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I've seen a bunch of stands on NY DEC land. Some were locked. I'm not sure what the official rules are on this kind of state land, and I have looked. I would say leave it if you want to and are okay with it being potentially stolen. I've seen a bunch of stands including nice ones on DEC land. As far as using it when nobody is there, I've read a bunch of opinions on this. Some say it's an atrocious question, others say hey you cannot reserve a particular tree on public land, so if I want to use it I will. Another question is safety, how old is it really, do you trust what a stranger put up? I can't find the link now because I forgot the name of the land, but near NY City there is something else like NY DEP or something? Anyway, they own land and on their website they specifically say first come first serve and people are allowed to use your stand if you leave it there.

Agree 100% and there is a small ulterior motive to it as well. If you know this is legal land and the posted signs claim differently you are legally protected, but you may benefit from the same signs scaring other people off who haven't done their home work, and that means less competition for you At that point you've done your due diligence, let DEC deal with it or not deal with it. BellR is right if you want to check three sources all of which may be slightly different use these: 1) maps.google.com 2) NY DEC interactive mapper 3) Google earth Once you have google earth, download the KMZ file from NY Dec site for NY DEC land, and you then load it into google earth. It will give a slightly different result than google maps.

My three year old was confused yesterday wondering where the deer is that I "caught". I believe she was under the impression that I was taking home a new pet. When I said I got it to eat she said she doesn't want any deer in her food.

I'm thinking of something like the hind sight ii: http://www.amazon.com/Hind-16548-Sight-II/dp/B003CNWBDQ/ref=pd_sim_200_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=41AhSvcO6BL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=1A54MA33YVF9PPVT84AD But the sight radius still exists, as you're looking down a tube and aligning a circle within crosshairs: It may not be significant enough to matter on a bow, I don't know. Might be fun to play with one of these, though. I couldn't find any peep-less sights locally otherwise I would have bought one already to play with. But I also didn't want to mess around mid-season. I can't imagine shooting without a peep OR one of these no-peeps. Maybe I should try it, I bet I would be horrendous. It seems to me some target shooters still use a tiny peep and center on pin? Nobody explained a darn thing to me when I started so I assumed that was the way to go. Only started going to a larger peep and centering housing within it about two weeks ago and I Much prefer that for the reasons you mentioned. It's now possible to see the level at the same time as everything else, and my groupings continue to improve every week as I figure out better ways to shoot.

Yeah it sucks being out there knowing you kind of should be at home, too.

Do you live next to public? Seems to unreal to me that people just walk around private land with their cars parked to the side. It's so obvious!

Everything I read says just pee off the stand. The deer don't care, might even like it. I assume that a #2 is a different matter, though. After almost stroking out on Sunday hauling mine I started looking at how to quarter a deer in the field in case I am in the same situation in the future. What a spectacular shot, though.

If he only posted, it's not really blocked, though This reminds me of dump trucks carrying gravel that have signs on the back saying things like stay back 100 yards not responsible for damage. Oh, yes you are, and you don't own the road 100 yards behind, either. Maybe this is a plus. If he really owns the land adjacent chances are good he has scouted this and feels it's good stuff if he is putting stands there. I've gone by a nice ladder stand a lot recently which is about 10' into state land with the only shooting opportunities on the private right next to it. I assume the stand was put there by the guy who owns the private land.

All I can say is I know how that feels, but my advice is to stop doing all day sits. I know deer are more likely during rut to be out during the day, but they are still primarily nocturnal (if any doubt on that, setup some trail cams, almost everything even at this time of year will be during the night, at least was on all my cams). In my case, my hunting time was taking away mainly from sleep if I did it very early, but on days I was out for many hours it also was taking away from family time, and the deer per hour rate drops through the floor during the day. I hated going hunting and seeing nothing, but I really hated coming back home mid or late afternoon on a Saturday and not having seen anything. That sucks I almost went through the same thing on Sunday. Realized my stand wasn't quite where it should have been and was strongly considering moving it. I now see in your zone the regular season is twice as long as it is for us in the south, dang!

I strongly considered a no-peep setup recently. The fact they can detect torquing is fairly cool, but they shorten the sight radius, though probably not enough to matter at hunting ranges. I had some people recommend new strings when I had peep twist issues, but ultimately I didn't see the need to replace an otherwise perfectly functional string at the cost of $70+ just because I refused to peep tube it, so I went the $7 route instead And although great stings can fix this issue, they don't guarantee it will be fixed. A peep tube does guarantee it (at least until/unless it breaks).

What does ate up mean exactly? I have been hunting on land that borders private (I guess it all does!) and quadruple checking on my phone the land owner had generally posted right on the border but in one case down a path I wanted to use he had posted 50 yards into state land. I simply ignore the sign because it shouldn't be there and I know it is state.

Why not a climber? There is simply no lighter way to get into a tree than with a light weight climber. X-stand has one at 11 lbs. Even the lightest hang-on will be in the high teens by the time you add the weight of the climbing sticks (even very ones).

Wow, that is good news relatively speaking. This is exactly why barbed broad heads are illegal. Unless that wound goes bad the deer should be good to go. Hopefully my deer from a week ago went through the same thing. Similar experience to you

I wouldn't classify myself as a hipster, but I am a suburbanite. I really would have loved a mentor, but if you put that requirement in you're going to see even less hunters. I had a bad hit this year, but I also threw myself into this with a dedication I know most don't. Hour upon hour at the range practicing, time reading, time in the woods, never tried to buy my deer with silly tricks, but I did spend a lot of money on equipment that definitely helps (e.g. range finder). I think a good mentor could have saved me about half my trips, many of which were spent walking around crunchy woods and spooking deer like a fool. I was surprised to read in some large study of recovered bow deer that the percentage of deer recovered from bow is close to that of gun. I don't know if it's true, but it makes sense in a way. I think about the deer I had within bow range this year. I believe with a shotgun all would have been immediately taken without any issue. However, I have a neighbor who had to chase a deer onto somebody's yard last year after a bad shot with his shotgun and finish it with a knife. I have a co-worker who goes out once/year with a shotgun and last year he missed a deer. He is barely a hunter. He puts no time in at all out of season, sights in the night before, then sits on a buddy's land over a food plot one day and that's all he does. There's no doubt for a lot of people a crossbow is a better killing tool than a bow, like a gun is better than the crossbow, but I think the reality is that people will realize it is better and just take further and further shots. Imagine if all shotgun hunters waited until the deer were within bow range? Recovery rates would be incredible. But they don't; or imagine if all rifle hunters waited until the deer are within shotgun range, but they bought the rifle to extend what they can do and expand their radius. The first crossbow I saw at my range was this past week. A guy was sighting in to go hunting. In the past he was a bow hunter--and still kind of is. He has his bow at 50 lbs (I said he should lower it) and after practicing even 20 arrows his shoulder is toast. So a guy like that, who can't even practice with the bow but hasn't quite given it up (but probably should) is not putting in enough time to be a good shot, so his odds of wounding deer are very high IMO. But with the crossbow he can hit as hard as an 8 year old could. But as Doc mentions if the goal is more effective weapons, even crossbows should be banned and limit everyone to rifles. I do understand that compound bows are only getting faster very slowly over time now, because the human body is the limit on them once they get near 100% efficiency. My guess without studying is that crossbows will keep getting more powerful. With a winched bow I think in theory the KE from one could be in the hundreds of lbs, because you could sit there spinning the winch for a minute or two as these ridiculous limbs are getting cranked down under insane pressure.

Nice, and it teaches him so much about grinding it out for the win, too. Most kids (and many adults) couldn't hang in there for it.

I thought it was a lone wolf, but theirs is 11 lbs. Looks like x-stand hang on is 10, though they have a super light climber.

That is just terrible re peep. I am new to archery but inside of two months on my fourth peep. A lot of people swear by custom strings, but even with those I know peep twist can be a problem, so i went against the grain of modern archery (a lot of people think peep tubes shouldn't be bothered with now) and went back to the tube. I'm shooting nicely with it. The tube could of course snap in the field, though

I saw yesterday on Amazon a trophy ridge hybrid sight. It has two fixed, so you can fix them at 20, 30 if you want, then below the 30 you've got the single pin that can be varied to whatever you want. http://www.amazon.com/Trophy-Ridge-3-Pin-Sight-Right/dp/B00OYDMQCE/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1447016413&sr=1-1&keywords=trophy+ridge+react+trio Not cheap, though, and only two reviews, though they are good. People rave about single pin, but I have to still assume that it could be one extra thing to fiddle with when something gets close and you don't have time to mess around (?). You could also go with .010 size pins, which are very tiny indeed and just put two on the sight and be done with it.

I found that idea once I got back to the car! I didn't feel like I was going to throw up, but I was leap frogging the deer and my 40 lb load (climber, backpack , bow) and by the final hill I was so weak I could hardly get up it with the pack. I've not been this physically exhausted in years, the entire thing took 2.5 hours. But! I had the deer near the car, slightly down to the side so people driving by who hate hunting don't have to see a dead deer, but some guy in a pick up caught it as he drove by and, as I'm sitting on the trunk of the car googling how to get a deer in the trunk of a car, he stops and we get it in there. Nice

Interesting and it even mentions Cameron Hanes, who I have a man-crush for.

Big!Wish I had just shot a premie fawn now. It has taken 70 minutes of work to drag him half way back to my car. The gulleys here are 45 degrees no kidding. No clue how I will get him in the trunk of the sedan. I am not actually complaining but dragging deer is no joke. Never did find the arrow. Must have come out somewhere as I didn't like myself while field dressing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, guys. I really did work hard for this. I have put in tons of time at the range, reading, ~16 trips out, scouting, learning. This deer was 22 yards. This shot was not as good as I had thought. I was right it was far back. I think I BARELY got lung but I clearly did and there is a sucking sound when pressing on the chest as well. Have not found the arrow. Quartering away must have saved me else it would had missed vitals. Height was good because this was from a steep shooting angle. I have been on deer three of my last four trips so I think I will be in better shape next year. But I need to end on an up note. I was really worried what would happen to motivation if I finished the year without anything after busting my ass for it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Got it. 50 yards. Will update more later. I almost didn't get out of bed today. Maybe 2.5 year buck but I have no idea. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is my guess. I had to go back to the car. I thought 30 min for vitals?Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I actually made a quick prayer earlier in the day if get a deer today I will be done. Just got done. Arrow did not pass through but embedded as he ran. Good blood trail--red. Lots of it but he went into the worst thorns in the state so I am going back to the car for the machete as I literally cannot get through this stuff. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk