Leaderboard

Being so close to Christmas and with lots to do, this morning I got down at 10am. When I did I noticed the first scrape this season in this spot. It was less than 15 yards from my stand and it was fresh. In the low light when I went to my stand this morning I never saw it. So I figured I would put a camera over it in the afternoon before I climb into my stand, and that is what I did. I had only been in my stand for the afternoon about a half hour, when and adult doe and a this years fawn came headed straight towards me, and behind them was a really big doe who kept looking back over her shoulder. They were basically walking single file ad were going to walk right in front of the camera I just put up. I had my gun in my lap and they were so close I new I would be busted as soon as I moved. Seeing the fawn was with the first doe I was not having any second thoughts about shooting the big doe bringing up the rear, and was not gambling a buck would show up this late in the season. In hindsight, it was not my finest hour of hunting the way it went down, but as it resulted in a successful and interesting hunt so I'm satisfied. I knew it was gonna be tricky not only because they were close, facing me, and three different sets of eyes and 3 noses, but also because I figured out this morning my eye glasses are so old and cloudy it's like looking through a bottle of milk. And,my glasses have become sort of settled so when I'm looking through my scope I need to push my glasses up with my thumb so I am looking through the distance part of my bifocals. I let the doe and fawn get really close in order to allow the big doe to clear brush and give me a shot. Then I basically told myself one, two, three go, and raised the gun, quickly put the scope on the big doe while thumbing up my glasses trying to get the cross hairs centered on her, and as I did the first doe and fawn spooked and took a couple quick jumps. I pulled the trigger and at the shot the big doe went down. But, it was not ideal. I won't share the less pleasant aspect of this as it was unsettling for me. What I discovered after though was she would not likely have gone far, but in the moment I could not be certain as she was trying to get her legs under her. With her trying to escape; even though my mind was racing, heart pounding, my hands were shaking like a leaf, and I discovered the end of my ram rod was now missing, I still reloaded faster than I ever though possible. She momentarily lay still and I was able to put the second shot on her to put it to a merciful end. Even after the second shot, just in case I reloaded again. The other does only bounded off after the second shot and when I started to climb down. Tomorrow I will pull the card from the trail camera and see what was captured, because much of this went down in front of it. It could be interesting. See the trail camera in the scrubby little tree to the left of the deer.

I built a new house up in central Maine in 1992 that is my hunting camp . I asked the local gun shop this exact question if a guy coming to our house from NY can just buy ammo for his rifle . Their policy is they check your ID for your age , not for wear you live. You can buy the ammo with no issue . Once you leave the store its your ammo and you can do what you want with it . They dont keep any records of who bought what or how many of each or where they live. There is no information kept or transferred or notification sent to any state government or agency. In other words , its your ammo and you can take it home with you. I read somewhere that Witch Hole Hochul was asking the bordering states to NY , Penn , Ohio , and Vermont, to cooperate with them to report ammo sales to NY residents . As far as I know they all told her she can take a nose dive in the crap hole she created . They were not obligated to do more paperwork and costs for her benefit. THE HOCHUL PIT

I’ll post the story after a bit in another thread. It was pretty interesting story.

Just took a big doe with muzzle loader. Three came in and only two left. : ) Picture is from my stand.

Recycled cigarette case. Holds my starter, powder, sabots, and primers. Fits in my orange vest pocket nicely. Been carrying this for years. Really quite handy.

My grandfather, on my mom’s side, got my old Winchester single shot .410 for her when she was young. I think it was made in the early 1920’s. She never took to it, nor did her two sisters. They didn’t have any brothers, so no one used it much until I came along to liven up my Mom’s Christmas 59 years ago. Ive been shooting squirrels with it for over 40 years (since I turned 14). My most memorable one was that first or second year. Our neighbor, across the street, had an English walnut tree, and folks would come from all over for those and other garden produce, which they sold out by the road. He had a little roadside produce stand, that fit on the 3-point hitch of his 1951 Ford 8n (I later bought that tractor from his widow after he passed). The walnut tree was in the front yard and he parked the tractor and stand under its branches. One day after school, I was over there after the raiding squirrels and I shot one up near the top of the tree. My shot was aimed in a safe direction (away from the road), but the squirrel bounced around a bit on its fall, and landed right on that little stand, between baskets of produce, while there was a customer there shopping. I remember the old woman telling the somewhat shell shocked customer: “he’s been after that one for a long time”. My grandfather had quite a stash of 2-1/2” Remington #6’s, but I gave most of what I had left to my father in law. I mostly used my .22’s for squirrel hunting in later years, so those .410’s lasted me a long time. They have a squirrel issue around their bird feeders and he could rarely hit them with his .22. I let him borrow my single shot .410 for a year, and he bought an over and under double of his own last year. I used to be in a Winter trap league, before we had kids. We would always have a .410 shoot on one week each season. I bought #8’s for that. It was a real challenge with the full-choked .410. You had to get in the birds fast and shoot them close, because of such a tiny and light pattern, compared to the 12 ga. I got pretty good at that and usually finished first on our team on those weeks, while I rarely did so well with the 12 gauge, compared to our other shooters. To this day, I don’t think I ever shot a 24 with a 12 gauge, but I did shoot 4-5 25’s with the big gun. I might have broke 20 birds once or twice as my best scores with the .410, while most of the other guys were lucky if they broke 10. My average score with the 12 was low 20’s, and about mid-teens with the .410.

Windy morning; again. Thought deer might move before this front came through. Didn't see one, but found this fresh scrape from last night.

I carry a speed loader with (2) 50 gr T7 pellets and a sabot in my right pants pocket, along with (3) 209 primers. I can reload in under 15 seconds. I also carry (4) extra T7 pellets, (2) sabots, and (4) more 209 primers in a small plastic box inside my Fanny pack. I can only remember using more than (1) shot on one ML hunt, and that was probably not necessary. A double lunged doe started to get back up, after her initial fall, and I put her down with a neck shot. If I’m using the ML during gun season, I sometimes bring along a short 12 ga pump-action slug gun for follow up shots, and have taken a few “doubles” with that after dropping the first one with the ML.

2 different "kits" in water-proof cases - depending on which muzzle loader I'm carrying...

When using sabots and Hornady XTPs I carry the tube type speed loaders in my pocket, when hunting with patched round balls and loose powder I carry everything in a possibles bag. Al

The Good Lord blessed me again on the second Sunday of the early antlerless gun season. I “doubled down” on the “Jesus first” thing in the late morning, after a short uneventful early morning hunt with no deer sighting, church and adult Sunday school. After that, my wife had a heck of a honey-do list for me. I knocked off everything she asked for and then some. Then I drove about 20 miles to my parents place, on the opposite corner of wmu 9F. They had lots of work for me to do also, before I could go hunting. Once again, I knocked all of that and then some. This is where the “Others second” came in. I was much later than I wanted to be, back in the double ladder stand that goosifer sold me for $20 a couple years ago. That’s where the “Yourself last” thing came in. I thought I blew it again over there, by picking the wrong stand, as I had the previous Saturday afternoon. My dad had mowed the clover plot out back, during the week, to a short stubble. Between that and hearing the old boss doe blowing downwind, 1/2 hour before sunset, I thought for sure I was in for nothing. Once again, I decided to give up before sunset, and started to pack up my stuff. Just after I pulled off my camo face mask, I heard the unmistakable sound of hoof steps, in the tall goldenrod upwind. She stepped out, 45 yards away, 2 minutes after sunset. I cranked the old Redfield scope up to 7x and verified the lack of headgear or buttons, then settled the crosshairs on the back lower corner of her inboard shoulder blade. When the smoke cleared, there she laid: The J.O.Y. doe, 28 minutes before the closing buzzer of the early antlerless gun season. T/C Omega 50 cal, 240 gr XTP, (2) T7 50 gr pellets, Redfield wide field 2-7x. Ive only eaten her fillet mignonettes so far (made tacos with them) and once again, they were “to die for”. She was about as close to perfect of a “grinder doe” that a guy could ask for. With both of my first draw dmp tags punched now, and our meat supply in decent shape, I’m going to be a bit more selective than usual with my (5) remaining deer tags.

So, I went out this am for Muzzleloader carrying all my reloading accessories in my pocket, as always. I didnt see anything ( unfortunately), but in case I had and actually took a shot, I felt very unprepared for a follow up shot due to the location of my reload accessories. On my home, I bought kind of like a Fanny pack for the reload canister, my bullets, primers and white hots, plus the ramrod endpiece; maybe this'll work for me , but now, Im carrying an additional pack , too. Where and how do you carry all of your accessories for Muzzle while in the woods?

I came across this live around the clock Deer feeding station in Maine a couple of years ago, when the snow gets on the ground up there the Deer hit those feeders hard day and night. Right now they are coming out pretty much at night on bare ground and not a whole lot of action during the daylight. Happened to check it out last night before hitting the sack around 1100 pm and there were some real nice wall hangers visiting those feeders. Al

It is a Koplin possibles bag I got from one of this board's members that did not use it anymore, I had my wife sew on the TC patch that I had laying around and I put the snap enclosure button on it. Ebay has many different types of "BP possibles bags" for sale both used and new, can probably find a Koplin on there if you are patient. Al

Where did you hit her I don't see anything? Back legs gone??? lol

This is quite old. A clutch bag would be my replacement, if this ever wears out . Just slightly longer.

Yes, congratulations!! Enjoyed reading your description very much- thanks for sharing

Can you still buyt those?

I used to use a .410 as a kid for squirrel hunting; loved that gun

A couple speedloaders and short starter in my jacket pocket, and my primers on a lanyard around my neck. Honestly, in a whole bunch of years ML hunting, I dont remember once that I was in an actual need to get a fast 2nd shot, by the time the smoke cleared etc. I will have a small plastic case in another pocket with a few more ML accessories, but have never needed to pull them out....as long as the rifle is well maintained.

IF you find what you want, and it is reasonable....buy it, dont hedge pennies. At one time Wally world/ Kmart, etc. seasonally had by far the best prices, but in recent years best get what you can when the prices are reasonable.

Congratulations, she looks like a nice fat Doe, as the old saying goes "all is well that ends well". Al

Or u get stopped

Only if someone is dumb enough to Advertise the Transfer ! Just sayin !

When it comes to shot placement on Deer I have subscribed to the behind the shoulder classic heart-lung shot. It provides a pretty large target and when hit it gives good killing results with minimal edible meat damage. There are times when even a well placed heart-lung shot will produce a death sprint that can be fairly far and may require some tracking. After viewing many hundreds of shots taking game on those African Safari videos I took note that the recommended shot placement is on the shoulder, I can constantly hear the professional hunters keep emphasizing in the shooters ear as they line up for a shot "on the shoulder" the priority is to drop the animal where it stands. While they utilize every single bit of edible meat they do not worry about any meat loss due to shot damage, they want the animal poleaxed. Seeing is believing and there is zero doubt in my mind that the high shoulder shot is the best one to take if one wants to drop the animal in it's tracks. An exception is those Cape Buffalo I have watched a whole lot of them being taken and very few drop with one shot, they are thick tough and refuse to die with some being hit 4, 5 and even 6 times with big heavy calibers before they go down. Al

7m. Around 36 degrees, slightly overcast with some patches of blue, slight breeze, and wet snow covered ground. Very pretty but this far no deer. Quite a few shots off in the distance.

Overcast, light Southeast breeze at 39 degrees. Great morning sit, but not looking for meat.

Not sure about that, never heard about one. You’d think someone would post it here if such a jaw exists. I’d imagine that the close by border state ammo dealers jack their prices up so that they can fleece the NY’ers. We’re taking a summer vacation to Southern PA next year and I’m going to stock up when we are down there. I’ll try and remember to send Mrs Hochul some cash for the taxes if we do. Ive got plenty of ammo, likely a lifetime supply for my “big guns”, but could go for some resupply for my .22 rim-fire and .410 shotgun. I’d like to get after the squirrels, that have been pestering me all deer season, and that will deplete my current supply.

Just for the heck of it, figure out what the NY state sales tax would be, on the ammo you buy in Maine. When you get home, place that amount in cash in an envelope, mail it to gov Hochul, along with a note saying that you felt bad about spending your money out of state and you wanted to make sure that at least the state got their cut, even though the NY state business owners and their employees did not. Maybe that will help her see the error in her ways.

Put the hammer down on this doe this evening. CVA Wolf does again