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Yesterday only one small doe , born late last year came out around 8:00 AM, usualy are a group of 6. The others came out around and after sunset and started hitting anything they could find to eat.

I have tried all kinds of home brew mixes, dog hair, and animal pee threw the years A waist of time. Deer Away and Repel work the best (but only good until it rains ) then you have to re apply them.And they are not cheap. Forget fences unless they are 10' at least, when I hunted the east end of L.I. I would see the deer go over the 8' fence around the old Grumman property with ease. I have watched young deer a few months old jump my 4' fences also.

Marlin in 45 LC , good for anything in my area and only have to carry exrtas of that ruund for my blackhawk also.

Fastedie, I have you beat buy a few months,and have had copd for some time now.I only hunt my own property , just enough for me. I have not used any kind of stand for years , only hunt from ground blinds made from down trees and brush.they are spread out over different parts of my property and are there year round ( deer are used to them).I get to them with my atv ( which does not seem too spook them at all) And if I get anything I go back to my house and get my front loader tractor and bring it back with that to load on my pickup and take it to be processed. If you make things easier for yourself no reason to stop hunting at our age.

Most of the spotting scopes will work out to 200 yds. and further. The whatever the scope is mounted on is what makes the difference , as do not buy something that shakes the second you touch it, And find something that you can adjust up and down and side to side.

I have a new model black hawk in 45 Long Colt with the 7-1/2 in. bbl. Pleasant to shoot and easy to carry on the side.

If the Jeep works for you , why not look at another one.

Go to a good old time archery shop , have them look it over as far as it's shape , buy a string and a spare one from them , have them check your draw length and measure how much weight at that length and have them pick out aluminum arrows for that results, better off learning with them first. buy a target with a few spots to shoot at on it's face . Don't try to shoot groups( it's not a firearm with bullets) good way to screw up arrow shafts that way.

The end of this week things will start to pick up.

.260 rem. ,7mm-08 and 6.5x 55 all pretty much the same , with a 120 gr. or 140 grain all will kill a deer at 300 yards.Another thing to think about If you reload your own ammo Is to get your .243 re chambered to a .243 ackley improved which will hold 10% more powder and should be enough with a 90 gr. bullet at 300yds.

After reading NYANTLERS post with pictures of the Youth Hunt and the other NY Bucks it lit a fire under my A*s , I said I have to Try. I have not picked up one of my bows for the past 5 years due to a heart operation, part of a kidney removed and a worn out sholder joint. Before that I have been shooting one of them for the past 65 years since the age of 12 almost every day.It finally stopped raining this afternoon and I got off of the couch and went outside and set up one of my targets , took one of the bows off of the wall hanger checked it out , waxed the string , grabbed a few old arrows with field points and one with a broadhead. And said I better only take a few shots for the day. Hmmm , I better take a bow with me the next time I am out in the woods.

My go to bear rifle is a .358 Win. Load my own with 225 gr. soft points.

Take a picture and let it walk. At least you will have the memory of seeing it.

A fellow I worked with blew 3 of his fingers off on his right hand with a shotgun years ago . I always run a cleaning rod down the bbl. on all of my firearms before shooting after that happened.

60 + years ago never did any sent control , in camp a lot of stogie and cig. smokers., just piled our clothes in the truck, camper, cabin or where ever we were staying and put hem on in the morning. Saw and had a shot at the biggest buck to this day back then. (got buck feaver and blew the shot) . Later on spent a good amount of money on scent control products,camo clothes and special bags , quit smoking and did not see any more deer then in the past. Now that I just hunt my own property I will put on what ever is handy with my orange hat, vest or coat depending on the weather and get out there, And I still see deer every day close enough for a shot. In fact I had a buck I called big spike that would be in the same spot every year till he was a 10 pointer , I would just walk by give him a whistle and a wave he would just lie there , 2 years ago he was not there I guess some one else got him. It's all in how you play the wind.

Before we left the sand pit and moved up to the Catskills we did pretty good with blackfish around the old navy docks in Hempstead Harbor also caught a 55" striper there ,some flounder also , caught a 17" Flounder in the back where the old barges were on my Old Town , Porgies we did well around the small islands between Port Wash. and Great Neck also good Fluke fishing on the island side in that area. I wonder if it has changed in the last 12 years.

Unless you know where to hunt, there were some pretty nice bucks taken the last few years because of AR's , It's not like the 70's 80's up here any more , the woods are over grown and little brouse for them to eat so they move to where the food is. Most of the area by me is either DEP land or property owned by weekenders who come up and sit on there buts watching the trees grow and grow then complain ,where have all of the wildlife gone. Glad to see the DEC finally wised up and stopped handing out so many DMP'S and found out that there were not as many deer around that they thought there were.

I have not shot a doe in many years and by the looks of things around my property I will not shooting any for some time . They are all Small as the size of 1 year old deer , they are healthy ,no bones showing , just small in size . The last good size deer I have seen in my area was 5 years ago.

If it is a nice day for a walk around the property one of my Marlin's 30-30 with a 3-9 bushnel ,and remy round nose or Marlin in 45LC , iron sights and Hornady ,225 gr. leverevolution. If it is a crapy day and have to sit in the blind Sako 75 in 30-06 ,3-9 Lupold , 165 gr. fusion or My .260 custom , 3-9 Lupold , 140 gr. hand loads, A light dusting of snow would be nice.

At 76 years old with COPD I drive to my stand, does not bother the deer , I have had them walk up within 15 ' of my blind with the atv parked outside of it. Could be because I am either on it or my tractor riding around the property year round.

WE put together one with the same or a little less recoil than the one grampy spoke about . Browning A Bolt SS action , Hart SS BBL. HV taper, H&S pillow bedded and glass bedded stock, Timmey trigger, in .260 caliber. Lupoild steel scope rings. A tack driver . The closest thing to my 6mm PPC bench rest rifle. Sold the .308 5 years ago because of my bad left shoulder and now the right one is on the way out. I now have 60+ years of bows hanging up that I guess will just be wall hangers.

I have a JD around 20 Hp. , 4 wheel drive ,filled tires , weight box, chains and front loader. it will push down and up root up to a 5" dia trunk tree. any thing over that I have to dig all around the root ball. Where I live it is 3/4 rock and stone so digging with it is not that easy. Should have gotten a bigger tractor. Or something along the lines of a bobcat type, with tracks. I just hired a fellow with a dozed and an excavetor for two days , he pulled out trees from 6" to 1-1/2 feet and buried the root balls then graded the area. What he did in the 2 days would have taken me more then a month to do.

It should be an open season for them Year Round.

X2 on what Buckmaster7600 said . 40 years ago my next door nieghbor and I went deer hunting in the lower Catskills , he shot a black bear around 300 pounds down in an old quarry , we were in our late 20's and both in good shape . he gutted it and we tied its legs to a small tree trunk and 2 hours later got it back to the truck which was only 150 yards away. that night I swore I would never shoot one. I have seen many threw the years from 200 to 600 pounds and let hem all pass.

While archery hunting in the Catskills I have seen a number of adult yotes following one and another on the same trail heading the same direction. Have also heard a number of them them howling from the same area at night. Had trail cam pictures of a group of them in the same spot at the same time. Hmmm.