wolc123

Did you mean "chaff" ?

You gave one answer but I asked two questions. It is ok though, I expect that you are too scarred to answer the second one, because that would indicate that I really did strike a nerve.

What will they do with all the extra guns when everyone can have just one ?

It looks like I may have struck a nerve there tough guy, and got you so fired up that you skipped right over my second question. That's ok, I will add you to my prayer list along with the other 2 or 3 keyboard warrior lefty trolls who like too hang out here but are too scared to post a photo showing their face. Or is it really only one ? If you think I am the slightest bit scared of you, then you got another thing coming.

Are you happy with Biden's pro abortion stand ? To me, that is the biggest reason to send him and all members of the Devilrat party packing. To me the best thing Trump did was land them three pro life SCOTUS justices. Are you happy or sad about that ?

I agree with that. Smaller walleyes, caught from colder waters, are way better than those fat summer slobs out on lake Erie and in the St Lawrence. Years ago, they only had to be 12" to keep in Chataqua lake, and those smaller ones were tasty. I used to eat a lot more fried fish when I was young, and those little walleyes were top notch. These days, my favorite fish to eat are 12-15" largemouth bass. I find them slightly easier to clean than smallmouth and just a little bit better flavored. The smallmouth bass is still my favorite fish overall. They are almost as tasty as largemouth, but much stronger pound per pound. They also last longer in the live well than largemouth when the oxygen gets depleted and the water gets warm. There has been a big increase in bass growth rates in the great lakes since the round gobies arrived. I never liked bass over 15" before, but now even a 20 incher is relatively young and good tasting. I used to cull out the larger bass, but now I usually just keep and eat the first 5 legal ones that I catch, even if they are 20" long. Here is part of our 15 fish haul out on the upper Niagara last Sunday:

I am thankful that most folks think that too. Have you ever eaten a big summer lake Erie walleye that was caught as it was suspended under zoo plankton ? Those big flakes of white meat have a distinct algae taste. That certainly does nothing for me.

No, I heard the same thing from a guy at the next campsite the night before I caught it. That is why I was so quick to release it. Normally, I am not a "catch and release guy". To me, that is nothing but the senseless maiming of a fine food source. My wife won't let me keep pike since my brother in law got a bone stuck in his throat up there a few years ago and they had to run him up to the A-bay hospital to try and get it out. The operation was not successfully (fish bones dont show on x-rays), but he spit it up the next morning while eating an oreo cookie for breakfast

The reason for that is most folks have not a clue how to care for bass they plan to eat after they catch them. You can't just toss them into a cooler on ice, like you can with a walleye, perch, crappies, trout, or salmon. The fillets need to be twitching, when you remove them from the fish, and that means they got to be alive and in the best possible condition. I get about 2 years out of a live well pump on average, because it gets lots of use. Bass meat has more oil in it than walleye or perch, and that keeps it moist thru the broiling, grilling, or baking processes. Those are much healthier methods of preparing fish than frying. I admit that walleye and perch are better than bass when fried. When a large percentage of your families protien comes from "free" stuff, off the fat of the land and water like mine does, you got to pay attention to that.

That's a nice pike. Those are fun to catch, but tough on tackle when you are bass fishing. We have been going up there more than 30 years. My siblings have a cottage just downstream of Alex bay. We were up there a few weeks ago, and I had another "accidental" catch while bass fishing. This bowfin might have been another state record (the record is about 13 pounds and I "guessed" this one at 12). They must also like the round gobies. I have caught a few smaller ones thru the years, but nothing close to this one. It put up one hell of a fight that likely destroyed one of my favorite bass rods. The fat largemouth was my biggest of that trip and maybe ever up there. We got a few pike on that trip that were close to 30 inches, but none bigger than that this year, and no walleyes or smallmouth bass.

They get big up there, especially since the incredible forage base of round gobies arrived. A guy caught the state record up there a few years ago. I rarely target them, because they fight like water filled pillow cases and I like eating bass better. I do catch them by accident every once in a while though. The one on the right (30") came from up there about 10 years ago and the pike on the left (40") about 20 years ago. The pike, unlike the walleye, put up quite a fight.

Trump left Biden 3 Covid vaccines, a growing economy, a buttoned up tight and secure southern border, a vanquished ISIS, and a Supreme court freshly stacked with 3 conservative pro-life Justices. What more could have been asked for ?

I think so, but I have access to as many free beef tongues as I want. I always save my deer hearts, and my wife pickles them for me for on Valentines day. She will usually toss a beef tongue or two in with the batch. I did cut the tongue out of a 3.5 year old buck one time and cooked it medium rare in a frying pan. It was maybe 1/4 the size of a beef tongue and kind of tough. That could be because rigor mortis was an issue, about 8 hours after the kill. Any pickled beef tongue that I had was almost melt in your mouth tender, but it has always been aged around 10 days before freezing.

A good way to draw deer away from rye, is planting some wheat, which is significantly higher on the deer preference list. In most of NY state, the recommended planting date for wheat is Sept 10 plus or minus 10 days, so we are almost there now. For fall wheat plantings, I never spray (I prefer keeping my venison as "organic" as I can). I get the ground worked up (if it was sod, I plow and disk, if it was old corn, I Bush-hog in spring, then drag a few times thru the summer. When its time to plant, I broadcast wheat at a rate of 30 to 50 lbs per acre, then cultipack. Next, I broadcast medium white clover, over the same ground, at 5 pounds per acre, then cultipack again at 90 degrees from the prior direction. This method buries the wheat deeper in the "fluffy" ground, which it prefers, and the clover shallower in the once compacted ground. A cultipacker is an often ignored, but critical piece of plotting equipment which saves you lots of money over the years on seed, and eliminates the dependence on a timely rain. No weed seeds are going to outcompete wheat and clover when planted at that time with that method, which makes the herbicide completely unnecessary.

If you like shellfish, peppered buck nuts taste similar to sea oysters. Opening day surf and turf lunch (oysters and fillet mignon):

There's two other parts you should be saving from your bucks. Just dont forget Steve Rinella's secret ingredient (lots of pepper), and to make a small slit through membrane so they dont explode in the frying pan. Tip for livers: 6 month can be eaten fresh but those from older deer need to sit at least a week in the fridge to let the rigor mortis pass or will be very tough. Also, best eaten rare.

Not only that, but every sparrow passes from here to eternity just exactly where and when He chooses. If you ignore that, you do so at your peril. Thanks for bringing up our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ again. There simply cant be too much of Him on hunting website, where the name of the game is helping the transition of living things from this world to the next. I hope you have a great hunting season and that the Man in charge uses you to assist in helping a few "cross over". Feel free to respond and "bump" Him back up on top to His rightful place and give us a break from all the political bs that seems to be taking over here lately with the lack of any coherent moderation. The fact that you think He doesn't have time to worry about what happens to a deer indicates that you lack some understanding of what He can do. I suggest picking up a Bible and reading it. Start with the gospel of John, then maybe go back to Genesis.

There are a few cuts that I like better, like tenderloins (fillet mignon), and back-straps, but the bone-in neck roast is very good. We also do it in the crockpot. I used to waste time trying to trim burger meat from the neck, cutting out and around all the fat, bone and tendons. Just lopping it off, and leaving most of that stuff in, adds flavor to the gravy after 8 hours in the crockpot. I throw a can of cream of mushroom soup and a half can of water in with it. With a gun, I now finish off spined does and button bucks with a head shot, rather than a neck shot, just to save the neck roast. The only downside from my 2016 Texas heart shot (which Chef was kind enough to bring up yet again today) was the loss of the neck roast.

You got my vote for the best post of this thread Larry. I can't wait for a few of mine this fall, starting with the early ML week up in the northern zone in mid October. The next vacation day I burn after those 5.5 (took a half day the Friday before so might catch the last hour of crossbow up there if I drive fast), will be the Friday after Labor day. That is always peak rut and my favorite time to be in the woods during southern zone archery season (with my crossbow). My last planned vacation day of the year is December 30, for a little extra "Holiday" ML hunting. That is the best thing to come along on the NY deer hunting season since they legalized crossbows for the whole rut in the southern zone, back in 2014. All the test of my hunting will be on weekends (I am very thankful for the Saturday gun opener). The heck the vaccination bs, lets talk about vacations and hunting.

It definitely saves time to skin them warm, but I only do that when it is too warm to age the carcasses in my insulated garage. In that case, leaving the skin on insulates the meat against too high (above 50 F) or too low (below 32 F) temperatures. It also keeps the meat from drying out too much over the aging period. The time to age the carcass, in order to get past rigor mortis, is about a week for an average adult deer. 6 month fawns (our favorites) can be cut up right away and older deer benefit from longer aging. When the outside temps are too high for hanging in my insulated garage, I skin them warm, and hang on my old, non frost free "deer fridge". They dont dry out in there, even with the skin off for a week or more. To split up the butchering work a little, I skin the aged carcasses on one week night, then trim away all the accessible external fat (takes a while on does especially). The following week night, I debone the carcass, grind as needed, and package. They dont dry out too much overnight with the skin off. My wife sometimes helps out with the packaging and cleanup. I use zip lock bags rather than than a vacuum sealer on the first deer every season, because it is usually gone in a couple months, so vacuuming would be a waste of time and money.

Yes, just as He has with every other living thing on which I have assisted in it's trip to Heaven (mankind's food supply). You can look that up in the Good book if you cant take my word for it, or just Google "where every sparrow falls". Deer hunting got a lot easier for me, after I figured that out. I really aint that great of a shot on my own. I rarely placed higher than 3rd on our high school rifle team. It was tough for me, because a couple of good looking girls were our best shooters, and they made it tough for me to concentrate on the targets.

Happy birthday fellas.

I only attempted the Texas heart shot one time, on that Adirondack 6-point buck back in 2016. There is not much room for error on that shot. Fortunately, the Good Lord was with me, and my 150 gr, Federal classic 30/06 bullet struck right on the mark, from a 50 yard range. The fact that the buck was standing still, and I had a very good rest, no doubt contributed to the precise bullet placement. Walking up to that steaming DRT carcass, I was anticipating a messy gut job. That certainly would have happened, if the bullet missed the mark by more than 1/8" in any direction, according to several others here who had near misses on caribou and such (pygmy, buckmaster, etc). As fate would have it, that turned out to be the cleanest gut job that I ever had on a deer, and even the butt-out worked just as it should. I did loose the neck roast, due to meat damage caused by the bullet exiting the front of the buck. Thanks for bringing my Texas heart shot up again Chef. It always brings back nice memories of a beautiful place, coupled with Jesus Christ blessing me with the best shot that I ever made on a deer. It was good for 10 or so pages back in 2016, but it has been like a gift that keeps on giving, thanks to you and several other of the wonderful members here. May the Good Lord bless you with a great deer season this year.

I know for sure right now, that there are good (3.5 year minimum) bucks around all 3 of my hunting areas (two spots in WNY, one up in the Adirondacks). Because of that, I will be upping my 1st half of the season(s) antlered deer standards from my usual 2.5 yr / 3 points on a side to 3.5 yr / 4 points on a side. The one exception that I will make to that, is if I get a real good shot opportunity on a northern zone 4 or 6 point, during the early ML week. To me, an Adirondack deer is worth at least double what any western NY deer is, due to the scenery and solitude up there. At home in WNY, the Holiday ML season, and a spectacular corn crop this year thanks to all the rain, should make filling the freezer at the end of the year a piece of cake. There should not be a need to settle for a smaller antlered deer early, around home anyhow.

I throw all the "parts", along with the occasional road killed deer, on a pile 100 yards behind my bedroom window. That makes for some good night and day coyote and crow .22 rimfire target practice.