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Another great late season in the books. Sucks to get beat by this guy during bow season but pretty awesome catching up to him with the snow camo and smoke pole. We really are blessed to be able to chase these great animals around for sure.

I managed to get out of work on time, hit a few lights just right on the drive home, and make it into my tree stand in the first hedgerow behind our house, 1/2 hour before sunset on December 17, the last day of SZ regular ML season. 29 minutes later, this 8-pointer stepped out into my awp/wheat/clover plot, 120 yards away. I cranked the old Redfield on my 0mega 50 cal up to the max zoom of 7x, centered the crosshairs behind his shoulder, and squeezed off the shot. He trotted towards my pond, 90 yards away, and piled up 10 yards short of it. Stomach was full, chest taped at 39-1/2”. I’m guessing 2.6 or 3.6 yrs old. I think it’s the same buck that I missed with my crossbow in early November, when my bolt deflected off a corn stalk. I wasn’t entirely sure I missed him clean then, but there wasn’t a nick or blemish anywhere on him tonight, so I’m more certain now that I did.

1 minute before sunset buzzer beater 8-pointer tonight:

My buddy asked me to do a euro on his son’s deer. He wanted a piece of “driftwood” from the property they hunt. I’m pretty pleased with the results overall, although I don’t recommend working with epoxy resin on a log. Extremely difficult to mix, and apply etc. There were too many runs/drips etc, but it is what it is. Thanks for looking

Now that the big game season is over in this neck of the woods I am back at it doing my favorite thing, hunting small game and especially Squirrels, and I finally connected on an off colored Gray Squirrel. In all the years I have hunted Squirrels I have only seen a handful of blacks, they are just few and far between in these parts and never seen a chocolate-mahogany colored one like I recently took with the Benjamin P-Rod Marauder pcp pellet rifle. These days there seems to be more than a few blacks in the area and I think this chocolate colored one is probably a cross between a black and a regular gray. Anyway, I think I will get this one mounted as he is pretty unique in my eyes. Al

Way to go Wolc. Al

My plans for the late season was to get 1 more deer to finish off our season. Had to use my muzzleloader tag Saturday afternoon on this poor fella. Was in stand not 15 minutes and was in the process of getting layered up with clothes when I caught movement over 100 yards away. Picked up binos and saw it was a mature buck but was a half rack. I thought it was the half racked 8 point I had on cam but turned out to be another buck. As he was walking i noticed a limp in his back leg, as he got within 50 yards i could see he was in ruff shape and that 1 leg was held in the air. Had all intentions of letting him go till next year until I saw his shape. He would have never made it thru the winter, was happy to end his suffering. I waited roughly 20 mins.from the time I first saw him to get a clean shot. I settled the 50 cal. ML on his front shoulders, he dropped, as he rolled down the mountain the one side of his rack fell off. In all I was able to salvage, 1 back leg, tenderloins and backstraps. The very next day I could have taken a bull of a 7 pointer however I'm content with using my ML tag on this guy, felt I did the right thing, definitely wasn't for the amount of meat. I know shit happens but boggles my mind how someone can hit a deer so far back and low. Please don't take running shots, don't shoot thru brush, practice shooting!!!!! Rant over, thanks for reading. Happy Holidays all!!!!!

I misstakingly used Dog in Heat scent and hounds were barking at the base of my tree stand spoiling my hunt .

And then there are those that I see running along the highway or pedaling their ass on the highway on bikes so that they can "live forever". I have to wonder how good it is for your longevity to be sucking in those exhaust fumes of each passing car, truck, or bus deep into your lungs.

That is the reason I do not do much snow tracking these days, I have most times ended up a long way from where I started and it can be a nightmare drag if you catch up and kill one. Too old. Al

Thats actually a legit excuse!!

You're ahead of me Doc, but not by much. Reloading? Well the commie scum that run this state haven't gotten to it yet, they will. They have made tens of thousands of honest citizens into felons as the keep moving the bar as to what is legal and what isn't.

Here's the facts: Lee Zeldin came within 6 percentage points of taking the governorship in the last election. Meanwhile, the latest Sienna poll shows that 57 percent of the voters prefer someone else other than Hochul for the upcoming election in 2026. Only 33% would vote for her again. And she does intend to run again in 2026. If the polls are even close, the time is coming to get things right here in NYS. Do you know gun owners who are not registered? Do you know gun owners who do not vote? A little activism doesn't hurt. It may be a bit uncomfortable, but we have got to stop treating politics like a dirty word and stop avoiding all political discussions. This thread shows how intertwined our hunting and shooting are with politics. Yes, politics is a hunting related discussion. We have to stop whining amongst ourselves and start pushing people to use the voting power we already have accessible to us. There is a pretty good article that lays out all the numbers for you. Take a scan of what the numbers are saying instead of just throwing in the towel and living with whatever the government decides to do with our guns and ammo. We have a chance to make a difference. Take a look: https://nypost.com/2024/12/10/us-news/majority-of-new-yorkers-want-someone-other-than-kathy-hochul-for-governor-in-2026-poll/

All part of the master plan orchestrated by Hochul and Letitia James to limit gun ownership in NY