It's the first day of firearms deer (and bear) season in the Southern Zone of NY State. I'm sitting in the woods watching the world go by, hoping that the world might include a deer. My trusty Mossberg is on my lap. Life seems good. Amazingly, my Blackberry gets reception, so I can post this and pass some time.

Well, life is good except that I hear shots all around me, but I've seen nothing. Nothing except the shot deer that ran and expired about 20 yards from me. Young hunter, spike buck. His first buck, and I offered my congratulations.

It's really good to be in the woods. I saw the Milky Way last night for the first time in four or five years, which is too long.

I hope you're all having great weekends. Send some deer my way if you get a chance!

lucky Dog LOL...i'll be in the woods next week on my buddys hunt right after Thanksgiving...i did'nt get drawn this year for squat oh'well i'm hopefull next year i will...any way good luck, eat good food and all ways be safe...vince g. 11B inf..

Less crackberry, more hunting. :P

This afternoon, I had to stop on the side of the road to get myself reoriented on my way up to a friend's new place way up in the back of beyond. Had a 4pt run across the road not 25 feet from me, while I've got the map out on the hood of the truck.

I was supposed to be up hunting just a few miles from Jesselp (in fact there were some tentative plans to do some hunting together), but with having to clean out Mom and Dad's place (we have a closing date) it looks like I'll miss hunting season for the 3rd year in a row - Gahhhh

I did a week at my somewhat remote central Ontario deer camp with famly and lifelong friends, always the best of times!

Cell service has recently been available at our camp and it is with mixed feelings that we use it. It now means that work can find us when we are on vacation, but it does help with family contact and in case there was ever an emergency.

With cell service came text messaging and the younger members of our camp are addicted to it. After a heated discussion we had to make the camp rule that texting was only to be done in the camp, in the private bunk room. The common living room/kitchen area was reserved for social camp interaction. That solved the problem.

Voice contact does not work in the hunting area but text does, so we communicated between hunters in the field using it. I also checked in with my teenaged kids daily during the slow times on the stand.

As always our hunt was a big success (it really does not matter to us anymore how full the game pole is).

Mike

Well, I had a great time spending two days in the woods, heard a lot of gunfire, and saw a few dead deer. Unfortunately, none of them were made dead by me, so my freezer is still empty*.

I too had mixed feelings about the cell service. On the one hand, it did detract from the wilderness experience. On the other, I was hunting alone and it was comforting to think that I had a good shot at summoning help if I needed it. Mind you, it was not a crutch - I had a full compliment of survival gear with me. I would have been cold but comfortable if I had to spend the night out (it only just got below freezing). But if I'd broken a leg, someone was going to need to come and get me, I'd rather use the Fox40 as a backup, not my primary means of summoning help.

One of my problems hunting is that while I can maintain my concentration for about 2-2.5 hours, after than I feel the need to get up and walk around. Since I have the subtlety of an Abrams tank when I walk through the woods, this tends to ensure I don't see any deer. A friend recommended taking a book with me and looking up every page, and I substituted browsing on the crackberry. It enabled me to avoid walking around for pretty much all day.

Opening day on public land in the rifle zone is an interesting experience. I quickly decided to sit low with my back to a big rock - it sounded like a war zone out there. I heard one rapid string of six shots - the maximum allowed in the gun in NY. I can't imagine those shots were well aimed. . .

I'll post some pictures of the beautiful area I hunted once I get them downloaded.


*The freezer will be full the second week in December. Some friends and I contacted a rancher in upstate NY and purchased a grass-fed, pasture raised steer. It was slaughtered this last week, and is being dry aged for us before butchering. If you're concerned about your meat, and unlucky in the woods like me, I highly suggest trying this out. It was really not terribly expensive for a very high quality product.

I opted not to hunt this year, as I am not an established (according to the law) resident of the state of Washington yet, and didn't feel like shucking out hundreds for the opportunity. Instead, I just took care of camp, did a lot of field cooking in my cast iron, and took an occasional stroll, and a couple of nice scenic drives.

Hunting isn't killing.

hey ben i love you bro, i did'nt get drawn this year ...i went on my buddy's Bull Elk hunt up in Heber AZ. for four days (the last night snowed) along with a another good guy from work,he was the cook..well my my buddy got a goose egg but at the same time squirrel was in season so the cook and i both got 2ea squirrel for the pot...at least we did'nt go home empty handed....it was a great time had by all, heck i just love being out in the boondocks with my close buddys...vince g. 11B inf..