OldNewbie

I shoot a Hickory Creek vertical mini-crossbow. Has compact vertical limbs, which would work well in stand with no rail. Not as front-heavy as more standard crossbows. $750 and legal in NY. You could probably upgrade the scope if you have more $$ to spend. https://www.drawloc.com/content/line-vertical-crossbows And I'm a Buddhist.

I truly love New York; grew up here and moved back after a short stint elsewhere. Lived here 50+ out of 62 years. Tons of memories made in this state. Tremendous hunting and fishing opportunities here. However, my wife and I are seriously thinking we may have to retire somewhere else due to the high property taxes and state income tax. And now with the new tax bill in Congress, our federal taxes will be jumping up several thousand as well. And did you know NY taxes IRA deductions and PA doesn't? You should get someone to run TurboTax for NY for you to see what you're getting into..

Spent three hours today in a local state forest. Wanted to explore a deep gully that beckoned from the topo map. Found it was posted on the upper end, despite the map (Google) showing it as state forest. The part I found was easily 40-50 feet deep, and steep! Decided on plan B, walk a circle around side of hill, back toward car. This area is a mix of new and old growth, pines and hardwoods. There is another gully, not so steep with hemlocks, and some stretches with open hardwoods. Crap there's the wife I better get off the computer.. anyway, I couldn't figure out should I sit: in the pines, above the shallow gully, higher up in the brushy area, above a trail where I found fresh sign, the deep gully? Or the goldenrod patch with all the deer trails that I already sat over and saw no deer. Still hunting sure wasn't very productive today, impossible to be quiet with all the crunchy leaves and dry branches under the pines. Am I just totally wasting my time going 'blind' with no prior scouting?

I dunno, last year during gun season they were in my front yard in broad daylight.. Somethings different this year..

Pulled a camera card and found deer visited plenty over the last few days. Here are the times: 6:06 PM, 6:12 PM, 6:20 PM, 7:17 PM, 10:18 PM, 12:38 AM, 1:56 AM, and 4:06 AM. Ugh I give up

Since I suggested it, I better tell you that sleeping in the blind is a double edged sword. Last year I was sitting in an open blind, just a tarp over some logs, fell soundly asleep sitting in the chair behind it, and when I woke up, mama doe was about 5 feet away staring at me and checking me out. Re books, my permanent blind is so dark inside I can barely read a paper book in the middle of the day inside it. A tablet with a backlit screen (e.g. Kindle Fire, iPad, etc) can be adjusted to low brightness and still be read in darkness. Just be sure to download whatever you want to read in case there is no broadband in the stand.

I'm not one to offer much advice, but I can say I also started later in life and have struggled to come up the learning curve. I started at the age of 59. We have deer in our neighborhood all the time. How hard can it be, I thought.. Well, the reality is, way harder than I thought! First year, hunted gun season only, mostly state land, saw 1-2 deer, harvested zero. Second year, switched to bow/crossbow, changed to private land, did a whole year of trail cam surveys on the new hunt area, and harvested two. Success! Yet it took about 80 hours of sitting all told. This year, same spot as last year.. seeing far fewer deer, and once again feeling like I'm 'doing it wrong' and don't know what I'm doing. There are so many variables, and you can only control some of them. The hardest for me is the hours of sitting still 'doing nothing'. I have always enjoyed active sports - hiking, cross country skiing, fly fishing, etc. So remaining motionless for hours at a time has tested my patience. This year I've read four books in the blind, and lately I have been catching up on much needed sleep! So its productive one way or another.. There is a lot to learn, and this site is great place to get some mentoring. P.S. One tip I will offer -- when you're going to be sitting out in the cold for a long time, eating something beforehand with a high fat content will help you keep warm. Inuits eat seal blubber.. I prefer cheese or fatty meat, bacon, sausage, etc. Egg McMuffins, for example. Good luck!

In the blind by 6:15 AM, nothing happening.. Around 7 AM I hear some sirens going off nearby. Back at the house at 8:30 they tell me a very large deer was struck by a car and killed at the bottom of my hill. Guess I need to change tactics..

Anyone know how to create a poll that accepts multiple answers? There is a check box for 'multiple choice' but I'm not sure what it does, I left it blank.

Added that as a choice but I don't think you can vote again.

Thanks

I have a blind a short walk out my back door, from which I took two deer last year and one this year (bow/xbow - too close to neighbors for firearms). Because it is so convenient, I've fallen into the habit of going for a sit almost every day, for a couple hours AM and in PM. I know this is probably a bad idea and I should 'rest' the stand. And in fact, I have seen zero deer there for the past week, since killing a doe there. I don't have any other stands on my land, so if not hunting in my 'home blind', I'm hunting state forest land. No blinds or stands there, just still hunting. Not been successful on state land yet. Question is - what is a 'safe' interval for using the home blind? Every other day, every third day? Once a week? Or better to just be random to avoid being patterned by the deer? Anyone else have a similar situation? What do you do? P.S. I know the best answer is to set some additional blinds/stands and rotate them, and it was on my to do list for this season.. life got in the way.. More info.. there are plenty of deer in the neighborhood.. we see them crossing the road, on neighbors lawns, and in the fields at night. They just seem to be avoiding the trail that my blind is set up on. That is mainly oak woods, some pines adjacent where they used to bed and I never go in there.. So maybe question two is, do you have to move blinds from year to year or can one spot be productive year after year? Still learning, thanks.

Or I could wait for the odd day when the wind isn't W/NW..

The wind in this spot is challenging. The access road/parking area is to the west, so the wind would (usually) be at my back if I just walked straight in. Circling around to the eastern flank would take considerably more time/effort.

Today being very windy I decided to take the shotgun and do some walking and explore some new ground. Didn't see any deer, but I did find what I think is a promising spot. It's a shallow gully with a small patch of goldenrod, 3-4 old apple trees, small trickle of a stream running through it. Open field about 100 yards above it (on private land), and mature hemlocks below (downstream). Open woods (beech) on a hillside on one side, and mixed pines/hardwoods on the other. Deer trails, rubs, and scrapes here and there. If you only had two hours to hunt this spot, when would you? First light, last light, or some time in between? Would it be worthwhile setting a trail cam at this point? Or is it just too late in the season and not worth the effort. Sitting half way up the hill gives you a 35 yard shot and you can see over the whole area, but you're also pretty visible. Sitting down at the same level visibilty is a lot less, but you have better concealment. (I don't hunt from tree stands, ground only, due to age and inexperience.) Where would you sit?

Wow, glad it's not just me. Seeing lots at night in the fields, nothing during the day. Three doe came in just after legal shooting hours tonight, kept me pinned in the blind for 30 minutes before they left.

Daytime activity definitely picked up today in 8W. Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

Tons of hickory and beechnuts this year in 8W. Black walnuts too, but they seem to always produce well. Acorns are all done dropping in my woods.. Hard to say if more or less than last year. Deer sure aren't on them right now, but they weren't this time last year either. Still a lot of does in the hayfields at night, eating the new grass that's come up since the last cutting.

Good question, wish I knew the answer.

This coming will be my third year deer hunting. I talked to a neighbor and got permission to hunt his land. Put up a couple of trail cams, showed some bucks and an assortment of people walking on the same trail at different times of day. No one ever noticed my camera. Then I moved it to check out what I think is a licking branch, to a more obvious spot. 5 days later, it was gone. I feel like I just started a game of Clue.. Who did it? My next door neighbors who walk the trail every day? The owner? The other neighbor who hunts the same land? The adjacent land owner 'over the hill'? The forester who dropped his timber measuring stick in the woods near the tree where I had the camera set? The kids on dirt bikes and ATVs who showed up on camera one day? I put my name and phone number on the camera in case one of the neighbors saw it, so they would know it was mine. Maybe they didn't care and took it anyway (I hate to think, but ??). I'm dying to know what happened to it.. but I guess I never will.

I've been using Nockturnals since the end of last season, haven't shot any mammals yet with them. But they work as advertised. For whoever asked about added weight.. they weigh 20 grains, vs. 10-ish for a plastic nock. Other brands weigh a little more than that I believe. So a lighted nock will lower your FOC some. I measured my hunting arrow FOC with the Nocturnal and again with a plastic nock, and the difference was 2%. Your mileage may vary. I think it's enough of a difference to warrant using the lighted nocks for practice and sighting in as well as for hunting. Problem is, I've ruined at least 3 of them via Robin Hoods or close calls with BHs while doing so. Maybe I'll buy the cheap knock-offs for practice...

I shoot 56 lbs, 27" draw, 400 gr arrows.. very similar to your setup. First deer I shot last year, hit the shoulder (bad placement), knocked the deer down, but it got back up and walked off. Waited a while and tried to find it in the dark.. no dice. Looked again the next morning.. but no deer. That was shooting a Rage. We did find the arrow, it had fallen out or been rubbed out by the deer (I could see it was not a pass through, it was sticking out of the deer when it walked away.) One of the blades was half deployed, the other not at all. Second deer I shot, the arrow went through a rib and nearly cut the spine in half. Deer went down and stayed down. That was shooting a G5 Montec fixed blade head.

This is my second season bow hunting. Last season I sighted in with field points, and just hoped for the best after putting on broadheads. I did manage to kill the one deer I shot at. However, I resolved this year to 'do it right' and sight in and practice with broadheads before the season. I started doing that, and in the last couple of weeks I've ruined a Lumenok but cutting it in half with another broadhead, cut the fletching off of several arrows, embedded one in the pine tree behind the target... you get the picture.. If this keeps up I'll have to buy all new arrows and broadheads just before the season starts. So my question is: how do you modify your practice/target shooting with broadheads, to avoid tearing up your arrows? Do you shoot each arrow at a different spot, and not worry about grouping? Suggestions?

Acorns have started to drop in the past few days here (8W). Last year they were raining down first week of Oct. Getting a bumper crop of beech nuts in my neighborhood this year. Trees are really loaded.