screamon demon

Black Angus on NFB near ellicott creek makes some decent stuff. Also Buck and Doe shop in Clarance is pretty good.

My $.02 - too far forward. The arrow is in front of the shoulder blade towards the neck. Nice footage by the way. By my rusty trig a 24 degree angle which I feel is a nice angle. Keep after him you never know what can happen. Good Luck

Some great advice given on here. Stay in the woods when others are leaving for lunch. I have shot my fair share on stateland while sitting in my tree stand while others are leaving mid day then chasing deer right past me. Just an observation of mine when it comes to gun hunting. I see a lot of guys walking around and I dont mean still hunting I mean just walking by themselves gun at the ready. I always wonder what the hell they are doing. I think they hear shots and feel left out. I liken it to the guys who jump into your fishing spot after you catch a fish. If you are in a spot with a lot of sign you will eventually see deer there. Hunting from the ground can be a great expereince but you do not have the same field of view as one does from a treestand. I also think you need to put several hours into a spot not just 45 minutes and move. I am not pointing fingers at anyone here but I have hunted with a few guys who do that. I always tell them to find a nice spot and stay there for 3 or 4 hours.

I have nothing to offer other than reading this site really makes me second think buying a place of my own.

walmart by me has had a 2 man ladder stand for $108 all season. I dont remember what brand though.

Forever wild ?? When my wife's grandfather was alive he would tell stories of how he planted the tree's at some of the area that is now stateland in WNY area. He said two rows of men hundres of yards long the first row would pop a hole in the earth the second row dropped a seed and covered the hole. They would walk the length of the woods and then move to the next section. Basically building the forest. I didnt believe him until i took a close look at how perfectly the tree's were lined up.

The state frequently clear cuts stand lands usually 10 acres at a time. This helps improve wildlife habitat by dropping tree tops to the ground for cover and food while opening the forest floor to more sunlight and secondary growth. I have seen it several places and within a few years the hunting improves drastically. They just finished up a two year project in the state land I frequent. They make a bit of a mess out of things I believe it's worth it.

I hunt with one of the summit climbers without the front bar. It's a pain to climb with but there is nothing in front of you to hit with your bow. BC (before children) i never even thought about the harness. I never wore it, never thought of it. I was raised hunting private land in home made penthouse stands. Dad and the crew should have been wearing harnesses and i would have too. The year my wife was pregnant with our first child I was hunting without said harness and dozed off. I woke up as I leaning out of the seat. The paltmform was slippery from ice, somehow I managed to not fall. Now I never go out with out it. First time out this season I forget it and left the climber in the truck. I was foolish as a youngster. If I were to not wear a harness now I would be flat out ignorant. For the height of the stand I like about 20 feet from the top of the climber. I tie a 20' rope to the top part of the stand when I feel it get tight from the weight of my bag I know I am where i want to be. If I am a little lower I dont worry to much. I was up around 10' on Sunday and had several doe walk by with 15 yards never noticed me. Concealment, wind direction, and general woodsmanship are better then height.

A place that I frequent on stateland has a maintained trail that intersects state and pivate property. The trail is 100% on stateland however it is maintained snowmobile trail all winter. The fellas who hunt on the private property use it for atv travel back to there place. I dont believe they are doing anything wrog.

Still hunt in a part of the property you don't normally hunt. You may find sign elsewhere

I bought a shot gun two years ago with a rifled barrel. The mossberg manual specifically states to not shoot rifled slugs through it. The cheapness in me had me asking questions since I did not like dropping $3 a shot on Sabots. I found a lot of different answers but decided on not risking it and decided to shoot Sabots. I had never asked the question about sabots in a smooth bore though.

It's getting dark at 6:30PM and we all know that it's even darker in the woods as night starts to fall. That kid should have been half way back to his truck with an unloaded firearm at 6:30PM. To each his own but I am usually on my way out of the woods by the time legal shooting ends. It's a shame

i took my oldest out last year when he was 3 for squirrels and he loved it. Today I planned an afternoon hunt in my treestand. (He is 4 now) He and his 3 year old brother were tugging at the heart this morning telling me how much they miss me and wanted to spend the whole day together. I couldn't think of a better way to spend a beautiful fall day with my boys. We headed out for an afternoon hunt in the pop up blind. They lasted about an hour in the blind before getting restless. We packed up and took a walk. I let them glass a large field for 30 minutes before heading home.

Wives they don't come out of the box perfect. You have to set the expectations low so you are guaranteed to succeed.

Earls

Wrong place to post this but i had to mention it. I had a girlfriend a long time ago who could not understand my affinity for the outdoors. We fought over it constantly (among lots of other things). When I met my wife and things started to get serious I sat her down and laid it on the line. I told her "I hunt and I fish, i get up early and sometimes i'm gone all day. A half a day hunting or fishing is relative to the success of the day and by no means does it indicate that I will be home by 12:00PM and it can turn into a full day in an instant. It's something that is ingrained in my soul and without it I am not me. Before we take this any further I need to know we are not going to argue over it" when she said no i knew she was the woman for me.

I wear thin nylon dress socks under some wool socks and I have a pair of boots that have an insulated liner that I have slip before putting the boot on. They keep me really warm. I am usually in a treestand so that works for me. When I am on the ground I use the same system with some foot warmers. I dont usually have any issues maybe after a night of too many bourbans - blood is a little to thin on those days.

When your 3 year old cries his eyes out when you come home without a deer (happened sunday)

I have honestly never even thought about taking beer in the woods with me. When I fish I always have a flask with me and beers usually in the car. Honestly I carry enough crap with me in the woods i dont feel like lugging another few pounds of beer. I dont hunt from a camp i always drive to and from every day so I dont have the "camp" experiernce. I drink enough at night after the hunt to not have to worry about it during the day. I also worry about the saturday opener. I figure guys are getting their drink on Friday night after work and heading out to the stand still drunk in the morning (i know that happens to me at steelhead camp). Just doesnt make sense to mix alcohol and firearms.

Several years ago I decided I needed to put a scope on my handgun. I got the scope sighted in and felt confident in shots out to 70 yards. Opening day of gun season that year I had a big boy following some does behind some brush. There was an opening in the brush that went a good 20 yards and the deer were 35 yards in front of me. I could not get that damn deer in the scope no matter how hard i tried. I just sat there and watched him walk away following three ladies until they were behind the brush again. Only afterwards did i figure out I needed to look at the deer and bring the gun up to eye level. Hard lesson learned.

i have taken deer to two processors both hang deer in coolers and i like and trust both of them. However, i decided last year to process my own deer an unfortunate death in the family caused that to not happen. This year i will be processing my own even if the wife gets ticked off.

you spend your time reading the "live frm the stand" thread while on conference calls

I passed on several small bucks last year and that was a first for me. As i get older my philosophy changes. 10 or 12 years ago I had the biggest buck of life walk to 20 yards of me during archery. He was easily 4.5 and had a perfect heavy 8 point rack. Well i missed that goddamn deer by using the wrong pin. an hour later i shot a 6 point. No way in the world would I do that now. I'd hunt that big boy all season. I learned from my experience. Before cable TV and Internet telling us what a good deer is or is not the deer being talked about on thread was a trophy plain and simple and I would be proud hunter to double lung that guy.

bought one this year also. so far i am happy with it.

Thanks for the quick reply. At leat I know nothing is wrong. !!!!