wolc123
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Posts posted by wolc123
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I missed (I think) a doe a few hundred yards to my right at 5:00 pm last night. I got up into the upper deck of my two-story blind 15 minutes before sunrise this morning. I can see several spots where they were feeding in the adjacent clover plot last night. Hopefully, a deer stops by for a bite before noon today.
The wind is from the sw about 8 mph and the temp is about 15 degrees. Conditions are better this morning than they were yesterday for sure.
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We have about 2000 sq. ft, 3 or 4 residents, and our gas and electric bill has never been over $ 200 per month. Our (2) gas furnaces are set at 67 at night and 69, if we are home in the daytime.
If the outside temperature is below 32, then our gas bill is lower, because most of our heat comes from the wood stove. It gets too hot in the house to use that, when it’s warmer outside.
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5 hours ago, suburbanfarmer said:
No experience here but I have been reading up and watching a lot of ML videos, apparently this late the fat plugs the up the bullet holes since muzzleloader sabots dont go fast enough.
Deer can go 100+ yards without a drop of blood hitting the ground
That could be. About 18 years ago, I lost a basket-racked 8-pointer under similar conditions . Besides the plugging, light fluffy snow is not always the greatest indicator of a hit, because hot blood will burn through it, leaving now trace on top.
I still think last nights was a clean miss, because the shot didn’t sound right and she did not appear to be hit, in addition to the lack of blood on the snow.
The only way that I am ever 100 percent sure of a miss, is if I can kill the deer with a follow up shot, and count holes in the carcass. That’s tough to do with a ML.
I’ve changed my plans for today’s hunt, which was going to be over at my parent’s place. Travel between here and there is still not great, even though the travel ban in our town was lifted at 5 pm yesterday.
I’ll hunt the upper deck of my middle two-story blind this morning. There are a couple thick bedding areas near that, which I have not yet disturbed. I noted lots of tracks towards it on last night’s hunt. There is no wheat or turnips close to it, but there is some nice clover, that looked like it had been getting some attention.Tonight, I’ll go back to my poplar-tree blind. That’s got good wheat/clover close by, that was definitely getting hit based on the tracks in the snow. I didn’t see any deer from it yesterday morning, but it might be better in the pm than the am.
Another reason I want to hunt at home today, is because flooding might make it un-huntable later in the week, by the looks of the forecast. This is about the lowest-lying land in the area, and there will be plenty of melting snow around to put most of it under water.
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I missed one tonight back on the turnip plot. I’m guessing it was the 1.5 yr old doe that was with the older one that I killed during the early antlerless season. I’m not sure what went wrong. The shot didn’t sound quite right. Maybe some moisture got in there, over the last (2) weeks, since it was loaded.
I made it to the blind at 3:30 and sunset was 4:45. At 5:00, she stepped out of the heavy cover and stopped in the middle of the turnip patch, almost exactly where I killed a small spike buck on Thanksgiving morning.
The range was about 75 yards. I cranked my 2-7x scope up to about 5, rested my elbows on my knees, and settled the crosshairs on her front shoulder. She was quartering towards me.
At the shot, she lifted her head, spun around, and ran back into the cover with her tail up, showing no signs of a hit. I followed her tracks into there about 50 yards, finding no blood. Her reaction and the lack of blood make me about 90% sure that it was a clean miss.
Not happy missing, but carcass recovery would have been difficult with about 3 ft of snow. My reworked snowshoes worked ok, with the Mickey Mouse boots and my feet stayed warm, but it was still quite a workout getting back there. I don’t think my tractor could get back thru the deep drifts.
My best option would probably have been to call my neighbor and see if he could come over with his snowmobile. I seen him dragging his grandkids around on a sled with it, for the first half hour or so, that I was back there tonight.
I’ll get my ML cleaned and get a fresh load in it before heading over to my parents tomorrow morning. Hopefully, they didn’t get quite as much snow over there. I’ll bring the snowshoes and a sled, just in case they did.-
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I capped my ML and walked back to my front stand with the snowshoes at 7:14 (1/2 hour before sunrise). I didn’t see any deer on the way, but did cross a few tracks on the front wheat field. It looked like maybe 3 or 4 deer were feeding there last night.
The snowshoes worked real good with my old Sorrels, but as expected, my feet started getting numb after about an hour up in the stand. I didn’t see any deer, and I packed it in after about 1-1/2 hours up there, just before my toes froze solid. The temperature was 15 degrees and the wind was from the sw at 14 mph.
I probably would have been better off this morning, hunting that field from my bedroom window. The shot would have been a little longer to the wheat field, but at least I would have been warm.
I suspect that the larger part of the local deer herd has been feeding from my other fresh wheat/clover plot, way out back. That one has several advantages over the front one: 1) I seeded it heavier 2) it’s closer to bedding cover 3) it’s more hidden from human observation 4) it’s got an excellent turnip plot right next to it.
The few deer, that were feeding up front last night, were probably just outcasts from the main group. I’m going to get back there after the big group this afternoon, after I warm up and eat lunch.
I didn’t get a chance to break a trail back there with the snowshoes, because I was worried I’d snap off a frozen toe or two. I’m going to trim open the rubber bindings of my snowshoes so that they will fit my Mickey Mouse boots.
I’m also going to bring a warmer orange hat. I need to do all I can to hold out in my natural blind, on the downwind side of my back foodplots, until 1/2 hour past sunset. I think that there will be a lot of deer trying to get at those turnips and that wheat before then.
We shall see in a few more hours. The feeling is finally starting to come back to my toes.
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One hour and 14 minutes until “go-time”. I am wondering how much snow I am going to have to pull out, from behind the 3 ft barnwood wall, up in my stand. I think I’ll bring along my wool-lined deerskin snow-plowing mittens for that job.
If all goes well, maybe I’ll get one off the snowshoes, on the walk back, and I won’t need to worry about that.
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The big day (opener of 22 Holiday ML) has finally arrived. I have been up since 4:30, unable to sleep in anticipation. I took this picture, of my front wheat/clover plot, on January 29 of this year. The tracks indicated that there was a big herd of deer feeding on it then.
Our local herd seems even larger now, and I have a new plot about 50 yards closer to my poplar tree stand. That’s planted where standing corn is in the picture and the stand is in the tall tree behind it in the center.
I’m hoping for a few firsts, mostly for a first kill out of that stand. It will also be my first walk-in with snowshoes.
I believe that sunrise is 7:40 ish , but I will verify before my 200 yard walk back, starting exactly 30 minutes prior. The old Redfield scope on my Omega is very good in low light situations, so a shot off the snowshoes is a possibility.
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8 hours ago, Larry said:
Remember after the first of the year gas is going to go up. The governor said they are going to have to add the state tax back on a gallon of gas that's about 33 cents a gallon. That's not including the sales tax.
Didn’t she also say that she wants everyone on electric heat in a few more years. I wonder how that’s going to work out with winter power outages. Maybe she’s anticipating some type of miraculous end to global warming and “climate change” storms like the (2) recent blizzards.
Sure glad I have a wood stove. Thanks to that, the colder it is outside in the winter, the less gas I burn. It gets too hot in the house, with it going, when the outside temps are above 30 degrees:
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7 hours ago, mlammerhirt said:
We got hit hard today once the snow machine started to shift south. Plowed the driveway and cleaned the truck off three times today.....not worth letting it pile up.
This snow is alot different than the November storm....much lighter due to how cold it is outside.
Sent from my SM-A716V using Tapatalk
It seemed to me like a heavy snow, fine and granular. I got stuck down in southern CA on a work trip for the November blizzard. I was damn close to getting stuck down there again for this one, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to miss a second opening day of deer season (Holiday ML) and Christmas and my birthday with my family.
I flat out refused, telling my boss that I’d flip burgers before I went. That turned out to be a good move, because there is no doubt that I would be stuck there right now.
I had to shovel a fair amount on this one, in order to get my daughter’s car to my tractor to jump start it. I guess I’m going to have to buck up for a battery with more CCA for that tractor.
I did have to shovel about 3 ft of that last one off of my wife’s van, when I got back to the Buffalo airport. It didn’t seem as heavy as this one but I had to shovel a lot less of it.
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It looks like the wind is supposed to be from the SW tomorrow, so I should be able to stick to the plan, and hit my front tree stand in the morning. A nice thing about the big storm, over the last few days, was that the constant high winds kept a lot of big areas free of any snow buildup.
That should put lots of wheat/clover within easy reach of the deer, on a few of my plots, including one of about (2) acres near the stand I’ll be in 1/2 hour before sunrise.
I’ll hold out up there as long as I can in the morning. That stand has a nice barnwood wall, that protects it from SW wind, which will help. Cold feet will probably be an issue, because my Mickey Mouse boots don’t fit my snowshoe bindings. My old pair of felt-lined Sorrels, that work with them, are not nearly as warm. Hopefully, a deer will show up in range, in the first hour or so.
At the end of the morning hunt, I plan on breaking a trail with the snowshoes, back to the stands where I will hunt at mid-day and evening, then go back to the house for lunch (leftover liver and onions). I’ll wear the Mickey boots on those hunts, which are good all day to about 30 below zero.
SW wind protection is lacking at my midday and evening stands, but good boots, a face mask and wool hat, long underwear, thinsulate bibs and jacket, lined flannel shirt, hand-warmer in a muff, and a quart of hot cider, should keep me plenty warm.
My in-line ML has been loaded and left out in the barn since last Saturday. I got all the other gear ready to go today, even my Barnett Recruit crossbow, which I plan on using Tuesday morning at my trailer park stand by my parent’s place.
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8 minutes ago, Four Seasons said:
Have A Great One!!
Thanks, so far so good, and you have merry Christmas. My wife gave me my favorite TV series on DVD, and I just completed an hour of fun plowing snow:
Hopefully, tomorrow’s ML hunt will go well.
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It took me about 20 minutes to shovel out my daughter’s sonic. That got a brand new battery in it, down in White-Plains, last week. It worked good to jump start my tractor. It was too cold for that to turn over fast enough on its own.
Our 4-Wd and fwd SUV’s were both trapped in the barn. I usually jump the tractor with the Durango, but a 6 ft drift in front of the barn door stopped that.
After I got the tractor started, it took me over an hour to dig out our two driveways and my neighbors. The plows hit our road soon after, so we are no longer stranded.
I’m not planning on going anywhere, until Tuesday morning, to hunt at my parents. I guess I’ll be wearing my snowshoes, on my way to the stand out back tomorrow morning. I don’t think we got much over a foot of snow, but high winds made some deep drifts.
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I’m eating good anyhow:
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Merry Christmas to all and may we all get a 9-point buck on the wall.
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5 hours ago, Grouse said:
General George Armstrong Custer and his hunting party with Custer's first grizzly taken in South Dakota on the Black Hills Expedition. Pictured next to General Custer is Colonel Ludlow, both are dressed in buckskins.
One interesting Custer hunting story, was about the time when he was left stranded alone and deep in Indian territory out on the plains, after he accidentally shot his horse.
His favorite Buffalo hunting method, was to ride up next to a bison as it was pursued by his dogs, and dispatch it with his revolver.
A shot went astray that time, catching his favorite horse in the brain. Fortunately, the luck that he was famous for held that time, and he found his way back to his command on foot.
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Close. I’ll be 57 for 2.6 more hours.
22 minutes ago, New York Hillbilly said:My old computer plays tricks on me, so if it's not really your birthday wolc123 forgive me. But, if it is, Happy Birthday!
And, Happy Birthday to anyone else here on the list who celebrate it today!
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11 minutes ago, Pygmy said:
It was 5 degrees according to my truck thermometer on my way home from the Legion This afternoon...I had to hit the brakes to avoid three penguins and a polar bear...
That’s not bad. My cousin, who lives a little south of Atlanta GA, called me and said that it was 3 degrees down there earlier today. They don’t have any snow though.
My aunt, who lives next door to me, is down visiting him for Christmas. She was wondering if we lost power during the blizzard up here. Fortunately, we did not loose it at all yet during this storm.
They put in one of those water backup sump-pumps, so hopefully they won’t need to worry about the basement flooding, if we do loose power. Our road is the lowest in the town, so flooding can be an issue.
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1 hour ago, blackbeltbill said:
Monday is your Day. Go get em!
Thanks Bill. My daughter just went out and broke a path to the front clover plot for me, thru the drift out back, so I could get at them:
It still looks like I’ll be needing the snow-shoes on Monday.
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42 minutes ago, New York Hillbilly said:
0730 this morning, from living room window, I watched 5 deer cross in front of the house. It looks like they are following the narrow hedgerow towards the only cut over cornfield we have in the area this year. My guess is they holed up during the worst of the weather and are now making towards a source of calories to deal with this frigid cold and wind.
I’m hoping to catch some out in my turnip, wheat, or clover plots on Monday. The ground did not freeze, before all this snow, so that stuff should still be very easy for them to get at. They had all of my corn eaten up by October 1 of this year. They started hitting it in August. I think that was the easiest place for them to get moisture, due to the summer drought, so they started on it early.
I also cut my corn acreage in half, due to high fertilizer and fuel costs, this spring. Last year, they hit the wheat and turnips real hard, after all the corn was gone, but some of that corn lasted until February.
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2 minutes ago, suburbanfarmer said:
Never got any amount of snow that needed shoveling where I am ..
Lots of wind and cold for sure.
We also got very little overnight, up on the nw corner of wmu 9F (maybe 12”), but lots of blowing and drifting. I just swept off the porch, to make it a little easier to grab firewood. My parents got a little less, down in the sw corner of WMU 9F. They delayed our usual extended family Christmas party, until January 8.
Our pastor just texted that church services are canceled for today and tomorrow. I was going to get out on the tractor and clear snow so we could get out, early tomorrow morning when the “blizzard” is supposed to end, but now I can stay in the house with the wife and kids opening Christmas and birthday presents.
We have not lost power at all so far. I just pulled my last chunk of venison liver out of the freezer. I plan over frying that up with onions for birthday lunch tomorrow. I’ll take my time after lunch (after the wind let’s up), and get our driveways and our neighbor’s cleared with my tractor.
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2 hours ago, Grouse said:
Bill Cody - 1871
He looks a lot like George Custer.
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14 minutes ago, Robby said:
Whatever you do, it's probably a felony, cuz New York.
Robby
Based on her recent move, to block any county from “opting out” of the Holiday ML season, it looks like our governor is a strong supporter ML deer hunters.
That will probably cost her some votes from the snowmobilers though. I don’t suppose they fit in so well with her green energy initiative. Are electric snowmobiles available ?
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2 hours ago, sbuff said:
Is that a fox shotgun above fireplace ?
No, it’s my granddad’s old Ithaca 12 ga. I think it was made in the early 1920’s. I never killed anything with it, but I did use it for many rounds of trap. Back when I shot on a league, we would have side-by-side matches a few times each season.
The main spring broke on it during one of those, about 15 years ago, and it has been a mantle piece since then.
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My wife and I and both of our girls are in the house. I just implemented a driving ban for all members of the household.
I have (2) full cans of gas in the barn, and the tanks on my gas tractor and the generator in there are almost full. I just checked the oil on our 7500/5000 watt portable generator, started it for a while, and load tested it.
The tank on my diesel tractor is also almost full ,and I picked up another 6 gallons of that last night, while I was getting gas. I just finished stacking a half cord of firewood on the porch, just outside of where the wood stove is in the house.
Nobody has any travel plans until Church, a mile up the road, at 9:30 Christmas morning. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow .
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Live From The Woods 2022 - 2023 Edition!
in Deer Hunting
Posted
I stayed in the stand over (2) hours this morning but nothing was moving. It seems that all the action is in the pm back there. I will try again this evening.
Walking long distances thru 3 feet of snow with snow shoes and heavy Mickey Mouse boots is a pretty good workout. I am only going back as far as my front tree stand this afternoon.