WoodieBoater

Make sure when you go to register guns you have two vehicles. they'll make you leave the guns outside the facility in the second vehicle until they're registered (you'll need make model and serial #). Permits are good for a year and once your gun is registered that's good forever.

if I remember right, when you stop at the entry gate you also have to get an entry slip of some kind that you put on your vehicle dash while you're hunting

yeah we were running gps collars. I think the biggest problem was we had too many guys in the woods moving around and bumping them off the circle. but fort drum has plenty of space to hunt. all you need to do is register yourself and your guns.

^{I forgot to mention - whatever you end up going with, get an after market choke for it.  They really help your pattern and worth spending some money on.  If you're hunting divers on big water consider an extended range to help finish any cripples that get out to 50 and 60 yards.  If you're primarily hunting puddle ducks all you'll need is the medium range.  Can't go wrong with Patternmaster or the Hevi-Shot choke tubes and you'll be amazed at your pattern and how hard shots seem to knock birds down.  Good luck and let us know what you end up with.}

^{+2 on the aftermarket choke. When I went for an aftermarket I got a patternmaster and a Comp-N-Choke. I like the Comp-N-Choke better, its less finicky about what you feed it and very consistent. If you go the CNC route they tend to run a little tight, modified is more like improved modified or even full.} 

^{Ill say one thing you have to watch for is that you cant shoot a "flightstopper"  (black cloud) wad through a lot of the ported chokes and definitely cant shoot them through the wadstrippers.}

we ran fort drum last year and definitely got onto some hares. just seems hard to get in front of them when they run such a large loop

Im to the point where id rather run bunnies than hunt deer anymore haha. Hares seem a little frustrating to me but I've only tried it a couple of times. It seems to me that bunny populations have been up pretty high the past couple of years? Anyone else feel the same way?

The "Bennelli hype" I was referring to is the mass amounts of marketing dollars put behind that brand - in example the good old duck commander guys pushing them like crazy, etc.  I agree to a point - it's not the gun, it's the gunner... but the gunner needs a properly fitted shotgun that feels good to him/her.  Same as in golf - just because you have the newest driver on the market, doesn't mean you can hit it 300+ down the middle.  Confidence in what you are using is key.

 

When I was purchasing my last gun I didn't care what brand it was - I went to the store and shouldered and swung just about everything on the shelf until I found what felt best.  For me it was down to the Browning Maxus and then Winchester SX3.  I personally don't like the raised rib on the Bennelli's and they tend to shoot high.

well said in my opinion. I think you have to go to the store and handle some guns to see what you like. Ive allways been a firm believer in you'll know what gun you want when you pick it up.

That said, I have a 1963 Browning a-5 mag and a brand new one that I won at a DU dinner... I shoot the old one. It fits me better and I shoot it better. I have a hasting's barrel and aftermarket chokes for it and it kills ducks. A lot of the problems people had with the older a-5's came from a lack of knowledge on how to clean them and how to set up the recoil rings. do it right and they work. Phil Robertson pushes the benelli's but if you listen to this interview

The problem of recoil ring set up was fixed with the new a-5 so user error was essentially removed. Ill probably catch hell for this comment but they are pretty similar in concept (inertia operated action) to the benelli SBE and such. However they do come with that browning price tag (although the benelli isn't any better).

go out and look to see what you like, in terms of reliability you shouldn't have any issues with the a-5 as long as you care for it properly.

I hope whatever furniture your sitting on is comfy. It's still America and everyone's entitled to opinion and a couch to voice it from. Sleep well beautiful 😉

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Have a good season Ladies. I'm out of this thread. If you want to hunt racks hunt racks I have no problem with that. But don't sit in your recliner just because you can't hunt racks in your backyard. If that's what you love to do Find somewhere to do it and stop complaining. That's My point

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I don't need the meat either but i I prefer it. You seem to be legitimately screwed by the reg, but don't ruin it for your daughter. Teach her to enjoy being in the woods and hopefully the joy of her first deer.

IM pissed at the guy who has to sit in his recliner until the 15th because he can't shoot a rack. That to me is a "trophy hunter" someone who's just hunting for a rack.

I hope your daughter has a great experience and gets bit by the bug that drags the rest of us into the woods this time of year. If so someday she'll be complaining about something else the DEC has put out just like we are.

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I'll mention that I have nothing against the guys that hunt to fill their freezer. I guess I was so harsh in my last post because I'm sick of guys complaining and "sitting in their recliner" just because they can't shoot bucks. If you hunt because you enjoy being in the woods on a crisp October morning and the reward of putting the best meat on earth on your table, hats off to you. If you need to be a trophy hunter go do it where it's legal so that you can get some time in a tree stand instead of a lazboy. Otherwise let the rest of us be happy to fill our freezers with doe meat.

I guess that was pretty harsh too. But I'm sick of listening to trophy hunters complain.

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If you don't like the doe only season make the trip To Hunt somewhere else. You may let small bucks go but I GARUNTEE you are among the minority in that regard. There's alotttt of people with the "if it's brown it's down" theory. Weather it's a small doe, a spike, a monster 10, or a button buck that barely has balls. In my opinion NYS needs to instate some buck laws. I'm not sure "antler-less only" for the first 15 days is the way to go but it's a start. I agree more with the three per side regulation for the north country. Like I said if your that much of an avid deer hunter, travel somewhere else so you can shoot your buck early. It's not that far of a trip to get out of antler-less only. It may sound harsh but that's my opinion

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I agree with Kevin. There are times when they work wonders. Especially in early season when birds haven't seen 1000 of them. A jerk Chord is cheaper and more consistent throughout the season

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if they're far off I just hit a regular mallard call to help get their attention but I never call when they're in close or taking passes. like you said I never hear them "say" much..

it is not illegal to shoot waterfowl from a powered vessel. it is illegal to shoot waterfowl from a vessel that is under power and in motion. My guess is more likely they were harassing cormorants but that's still illegal. Are you sure they were shooting ducks? (black ducks aren't so much truly black as much as they resemble a dark hen mallard). Either way, report them next time. they give the rest of us a bad name.

Usually any big open water has a lot of divers on it during late season. Conesus had a pretty solid population of redheads last year too. And yeah I would definitely recommend the flagging. You can define rely tell when the birds see the flag. They bank hard and at least swing by for a closer look

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You can try jigging or worming for small rockbass and white bass near rocky structure. That may get some action and keep the kids going

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more decoys will definitely help, and if your buying new you can definately diversify but don't wory about that aspect too much. We set mostly redhead deeks (probably 90 percent). We also allways put a big white canvasback decoy on the outside end of each string and let me tell ya, you can see that thing from a long long ways.

Also second the motion recommendation. Real ducks are always moving and if your spread looks "dead" you'll have a real hard time getting birds to come in. A cheaper way to add some motion is to put some of your standard decoys on a jerk cord (I personally don't run a mojo because geese never come in when a mojo is running). We set some goose floaters off to the side of our spread and every once in a while well get a few to come in. A little elbow grease and a jerk cord goes a long ways on still days. And im not knocking the mojo, if you want to run one run it.

Another thing we do is bring black "flags" (like you use field hunting geese) into the blind and flag at ducks out in the middle of the lake. Every once in a while that will catch their attention and pull some into the spread.

yeah heard some chatter of the eyes that were caught spitting up shiners in the livewell so they're definitely gorging themselves.

im not sore about it, it definitely happens to the best of us (not that im the best). just throwing up a report of our findings for the weekend in case anyone was planning a trip out there this week and wanted to know.

Were planning an October walleye/duck hunting trip for Oneida and fish creek so hopefully get into them then

YEah we were fishing with a local and he seemed a lot more frustrated than we did (understandably). It was a case of "should have been here yesterday"

we like to set up a "ball" of divers (redheads, buffleheads and bluebills) close to the blind with two strings pointing at the ball (if you were looking at our blind from the lake). More often than not the divers will line right up with the string that points downwind and land between the strings near the ball (the setup should look kind of like a funnel). Don't be afraid to set ALOT of deeks (we do 15 dozen) as well as BIG deeks. The more visible you can make your spread from far out in the lake the better off you are. This is a pretty killer spread when we hunt Seneca.

Good Luck

Had a really tough walleye trip. I wont go into too much detail but we arrived late on Friday in Sylvan and threw a hail mary and tried to troll in the dark with glowing worm rigs (didn't expect much, didn't get anything).

Saturday morning got on the water at 5:15 with high hopes. Listened to the radio, heard guys heading off the water with limits. trolled until 11 with everything from standard sticks to jointed sticks to walleye spoons to salmon spoons to worm rigs in every color we had (again, not even a bump).

Took a nap and ate something and headed back out at 6:30 to try jigging at dusk and after dark with lights (too stubborn to take a hint I guess). Jigged from 6:30 to 11:30 and got a couple bumps and one white bass. Pretty discouraging weekend but at least we were on the water.

Matt

We were on the water at about 6:45 and left at probly 2:00. I saw your post and that was a beautiful bow you guyes pulled. I just couldn't get dialed in right away for some reason. Not sure what we were doing wrong. Sometimes that's just the way it crumbles haha. Ill be at Oneida this weekend but im hoping to make another hemlock run again soon

Steve,

Glad to hear you had some success as well. We had a tough time getting started and I had DW Blue Dolphins in the water all day. (I don't think we boated a fish until almost 11). Did you get into fish right away? How deep were your riggers?

I just started fishing hemlock and im really happy to have run across it. Its relieving to be on a nice quiet lake that's not busy and bumpy and produces fish.

I took out the original rear seat back ( I still have it) and replaced it with just a big oak plank. I just screwed PVC tubes to that board for rod holders. I built a platform for the riggers that are both mounted to that same board so that I didn't have to drill any holes in the boat to mount the gear

Hop

Yeah that's a 1958 Lark. I rebuilt the entire thing in my basement in college and it runs like a top (which is surprising considering how many barley pops I was consuming back then).

The boat is a 1957 Whirlwind made in Cockeysville Maryland. It was rebuild by my grandpa, my dad and myself and its a great little boat. Ive had a lot of fun times in that thing

Heres a few pictures. One pre rebuild and one mid rebuild and a couple in the water.