New York Hillbilly

Despite all the very real challenges and hardships we face everyday; I hope everyone can find at least one thing to be thankful for today. Happy Thanksgiving!

A doe caught me off guard this morning as I was getting ready to leave. Figures, the whole hill is snow covered except where she was standing. But the wind was in my favor so I just stood still and she drifted off calmly. Managed to put another couple hours into this elevated blind I’ve been working on for weeks here and there. In it now, and being mostly closed in it feels pretty nice out of the wind. The one draw back though is; I am not a builder, so it feels a little wiggly to me. And, now I can’t get the theme song and opening scene from F Troop out of my head! : 0

Dead quiet again here. Except crows, turkeys and squirrels.

Pretty day in the woods, but dead quiet. One doe and fawn up hill about an hour ago. Otherwise nothing but red squirrels.

Gurgle gurgle and then back off come the hunting clothes. Well better here than up there in the wind I guess! Anyone else chasing deer this morning?

Repeated post. Not sure why? : )

Wow...what a buck! Fingers crossed he's still up and going for you to get a poke at him.

Clearly not what I’m wearing at the moment. Holy crap I’m cold in this wind!

This morning I picked option #3. Staring out window and ruminating. That is until around 10am. Then I went to shoot at a pumpkin at the same distance as the buck last night. I held in the middle of the pumpkin and shot low taking a swath put of the bottom along with dirt under it. Three more shots putting the cross hairs at the top edge of the pumpkin and all three shots through the middle of the pumpkin. Man that deer has no idea how lucky he was last night. Lesson learned. Headed out now for the last couple hours.

Same here, although with me still working full time at 63 (probably until I'm 80), time off can be a headache. I ended up taking off the next 2 weeks though, so I'll afford myself at least this morning to stay warm and attend to other things.

Sorry to hear. Stay safe! Went down the same road a year ago with bad surgery outcome. Damned near killed me. Literally! And gun season found me siting in a blind watching deer but unable to pull the trigger for fear of blowing my incision inside apart. I had several chances at the same really big buck within a few yards of me but could not muster the courage to risk pulling the trigger. My neighbor ended up shooting him.

Test question: 22 degrees + gusts at 29mph= 1. Freeze your ass and go anyway? 2.Stay in where it is warm and have breakfast? 3.Stare out the window for the next several hours in the warm house, and ruminate about how you should be outside freezing you ass chasing deer?

Just before sunset I watch a doe and her fawn enter the field above me, about 150 yards away. I watched them putter around there a bit, and then they walked the trail in front of me to the lower field. They passed about 60 yards, and I let them walk. About 15 minutes later here comes another deer into the upper field. This one is a nice 2.5 year old 8 point. For whatever reason it felt like my heart was gonna pound out of my chest. I was able to keep my head calm though and watched him feed in the upper field through my scope. I decided if I could get a good shot on him I would take it rather than wait for him to decide to follow the does because I was afraid it would be too dark. I let him browse around up there and kept the scope on his vitals. When he finally turned perfectly broadside, I even waited until his front leg on my side went forward, then held low with full intention to put it behind his elbow and into his heart. I pulled the trigger and he blew out of there like he was on fire. I waited a few minutes then got down, and slowly circled into the wind to try and get around in front of where he ran. I really though I would find him piled up as I circled to where he was standing when I shot. No blood, no hair, no deer! I got to where he was standing and there in the dirt directly under where he was standing is where the shot hit , leaving a gouge in the ground and dirt kicked all over from the miss. In hind site, I guess trying to hold so low was not such a good idea. Had I held mid body, I would be putting a pic of me and the deer on here. But, in the end it was a fun opening day, and I'm glad it was a clean miss rather than chasing a deer all over in the dark. : )

Back on stand. This time in the half built elevated blind. Sort of out of the wind (teeth chattering) and had to drag my ladder over here with my 4 wheeler because I now discovered I lost my truck key Fob!! I guess I’ll worry about that later. Yikes!!!! As I’m texting a close shot! Heart jump and instant warmth!

Very few shots heard this morning. The deer I saw so far are looking totally relaxed. With the cold though, it really had them on their feet and moving around.

Came out at 11. Toes finally thawed out. Man did they ache! Headed back out in a few,but this time sitting in the unfinished elevated box blind for the first time. At least my feet will not be on cold metal or the frozen ground. Let doe after doe walk by this morning. Three of them passed quietly together about 15-20 feet from the base of my tree. I can't believe there was not one buck in the crowd this morning. Let's see what the afternoon sit has to offer. Congrats to those who scored this morning!

Toes and phone freezing. Rest of me pretty toasty actually. Lots of does but no bucks yet. C’mon sunshine!

7m 6:36

Up...cleaned and stated pellet stove, made coffee, prepared plate of sausage gravy on toast, poked head out door before sitting down to eat. Stomach says let's go, heart says let's go, head says..."what are you, nuts!" Wow is it cold out there. I'll leave the house at the last possible minute for the icy ride and walk up the hill. I can be on stand in 15 minutes or less, so won't try to be sitting in the dark waiting any longer than necessary. Don't touch your tongue to the flag pole this morning! Good luck all!

If the deer cooperate, things should get busier here again soon! : )

Just rechecked all my stuff for morning. Looks like we may dodge any big snow here, but gonna be colder than a well diggers wallet. Sadly, I never finished my box blind, so I plan to teddy up to the point I'll look like Randy from the movie The Christmas Story. I hope I'll be able to bend my arms enough to shoulder my rifle. lol The silver lining (if there is any)to having been a front line health care worker thoughout Covid, who's health took such a beating I'm now 150 pounds lighter than when it started, I have a crap ton of clothes to cacoon in. Good luck folks, stay safe, and I look forward to seeing the pictures tomorrow.

My lifelong hunting partner, retired Army Major Uncle Bill will be with me in spirit. Other than that; now that he is gone, and my son grown and off living his own life in another State, I will be on my hill, hunting alone. I will go, but it will never be the same.

Doe 30 yards away, downhill from me and broad side. She has no idea I’m here. She gets a free pass!

Agree! My freaking phone would not allow pics. It kept saying do I want to manage my pictures. So after I posted here I started trashing pictures and it will let me take a pic but not video. Every time I hit video my phone freezes and I need to delete more pictures to get back to where I can at least do that. At 4:20 the buck comes running by again now from the opposite discretion with both hounds in pursuit but they stayed inside the edge of the woods. So I think they now have a split and are on two different deer. I figured if I could snap a pic like you said it would be better than nothing, but if I could have gotten video it would be game over for these two. I was not able to get either in the end Im headed to the house and they are still pounding up here!

Now I’m pissed! Just had a little 3 point buck come running from behind me and I could tell be chased but not sure by what. then here comes a big redbone or bloodhound mix along with a beagle mix older hound. I leaned out of the pop up blind and gave them hell and the beagle turned tail and left, but the big red hound totally ignored me and is up here running and baying with every step locked onto that buck. That hound and whoever owns him is gonna be getting a visit tomorrow. This is a small community and it will not be hard to locate them. In meantime I’m done for this afternoon. People who let their deer chasers loose unsupervised to terrorize the woodlots should not own dogs. urghh!