wolc123

Early antlerless gun season at home in wmu 9F produced a button buck, on the first Sunday just before sunset, with my Marlin 512. On the second Sunday of that, I killed a mature doe over at my parents place, just after sunset, with my T/C Omega. Good thing our freezer is in decent shape early (also had about a deer and a half left in there vacuum-sealed from prior years), because the hunting has been tough so far, up north at my in-laws in wmu 6c & 6f. Two days into early ML week and no sign of any deer yet. I will be heading to the spot where I have had the most sightings up here over the last 10 years this morning. I’m not expecting much there either, because they usually don’t move in there until the snow comes. The weather has been colder than the last few years up here this week though, so maybe they will be in there early. Regardless of what I see in there today, I’m going to hit it again on my last hunt of this trip, next Sunday. We are supposed to get a winter mix of precipitation on that day. The smallmouth bass fishing was ok on Saturday afternoon at least, with (4) legal keepers (all released), from 12-16” going for my 1/8 oz bucktail jigs. It was too rainy to fish yesterday afternoon. Probably won’t try that again today because we are going into town for supplies. Ive already helped my father in law finish most of the tasks, to get the place ready for winter, so the rest of the week should be a nice relaxing break from work, unless a deer or two show up to add some excitement.

That ones not far from me either. I think I drove over it at least (3) times on the way up here. The rain just stopped up here now and it’s pretty nice out.

The rain stopped up here in wmu 6f, right on schedule, at sunrise. I’m in my spot now waiting on a deer.

I don’t care that you don’t care about me but I care about and am very thankful for you. Without you and a small group of like-minded others, I’d be eating a lot more store bought chicken, and I don’t like that too much. Now stop worrying about this and go get the big one. Im stuck here in a truck cab waiting for the rain to stop. At least I had time to cut me a muzzle cover. Hopefully, I can get a 5th deer out of that right hand neoprene glove:

Scientology logic or not, I’m just the thankful for my high blood pressure medication. It sounds like that will enable me to get out there chasing the big bucks with my crossbow on October 1 next year. My freezer is too full now to mess around with it yet this year, thanks to the early antlerless gun season that you anti/crossbow folks pushed the DEC into giving us back home (3) years ago. Thanks a lot for that by the way. There’s nothing like being able to legally light up the deer woods with gunfire in a September. Here’s to you, and best of luck to you for the rest of the seasons and stay safe up there in the trees:

Was it the Oswegatchie ? I’m not hunting too far from there this week, and I know of a few spots where I could see that happening. Bad as it was, that doe probably suffered much less than about any other way that she could have departed. The stream, where I’m at, is running high from all the rain the last few weeks. I think it flows into the Oswegatchie. Im just thankful that there’s not much more of that rain predicted for the rest of the week. It seems that the last few years up here this week, I’ve had to hunt from under my tree umbrella, more often than not. The dry weather was nice, but I couldn’t find any deer yesterday. Hopefully, I’ll see at least one today. I’ll be hunting closer to the steam. After reading your story, I’ll go for a shoulder blade shot, if I do see a mature doe or a buck with 3 or more points on a side, in range. If a deer flips into the stream here, it would most ikely get swept down thru a big culvert, into some posted land where I don’t have permission to hunt (not right now anyhow). I hope to catch up with the owner this week, and rectify that situation. He’s trying to make peace with my father-in-law, after a recent property dispute. My father in law hasn’t budged yet, but the neighbor did bake him a delicious apple/blueberry pie, so it seems that he’s at least willing to negotiate. I think if I told him how good that pie was, he’d grant me retrieval rights. As far as the shoulder blade shot and meat damage goes, it wasn’t bad at all, on a big fat doe that I shot a few weeks ago with my ML at home, during our early antlerless season. That shot was from 50 yards with a 240 gr xtp bullet and (2) 50 gr T7 pellets. The bullet caught the back lower corner of the inboard shoulder blade (she was slightly quartering to me), and dropped her there in her tracks. It didn’t hurt the back straps at all and I had to trim away only a few ounces of bloodied up meat around the wound. There were not any deer up on the ridges by the nut producing trees yesterday. Maybe they are all down by the stream. We shall see, in the next few hours, I guess. Good luck the rest of the season.

What type of broadhead were you using ? I had the same thing happen to me on the last deer that I killed with my vertical bow. That was a 4 pointer, back around 2012. It must have caught a glimpse of my draw, causing it to go on high alert. I drew as it passed thru the hedgerow that my stand was in. It stopped walking, quartering away, about 25 yards out. I aimed for the center of the last rib. Upon my release, it reared down and back, taking the arrow, with o-ring style mechanical broadhead, thru the center of the neck. It ran off with that arrow sticking out both sides. Probably hit the jugular. I heard it crash, about 50 yards away, and flopping around in the bushes for about 2 minutes. I still waited 1/2 hour before I walked over to where I heard the noises and gutted it. Even though I got to eat that deer, that experience soured me more than any other, on hunting with a vertical bow. The best thing that the crossbow has going for it, is the elimination of that draw motion with a deer in close, that so often cause a deer to go on high alert. How many “high back” or shoulder blade hits have we read about on this site alone over the years ? Unless one is willing to get way high up in a tree (the older I get the less I am into that), it’s very tough not to alert a deer by drawing a bow.

Sorry to hear about that Eddie. I know it’s tough, but try not to worry about it too much. The fact that we don’t get to eat all of them is not the end of the world, even though it might feel like it, at times like these. Lessons are learned the hard way and time will lesson the pain. That’s why it’s called hunting. The bad stuff makes the good stuff that much better and there’s way more good stuff than bad stuff.

I also like straight power scopes on certain short range guns. The two that I still have, definitely have more kills on them, than all of my other guns and scopes combined. I think that the cheap Simmons “22 magnum” scope on my Ruger 10/22 is 3x or 4x. That’s just perfect for squirrels. It’s also not bad at night with moonlight and snow. I’ve taken a few foxes and coyotes with it in those conditions. That thing has been horribly abused and has never given me a hint of trouble. Same goes for the old Weaver K1.5 on my grandad’s old Ithaca 16 ga featherlight model 37. Both of those guns are best used at under 75 yards range. That’s about the cutoff, beyond which I prefer the variables. I have connected on shots a bit over 100 yards with both of them though, including my largest antlered buck with the Ithaca/Weaver and my largest coyote with the Ruger/Simmons. The “larger targets” certainly helped in both cases. Ive also killed lots of crows at just over 100 yards, on my carcass/bait pile, with that Ruger 10/22 and it’s 3 or 4 power Simmons scope. That’s the distance, from my bedroom window, to the bait pile across the creek our back. I usually play the wind a little with the .22 at that range. I definitely would not want to be without the variables on my longer range weapons. The last, early gun season doe that I used one on just a few weeks ago, was a great example of why that is. My ML was up on the rail and my binoculars were hanging, when I heard her approaching hoof steps at sunset. I reached for the gun (scope was set to 2x) and quickly found her in view at about a 60 yard range. She was feeding her way closer, on a narrow strip of clover. I wanted to make damn sure that she was a mature doe and not another button buck as had been my prior twilight kill, a week prior. Easier said than done in the fading light. I’d have been screwed with my fixed 1.5x scope (that seems to Nashe then look smaller). A quick reach for the power knob, cranking the old Redfield up to 7, revealed every detail on her head. I now knew for sure that she was a mature doe, and I didn’t have to make a big move reaching for my binoculars, to do it.

Ive always been a Redfield fan. Too bad Leupold didn’t keep the Revolution line going. I’m glad I got my 2-7 before they unloaded it: Two kills for me already this year, with my 2-7 Redfields. The one on my T/C Omega is an old “low-pro”. I also have one of those in 3-9 on my Ruger M77 30/06.

That should have been long enough to get it past rigor mortis, unless it was more than 3-1/2 years old. At this point, I’d thaw it all out, chunk it up, and can it, using a pressure cooker. My buddy did that with an 8-1/2 year old moose a few years ago. It also was as tough as shoe leather, until he did that, which made it tender and delicious. I suspect that even the grind will be tough, if you go that route. I’ve been eating venison for 50 years and never had one that was tough, except for a few tenderloins that I ate too quick, from older deer. I did hear of a couple of friends having that trouble though. One was obviously a very old buck (6-1/2 plus), and the other was a 2-1/2 year old buck that survived 8 days after a bad bow shot. If vas very highly stressed carrying an arrow around for a week.

How many days did it hang after you killed it until you froze it ?

I’m definitely going for it next year, when I will be turning 60 (on Christmas Day). My right shoulder is not quite right and I have been on blood pressure meds for the last (3) years. I’ll go for the “permanent” one. If I knew for sure that the “early antlerless gun season” that they started (2) years ago would be permanent, I wouldn’t even bother with it. It’s all about the meat for me. Filling the freezer has been a walk in the park, since they started that. I guess I can Thank NYBH for that. Had they not successfully lobbied off “full inclusion” the last (3) years, we’d have never been able to light up the deer woods with gunfire in September.

I don’t pay much attention to my hunting clothes, other than having a “scentfactor” , light camo jacket, that I assume is supposed to create some type of scent barrier. I hang it out in my hunting room, when I’m not wearing it, with my other stuff. I don’t want to wash that one too much, because I think that might weaken the “scentfactor” containment system. I don’t remember ever washing it, and it’s maybe (5) years old. It never really gets dirty. I let my wife wash several different pairs of bibs, when they get dirty, in regular clothes detergent. I do spray those with Sawyers after every wash, (maybe 2x per year on average). I shower with scent free soap, every other day when I’m on hunting vacations, and I always try to play the wind. I apply Evercalm to my boots, prior to walking in to my blinds, and I open the stick and lay it down up there when I get into position. As far as playing the wind goes, one thing that has helped me greatly the last few years, is using a closed cab vehicle to get downwind of the deer prior to my walk in. That is more effective than an open atv or side by side (plus old cars and trucks that no longer pass state inspection are much cheaper than open atvs or side by sides). That trick works in all three of my hunting spots. At home, the town highway crew excavated the ditches and made nice wide, well-drained lanes to the far corner of our farm. If I get a NE wind, I can be on the SW corner in minutes with my old Durango 4x4, even after a heavy rain, and the deer have no clue what’s hitting them. Over at my parents place, I can drive my “on road” vehicle into the trailer park around the corner and walk in from the back side, from a dead end trailer park road that butts right up to their woods. I left my old 4x4 pickup truck up at my father in laws place, in the Adirondacks, when it would no longer pass state inspection. He uses it for plowing snow in the winter, and I use it to get downwind of the deer in the fall, on the old logging roads that he maintains year round up there. I also believe that there is no fooling a deer’s nose, and if you can’t get into position from downwind, you may as well stay in the house.

I’m looking forward to getting up there next week big time. Early ML week is my favorite time up there. I always use 5-1/2 vacation days, heading up around noon the Friday before (4 hour drive from home in WNY). It would be nice to see some snow once during that week, but it hasnt happened yet, when I’ve been up there then. I have seen plenty of days that the temperature got close to 80 though. On warm days, I usually hunt the first couple and the last couple of hours of daylight and fish in between. That is about the easiest time of year to catch my favorite fish, the smallmouth bass, up there. They stack up along the shoreline, and readily take 1/8 oz bucktail jigs. They are much harder to catch in the summer, when they suspend randomly, out over deep water. I always stay until about noon on Sunday, the second day of gun season. Last year, I passed up a little spike buck on that last day with my 30/30. Had he been a fork, I’d have let him have it because any buck I’d worth at least double to be up there, compared to one at home, because of the beautiful scenery and the lack of other hunters. I also look forward to the food. My mother in law is a phenomenal cook. I have managed to fill my antlerless deer tag about every other year up there, so I’m due for one this year. Even though they are worth double to me up there, it would probably take a 6 pointer to trip my trigger on a buck tag this year, because I have a couple of dandies at home, that I’d like a shot at. Thanks to a couple of punched tags during our early antlerless gun season, our freezer is also in very good shape now. The spot I go up there needs the does thinned out a bit though, so I won’t hold off of any mature doe, that I can get a shot at.

Very worth the $4.99 I paid for mine about 10 years ago. Not sure if I could hunt without it.

Glad to hear your out there hunting Eddie. It looks like just a few more days of this warm weather.

Knowing that for certain, definitely took out most of the “selfish” hurt from me after loosing one of my best hunting and fishing buddies on opening day of gun season (3) years ago. I know for certain that he is with The Lord Jesus now, because Luke 23:43 was the passage that I opened my “pack Bible” to at random up in my tree stand, right after I got the text of his passing.

Too hot for hunting today but good day on the range to check the zero on my last unchecked deer weapon (Remlin 336BL). I brought along my .22 also, because I might try and squeeze in a squirrel hunt next weekend. No more deer hunting for me until NZ ML opens on October 14. Neither of those guns had any noticeable recoil, so I didn’t need the pin on recoil pad that I use with most of my other guns. The skeeters were not bad back there in the earlier afternoon, but were starting to get worse when I finished up around 5:15pm. I imagine that the bow hunters out till dusk were getting eaten alive.

Sorry to hear of your dad’s passing. Prayers sent. I lost my sister to cancer this year. The sadness lessons a little every day and I know I will see her again someday. It really feels like she’s still with me sometimes, when things fall into place, as if she’s up there helping somehow.

I had lots of fun fishing as a kid also, and I have never stopped. A neighbor (2) doors down had a nice pond, where we would catch largemouth bass and bluegills. There was also a small, slow-moving creek behind our house. That was fed by a limestone mine, that closed down many years ago. It was loaded with bullheads, suckers, and rock bass. Pike came up in the spring. I also caught an occasional carp. The old guy, that lived across the road, made chowder with snapping turtles. Us neighborhood kids would catch bluegills in the pond, and chop them up for turtle bait on treble hooks, attached to wire. We caught snappers in the creek and pond and took them over to him. He was pretty well off, and retired as the top union man at the local gypsum plant that made wallboard from the limestone mine. At that time, that plant was the largest employer in our town. He would tell us stories of catching bucket fulls of blue pike at night out on Lake Erie. He bought a brand new Ford 8n, to work his 1/2 acre garden, back in 1951. I ended up buying that “cherry” from his widow, after he passed away. I still think of him and those snapping turtles, when I’m running that tractor.

Smallmouth bass are definitely my favorite. Pound for pound, I have yet to tangle with a harder fighting species of fish. They also eat pretty good, if the fillets are still twitching, when you put them in the vacuum bags. I like largemouth bass a lot also. Just a smidge better tasting than smallmouth bass and easier to fillet. Only about half the pull of a smallmouth though, landing them firmly in the second slot, well behind the smallmouth for my overall species ranking. I like walleyes, from smaller lakes ok, but not those from Lake Erie or the St Lawrence river. I only like those when eaten fresh. They just don’t keep well in the freezer, even if vacuum sealed (unless you like fish that has the flavor of algae). Another thing I really appreciate about the smallmouth bass, is that they always go nuts over bucktail jigs. That makes my tackle cost minimal, since those are almost free to me.

I started the pistol permit paperwork a long time a go when the T/C contenders were popular as a “loophole” gun that allowed the use of the .35 Rem in shotgun only zones. Midway thru that process, rifled shotgun barrels were legalized, negating the need for the pistol. I took the course and started the paperwork, but that’s as far as I got. I’m glad I didn’t now, that they are cranking up the pressure on permit holders. If I do get into trouble, I’ll have to trust in God and my cutlery skills to keep me safe.

There’s definitely something to that pack mentality thing. I’m thinking I might run into some of the real thing, up your way, on early ML week. An older couple, up the road from where I hunt on the other side of Ft Drum, recently got a pair of young, supposedly “feral” dogs. The dogs seem ok alone, but they cause lots of trouble when they get loose together. Seems they are on the “outs” with everyone else in the area now. I’m hoping I don’t run into them loose on any of my early morning or later afternoon hunts up that way. I’ll only have one shot available quick, for the first (7) days, anyhow. I’ll need to rely on my Buck 110, for the second one, if it comes to that. I guess I will have to practice a quick draw and open with that.

I think you would be welcome over there, and have much to add, should you change your mind some day. There are definitely some bickering pro-trolls over there, but even they, can and do serve a useful purpose, as I just explained. There are also some real class acts over there, who definitely know what it’s all about. There’s plenty of room left in this state for two hunting forums. I hope to see them both grow and prosper.