wolc123

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.

Crossbow: Centerpoint sniper 370 and Barnett recruit, ML: scoped T/C Omega 50 cal and fiber optic sight Traditions fox river 50 cal Rifle: scoped Ruger M77 30/06, fiber optic sight Remlin 336-BL 30/30, scoped Remlin 336 30/30. Shotgun: scoped Marlin 512, scoped Ithaca model 37 16 ga, open sight Remington 870 12 ga. I am hoping to fill at least 3 of my 7 tags with one or more of those 10 weapons.

I started butchering them myself in the early 90's, after a trusted neighbor retired from the practice. Since then, I have averaged about 3 per year. I do it my self for many reasons, most importantly, to insure that I get my own meat back. It also teaches me where the best spots to place shots are, from various angles, in order to minimize meat damage. Cost savings is an added bonus. No one has ever complained about "gameiness", or toughness from venison that I have butchered. Most had no clue that they were not eating beef. I do my best to properly age the meat before processing and freezing. That is the key to making it tender. Like any red meat, it is critical that rigor mortis is past, before freezing the meat. Even the burger will be tough if you skip that step. As far as packaging goes, I always put the grind from the first deer in zip lock bags. Vacuum sealing that would be a waste of time and money , because it is usually consumed in a couple of months. Subsequent deer are vacuum sealed, because that keeps them fresh up to 4 years. I debone the deer, except for an occasional neck roast, which I really enjoy out of the crock pot. We use grind the most, so I often grind all but the back-straps and tenderloins, especially older deer. Button bucks are in a class by themselves, when it comes to tenderness and flavor, so I make less grind and more roasts from them. I will not butcher any more deer from the northern zone myself for two reasons: #1 ticks, #2 it is much cheaper to have them processed up there than it is in WNY.

I changed out my two least comfortable stands (a cheap hang-on, and a tiny ladder stand) with roomy elevated box blinds. Each is equipped with a 3 ft high, weathered barnwood sided wall that serves as a safety rail, gun/crossbow rest, wind break, and cover. The platforms are made from weatherproof composite decking and all of the structural supports are pressure treated. I have a nice chair for one (shown in the tent), still looking for one for the other, but may use an old plastic swivel chair that I now use on my range if nothing else comes along before early November. I dont plan any southern zone deer hunting until crossbow opens for the peak 2 weeks of the rut in early November. I still have a little trimming to do and hope to have that accomplished by Labor day, as well as a couple of wheat/clover plots that I hope to have in by September 10. I also hope to have the zeros checked on my deer ML's, crossbows, rifles, and shotguns (2 each) by September 10. My first planned deer hunt will be in mid October on the last Friday of the 3 day northern zone crossbow season, followed by the early ML week, then opening weekend of gun up there. I have a little time left to finish all the prep.

Both of my spots in wmu 9f are pretty damn flat. I prefer the mountains and have been spoiled by getting a taste of some pretty good Adirondack hunting. Flat land hunting now bores me a bit (but still beats work). After I retire, I will most likely head for the hills. Screw that up above, this is how I like it:

We did well on the upper Niagara this morning, landing approximately 30 smallmouth bass and loosing about 6. Half of them were "keepers" from 12-1/8" to 18", averaging about 15". We fished from 7:00 am until 10:30 am, catching them all on the bottom in 26 to 28 ft. About 3/4 were on bucktail jigs and the others on ned rigs. My wife and girls will have enough fish for the winter now (those from the upper Niagara river are safe for women and children to eat). My buddies were kind enough to "donate" their 10 (ain't friends like that wonderfull). They were happy just reeling them in and netting. I need a few more packs of Adirondack smallies for myself (only ok for men over 50 to eat). It shouldn't be a problem securing that on Labor day weekend and during the early ML week this October.

The only wood I have bought since the Biden inflation is those (4) $5 landscape timbers from Home Depot. All of the other lumber I have been using was "free".

It is still a bit early for wheat. I always aim for around Sept 10. Speaking of which, I need to coax my dad into picking up a few bushels of that, along with some white clover. The seed place is always closed by the time I get out of work during the week and all of my Saturday mornings are booked until then.

Home depot was charging $40 for 8 ft pt 4x4s, so I went with the $5 landscape timbers. They feel pretty solid and I did tie them together on the bottom with 2x4 pt braces.

The 2 small turnip radish plots that I put in a couple weeks ago are looking ok. I caught a doe with a big fawn feeding in a white clover plot next to the back one this afternoon. It looked like the fawn was already 2/3 the size of the doe, likely a button buck that I will be targeting during the last 2 weeks of archery season, for one of my 4 9f dmp tags. No tracks in the turnip radish plots yet. I pulled a few weeds out of the front one, and dragged the adjacent 1.5 acres which will be planted with a wheat medium white clover mix in a couple weeks. I boxed in a new blind in the big poplar tree in the background this morning, using weathered barn siding. That front turnip radish plot is about dead center between that blind and my bedroom window. Depending on which I am in, I will be shooting about 100 yards north or south to reach it during the Holiday ML season this year. That little plot of turnips between standing corn ought to work wonders then.

I like the Saturday opener a lot better. It sucked having to burn a vacation day or skip school when it was on a Monday. Sure there is less oortunity for pre season drinking and partying now, but it is supposed to be about hunting.

I sort of over did it on the meat at my buddy's kid's wedding last night, so went with a vegetarian lunch today. Here's a "Ravishing Ruby" to Tom T. Hall:

I bet you can guess what one of his songs was my favorite.

Sad to hear that, he was one of the good ones. I had a few too many beers last night, but I will have to go for another today in his honor. I will go for a Genny cream ale pounder with lunch. What a talented songwriter. I will miss the old storyteller.

The reasons for the special seasons is that it allows for a greater deer harvest while satisfying the desires of more hunters. Both of these are important. Maybe you have not noticed the effect of the noise of a gun, coupled with hunting pressure in the areas you hunt. I always see that make the bulk of the local deer herd switch to basically full nocturnal activity. Elimination of those early "silent seasons" would greatly reduce the chances for hunters to even see deer, let alone kill them. The crossbow, being silent like the vertical bow, would not alter the current situation, as far as the gunfire effect on deer daylight/nocturnal behavior. I believe that those who put forth the added effort to develop proficiency in traditional archery do deserve some extra early time, but that should certainly not apply to the compound bow. Would you be ok with a 99.9999 % letoff compound bow ? A good archery deer season would be: "Traditional" (recurve/longbow) October 1 thru October 14, "Modern" (compound/crossbow) October 15 thru opening of gun season.

The shit must be starting to hit the fan now because the garbage truck didnt show yesterday on our side of town.

For the next week or two, I would go with brassicas (turnips, rape, radish). If you can hold off until September, I would go with a winter wheat, medium white clover, soybean mix.

I think your odds of getting dmp's are exactly even from the day they go on sale, thru the end of September. During October, they do some math and figure out how many leftovers to hand out, beginning November 1st. At that time, they go on a first come, first served basis. There is no advantage to early dmp acquisition in August, but there is in November. When going back for those extra dmp's in November, there is no additional $10 charge, but I always try to make a $10 donation towards the venison for the hungry program. The guy at the counter at Walmart couldn't figure out how to do that for me last year, but the girl there last week was able to when I got my first two wmu 9f dmp's.

If you want to see things get back to normal, you got to get all the Democrats (aka Communists) out of power. The midterms ought to be interesting.

I never had much luck with "trailer" tires on my boat. When they blow out, I replace them with cheap car tires, which have never let me down. I just run them at slightly higher pressure than recommended for a car. What has always happened with the trailer tires, is that the tread blows off. Most often, I catch that in my rear view mirror, and am able to get off the highway on the next exit and change to the spare before the tire blows completely. One time, near the rt 81 exit on the 90, I heard a trucker say "give that camper pulling a boat a wide birth, he has a tire about to go", on the cb. Sure enough, I noticed a slight wobble on the passenger side. I put on my 4 ways, dropped my speed to 55, and replaced the failing tire at the next exit. That was about 10 years ago. On my way home, I stopped at the Watertown Walmart and had them mount their cheapest car tire on the trailer rim. I will never buy another "trailer" tire, since I have now had 3 fail the same way. The first one I replaced with another trailer tire, having not yet learned that lesson, which makes the math work out.

I would get yourself a rototiller for the tractor. Put the garden fairly close to your house (so you can reach it with a hose for watering) in an area with good southern sun exposure. I have had good luck with seeds and plants from Niagara County Produce on Transit, near Millersport. They also have fertilizer. Sounds like your kids are a bit young for weeding, etc, but should provide a good labor source in the coming years, and it is never too early to get them out there and interested in it, as long as you keep it "fun".