2019 UHRV Field to Fork Program

[dbHunterNY]

You may have already started to following the Field to Fork program here in eastern NY under another thread https://huntingny.com/forums/topic/51742-2019-field-to-fork-program/

"Field to Fork is a food-focused hunter recruitment program for adults from non-hunting backgrounds..." taken from https://www.qdma.com/recruit/field-to-fork/
The Upper Hudson River Valley branch of the Quality Deer Management Association that covers NY counties of Warren, Washington, Rensselaer, and Saratoga.  However, to ensure we retained enough participants and expand are range of mentors and mentee participants, we reached out to the Backcountry Hunter and Anglers group, DEC hunt ed group, and our neighboring Capital Region of NY QDMA branch.  We put the word out, setup at local farmers markets, and through word of mouth we acquiring new potential hunters moving forward with the program. More on a waiting list and will likely participate next year. Participants put down a small refundable deposit to reserve the limited number of spots when starting out.

 

 

[dbHunterNY]

on October 2nd we held the first meet and greet along with classroom time with videos and discussion. The event was held at the 4-H training center and shooting sports facility in Saratoga, whom the Upper Hudson River Valley QDMA branch sponsors.  we started with informal meet and greet including a good spread of food. the group enjoyed tacos as we consumed about 5 lbs of venison taco meat. videos and discussion covered history of the north american whitetail deer population, giving an intro to the field to fork program, conservation model and related laws that were put in place to support it, and very briefly touched on whitetail biology. next class and discussion takes place on October 16th.  We had 10 new hunters for the roster moving forward for this season. We had one female in the group, as well as people of various ethnicities and walks of life. All seem very engaged.

 

[dbHunterNY]

We had our 2nd whitetail and conservation 101 class on October 16th. It was again at the 4H training center in ballston spa, ny. Venison tacos were the first night and last night was pulled venison sliders, snack sticks, and jerky. Other sides to go with the venison too. We covered a whitetails senses, habits, and briefly strategy on how to hunt them. Including resources for doing so. Each new hunter got a free 1 yr premium subscription On-X Hunt maps. Sunday will be hunter ed, range day with 22lr rifles, and purchasing their licenses for them. Also they'll get some goodies to use on their hunt as well.

[Rebel Darling]

I'm outta likes, but I LOVE this.  Were you in attendance?  I had hoped to be able to volunteer (through BHA), but the schedule didn't work out for me.

[dbHunterNY]

Our group's 2019 Mentees. We lost a couple for this year due to personal life events and long distance just couldn't work. One will be returning next year assuming their family member recovers health wise. We're at 9 mentees.

 

[dbHunterNY]

1 minute ago, Rebel Darling said:

I'm outta likes, but I LOVE this.  Were you in attendance?  I had hoped to be able to volunteer (through BHA), but the schedule didn't work out for me.

getting stuff pulled over to the new thread so I'm not hijacking the other branch's and causing any confusion. BHA guys i've met are great. Glad to have them onboard. We'll be doing this each year so I'm sure if your schedule changes you'll get the opportunity. I have been in attendance and I'm a mentor. I'm photo taker for many of the photos posted so far.

[Rebel Darling]

22 minutes ago, dbHunterNY said:

getting stuff pulled over to the new thread so I'm not hijacking the other branch's and causing any confusion. BHA guys i've met are great. Glad to have them onboard. We'll be doing this each year so I'm sure if your schedule changes you'll get the opportunity. I have been in attendance and I'm a mentor. I'm photo taker for many of the photos posted so far.

Thanks very much for volunteering your time!  As an adult onset fella, I know that I would have benefited from a program like this!  Very glad it's up and running, and I hope to be able to contribute next year...

[dbHunterNY]

on October 20th we had them take their mandatory hunter safety field day/test. They got some rimfire range time in with one on one shooting instruction. Took them out to look at some deer sign and do blood trailing. They also learned hands on in the field treestand and firearms safety. (I'm getting a harass on to cover climber and other non-conventional treestand use)

 

[dbHunterNY]

Aside from an On-X Map subscription we gave them some swag and stuff to help them on their hunt.

[dbHunterNY]

On November 3rd a mentor and fellow UHRV board member hosted a range day where mentees got a chance to shoot some deer worthy rifle calibers and in many cases the rifles they'd be using on their hunts. only a couple had past firearms experience and owned a rifle to use. we had paper "shoot-n-C" targets set at 50, 100, and 150 yards. we also had a deer vital size steel gong at 200 yards. best of all we had a DYI proficiency deer setup. it's a plywood life size deer cutout. vitals are cut out of that with a cardboard backer and white paper vital outline pinned behind it all. when you shoot it, you can't tell visually see where you hit it until you go down and pull the bullet punched paper vitals target off the back. wished i had more photos. two of our mentees with no previous firearms experience nailed the 200 yard gong from the bench. Mentors went over shooting positions with the mentees on a carpet from standing free hand to prone to using shooting sticks. Being my mentee was using an unfired gun of mine, I covered "break-in" and sighting in. They got learn how to bore sight, foul, field clean, and dial in a rifle. Thankfully, I somehow managed to keep it to together and not screw up the process. Showed how to bore sight, "walk gun out" to targets at 50, target at 100 yards, and then final shot on steel 200 yard gong, all with just 3 shots. Being a mentor in front of all these mentees taking mental and sometimes hand written notes, while watching your every move, tests your nerves like a big buck! You feel like a duck. You're cool as a cucumber on the surface, but under water it's pure chaos staying afloat. lol  (Mentees shooting in the photos; Jimmie, Tom, Sandra, and Steve)
 

[dbHunterNY]

a couple mentors took deer so on November 8th we had a field dressing and butchering demostration. Brian Bird of BHA was the man giving the presentation. we'll likely have some more at some point with mentees taking deer.

[Robhuntandfish]

nice job outs you DB and all it took to put this on!

[dbHunterNY]

Mentee harvest photos to follow.

[Moho81]

Awesome job!


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[dbHunterNY]

Mentee Eric took a doe with a crossbow prior to regular season.
 

[dbHunterNY]

Mentee Jimmie with took a doe and is pictured here with his mentor Jesse.

[dbHunterNY]

Mentee Hany has been at it for many hours on stand with a bow with no success and then switched to a rifle for regular season. Mentor Brian put him in a stand that had a stud of a 5.5 yr old (one the mentor had history with) right in front of his mentee. Hany like the Eric and Jimmie made the shot count!

 

[dbHunterNY]

A fourth mentee almost scored. My mentee Steve got to come out with me Saturday evening on opening day. He showed up when we had a family and friends hunter lunch get together outside at the farm shop. Just so happened neighbor took a respectable 8 pointer. The whole group watched the whole hunt from across the valley with binos and spotting scopes. I slapped together a pair of shooting sticks for him at the shop then went to my personal spot. Saw deer while traveling farm road to get there. We got to the spot and saw group of doe way in woods later in the sit. One young adult doe came in at 50+ yards for at least 20 minutes. We were above it on the ground. Being new to shooting a gun and hunting he couldn't get settled whenever the doe was clear of trees or brush and broadsided. Eventually it bedded in some brush until end of legal light. Cold and nerves were getting to him. He was shaking real good. He really enjoyed it. Next outing I'll have him in a popup blind more comfortable. He's hoping to free up his schedule to get back out this weekend. I pulled trail cam cards and had a nice 4.5 yr old just on the other side of the wood lot from where I set him up.  I'll post up more as the hit the dirt.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

10 hours ago, dbHunterNY said:

Mentee Hany has been at it for many hours on stand with a bow with no success and then switched to a rifle for regular season. Mentor Brian put him in a stand that had a stud of a 5.5 yr old (one the mentor had history with) right in front of his mentee. Hany like the Eric and Jimmie made the shot count!

 

Wow. His first year and was bowhunting. That is awesome and what a first deer. 

[dbHunterNY]

8 hours ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

Wow. His first year and was bowhunting. That is awesome and what a first deer. 

if the deer i got trail cam pictures of not far away came in front out Steve and I we'd have two mentees with great deer. it's a nice 4.5 yr old. good buck for here.

[dbHunterNY]

19 hours ago, dbHunterNY said:

Mentee Jimmie with took a doe and is pictured here with his mentor Jesse.

correction i guess jimmie did not shoot this. they're back out this evening though. hoping for some good news. jimmie did gut this deer though. first time he did it and was a champ so he's all in i'm thinking.

[NFA-ADK]

Best of luck to them all and thanks for all you guys and gals do to promote hunting and the extra time and effort you spend!  What a first deer WOW!

 

[dbHunterNY]

had the 2nd processing demo as well as added a field dressing demo with one of the mentees deer. this happened on Monday.

[dbHunterNY]

Mentee has harvested his first deer.

[dbHunterNY]

Sandra tagged her first deer as well on Monday.