dbHunterNY

it's just a sports city. from the Bandits to Bills to Sabres they've got teams for every sport to cheer on regardless of how well they do.

been awhile since i've gone to school or lived out in buffalo to be able to watch them. it's a good thing though. when practically all the players and the coach where all new they struggled a bit to say the least. even when they sucked i kept what's now considered a throwback jersey. i've had it over 20 years probably.

beat me to it, despite i posted about bucks. lol

a 10-point buck, an 8-point buck, and a nubbin were all hanging out on a field-edge one fall evening, nibbling grass and plucking acorns off a tree. The 10-point turned to his buddies and said "You know, life is pretty good; I've got 10 does who hang with me and treat me pretty well. I'm happy! The 8-point echoed the larger buck's satisfaction. "I'm livin' the dream! I've got four does and they're the best!" The button buck was about to brag about the one yearling he'd been courting when a monstrous 14-point buck trotted onto the field, his rack swaying as he stared menacingly at his smaller rivals. "Whoa!" the 10-pointer breathed. "This isn't lookin' good for me! I wonder if giving him half my doe would keep me out of a fight?" "Yeah," said the 8-point. "I guess I could be pretty happy with two does if it would save me from bodily harm! Suddenly the button buck trotted brazenly to the middle of the field. He pawed the ground like a mad bull, then ran to woods-edge near the 14-pointer, where he rubbed his head raw against a tree, peed on his hocks, and snort-wheezed with all his might! Then he raced back toward the ten and the eight. "What in the heck are you doing?!" the two bucks exclaimed. "Are you tryin' to get yourself killed?!" "Are you kidding?" the little buck said, his voice quavering. "I just want to make sure that big SOB knows I'm a buck!"

it also shows sunrise and sunset times along with a guess on first and last light. i like weather underground too. the format is all that info overlayed over each other. no switching back and forth between screens or pages.

activity seen by those hunting the farm definitely picked up when it warmed up a tad. that said i'm sure people movement must have had an effect too as more were out. regardless of people pressure i'm with ya.

it falls in line with what you said when it's really cold later in the season they hole up if it's more energy to go get the whatever quality of food available to them if it's mostly browse with any acorn crop left versus say a nice big unharvested ag field packed with carbs. when you do TSI you just want to make sure invasive species like bush honeysuckle and buck thorn don't take over. they provide great cover but very low quality food. you started a good thread and kicked it off with a great post.

maybe it's different if they're loitering? thinking about it they were always on the move headed somewhere.

most of the long weekend i lost to being able to hunt wife's side of the family was in town and we hosted thanksgiving. then wife went out shopping friday leaving me to tend to our 4 yr old. sunday same thing. no shooters for me when i made it out twice on my own. sunday morning had the daughter out on the farm in a pick up truck "ground blind". lost cause if a shooter came out as it'd be hard to jump out, load the gun, and get a shot off. still better than being cooped up in the house. we saw a couple yearlings, a 2.5 yr old, and several doe. it being Sunday i wasn't about to put a doe down. she thought i should've shot one though. it was fun regardless until we ran out of snacks. can't wait until she can be quiet enough for an actual ground blind. thinking about building or buying a shooting house that can close up.

flooding is good in my mind if it doesn't push movement to the other side of the property line. walking through hard ground that's flood is quiet and leaves little scent. my first outing though i almost got me in trouble i wasn't paying close enough attention and almost had water up over my rubber boots. it sometimes creates pinch points for deer travel through. they'd rather stay higher and dryer versus wading through deeper water if it's not too far out of the way.

i've got a baronette big mike blind and a couple ameristeps. i don't use blinds much they work for youth hunters pretty well though. can't sit still long and it's easier to be in reach and help them with things.

falls in line with what i've experienced. no real different opinion here. early season if the temps are warm i've definitely had phase #2 play out well when temps are at rock bottom (relatively). it's usually in pockets of cover or somewhere out of the wind, quieter to not mess with their senses so much. otherwise phase #1 great throughout the season and phase #3 best in late season in spots of thermal cover close to food or areas with newer TSI growth other wise they're dug in.

one of my dad's life long good friends had his well over 10' square alaskan brown bear made into full body mount on a rock ledge base. it's in his "great room" with a lot of other big game mounts of different species. most impressive mount i've seen owned by someone i know.

not setup for canning well at all but have been wanting to try it since Culver keeps bringing it up. just haven't committed to doing so. my grandparents and great grandparents on my dad's side canned everything. grandparents had to with 6 boys and 2 girls, plus themselves and whom else stopped in.

i forgot about this and missed a lot of discussion. seems i've always been doing it the same. straps, tenderloins, and hind quarters get put into specific cuts. eye round, top, and bottom round all left whole but trimmed to pure meat only. cut each into what i want during meal prep before cooking. back straps are cut into 1/3's or quarter length and left whole. keeping it whole like chef said protects it better and leaves me options. if i'm not in a hurry neck roasts, shanks, and brisket (each layer trimmed out to look like skirt steak) get packaged separately too. many times though it all goes into the grind pile. if it's an old buck grind goes through twice. doe i now just do once through. i'm usually using a mid to larger sized plate. i pull the auger after every 20 lbs or less to clean out the fat build up or connective tissue so nothing gets worked through. i trimmed all the silver skin, fat, etc before vac sealing. seems to be well enough protected with vac sealing and i don't have the time trim it prepping for dinner. wife won't do it then either. everything gets vac sealed but if i'm running low on bags i use 1lb sleeves for ground meat. i cut it all up pretty well with little waste but i am guilty of leaving the rib meat on the carcass if the guts or stomach is nicked or torn from shot or during field dressing. same for flank steaks or depending on how it's dragged. rarely can the diaphragm be saved with blood klots, stomach leaking, or from the shot just wrecking it. i feel the stomach acid effects the meat even if you rinse the carcass out well and soon.

if it's a retrofit LED bulb its base is a heat sink and it'll give off plenty of heat to keep the LED chips cool.

those are our favorite poachers.... one's that brag on social media and/or at bars. lol situation that you said makes sense.

as long as it wasn't neglected, yup.

it takes a lot of things to get a buck to 5.5+ yrs old out here. an extremely limited number of spots for different reasons it's much more likely. it's hard to imagine what things would be like if people didn't shoot anything for a handful of years. you could see what can grow what without us picking off the cream of the crop for antlers. it'd be all over the place with scrub and above average bucks but it'd probably still be insane. couldn't imagine what it'd be like if it were common place to see two fully mature 6.5 yr old bucks fighting.

there's a huge difference between a buck that's 5.5+ years old like the one originally posted and a 2.5 yr old. doe are submissive to whatever is around. they have to be. which is why they might be bred by more than one buck. like you could have twins with different dads. i'm with john in that a buck with a scrub rack might be more full of piss and fight to drive off other bucks off than one with a large rack. large racks are less common and reclusive because otherwise it wouldn't be alive. scrub racks have had a life that affords them to run around without a care in front of more hunters trying to fight and breed everything it can. even more so if it got the genetic card of a massive body with a scrub rack. if a buck has a scrub rack because it's just a runt, that's different. that's my take and experience.

every nocturnal buck walks in the daylight somewhere. just not where it's convenient. lol

i think peoples standards for impractical these days for what they want to pay for. you can't get that same building quality because if you want it cheaper it has to be made faster with more tolerance. everything down to the wages of the people making them costs more money. with remington i've talked to some people within the past decade or so from here on out you'll get issues with change over in the labor force. that same guy that's retiring his union job at remington worked or supervised the same machine with any little quirks for decades. a fresh individual isn't going to do the same quality work. they can't. also after a while the dies for the rifle bores get changed out. fresh dies nice barrels. right before though means slightly less for quality. i don't care if it drives tacks or not. chances are it can be modified to with some work. i do want it to shoot minute of deer for my children's children.

if you report late though they've got you. then your like that poor guy Juice from Sons of Anarchy when he went to prison.

yup here it's Hoosick. say it differently doesn't help if you slow your speech down to the point you sound like an asshole making fun of someone then it works just fine. lol

on the contrary anyone who does smoke or drink and ends up in shock they got stoned or buzzed has a very limited mental capacity regardless of its state. those individuals probably shouldn't use weapons or operate equipment. lol pretty sure everyone knows what's coming when they do so, to what extent is another context.