Buckstopshere

I have faith that NY's game managers/biologists will not follow in a knee jerk fashion, Vermont. And Pa. might cave yet. Nothing Pa. does in deer management would surprise me. There is no scientific proof that CWD is transmitted by deer urine. These types of assertions (that deer urine transmits CWD) take only a little breath, a couple strokes on the keyboard, from those who have only contempt for observation and the scientific method. Before these types of assertions are even made it should take hard work, measurement, records, and lots of labor...not to mention before these types of off-the-cuff conclusions are made into law.

When I was working my gobbler, May 11, I was lucky in that my crow call, a Faulks, got a couple crows going. When I was playing the game with the tom, the crows would sporadically call and make the bird(s) shock gobble, letting me know his (actually their...because there were two toms together) location. When I have a bird hung up and close, I am reticent to use the crow call, or any other...owl hoot, goose call, etc. because I think that the tom can pinpoint exactly the place of the origin of the call. They know that a hen, and a crow call can not come from the same spot, and it makes the older, spooky toms hang up. So I move off a bit to run the crow call, or at least spin around the tree and call the opposite way so the sound doesn't seem to come from the same exact place. We need to know where the tom is, but calling to them makes the call-shy older birds around here hang up and get in "the demanding mode" demanding that the hen come to them. That's when I play "hard to get." Just a sporadic call, only clucks and putts, purrs, and the quietest yelps... and while moving away...from the tom, like a disinterested feeding hen (scratch leaves) would. Works for me, but I could be overthinking it as usual.

Lip-smakin' good! And two vid clips of bucks working over the zip-tied branch, enhanced with deer saliva soaked cotton balls. 11:12:11 working the cotton ball 8 pt. .AVI Midday 8 pt. 11 am, working cotton ball .AVI

Over all the years I have partially funded the bottled deer scent industry. But anymore, I just use the branch. Don't even need to scuff the ground because I usually put the setup (branch) at a junction of two trails, or just off it, about 20 yards from the best tree for a tree stand in that area. All about the quality of the tree stand tree to me, like a triple-trunk, etc. The deer paw the ground up as they work the branch. No sense adding my scent there any more than I need to. But I do take cotton swabs and swab out the mouth of does and bucks I kill and zip-tie them on the branches too. Saliva is the main sex, internal-clock-setting pheromone carrier in my humble opinion, much more so than urine. I don't think anybody sells it, though it would be much more effective than urine-based lures...imo. So I make my own and freeze the cotton balls in zip-lock bags, haul them out next year. I presume that a lot of the volatile pheromone molecules degrade even in the freezer, but saliva-soaked cotton swabs seem to kick-start buck action even when they have been setting in the freezer one, two, three years.

Ha! You are right. But to that point, some of the hottest, trashed, torn-up looking scrapes seem to produce only marginal branches while some of the ho-hum looking ground scrapes produce branches that bring in deer like a "Free Lottery Tickets Here" sign would bring in humans at a Walmart parking lot.

If you take the complete branch, so there is no other overhanging branch there, then yes, it pretty much kills the scrape. That's why I will clip an overhanging branch, then replace it with another one from a nearby shrub or sapling. If I want it to be "the gift that keeps giving," then next time I'm near that scrape in a few days or so, that new branch can be taken because it will be licked by bucks and does and I can then transfer their pheromones to where I want into another hunting area. As the rut peaks, bucks and does are increasingly intrigued to come into these mobile licking branch sites. To me, the ground scrape is only incidental and of marginal importance. More of a result of activity than a causal factor. But we human beings, being so visually oriented see the ground scrape and think that it is of more relevance than the little overhanging branch. But trail cam footage and photos over about 10 years is visual proof that bucks and does being the olfactory-oriented critters they are, really only care about the overhanging branch. I know that is heresy to the common marketplace idea of a scrape, but one more time I go against the stream. Like my moon theory.

Law: If you look close, you can see a number of zip ties, a black one, a couple whites and a blue. They all hold clipped overhanging branches from hot scrapes last fall. I call it a "pheromone bouquet" of licking branches. Attracts bucks year round.

Early May, the two are at a bouquet of zip-tied licking branches. Amazing how they make it a year-round destination.

Too bad it got tossed. I've been eating them for over 40 years. Fun to pick them during gobbler season. I like them best sauteed with venison backstrap medallions. Hard to beat.

You guys are right. Hard to beat the fly hatch on the Genny right now...primed for the Sulphur duns...and I have tied into some of my best trout in this hatch, and right after when the Caddis are on the water. A lot of "yoots" need mentoring...and I could maybe call in tom for a buddy...but there are morels out there...and I have to find them! Can't keep me out of the woods for long!

I'm done. Second tag filled. I had one of those crazy turkey hunting mornings this morning and was lucky enough to kill the boss tom. Lucky, (I caught wind of this bird's location in an off hand conversation with a non-hunting friend of a friend.) But now I can't hunt. Turkey season is over. What a bummer... unless I get a Pa. license. But I am still pissed at Pa. over its deer mis-management philosophy. But I might have to break down.

One came in to my hen/jake set up. No blind, just back up under a dry space under a big hemlock, not bad at all in the woods. When the rain let up a bit, this guy gobbled a couple times and came in. Eight-inch beard, 3/4 inch spurs, 22.6 pounds. Now to go after the big old slob with the long spurs...oh, and remember. Don't grab them by the legs until they are stone dead. That's my blood, not his. Rookie mistake.

Kind of cool to see the way a flock of breeding turkeys moves through the woods. Two old (3.5 and up) lead a flock of hens. The two black birds on the right side of the frame are the curmudgeons, leading about 12 hens. The third frame is a good sized group of gals for my neck of the woods (on the Pa. border) these days. The fourth frame shows a 2.5 year old trailing the hen group and two adult toms, at a respectful distance.

Well, maybe that's a stretch. But if you look close, these guys are showing those bumps on the pedicles as the new velvet antlers begin.

Yeah. Maybe they are dining on feral cats...and the unbelievable population of squirrels. Used to be, squirrel was a menu item for human beings. Not much anymore. So its on their menu. Nature abhors a vacuum. Had fisher tracks in front of the garage last month in the snow. Lots of tasty tweets at the bird feeder. Opening day of rifle two fishers scooted by. Photos of them on three of five ridges. It's the fisher's time now, especially with the price of fur so low. After all...they are the American sable. Almost itchin to trap them, skin 'em, tan 'em, and sew a couple into a stoll...that goes way back. Given fur used to make a woman happy.

Too pretty to shoot? This guy looks like he has an awesome spur. Nah, I'll shoot him and find out.

Been getting pictures of fishers right along. They are hunting in the village of Wellsville. Probably picking up stray kittens. Here's two, one blurry, a couple weeks ago. One is carrying a small animal...maybe a kitten?

Here are a couple shed bucks that are still at it, under the bouquet of licking branches. Funny how one buck "boxes" the branches. Here are a few photos in the sequence, there are over 100.

This one came into one of my zip-tie scrapes in mid-Feb.

Man, those are some nice toms! Six longbeards, the closest one to the camera has some nice hooks. In the other photo, they measured just a hair under 1.5 inches.

Every year we have a few roughlegs, but this past winter only one. He was there early and hung around into February and then was gone. The colder and snowier the winter, the more roughlegs, the warmer, the fewer. Last year we had a couple mature bald eagles, this year we only had a juvenile.

It was paper survey, not web based. I took it too and sent it in. As I recall (I didn't keep a copy of it either,) most of the questions, past the basic stuff, were about bucks and hunter satisfaction. There was ample space to write commentary which of course I did.

Yep, I witnessed it too. That was the second rut, the second prong of the rut, we had a bifurcated rut last year. My notes and historical rut spread sheet show me that on those years when we have an earlier than usual rut, we have a stronger than usual second rut around Thanksgiving. An inordinate number of does still traveled with fawns during that first rut spike in early November. Those does did not abandon their fawns to hang with the boys until into the regular gun season around Thanksgiving, here in the Southern Tier.

You are right about the first two weeks of November being the general sweet spot, year in and year out. But some years, like last year, the early part of the cycle...Halloween to Election Day or so was the best. But the year before, in 2014, the best time was a week or so later, like Election Day (11/2) to Veteran's Day (11/11). and if you can only concentrate on a few days...like 3 or 5, the fine tuned rut prediction matters a great deal. Bow hunters like to know the sweet spot in the sweet spot because it hones it down to a few days each year. Who can argue that Halloween to opening of the Regular gun season is the best time of the year to be in the woods?

I still have a bunch of trail cams out on four different properties and am getting a lot of photos with bucks carrying at least one antler. I would guess from my photos of shed bucks who are often with other bucks that at least half or better are still carrying. I never have much luck finding sheds until March.