46rkl

Enjoying a nice Hayburner after a long day of waiting on Whitetails. Tomorrow is a home brewing day. About two weeks out I expect a nice stout to be ready to tap.

Having a leisurely breakfast this morning when two shots go off from the back edge of my property where a buddy was hunting. A half hour later I text him to see what the story was and he had shot a doe but needed help tracking. Long story short, a half mile track and we finally caught up with her and made the kill shot. Helped drag her in and then went out to tag and take the head from the buck I shot a week ago and found last night. Nice nine point that wil make a nice euro mount. Back in the stand for the evening watch and the group leading the land behind mine are putting on a drive. Sounds like lots of people in it so I’m sitting on a sneak lane that leads off of their land onto mine. Could be fun!

Well, this is a tough one to write. I took a different path in from my evening sit tonite and came across the deer I thought I missed a week ago. Tears me up to have wasted the meat on such a nice buck but at least I know that I didn’t wound him or miss completely. Shot right thru the shoulder. No hair, no blood anywhere when I was searching. I walked within ten yards of him a couple of times while searching. This is a very large bodied deer. The rack looks small on such a big body. Coyotes got the hind end. I’ll take the head for a euro mount tomorrow and do an autopsy. Disgusted that I lost him, relieved that I didn’t miss.

Spending the day down in 9P near Rattlesnake Hill. Buddy already has a buck down as a herd of 8 snuck by in a ravine. Big woods hunting is always fun.

The whole day has been one slow, quiet stalk. Only no snow and no good deer sign. Sitting for the last two hours of the day.

Long day of seein no deer. Time for a beer. This is a new one for me and I’m really liking it. Barrier Brewing Deadly Combinations: Citra and Motueka. I’ll be having more than one...

No good words for this....there is just no love like a dogs.

A bit more snow left still in my part of 8H but zero tracks in the snow. Walked a good chunk of the property this morning and saw no fresh sign. Sitting in a quiet corner for the afternoon. Best of luck to all the diehards.

I think that we all have those thoughts from time to time. There has to be a reason for the hunt and that is often very personal. For me, I honor the deer by taking it from the field to the freezer to my table. Every step along the way I do myself. I feel a real connection with the game I harvest. I’ve passed on plenty of deer for lots of reasons, sometimes just to be in the moment. That usually happens after the freezer is full. I also honor the deer by doing what I can to help them get through the winter. Small food plots, pumpkins left over from Halloween and not worrying when they get into my bird feeders. Having said all that, it’s a personal decision you have to work out for yourself. Getting others thoughts on it can help but only you know how you want to proceed. Good luck!

Baking soda works well and the more surface area, the better it will work. Figure out a way to spread it out somewhat but don’t put it directly on the clothing. Sticky mess will result if you do. I keep all my hunting gear out on the (covered) porch all season. Just the base layer of long underwear comes in the house. Makes for a real wake up getting dressed on the porch when it’s single digits outside...

I can’t use climbers anymore ( too many shoulder surgeries) but I had a trick to get past limbs when setting up. I’m sure it’s not anything that I originated but I was the first one in my one person hunting circle to do this. Climb up and get the base as close to the limb you want to get past, unhook the seat and move it up past the limb. Of course, make sure you use a safety vest while doing this. I’ve also undone the base and moved it past a limb but that is pretty tricky and not recommended. I find that getting up so your seat is above a limb works well for breaking up your silhouette and makes me feel more comfortable having a limb by my side. Nowadays it’s ladder stands and hang-one with sticks that don’t move all season. When the weather is nasty, it’s up into the heated, elevated box blind. I can also say that carrying a hang-on with sticks can be made more versatile by carrying a handful of screw in steps. You reach a point where the tree bends and you put on a few screw in steps and then continue on with the sticks. Works well.

I hunt mostly on my own land on the southern edge of 8H. All of the changes in deer numbers/ daylight sightings have been due to two factors. First, the large landowner to the west has tightly posted his property due to a couple of a**hoes hunting his land without permission and setting stands about fifty yards from his horse barn. Can’t say I blame him for posting it. There is a large (100+ acre) wood lot and about 30 acres of pasture that have become a deer sanctuary. Drive by any evening and you’ll see 20-30 deer in the horse pasture. Second, the land to the South and East of me (300+ acres) used to be largely owned by two absentee landowners who were fine with locals hunting on it. The total land area is perfect habitat. Agricultural fields, wood lots of varying ages and a large swamp in the middle of it. Four years ago, both landowners leased their lands to two different groups of hunters who have brought a large number of hunters to the area. One group, in particular shoots every deer that moves. This large increase in hunting pressure has really made daylight deer movement dwindle along with pushing even more deer into the sanctuary area to the West. One group, in particular has been pretty reckless, shooting at 6:30 on opening day and after 5:00 in the evening along with trespassing on the horse farm sanctuary. Ethics aside, the result is a sharp drop in deer sightings/movement as soon as the guns start blazing. Nothing new about that but I’ve had it so good for so long prior to that. This year is more typical of the new normal. I’ve taken three doe and most of the small bucks I saw during bow have been killed on the leases. Mature bucks that survived the gun opener have gone nocturnal. Camera shots have proven that. Deer numbers are down only slightly but the dynamics of my hunting area have changed dramatically.

Finished up my sausage making today with 10 pounds of Cajun snack sticks and 7.5 of Chorizo breakfast sausage. Headed out about two with the battery heated socks on and my toes are nice and warm. Can’t help but to think about how I used to freeze my arse off in cotton long underwear and blue jeans with a black and red will flannel jacket an uninsulated work gloves. Climb a tree, jam a foot into the crotch of the tree and hang on. Anytime I think I miss those days I think about how frickin’ cold I was.

Made it out for the last hour and a half today thanks to my wonderful wife. Not only did she spend most of the day helping me make 30 pounds of summer sausage but she also shooed me out to hunt and did the cleanup by herself! No deer seen but still a great day.

Got to my stand about 2:00, just finished getting settled in and this small deer comes trotting right up and stops ten yards from me. Doe/button buck, I’m not sure. Of more interest is the fact that it was looking back and acting all fidgety. I was really hoping for a buck to be following but no luck. The deer eventually wandered off but was constantly stopping to look back the way it had come from. Maybe, just maybe.

Enjoying a Hayburner while hoping that the Steelers win and get complacent for the Bills.....

Hunting today is only a maybe. Just finished skinning, quartering and deboning the doe I shot a couple of days ago and now I’m inside, getting ready to butcher and pack the parts that aren’t going to be made into sausage and jerky..hoping for the last two hours.

Shot a doe in the afternoon after horribly missing on a big ten in the morning. Saw seven deer total that day. Watched the beautiful full Beaver Moon rise before tracking down the doe. Any well lit night has more movement than a moonless night, wether from clouds or new moon. The day before, after or otherwise I haven’t noticed any significant change in activity. Deer still have to feed and that means moving.

A bit of redemption and better meat.

Back at it trying to bounce back from an awful miss on a really nice buck this morning. This breeze has been consistently coming out of the South for 4 days here and I don’t have many stands set up for that wind. Hope I’m not over hunting these two.

Frustration. Not sure what went wrong but had a very nice ten point chasing two doe down the hill towards me. They stopped at forty yards and I somehow managed to miss. Five minutes after I shot two shots from the direction that he ran off in. Hopefully my bad luck turned out to be someone else’s good luck. Very frustrating though.

My head is getting cold.....

Duck hunters on Conesus Lake are going at it hard. The ducks must be moving back and forth from the sounds of where the shots are coming from. Just started raining here in 8H. Heading for the shooting shack.

Snack time! My wonderful wife sent me out with a bag of homemade Snickerdoodle cookies. Most exciting part of my day, so far. Hope the deer decide to change that.

Nice to see the projectile work like it’s supposed to. Interesting about the lost weight. Makes me wonder if that was lead, how much would be in the tissue of the deer? Just reinforces my decision to not use lead at all.