The final chapter has come to an end with the one we call, “Moose.” When the rumors swirled of Moose being harvested, people came by to pay their respects to this legend. What a final chapter it was, as Tom Jr., Jimmy Jr., Jake, and I tracked him in the deep snow and then waded through the East Branch, of the Delaware River where we caught up to him on the island. As I squeezed the trigger, I knew it was meant to be, that Moose would be coming home. All of this would not be possible, as he crossed two land owners and we can’t thank them enough for granting us permission ahead of time to access their properties in pursuit of Moose. A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to Kelly, Warren, and Emily for representing the meaning of small town America, where neighbors help each other out. The second photograph from the top is of our Siberian Huskies, Chili and Dakota, showing their approval of their dad’s harvest. The first trail camera photo on the left is Moose in 2016 and the second on the right is him in 2015.

For New York State’s Southern Zone’s opening weekend of rifle we welcomed Josh and his two sons Justin and Cole. The weather around here changed drastically from one day to the next. Saturday, it was 65 degrees and we were hunting in t-shirts. Sunday’s temperature dropped to 33 degrees with at least six inches of snow. Even with these extreme conditions, they almost were able to fill out that buck tag. Unfortunately, the doe that it was chasing wouldn’t stop for them to pull off the shot. We salute Josh and thank him for his service as he’s an United States Army Veteran. We look forward to having him and his boys back next year!

This weekend we welcomed bow hunters Ross, Greg, and Chris for some prime time, rut time, hunting! The men all saw quality shooter bucks, but the doe they were chasing didn’t stick around long enough. Chris and Greg are brothers who enjoyed spending some bro time together pursuing whitetails. Ross had a heart pounding moment when he saw a huge rack appear, but to no avail, as it was busy hound dogging the females around the woods. We are looking forward to these awesome guys returning next year, as they were real close to bagging some bone!

This past weekend we had the pleasure of welcoming new guest Bobby and welcoming back returning client, Brandon. These men were on the hunt for some Catskill Mountain bone and rug steaks. The winds swirled and the temperatures warmed a bit, stalling most of the game movement. Bobby saw a fisher Sunday morning and Brandon had some doe and turkeys visit his spots. Unfortunately, the bucks and the lone bears kept themselves on the down low. Ryan did see a sow with three cubs Saturday when he was heading to check trail cameras. If you’re in the Utica area, please check out Bobby’s business, RFC Contracting Inc. There you’ll find qualified licensed professionals with 35+ years of experience in plumbing, carpentry, and construction work. RFC Contracting serves both Oneida and Herkimer Counties. For more information, their website is www.rfcplumbercontractor.com. We look forward to having Brandon and Bobby back again next hunting season! 😃

We had the pleasure of having guests Chris and Brandon join us bow hunting for a couple of days. Brandon is just getting into the sport and he sat with Chris in a blind the first day. Right away they had action with a buck that appeared on their left-hand side of their blind. Being an antler restriction zone, the bucks must have three points on one side to harvest them. This buck never presented his horns good enough for them to decide whether it was a shooter or not. The second day, once again, Chris saw good action with two spikes and three does coming by the blind. Chris is a stand up guy out of Rochester, NY. You should check out RDC (Rochester Decorative Concrete) Concepts, his business. Their services are decorative patterns, epoxy coatings, custom designs, resurfacing, ceilings, crack repairs, and asphalt repairs. Their website is www.rdcconcepts.com. We hope to see these guys back again next bow season! 👍

This past weekend, we had guest Jonathan hunting for deer and guest Chris on the hunt for a bear. These two guys are class acts and represented the hunting community well! Jonathan is fairly new to the sport of bow hunting and Chris is a seasoned veteran. One of Jonathan’s encounters was a 3 pt. buck ten yards away of which he studied the deer’s movements. He noted it was an awesome experience to have a buck that close to him and it not even realizing he was sitting there. Unfortunately for him, in our zone we have antler restrictions and the buck has to have three points on one side in order to harvest it. For Chris, the work week for his bears proved to be Monday through Friday and then they took the weekend off. We had bears on cameras multiple times a day during shooting hours throughout the entire week. In a Facebook post, we even shared some of those trail cameras’ photos. I guess this is why it’s called hunting not killing. When they’re not fenced in, wild animals will always amaze.

Folks, introducing the “Rack Pack!” They had a fight night recently, but it doesn’t look like any casualties resulted from it.👍 😀 #BuckLivesMatter

It was awesome to have Brandon back in camp! 🙂 We always enjoy hanging out with him when he gets here.  Brandon had a lot of action. The first day, does were like fleas around him. Then the second day, he had turkeys and a doe but no horns or bears showed up for him. Fifield Outfitters went up and sat in a stand just to see what activity was going on. We filmed a mama bear with her cubs on Day 1 and an 8pt. ten yards from the stand on Day 2. You tell us these animals aren’t smart. They know who to come by and who not to come by. It’s nature’s way of survival. Check out below two videos of Ryan’s recaps of the first two days of bow season.