Doc

Hey .... When you gotta go, you gotta go. And there's not always a whole lot of options. Often, I find myself in denial, pretending the urge will go away. Of course it never does. It just becomes and emergency that will not wait for a dash back to the car or off to some convenience store .... lol. The paper is for obvious reasons, but also doubles as a warning to others not to step there ... Now that would be a nasty situation.

OK! So that's the way it's done. Good job ..... Great story. And another one falls to the mighty .270 .... lol.

Just like my ancient ancestors, I eventually came out of the trees and am now a ground dweller. Actually, I have a phobia about heights, and have learned the art of ground-stand construction. Not only does it avoid my "heights thing", but I have also come to prefer the excitement involved with taking on whitetails in an eyeball to eyeball state. It doesn't get any more exciting than having a deer on the opposite side of your stand, so close you could reach out and touch them. Yes I do believe it is a handicap, but then challenge is the main reason for my hunting. Sit or stand? .... both. I have an aluminum collapsible stool with a canvas top that I have used for 15 years now. I prefer standing, but these old legs need a rest once in a while, so I do both standing and sitting. From this point on, through the rest of the gun season, I will be still-hunting since all the natural daylight patterns are busted and the deer are in full survival mode. No stool carried along for that. When I need a sit-down, there are plenty of logs to sit on. I generally put on a very, very slow walk into the wind for about 10 - 15 minutes and then find the nearest big tree and stand there for about the same amount of time checking out every inch of ground ahead of me (often with binoculars), and then move slowly ahead again for 10 or 15 minutes. Pretty effective way of sneaking up on bedded deer. You don't cover a lot of ground, but you do cover it thoroughly. I'll be heading out this afternoon to get into a still hunt, taking advantage of this noisy wind. It's bucks only for me now, and I have a few places that have been productive in the past.

I seldom take any pictures of does. Also, I was working at warp-speed trying to get them off the hill and out of the heat. By the time I got them gutted, it was already close to 50 degrees with the sun beating down on them ..... And I still had to get them off the hill (2 deer at once). It seems the older I get the more I wind up in situations that test my endurance ... lol. It gets pretty time consuming and tiresome to drag one deer a ways and then climb back uphill to get the next one, all the while carrying a gun and pack. I didn't take the ATV up (like a dummy), so it was all hand dragging. What I did do, was to take some pictures at the processor's place. I have no idea how many deer he had there but it was a crazy scene. And some of the racks that I saw were just awesome. I have to download them from the camera, and I will post a few.

We have small game hunting going on from September right up to opening day, and shots can be heard all around the valley even during the summer. Definitely there is a whole lot of shooting during the day before season. Actually the sound of gunfire is pretty common and expected. So if the deer get all paranoid and start to hug the ground with every shot that is fired, I guess that by the time opening day rolls around, they must be all dug into the ground in some perfect hiding area. But then we know that isn't so. I think the deer become conditioned to gun shots until the shots are at them. They seem to know the difference. I found it kind of interesting that almost all of the shots on opening day were taken in the 1st half hour of the morning. To me, it signified that it took about 1/2 hour of shooting and hunter invasion for almost the whole deer population to "wise-up". So there are things that do put them into survival mode. But I don't think a few shots the night before really does that all by itself.

So, I guess the quantity and patterns of shooting varied depending on where you hunt. That's not surprising. Over the decades, I believe that shooting has gotten a lot lighter, and this year was no exception. The cars in the state parking lots have lessened in number, The cars along the road have gotten a whole lot fewer. These are observations made from the late 50's to today and are subtle changes each year that one would not notice without looking at a long period of time. I think there are a ton of reasons for the changes. The fewer shots I believe are due to the improvements in clothing such that people can stay in one spot for the entire day. No walkers - no deer moving. The shot patterns make that obvious. You have this rash of shots clustered right around daybreak (when hunters are moving to their stands) and then it tapers off to near nothing (when hunters have gotten all hunkered into their stands). Another thing that I have noticed is that hunters today tend to hunt the first part of the day and then take off for breakfast or lunch and only a few of them ever come back. And one last observation that I am sure I will be seeing later this season (like all recent years) is that most of the hunters are opening day hunters only. From here on out, it will be very, very quiet. It will at times seem like there really is no hunting season in progress. The drives of the old days are almost completely gone and hunters have learned the frustration of trying to sit with no other hunters moving around in the woods (moving deer).

Congratulations to your buddy. That is a great deer.

Ok, I can now officially say that he .270 works awesome ....... twice. It works good at 150 yards and it works good at 15 yards.....lol.

Ok, we finished off this year's opening day. It's the big one. So what were your impressions about the activity and participation? I noted that the busiest part of the day was the half hour before legal shooting time. During that 1/2 hour it really sounded like the "old days", But then things started slowing down (just about the time it was legal to be shooting). By 8:45, it was already starting to get to a point where shots were a long ways apart. That was when I added my two shots and filled my permits. After that things really got slow, and by 9:15, the shooting was basically over. My wife drove down the valley and told me that the two state parking lots were half empty. Yesterday afternoon, it was like there was no deer season going on at all, judging from the shots. I've heard more shots from squirrel hunters during small game season. So now I am curious. What was it like where you are hunting? And if it was like our area, what do you make of all this silence for an opening day? By the way, when I went over to the deer processors, it looked like they were having some kind of record day there and some of the bucks that I was seeing were absolutely huge. So maybe the few shots that were being fired were making each shot count. Oh one more thing. Now that rifles are legal in Ontario County, I didn't hear a single 5-shot (lets empty this gun out as fast as possible) volley. Any connection?

I think I will be hunting pretty casually today. Mostly just getting out to stretch the legs a bit. probably be doing a lot of ducking and diving trying to avoid falling limbs .... lol. Maybe be getting some wing-shooting practice as the deer go tumbling by in the wind. I heard there were going to be 60 MPH wind gusts today. Listening to things starting to howl out there right now.

2 antlerless permits filled. Now it gets a bit more difficult .... lol.

Yeah, that's what I am hoping. If the guys make a lot of noise coming into the woods and stink the area up real good, the nocturnal patterns won't matter. But I thought it was kind of interesting that I had all kinds of daylight activity all summer long until the leaves dropped.

Well today was the first card-pull with a three-day spread of only nocturnal deer. That's bucks and does. I thought that was interesting. I've been noticing a slow shift ever since the leaves came off. Before trail cams, I never realized that there was a slow shift toward nocturnal movement and eventually now total nocturnal activity, even prior to gun season. I know rut has an effect, but I always thought that the additional activity brought on more daytime sightings. That doesn't seem to be the case with my trail-cam results. Anybody getting any daytime pictures of deer or is this anomaly just a local trend?

Be careful ..... it won't be starting out at 50 degrees. Layers guys. Big trick will be staying awake after 10:00 am.....lol.

The last time I tried to tough-it-out in high winds, there was crap falling down all around me from the trees. And on my way home, there was a huge tree down across the trail that I walked in on. I would rather spend my time watching for deer than looking up for heavy falling debris ... lol.

Great views and rifle rests all around. view from old road at 20 yards Cluster of oaks that have been enhanced a bit. It provides a 6' wide wall. This one has been very productive. This is my version of a food plot .... lol. Basically it is simply a remote part of the yard and was established completely with a lawn mower .... lol. Old oak at the edge of what used to be a field That tree is a bit more than 4' in diameter View at 20 yards. No, you probably can't really see it, but then, that is the object....lol. It is exactly dead center in the picture. I've never been caught by any deer in this one. It pretty much can't be done as long as I get the wind right. I have yet to take a picture of my one and only tree-stand. It is about 10' off the ground, has an aluminum ladder, has railings all around and a 5' X 5' platform ....... And I still have trouble letting go of the tree to shoot. I'm not real fond of heights.

I'm sitting here listening to the wind just roaring out there. What the heck ..... is this bow season going to blow right through to the end? That's ridiculous. Unfortunately I haven't really practiced shooting deer that were tumbling along, being blown across the ground. And you poor guys in the treestands, I hope you have practiced up shooting your bow one-handed. You'll be hugging your tree with the other. Sounds like a good day to get out and clean out my ground stand for Saturday.

The problem with warm temperatures is that everybody finds a nice comfy place to sit and stays in one place all day long. Nobody moving deer.

Did they cape it out or just hack the head off at the neck? If he ever does get it back, it may not be suitable for mounting. I would be surprised if they had the gonads to take it to a taxidermist, but that is exactly where I would start looking. I would report it to the DEC also. They may come across disposed of remains. It's real hard to figure out what gets into the minds of these dirt-bags. What could possibly possess anyone to do that?

Wow! That was a great shot. Where did the other shots go ..... lol. Seriously ... That is some great shooting.

The snow is a great story-teller. It might even change your mind about where you want to be Saturday. I went out yesterday, and was amazed at just what deer there are in areas that I had written off. I have a couple of other areas that I want to check out today. Here's the deal. A hunter walking through an area does not drive every deer from the area. Chances are with small game season having been in effect for weeks, they are only mildly irritated that you came along and within a couple hours won't be giving it another thought.

Even when you think you have done everything right and are successful, be careful about too much detail. Any little thing that can be picked apart will be eagerly attacked by some of the buzzards that get into a feeding frenzy here....lol.

Exactly the same thing that I have observed. Even as a kid, before I was old enough to hunt, I remember waiting for the bus and hearing an almost constant barrage of shooting. And yet they claim that there are so many more deer these days than there was back then. There certainly seemed to be a lot more hunters in the woods. Today there is a flurry of shots from well before legal shooting hours until around 9:00 or 10:00 and then it really starts to get quiet. And like you said, once the opening weekend is over, state parking lots are almost deserted. I don't think we have a shortage of license holders, but we do have a shortage of dedicated enthusiastic hunters that are out hunting hard and as often as they can. The bad news .... there are always just enough guys out to keep the deer in a survival mode, so nothing gets any easier as far as finding deer out in their normal daylight patterns. Not enough guys to keep the deer moving, but enough to keep them spooked. It will be interesting to see how the addition of rifles in our county will effect the participation. I have been hearing guys from all around the valley sighting in their rifles (at least I hope that's all they are doing .... lol). So there might be a brief re-birth of enthusiasm this year.

If there is anyway that you can get an experienced loader to sit down with you, by all means, do it. There are so many things that can be read wrong, or mis-understood that someone watching or instructing you could head off for you. I did all the reading first and then had my Brother-in-law sit down and watch while I first reloaded, and he gave me some tips that weren't in the books, or that were in the books but I hadn't really understood them right. He saved me messing up a lot of components and perhaps even creating some dangerous loads.

First time out with a rifle? ..... You bet I'm psyched! I had deer all bow season that have been just out of bow range. Boy do I have a surprise for them. There is a lot of pressure to figure out exactly the right spot for a stand. I have several real good spots that have been traditionally pretty good. But opening day is a very special time in the season. It has to be done right. A mistake of choosing the wrong stand could make the difference between getting a good buck or not. Yeah, there is a lot of luck involved, but that opening morning stand selection can go a long ways toward putting that luck on my side. My thoughts and energies are starting to slip out of archery mode and into gun mode right now.