Leaderboard

Out again this morning. It was Waylon's turn again and he was the star of the show. Got some great video of the retrieves.

Waylon on his way back to me with one of the birds. Such a pretty sight.

I go through my day pack, which has all my essentials for deer hunting in it. I make sure i have a handful of candy bars, a bottle of water, all the basics. Make sure my favorite hats and gloves are there. I shoot throughout the year so I am confident that I can grab either of my standards and be all set. Last year my goal was to hunt only black powder (patch and ball, open sights). I got a four point with my percussion rifle, and oopsed when I took out my .308 on a real sloppy day at the end of the season...and finished out my tags. This year, my goal is to hunt strictly with my flintlocks. No excuse not to. The only exception will be for if I need to hunt a back ridge, where the deer are consistently well out of range necessitating the modern crap.

I had one of those rope hoists in the garage . It was hard to control and it didn't always catch right like it was supposed to . I bought a 2500# battery operated winch and installed it which made the job easier . Now , both of my sons that hunt have installed winches . I made a video several years ago .

The game in the area I was hunting was amazingly abundant! Nice mixture of farm and woods! Some big bears!

This is the time of the year I start getting my hunting gear ready, my leather boots are treated, clothes are in a large metal wardrobe, they get a good dose of permethrin. The choice of what firearms I am going to use, hunting ammo loaded and tested on the bench sighted in for where I am hunting. Knives, Binoculars ropes compass etc. are checked off and put in a place where they are readily available to go. Don't know what firearm I will use this year, the past eight or nine years I have killed Deer with different guns and calibers and am looking to use something new again this year. Season will be on us before you know it. Al

Dandy Photo of Waylon! Al

I use Long Island bow hunting as my prep for the ADK woods. Still looking for a truck and have a whole bunch of other things to do. Starting to feal the itch!

For a change I think I will get the old Black Diamond 50 cal out of moth balls for the muzzleloading season coming up. I want to mess around shooting with the See All sight a bit more to get comfortable and confident with it. I will be sticking with two Pyrodex pellets and Hornady's XTP in a sabot, had good luck with it in the past and see no reason to change the load. I will make sure to unload at the end of the season LOL! Al

I find the toughest job of deer processing is separating the silver skin from the meat. Some is tough, others not so much. Depends on the age of the animal. I do not like it and is very time consuming getting it all off. Any secrets I've missed?

Hands down the best solution

Here is the second part of the butchering video, I have processed a pile of Deer in my day but I have to admit I learned a couple of tips from this gal. The old saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" is not true, I learn new things all the time. Both the above video and this one are very good. Al

Found the other side to the one found on Saturday. Great morning to be out. Seem to be in shed hunting mode.

Yes, there are several ways I can get it mounted but I like the receiver hitch wall mount method best because of portability, making it is easy to move with the pull of one pin. I have two tractors and my truck with receiver hitches so I want to be able to use it wherever it happens to be needed. Al

Probably just need the winch and two big eye hooks in your barn.

I have given 2 Turkey Hunting Seminars. I only got 5 men in the 2nd one. No young people interested. And,I put flyers out as well. Probably won't donate my time again. Welcome back . Fall is almost here!

What time of year do you go up? Making my first ADK excursion this weekend and was thinking about doing a little scouting while there "just in case". Do they timber harvest in the ADK's at all? I'd be focusing on 2ish year cuts if they do. A lot of my hunting in AL is on state land and you get a lot of activity around that stuff vs. the generic big woods. Is there any hunting pressure in the ADKs?

Nice to hear from you. I've hunted the public land up in Roscoe for years a great palce!