western NY bowhunter

Re: Deer are turning brown! Yep...Ive been noticing the same thing. There's several nice 2-yr. old 8-pts. and a bruiser 3-yr. old 7-pt. that I've been watching feeding in an alfalfa field by my house since early June. I've been trying to get some video of them for the past 2 evenings and noticed tonight that the big 7-pt. is really dark already but the does and 2-yr. old bucks are still pretty red colored. Fall is definately knocking on our doorsteps boys...I'm expecting to see some "bare bones" any time now. .

Re: Questions, Questions, oh I have a question. Joe, I agree with what else has to say on this...I especially like Dogdoc's repley. So here's my .02 cents worth, using your examples in you original post: -the big buck with great genetics / poor food definately won't ever live up to his potential under those circumstances. -I do believe that if you take a poor genetic buck and place it into an environment with great nutrition...it will certainly have a larger rack than it would have had if it were existing in a poorer habit. However, gret food won't compensate for great genetics. For example, let's say that you have a mature 4.5 yr. old buck that is genetically programmed to be a 6-pt...I don't think that great nutrition will magivally make him a 10-pt....I think that he'll probably just end up being a bigger framed 6-pt.

Re: What is the largest.... ...nice buck Tominator! The biggest buck that I've ever seen while hunting was a really nice 130-140 class 10-pt. that was kicked out on a drive several years ago. I just caught a brief glimpse of him busting out of the brush into a cut cornfield. He ran within 20 yds. of one of my uncle's and he missed him several times (that's how I know he was a 10-pt.) . I've seen a bunch of bucks bigger than this during the summer / fall while spotlighting. Here's a couple of photos of the biggest buck that I've ever seen on the hoof. A friend of mine (not the guy in the photo) killed this buck during the opening week of gun season in 2002. He's got 21 scorable points (with a couple more broken off) and grosses right at 190" NT and nets in the lower 180's. He's only 17" wide inside but makes up for that with 45"+ of mass...his rack and skull plate weighed over 8 lbs. I saw this buck on a neighbors farm several times during the Summers of 2001 and 2002 and even have some good velvet footage of him in '02. He was a 135-140 class basic 10-pt. with several small stickers in 01'. He grew around 50" from 3.5 to 4.5. Another friend of mine also found his 2.5 yr. old sheds in the spring of '01. I sure would have loved to have seen him make it another year or two...I have no doubts that he would have easily been over 200" in his prime.

Re: New York Public land There's lots of designated stateland in NY. Whereabouts are you looking to hunt...as close to VT as possible I'm guessing?

Re: NY and rifles allowed I'm not too overly happy with this proposal....but Steuben County isn't one of the counties that they're planning on opening up to rifles so it really won't effect me anyways. As far as deer drives go...my family has been successfully employing this tactic for 40+ yrs. To date, the only casualties have been several hundred deer and a few coyotes (knock on wood).

Re: Does NY have a 3 day archery only tag? Go to the subject index at the top of the home page and click on the hunting licence heading. Looks like $110...kinda steep for a 3-day hunt if you ask me. A temporary 3-day licence does sound like a good idea...I know they have them in other states, including PA (I think).

Re: Does NY have a 3 day archery only tag? I just checked on the DEC website and didn't see anything listed about a 3-day licence.

Re: Going deer shooting this weekend Yeah...I got some to fill on a buddies farm down here in Steuben County too. I usually wait until September to start...that way the fawns have lost their spots and are capable of surving on there own if their mama happens to get whacked. I usually try to find a doe without fawns though. It'll be nice to get some fresh venison in the freezer, it's been empty for far too long now .

Re: Finally, turkey pics. from 2005... Yep...who'd of guess'd it...photos of the NY landscape without any skyscrapers in it . We get a much better view of the lake when we hunt on the hill on the other side of the road. I'll be back after the birds there this fall. The turkeys sure love eating the grapes and it kinda ticks off the local vineyard owners. I do what I can to help them out .

Re: Finally, turkey pics. from 2005... That's not a river...its Keuka Lake...the "Y-shaped" Finger Lake. Lots of birds around the vineyards, especially in the fall .

Here's a few pics. of my brother's opening day NY gobbler. I should mention that the little punk didn't get out of bed until 9:30. Unfortunately, it was the only bird that we ended up taking between my dad, my brother and I last spring...although I called in two jakes for my cousins in this same section of vineyards during the youth season. We had several REALLY close calls on other longbeards throughout the season but just couldn't get the job done. Anyways, this is a beautiful western Finger Lakes gobbler and was my brother's 2nd turkey and 1st longbeard...22lbs., 9" beard, 3/4" spurs. The pics. were alot clearer before I downsided them.

Re: Problems uploading / posting pics... The photos came up full screen sized (1818 x 1228)when downloaded from the disk and were crystal clear and looked great. I downsized them to 650 x 439 and after editing they still looked pretty good but not as good as the originals. Then when I uploaded the smaller version to the hosting sites they looked all blurry and crappy.

I got some film developed at Wallyworld today and had the pics. put on a CD. When I got home I resized and edited the photos so I could post a few. When I uploaded them to my gallery on Hunt101 they came up all blurry and look terrible. I tried photobucket and the same thing happened. I've posted pics. before on several forums without any problems. Any comments or suggestions about what I might be doing wrong here? Thanks.

I saw 2 hens with 21 poults while on my way home from work this morning . They were about the size of a hen pheasant and were pretty dark colored. Hopefully its a sign of a good overall hatch in the region...we could sure use one.

Re: spotlighting I haven't started yet but I plan on breaking out the light / video camera pretty soon . Within a couple weeks most of the bucks should be pretty well fully antlered. I'm been seeing some good bucks while driving around in the evenings but usually I'll only see the bigger ones with the light.

Re: Anticosti pics Nice pics. That last 10-pt. is probably the nicest Anticosti buck that I've ever seen .

Re: We have velvet... Those are some pretty good bucks...but they both look like 6-pts. to me in the second to last photo. I've been seeing quite a few bucks here in the western Finger Lakes region too. I was on my way to a job interview this morning and saw a really nice bachelor group out in a field about 50 yds from the road...good thing I had my binocs with me . The biggest was a really large bodied 8-pt with around an 18" spread. He had some really good mass and his G2's were already 6" or so, but his G3's were just forming and looked to be a little over an inch. There was another 8-pt. that wasn't quite as wide...probably 16", but he had really good browtines and already had exceptional tine length for this time of year...I'm guessing 7" G2's and 4-5" G3's. They are the two most developed bucks I've seen so far. There were also two other nice ones (and a yearing buck) that weren't quite as devoloped...one was a 17-18" 6-pt and the other was out to his ears but hadn't started branching yet. I'll be checking them out again with the video camera in a few weeks. I saw another nice bachelor group last night...I didn't get too good of a look at them...but one was a heavy, wide racked 6-pt with long browtines and the other two were both wider than their ears too. There's also been a group of seven bucks in my aunt's alfalfa fields every night. The biggest is around 18" wide and was a 6-pt with around 5" G2's when I last saw him a couple days ago and was just nobbing out into G3's. He gonna be a beauty in a month or so. He's the one I hope to have my sights set on this fall. Man...I can't wait for October! Until then I guess I'll just have to be content shooting the bucks with the video camera. Good luck on your bucks.

Re: Biologic deer mineral supplements.... dogdoc, Did you use the kind in a bag that you have to mix with water or the liquid kind? Like you was said...I was mostly thinking about using it to open up a site and was then gonna add the Dicalcium phosphate and trace minerals to it. I'll probably pick a bag of it up monday and give it a try.

Has anyone tried the new Biologic Whitetail Addiction Mineral Supplements? I looked at a bag of it at the local feed store the other day and was wondering how it works. It's pretty cheap at $7.99 for a 6 lb. bag and it's supposed to be mixed with 6 gallons of water. I've seen a couple of homemade mineral recipes too and was thinking about putting out some Dicalcium phospate and trace minerals as well. I know its getting kinda late...but better late than never I suppose.

Re: NW Pa buck pics, 06/05 Nice pics. Looks like they should all be AR legal this season. That bottom one looks like he has the potential to be a real beauty.

Re: I think I found the buck.... He's looking better every time I see him with noticeable growth over the past several days since I made the original post . He's a wide six-point now with about 2 to 2.5" G2's and his mainbeams have probably gained 3-4" in the past 4 days. The G3's should be forming very soon...there's still alot of growing left to do before August gets here. I'm having so much fun watching his antler growth...I might feel bad about sinking a Gold Tip into his chest this fall .

Re: New backyard pics That sure is some awesome growth on that buck for this early in June! The turkey pics. are great too. Can't wait to see some more.

Re: I think I found the buck.... I can't wait to show him to you . He was out in the field again last night. I sure hope he stays away from the road...October is quite a ways away yet! I'm sure I'll locate a few bigger ones over the next few weeks.

...that I'm gonna be after this fall during bow season. He's not a booner by any means...but appears to be a really good 3 yr. old and is currently just beginning to knob out on the ends of his mainbeams. He'll be a 6-pt. by next week. What's really caught my eye is he's already got a spread that sticks out well over an inch beyond the tips of his ears on each side and it appears that he's still gonna get a little wider too. He really dwarfed the 3 other bucks he was with. I'm guessing he'll be a really good 8-10 pt. with a 18-19" inside spread when he's done growing...depending on how much alfalfa he eats between now and August . I think I'm gonna try to video him over the next couple of months and document his growth. Man I love watching the antler developement of bucks over the summer. It always amazes me how much bone they grow in so little time. Hopefully some more bucks will start showing up in the alfalfa fields over the next few weeks. I really can't wait to start spotlighting and cruising the backroads before dark with the video camera looking for bucks. I think I'm gonna give it a good month or so before I start.

Re: Your first bowkill...When, where and about.... date: October 28, 2000 place: Steuben County, NY It was a warm and breezy afternoon and I was actually contemplating staying home as the deer hadn't been moving much. Finally, I decided to go out anyways and headed up to the stand. I climbed up into my ladder stand, pulled my bow up, hung it on the hanger and put my safety belt on. I looked at my watch and it was 4:30. I sat there for a minute or two second guessing myself for even going hunting. I turned to look behind me and to my utter amazement....there was a buck standing there 15 yds. behind me!!! He had his nose to the ground and was walking right towards me. I grabbed my bow and slowly inched it down into shooting position. He kept coming and finally stopped broadside at 7 yds. He turned to look up the hill...I pulled back, put the pin on him and let my XX78 Superslam/Thunderhead 125 fly. I saw the fletching disappear into his side and he mule kicked his back legs up into air and took off running for the hayfield out infront of me. He only went about 35 yds. and then stopped to look back up to where he had just been standing. He started snorting and stomping his foot on the ground and then finally turned and trotted out into the field with his tail flagging the whole time. I couldn't believe it...he didn't even know he was hit! I looked at my watch again and it was 4:35...I'd only been in the stand for 5 minutes and had shot a buck!!! I left my bow and all my gear in the tree and climbed down to go get my dad who was hunting one of my other stands several hundred yards away. I just about ran the whole way. We went back up and after a couple of minutes I located my arrow which was covered with bright bubbly blood. We tracked him out to the field and he started pumping out the blood. Forty yards later we ended up finding him laying in a brushy diversion ditch that runs through the field. I had hit him through the lungs/heart and he only went 80 yds. I actually walked within 20-30 yds. of him laying dead in the ditch when I went to get my dad and even closer when we walked back to my stand. He wasn't a monster buck but a really heavy yearling 6-point that dressed out a 135 lbs. It sure was an awesome experience .