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Jealous of your pheasant pics, my grandpa always talks about how great the pheasant hunting used to be in this area but they’re not really around anymore, certainly not in huntable numbers. Only way to hunt them around here is to find someone who breeds them and that just doesn’t feel the same to me. If you’re into whitetail hunting, take a look at dan infalt/the hunting beast. That guy knows his poo poo when it comes to targeting big bucks in pressured areas. His hill country bucks stuff in particular has been helpful to me in understanding deer behavior where I hunt.
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Jul 18, 2020 10:59
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:We have way too many deer here and it drives me crazy that all the bubbas wait around for that big buck when they could have shot three does and helped the population and gotten lots of meat. this year is definitely going to be a meat focused hunt for me. people don't shoot nearly enough does around here, the buck to doe ratios are stupid low and everyone just ends up shooting all the 2 year old bucks and never even consider what would happen if you let them live another year or two.
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Jul 18, 2020 16:12
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My brother drew an archery elk tag in NM this year so I’ll be getting my first taste of elk hunting and western hunting in general in September and I’m super excited for that. I’ve got probably 99% of my gear and I’ve been doing sandbag workouts in my basement but I really gotta hit some hills and longer hikes.
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Jul 19, 2020 00:35
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Ophidian posted:If you are looking to purchase an ONX membership: OnX was a real game changer for me, highly recommend it. I’ve used the single state one for a little while but just recently upgraded to 50 states thru the camofire deal.
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Jul 19, 2020 13:30
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I’m in upstate NY and can anecdotally say I knew a guy who would quarter and pack out his deer because he hunted a particularly hard to access area, but I have no idea if it’s actually legal. I’ve always just gutted and dragged since I have the luxury of hunting private land with 4 wheeler access
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Jul 21, 2020 04:20
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Oh look an archery post! At the start of this working from home I setup a cheapo bag target in my basement and have been working a ton on my release. Probably the most confident I’ve ever been going into bow season. I tried out my brothers back tension release and I think it really made something click for me when I went back to the wrist rocket. I’ll probably try to pick up a silverback or similar next off season and spend some time with that.
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Aug 9, 2020 21:40
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took a break from doing treestand work over the weekend with my brother to shoot our bows. we had just started shooting out to 70 yds and he said something felt weird when he drew back, so he drew down and and as he was letting down, his cable snapped. he's got an archery elk hunt in NM in like 3 weeks so while he's pretty stressed over getting his string replaced in time for that, he's super lucky it happened then and not once we're out in the middle of nowhere.
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Aug 31, 2020 17:16
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fat bossy gerbil posted:Did anyone else get a decent primer on wilderness survival in their hunter safety course? I took mine in Colorado and they spent a good portion of the classroom instruction going over what gear you needed to bring into the mountains and what to do if you got stuck and have to wait for rescue. All common sense stuff like don’t try and hike out if you’re lost or in bad weather and always tell someone where you’re going and when you’ll be back. But I’m guessing if you took the course in Iowa they spend little if any time going over wilderness stuff because you’re never more than a couple miles from a road or a farmhouse virtually anywhere in the state. Never got that here in NY that I can remember, but that’s not a surprise given the style of hunting here. I think it mostly focused on tree stand safety and how to not blow somebody’s head off while you’re climbing over a fence.
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Sep 24, 2020 17:40
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Long post warning: Just got back from my first elk hunt and it was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. One of my brothers drew an archery elk tag for NM unit 50, so three of us piled into a truck and drove straight thru. Got there the day before the second season opener right at first light, so we got out, threw on our camo, and went out glassing and got onto a herd within the first hour. We spent the rest of day one checking out the different water sources around, and every single one was bone dry, so it pretty much confirmed our plan to focus our hunt around the banks of the rio grande. For the first couple days we were more conservative after not seeing any other hunters, but as the days went by, more guys started showing up to glass as they realized this was the only water in the area. We did a lot of glassing and a lot of hiking, but every time we tried making a move on the herd, either the wind would swirl and completely switch on us, or we would lose the herd in the super broken terrain. Finally on day 4 we spotted them feeding along a large “meadow” of sage brush within striking range, and my brother was able stalk in and cut them off. He got picked off by a cow as the herd passed him so he pulled a nice 45 yd shot on a cow. Little did he know the herd bull was right behind her  She only went about 50 yards or so before going down. Then we had a nice 3 mile hike up some steep terrain with meat on our backs, but it was well worth it. I think in total that day i did 11 miles of hiking. Even though we didn’t get a mature bull, coming out of probably the toughest unit in NM with anything in the cooler on our first DIY archery hunt was super satisfying after putting in so much work just for an opportunity.
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Sep 24, 2020 18:26
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I’d say your blue line there is a pretty good bet for getting onto some deer trails. Should give you a good idea how they’re traveling the area and where the bedding is. Assuming there’s some bedding on that property and it’s not too heavily pressured, I don’t see why it couldn’t hold a whole pile of deer.
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Sep 25, 2020 02:53
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Outrail posted:The day after a few days of heavy rain should be better or worse for deer activity? My guy says better as their stretching their legs and trying to stay in the sun to dry/warm up. Maybe going into higher ground as there'll be more surface water to drink? That’s definitely a thing. I shot my biggest buck with the bow just after an afternoon downpour. Sat for about an hour in the rain and then he came through about 20 minutes after it stopped.
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Sep 26, 2020 23:13
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Anybody have any experience with hunting out of a tree saddle? I try to be pretty mobile when I bow hunt, and I really don't like how loud my summit climber is so I'm looking for something to replace it. Not sure if I want a lightweight hang-on or a tree saddle.
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Oct 13, 2020 20:32
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Hell yes, congrats! Love the hotel parking lot butcher shop setup.
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Oct 22, 2020 19:24
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Got a chance to get out this weekend to chase deer around. On Friday we had highs in the upper 70's, and then it plummeted overnight. When I went out Saturday morning it was somewhere in the mid to lower 40's, and the deer sure loved that. I had deer all around me for pretty much the entire morning, but just nothing really in bow range. Sunday was a little cooler in the morning, but we didn't see nearly as much activity. Saw a couple of small bucks doing a little bit of chasing, and saw scrapes and rubs all over, so I think the action should pick up here over the next couple weeks. I'm kinda bummed that Halloween falls on a Saturday because it looks like it lines up with another pretty nice temperature drop, but I'll probably be doing stuff with the family that day.
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Oct 26, 2020 15:52
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Canadianjerkey posted:I'm very much an adult onset hunter/fisher, finding myself trying to teach myself as I enter my middle-30's. Checked off the list so far, is completing Hunter-Ed, getting a sub to OnX, and purchasing a rifle.  Great to see more people getting into hunting! It sounds like you're taking the right steps so far. I don't have any advice for hunting CA, but I'm sure there's some people here who do. Be sure to post here as you learn, it'll be super helpful for other people who are trying to get into hunting and aren't even sure where to begin. What was your Hunter Ed experience like? I think it varies a bit from state to state, I'm curious what it was like for you.
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Oct 26, 2020 16:18
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Well, I blew a chance at what would have been my nicest buck to date. I took off Monday for a little rut hunting, and it happened to line up with a big cold front on Sunday night with some light snow and some 15-20mph winds. A little after daylight, I got up on the leeward side of the hill I hunt, hoping to find something cruising the ridge, and also just to get out of the wind. I think with the terrain layout, the wind was swirling back up from the bottom of the hill and meeting just over the leeward side, making kind of a wind tunnel similar to what you might see when the thermals are strong. As I worked along the ridge, I spotted a nice sized deer all alone, walking straight toward me. I ducked behind a big tree next to me and just let him work his way toward me. I got the binos on him and could tell he was a nice one, so I got setup to take a shot on him. Well he ended up zigging when I expected him to zag, and he ended up stepping out 30 yards away but since I was setup for him to step out in a different spot, I was pretty exposed and he spotted me right away. He stood there broadside at 30 yards for a couple seconds and then busted straight down the hill. After playing it back in my head, I should have already been at full draw when he stepped out and I really don't know why I didn't. It was one of those things where I had about a half second that I could have drawn, and I missed it. Since the weather is supposed to get pretty warm for the next week and right through the weekend, I think this will probably wrap up my archery season. A frustrating ending, but I had a lot of fun and had some good encounters. I think the biggest takeaway was that I need to be more mobile. I actually saw very few deer while sitting in any of the pre-hung sets we have on the property. Now it's onward to gun season and focusing on getting a couple does in the freezer.
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Nov 3, 2020 21:41
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alnilam posted:take this witha grain of salt as i have never successfully gotten a deer through still hunting, but when I am trying to stealth around I walk like a deer - step step, pause. step step, pause. It's how they sound when they're browsing. One of the hunting public guys talked about this quite a bit on the vortex nation podcast recently. He does a ton of ground hunting and has a lot of success with it.
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Nov 5, 2020 23:43
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Haven't managed to make it out during gun season at all, but it sounds like I haven't missed much. I think of the 10 or so guys that hunt out of our camp, 2 have gotten bucks this year. Not a single deer opening weekend, which was a first. I'm hoping to get back out during late archery, if for no other reason than to scout some public land I'm hoping to hunt next archery season. Anybody else have any luck this gun season?
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Nov 29, 2020 06:41
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Anybody got any exciting hunts planned for the next year? If all goes well, I'll be going on a rifle mule deer hunt in Wyoming this October, which will be new and exciting for me.
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Feb 27, 2021 02:50
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I'm looking to pick up some new mouth calls for spring turkey, any recommendations? I liked the rocky mountain calls I had in the past, and I'm thinking of maybe picking up a couple woodhaven calls.
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Mar 8, 2021 19:33
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There's a ton of good youtube channels for turkey hunting that are starting to ramp up again as spring turkey approaches. The hunting public is the big one, catman outdoors, shane simpson, and the pinhoti project are all good ones too. I don't have much advice for chokes, but just be sure to pattern your gun before going out. You might find that your combination of choke and shell don't work well together.
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Mar 11, 2021 16:47
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I’m in the midst of picking units for a WY muley/antelope hunt, I don’t know how anybody makes sense of this stuff without something like gohunt.
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May 5, 2021 15:35
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charliebravo77 posted:Learn to love Excel and researching draw odds. Non-resident, 1 point for deer, none for antelope. I'm thinking we'll end up around the Bighorn National Forest area based on what I've seen on gohunt.
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May 9, 2021 17:42
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bumping The Hunting Thread because hunting season is here. Anybody have any cool hunts coming up? I have a new baby so I’m planning on taking the year off for the most part, save for a couple weekends in NY’s gun season, so I need to live vicariously through other goons
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Sep 17, 2022 02:58
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mannn i’m so jealous of your ability to chase after whitetail, muleys, and elk in your backyard. we’ve got a 2023 WY rifle elk trip tentatively planned but man, even this far out, thinking about that 24+ hr drive is daunting
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Sep 17, 2022 04:19
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also grouse fingers sound hella tasty
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Sep 17, 2022 04:21
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glynnenstein posted:I'm heading up to do black bear in Vermont in a couple weeks. Kinda the middle of the early bear season, but it's mostly intended as a scouting trip since this is my first year going up there for it. Gonna be interesting! That sounds interesting, what are the regs like in VT? IIRC here in NY, you can’t bait or use dogs, and the numbers around me locally are low enough that it’s not really worth going out specifically for bears.
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Sep 18, 2022 01:21
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charliebravo77 posted:Wrapping up my WY pronghorn trip with my buddy and his dad, we drew a pretty great unit and did some great scouting the day and a half before opening day and managed to fill all 3 tags within 12 hours, two being the two biggest bucks we had seen in the area. I'll write up a more detailed recap with photos once I'm back in front of a keyboard. Hell yeah, congrats!  Looking forward to the write-up. Pronghorn is right at the top of my list of species I want to hunt, they're so cool looking.
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Sep 18, 2022 18:43
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