DirtTime

Just back from the morning sit. In and settled by 6:15 before the wind started to kick up a little bit. Not even a tree rat seen this morning. Until the drive home around 9:30. 7 deer, this is the same place I almost hit one driving home last Sunday. It is what it is. I think I might go blast a few tree rats with a shotgun, I'm itching to carry a firearm.

I gave serious consideration to buying a ML. Was even offered a free one. To this day I'm still hemming and hawing over if I want one or not. From reading here and a lot of other info elsewhere the big things were powder and bullet. Then glass if you want a scope.

This. Pygmy is usually just the pervy old man with one liners cracking jokes. But when he does say something serious it's always worth taking to the bank.

It's good for a fire pit.

Where are you in Ravena and are you familiar with the area? If you would rather feel free to drop me a PM. On the way back from a hunt yesterday I noticed a lot of trees laying in yards near Mead Rd., plus a bunch of other areas.

It wasn't a fun ride for a few days that's for sure. If you needed wood for a fire place or wood stove you just needed to drive around and ask as I'm sure a lot of people would have been or maybe still would be happy to have the debris off the lawns. Elm, oak, ash, and some other good burning wood from the downed trees just laying around.

Heading out the door for hunt #4. It's warm out, 54*. Good luck everyone.

Hire a guy in a pink bunny suit to run through the woods while the dudes in his stand. There's a guy here with just such a suit, and you could probably pay in fine beer and White Castle. @turkeyfeathers

My condolences to you and your family @sodfather .

We don't have a generator, so we lost a lot of meat we had stored in our upright freezer. Sucked, but nothing that can be done. We will have a generator in the next couple weeks. Can't deal with that again, and I can't have my heat tape freezing up again due to no power like last winter.

Man what a storm! Mini tornado and it left it's mark for a few days. I got out yesterday morning to a place I had set up some brush blinds and even being a thick area the wind had either blew them away or knocked branches all over them. Not much I could do at 5:30AM in the dark to clean them up without making a ton of noise, so I just hunkered into a small area with some thick brush behind me and saplings on my sides. For the others in or near the area how bad did your hunting areas get hit? Blinds and stands still up or did the storm make a mess for you as well?

I want the wind in my face if possible. If not I want it blowing away from the direction scouting has shown me the deer are traveling. Scouting after a rain is a solid way to see what direction the tracks are going for the majority. I try to set up brush blinds where I hunt in different locations to play the wind, but some areas I hunt the wind changes as often then Bills changed QB's for a decade, every few minutes. I have two areas that are small, so if the wind isn't right I flat out will not hunt them because there's just not enough land to set up more then a few blinds.

Congrats @The_Real_TCIII on a double. Get the thumb looked at, better safe then sorry. Again, congrats to all who filled tags. I'm heading out to a spot just around the corner for a little while. Dr. at 8:15 but I sure won't fill my tags sitting here wishing about it. Good luck to all heading out today.

Heading up a couple days after you. Hunting the Siamese Ponds Wilderness and the West Canada Lake Wilderness with the bow for 4 days then the firearms opener on the 24th. We bought a used car top carrier so I'm hoping to have room for fishing gear this year. I want some late season Bass this year! Good luck on your hunt.

Phantom. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Since no one else has done it, allow me to be the first to officially welcome you back stormy/007/farfromhome and how ever many other accounts you have created here again. How's that duct tape sight working out? Still functional or did it fall off? How's the knife painting business going?

Congratulations on three decades.

Out for sit #2 this morning. Finger is still a bit stiff but I'm able to use my release fine so I figured no reason to sit on the couch. Cozied into some brush just before first light and sat until 9:30. One smaller doe went through at around 40 yards and I wasn't comfortable taking a shot so she got a pass. CONGRATS to all who filled a tag already.

My sincere condolences to you and your family for the loss of your father.

So Versatile_Hunter is also MattTavern? Pretty much figured out Phantom is stormy back yet again.

Every local shop I call about ammo says the same thing, "The crazies keep buying us out of ammo!". I think that's part true, and perhaps higher numbers of new and returning hunters. I still feel the same way I did in another thread, I think demand is higher then the supply right now. Manufacturers can only produce so much of anything, and are most likely having a hard time keeping up with production with limited employees right now. I had to drive around 40 minutes out to find rifled slugs a few weeks back, but it was wort it because the price wasn't jacked up, just the plain old $6 per box of 5.

Did any of you three report those deer to DEC? I would guess you did, but ya never know.

Your Mossbergh with a smooth barrel will be just fine. I would check the choke tube, a cylinder is the best choke for a rifled slug. There's barely any restriction on that choke. A modified choke will work as well, but I would go full cylinder. You can also get a rifled choke to use sabots, not as good as a full rifled barrel, but a lot easier on the wallet. You should be good out to 80 yards with that set up, but I would not push it farther then that. Do your part and check your POI at ranges from 25, 50, and 75 yards. Plenty of deer have fallen bang flop to the 20GA. So don't stress over that! It's fine for deer hunting. If you can find them buy a few boxes of different rifled slugs and see what works best. Federal Vital Shoc's are a solid performer and most shotguns will shoot them accurately if you do your part. As for the stock, they can sometimes cost as much as the firearm. I would call around to a few gun shops and see what they have laying around from people who have swapped out factory stocks for tack stocks. If you go the fleabay route, make sure you are getting what's advertised.

I promise not to tell anyone................. For the right price of course.

I like the set up. I hope you kill whatever deer you like that comes your way out of that stand.