and late afternoon hunts. I have tried a few times during that time frame but personally have not seen a big difference in seeing more or larger bucks in past years.

Dom if you go on the NYS DEC website you can look up available courses by county. http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/9191.html

Got my lottery # from DEC today. #673......not the greatest but I've had worse. One year I had over 1200 and still got a day to hunt. The way my bow season is going I may have to depend on the January season to fill a tag otherwise it may be tag soup this year. How did everyone else make out with their numbers?

Congrats on an awesome buck!!!!

OMG.....what a beast!!!!!

One of the most ridiculous things I've seen

Saturday 11/26 Went out with my son for a very warm afternoon hunt. My one buddy was out already and posted in his spot before we arrived. We decided to hunt another travel area today. Got into our trees about 1:30. My son was about 100 yards to my left facing away from me watching over a well used trail. Put my stand up on the edge of a real nasty thicket. Looked to have signs of a bedding area. My buddy text me around 2:45 that he had just saw 4 does with a 4 pointer about 45 yds from him. They gave him no good shot opportunity so he watched them walk off. He said the buck was just hanging with them not harassing them at all. About 3:45 I decided to give a nice series of soft grunts and then some of the bleat can. Next thing I know my son is texting me saying " Dad keep grunting I see a buck coming" I throw out some more soft grunts and I can barely see my son in his stand with bow in hand. Unfortunately he came across the trail my son was posted over about 60 yds north of him. My son watched him till he hit a real thick area and circled directly behind me. The breeze had shifted slightly during the afternoon and was now directly in my face so I knew it wasn't good. Tried some bleats and a few more grunts but I couldnt get him to show himself again. He was a nice 6 pointer my son said with wide beams. If my son wasn't near me I would have never known he was around. Makes me wonder how many times you think" this calling stuff doesnt work or there's no deer moving today" I figured he winded me and knew something was up. My buddy also was texting me while this was going on and he had a nice 6 pointer just out of range where he was posted. So even though nothing to show for it, it turned out to have some excitement on a day i figured would be dead cause of the temps. I gotta get some yard work done today so I wont be out till next weekend. Good luck all.

Heading out now for an afternoon Long Island archery hunt. Guess I should be wearing my camo shorts and tank top.....way too warm. Crazy temps for late November. Been such a slow season.....still shut out but there's still a little more than a month left. Good luck everyone.

Dave here is the link to the info from the NYS DEC website http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/jandeerli.pdf. The first step is to get in to the lottery by sending or dropping off the legal sized envelope which has to be self addressed , stamped and include your NYS back tag number on the back of envelope. They have to have the envelope by 4:45 PM on Mon. Dec. 5th. That is your entry to the drawing. After they do the drawing on Dec. 6th you will receive paperwork from NYS DEC with your lottery number and all the information you need. Hope that helps. Rich

Slugger the NYS DEC website has the info for private lands http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/40409.html

My son and I in our stands from 5:50 till now. Getting ready to climb down now. Saw nothing. Cold morning but warmed up nice.. My buddy was with his nephew off a different trail then us. His nephew saw a big doe early....no shot tho. Long Island archery hunt