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We had a short fun one tonight! 10/17/22 Luna and I went to track a buck that was shot in a bean field tonight. The hunter said there was a total of about 30 deer in the field. When he shot the buck at 100 yards, he was sure he saw hair flying, but couldn’t find it, or any blood. He had a general direction of travel, but couldn’t tell because of so many deer running everywhere. We started at the hit site but couldn’t find anything, so I told the hunter and his two friends to keep looking in the field and I’d work Luna closer to the woods to see if we could pick anything up. We were about 50 yards away and Luna started pulling hard. She took me to the woods and went a short distance up a trail, then turned around and came out and went to the next one…nope that’s not it either. She liked the third trail and away we went. 40 yards in and I spotted blood. I hollered out to the guys to come my way as I hung a ribbon and marked it on the gps. They arrived shortly after and Luna continued up the trail. 50 yards further and there he was! Nice buck! He died 800 yards from my swamp property.

` 10/18/22 Luna and I went on a track this morning for a four pointer that had been shot last night. The hunter watched it leave the field hunched up. He waited a while, then wanted to find blood before backing out. He found first blood 50 yards in, then backed out. Great call on getting out, he really helped his chances of a recovery by doing that. Luna locked on and took us into the tall swamp grass and to a deep creek that she wanted to cross. It was too deep for us to cross there so we flagged it and went in search of a better crossing location. We found one not too far away where a small log was across the ditch. The hunter went first and slipped off the wet log and filled his boots. I sent Luna across next and she displayed her excellent balance. I was able to get across and stay dry due to an extended hand from the hunter. I carried Luna back to where she had wanted to cross and put her down. She immediately locked back on and took us into a very thick bedding area, checking and rejecting trails along the way. She led us straight to the dead, but still warm buck at 400 yards. He was in his first bed. We had heavy rain last night and had zero blood on the track. Luna girl rocked it!

Had these knives made for giveaway for 500th deer off my place as well as 30 year anniversary of owning hunting camp property. Handles still being final shaped and polished.. the 3 with orange bands are give away knives as the knife maker is also a butcher. So one for bow one for gun and one for biggest body at his butcher shop.

My buddy sends me this pic. of a pig of a buck that his cousin shot back on thier family farm in Illinois, what a huge buck all around.

Mr. Bill and I were out pheasant hunting had an awesome time . Took Cooper. He did great he treed a pheasant. ( I didn't know they would land in a tree) but I shot and missed lol we did get a Hen. Cooper did good he will catch on by the end of the season . He is putting 2 and 2 together . Not he had his treat and Bath and a massage and is sleeping Sent from my SM-A515U using Tapatalk

Ten Point ! Don’t recall the model , but not being able to always draw my compound again I’m grateful for it , come on Nov 5th !

those inner loins just need an extra shake of hot sauce, they're fine.

Had a permanent stand the deer would peek over the top of ridge at if it was empty they would pop over the top if it was occupied they slunk away out of sight.. put another portable stand up 50 yards from previous leaving the permanent up..the deer looked at permanent stand but met their end from the portable... deer pattern us as much as we try to pattern them.

Indeed it was, there was a huge downpour about an hour before he showed up. Good to know. This is who I'm hoping it was. Pretty sure that is a mature buck.

I know many of us know this but thought I'd share anyway for those that don't. If you figure in NY State, most fawns are born from mid-May through mid-June, then you can assume that June 1st would be the prime day for fawn births. Count back 202 days for gestation to November 11 (prime day) so the first heat comes in about 2 weeks earlier or October 28th until November 25th each year.

I like when people ask when the rut will be "This year" well as far as i have ever seen same as last year and the year before etc, now there are factors as far as how much action you see but the rut is basically the same time every year....

10/16/22#1Kunox and I arrive at 7:30 this morning to track a bear that was shot last night. After a thorough search, the only evidence of a hit was from the field where it was shot. This consisted of hair with skin attached. Zero blood anywhere. I believe this to be a grazing shot. They’re putting cameras out in the area to see if it shows itself.#2Kunox and I continued on to our second track. This was a confirmed gutshot from last night. The huntress was after her first deer and wanted it to be with a bow. The doe was shot in a large green field from a ground blind at 12 yards. Unfortunately it was low and the doe walked into the woods. At 11:00 last night, they went in and followed the bloodtrail about 100 yards before backing out. They did a great job of marking blood with toilet paper. Kunox took us to the doe who had gone a total of just under 1/2 a mile. Congratulations on your first deer Heather!#3Luna got the call for this one, much to Kunox’s dismay. The hunter shot this doe last night and recognized the dark blood he was seeing as liver blood. He did the smart thing and backed out after a short distance. Luna made a hunter happy after only 400 yards.#4Luna also got our last track of the day. This buck was shot this morning in a food plot at 100 yards. The hunter reported hitting it in the shoulder and a front leg wasn’t working after the shot. The best thing to do on a shoulder hit is to push immediately and keep them bleeding. The hunter and his wife (actually his wife, since he’s color blind) followed the bloodtrail for 300 yards, bumping him once. They lost blood at that point. We arrived about 6 hours after the shot. I figured we were going to have a long track in the hilly, rocky terrain before catching up with the buck. Luna locked on immediately, pulling hard the length of the track. We got to the last blood which was marked with an orange glove, and I marked it on the gps and we continued. 200 yards later we found the nice 8 point dead. It turns out the buck had not been hit in the shoulder. Looked like liver area, angling down through the guts. This really drives home the point that you can’t always believe what you thought you saw! I didn’t stay for the field dressing since I was running late for a birthday party fo

It was my turn last night. No tracking necessary :-). 3 tracks scheduled for today already. The first is for a bear.

Raw clams

Did some more scouting today, rearranged one of my cams and setup my tree stand on that spot in my last post. Looks like he is indeed a buck. Maybe one of you can help me, in the video below you can see he is smelling the air. Do you think he caught my scent from 3ish hours beforehand? https://photos.app.goo.gl/N9pGKhzX69xWypxu5 This was left for me the very next day, I'm assuming its the same buck.

There is always alot of debate around this topic. While fun, I don't think it's the best time to kill a specific buck or even a few target deer due to the uncontrollable nature of the rut. I take my time each year then to travel and see what seat time brings, but I generally have more confidence in early and late season activity based off pattern behavior. Hunting NY a lot, I haven't seen a ton of rutting action after regular season opens. Largely due to pressure I am sure, influencing where/when/how that happens. I can recall maybe 4-5 times in all my years and most of them were at one specific property that was very low pressure comparatively and annoyingly over the border where we couldn't hunt. Last year, I went to Ohio after opening weekend of regular here in NY. Chose to hunt the weekend with the bow in Ohio and be there for opening day of their regular on the Monday after T-Day. I saw what inarguably would be the best rutting action I've ever witnessed from a stand on that Saturday. You'd have thought it was Nov 11. Multiple shooter bucks working around a doe group in a bedding area and a knockdown fight between the two largest. It definitely drove home the point for me that I've heard alot of midwest/experienced bowhunters say that they see more bucks during the first few weeks of November, but that the really large mature ones are more vulnerable on the tail end of the rut around the week of T-Day.

Getting out for the first cpl of hrs on this beautiful 37 degree morning. Heading out to 6k state land. Good luck to anyone going out. Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

Sure, you can never have too many pictures of racks anyhow:

I agree my favorite time of year is that last week of October. Bucks want to get the does and most the does aren’t ready yet so bucks are searching non stop looking for the first doe in heat.

x2. Made me rethink my desire to hunt one with a recurve and perhaps at all. lol

As @Jeremy K once told me walking into Gold's gym to meet @blackbeltbill: Swole is the goal, size is the prize! #NeverSkipLegDay

10/14 second night out, 2 sets made with a brand new hunter with us. Should have been a double but we got one.

Yes sir. You hit the nail on the head. This thread comes up every year. And my answer is always the same. Get out as much as you can from Halloween to the end of November. But the "magic" day is November 10th. And the five days before and after. These are the days when you'll see bucks standing in the middle of a field in daylight. Running across the road in front of your truck. Blindly following the scent of a doe coming close to estrous. These are the take your vacation, sit as long as you can in the woods days. Happens the same time every year.

I actually laugh sometimes at meetings etc . People being very fake or making plans that really only make themselves feel good that they think they are important when in reality is just usually a waste of everyone's time. Or that this meeting or task is so very important when really in the big picture it isn't at all. For instance the term "awareness". I am very leary of this as it's used for all these campaigns for very serious things. A drive to raise "awareness" of breast cancer or something of that sort. Cause no one has heard of it? If youre not aware of something like this by now I'm not sure what else there is to say. So where and what is this money actually going to? Now if it's for research or families battling it I'm all for. But how much of this "awareness" money never goes anywhere it should.. I guess as I get older I've become more suspicious. But on the flip side I've also become very much more tolerant to the lives of other people. I really feel to let people live life as they like and most things are not my business or anything I need to worry about. I can sit down with about anyone even if we disagree and share a good story. But if someone lies to me we are probably done. And people that create or cause their own drama I have no time for. And I've also learned to appreciate the good folks I have in my life and not give a minute of mine to the yahoos out there. And also learned not to sweat the small stuff, which is most stuff. Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

So after having some time to reflect I wanted to share a almost 3 year journey that came to a end this weekend. During the summer of 2020 I got my first picture of him, the big 7. At that point he was just a after thought, there were numerous other bucks on my cameras and he was just one of many. As time went on I got more and more pictures of him. I had my first encounter with him on 11/15/2020 he blew past me chasing a doe offering me no shot opportunity. My trail camera 150 yards away captured this picture of him 15 minutes later. It was around this time that I started to become obsessed. I spent the rest of the 2020 season never seeing him again during daylight, but getting almost nightly pictures of him on camera. This continued until the bucks shed their antlers for the winter and I lost track of him. Fast forward to the summer of 2021 I moved some stands and cameras around having better patterns on him and just waited. The work paid off when I got my first picture of him that year Season rolled around and got off to a good start, had some great encounters with some smaller bucks and lots of pictures of him on camera but no daylight sightings, and then it happened. He walked into my world. 42 yards and behind a downed tree. I could see his vitals were exposed but I was nervous of hitting too high, I drew my bow back and decided I would aim a tad on the low side. Either hit the downed tree or him right in the heart…. Well Tree one, chef zero. This experience gave me some good insight into where he was traveling and A few weeks later I decided to move a camera and then a stand to better set up on him. I moved the camera and planned on going back the next day with my hunting partner to hang the stand I guess I should have just moved the stand the same day because he didn’t waste any time. I actually watched him walk right past that stand from 100 yards away. My next encounter with him came a few days later. I got a hit on one of my cell cams showing he and 2 other bucks were headed my way. I could now see him coming through the brush… just 3 more steps is all I needed. He froze dead in his tracks looking off into the distance. I grunted, he pawed at the ground with his hoof thrashed his antlers in the brush but wouldn’t budge. All of a sudden I hear a twig snap to my opposite side and that’s all it took him and the 2 other bucks he had in tow bounded off in the other direction. I look to my right and see another hunter with his climber on his back walking right towards me…. I wave him off and he moves back the way he came. Fast forward to 12/8/21 I’m in a stand deep in the Swamp and my hunting partner is in one of our early season stands that is on the route from food to bed. My phone buzzes and it’s a text from him. It’s a video of the 7 walking out of his bow range and sort of parallel to my position. He then tells me how cool the encounter was and that he’s still shaking. He says the buck is kind of headed my way but not really. About 15 min later while scanning I see antlers about 100 yards out but moving parallel to my position. All of a sudden he makes a 90 degree turn and is headed straight for me. He’s coming, just cross the creek all you gotta do is cross. He stops at the creeks edge and leaps across. I raise the cross bow, put the site on his heart and pull the trigger. I could have sworn I watched the lighted nock sink into his chest cavity. He leaps back across the creek, looks back at me and slowly walks away hunched up. I know this reaction…. Gut shot… dead deer but it needs time. I look around for the lighted nock and see nothing. It’s getting dark now. I back out and say I’ll come back in the morning. I come back in the morning and look for my arrow, blood, anything. I can find nothing except for white hair at the hit site I grid search for hours… nothing. A trail cam pic a few days later confirms it.. he’s fine I missed somehow and just gave him a haircut. It’s now summer of 2022 and the pictures start again Many pictures but no encounters. Season starts off great, get my hunting partner his first bow buck. I’m not seriously working him at this point, just sitting a oak tree that’s producing and seeing what’s out there. And then it happens antlers in the brush, I can swear it’s him. It’s getting dark but I can still see. If he clears that tree I’m shooting… he does and wham the arrow zips through him. Shot looks good a little high but good… I follow good blood for 250 yards before loosing it. Called deer search and they came out the next day… no dice I’m devastated I killed him and won’t find him. Search for days looking for birds, coyotes anything.. no dice. Fast forward to Friday October 14th I finish work early and head out to my stand. I’m in for about 15 min when I see my first deer. A small 5pt he comes and goes quickly. A little later I have a altercation with 2 hunters trying to hunt with crossbows out of season… they walked right under my stand. I also have pictures of these idiots stealing cell cams of mine. I yell at them and they head back to their car and leave. I figured I blew up the spot and I should leave but in the end decided to stay. It turns into a great sit… two smaller bucks come by and are sparing out of range. Some does join in the mix and decide to watch while they eat.. finally the commotion scares them off. The small bucks leave and the does come back and start eating. It’s getting close to sunset. About 30 Min to go when I see him. He’s 80 yards out and headed straight towards me he makes it to 20 yards and turns broadside slight quarter to or so I think. I draw my bow settle the pin on him and let one fly… he takes two big jumps stops stands there for a second and then takes off running. I hear what I think is a crash but I’m not sure. I climb down and check my arrow… it’s covered in dark blood and smells kind of sweet sour. I go look to where he stood before bolting and found 2 pin pricks of dark blood. I decided to back out go home and look in the morning. It was a long sleepless night I woke up on the hour every hours… finally at 5:30 I can’t take it any more and get dressed and head out to start my search. I go back to the pin pricks and see what I can find… nothing. The pin pricks were 5 yards from the power line cut. Let me look there. I step into the cut and shine my flashlight into the opening on the other side… OMG there he is. He didn’t even go 70 yards. I walk up to him and finally lay hands on my prize. He was quartered much harder than I thought, the arrow entered the chest cavity, hit both lungs, cut the diaphragm nicked the stomach hit intestines and exited out the back leg. I know I’m supposed to be ecstatic that I got him and don’t get me wrong I’m over the moon… but I’m also kind of sad he’s gone, sad this chase has ended and this chapter of my hunting career is over. I guess it’s time to move on and do some fishing, shoot a doe or two and get ready for the regular season      Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well sitting at 9200ft of elevation and i have a better signal than i have back in my house lol. So id thought id update yall. It is hot out here, not what we want obviously. First place we went was crazy driving up to it, definitely needs a serious truck to get up these single track dirt mountain roads. Thats spot didnt pan out, we did see elk and deer sign but the creeks were dried up. Which means the closest guaranteed water was a 3hr drive down the mountain to a stream we pasted. So that night we packed up and drove back into Salmon and slept in the truck in town. Formultated a plan for another spot I E scouted, was definitely going to be more crowded but appeared to have more water sources. So we got here yesterday setup camp and just glassed near by, talk to a few guys and we all have the same idea unfortunately. The plan this a.m. was get up and moving while still dark and get to the backside of these mountains were it appears there are some lakes. My buddy im with is...well he came out and told he never really trained to be in better shape for the hell we are getting into...so it has been slower moving than id like. Welp during the night we could here elk talkin on this mountain face, this a.m. as were ready to roll they start up again. No bugles but definitely elk. So we slip down from camp and setup in a spot where we can see this mt side. As daylight breaks i spot 2 elk up on its ridge. Switch from binos to my spotter, 2 cows estrus calling. Few hours later we circled to the side of a different mt were we can see the spot the cows were in and the likely pine thickets they are beded in. Now we wait for sun down when they will get on their feet again to go feed, hoping a bull is in tow. Cross your fingers for us!

Fable: DON'T ARGUE WITH DONKEYS OR DEMOCRATS The donkey said to the tiger: - "The grass is blue". The tiger replied: - "No, the grass is green." The discussion heated up, and the two decided to submit him to arbitration, and for this they went before the lion, the King of the Jungle. Already before reaching the forest clearing, where the lion was sitting on his throne, the donkey began to shout: - "His Highness, is it true that the grass is blue?". The lion replied: - "True, the grass is blue." The donkey hurried and continued: - "The tiger disagrees with me and contradicts and annoys me, please punish him." The king then declared: - "The tiger will be punished with 5 years of silence." The donkey jumped cheerfully and went on his way, content and repeating: - "The Grass Is Blue"... The tiger accepted his punishment, but before he asked the lion: - "Your Majesty, why have you punished me?, after all, the grass is green." The lion replied: - "In fact, the grass is green." The tiger asked: - "So why are you punishing me?". The lion replied: - "That has nothing to do with the question of whether the grass is blue or green. The punishment is because it is a sin for a brave and intelligent creature like you to waste time arguing with a donkey, and on top of that come and bother me with that question." The worst waste of time is arguing with the fool and fanatic who does not care about truth or reality, but only the victory of his beliefs and illusions. Never waste time on arguments that don't make sense... There are people who, no matter how much evidence or facts we present to them, are not in the capacity to understand, and others are blinded by ego, hatred and resentment, and all they want is to be right even if they are not. When ignorance screams, intelligence is silent. Your peace and quiet are worth more.

grizz scene in the Revenant gives me shivers

Barnett TS370

I think this all depends on how long the deer was laying gut shot. Shoot and gut within 30 mins. I would wash the cavity out best as possible and continue on not worrying about any meat spoilage. If has laid around a couple hours, probably toss the inner loins but i would still wash the cavity asap. Then judge what to cut out if any meat is bad. I never let me deer hang more than a day or two. They are in the freezer asap. It really depends on the situation and how gut shot it is. I have opened them up and its soup and then have had it hardly a mess. Always good to be careful though.

By chance do you have a picture of that buck?

Go buy my kid a beer...Ummm...soda! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

These next three days will drag ass.....I've got a 5 day weekend coming up . Fri-Tues and hoping to get a little more serious in hunting time. Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

I've always called 10/25 deer day. Killed a few on that day and from that day on I consider it good for the next month. Everyone likes to talk about the rut. But just before lockdown when the bucks are searching and the does haven't quite got there yet is always good. Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

Same time as every other year. Once October 25 hits consider it on at least in my area that’s what I see.

Sorry I was just having a bad day Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Back Straps

Just a little update on Teddi. She is thriving at WP. All her classes are going well with the exception of Russian. Why she took Russian her first year is beyond me. She likes challenges. She is a member of the Sandhurst team. ( Sandhurst was started in 1967 when RMAS presented West Point with a British Officer's sword to use as the prize for a competition to promote military excellence. It wasn't until 1975 that the competition began to resemble its current form with teams taking part in different challenges to test their military skills.) Last week she was Cadet of the week. We have been having a ball at the football games Tailgating and feeding at times 15 Cadets. It has been a wonderful experience. Go Army beat Navy!

Unfortunately…..another live one today…… 10/11/22 This morning Kunox and I tracked an 8 pointer that the hunter knew for a fact he had hit it in the shoulder. The buck was perfectly broadside at the shot. The hunter and buddies had tracked it last night for a couple hundred yards. Kunox extended the track another 400 yards, then we lost it. Toward the end of the 400 yards, we found two blood drops that were fresh, so we knew the buck was still alive. I had the guys stay put while Kunox searched the entire area. 4.3 miles worth. Apparently nothing vital was hit as we never found a bed or the deer. Kunox enjoyed some jerky on the way home, as evidenced by his grin.

I have a Ravin R10 ready to rock. Mostly so I can hunt with it should I have back issues on no notice. And yes, not in NY, but for Ohio and/or Missouri where they don't have lame laws. I will say I held the new KI one that is short this weekend in Ohio. Forget the model, but around $1,100 or so. I wish the frame wasn't shiny, but overall, I really liked that thing. It feels night and day different from my R10 which is full frame. I have to admit though, Xbows are pretty annoying to carry around and use in a stand. They feel alot more cumbersome than a bow. I prefer the bow significantly, for me.