I recently made the fairly difficult decision to forego bowhunting this season, for a variety of reasons. The biggest is that my practice regimen will be nonexistent this summer as I prep for a British Columbia mountain goat hunt. The time demands required for the physical training as well as the time at the shooting range with my .270 dictate that there’s…
As you can imagine, I’m really looking forward to my British Columbia mountain goat hunt this fall, even though I know it will almost assuredly be the toughest and most challenging hunt I’ve ever experienced. I’m preparing for the pain by inflicting some on myself this summer, donning a 40-pound pack and huffing and puffing my way up hills I…
One of the writer’s favorites is the bobolink, which generally appears in early to mid-May in the Southern Tier. It’s been a strange spring gobbler season, full of the usual highs and lows, filled tags, close calls, and near misses. A mid-season gobbling lull could be blamed on some wet and cool weather, but there always seemed to be a…
The latest in shotgun loads triggers the distance debate.
Tree damage visible as the invasive insect takes its toll.
Pass the time by prepping gear, clothing, and calls, and there’s never a bad time to practice your calling.
Just when you’re ready to relegate one to a stash of calls in your camo bag, you connect with the right striker and you’re ready to put it in your vest for future action.
I don’t know much about centerpin fishing but I’m ready and willing to learn, especially after seeing all the Facebook photos from friends who seem to consistently – and I mean consistently – score on fine steelhead and hefty, colorful brown trout. It’s something I’ve been considering for a while, even though the traditional Great Lakes tributary hotspots – Oak Orchard Creek,…
Looking at the season to this point, the writer is beginning to see that they’re getting out of it what they put into it.
Make the memories while you can, while your legs still allow you to hunt hard, and before something comes along that prevents you from doing what you love. You never know when your hunting time is up.
I jokingly say I like to visit a taxidermist once every 30 years or so, but when I look back at that statement, it’s really no joke. I’ve only taken two decent bucks over nearly 50 years of hunting – a fine 8-point back in 1979 and a bigger 10-pointer a few years ago that actually required a tape measurement, netting 136 inches….
Author’s game plan is to hunt next week, around Oct. 15, after he’s convinced himself he’s as ready as he’ll ever be to make the shot when it counts.
Bowhunters, myself included, can be a fickle bunch. Take New York state archery hunters, for instance. For years we lobbied hard for an earlier opening to the archery deer season, and DEC finally bumped it up from mid-October to an Oct. 1 kickoff. And once that was in place, we moaned about the warm weather that typically lingers well into October….
You don’t have to be a biologist with a degree in forestry, but some basic knowledge can go a long way in the deer woods.
Should the DEC’s Summer Sighting Survey confirm the writer’s observations, the low poult numbers this year will mean fewer jakes on the landscape next spring, and even more importantly, fewer 2-year-old longbeards in the spring of 2020.
Make it hurt now and it will hurt a little less when it’s time for that future hunt of a lifetime.
Paula put three of four shots into a six-inch square last week from 200 yards, and the lone miss wasn’t off by much. That kind of shooting easily puts her in the kill zone of a moose, although she wants to tighten things up even more before we head to The Rock.It’s been a bit of an unusual spring and…
For dogs’ sake, this writer is keeping porky numbers in check.
We’ve pretty much arrived at that point in the spring gobbler season where it’s easy to come up with an excuse to turn off the 3:30 or 4 a.m. alarm and go back to sleep. It’s too windy, too rainy, too cold, the gobblers are done pursuing hens, and it’s too anything. It’s easy to shut it down for a season. If…
Still, the excitement surrounding turkey hunting is the very reason we arise in the middle of the night and head out into the turkey woods.
And other simple things to remember as we begin another season in the turkey woods.
While turkey numbers are clearly driven primarily by production in the spring and Mother Nature, there are other factors playing into the decline.
I always enjoy working the New York Outdoor News booth at the winter sport shows. It’s a great time to connect with readers, hear what they like or don’t like about the paper, and trade hunting and fishing stories with folks whose interests are pretty much identical to mine. If I’m tag-teaming the show booth with either Paula or our…
I’m heading to Newfoundland on a moose hunt in September and I’m not even bringing a rifle. Or a bow. It’s not my hunt. This time, since I’ve already taken a Newfoundland moose, it’s Paula’s turn. We can’t wait for this return trip to The Rock, with its breathtaking scenery, great people and, oh yes, superb moose population. It will be…
Perhaps nowhere is the phrase “looks can be deceiving” more appropriate than when applied to the mute swan. Yes, they are beautiful. But they are much different than the trumpeter swan, despite the physical similarities. The non-native, invasive species displace native wildlife species, degrade water quality, destroy submerged aquatic vegetation, are troublesome in the area of airports, and can even be aggressive toward humans. Yes,…
Expect to encounter Japanese knotweed along riverbanks.I’m already looking ahead to spring and, obviously, turkey hunting, but also to the open-water fishing season. Paula and I didn’t get a lot of fishing in last year and I can’t remember why, but I know some of it was due to high water conditions on the nearby Susquehanna River. That eliminated our typical…
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