Qthehunter

If he didn't have the spike and the other side matched I would let him go. Great potential. But because he has one side that is not up to par I would definitely harvest him and get him out of the gene pool. Just my opinion.

I purchased a 2011 Elite Pure last year. Prior to my purchase I owned a PSE. When I went to the bow shop I knew I was interested in testing out the Elite bows. I shot the Hoyt Vector, Matrix, Element, Elite Pure, Elite Judge, Bear Carnage and another PSE bow which I can't remember which. I left the shop with the Pure. You need to test bows side by side when making a new purchase. The biggest selling point for me was the draw. Very, very smooth. All of the bows tested were great, but to me the Elite stood out.

If your going to tune your bow I would suggest it is tuned with all of your modifications on the bow and not stripped off.

1 Buck - Rifle 1 Doe - Rifle 2 Doe - Bow All 4Y

Myself, father and brother-in-law applied for 4Y. Needless to say none of us got one

I normally do not get to go out late season. It's now or never. I tried to burn my buck tag on a doe this past weekend with no success. You see does all day long, but when you go out to harvest one, for some reason they do not show up

I'd say 9 out of 10 are going to shoot a buck, big or small. Hard horn get's people crazy. I just don't understand where the DEC gets their survey and information from. If they are basing it off of how many people "call" in their harvest then I imagine their count way off. Let's talk about how many people DON'T call their deer in. On a side note, 2 weeks into gun season last year I had some family push a 10 acre piece of woods while I stood in a stand on the other side of a field. Needless to say, I counted 40, yes 40 does and there was only 1 buck in the group. Yes, there could of been buttons or very small bucks in the batch, but come on. There is no reason why I should be seeing a group like that with no bucks running in it. Half of the reason why I do not bother rattling or using a grunt tube anymore. Why does a buck want to follow my call? He's probably sitting next to 10-12 does already. Why fight?

Over the years I've found myself more and more frustrated with the NYCDEC and their system. Where I hunt in 4Y there are loads of does. If I had to estimate I would say there are at least 10 does to 1 buck in my area. This year I applied for a doe tag and did not draw one. My father, my co worker, and my brother-in-law all applied and did not get a DMP tag either. My family makes an honest attempt at letting the small bucks "get bigger" and often cull bucks we think are inferior. I'm at the point where I love venison and do not want to use a buck tag and harvest a buck just because I have nothing else to use. My thoughts are to make the reg. season tag an either sex, similar to the bow/mz season tag. And yes, I am an avid bow hunter and also have a muzzle loader tag. I've exhausted all of the options and have given the DEC all of my money but still seem to be light on the tags. What are they thinking? Are they not seeing what I am seeing? The does are so overrun here and yet DMP tags are hard to come by? Any thoughts?

Right around the block =) Good Luck this year.

Deerthug, where in Germantown? I have family that lives on Mill Road.

Teazer, sorry for the delay. I completely forgot I responded to this thread. I hunt Germantown / Livingston area. County Rt. 31. What about you?

Teazer, I hunt in 4Y. I use Milafi in Milan, NY. He is off of route 199, Milan Hill Road. He is expensive, but his product is top notch. Vacuum saves everything too. Check him out. I will always pay the extra money for good, clean product. Sausage is to die for. Cheers.

I hunt in 4Y. There seems to be more and more deer every year. There are tons of doe in the area. There definitely needs to be some severe harvesting of does as the buck to doe ratio is insane. I was fortunate enough to harvest an eight point, while my uncle snagged a broken up ten and a doe. Still seeing plenty of doe an a few smaller bucks on the trail camera. Overall, a good season and an even better bow season. TONS of bucks.

My Uncle bagged this beautiful buck this morning. Saw him last night doggin' four does in a field. Two broken points, would have been a ten. Sorry for the quality, this was taken with a phone.

Practice, Patients, and Persistence. There are many times it comes down to being at the right place and the right time. As a hunter, you need to be patient, and persistent. There are a lot of factors when hunting that you simply cannot control. Weather, hunting pressure etc. You also need to know the area you are hunting. You mention using calls and multiple scents. I shy away from this. Calls especially since where I hunt the buck to doe ratio is more like 1:10. Why would bucks be fighting over 1 doe when there are 9 others waiting close by. If you are doing all the right things, ie: getting to your stand quiet, taking into account the wind, masking your scent, things will fall into place. It is not easy, but you must be patient and persistent. Sometimes you need some luck. I would not say skill so much as experience. I am ten times a better hunter than when I started. You learn how the deer react, what you can and can't do, how to be quiet, shots to take and not to take.

Just a couple of pics of the buck I harvested on Thanksgiving Evening. I hunt in 4Y. Good Luck All.

After hunting hard for a week, I was fortunate enough to harvest this eight pointer on Thanksgiving evening. He was a young deer, nice big body on him. Missed a big eight pointer during bow. Was hoping he showed up, but started seeing him on my trail camera at 1:00 AM. He got smart real fast. I've seen a lot of bucks this year. Most were small guys, ton of spikes, few fours and a small six. This deer was too nice to pass up. I hunt in 4Y.