Buck_shooter

That's impressive. That was some of the toughest terrain I've ever hunted. Congrats to your cousins

I decided to give it a try this weekend and those are some of the steepest hills I've ever climbed. If you manage to tag something in the catskills park you've definitely earned it.

Anybody have any luck for the opening day of the early bear season in the southern zone? Heard a few shots in the catskills

It's a shame that a few bad apples can ruin the whole bunch and that's sort of my viewpoint as far as crossbows go. I'd be willing to bet that is true for many others too. Even though I know it will benefit many deserving individuals it also benefits the slobs and that's a tough pill to swallow. I have to admit that you make some very good points and I do agree with much of what you have to say. I can't say that I'm all for inclusion yet but your comments have swayed me to dislike crossbows a little less.

There are definitely plenty of them out there and there's unfortunately nothing that will change that but inclusion would be giving them a reward for being incompetent. And I don't mean to lump all crossbow hunters into that category because I know that is not the case but I don't think it's right to make it easier for someone who doesn't want to make an attempt to be proficient.

To me, not holding any weight back or drawing is the game changer. For me personally that is the dividing line for what I consider archery. I'll make no arguments as to what the definition of archery is or wether a crossbow meets the dictionary's definition. There are many people that I think should be allowed to use crossbows for physical reasons but there are many more that I see just trying to buy their way into a season that they feel they are entitled to participate in. Full inclusion would help many people who deserve the use of crossbow but also caters to slob hunters who will put forth little to no effort. I don't think that's a good compromise. Unfortunately there's good and bad with all changes. I will just continue to roll with the punches.

I still can't rest my modern bow on a shooting rail and wait for a deer to walk in to range and then just squeeze the trigger to take a shot. But other than that, yeah a crossbow is pretty much exactly a bow. It's so close that I don't even see why anyone would waste the money to buy one if they've already got a decent vertical bow.

There are exceptions to everything but I see most of this as nothing more than entitlement. Kind of like "how can I get the benefits of archery season with the least amount of dedication and work?" I think archery season is something that should be worked for and earned, not just given to everyone who thinks they should be involved. If it's truly not that different from modern archery, why not just shoot a vertical bow? And before I get the arguments about being physically unable, I said there are exceptions and I do believe everyone should have the "opportunity" to enjoy all seasons. But able bodied individuals who chose not to put forth the effort for whatever reason should not be entitled to be involved.

How does the rust away come, is it like a spray on thing or roll on? Something you do yourself or take somewhere to be done? I'll try to look it up some more.

Buying any used truck I'm sure there is going to be some rust somewhere. I was thinking of going to zeiberts no matter what I get and have them use what they're calling "rust eliminator" and then undercoating. Has anyone ever gone through them for this. It's pretty expensive but if it will slow the existing seen and unseen rust down then I'm all for it.

Budget isn't really dead set at the moment. My truck is mostly used as a daily driver and for around town. On average I put less than 10k miles per year on it so I expect the body to rot long before I hit too many miles. Normal wear and tear isn't a huge deal as I do my own work on them, I'm just looking for something that doesn't have major mechanical problems like engine or tranny.

I've gotten a lot of mixed opinions on the warranty. Unfortunately with the price on even used trucks being so high, I'm sure I'll have to finance. In the past I've never been worried about 75k miles. The last few trucks I've had went past the 150 mark strong. Is that wishful thinking for newer trucks?

I'm guessing the warranty is only for trucks bought new?

I'm looking to get a newer truck in the near future and was looking for real world recommendations and experience, not opinions. I'm looking to get a used half ton in the 75k mile range and have a few I'm considering. Top on the list right now are the ram with the 5.7 hemi and the f150 with the 5.0. If you own trucks with either of these engines I'm curious how many miles you've put on them and what maintenance you've had to do.

Thank you, that was a pretty good article. That would be a good one for a lot of people to read.

Please no arguing or debating, just looking for facts. I've been seeing a lot of posts saying that some deer management strategies are intended to increase the age of the deer herd, thereby increasing the health of the herd. I don't really understand that. It seems to me that regardless of age, an area can only support so many deer. So how exactly does age structure figure into over all herd health?

Lol yes I do, that was actually pretty much my goal with this one. Like doc said, we all form our own assumptions and opinions of things based on very little info. While reading a topic earlier I made my own opinions of some of the posters which may very well be wrong. I did see the irony in it so I felt like being a smart*** and making a post.

A guy I've never met makes me laugh! This online master posted about an acquaintance going about a situation differently than himself. He admittedly knows very little about the other person but makes assumptions anyways and then fishes for people to agree with him. Now I personally would never do such a thing as make an assumption about someone I don't know

that looks like it would work even better on snow as long as it didn't dig in or sink if the snow was real deep. I don't think I've ever seen the material, how hard is it to fold or roll up to make more compact?

I would like to make a thread dedicated to hunting in allegany state park. I found a whole thread dedicated to Letchworth state park but can't seem to find much info at all about allegany state park on here. I'd like to see pictures and hear stories about anyone's hunting experience there, no matter how old or new. My fascination with ASP is fairly new. I've always wanted to try some big woods hunting and happened upon an article about ASP being the Adirondacks of Western NY. This past season I decided to hunt there for the first time and saw only a handful of deer but even fewer hunters. It was the largest, most vast piece of land I've ever hunted and I instantly fell in love with the place. Hopefully in the future I can add some stories and pictures from hunts there but for now I want to hear some of your experiences. And they don't have to be just deer hunting stories. Turkey and small game are just as welcome.

This year I'm going to try to put some trail cameras out after season to see what bucks made it through. I've never had great luck getting pictures of bucks in the winter and was wondering what advice anyone may be able to offer. Most of my areas don't have a defined bedding area or feeding area. The spots are thick with tree tops and brush piles and loaded with mast trees that produced unbelievable amounts of nuts this year. Food and cover are everywhere so it's almost impossible to pinpoint where they're going to be at any time. Is there any way to legally attract them to a camera location? I get huge bucks on camera in the fall on scrapes so I know they're around but outside of breeding season they become ghosts.

Theres no real pattern to them as far as a line or boundary of any sort. It seems like they are marking individual points for some reason. I was thinking maybe they were going to be future oil well locations or something but I could be way off.

It is on surveyors tape but it's not along any property line or anything. It's in the middle of a parcel that they own. Doesn't seem to be any pattern to the marking just seems to be makred in random places. I was thinking maybe they decided to get the property drilled too since it's already been logged?

I found a bunch of pink ribbons all over on a property I hunt that's owned by a timber company. There is no particular order to the markings other than they seem to surround a valley that has already been logged a few years back and is loaded with tree tops. A few of the ribbons had some writing but I have no idea what it actually means. Thought maybe someone on here might have some idea about what's going in.

I have a habit of making note of any and all buck related info for the areas I hunt. Unfortunately I have a ton of info but have no idea how to make sense of it and learn from it. I've recorded all trail cam photos during hunting seasons for the past several years with as much info as I can about weather conditions and solunar data. I also make little notes of all bucks I know are killed in areas I hunt with as much info as I can get about them. Does anyone else do this and how do you put all of the info into some sort of order that makes sense. I'd like to use it to learn how deer use the areas that I hunt under different conditions but all I have is a bunch of cluttered data. Help please!