Newbie from NYC

[atek3]

Hey y'all. New to Hunting, so I thought I'd join a forum with more experienced folks.

I started shooting guns 10 years ago in college, competed in High Power Rifle and USPSA (handguns). Moved around a lot. I became interested in hunting when I moved to New Hampshire in 2006, got my license, but never really got out much. Back then I didn't know many hunters nor did I grow up in a hunting family. In 2010, I moved to the Big Apple, got my New York State license and found a one or two hunters. One of them hunts exclusively with bow, and offered me the opportunity to hunt his land, which is bow-only. So I went to Pro-line, played with one of their rental bows, saw that I could indeed do bow. At the time however, I was doing rehab for a shoulder surgery (I've broken my left shoulder twice, and separated my right shoulder once).

My thought process was wait until my shoulder was 100% before I buy a bow. Six months have gone by. I went out to Oregon, took my first buck:

Now I've been bit by the hunting bug. Here in Southern New York, the options for bow hunting seem quite a bit better than rifle only.

I've got a 7mm Mag for rifle season. I'm probably going to buy my friend's Mathews Z7. It will be some time before I can hunt with it though, so my goal until November 18th is to get ready for November 19th.

My friend in Dutchess county offered to let me hunt his land, but it is bow-only, so that idea's basically nixed this year.

Anyway, my friend recommended I check this forum out, I'm just trying to learn as much about hunting as I can. My goal this year is to take a second deer. In the future I'd like to expand to Bear, Elk, and edible small game. As a bit of background, I'm not a trophy hunter, I'm not interested in getting the biggest rack to hang up. I just really like the idea of being able to feed myself without depending on Gristedes.

atek3

[Elmo]

Welcome aboard, atek3. =)

[burmjohn]

Welcome to the site!

[Deerthug]

Welcome!

[Karpteach]

Welcome aboard, from a Former NYC guy

[First-light]

Welcome! I work in NYC, my house is on Long Island and my Home is in Howard NY!!! Happy Hunting the site is great!

[BucktheBuck30-06]

Nice deer man,he's big bodies for a young guy.

[NYBowhunter]

Welcome to this great forum. Is that a blacktail buck?

[bkln]

Welcome Home from the Old Brooklyn guy :-) Dutchess is not bow only but also limited to shotgun for deer. Take a look at Catskills, not awfully far from the City and tons of public land to hunt on. Good luck bro!

[dirtypaulie]

Welcome Atek, i'm from the city myself. You should look into getting a permit to hunt in Sterling Forest state park, & also obtain the permit to access DEP watershed lands. Feel free to contact me. After the 19th i'll be going afield with my new Excalibur Vortex crossbow. I'm new to Hunting myself but my father was an avid hunter. I like the fact that hunting with bows be it compound, recurve or a crossbow they don't make much noise at all & don't spook other nearby game.

[atek3]

Thanks for the kind welcome y'all.

This weekend was productive, I picked up my Tikka in 7mm and completed my Bow Hunter cert.

I think taking a deer in bow season is a bit aggressive a goal, but I'd really like to get one in gun season...unfortunately most of the nearest venues are shotgun-only and my "hunting" shotgun is 1000 miles away

atek3