Here's a story of a buck that was taken last minute. Just goes to show you that if you can be in the woods, you should be in the woods! In his own words:

On November 1st, I had to work down in Westchester and figured I wouldn't even get to hunt the afternoon. I rushed home and didn't even get to the stand until 4:15 p.m. which is way later than I usually do.

As I pulled up to the property I could have sworn that I saw a good buck and a doe standing in the brush. I had a good feeling as the deer were in the brush they cross through on the way to my stand.

After 45 minutes of silence in the stand I finally heard some commotion in the brush about 100 yards away. It ends with a loud CRACK! Seconds later, deer start running out of the brush towards my stand. I figured a buck chasing a doe, but the first deer is a nice buck! The buck only had half a rack though and behind him was a bigger buck!

The half rack buck jumped the fence and ran 20 yards away staring back at the big buck who ran up to the fence and then went right back to where he came from. A few moments later there are two deer up ahead of me in the brush - a good buck and a doe. With grunt tube in hand, I let out 5 quick grunts and the big boy was on his way.

At 27 yards quartering away, I drew back and missed! The buck ran out to 50 yards and calmed down. With the 50 yard pin on his heart I let the arrow fly and the arrow hit its mark! The buck ran 60 yards and stopped. The buck bedded down, but then got up and walked a few yards before bedding down again.

Just after dark I climbed down and backed out. I'd go back in the morning to look for this buck. The next day when I got to the last place I saw the buck bedded he was gone. My heart sank, but it only took a few seconds to look around and spot him 50 yards away!

The buck tipped the scales at 150 pounds field dressed with 120 inches of antler to boot!

November 11th was a good day. This hunter had been at it hard and only missed 3 days of hunting since the opener on October 16th, but couldn't seem to get anything other than spikes and button bucks into bow range.

On the 11th a doe came in around 9:00 a.m. and he was able to make a good shot and take the doe. About 45 minutes later he climbed down to track his doe when he heard something walking that was just too loud to be a squirrel. He knelt down and got the bow ready. All he could see were antlers moving through the woods and there was no question this was a shooter buck.

As the buck made his was through an opening between two pines the hunter settled his pin and let the arrow fly. The arrow was covered and blood and a mere 40 yards away lay the biggest buck the hunter had taken with his bow.

What an awesome story! You just never know when the big guy is going to be moving around. This guy was probably cruising the area mid-morning searching for some hot does and walked down the wrong trail. Congrats to the hunter on a fine pair of New York deer.

Pete Cuervo had an incredible day on the Island on November 7th. Pete only had one trail cam picture of the "Freak" from October and of course, it was a night shot.

Pete hunted ever day of the rut and finally had his chance on the morning of November 7th. When Pete let the arrow fly he saw the buck kick his legs back and then hunch up and run off - signs of a gut shot. Not the shot you want on any deer, much less the buck of a lifetime.


There was no giving up on the search for the Freak and six days and 2/3 of a mile from where he was shot the Freak lay dead. This massive non-typical had 24 scorable points and green scored 201 2/8". According to Pete, the DEC aged this buck at 7 1/2 years old.

Here's another story of a successful NY Bowhunter that recently came to our inbox! This was a great morning in the woods - or should I say two hours.

I got off work at 7:00 a.m. and on my way home I saw a huge buck which got my blood flowing. I hurried to the house, pulled in my driveway at 7:50 a.m., threw on some camo, kissed the wife, sprayed down with scent eliminator and headed to the stand.

Frost still covered the ground and I knew since I was going in so late it was best to take slow getting into the stand. Before I got in my stand I sprayed some estrus code blue down. I climbed up, got settled, grunted and hit the bleat can.

Not more than five minutes later I caught movement as little 8" spike came into 20 yards. A few minutes later three does came in and a small 6 pointer. It's pretty thick in spots where I have my stand so I could see other deer but I couldn't see what they were.

Finally, at about 9:30 a.m. this guy steps out to my left 40 yards and I thought it was an 8 pointer. He came in quartering away and gave me a 30 yard shot. The Rage passed through the deer and just opened him up. He ran about 80 yards and was down.

When I got to him I realized he didn't have brow tines, but I couldn't be more proud to take this deer. It was a great day in the woods.


Above is a trail cam pic of the buck 40 minutes before I shot him 80 yards from my stand.

This is apparently the new #1 Buck for Orange County. No word on the score yet, but people are saying it's in the mid-160s. Personally I think that's high, but the buck does have some sticker points.

This is a beautiful New York buck and one any hunter can be proud of. The buck was taken in Warwick.

Congrats to the hunter on an incredible NYB (New York Buck)!

It's a beautiful morning to be in the woods. The temps are in the low to mid-30s and the cloud cover makes it easier to see those sneaky bucks searching for does.

Of course I heard deer walking in the leaves for the entire walk to my stand, but nothing has showed up so far.

As I watched the sun rise this morning I realized I have a lot to be thankful for. I'd like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! Be safe and enjoy!

So far this is the most incredible buck I've seen on the ground for the 2010 season here in New York. Word on the street is that this buck has 50 scorable points and was taken on a potato farm in Long Island.

I don't have much more info on this buck, but if you know anything email us at info@nybowhunter.com and we'll update this post as more information comes in.

UPDATE (11/25/10): I've now heard from someone that says they personally know this hunter and the real story behind this buck is that it was actually taken in Ohio on a high fence property at a cost of $15,000.

I recently got a text from one of the guides down at Verdigris Valley Outfitters showing me a picture of a giant 8 pointer that was taken.

This buck was taken off of the same farm I was hunting just three weeks ago!

What an awesome buck, I hope to get a shot at a Kansas giant next year.

Note: All sticks rated to 300lbs. User and gear must not exceed this weight limit.

Imagine this buck as your first bow kill! It happened to one lucky hunter in Ulster County on November 13th. The buck would have been a 10 pointer, but the G4 on the right side snapped off. What was strange about this buck was it's body weight, it only weighed 120 pounds. Regardless, it's still an awesome buck.

I recently returned from my trip to GORE down in Maryland where I had a chance to take GORE's Optifade Forest pattern from the labs to the woods and put it to the ultimate test - the eyes of a whitetail deer.

GORE gave me a set of Sitka clothing featuring the Optifade Forest pattern to hunt with and I've been doing so for the last week. I saw a lot of deer while hunting at Quaker Neck Gun Club, but never got a chance at a big Maryland buck.

Several times while bowhunting at Quaker Neck Gun Club, I had deer within 20 yards of me and they never knew I was there. My first night a buck and two does bedded down within 25 yards and were facing in my direction - none of the deer ever saw me. The one time I did get busted it was by an old doe and I didn't have my face mask on so she probably saw me moving my head and knew something was up.

I wanted to put some meat in the freezer so I went out with my buddy Paul last night to one of his spots in hopes of tagging a doe. After a quick scouting of the property we picked our trees about 75 yards apart. I had a gnarly oak tree that I used my Muddy Climbing Sticks and Hunter Hang-On to set up for the evening hunt.

Around 3:30 p.m. I heard the easily recognizable sound of deer walking in the leaves. I slowly turned my head and spotted the deer working their way towards me. Slowly I reached for my bow and waited for the doe to step into my shooting lane.

Standing slightly quartering away at 22 yards I let out a soft bleat with my mouth to stop the deer. The doe froze, I settled the pin and the arrow was on its way. I watched the arrow pass through the deer and bury into the ground with the lighted nock glowing. The doe quickly took off through the hardwoods towards Paul's stand. When she got within 10 yards of Paul's stand she just crashed and the game was over.

So far I've been really impressed with the Optifade Forest pattern and how the deer have reacted to the pattern. The science behind it is really interesting and it's a pattern that's like nothing else I've ever seen. Check back later this week as I go through an in-depth review on the science behind Optifade.

This monster 18 point buck was taken in New Paltz, NY on November 4th. The mainframe 10 pointer had 18 score-able points and grossed 171 1/8". What's shocking about this buck in particular was that it was aged at 3 1/2 years old! That's a monster buck especially at that age.

I still can't get over this buck, congrats to Blu on a buck of a lifetime!

Matt took this awesome buck in Ulster County on November 5th. It's his best to date and it's one heck of a New York buck.

I really think Ulster County is something amazing. Over the last few years the bucks that are coming out of there are impressive. Between the amount of QDM cooperatives and the antler restrictions it's clearly working!

NYB Forum member Dean recently had some luck and killed a beautiful New York buck on October 12th. Here is how it all went down:

Well, after the last few seasons of not getting a buck with the bow it finally happened this morning! Things usually don't work out for me, but this morning a lot of crazy things happened and it all worked out great. I went out with my friend Ian and we set up only 100-150 yards apart, but on two separate ridges.

I had a climber and set up in an area I didn't know too well and ended up having hardly any shots at all. At about 7:30 a.m. I see a doe alone and it comes within 5 yards. I have the pin on her perfectly, but when I shot the bow hit the bar on my climber and the arrow went under her by two feet. She didn't get too spooked, but headed away from me.

At about 9:00 a.m. I hear something down the hill and see a big buck heading towards Ian. I sent him a text to let him know and just five minutes later I hear running coming towards me then stop.

Ian calls me and says he just missed a big buck and that it looked like it was coming my way. I said bye and waited - and also lowered my seat part of my climber!

A minute or so later I get a text saying "he's coming up the hill to you." Then I see the buck crest the hill and head my way. I had no shot opportunities until he got 15 yards away. Then I stopped him with a bleat. I let the arrow fly and saw it drill the shoulder.

The buck ran about 30 yards and I couldn't see him, but heard what I thought was him going down right there. We waited an hour and went to find him and he was laying right where we thought he was! The arrow went through the shoulder and hit the heart.

I have to say it was one of the happiest moments of my life while running up to him. He's an 8 pointer with good tine length and his left brow is awesome. To get him with the bow just means that much more!

Adam from the NYB Forum had a great hunt on November 12th. Here's what happened:

Had an awesome morning today. Gary and I headed out to one of our spots in hopes of running into one of the giant bucks we've gotten on camera over the past couple weeks.

I headed out to a tree that I picked out this past February while shed hunting. Around 7:30 a.m. I looked to my left and saw a bobcat sneaking along a stone wall. He crossed over the wall in the direction of a bunch of squirrels. Within 30 seconds he caught a tree rat and ran off down the hill towards Gary.

At 8:05 a.m. I caught movement at about 150 yards up the ridge. I pulled out my binoculars and saw a rack moving through the trees. I quickly pulled out my grunt tube and let out a couple grunts. He stopped and began to slightly head in my direction.

He got to about 80 yards and he turned to go down the hill. Knowing I had nothing to loose I tried a snort wheeze. He immediately stopped and began rubbing a tree. He then headed straight towards me. He came into 15 yards and began to get nervous because he didn't see another buck. He did a 180 and gave me a 15 yard hard quartering away shot.

I hit him a little far forward for the angle but I ended up blowing his front right shoulder and lodging the arrow in his opposing shoulder. He only made it 40 yards.

Hes by far not the biggest buck in those woods but hes a shooter to me and it feels great to have a NY buck on the ground. It was an awesome morning and even better to have someone there to share it with...and help with the drag!

Now its time to hold out for one of those giants that we keep getting on our cameras!

A few months ago I received a phone call from W.L. Gore and Associates - the makers of GORE-Tex and Windstopper.

Gore invited me to their Labs2Woods Blogger Summit. The Summit is a group of outdoor writers that get to go on a tour of the Gore facilities and check out their new camouflage - Optifade Forest.

Optifade is unlike other patterns. It is the first concealment system designed around animal vision rather than what looks good to a human. Optifade prevents the game your after from recognizing you as a predator - making you nothing in their eyes.

This is a pretty bold statement if you ask me, but I'm very excited to test their theory and see what the end result is. I've always experimented with camo patterns and surprisingly have had the best luck with one of the worst looking camo patterns to my eye, but it breaks me up so well that the animals never recognize me as a threat, even when they notice me.

Today, I'm headed down to Newark, DE to meet up with the other outdoor writers and meet the Gore team. Tonight we will get an overview from Larry Abbott, Mark Seacat, Colonel Timm O'Neil and Jeff Simpson on the new Optifade concealment. The next morning we head to the Gore testing facilities for a tour that includes putting gear to the test in the Gore Rain Room, Comfort Chamber and Glove & Footwear labs.

After our tour of the Gore facilities we get geared up in Sitka clothing featuring the Optifade Forest pattern and head to Quaker Neck Hunting Lodge for a day and a half archery hunt for whitetail. It will be very interesting to see how the Gore Optifade Forest pattern performs and I'm really looking forward to this testing!

I'll give everyone an update when I'm back from my 3-day trip. Hopefully, I come back to an inbox full of emails from our readers posing with their big bucks - and a buck of my own!

It was literally the last few minutes of shooting light when Ken grunted in this nice 8 pointer. The buck heard Ken's grunts from across the road and headed in to see who was in the area. At 25 yards the buck gave Ken a perfect broadside shot and the Nockturnal nock led the way right through the boiler room.


The arrow buried in the ground with the nock glowing and the buck took off. He didn't make it far and a mere 40 yards later was on the ground. It was a great hunt for Ken aside from breaking his cell phone and putting his rangefinder through the washing machine by accident right before he went out!

Congrats cuz way to knock 'em down!

JD Durling with an Albany County slammer 8 pointer. The buck dressed out at 170 pounds. Thanks to Dan Ladd at ADKhunter.com for the photo and story.

Pete Casatelli shot this 8 point buck in Oneida County on November 3rd. It scored 123" and has an 18 1/2" spread. This buck and two others were chasing a hot doe. Thanks to ADKhunter.com for the photo and story.

On October 29th Adam shot this awesome buck on his 90 acre farm in Western New York. Adam shot the buck at 20 yards and watched as the deer piled up 45 yards away. The buck dressed out at 182 pounds.

Way to go Adam!

This is a buck and a story you won't want to miss. I recently recently came across this story on Dan Ladd's website, ADKhunter.com:

The 21-pointer - the topic of Adirondack hunting - has come alive this week with the demise of what is likely the biggest antlered buck I’ve seen since starting this Web site in 2000. The buck was taken on November 6th by North River, New York resident Bob LaVergne. Bob is a member of The Gooley Club and was hunting there with a group of guys. While waiting to make a deer drive he embarked on a little still-hunt and encountered the beast in a nearby swamp and quickly dispatched it with one well-placed shot from his 30-06. The next day Bob brought the buck out to Indian Lake where it created quite a stir.


The buck weighed 178-pounds and sports a non-typical rack with 21-points. I can’t wait to hear what this buck green scores when it is measured in January after the 60-day drying period. Bob knows he is a lucky hunter and for him the fun that surrounds taking a big buck is just beginning. We’d like to officially congratulate Bob and his hunting partners on his success and thank him for sharing his story. Also, special thanks to Mike Blackburn (Blackie), Matt Fuller, Bruce Mitchell, Jerry Choppy, Dan Ryan and Mike Moriarty for their assistance in helping us find out more about this incredible buck. This just proves there are trophy deer in New York, especially the Adirondacks.

Jim recently sent in this picture of his friend Kenny's buck: Here is a picture of my friend Kenny Cetin of Massapequa, New York who took this Westchester County 6 pointer on Saturday, October 30. Kenny had just settled in his stand Saturday morning when this buck came in checking his scent pads. Kenny thought he got busted when the buck looked up at him but he continued walking and gave Kenny a good shot opportunity. One shot from his Matthews and the Muzzy broadhead made a clean pass-thru. The buck went about 80 yards and folded.

If last week’s report could be characterized as “quiet” this weeks would be “hot-to-cold activity”. In other words, we had some excellent (4 buck, plus a dozen does or so) sits but we also had some goose eggs with Craig racking up an all time high of 3 in one weekend (ugh). Deer sightings were up to 1.5 sightings per hr. (last week was 1.3 deer per hr.) but that is still low for our property–especially during a good weather weekend.

The good news is our 2.5 buck sighting ratio is up to 50% (6 of 12) and a few of the 6 were older than 2.5. This is always a good indicator of better things to come. Last week we called for an up-tick when the weekend weather turned cold and sure enough activity picked up with the colder weather.

Our camera photo counts are still not real high especially on photo sites that are set up to capture “cruising” bucks. Most of our photos are on or near corn fields with brassicas plots being a distant second. We are seeing more daylight photos of older bucks but not enough to say they are “cruising”. We are definitely seeing 1.5 year old bucks exhibit “cruising” and light chasing behavior. Our 3, 4, 5 year old bucks are still for the most part nocturnal.

Neil and Radar are out tracking (for a friend) this morning (Monday) so we don’t have definitive camera data but after a quick run through last night, it looks like this week we picked up 4-5 unique bucks which will bring our unique count to around 50. Most of the newcomers are older aged bucks. Overall, it looks like buck activity is beginning to pick up in the older age classes. This should steadily build over the next week or two.

We definitely picked up a nice mature buck this week that hasn’t been photographed before. If he stays around and we can get him on a scale he will give it a nice stretch. Neil hunted his old buddy once this weekend to no avail. He did photograph him once at night so he is still with us.

We have been getting a lot of reports from the field with a few common themes emerging. Most are seeing increases in young buck activity. Most report increases in young buck sightings and young bucks “on the march”. Most are also seeing increases in older age class sightings as well. We are getting reports of “flushes” (short runs) but not many reports of prolonged chases (tongues hanging out and panting).

In tracking the rut we don’t call “rut on” until we see a number of indicators all at once. We look for older age class bucks on the march in daylight hours, hard chases by older age bucks, doe-fawn groups broken up with isolated fawns looking for mama, and a marked decline in food plot use by does. We also look for a marked increase in the ‘Unique buck” tally for the week. Our crossing cameras show marked increases in activity and this activity occurs at all times of day.

While seeing an increase in some of these behaviors we still are not seeing enough consistency to call “rut on”. The “uniques” haven’t “spiked” and the crossing cameras are all but dead in daylight hours. We are seeing more interest in does by bucks. But a few chases here and there “doth not a rut make” (Shakespeare). It could pop at any time on any given property (caused by a single doe in heat) but the pattern is not there yet to tell you to take the rest of the week off. We wouldn’t however recommend raking leaves next weekend. We are going to spend a lot of time in the woods this week and next.

We still are not too keen on disturbing our core areas that hold good deer. We would prefer to “fringe hunt” and wait them out. The best bucks are incredibly sensitive to pressure and it takes very little to shut them down. We put in a few shifts on “crossing” areas over the weekend to try to intercept a buck or two “on the march”. These sits were not productive. We did better on staging areas near food sources.

This week and next weekend will all be good times to be in the woods. It should get better any day and a hot doe or two can make all the difference in the world. We wouldn’t take our last two days of vacation just yet but we wouldn’t take the weekend off either.

Our good friend Charlie Alsheimer who predicts deer breeding cycles based upon moon phase is calling this November a “very strange month which may exhibit a number of breeding peaks and valleys”. He is predicting more breeding toward the end of the month than at the beginning. Let’s all keep this in mind and continue to share information and observations.

Please continue to share your observations with us. They are very useful. And please send this to 3 new (as opposed to last weeks) deer buddies and tell them to sign up for the report. Our data base is growing rapidly and the more data the better the tracking.

Don’t forget to click on our Buckeye Cams which are beaming photos to us all in real time. They can be found at www.NorthCountryWhitetails.com.

Well the lucky guy did it again. The first big buck he shot he heard in a fight the night before and was able to sneak out with the rifle the next day. When the big buck stepped out he tripped the trigger and broke the deers front leg. A quick follow up shot put the big deer down.

His second big buck was with the bow. After shooting a nice 100 class 8 pointer dad waited a half hour and then began lowering his bow. It was about that time when something caught his eye. A 120 class 8 pointer was headed his way and bedded down about 30 yards from his tree. He pulled the bow back up, nocked an arrow and killed the deer.

So when he told me he got another big one I knew there had to be a similar story. Dad was out on his day off moving trail cams around and checking properties for sign. At the third property he headed in to move a trail camera and decided to bring his bow. After moving the camera he set up against a rock near an area he thought the deer might cross.

Soon enough he heard crunching of the leaves as two does hurried by. By the time he saw the deer they were passing him and he didn't have an arrow nocked. He decided that now would be a good time to set up and he nocked an arrow. A few minutes later the leaves crunched again and a six pointer stepped out on the trail of the does.


After seeing this deer he thought about moving up a little higher so he could actually see the deer before they got so close. Unfortunately - or fortunately - he didn't have time. The leaves crunched again and this time it was the big 10 pointer that was roaming the woods headed after the buck and two does that had just passed.

Dad got to full draw and stopped the buck in the only opening he had at 20 yards. A quick grunt stopped the deer and the arrow buried deep in the bucks chest. A mere 40 yards later the buck was down and the hard work of dragging the beast out of the woods began.

Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time! I could sure use a little of dad's luck right now!

Nockturnal-S - fits most "standard size" carbon hunting arrows such as Beman ICS, Easton, Carbon Express, PSE, Carbon Tech, Victory, Carbon Impact & most other arrows including aluminum arrows with a super-UNI bushing

Nockturnal-H - fits ST Epic, ST Excel

Nockturnal-X - fits all slim arrows with half outs or hidden inserts such as Easton Axis and Full Metal Jacket, Beman MFX, Trophy Ridge, Carbon Impact HOT and Easton ACC with X-UNI bushing

Nockturnal-GT - fits Gold Tip hunting shafts

Steve was hunting with his friend Joe on October 24th during a morning hunt. Joe was walking Steve to a second stand he had set up, but with the woods being so thick it was hard to find in the dark. Instead, Joe gave up his stand and told Steve to sit in it.

Around 8:00 a.m. Joe began to grunt and rattle to see if he could bring anything into range for Steve. No more than ten minutes later Steve heard something walking behind him. As he peeked around the side of the tree he saw the buck coming in.

The buck was at a mere ten yards when it presented Steve with a perfect broadside shot. The arrow hit its mark and Steve had his first buck down with the bow.

Good job Joe and Steve! Nice tag team buck!

On October 28th Steve was hunting in Chautauqua County when this nice buck passed by on his way to freshen up a scrape. As the buck passed by Steve he offered him a quartering away shot at 33 yards and Steve made the shot count. About 50 yards later the buck crashed and was down for the count.

Congrats Steve on an awesome New York buck.