I always encourage New Yorkers to take advantage of the opportunities our neighboring states provide for non-residents. Each year I start my hunting in September and end in January by hunting in Connecticut in addition to New York. There are also opportunities for elk and black bear in Pennsylvania, moose in Vermont and New Hampshire, and deer and turkey in New Jersey and Massachusetts.

I'm lucky to have a nice piece of private land in Connecticut that is big enough that the hunting pressure is fairly light. I had stopped hunting this area in November when I switched my focus to hunting New York.

Last Friday I visited the property in CT to set up a bait site (baiting is legal in certain zones in CT; I hunt in Zone 11) so I could hunt a group of does I knew were on the other side of the property. I also had hopes of finding an elusive buck I've been after all year. Hunting over bait is not as easy as it sounds, nor is it a sure fire way to see deer. Due to the low hunting pressure on this property I was able to see 13 deer - two yearling bucks and 11 does. Only 3 deer, however, came into the bait.

I had dressed warm with plenty of layers so I could stay out on the stand well into the morning. The first deer I saw were over 500 yards away and I could tell through my binoculars that they were both young bucks. They weren't headed my way so I just watched them through the glass until they disappeared.

Around 8:00am I picked up some movement on top of the hill and saw some does - turned out to be 5 of them. They headed down the hill towards my location, but stayed on the opposite side of the creek about 100 yards away. Suddenly they all seemed to vanish. I was a bit confused at first, but then I spotted two of them bedded down in the open and another two standing, but frozen like statues - the deer stood in the same spot without moving for over 10 minutes.

It wasn't until 9:00am when I spotted three more does running down the hill with their tails in the air as if something had spooked them. These deer were headed my way. They quickly relaxed once they knew they were out of danger and headed for my stand which was located in a travel corridor. Once they picked up the corn they started feeding my way.

Let me take a moment to share how I create a "bait site". I don't simply dump a pile of corn in front of my stand. I pick an area I know the deer will be moving through naturally regardless of whether there is bait there or not. I then select a tree that will keep me hidden from the deer and find a few natural shooting lanes - I rarely ever clear any shooting lanes. Then I spread corn in a half moon shape out to 40 yards from the base of my tree. This allows me to keep the deer on the upwind side of my stand and also allows me to concentrate the bait in my natural shooting lanes. I always set up a trail camera to monitor the site and show me what deer are using the bait.

Back to the story - as the two does and fawn fed closer I picked out the one I wanted to shoot. I patiently waited as the deer fed within 20 yards of my stand. I tried to control my breathing as "deer fever" set in - yes, I still get excited over does! Then it happened - the wind, steadily blowing in my face all morning long, swirled. The lead doe and fawn instantly jumped and did a 180 moving about 5 yards and now all three deer were on high red alert. Clueless to my location, I now had to come to full draw and take the second doe because it was the only broadside deer. I drew back, let the arrow fly, and the deer hit the ground - it was that fast.

As I climbed down from my tree to gut the deer the vultures started circling above. It's amazing how fast those birds can find a fresh kill - there were about 7 of them above me as I gutted the doe, it was a little eerie for sure. I had a long drag out of the woods which I wasn't to thrilled for, but the snow made the job a hundred times easier. I even jumped 3 more deer on the drag out. Hopefully I can get out one or two more times, but soon shed hunting season will be upon us and it will be time to get a few new places to hunt and start scouting for next season!