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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/07/19 in all areas

  1. There’s my hunting buddy as dew drop and snow fairy. Her last nutcracker as will be going to college
    22 points
  2. That I've never hit the release, or trigger. Don't plan on taking anything this ML either. Things have definitely changed for me this yr as far as tagging a deer. I'm not a trophy hunter. Never have been, never will be. Had what I would call a great time and season. What time I spent in the woods was very special to me. The only regret I have is not helping to supplying my grandnephews/nieces with venison. Others have taken care of that. Highlight of my season was my brother probably taking his last deer. A 6pt. He's said it's his last season. Too hard to get out there. I'll do my best to prove him wrong. Hopefully he can get one, or three more seasons and maybe a doe or two before he just can't get out again.
    16 points
  3. Still fighting a miserable cold that went into a lung infection, another night of coughing almost convinced me to throw in the towel for this gun season. With the sound of the wind outside, the warmth of my bed seemed much more appealing than waving about side to side tied to a tree. However, after a few moments I managed to muster enough resolve to get up, hack a few more times, hit the asthma puffer, get a drink of water, brush my teeth, and start slowly climbing into my hunting clothes that at this time of year more resemble a cocoon. The argument in my head about staying in bed or tackling another day in the cold, windy, snowy woods, was in the end won I think in large part by my refusal to accept the thought of getting too old and slowing down. Call it pride, ego, or stubbornness, I reminded myself I did not come all the way back to New York to live from Alaska to wimp out from doing something that has been such an important part of my life and something I desperately missed while I was away. Once my clothes were on, I quickly started to build a sweat as I wrangled with and swore at the cheap safety belt harness system I have been using because I couldn't find my much nicer (and safer) one buried for the past 5 years in my garage someplace. What a fiasco this pile of loose belts and buckles that seem to have no rhyme or reason and require the physical stamina and contortion skills of a Cirque du Soleil athlete/artist. Definitely not an easy task for a guy my size, age, movement restricted by a laundry basket worth of clothes, coughing and gasping for breath. God I hate this harness, but I don't dare climb up into ladder stands anymore, wind or not without one on. Did I mention 3 years ago, after some 40 years of climbing some pretty sketchy deer stands without incident, I fell off a brand new eight foot ladder while I was painting around a window frame? The end result was surgery on my arm to put in 13 screws and 2 or 3 (I can't remember) metal plates that hurts to this day. No more climbing anything without being secured. Once finally dressed and with the safety harness gripping and pinching me in all the worse possible places, I left the house without looking back. I climbed on my 4 wheeler and made my way up the hill through the snow covered fields. All of my fiddling around got me started rather late by most peoples standards here, but to be honest these days I actually prefer getting on stand just before shooting time. I hate sitting in the dark listening and hoping to hear nothing. When I entered the woods on my wheeler I had to stop and back up to grab my blaze orange hat that was ripped off my head by a rogue blackberry bush, and then onward up the hill to my stand. The snow was deep in the woods and being close to 7 am I could see the deer tracks seemed to be everywhere I looked. Many of them looked fresh, which worried me a bit that I bumped the deer out of the area on my way in to the stand. Regardless, I was now there so I parked my wheeler up a bit from my ladder stand, hidden as best as possible in some brush, and I walked the few yards through the knee deep snow to my stand. Grasping the rungs of the ladder, up I went, while trying to not to keep stepping on my insulated coverall bib pant legs that are too long for me. At the top of the ladder I reached for the tree to hug it to steady myself in the wind. When I pulled, then tossed the belt that goes around the tree to secure myself, the stupid thing pulled out of its loop in the back of me. Rather than risk falling out of the tree trying to get it back behind me I decided to improvise and tried to secure it to the tree but through a different part of the harness. As I monkeyed around with the belt trying to figure out a way to tie myself to the tree, I suddenly caught a glimpse of a coyote moving quickly through the dense saplings on the hillside above me. I'll admit that I have no love for coyotes after losing a beagle to one years ago and several other close calls with my beagles with them while rabbit hunting after that. So, I immediately stopped messing with the belt and sat down, pulled a bullet from my pocket, chambered the round and tried to put and end to this one. At the shot, he/she kicked it into high gear and was gone in a flash, clearly a miss. Gathering my thoughts for a moment, the wind gusting against my face reminded me I was still not secured to the tree, so I stood and turned around to resume once more figuring out this dilemma. It seemed like I was at it forever in the tree, and I was beginning to think I would just climb down and hunt from the ground rather than continue to huff, puff and swear under my breath. It had been about a half hour since the coyote deal and I still was not secured to the tree. Then again out of the corner of my eye I caught movement. This time coming up from the stand of hemlocks below me, just as I had hoped would happen, I see a big doe all by herself. She looked alert but not frightened and was clearly on her way up towards me. As with the coyote I was standing untied to the tree and with my rifle still unloaded. This time though, my back was to the deer and she was walking straight uphill towards me rather than off to the side like the coyote. I knew my movement had to be seamless and with some haste to pull this off successfully. With that, I turned, sat down, all the while watching her pick up some speed as she came up the hill in front of me and in a diagonal direction she would pass me at about 50 yards. I fumbled quickly in my coat pocket for a round and quickly got it chambered. The wind was in my favor but she clearly began to sense something was going on, perhaps hearing the rifle bolt close, and she picked up her speed to a trot. At her pace it was going to be iffy to keep the scope steady on her, so as she started across an open area above me I let out a loud squeak noise from my pursed lips. At the sound she stopped, I put the cross hairs where they needed to be and I fired. At the shot she whirled around and sped back down the hill towards the hemlocks she had come from. I couldn't see where she went but did see a giant cloud of snow following her movement down the hill. Rather than risk getting down and pushing her if still alive and then having to track further in the deep snow, I sat for another half hour. Interesting to note was, while I was waiting in the tree, a single crow flew over making a weird croaking sound, circling the entire time. By the time I got down, there had to be fifty of them circling above me and it was eerie, reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock movie "the birds"! It didn't seem possible the crows could have that quickly identified my dead deer if she was in fact dead. Once I got down I slogged through the knee deep snow in the direction of where she ran rather than walk up the hill to where she was standing. It was quickly obvious I hit her hard, as the blood spray on the snow looked like spray paint. When I turned my sight down the hill I could see her laying on her back, feet in the air and with her head buried in the snow. There was no tracking needed for this one because even without the blood it looked like a bobsled run where she slid and plowed all the way down the hill. When I got to her I was impressed with her size and knelt down to pull her head out of the snow, brushed her free of snow, and as I always do spend I few moments quietly reflecting and giving thanks for opportunity to take such an animal. While it was again this time a one shot one kill situation, and again thankfully she died within sight of my stand and four wheeler, the old saying about the work starting after the shot has never been more true. Pics include: my stand, my wheeler in plain view from my stand and only a few yards from where she was shot, single shot behind the elbow that passed through totally taking out the heart, and the bobsled run where I found her.
    16 points
  4. Me and pops hammered out a triple on doe today. Spent the last three hours dragging heavy doe through a foot of snow off the mountain. Great day!!!
    15 points
  5. Seen nothing again this am. Going back out for the last hour and a half of light. Going to take xbow and sit in spot by field where we park. Gonna be last hunt in 7F for the season. I haven't given up cause I just feel I am still gonna down one. I am in the corn tomorrow in 6S and next weekend a long weekend there. Ones gotta come out in a field with snow and standing corn. I'm gonna get one yet!!
    12 points
  6. I've never been one to measure my seasons, by deer killed. But by the quality of the time, trying to do so.
    11 points
  7. We covered 5 miles in the snow today according to my brothers app. We had fresh snow on top of the 8-10 that was already there so I’d guess it was close to or over a foot deep. My Dad, Brother and I were all still hunting along the side of our mountain when I cut a set of tracks/jumped one. I followed them down off until it slowed down then I stopped to have lunch and let it settle down a bit. As I progressed on the track I noticed it was heading to an area I have caught them bedded before so I circled up wind and also higher up on the mountain. I slowed way down and was looking for a deer as I got into the bedding area on a mini ridge that descended into a thicker area. Just then as I scanned I caught a deer moving and quickly got over against a tree to rest against in case I got a shot. Sure enough as I watched more doe came into view and they quickly headed up hill to me. I got on the lead doe and dropped her when she stopped broad side @70 yards. Then the trailing doe and fawn ran closer and stopped and I reset for another shot and let it rip. That’s when the rest of the herd ran, 10 total took off and seconds later I heard my Dad touch one off which got me more excited. He’s 73 and my brother and I cherish each hunt he comes on. Where we hunt and how we hunt is not easy so for a guy of his age and shape to do it is impressive to say the least. Turns out his went down in a hurry, @75 yards with his iron sight 50 year old Remington semi auto. My second shot led us on a short track to the doe that was within of my first. Then we had to drag the things out which took 3 hours and a lot of work and man are we beat. I leap frogged my two while my brother took care of pops doe and eventually came back to help me. Weights were 110, 132 and 135 tying my biggest doe. It’s a hunt to remember for sure. That’s a truck load of meat. ; )
    8 points
  8. Easiest so far, compared to the first/male child she was a nightmare fir 2 straight years. It’s just that I’ve seen TF hunting w/his daughter through the past several seasons followed up with nutcracker features and figure he must have a degree in daughter raising... ...ladder/roof safety not so much
    7 points
  9. Laid my hands on one more set of antlers. Gut shot deer from bow culver found at one of the properties. There were still crows on it a month later. Picked clean. Decided to grab antlers as I pulled cams for year.
    6 points
  10. I’d think this is crossing a line? Really I think the mods need to give some thought to what this poster is.... A ) Bringing anything of interest to the forum? B ) taking away from the quality of conversation between other forum members with real interest and questions. This WILL drive members away as it very well may have already.
    6 points
  11. Went for a creep around the woods today with my camera, didn't bring a gun because I don't need another deer. I found some deer and got in pretty close, still not positive how many were there but several does and a few bucks. Conditions weren't great for photography and these pics aren't good by any means but pretty neat. The buck on the right was a 2 yr old 6 pt out to his ears. Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk
    6 points
  12. My buddy just knocked down a doe at 4:06pm! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    5 points
  13. Deer can not reason like a human. They can not say " hey!... you go first"! Yes, they can learn danger comes from humans, and adjust the timing of their movements to the safest part of the day. Or travel in thicker areas, instead of more open ones. But they can NOT reason! They are animals! Simple as that. Anyone saying otherwise, is attaching the "Bambi Syndrome" that implies that wild animals think like us! Just not the way it is in "real nature". Just for the record, I have seen and killed, a good many mature bucks over the decades. Including this years gun buck aged by DEC at five years old. I can honestly say that never once have I seen them use a "scout". They are by nature one of the most cautious and seclusive animals in the woods. And they become more so with every year they are alive. If not for the instinct to reproduce, most muture bucks, three years and older, would become almost unkillable by most hunters! Myself included!
    5 points
  14. The older I get the more I realize, understand and enjoy the fact that it’s more about making memories and enjoying the day than it is about pulling the trigger. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    5 points
  15. What in the actual f##k happened here? I feel dumber than I was before I read this thread, and that's saying something.
    5 points
  16. On Sunday morning (12/1/19) while sitting in my tree stand I heard a crunching movement off in the distance. The ground was frosted with a temperature of 21* and the crunching sound was real brief so I actually wasn't sure if it was a couple steps from a deer or just a squirrel. I turned my head scanning the area in the direction of the sound for about 3 to 4 minutes looking for the source of the crunching that I heard. I didn't see anything or hear anymore movement and figured that it must have been a squirrel. Then about a minute after I turned my head away, I heard two buck grunts coming from the same general area where I had heard the brief movement a few minutes beforehand. The area where I heard the movement and now heard the buck grunts from, consists of a decent sized pond situated about 115 yards from my tree stand. The area bordering the east side of the pond is a thick bedding area that I leave as a sanctuary on my property, only going through there if I have to track a hit deer through that area. Scanning this area from my stand, I still didn’t see any deer and I didn't hear anymore movement, so I believed that the buck I heard was slowly cruising through the bedding area looking for any receptive does. I waited another couple minutes to see if the buck that made the grunts would come into view to determine if he was traveling away from my stand area or towards my stand area. I still wasn’t hearing any more movement and still had no deer come into view. So, at this point I grabbed my deer call and made two doe in estrous bleats with it. After about 30 seconds, I could hear the crunching movement of a deer walking on the frosted leaves on the forest floor in my direction from the pond area. Then, after about another 30 seconds the buck finally came into view. It was an 8 point buck, slowly walking down towards my stand area. At this point the buck was about 40 yards away moving through some brush and was walking slowly, stopping every few steps, turning his head looking back and forth trying to find the doe that he heard make the doe in estrous bleats. Within a few more seconds, the buck eventually worked his way down to an opening in front of my stand offering me a 35 yard shot. My shot hit its mark and I harvested an 8 point buck that I called in with my deer call. I've experienced success calling some deer to my calls but this was the first time that I actually harvested a deer that I called in...pretty exciting to say the least. I had passed on this buck during bow season at about 11 yards and I passed on a 70 yard shot at him yesterday chasing a group of does, but now this late in the season and offering such a chip shot he was out of passes.
    5 points
  17. I caught this guy recently and after I skin him , he should make a good predator bait.
    4 points
  18. Man if you can smell estrous driving down the road you must be one hell of a wing man in a bar!!! Lol
    4 points
  19. Why you gotta shit on the guys thread?
    4 points
  20. 4 points
  21. Regardless of the scout rule, does anyone else remember wolc saying that old, rutted up matures taste awful ? Now we are hearing he wants big bucks for more meat..... The tables have turned. Wolc, I'm glad you giving your deer and extra 2 years to live and enjoying more meat for your family. As I've always said, those that say old deer taste bad - have never ate an old deer. Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
    4 points
  22. Sorry I can move if you want Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    4 points
  23. 4 points
  24. Today’s bow hunt in 3S is sponsored by F&S Maple Venison Breakfast Sausage recipe that I made this week. Wouldn’t mind slapping together another 10# of that, and then having some “splash around” meat to try some of Chef’s charcuterie. Good luck today kidZ! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    4 points
  25. My girlfriend thinks I’ve lost it. Bailed out of work a couple of hours early, plowed the driveway, loaded the wood stove, and now I’m sitting in a tree overlooking a small turnip patch. I’m armed with nothing but my phone and video camera. I’ve been seeing a good buck but I don’t have a tag. I really just enjoy this more and more as I get older!
    4 points
  26. I got out Thanksgiving Morning with my stepson for our 3rd, and possibly final sit for the year together. The 35 mph winds and snow squalls wasn't stopping him from wanting to fill a tag. We chose a ground blind that i felt would be tucked in out of the wind more than most places and not far from a bedding area.. First whitetail to show was a fawn, it stepped out from cover and fed out in front of us, a few moments after entering, another bigger bodied deer appeared right behind it feeding away. We watched them for awhile waiting on more. After 15-20 minutes, nothing else showed up. And these 2 had made their minds up that they were moving on, So we decided to attempt a shot at the bigger of the 2. He had a buck tag, a doe tag, and I had 2 doe tags that could be filled for the area. So we elected to get him his first deer by rifle regardless. Well what we thought was a doe, especially by how it was acting with and around the fawn. Ended up being his first buck ever, he was super pumped. I can't explain how happy I am for him, how happy he was for himself! We could literally see zero sign of antlers over the deer's head, Not that it matters it was his first and he is pumped to say the least! I couldnt be more happy for him. Bucks tagged legal and in the freezer! I brought my tripod I use for predator hunting to help him to my best ability. He split that bucks ticker in 3 pieces with a 140gr ELD at 120 yrds and it still ran a good 50 yards!! Kids a sniper in the making! That morning he learned what it was like to enter the tip of a sharp knife into a nice warm deer stomach! that irreplaceable sound and instant smell of a stomach deflating! LOL!! i hadn't laughed so hard in a long time, I tried to warn him to turn his knife around that you'd be better this way especially working around that stomach of his with the initial incision lol. He insisted it was how his dad showed him.. Lucky for him Im a good guy, and instead of only one set of blessed field dressing covered arms, there were 2 since he couldn't hold his own stomach together lol!! It'd be nice to get out and fill a doe tag or 2 before seasons end together. And a selfie after the shot!
    4 points
  27. Stopped at Sloop en route to my buddy’s wedding in Wappingers Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    3 points
  28. You love to throw digs wolc and I would be happy to compare the maturity of the bucks I killled in my first 8 years vs your 40years of hunting and the answer is no. As I said, all solo. No “scouts” at all.
    3 points
  29. The shed or room where people have the beetles work smell bad. The final product skull I receive never smell. It always took months. Not sure how some people have such a quick turnaround. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    3 points
  30. More quality time with my wife ( she's watching me type this )
    3 points
  31. Careful Man. I broke my self imposed rule I made a couple months ago that I would no longer Engage in stupidity with others on this site and try to enjoy the site more. I really didn't think that one was so far lost. Lol. I'm Out! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    3 points
  32. They just don't come any tougher than wooly. He's still around, just really busy. Was wondering about some of the members mentioned too. Hope they are all ok? When I go to the clearing at the end of the path, have a huntingny GTG and talk smack about me!!!!! The first deer season, after I reach the clearing, I'll come and sit with each and every one of ya's!!
    3 points
  33. Happy Thanksgiving ! We used to do a family hunt Thanksgiving morning, which was a tradition in my family dating back well before I was even thought of. My uncle is the only remaining blood that hunts and he's had a pile of surgery's and side effects won't allow him in the stand. My bro in law and father in law hunt, but aren't typically able to make it so this year I decided I was going outside the "legal" family and just asking my buddy's who love to put in stand time. So,[mention=5278]The_Real_TCIII[/mention] , my fishing buddy and my dad headed down to our camp in Franklinville. We were greeted with high winds, some rain, some snow, some more winds and some ice pellets. It was a tough sit this am for sure. Once the wind died down I had a great feeling we were gonna have some action. All I kept hoping for was to hear somebody's gun roar, all am long.... Not a deer seen by the 4 of us, so TCiii and I did a slow mooch towards my dad and my buddy. Cell service is awful and TCiii and I were slowly making our way along when I got a text from him and knew I was a bit ahead of him on our parallel drive. Then the phone rang, and TCiii had a a couple doe sneak between us right back to where we had come from. I decided to get up a touch higher where I could see a clearing in the hardwoods and wait. A few minutes went by when I caught a glimpse of a deer heading up the hill right at me from the opposite direction. I saw a rack, that was at/outside the ears and looked fairly tall. At that moment, regardless of age, size, or inches I knew I wanted to take him. I dialed in the scope and waited for a shot. The only one I got was a walking, heavy quarter too, and when I sent it I immediately saw a giant hole in his side as he piled away right down towards TCiii. I started my track and had good blood right away and a clear disturbance from him running. He went about 80-100 yards and I found him laying under an apple tree trying to get up. I gave him some time to "go to the light" and he finally mustered up enough to get up on all fours so I sent another round his way (still have to do autopsy to verify I hit/missed). He gave up and I waiting to TC to come so we could walk up together. Turns out, my dad had gotten out of his stand and headed to the ridge for a better view and must have bumped this deer back to me. He was full of #1 and #2 more than I've ever seen on any deer, so he must have been laying there all morning. What a great Thanksgiving it was, and I was glad to spend it with my hunting Family. I am blessed to have punched 2 buck tags, that's for sure ! First kill with the 308. Hornady SST 165grain did awful things to him.... #Team1000 Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
    3 points
  34. 9F this afternoon,running out of season and places to hunt Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  35. Lol. This guy kills a 130 inch 8 point in the morning and poaches this brute in the afternoon in Ohio..A 1 buck a year state. Hefty price tag but a slap on the wrist all in all. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  36. Today is my last chance for the season... Saw 4 flatheads this morning and had a swing and a miss... 150 yd shot . I'm crying..lol. beautiful day today regardless
    2 points
  37. Wolc's perfect target. Get Em,Get Em,Get Em! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  38. I mentioned earlier, that I completely disagree with the scout theory as I've never had that experience. But, this year my 8 and 10pt both "mature" were solo. PB with bow. Solo PB with the gun. Solo PB with ML. Solo PB with Xbow. Solo I recall a heavy 8pt in Franklinville that was dogging does in late season gun, and he was behind them, but I equated that to rut behavior, as he was grunting and had his nose to the ground After reviewing the memory book, the only "mature" bucks I've shot have been solo or with a doe. Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
    2 points
  39. What a day of football tomorrow: Ravens/Bills 49ers/Saints Chiefs/Patriots Seahawks/Rams Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  40. 12 Tom's just strolled through. 7, followed by 5 more a few minutes after. One of them, literally had its beard dragging through the snow. #wrongtimeofyear Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
    2 points
  41. I still love being out there and I still enjoy taking a nice deer, but now that I'm 64, I'm well aware of all the work I'll need to do right after the gun goes off. Thinking about that when I see a big buck sure helps to eliminate any buck fever. "The fun's over when the gun goes off!"
    2 points
  42. Up and at em, Atom Ant. Prob too old for some. Coffee, shower, then off to the creek bed. Hoping to get it done today. Anything without spots is in trouble. Let too much meat walk by this year. Not today! Good luck to all the hearty. It’s cold out lol. Any trip you come back from was a success! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  43. Haha. If you notice, I don’t bother with the shat storms anymore. He is tedious and I teach enough of those types in MS everyday-wanna be noticed but little to offer worth noting. Most of my storm related posts are PSAs to those who either don’t know him or those who are getting sucked in the vortex. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  44. I also really wants Hunting.NY shirt! Thanks for the reminder TF! Santa may be my only hope with this one!!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  45. I’ve posted before that we’ve got a four year tradition of filling my landowner’s tag on Black Friday with our grandson Jake from Rochester. On Friday we got a little screwed up with the combine cutting the corn that we border. We sat in our money spot overlooking a five acre old hayfield that I keep brush hogged, but didn’t see a deer on that sit. They were cutting again Saturday morning so we didn’t go out and figured we’d go for an afternoon sit over the cut cornfield. They were still cutting in the afternoon, but on the other side of the field so we opted to go back to the same stand we sat in on Friday. About 4:00 pm we had a short snouter come out milling around, followed by another, and then mommy joined them. Kept checking them out through the scope and mommy wasn’t much bigger than her fawns. I told him let’s be patient and wait for others. A few minutes later he spots a bigger deer slinking through the woods following the doe group. Get the scope on it and see small antlers. He comes out sniffing around the doe and she takes off back into the woods with her fawns following. Deer are gone from the field. Damn. 4:25 now and I’m regretting my decision to be patient. Legal time was 4:38, so Jake is watching the clock, and a couple of minutes later we see a small doe come out of the far corner about 200 yds. Watch it through the scope and see mommy in the tree line. She comes out to feed with her fawn and they are facing us, no shot opportunity. Clock is ticking and she will not turn broadside. Head down feeding, occasionally up to look around and back to feeding always facing directly toward us. 4:36 now and Jake calls the two minute warning. Cmon doe, turn, will ya? Finally she quarters slightly, and Jake says is that your shot? Bang - doe drops in place. What time is it Jake? 4:37, no, just clicked to 4:38. Shot clock expires and so did the doe. Forgot to take a field pic, and he was cold so we went back to the house and I went to get it with the tractor. Four years/four does in a row with him now. Can’t wait til he’s old enough to pull the trigger himself!
    2 points
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