Core

Well if you live in Rochester for example, you're a 40 min drive to some pretty small parcels of public land which, I understand (I haven't checked them personally as I go east) have a lot of people per acre. These are small chunks of mainly bow-only hunting. There is, of course, a reason why people pay to lease land I posted a screen shot a couple days back showing the dearth of public land in western ny (until you get closer to PA).

I'm not shedding tears. I hunt what I can because I've not yet spent a nickel on access to land and that's the bed I made. One day I may. Until then, I need to take what I can get and I don't demand free access to anybody's land (nobody in this thread has). And to be frank I am not (yet?) motivated by conservation. The state is, though, and so perhaps it could find itself supporting some program to incentivize private land owners to open up to the public. That said, let's get real: public land is generally harder to hunt than private. Everyone here knows it, perhaps more than others those who actually have spent considerable money on their private land. Let's squash any notion to the contrary. You won't find public land guys talking about their food plots and another ladder stand they just put in.

I have one I built that is capable of fully autonomous flight. You need merely register them with the FAA if they are over .55 lbs (no classes needed for consumer non-commercial use). It's $5 or something and takes a few minutes. Many of us have not done this because the FAA refuses to take care of our data properly. IMO they are very easy to fly and, if you start on a $50 drone like the Syma one from Amazon, you can learn in short order how to do it. Any of the expensive drones ($200-300+) are even easier to fly because they lock into position with GPS. With proper instruction anybody could be taught to fly one very quickly. If you truly want to do it, get something like that Syma X5C, practice on DEAD STILL days as far as wind is concerned, and when you upgrade to a phantom or similar it's even easier to do. As for spying by the window, all the large drones are surprisingly loud. I can hear mine from hundreds of feet/away, so they are not fantastic for close-up spying. Since this is a hunting forum NY has already said they are illegal for chasing game.

Mostly that is true, but if you live in Rochester or Buffalo it is more debatable.

I've been there a while. They are pretty decent, but predictably and, at times, alarmingly right-wing. And I lean to the right, but some of them are pretty hardcore. I won't even relay something one of them said recently about if the city folk start invading outside of the cities in a SHTF scenario, but not really something you'd want your pastor to see you write.

Absolutely hate it. So sick of this heat. Would be happy with 60 F immediately.

Should have added two zeros to each number!

I visit nyfirearms. I've not seen a change in anything yet, though...

Looks good. Those bucks sure do like night time. Of all the deer I saw last year during the day only two were bucks: one I shot, one I stumbled upon and he bolted. I got a spot in Marion recently and put three cams in this weekend. I'm pretty optimistic about what they'll find. It's a very small piece of land but a creek makes a natural border on one end and that's where I saw all the sign (and put the cams).

You don't think the last one is a bear? It looks like a bear's head and ears, though with shade and proximity to lens it is hard to know for sure.

Nice. Now in this spot do the deer come by every day? Lots of times/day, or just every few days?

I think I can speak for a lot of people here: I'm not actually sure who you are talking to anymore in this thread.

I think that's the case for everyone here! Even if you have access to land you paid nothing for, after time in the woods, time spent preparing, gear costs, processing costs, I bet most of us would hate to know how much money per pound of meat we are spending. Unless you're hunting off your back deck with the same gun you bought 20 years ago and you process it yourself odds are you're spending far more on deer meat than comparable cow

People who want to take part in this lottery system pay each year. $50 or whatever to have some half decent chance of having a nice piece of property to hunt for the season. Probably land owners could make more leasing, but a lot don't bother for whatever reason.

This was my experience last year at the public land I used. It's why I would be deeply upset if they ever started allowing gun season to overlap early bow. Even crossbow could threaten this badly as I think crossbows are going to be increasingly popular. For now I have basically a month of little pressure, which is the least one can ask for when bowhunting.

You must not be referring to western NY. Yes, central there are tons of public hunting land. You could trek for days around the Adirondacks and never see a soul. But if you're in Rochester (Buffalo looks even worse), for example, there really isn't much public land for the amount of people. http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/45415.html Other than NYC Buffalo & Rochester appear to be the worst cities in the state for access to public land. I could be ignorant but I have no idea how to find these "private conservation contracts" that are also huntable.

I shoot the same lbs almost same draw and ran a ton of numbers through a bunch of calculators and thought 400 grain is fine. At 30 and below distances 300 grain doesn't shoot massively flatter, not enough to matter while hunting, I don't think.

I'm 2.5 but rounded up to the inch right now--.6:" above my actual height/2.5. Not positive it is correct, but it is feeling decent. I no longer have to lean my head forward to get nose-on-string contact. Until a month ago (?) I was having a slight bend in my bow arm but I've read a lot about slight bend vs not and started not having a bend. This has resulted in less straight on that shoulder, but now my forearm is about 1/4" from the string stopper. This is fine, I've never hit my forearm, but it's close enough I'll probably need a forearm protector when I hunt to keep the clothing close in to the forearm there. I've tried fiddling with hand position a ton. The most comfortable is to have the bow's stress go through the heel of my hand (basically right on the bone), but I keep experimenting with that vs having it in the crease of my thumb. I absolutely do get left flyers. I never get flyers, ever to the right of my grouping. Some article online said this is because I am torquing the bow slightly in my hand on those shots, trying to twist it across the target.

I really sympathize with people not wanting people to hunt their land and if I ever get some I have to admit I'll likely be the same way, for all the reasons mentioned. That doesn't invalidate what you said; i agree with it. And it's a fact that access to land is a key problem for a lot of hunters. I have a similar background, too. But as part of my taking this up by myself (no family, extended or otherwise, hunt or ever have to my knowledge other than my wife's late grandfather who loved it and one of her uncles) I knew that I'd have to use public land, so that's what I've been doing. It is more of a hassle, but it can absolutely be done. The spare money for land for most in their 30's is not realistic, though, unless with tons of support from the spouse and/or not too many kids or childcare. I've never had family childcare, for example, and over time each of my kids so far (none are yet teens) has cost me I figure at least $50k/piece.

Nice vid!

I dressed my first and only deer so far with training from youtube and a $3.77 "winchester" locking knife from walmart (the ones they show prominently in the hunting section on the turning display). The entire thing went pretty much as the video said it should have. Truly the only thing about the entire experience that caught me by any surprise was the powerful smell of fresh organs (did not puncture intestines or stomach btw).

They do--in hunter ed they say with a bow never take except a broadside or quartering away.

Other than the public land, I now have access to a very modest 8 acres less than 20 minutes away. Not sure how good it is yet (homeowner said it had lots of deer all last year, but they've not seen any this year--though they are not going back into the woods, just their back yard). I think it's not bad, but I'm heading out this morning to put up some cams in fact. I also have a better spot in the public land than I did last year, after much footwork to find out how to get to it, and finally if I do gun season this year (burned out after archery last year!), I'll have a rifle I've been practicing a lot with vs a shotgun with a piece of garbage red dot that didn't work properly (never again with cheap optics for me).

Lengthened my draw length another 1/2" today. Can't really say it's related to this, but this is the tightest group I've ever shot at 30 yards (pin sight is off, haven't bothered re-aligning since my peep was adjusted). This is with the "decimator" arrows, which dicks/field and stream had for $30 recently and which are, in fact, $20 for six right now. I have noticed if I ever get flyers they seem pretty much always to go to the left.

If you do want some 3 blade, I bought from Walmart last fall (it no longer has them this year for some reason), Torid SS. They were about $14/pack and 80 grain with 20 grain collars to bring the weight up if desired. Blades don't lock in place.