Chris B

I ride all the time in the summer and a lot of the time they just stand there and let you go by but I'm sure it's a 50/50 on whether or not it alters their immediate travel route if they ride through while you are close by hunting.

Wow....that thing is a giant. Sorry about you luck, people are scumbags. W/ that, I have two short stories: about 15 years ago on opening day of gun, my dad heard shooting and saw a monster buck (I think it was a 10, I can't remember....I was only 13 or 14) shortly after come running into view. He was able to get a shot. neighbor came up to track the deer, they found two good shots in it, my dad gave that buck to the guy that shot first. My uncle always tells me this story about how he shot a nice 8 point with his bow. Gave it an hour and tracked the blood to a gut pile and tractor marks. Went to the guys house and pounded on the door and the guy wouldn't answer.

haha same here on the scents.... Scent hangers around my tree, a mock scrape that we all know wasn't done with the caution of human scent, and a mock rub (?) hatcheted on a big tree with doe-in-estrous- gel squirted on the tree...... thankfully I've calmed them down on that part.

I skin and quarter mine immediately after the kill, then we put the quartered meat and loins in non-scented garbage bags and put in the garage fridge for a week and then we de-bone and process everything the way we want. Never had a bad piece of venison.

lol you might as well! The landowner's grandkids (mid-late 20's) decided the past couple years that they are hunters now and sit in it every week. I even donated 2 tree stands and we put them in great spots across the road (where slammers have been killed as well) but they refuse to hunt anything but my spot.

I'll be in a hang-on that sits in a narrow brushy patch of woods that has green fields on each side and connects brushy hardwoods on one end and a mix of open hardwoods and very thick brush on the other. Awesome rut stand and also an awesome opening day gun stand. A buck has been taken opening day there 6 of the past 7 years and all but one have been 7, 8, or 9 points.

Congrats! Great story too, I enjoyed reading it. That's awesome that he is your biggest yet, you'll shoot a big boy in time.

I've used rage broadheads the past 3 years and have had great luck with them. I did lose a nice 8 point last year though but I hit it high and I did get a pass through...I misjudged the distance and hit it in the magical "no man's land". I couldn't believe I lost him honestly. This was with the standard Rage broadheads. This year I shot a 6 point with the hypodermic and hit him back in the liver and he only went 40 yards. Broadhead intact and in working condition, no issues.

I know some guys that hunt coyotes with dogs but that's about it. I'm real big on calling predators in, I do most of it at night with the spotlights and all that....a lot of fun. Thanks for the article. Unfortunately bobcat season in my area ends this month so i'm not lucky enough to scout for tracks in the snow. I'm hoping this expansion area becomes part of the regular bobcat season like in the catskills and we can hunt them until February (or whatever the exact dates are, cant remember)

Often times with my scouting efforts and luck I could be done bow hunting the first week of the season and done gun hunting the first weekend, plus a handful of doe management days. But if I'm really grinding it out for a year it would be something like: Bow: 60-90 hours Gun Season: 40-50 hours ML: 10 Hours

How about some tips on what to look for? I have seen a couple while bow hunting over the years but have only gotten one trail cam pic of one. I do a ton of predator hunting and want to try a little bobcat hunting before the season closes in 7S. The property I hunt has zero rock in my wood, but a lot of thick deadfall and some brush. My general guess is to hunt close to the thick cover? Do you have any specific info to maybe help me out a little?

sometimes I forget to let the big bucks know where I set my camera so they can come pose for a picture honestly though, the only thing I can think of is forgetting my spare card when I go to check it

It's called cantilever because it is connected to the barrel and hangs over the receiver. That way the scope comes off with the barrel and you don't have to install/uninstall the scope every time you want to switch from your deer season to turkey, etc. Also, mostly eliminating the need to re-sight in the scope every year as well (although you should always shoot a couple slugs before the season to make sure the gun is shooting correctly anyway). If you have the money to buy a cantilevered rifled barrel, IMO it's money wellllll spent. http://www.cabelas.com/product/Mossberg-Replacement-Shotgun-Barrels/705661.uts

That would be a great first gun for you. I'm assuming it has a bird barrel on it with modified choke tube or something. If you can, see about getting a separate barrel (cantilevered, rifled barrel) for it for deer. That way you can put the cantilevered rifled barrel on it (the scope stays attached to the barrel) for deer and then when you want to turkey hunt, you pull that barrel off and put the bird barrel back on and you are good to go. talk to the guy at the gun shop about it and what was suggested and he can point you in the right direction. If that is the route you want to take, anyways

lmao... worst part about having trail cameras. Had a real nice 8 on my camera 2 years ago that came through opening day of gun season about 45 minutes after my dad left that tree stand. I still laugh and think about that one.

either on a hanger screwed into the tree where it is most easily accessible, or in my hand rested in my belt-attached bow holder.

how did you protect the horns? Or were they not affected

Region 7S October 31st: caught a glimpse of a nice 8 pt (Educated guess: 3.5 yrs) casually moving through the woods and ended up filtering by me with a smaller doe. She milled around and he stayed in the distance in the heavy cover and rubbed a sapling and racked his horns in the branches. Did this to multiple sapling and pieces of brush. He crept towards her a couple times, craning his neck but didn't chase her, just watched and mirrored her movement. she left the scene and he followed her. This was at 8:45am November 1st: A buddy of mine went out and did a little rattling and grunting. A little later in the hunt he thought he heard horns racking some branches so he gave a grunt and it stopped. Moments later he caught glimpse of a giant. He grunted it in and it came marching right in ready to fight. Spent the last 30 minutes of the afternoon hunt very slowly and carefully scent checking and moving around his tree. Didn't come into any shooting lanes, but did not leave. He was stuck in his tree well after dark while this buck hung around

Nothing stops me from going around November 5th. If it was supposed to be 90 I'd still be in a tree....you never know!

Love my hooyman, its light and little and extends out real nice to get all the branches I need. The ex ol' lady bought it for me for xmas and she bought be a different blade for it. Thing cuts like a charm

if you're seeing lots of does, stay there!!

What grinds my gears.... -Guys that recently gain permission to hunt the same land as you that show up late and leave early on their atv.... or when they decide to walk, they walk out right by you when they don't have to, and its the last half hour of shooting light. -When the landowner of the land you've hunted your whole life tells you you're the enforcer of the land and that you can put in food plots and he "loves seeing the deer and turkeys and having them on the land" and then decides to "clean up" the land and mows the fields down to a quarter inch, wants the other fields brush hogged down just as far in late September and spends every early morning and late night cutting every single branch 6' high and lower around every field (browse, scrape limbs)and cutting all ground cover in the hedgerows from june-september. And decides to "clean up" all deadfall and cut for firewood in October and now possibly in November. All the while ignoring every bit of advice or requests to leave some of it alone and why. And then proceed to tell me that the deer have plenty of food with my "massive" (1 - .25 acre and 1 - 1acre plot, that aren't that great to begin with) plots and then start mowing them smaller after the money and time I put into them. The land is 10% heavy blowdown and 90% field. - When I've had sole permission to hunt a small tract of land that is a perfect big buck funnel for the rut and then a couple family members decide they want to be big hunters and sit in my tree 4+ days a week in October, burning it right out before the rut even starts (I try to leave it alone until then) and when I go down there I see mock scrapes that I know weren't done with caution, hatchet marks on trees for mock rubs with doe in estrus gel on them and scents hanging from multiple trees. All while they refuse to hunt good stands across the road (where I've shot a great buck out of as well) that we put up for them in great spots so they leave my spot alone. The tree stands were ones that I owned and sacrificed.

A buddy of mine does a lot of rattling with success and he always preaches that he only rattles when he is hunting in thick areas. That way the buck has to commit all the way to find out what is going on. I will 2nd that, I've done quite a bit of rattling and the only time I have had anything come in was when I was hunting a brushy funnel between open hardwoods.

Flushed one in Conklin last night, and shot one in Conklin Forks last weekend. Also went to the Connecticut Hill State game Land in Newfield last weekend and flushed 2.

+1 on that BellR, All of that was running through my mind as well but I know I can be overwhelming so I left that all out at the moment lol