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Curmudgeon

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Everything posted by Curmudgeon

  1. The deer did a 180, going back the way it came. The hair was in an area about 10" in diameter and not noticably organized. Some was short, some long. That could happen in either case. I'm not experienced at shaving deer but figured the quick turn could have affected its distribution.
  2. The broadhead was oriented vertically, not the arrow. That may matter if the expandable blade on the bottom of the head cut hair as it passed over the back. I think there was too much hair for just those small leading blades. I do admit to not giving them much thought.
  3. Grampy, The bolt was not at elbow height. What I wrote was confusing. Visually, from the blind it was aligned left to right with her elbow. Expressed differently, my view put it above her back even laterally with her elbow. Hair was all dark from high on the deer. No noise that I could detect but the tree impact but it is hard to recall in hindsight. The deer being 3' in front of tree would make those sounds very close. I think I've seen the impact in the past. Maybe just changes in the hair. She ran off like I chased her out of the garden. I'm hoping that is an indication shaved her back. NYtracker - I'm entertaining all possibilities.
  4. Nothing on the arrow. Clean as a whistle. I just felt it. No grease. Nothing.
  5. 150 yards to the cover. I just went on a wider search before dark circling around the hill scanning with binoculars. Nothing. If the bolt passed through below the spine, how far could she possibly go? As far as human error, I have a tripod in the blind I use as a rest. It has a chunk of dense foam on top. I doubt it was me.
  6. At 12:14 I pulled the trigger on a big doe at 32 yards. It is a slight up hill shot, maybe 4-5 feet in elevation higher than the blind. I couldn't visually track the bolt but it showed up in a tree right behind her, above her elbow. She doesn't flinch and trots away like normal. Deer here are used to being bumped by people - not panicked, no obvious distress. The Rage broadhead is buried vertically in the sugar maple tree 3' behind where she stood. Only the threads and half of the top blade were out of the tree. It cannot be removed. There is a fair amount of hair on the ground and some on the broadhead. There is no blood, no tissue. None on the broadhead, or the shaft, or the vanes, or along the path she took out of there. No blood. She trotted towards a 4 acre patch of thick cover where deer go to hide, and sometimes to die. I spent 1 3/4 hours combing that cover and found nothing. I just brought my cube up to the site, put it where the deer was and shot the same bolt with the Rage practice point provided with the broadheads. It was vertically perfect and 1.5" to the right. That is consistent with how it/I shoot normally. Generally a 2-2.5" group at 30 yards. It was dead on when I pulled the trigger on the deer. However, it's pretty clear the bolt went high. Does anyone know if the Rage practice points and the actual broadheads shoot the same? The 2 deer I previously killed with Rage broadheads were at half that distance. I'm trying to understand the hair and no blood part. The broadhead was fully opened in the tree. If the broadhead had opened when it hit the deer, I would have seen blood and some reaction. It must have passed above the spine. Maybe it did not even cut skin. I initially thought a closed Rage might not cut hair if it skimmed a deer. I have never had an arrow or bolt pass through a deer and not have blood showing somewhere. However, I'm wondering if the broadhead - being vertical as it reached the deer - could have skimmed her back and cut hair, opening when it hit the tree. Any thoughts on why the bolt went high? Does my speculation on the broadhead cutting hair when it is closed make sense? Any other thoughts?
  7. Chipmunk numbers here are very high. Squirrel numbers are down. I hunt squirrels from a recliner on the patio each fall until the nuts are harvested. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, I eliminated between 20 and 25 squirrels each season. This year only 13, and only 4 of those were grey. My nuts are now safe. The remaining squirrels can live. The rat-sized reds get buried, the greys eaten. The last of a sumptuous cacciatore was finished yesterday, leftovers for lunch.
  8. Thanks Rattler for reminding me: there will be no common ground found here. I'll go back to what I was doing.
  9. Acknowledging that costs to deer hunters are very different than those to varmint hunters, can we agree that costs to deer hunters are nearly insignificant? I killed 3 deer with the non-lead bullets last season. I fired 5 rounds, which includes the 2 rounds I put through the .270 beforehand. I bought a box of .270 Federal Copper ammo for $30 at Mayhood's in Norwich. How is that a financial burden? BTW - Opening day last year there were 2 bald eagles in a tree above one of my gut piles by afternoon. There was an eagle circling over my head as I gutted that deer. This is not a theoretical problem. Every eagle we have trapped in the winter had measurable lead levels. My friend who comes here each year for opening week hunts a lot in CA. He says the ban is a non-issue among the people he hunts with.
  10. The way I understand it, this not very aggressive kitten tried to kill him.
  11. Spoke to my daughter today. She runs that trail regularly. Her boyfriend runs there at night. The daughter says she's more afraid of the rattlesnakes there.
  12. Hunting for food. I like this. If hunting will survive, new people are needed. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/dining/game-hunting-food.html?action=click&module=Editors Picks&pgtype=Homepage
  13. Interesting article on Golden Jackals in the NYT. Jackals are similar to coyotes both physically and in the niche they fill. Apparently, they are spreading in Europe as beneficiaries of the suppression of wolves. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/science/golden-jackals-europe.html?action=click&module=Discovery&pgtype=Homepage
  14. Thats an impressive bunch of big deer. I have a doe that - as of November- was the same height and length as her fawns. You had to look close to tell them apart. She outweighs them but not by much. In my efforts to reduce the local population, I passed oh her several times in 2017 when she was a yearling. She couldn't have been 80 pounds at 1 1/2 years. I'm impressed that such a tiny deer raised twins successfully into fall. I deleted all those doe and little deer shots.
  15. A fascinating article on Minnesota wolves and their omnivorous habits. There is also an incredible GIS graphic showing pack boundaries from GPS tagged wolves. Wolves were observed setting aside spawning suckers and returning to fish. The researchers found beavers make up ~42% of their diet from April to October. Good stuff. https://www.npr.org/2018/12/22/678668772/the-secret-fishing-habits-of-northwoods-wolves
  16. Crossbow was dismal. I always bumped deer going in and coming out but very little was seen when sitting. What was, was too far. Rifle was more productive. Since my primary goal right now is herd reduction, I shot an adult doe each week of the 3 week regular season. The rest of the family had a normal early rifle season. I attribute the dispersed wandering deer this fall to a lack of apples. There were few on the cameras. Whenever there was a dusting of snow, deer tracks seemed to be everywhere, quite literally. They were everywhere and anywhere, completely unpredictable. Last year there was a huge apple crop. I set up a blind close to 2 large, top-worked apples. A major scape developed under one of those trees. It was Deer Central Station. At one point I had five 1 1/2 year bucks in sight, 4 in range. It was fun but at the the I was waiting for another adult doe. The big boys were coming in at night.
  17. This guy near Ithaca shot a bald eagle that came in to his bait pile of dead deer because he thought it was a turkey vulture. Huh? Killing vultures is illegal. Baiting with deer you do not legally possess is illegal. Mistaking an eagle for a vulture at shooting range is really hard to do, even if it's a juvenile bald eagle. http://www.14850.com/12179197-bald-eagle-shot/
  18. Conservationists hunt with non-lead bullets. Yes Storm, we are still here, but lead affect IQ, and may explain some of what shows up on these posts. Present company excepted of course.
  19. Yes, I'm still alive. It's good to see some major media attention. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/opinion/get-the-lead-out-of-bullets.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage Lead in gut pile - Lead Poisoned Eagle near Cannonsville Reservoir -
  20. This is second hand but still interesting information. My daughter was driving when a fawn ran across the road followed by a coyote which had an adult doe right behind it. I wonder would came out best in that event.
  21. It has taken me longer than Rob, but I'm taking a break too. Have at it guys.
  22. It is also "silly season".
  23. Don't disagree with that, especially the "clouded" part.
  24. No, I just have a normal sized amygdala.
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