Bolt action

As everyone else had said, wind is key. With that said, I keep my clothes tote full of natural scent, whether it's corn, acorns, pine branches, etc that they're already used to.

Headed home now. Only deer I saw all morning was a 6pt along the parkway around 5 while driving in. My buddy and I sat in 2 stands with the wind in our favor at locations with good camera activity. Temps were around 45 but felt like 0 with the 20mph winds.

Headed out for the first sit of the season. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I hope this cold front has them on their feet.

First and last shot before going out tomorrow morning. 25yds.

Would love to get up there for a hunt. I'm up in Speculator / Lake Pleasant / Wells area a few times every summer. Beautiful area but never had a chance to hunt it.

I thought he was over the line in Wayne.. Either way a great guy running a good business. He's built a solid reputation around here and for good reason.

When I take mine to a processor, he charges $75 or $80/deer and that gets you all the cuts plus some ground in butcher wrap and frozen. He's a 3rd generation butcher and has a commercial setup in his garage. He told me once that they process between 300 and 400 every year. Whether I use him or break it down myself, I then take some over to a sausage guy in Wayne county. He has probably 35 or 40 options that you can choose from. fresh or smoked sausages, pepperoni, slim jims, summer sausage, breakfast sausage, etc. his prices vary by product. He isn't cheap, but worth every penny. I usually spend $300ish on him every year. I've seen guys walk out with orders that were $1,000+. https://www.costanzasausage.com/venison.htm

The one that sticks out for me was on a goose hunt a few years back. I was sitting in cattails on the edge of a pond. A flock of geese took off and flew toward me. As they were approaching I lined one up and took the shot. One of them folded up and sailed right toward me. Literally hit the ground about 2 feet from my seat. That was fortunate for me because I realized after the fact that I didn't have a way to get it out of the water if it fell in the pond.

Stuck in gridlock traffic on the way to the office. Anyone in the woods this morning?

You know they can prescribe stuff for that..

Buddy of mine connected on a doe today. Birdsall. 8x I think. First deer with a bow. 20yd shot. He said it took a half a step after the shot and feel over. Magnus stinger broadheads.

Man that's exciting footage. I didn't know we had elk in NY until I saw that one charge in at the end of the video..

No waterfowl hunting in designated waterfowl refuges on Long Pond and Rose Marsh (posted with yellow and green signs). Game over for that spot.

From what I can tell the signs are legit. The people living in the apartments nearby must have raised a stink with management who in turn called the DEC and pitched a fit. For the DEC, the easiest solution was likely to mark the area as a sanctuary. I'd love to find a boat launch so I could setup right in front of the apartments, but that's more effort than I want to put into it just to spite someone. That area across the street is good. Not as good, but still good. I'm going to treat this like my marriage and pick my battles. Pushing my luck and being spiteful rarely work out in the long run.

A few years back I was goose hunting an area of the Braddock Bay WMA. This section is at the South end of Long Pond. The NYS Parkway runs East/West and there is a section of overgrown field and trees between the Parkway and the water’s edge with and apartment complex on the Eastern shore just off to my right. There is a DEC billboard at the front of the trail head from the parking lot down to the water. It clearly states that this is a mixed use area and that hiking, fishing, hunting, trapping are permitted. I’ve hunted there for years without incident. I just try to be very mindful not to shoot toward the Parkway, and to give some distance to the apartments. So I was out there last winter for the late goose season. A few honkers flew over and my buddy and I took a few shots. As soon as we did we could hear someone back in the Apartments shout as if we startled him. 30 minutes later the DEC shows up and asks for our licenses. He asked us who gave us permission to be there. I explained that, according to the DEC sign at the trail head, this was public property and that I didn’t know I needed permission to hunt public property. He said it was private and kicked us out. I then asked about the parcel across the street (~450 acres of the same WMU). He said he didn’t know what I was talking about and that all he knew was that I couldn’t hunt where we were. Not being one to challenge law enforcement we left. Later that same day I called the DEC regional office in Avon and spoke with someone in management. The guy I spoke with knew the area well and said that we were absolutely within our rights and should not have been kicked out. He said I was free to continue to hunt there and if there were any more problems, I could reference or call him. I went back over the summer to look around and now there are signs up saying that it’s a waterfowl sanctuary, and that hunting is prohibited. You win some you lose some…

I'm stalking the forecast from my office. Looks like a cold front is moving through for Friday morning. Could be a 20 degree drop in temps! I'll be out for my first sit of the year. Would love to pop my bow cherry on an old doe. Congrats to everyone's who connected yesterday and good luck to everyone out today!

First groups this year on a new to me bow that I just tuned.. first group at 15, second group at 25. It feels real good to have some consistency.

Nice job zeek! I'm at the office living through you guys in the woods. Hope to get out this weekend for my first sit of the year.

Thank you for clarifying. My initial thought was that they gave me the wrong tag. You just saved me a trip back to the store.

Oh ok. So with those, assuming the deer cooperate, I could get one buck and one doe OR two doe.. but I could not harvest two bucks.. good to know. This is my first year where I have both the bow and the xbow..

I was going to start a new thread for a question I have but now I'll just piggy back on this one. Last month I got my licenses: big game, small game, fishing, doe tags, and crossbow/mz. The big game allows for a buck tag, and the mz is either antlered or antlerless. Then just the other day I picked up my bow permit. When I got it though I was surprised that it looks identical to the mz tag, except that it's antlerless only. Is that right? It would seem that I can't take a buck with my bow?

He looks like a real brute. Hope you connect!

Congrats Moog!

Seeing the chatter picking up on this thread is getting me excited. Good luck to anyone who is fortunate enough to be out today. Shoot straight and be safe! I pulled cam cards yesterday. Seeing more daytime movement. Also have rubs starting to appear.

I enjoy going to shows like this. It's not often I get to connect with so many people about outdoor topics. Whether it's phesant hunting, wildlife biologists, muzzleloaders, or anything else.. I enjoy the time, advice, conversation and demonstrations that I get. I keep my ears and eyes in for information about these and can honestly say I had no idea this was taking place.. It's too bad. I would've brought my son.