Final Scout

[Stumpkiller]

Got out today for my final pre-season scouting. 65ºF and sunny. I'm not sure I can hunt at these temperatures. :haha: I mean it. All my blaze orange is 300 gr Thinsulate or better. :rotf:

Left the rifle, horn and shot pouch in my car and just took the haversack. I've been wanting to lay a path to one particular spot and, by cutting through the white pine, dogwood and thorn apple brushlot below it, I saved a long and noisy walk around. The "goal" is a open stand of mature hemlock above a marshy spot in a hill's saddle. Actually, just below the open woods and in where I can watch the disused logging path (which I can now avoid having to use at all) and two thickets on either side of that just before the woods open out. 40 yards off is a two acre glen with a huge oak at the far end and browse along the edges. I can't so much cover the glen from my spot, but I can see a long ways through the woods on the hillside above it. Several scrapes in the path. It's still a long, uphill walk from the road. But now I have a "back door" from a previously unapproachable direction (used to be hands and knees work through some of it).

Afterwards, I wandered down to some past successful spots and had a pipeful of Plumbeau's tabac, and reflected on hunts past. Munched some jerky and sipped some water. Kicked up three deer while crossing a stream to get back (one "maybe" had a small rack). Farmer wasn't home but his cat came out and talked to me. Life is good. I needed a recharge and realignment after the past few days.

A wonderful, unpressured afternoon in my second home. This will be my 25th year of hunting that hill, and it has provided me with food and so much more.

 

[roundball]

Nice vison you painted there...hope you bag one on opening day !!

How many "deer tags" do you get in your locale?

 

[Stumpkiller]

This year: four.

One buck tag (3" antler or better)
One antlerless DMP (deer mgmt permit)
One buck with bow or m/l
One antlerless with bow or m/l
One bear tag (never, in my life, have I seen a bear in NY, but then I don't go looking for them. Comes with the buck tag.)

The DMP tags come and go. Some years it's none, some one tag per three hunters in a party (only the tag holder can shoot. A very bent rule.), other years has been two, even three tags per license. They say license sales have dropped. I say it's because lately the DMP are easier to get and guys aren't making their wives and mothers buy licenses so they can fill the group requirement.

The m/l "season" is now up to nine days mid-December, but I hunt with a m/l during the month long regular . . . unless it's raining when I leave the house. (Insert blushing smilie here). This year the county where I hunt is allowing center-fire rifles for the first time in generations. I'm wondering how that will change the play of things.

 

[Catamount]

Isn't the NY muzzleloading tag for either buck or doe(antlerless)? And the "bonus" second tag this year is for antlerless only. Mine is.

 

[stinger]

I've been wanting to lay a path to one particular spot and, by cutting through the white pine, dogwood and thorn apple brushlot below it, I saved a long and noisy walk around. The "goal" is a open stand of mature hemlock above a marshy spot in a hill's saddle. Actually, just below the open woods and in where I can watch the disused logging path (which I can now avoid having to use at all) and two thickets on either side of that just before the woods open out. 40 yards off is a two acre glen with a huge oak at the far end and browse along the edges. I can't so much cover the glen from my spot, but I can see a long ways through the woods on the hillside above it. Several scrapes in the path. It's still a long, uphill walk from the road. But now I have a "back door" from a previously unapproachable direction (used to be hands and knees work through some of it).

:hmm: Gee......that sounds like my new favorite place to hunt. I should be able to find it with such a good discription. :shocked2:

I'll save you spot on Saturday morning :rotf:

..............bring the coffee

 

[Stumpkiller]

Isn't the NY muzzleloading tag for either buck or doe(antlerless)? And the "bonus" second tag this year is for antlerless only. Mine is.

You are correct. I'm still not used to the new system with numerous little tags. Up to a couple years ago there was no special m/l tags, you could just kill either if you had the archery or m/l stamp on your license, but you had to have saved the antler tag from the regular season to use, or have applied for a second tag after regular season success.

This is MUCH better.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I'll save you spot on Saturday morning

D'oh! That's what happened last year. I was snuggled down into my 15 year old ground blind since an hour before sun-up and two "sports" walked up to me five minutes after daybreak and told me to leave. The land is owned by a furniture company and they are now leasing it out. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. :cursing:

They were polite, but later that morning I found them OUTSIDE the lease hunting on the neighboring farmer's land. THAT ticked me off. They also left a pile of wrappers and a plastic coke bottle that smelled of rum (I know because I picked up after them and put the wrappers in the bottle to pack it out). That REALLY ticked me off. I found about a dozen spent slug shells, but the tracks in the snow showed they never walked in the direction they were shooting to see if they'd wounded a deer. That REALLY, REALLY ticked me off! Two idiots sitting side-by-side on a log, munchin jerkey and Snickers, and shooting anything that ran past, assuming it falls down and a little flag pops up: "Boing! 500 points!" when you hit one. GGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Anyway. If you're sitting in my spot on Saturday the coffee you get down your back will have been some I brought from home . . . without a thermos. Duck when you hear "zzzzzip". :rotf:

That's why I pick three spots. First come, first serve. The farmer tells me where he don't want me. (And, bless his heart, that's near the barn, and he takes his chances with the rest of us in his woods).

Good luck out there. :hatsoff:

 

[stinger]

Just had to give you a little Razz. Not to many forums I fit into here so I wanted to let you know I was still around.

Hope to hear a good deer story from you and I'll try to do the same.........and no :bull:

 

[KyFlintlock]

Stumpkiller - Good luck and I hope you are COVERED up with game!! Take some pics if you can.