Chris B

I was nervous but that was an awesome game to watch!

I had the pleasure of dealing with the "DRA" myself. When I was in my teens I got a couple tickets for speeding. Got pulled over on Route 12 heading to Utica for college and got something like a 80 in a 55 and another on a 55 mph back road in town of Binghamton (that was a mess, got a ticket on an icy day and wasn't even speeding. Took it to court with my witnesses and the Trooper didn't show so they postponed and I wasn't able to get my witnesses there at the time they wanted so I kinda got screwed over. I tend to speed anyway so I guess they got their money from another time when I didn't get caught.......) The kicker on this is that I bought my own house when I was 25 and when I updated my new address, they noticed that they never sent the fee to me so I ended up having to pay some 7 years later!! Mine was $300 though and I opted to pay $100/per year to drag it out because I was mad that they still charged me after 7-ish years!

I'm still learning about plots, I've only been doing mine for a couple years. If you want to grow clover and plan on raking the ground and throwing it, I would suggest to buy some now and throw it out. Have you ever heard of the term "frost seeding"? clover is great for that because it can withstand some of the colder temps we see this time of year (plus some other factors I'm sure but can't think of anything else off the top of my head). With frost seeding, you basically use the extreme temp changes we experience this time of year to get the seeds into the ground. As the ground expands and contracts with the freezing (or close to) temps at night and warm days, it pulls the seeds into the ground to grow. Google search frost seeding if you are unfamiliar w/ it.

Papist I have had the same problem with my plots, but with any of my crops. Anything under an acre and my plots got pounded to nothing.

Al, I'm pretty sure they eat turkeys as well. I don't have any official sources or video proof but I was told by one of my hunting buddies that has a ton of knowledge and does a lot of research, as well as spend lots and lots of time in the woods that they have been known to pick turkeys off their roost. I believed him at his word as we trade a lot of knowledge back and forth but I think I'm going to do some research on it myself and see what I can dig up to share.

When I was 14 (2002) I started helping my uncle's construction company once or twice a week to lay blacktop for $5.00/hr during my summer vacation. I ended up working for him full time the next 3 summers doing more blacktop, grading driveways, remodeling apt houses, etc until I graduated high school. Each summer that I came back, I was given an extra $1/hour. It was good hard work that helped me decide that I wanted to pursue a career in construction so I when I graduated HS, I went to college and received a bachelors degree in civil engineering. I'm now a project engineer/estimator for a construction company in the town I live in and working towards my professional engineering license as we speak.

I've seen that all too much! It's unreal how hard they are to hit......

I've always had the best luck either right off the roost, or around 8:30-9:30.

no luck on any birds, didn't even cut a track in the snow surprisingly. Lots of rabbit sign though, even kicked one out of a brush pile. Passed them up though because I had my shorthair with me.

Took my shorthair out all day Saturday. Hit Michigan Hill State Forest, More state land in Newark Valley, and then finished the day off at my buddy's best grouse spot on some private land 20 miles west of Binghamton. I logged probably 7-8 miles and not even ONE SINGLE FLUSH........ unreal...... at the private land we noticed fresh boot tracks walking right through the best grouse woods and then eventually came across a freshly killed coyote in the super heavy brush. The landowner said the local guys have been running hounds on coyotes hard. They must've wounded one and not found it, and I'm guessing with all the excitement they flushed all the birds out of the area. Oh well....back to coyote and crow hunting.

So I am trying to plan a grouse hunt tomorrow and a buddy of mine mentioned stocked pheasants at Michigan hill state forest in Richford. Anyone else hunt there and could tell me where the parking is for the pheasant hunting? Also wondering how well this state land holds grouse? Any info would be greatly appreciated, spent a fair amount of time researching but not finding some of the info I need.

I plan on running my GSP on grouse hopefully Saturday and Sunday... Gonna be a longgggg offseason but I guess it'll give me motivation to get back on the Hunt Test Training.

They are into their breeding season now. Try using mostly coyote vocals, call less, and watch more. Try male and female long howls, female submissive, etc. With that, stay on stand longer. like a minimum of 45 min. Don't expect them to react to you much, most likely they will just come in quiet. As far as the original post, I have been out a TON the past 3 weeks but have targeted mostly "fox only" spots close to development to get as many as possible before the season ended. We did get into some coyotes two weeks ago and exchanged some howls and stuff but I think I got a little too aggressive when I heard what I thought to be a challenge and they backed off. Live and learn..... I'll be going a lot until the season ends, I will try to give updates on how it's going.

I love the ol' killin' trees! I have 2 spots like that where I know where the birds are roosted every may and I set up at the same tree every year. One spot is tricky because the birds roost off the property we have permission to hunt and we are on the low side of the hill so they naturally like to fly down and head up the hill to the field but between my uncle and I, we get 1-2 birds a year from that same tree. The other spot I have only hunted for 2 years and it is our 100% honey hole! It's a 1/2 mile hike to the top of the hill and is bordered on three sides by the neighboring property of a couple hundred acres and I have permission to hunt a little part of that land too. Its a nice grassy ridge in open hardwoods and we have killed birds on every single trip so far from the same spot!

My friend's step-dad travels to VT every year to hunt snowshoe hare and has a lot of success. Also, my dog breeder (german shorthairs) went to Maine this year to grouse hunt and said it was awesome. These may be a couple things you might enjoy.

A couple of my hunting buddies put theirs on their back packs too. I just play musical chairs with my back tag on my jackets and vests during the time of year when i'm hunting multiple species on rotation each week lol

6 in one, half a dozen in the other

Ants, I was going to respond to you a couple different times. I have even gone far enough to type a post and then say heck with it and cancel it. I am with Belo on this one, as I look at this forum the same way. It's just how it comes up when I enter this forum with all the new content listed in one easy-to-see place. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but for everyone that says we (I) look at all these posts and then complain about it is incorrect. unless the political thread title mentions something that has to do with Safe Act or other things of that sort, I skip them. I also look to see who started a new thread (all threads) that's listed and that tells me just as much, if not more about whether it's worth clicking on. My issue is more about the negative BS that seems to come in most of the regular posts. And the only reason I'm saying any of this is because a moderator started this thread and asked. Otherwise you guys would never know

got 'eem she gawn it is what it is F*&^ itttt trip over a quarter to pick up a dime negative you got it! (usually involves a dirt bike or quad....and they probably ain't gonna make it lol) don't be a b*****!

That is how I view this forum as well. Seems to be the easiest way to skim over the new threads each day

Ohhhh believe me..... we will be hammering our coyote spots real hard 'til the season ends. We usually hunt exclusively at night but we will be doing as many daytime stands as we can fit in as well. Hoping to have some more stories coming soon! We'll see, the fox seem easy compared to those dang 'yotes!

We have gotten 4 greys and 3 reds. The past two weeks we have had action on almost every stand though, so the tally shoulda been doubled lol

I don't want to point fingers and try to single anyone out because I think it will excite people but I can think of a few different people that seem to be pretty consistent in derailing them. I'm sure you probably have a couple examples in your mind as well

Even with the storm blowing in last night, I was able to coax (lol) my partner into doing a couple stands at dark for the last night of NY fox season. Stand 1: We got setup in the last available day light at my aunt's a mile down the road. She only owns a couple acres but is butted up to acres and acres of brush lots. We set up just outside of the backyard, behind the barn, about 40 yards from the brush. I shot a grey fox last week while waiting for dark to start calling when a pair came through on their own. We tried it again last Friday and called in a red but my partner's 17 WSM had a dud loaded in it. "click" is not the sound you wanna hear when the fox is broadside at 18 yards. Anyway... we tried it last night. Rolled through rodent distress, lucky bird, and young rabbit distress. Switched to grey fox distress at the 29 minute mark and at 31 minutes I hear something about 10 yards behind us in the brush. After the stand we checked it out and a fox slipped in from the house or across the road and busted us. Packed up and I headed to another "backyard set" and my partner wasn't feeling that spot so I turned around and we went to my boss' construction laydown yard. We have had a lot of action here but no shots unfortunately. We get there and there is a 18-wheeler trailer sitting in the laydown yard (not my company's trailer). We were sitting in the truck trying to figure out how we were going to call around it and as we were sitting there, the tractor pulled in and backed into the trailer. Son of a B... can't hunt here now! Really bummed us out because the same night we had the dud at my aunt's, we called in a set of eyes here at the laydown yard but we couldn't get an ID. We finished calling and as we were walking to the truck a grey came running right in to us (right past the truck) and we spooked it. So I told my partner we had to go to the other backyard set where I wanted to go in the first place, give it a chance, and "when" we call one in, I was going to rub it in his face. Stand 2: We get to the backyard set, and sat down. We tried hunting in the woods one afternoon with no luck so this was our first night set here (2nd time ever trying it), set up about 30 yards from the tree line. I turn on nutty nuthatch and at the 8 minute mark a grey pops out of the brush and runs at the caller. It circled the caller at 6' (thank you foxjack) and was wanting to bolt but the decoy kept him there, he just wouldn't stop. My partner squeezed one off when he entered the scope and he jumped about 4' in the air, did a flip, landed on his feet, and took off running... shoot... hope it was lethal, WTH. I immediately change to platinum grey fox. within two minutes I hear something to my left and down comes a grey. It runs at the caller and stops 10' from it and my partner drops the hammer. The fox runs away... really?!? We cut the caller, remove the red lense and go look. Walk over to where shot #2 rang. Blood, we turn around and there he is. Awesome, got 'eem! go to where shot #1 was, speckles of blood every where. we follow it for 20 yards and there is the other fox!! We called in our first double and on the last night!!!!!!! Instantly Big Al's dance of love literally almost spilled out of me lol. So pumped after the last 3 trips have included a miss last Thursday (brought a new guy to experience the fast action), a dud bullet on Friday, and a wounded red fox that my partner never recovered when he went solo on Valentine's Day. Our double consisted of one male and one female. Right as I was changing to platinum grey fox after the 1st shot, I thought I caught an eye down in the woods but couldn't tell exactly, but guessing they were running together and the 2nd foxed circled way around us, which is why he came down from the houses. We were so pumped and it was my turn to shoot so I called my boss and hunted at his house. Stand 3: The house sets up on a hill through the woods by itself, we usually hunt in front of the house but this time we hooked around to the side and hunted there (his "yard" is 60-ish acres, all mowed, surrounded by hardwoods on one side and brush on the other). We set up close to the brush to hopefully call in a fox. I ran nutty nuthatch, lightning jack and then platinum grey fox. no takers. we were packing up and my buddy thought he heard a coyote howl in front of the house somewhere but wasn't sure, and it was late and snowing hard so we shrugged it off and packed up. The snow was coming down so hard that my tire tracks in the driveway we covered over with a slight indent. Coming down the driveway we cut tracks....wouldn't you know...fresh coyote track crossed over and went towards front of the house. Dang it, we should've tried some coyote vocals when he thought he heard the 'yote, we mighta called him right in. What a night! The wind was blowing on and off and the snow was getting increasingly heavy through our stands and we had animal movement on every one and most importantly I called in my first double and my partner connected on both greys!

This is my GSP, Daisy's first year hunting. My uncle wanted to go to a preserve to get her some experience (I mostly grouse hunt with her) so we did that this fall. Bought 5 birds, watched one of our birds fly from over the knoll and off the property, and still ended up with 6. The rest of the pictures are stocked pheasants, my girl did awesome getting on them and we had a lot of fun. We even managed a couple woodcock too! Enjoy