Chris B

It does seem that most of the talk in this thread has been geared towards the political side. But a lot of normal hunting threads (seems like most to me, or maybe I just happen to click on all the ones that turn bad) get derailed or nasty by the 2nd page...sometimes the 2nd post lol

I'm fairly new to this forum so my opinion may not mean as much but I think there should be more "censorship" on the forum. Not because I am offended by anything, I'm really thick skinned. I honestly just find it annoying the amount of heat some of these threads receive. it's not just political threads, those will inevitably turn bad. Sometimes it's amazing how quick a lot of regular hunting threads get jacked and derailed. I joined here because I wanted another outlet for hunting information and to be able to trade information with people and try to help out the newer hunters. I'm part of the FoxPro forums and the QDMA forums, plus I've raced ATV's for 7 years so I have been apart of a few racing forums; and I have never been on a forum with so much bickering, attacks, and nonsense than this one. Some days I can't figure out if I'm on Facebook or this forum....

Thanks guys. We went back out last night and took a newbie with us and put him behind the gun. First stand was dry but on our second stand we called a grey in from behind us, we think he came from across the road. I ran some bird sounds on this stand and then switched to grey fox distress and shortly after I hear something over my right shoulder and he popped out 12 yards to our right. he kinda busted us but was confused and ran out to 60 yards and began circling the call. Our new partner was having trouble keeping up with the fast pace but was able to squeeze a shot off after the fox stopped 4 or 5 times lol. Unfortunately he missed....bad news for him is that he's hooked now lol

I definitely have a lot more luck pulling the fox in rather than the coyotes. In the past, I've seen the greys charge harder, where the reds will sit and observe, and then creep but this year, the reds have been equally as bold for us. The coyotes are still a huge PITA for our calling efforts. Only got one of them this year but we have had some awesome encounters and close calls though.

What a night we had last night..... Stand 1: Got permission to hunt at my aunt's house, just behind her barn. Her property butts up to about 20 acres of brush lots. We get setup just after sunset and were just waiting for it to get dark enough to start running the light. We were about 5 minutes from starting to call when all of a sudden my partner flips the light on quick and there's the biggest grey fox I think I have ever seen!! I scrambled to get the gun on him as we smooched him. He stopped once but then quickly disappeared into the brush. My partner swings the light back and there's another one, coming right towards our lip squeaking. I throttled her right there with my buddy's 17 WSM. We called for a few minutes and then decided it probably wasn't a good idea to educate so we cut the call and moved on. Stand 2: Set up in a field across the road from the house where we park and I put the call close to an island of thick brush and we sat across the field with our backs to the edge of the hardwoods with a creek behind us. 5 minutes of nutty nuthatch and we hear the infamous "tsh tsh tsh tsh" of something coming in, right behind us! A grey fox slipped up the creek and was going to come out right where we were sitting....it got about 5 yards from us and then hooked a U-turn and left at the same speed it came in. we continued our set to no avail, but did hear a pack of coyotes light up across the road. Stand 3: Went to the laydown yard just outside of town that my boss owns (I work for a construction company) and got setup. Played nutty nuthatch for about 3 minutes and the wind and snow picked up like crazy. 2 minutes later my call dies.....unbelievable. So we sit there a few minutes in silence ad the snow stops. My partner decides to use his mouth call. About 10 minutes later we catch eyes across the railroad tracks and disappear as quick as they were found. We called on and off for another 20 minutes and decided to pack it up. Got halfway across the laydown yard and my partner thinks he forgot his bag so goes back to get it. I shine the light around and see nothing, I'm about 30 yards from the truck so I'm just looking down, daydreaming. All of a sudden I hear "hey hey hey hey hey hey hey" and I look up, my partner is 10 yards to one side and a grey fox is 10 yards on the other!! We shined him and tried to stop him but he took off outta there. we were speechless...... I walk over to the truck and start putting stuff away while my partner walks over and grabs the chair he dropped when we tried to get the fox. I look up and 65 yards down the haul road I see the fox start to cross. Are you kidding me?! I lip squeak and light him up. he stops for a half a second and disappears. What a night..... saw a grey fox at every stand and only managed to get one. And that one wasn't even called to!

that's awesome, I hope it works out for you. The best hunting land is land you can call your own.

I'm with some of these other folks on this one. Not sure what your financial situation is but I would say definitely worth talking with the landowner and maybe you could work something out to buy it, or even a piece of it. Otherwise, network to find more land to hunt and hunt the he!! out of it in the meantime. "it's all good 'til it ain't no more".

lmao it's a little bit of both....

Did some predator hunting last night. Stand one, we had coyotes going and worked them for over an hour but they just didn't wanna quite come in. Stand two, set up at our honey-hole for fox. I called this nice red fox in using bird distress at the 30 SECOND mark! He came in full speed and checked up right in front of us for a free hand 65 yard shot at the 1 minute mark. (sorry for the sideways picture, I CAN NOT figure out how to fix it....)

I'll share a couple more. This year was our first hunting season together.

The past 2-3 weeks I haven't been out nearly as much as I have been bc i'm in the middle of remodeling my basement and building a bar, but I have been hunting coyotes/fox 2-4x a week at night, grouse hunting with my GSP 1-2x on weekends and a half hour here and there on my lunch breaks, as well as a little crow hunting to break up some of the serious hunts.

nice pics doewhacker! I don't wanna de-rail the OP's thread but if he don't mind, could you other guys post a couple pics of your dogs? I really enjoy seeing them

For the OP on the wind... Also keep in mind that when you are walking to your setup, make sure that your wind isn't blowing into the area where you think they may come from. If need be, don't walk very far for your first setup, and then pick up and move further in.

Just when you think they aren't going to do something.....they do it! I had an awesome coyote property in PA a few years back where I used to sit up on a ledge overlooking a small old stone quarry that butted up to a green field and a large thick gully. I hunted it one night when the downwind would dump them into a "perfect spot" for a shot. Well that coyote went completely upwind and ducked into the woods and we could hear it circling the call about 15 yards behind us in the pines (we were hunting at night and couldn't shine into the pines that we used as a backdrop). Talk about adrenaline rush! Obviously we got busted that night

haha exactly....

I got my pup from Crystal Kennels in the Watkins Glenn area. I have her pedigree but very unfamiliar with certain "lines". I'm part of a "Hunting GSP's" group on facebook and they talk about lines a lot but i'm out of the loop when it comes to that

Awesome picture, Where did you get your dog from?

Now that you got me thinking about it 16 Ga Hunter, I rarely have anyone my age or younger that want to go with me very often, if at all. Most are a 1 or 2 trip kind of person. The only guys that I know of that would be willing to go a lot with me are my uncle who is in his mid-late 60's and a teammate on my archery league who is 46.

I'm 28 and have an 18 month old german shorthaired pointer that I have been training and hunting with. My breeder has given me a lot of great advice and in the spring/summer months, I go to her house every 1-2 months and we do some training together. My dog has her NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize 1 and she also has her AKC Jr Hunter Title (hunt tests) **Photo Credit: The picture with the ribbons was taken by my breeder, Judy Zeigler, on the day Daisy went 4 for 4 at the double hunt test we attended.

Only killed one yote this year. Our best yote spots get run real hard with dogs so it has felt nonexistent for us calling them lately, not even hearing them howl at all, we used to hear them on every trip. We are taking somewhat of a hiatus on the yotes though because we wanna target fox real hard til the season closes, then we will get back on the yotes hard. We have killed 3 fox so far this season. But with that, we have gotten busted 2 other times, had one come in quick but then hang up just outta range and eventually left, packed up our set a little too early and heard one barking (I think they actually call it a vixen scream) a couple weeks ago, pulled into our spot one night and one was already in the field when we got there another time, and last night we are pretty confident we called in a fox but we weren't able to get a good enough ID on him before he slipped behind a tree snuck outta there. As far as bobcat, I'm part of the bobcat expansion area in the SZ but I just cant justify bobcat hunting during the deer rut so I haven't hunted them yet really.

I got mine as well....around $100. Guess where it went? Towards my new tax bill!

I had a Remington 22-250 with a bull barrel and I sold it to buy the savage (no bull barrel) and it was the best thing I ever did. I love that gun so much.... what a tack driver haha I hear ya. It ain't cheap and I learned the hard way that cheap equipment causes missed opportunities. For lights a run an EWT Kill Light 250 scope mounted, and Light Force Walkabout 170 for scanning. Primos trigger stick bipod, and I also run the foxjack on my crossfire.

For coyotes, I run a savage Model 11 22-250 with a Leupold Vari-X III 3-9x40 and for ammo I like the Hornady Superformance 50gr V-max. If I'm targeting Fox only, I have a Marlin 22 mag. I use CCI ammo in that but can't think off hand what Grain it is. The scope I have on that is a Simmons.

Too bad you aren't near broome county or Id be PM'ing you to try and do a couple hunts together. I have a FoxPro Crossfire and all the lights and hunt predators 2-4x a week. I think the same way you do. Whether I'm the shooter or the light runner, I just like to work on my calling and have people to go with. Good luck to you, sir

We ran beagles in Tug Hill on hare and it was a blast. The dogs ran great on the snow, we wore snowshoes. It's amazing how much further ahead they run in front of the dogs then cottontail. To answer the OP's original question, I don't know anywhere too close to orange county but I know Tug Hill and ADK's is great for hare.