2016 HuntingNY Gun Harvest thread

[bushnell]

A little late but I got this guy on Monday afternoon. Had 3 doe run by me about an hour earlier and I was a little upset. I want seeing much at all the first 3 days and was running out of time. Well an hour after the 3 doe ran by me, this guy decided to walk out at about 149 yards. I took my time and fired a round. He took off and I couldn't get another shot. I walk up to see that I had him hit and got on his tracks. Then my dad came as I started to track and he went ahead Incase I jumped him up. Needless to say thank goodness we had snow other wise it would have been a long night of tracking on my hand and knees. He ran about 250 yards and was piled up. 

[Moho81]

I finally got my phone to cooperate with posting pictures. Here is my friends and mine opening day success. We both took does in the morning about 30 min apart then he took the nice 7 point around 3pm. It was a memorable day.

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[DVRBowHunter]

I was able to kill my first buck on Tuesday morning. I had a 4 pointer following a doe at 8:00am decided to let them go and around 8:30am a decent 8 pointer pops out from some brush 40 yards out. I get him in my crosshairs and let it rip, he ran about 50 yards and dropped. Super excited






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[stoneam2006]

Well forgot to put in here so here it goes.

Thanksgiving day I had my 13 yr old cuz with me as me dad uncle and 2 cuz went out on stateland. I'm not much of a sitter durring gun as I spend plenty of seat time durring archery. Well about 10 or so we were going to still hunt thru a spot I know they bed down in. After about 3 steps into the thicket 2 doe jumped up and worked their way away from us. Not having a clear shot and wanting them to go uphill instead of down we backed out and went to the edge of bench. I looked down and saw them working thru some down logs. I leaned on tree and put x hairs on the opening. When 2nd doe stepped in I let it fly. 50 cal cva wolf konus scope put the shot thru the heart at a Lil over 200. As I was trying to reload the cuz said he only seen on and I had missed lol...I told him it was bc the other was dead. We walked down and it was a murder scene blood red path for her 20 yard dash. We marked our spot with a broken branch and walked down to find her. Got to walk him thru gutting. His first start to finish hunt. Pretty cool...only about 75lbs but she will eat excellent.

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[Shadd Rapp]

My dad and I went out to my buddy's farm in Cicero 7F this morning. I put him in the pines where I have been seeing deer all season. I sit on the edge of a hay field which is about 400 yards wide. About 8:20 I see 5 does come out of the hedgerow and enter the hay field about 300 yards from me. I watched them go into a small patch of woods behind the barn. About 9:00 I texted dad and set up a plan. I put him in the field where I thought the deer would come out when I pushed the woods to him.
I walked around to the other side and walked into the woods about 20 yards when he shoots! When I get to the field he has a doe down! Finally after 6 years of being skunked he put one in the ground! To top it off this was his last day to hunt this year because he is leaving for Hawaii on Saturday for 2 weeks. He has put in a lot of hours out in the woods with me and I'm just glad he finally got one.


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[wooly]

Decided to piss everyone off and kill a doe fawn this morning.

Actually had another big doe in my sights at 30yds but caught a deflection off a sapling in front of her. The ML bullet accidently found it's way into the fawn behind her off to the right.

Seems everything is going right for me this year even when things go wrong,lol

More meat!

 

[DanD]

11/23 @ 10am in 8G. Shot him as he rose out of his bed when we were starting a drive.

[OtiscoPaul]

It has been a really crazy season but Sunday (11/27) I was about to pull into the public lot at noon to move a stand when 2 does nearly jumped out in front of my truck...

I knew where they were going so I parked, grabbed my gun and jacket and cut them off all in less than 30 seconds.

I was braced and ready when they walked right into me I shot at 5 yards brosdside 3 shots and then the same for her partner (another doe) in the same spots.  They run off I run up on a downed one I thought was dead but she pops up...tracked all day in snow...lost them both:

I went back Monday morning and followed crows to some gut piles but no new leads.

Went out again mid morning Tuesday (11/29) and followed crows across the property with a rechecked gun/choke tube.  

As I was heading back toward the truck I ducked into some pines to check out a new stand location.  

At 11:45 I picked out legs at 80-90...I closed the distance thru the pines, braced for a 40 yd slightly away shot.

Leading up to the shot she was behaving normally and showed no signs of prior injury until I skinned her which revealed she was one of Sunday's lost does.

Sunday I shot her point blank on both shoulders and an abdomen (should have been liver) shot, none penetrated more than a half inch!

This was Tuesday's single 40 yard shot with a cleaned barrel reset choke tube:

Meat in the freezer and a loss redeemed/recovered.  

This is the 2nd time in 4 seasons I harvested a deer I had wounded with bad gun/ammo a few days prior.

Im grateful (as is my wife and kids) for the monkey off my back.

 

Edited December 3, 2016 by paulskodabow

[Rockspek]

 

First appointment with this buck I was snort wheezed at.

Second appointment I had a doe and fawn under my stand on my way to it and had to wait till they left.  I felt regret that I should have taken the doe for the meat.  I was 5 minutes into the hunt and would have been home early.  Saw nothing else that day.

However this afternoons appointment he showed up on time, actually a little earlier than I thought.  As I walked to the stand I smelled him.  I knew he was there somewhere.  I even asked live from the woods what to do.  grunt bleat etc.  I grunted three times then bleated once.  Nothing.  A little while later a doe ran along the road to the right of my stand.  I'm in a small hunting area surrounded by farm fields a few houses and roads.  A small buck followed.  I'm not shooting at the road but they went into the thick where the buck smell was coming from.  

Hour later about 12 doe and fawns came out and the doe were grazing and the fawns were goofing off.  At one point a fawn chased another fawn right at me but a little down wind.  The fawn sniffed me out and alerted others and half of them left.  I decided to take my farthest shot yet at the largest doe left.  Probably a little less than 100 yards.  She's in the sight.  Safety off.  Finger to the trigger and SNAP.  I heard a twig under my stand snap.  I look down to the left and through the mesh of my seat I see this buck.  I take my finger off the trigger.  Swing the gun towards him smoothly and let him walk 5 then 10 yards and all I have is the texas heart shot but I'm not going there.  He turns right to the remaining doe who surprisingly didn't see me move to him and finger on the trigger , shoot.  He ran in the direction he was headed and tripped, flipped and ended up facing me.  My light field found it's way through a lung, his heart and the other lung.

Happy to be able to share this with you all and overwhelmed by all the likes and kind congrats.  

dressed

Edited December 3, 2016 by Rockspek
dressed weight

[WNY Bowhunter]

My wife dropped the hammer on a fat doe tonight at 217 yds. No tracking needed...

[growalot]

I went to the end of the upper lane-way next to a small WR plot and not too far from the corner stand I had the two young bucks sniff my ladder rungs... Before light I did some rattling and doe bleats...Because of the snow I could make out close objects  and hadn't spooked anything on the way in. I was hoping the sound ,with the wind would carry up to the sanctuary and out to the green farmer fields at 7am, opening here was at 7:23 I did another series...A bit later I see movement between me and the green field 180 yrds away I looked like a small doe and she was limping very badly...I checked my watch and it was 7:25...I couldn't see the wound but the front limping had her bobbing up and down quite profoundly. She was on my trail to the gully stand which was taking her farther away...I pulled up not having time to range and guessed with the snow on the ground her to be 100-110 yrds out....I aimed a bit high when she stopped giving me just her front shoulder...Well I'll be using the range finder more, for she was 78 yards when she dropped hard and swung around at the shot limping up the way she came. I lost her in a group of trees and waited and waited for her to come out the other side...just as I was lowering my gun thinking she went straight away behind those trees to the pines..she popped out.   She hit the trail  straight to me and I readied my aim against the tree...The trail was straight away and  when she was to get to the intersecting trail 20 yrds out it would be a continuance to me or a sharp turn to my right or left...One giving me a shot the other not....She stopped 36 yrds out and had the slightest turn to the rt...I had my bead in the crease along her neck to the shoulder ..Knowing at this angle I had a good chance on the nerve bundle and or heart...She dropped like a rock right on the trail. I was a bit surprised when I got to her..I was expecting some huge wound ,from that limp she had..It turns out it was an ankle cut..I think from a broad head and it was slightly swollen and a bit infected...but not bad.....I'm still glad I dropped her..Not what I would have taken I really wanted one of those big doe...but she won't have coyotes get her and the meat will be great....

[BizCT]

My Dad's 6 pointer shot on 12/3 at 915am from approx 70yds. Killed in 3N. Full story in my journal.


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[doebuck1234]

12/3 around 820am 6pt.

About 720 i could hear some crashing 150ish yards out running along creek bed figuring the neighbor spooked a couple on his way in.saw 2 deer coming down along creek.gave em a grunt.stopped n looked my way then kept it moving.around 810 i looked off to my right in the direction they had went and saw movement.5 deer.all horns.never seen that before in the time ive hunted.2 spikes a broken off 2pter a 4pt and this six.he was last in the line.steadied my gun on rail of 2seater ladder stand waiting for him to walk by at 80yrds.took a deep breathe and squeezed it off.hit high and back in spine.dropped right where he was.made a follow up shot through lungs and exited chest.got down and called my old man which used to hunt and asked him if he was going to help me drag my deer.he said he!! Ya ill be there soon

[ATbuckhunter]

Got to my spot at 6:40 and found 2 doe and 2 fawn in front of the land owners house and then the waiting game to 7:06 started. At 7 I moved behind the landowners house to intercept where they like to move after eating on his lawn. One actually ended up busting me when I was checking the time and caused the deer to run into the the next guys lawn and started making there way to the woods. Right at the edge of the woods, they stoped and turned back. I went down on one knee and took the shot. About 5 min after I shot, a guy drove up accusing me of illegally hunting deer and called the state troopers on me. I spoke to the guy and told him he didn't have to go that far but since they were on they're way thank you for wasting my time. He was a nice guy that new zero about hunting laws and lived half a mile away from the property. State trooper came and told me I was free to go hunting after he took my info down and told the guy that I had every right to do what I did. His main complaint was the rifle was loud...how loud could it be from half a mile away when the people inside of the house i shot next to couldn't hear it. He then went on to accuse the land owner of illegally deer hunting and shooting all the time (the guy hasn't touched off a shot in 2 years). Either way it was a good day for me. Excuse the bad hair, it was early and I didn't feel like fixing it just to hunt. 110 yard shot off hand. Probably among the best shots I've ever taken.



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[Five Seasons]

It's been a particularly trying year for me. I passed on a number of small bucks and doe during early bow, and then when I was ready to shoot a doe the last 1.5 weeks no shots were presented, only a small 5. I saw some of the biggest bucks of my life during bow, but never had lady luck on my side and they always seemed to veer off the run or turn for no reason.

I had some doe present shots during opening day but decided to wait for horns, fast forward till this past Friday and all the deer had disappeared. literally was voided from several different stand for about 6 or 7 sits. Unheard of on my land.

Friday night thankfully I had this large doe cross the creek and gave me an 80 yard broadside shot. This was my first chance to use my new ruger American 30-06 with a vx-3 mounted and hornady superformance 165's. I'm blown away at the devastation. Having only gun hunted with bp and shotgun I'm very thankful we can now rifle hunt in 8F.

She's the biggest doe I've ever harvested at 124lbs dressed. Need at least one more for the freezer, but happy it's not empty and proud I restrained myself on the yearling bucks.

camera tip. standing IN FRONT of your harvest makes it look a lot smaller lol

 

 

[turkeyfeathers]

So yesterday I was nearing the 100 hour mark of gun season. Since filling a dmp on opening day I wasn't seeing anything but little ones. Normal wind is NW which allows me to see a large field of view from my stand. Yesterday was a SE which gave me only a small window on my right and small window to see on my left. Behind is pretty much a no go to see anything as it's so thick. Gorgeous morning for sure just the wrong wind. Heard my turkey friends talking like crazy early. As I just text a friend " gorgeous day but can't shoot what I don't see" I see legs thru a small stand of white pines. Then horn. Heart starts racing. I hit the grunt lightly as I was trying to draw him out. Only a few tiny windows to shoot thru if in fact he crossed those windows. He entered the next tiny window but all I had was head , neck and part of front shoulder. Need him to take half a step . A full step and I won't have a shot. Now I'm trying to use another small diameter tree as a shooting rest. However it's swaying in the wind so that's a no go. My heart was racing Trying to slow down heart rate and breathing I still had the Bushnell 3x9 elite atop my Winchester ML on him. He started to make a scrape or at least pawing at the leaves and pine needles. He took a very small step. Let a shockwave go his way. Smoke clears and I see him bound off. Never can see deers reaction to hit with all that smoke. I stuffed another round down the barrel and preceded to climb down Backpack still hanging in tree. 40 yards from where I hit him I see a big brown clump in the thick stuff. He rears head and boogies. No shot opportunity. Very little blood in the bed which at the time alarmed me but bedding so quickly I thought was a good sign While tracking thru the sporadic snow I picked up better blood now on both sides of his tracks. I look up and see a deer 200 yards ahead of me bound off over a ridge. Not knowing if it's him or not I head that way thinking I can always come back to the blood. Yup it's him and he's throwing a great trail. About another 350 yards I see him in a field I slowly approach and he's facing the other way. When I was about 25 yards he reared his head and I put a .44 thru his neck and laid him to rest. Stood over him for awhile to enjoy the moment. Now I have to walk 1000 yards back to stand for backpack and then preceded to car to shed some layers and ML. Looking at the entrance and exit I missed by an inch or so of him piling up on the spot. Took out one lung and he went forever. Only quartering a tiny bit towards me I hit where I wanted to. After returning back lightly clothed now I field dressed him and began the journey back. It took me awhile but my "venison burrito" helped with the process. This thing is great. So much less friction If you look in pics you can see he's been battling as a small scar and cyst near his eye. Not my biggest buck and many smaller than him taken but very proud of him. First pic is car at road. Second pic is where I finally got him. Forgot to eat anything and bed called my name at 9. With a bunch of snow coming tomorrow that may have been my last hurrah for gun season Only off Thursday and then next day is opening day of ML Hoping for at least 1 more for the freezer. And saw my big flock of turkeys on the way out soon followed by a bald eagle .


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Edited December 7, 2016 by turkeyfeathers

[silent death]

Doe down ...man they wer moving this morning good. Had pesky squirrels running around and then i heard a branch break i turn around and theres 5 doe standing behind me. I pick out the biggest one and she dropped right there

[Gencountyzeek]

This is the buck I've wanted since I got pics of him in august. After that he disappeared until I hot a night time pic of him in late November. Got up this morning and decided I wanted to slowly walk back to the woods bordering my corn field. I wasn't going to stay long have to get the kids fed and dressed by 8 for when the bus comes. So I'm walking back through my backyard, suns up already. I'm 120 yards behind the house and online with my "shootin shack" I have on the edge of the corn field. I look out and see a deer a couple hundred yards out. First time seeing a deer in the field during daylight in over a month. I decided to seek into the shack. It's like walking on glass. I get in the shack, turn the leupold up to 9x. He's staring at me. He turns and starts walking away. I'm to nervous/excited  and don't even think about yardage. I know to the back of my field it's 323 yards from the shack. I assume we're he is the bullet will drop some. He turns to slightly quartering away. I settle the cross hairs on the base of the neck were it meet the shoulder. If the bullet drops it will hit shoulder... BOOM!  No deer... I go walking out into the field  and there he is, dead were he was standing. Bullet didn't drop, entered base of the neck and exited behind the jaw. He was btween 220 and 235 yards.Luckily no major damage for the mount. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

Connected on a doe this AM, 12 yard bomb with the 11-87. It was a perfect morning I could hear them coming for five minutes. celebratory beer for later


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[Fletch]

Out in the tower blind out back for evening watch. Snow was coming down pretty good. I was alone tonight my son had a soccer game. At about 4:00 I peek out the back window and catch movement and see one cutting across about 50 yards out. I grab the TC Triumph and get the scope on it and it looks pretty small. I then see another coming and that one is a bit bigger but not real big. I torn because I have passed deer all season outa this stand hoping my 14 yr old will get a crack. But she stopped and posed perfect and I had visions of my pretty empty freezer and . She went 2 yards straight down. She will be a good eating little doe.



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[vizslas]

we had a banner day. nothing in the first sit we got them up and moving between three of us we managed to drag out four today. they made us work for it.

[Lawdwaz]

This past weekend dad and I had some success.....Saturday night I shot a doe around 4:00  I figured I'd leave her be as she was down in sight and I'd wait on a buck.  Well a snow squall came in and it snowed just about as hard as I seen in my life!  At legal quitting time I readied my gear and lowered my gun down from the climber.  There, just 30 yards away ran a buck.  Not sure how big but probably no anything I would have shot anyway.  Somehow he ghosted in in the mini blizzard.  She isn't a huge doe but surely an adult that will eat good.

Dad's story sure is interesting!  On Sunday morning I texted dad and told him I'd stay in my climber until 10am.  He got a late start as usual, no flies on a 9am start for him.  Why rush it?  He went to a enclosed stand we call the "condo".........4x8 IIRC with sliding windows and all the comforts of a Texas Blind.  I called him around 10:15 and got no answer.  I got back to the barn and figured I'd run a wheeler up to him and give him a lift back as I needed to retrieve a camera card near him anyway.  Well I get to him and he has that "look" on his face. 

He quietly mouths the words "I shot a big buck 15 minutes ago!" but aren't sure if he's dead or not.  I didn't have a gun or binos and that shouldn't have been a problem but darn near was.....

As we crept closer to where he thought the buck was at the shot I looked in this big blow down and thought I saw brown.  I grabbed dad's arm and stopped him.  He had binos and I said take a look at that.  Well he was nervous and didn't really know what I was pointing at and I just wasn't sure either.  It was a brown area among all the gray/brown downed tree limbs and trunks from when the woods were logged a few years ago.  I said oh well, lets go on....two steps later the brown spot disappears from sight.  Dad was all bundled up and wearing his heavy boots etc (and he's 77 years old TODAY!!) so I said "gimme your gun"! He handed it to me and I sprinted (yea right) around the blow down, expecting to see the buck hauling azz down the steepest part of the woods and into a gully but nope, he laid down right where he had been standing the whole time, shot in the guts.  I leveled the gun and flipped off the safety, put the crosshairs on the shoulder and pulled the trigger.  CLICK!  I cycled the bolt and clicked again, WTH?  Earlier, when I first talked with him I had asked dad if he re-loaded after coming out of the condo and he said yes.  I quickly opened the bolt again and this time I could see that the magazine was charged but the bolt was just riding over the next in line cartridge.  I thumbed the cartridge forward a bit, closed the bolt then killed the beast witha .308 to the shoulder. 

When he was sitting there on his haunches, fully alert he had two, YES TWO horns on his head.  When he died, both horns were laying in the snow, SHED!!  Right then and there he decides to thumb his nose at us and shed his head gear.  We couldn't believe it........

I have lots of trail cam video of that buck from the summer and my friend who owns the land had seen him numerous times all Fall.  He almost made it through the season but then he bumbled into dad. 

Here is dad and his buck, holding the antlers on while resting them on the buck's head, right after the kill:

Then back at the barn with just the horns:

Hanging next to mine (certainly not a Ansel Adams worthy picture) in the barn:

And a picture of the top of his head:

Pretty good ending to the rifle season for us.  I know dad was happy!

[PooperScooper]

I took my time getting out on Sunday morning and headed across the road to the taj mahal of tree stands behind the nieghbor's house. They haven't been around much this fall and the deer seemed to be congregating close to the house because of it. I was offered permission to hunt there, but I wasn't too optimistic. All the tracks were very close to the house, and the back field where the stand is located looked untouched. Still, the stand is in a textbook location, so worth a sit. I sneak up to the stand and step on the ladder which settles with a loud bang. I froze for a minute, then continued the climb, looking over the brush at the field as I did. About 150 yards out is a nice buck nibbling on the young trees. He was facing the stand. I didn't feel I could get all the way up without him noticing me. I slowly climbed back down and looked for a way to work my way toward him. No way. Too brushy and he kept hearing me. So I climbed the ladder, slowly, with a loaded gun. There was no way to turn around to shoot from the ladder, so I belly crawled onto the platform. The front rail is brushed in really well with pine branches. I could see him through a small hole. He'd started moving away. I grabbed the bleat can from my pocket and made a pathetically small bleat with a snow covered glove. He stopped and turned toward me. Then meandered around chewing on tree tops. I tried and tried to stand up. But every time I did he'd look in my direction when the snow on the platform would squeak loudly. Then I noticed another buck looking directly at me from about 40 yards straight in front of the stand. I froze. I had to find a way to stick the muzzle of the gun through the pine branches to shoot. I was sure this was my last shot at filling the freezer for the year. As soon as he started to walk I pulled the hammer back half way. "Click," he heard it, stopped, took one more step, "click," all the way back. I glance over at the other, larger buck. He has decided to come take issue with the little guy. The smaller buck walks right past the stand. I let him go and began trying to get the muzzle of the gun through the branches. I found a good spot but the front sight was full of snow. Shit! He's still coming, I'm going to miss my chance. Quickly I snap off a twig and use it to clear the sight. Crap, rear sight is now covered with snow. I brush that off. I'm ready. Now he's moved so far that I need a new hole. I shove the muzzle through the branches, remember the safety, switch it off, say a short prayer, and boom. I was stunned. And so very grateful. 45-50 yard shot with open sights. He dropped in his tracks. Not a monster, but my biggest buck to date. I couldn't have imagined a better ending to a season where virtually everything went wrong. Hallelujah!