sampotter

Adirondack trip was a success. 6-8” of snow the night before I got there. Tracks all over. Started big tracks 3 mornings in a row, but lost them all by noon in heavy feeding areas where deer were digging up beech nuts. Saw 15 does and fawns through the 3rd day and videoed crotch horn at end of 3rd day. Tracked a buck 4th morning and jumped him, stopped and called him back in. 2 year old 7 point came stalking back with hair on end and ears pinned, looking for a fight. Videoed him as he circled me within 30 yards. Found a huge fresh track a little while later, kept getting closer, new I was really close when his track stepped in mine 20 minutes after I’d just stepped there. 3-400 yards later there was a nice buck standing broadside at 20 yards. Heart shot, he didn’t go far. Turned out to be a nice 3 year old 9 point. However, when I later followed up the original track I found where that track took off running 30-40 yards from where I shot. Long story short, I shot a different buck than I was tracking. What stings is I was so darned close to the big buck... As my brother found me, built a fire while waiting for a ride back to camp. Track of the buck I was tracking:

I’m pretty sure it’s 4 where I am, although I don’t pay much attention. I get 3 buck tags for about $70 if you include my landowners tag, although I haven’t killed more than 1 in a year yet.

Thanks, yes never stopped, or at least haven’t stopped trying. I posted an update in the Introduction section.

Not new here, but have just been absent a long while. Some members were wondering where I went in the Biggest NY buck thread. Well, my wife and I moved to her home state of Iowa in 2016. Things have been good and the hunting is pretty much what you hear. I still try to get back to visit family and get to our camp in the Adirondacks and in fact I’m heading there next week to hunt. Looking forward to seeing family, friends, and stretching my legs. Hoping for some tracking snow! Anyhow, the deer are big out here and the hunting is good... 2016 IA bow buck, 150” 2017 IA bow buck, 184” I didn’t connect last year although I missed a nice 8 in the Adirondacks while tracking. My buddy whom I grew up with in CT came out from Maine last year and shot this 166” buck just across the state line in Minnesota, his 2nd bow deer.

Funny that I just saw this- updates from this old thread have been popping up in my email like crazy recently... I’ll have to post a separate update thread about where I went, but for now, here are my last 2 NY bucks, both from the Adirondacks. 2012 and 2014 respectively

This thread has been blowing up my email for the last 2 days, kind of difficult to ignore. That buck was a rare one indeed. A 130 is a really good ADK buck.

This thread is a blast from the past. Here is a 147" Adirondack 8 point I got in 2012. Probably my last big NY buck now that I live in another state.

They work well.

No Covert love anymore Phade?

I've seen 7 different farms planting corn today within a 5 mile radius just south of Auburn. Definitely not late to be planting corn.

Soybeans are most often planted with a drill. Sounds like corn to me with anhydrous being knifed in as starter. You can still plant corn as the farmer's corn will all be harvested before the deer want to really hit it anyway.

One last shed for 2016... I'm calling it a season. I found this thick whitetail shed in the Adirondacks while looking for moose sheds. Scores 60" despite only having a 20" main beam and a 2.5" browtine... (5/13/16, #59)

I covered 27 miles on foot and picked up a couple of moose sheds last weekend in the Adirondacks. One was a dinky forkhorn (Fleur found) and the other was so badly chewed by porcupines that I thought it was tree bark at first. The chewed one: All that was left. The sad thing was I think it was only a year or two old and may have been a decent paddle. Some of the pieces were wider than my hand.

I don't unload mine during the season. I've left it from one season to the next and it still hit the target accurately. If you got a little moisture in there at any time it will cause issues though.

I got up to the Adirondacks last weekend for some more shed hunting. I found a nice 4 point right away. Maybe a mid 130s buck, but pretty good for that area. (#53, 4/15/16) Fleur saving me the trouble of having to pick it up myself... Fleur found this ancient 4 point buried in the leaves. It looked to be 8-10 years old, maybe even older. Hard to believe the porcupines didn't get it. (#54, 4/15/16) Fleur came through again deep in a spruce swamp... It happened so fast I wasn't able to get good pictures. (#55, 4/15/16) I managed to find one more for myself at the end of the day. (#56, 4/15/16) Group photo:

Big woods buck, found right in the heart of the Adirondacks... Not really. Iowa actually. I don't think I can get permission to hunt that particular farm, but pretty likely I can hunt directly across the road.

The first one was in the wide open right along the field edge in short grass. I'm not sure how they missed it. Then there was a matched set in the middle of a 100+ acre combined corn field. Those I worked for. Grid walking corn fields sucks, but there can definitely be sheds there.

Thanks Beachpeaz- I think there's some other members that would do pretty well if they had the same opportunity I did this year. The most I ever found in NY in one year was 18 and my previous personal best year overall was 35, so I'm kind of dumbfounded at my luck this year. I was able to get to IA earlier this year, so instead of finding boot and ATV tracks, I found sheds instead. I am proud of my last day in IA this year. I went to a farm I'd had good luck on in previous years. The farmer asked me if I was having any luck because 2 other guys had walked his farm at separate times so far this year and had come out empty handed. I made sure to stop and see him again on the way out and show him the 3 sheds I'd picked up despite being the 3rd guy to look...

I should clarify; I average around 7 miles per shed in my lifetime. Last year it was over 9, this year under 3. I can usually log over 200 walking miles each spring though.

2 of the 3 dogs are supposed to be trained to find them (I was the trainer.) The youngest one doesn't even want to retrieve consistently, so until I get that straightened out, she's on hold. The big yellow one is a CRP expert. She specializes in pulling out old green antlers out of the deep, matted grass. She has picked up 6 so far this year. The black one has picked up 7 as well, but is more likely to pick up fresher ones. They generally work better alone- otherwise they just want to screw around and chase squirrels and rabbits. As the great Wooly said- most serious shed hunters won't deface an antler they find. I'm still in the hoarding stage and I don't think I'll ever grow out of it. I have no problem cutting deadheads up to make knife handles, but I walk too many miles to find the sheds. (I average somewhere around 7 miles per...) I do intend to make display cases to put them in at some point. For now I just hang them on the wall but they are dust magnets. Here's a set I found this year that gross scores a little over 160" with no spread credit:

I went to greener pastures a couple weeks ago.... IA, 45 sheds, including 7 matched sets. Best year ever. Normally I find 15-20 there. Also, 6 more from OH. Only 1 in NY so far, but I've only been out twice here.

Chicken bones will splinter when cooked, and so will any bone. I ran a cooked chicken carcass through a hand grinder after I'd cut the meat off it the other day though and fed it. I was amazed how much ground meal it produced- enough for 3 dogs, 1 meal.

I have 3 labs and they can eat a lot of dog food. Being a dairy farmer, I have access to the occasional bovine casualty and the dogs love it. I bought a small chest freezer a few years ago specifically for dog meat and scored a used meat saw recently, which really speeds up the processing. My preference is still born calves because they are easy to handle and the bones are soft. I freeze them solid and then run them through the saw to produce meal sized chunks. The entire calf is eaten, from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail including hair and innards. If for some reason I run out or I'm travelling, then I feed Blue Buffalo, but it is really expensive. The picture is of the meat saw and a stack of calf torso cross-sections before I cut them into smaller pieces.

There's a lot of truth in the above statements. I made a bad shot on one of my biggest bucks and he was still alive 18 hours later when I finally caught up with him before I finally was able to end his suffering. I still look at his rack with mixed feelings and wish I could have a do-over on the initial shot.

This kind of ties into the "Progression of a Hunter" theory. I know I've killed a couple of bucks I may never top, especially in the specific areas they came from, but I set new goals like age of the buck, method of kill, degree of difficulty, etc. Having the upper hand on a fully mature buck is extremely satisfying no matter what his antlers score. The other nice thing is antlers are never exactly the same. "Character" is used to describe a funky-racked buck a lot and there are some low scoring bucks that are really fun to look at.