wolc123
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Posts posted by wolc123
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4 minutes ago, First-light said:
Fatty Corn fed deer delish!
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18 minutes ago, First-light said:
Not my buck but my neighbors. Both of our fields were in corn this year. Smiths Farm shelled the corn late and left strips up for the deer. There is so much corn in the fields its crazy. So Im hanging with my neighbor today and he says its time to only hunt bucks. Any legal buck is mine. I have to say this guy is like the late season specialist on getting it done. So he sets up over his corn. Texts me at6 3:30 saying he has 6 doe in the field. At 4:30 I hear 2 shots. A doe left and went back into the woods when she came back trhis 10 pt was in tow. lol he gets it done again! Muzzy and the Holiday hunt I will be glued to my corn field.
No doubt about it, corn is the place to be late-season. I had plenty of it last year (it lasted till March), but I cut my acreage in half this year, due to high fertilizer and fuel costs in the spring. The deer had me cleaned out by mid October.
It didn’t help that my neighbors also eliminated or cut way back on what they put in. I do have plenty of good turnips out there still, and lots of winter wheat. I’m hoping that keeps some deer around thru the Holliday ML season this year. I could only hunt a couple of days of that last year, but there were deer in my corn every day that I hunted it.
This year, I have that whole week off work and I am planning to hunt every day. I just wish I had planted a little more corn this spring. Oh well, I do have plenty of cover back there and hopefully the turnips and wheat will do the trick.
I don’t know of any wild game (or food of any kind) that is quite as tasty as a corn fed and fattened whitetail deer.
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I’m not a fan of high winds but the cold don’t bother me much. I can easily sit for hours in zero degree F temps, if I have on my Mickey Mouse boots, long underwear, down vest, thinsulate lined jacket and bibs, face mask, wool hat, and my hands in a muff with a hand warmer.
Throw in that wind though, and I’d definitely pick the calm, rainy 45 degree day. Deer don’t move much on windy days regardless of temps. A tree umbrella is a cheap easy solution to rain on a calm day.
I always thought that the snare-drum like noise, that the rain made on the tree umbrella would scare the deer away, but I finally managed to kill two while it was pounding it, from less less than 20 yards away. Former site member Tacs always said that the drum noise wouldn’t bother them, and by-golly, I guess I proved him right.
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2 hours ago, Don_C said:
I was always under the impression that's what they do when the catch something they don't like. They don't move until they figure it out (or don't) and decide to bolt.
Not sure about that. I’ve always observed that when they catch human scent, the immediate reaction of a mature deer (does even more so than bucks) is to bolt for cover at maximum speed.
That particular buck was “on a mission”, near the end of the rut. It took something “very special” to stop his brisk walk and hold him in place for the long time that it took me to clear both lenses of my scope. That’s why I attributed that one to the Evercalm more so than any of the others that I killed while using it.
The only bad thing that time, was that most of his vitals were covered by a big tree where he stopped. I had to aim considerably farther back on his rib cage than I preferred. I still caught the second last rib and both lungs with my 16 ga foster slug. The slug didn’t quite make it all the way thru him, but did blow out enough chunks of rib, to make a halfway decent double blood trail in the snow.
He made it into some very heavy cover and I had to use that special dual-purpose tool as a handle to drag him out to where I could gut him and get to him with my dad’s Ranger. Order of operations is very important in such a predicament (drag first gut second).
I’ve had other mature deer approach from directly downwind, when I had Evercalm wiped on my stand or tree. I hope the open stick produces that same result, but I haven’t been doing it long enough to find out.
It also works on more than just deer. One of the more hair-raising experiences that I had with it, occurred during early ML week up in the Dacks, a few years ago. I had treated my boots with evercalm and was wearing full camo (that was before the orange hat or vest rule).As I followed a well-used deer trail up a mountain ridge, I was nearly intercepted by a big coyote. I raised my ML, when it was ready to pounce, less than 10 yards away. I have never seen one move as fast as that one did, when it saw me lift that gun. I could not get off a shot, before it disappeared into heavy cover.
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3 hours ago, CapDistPatriot said:
How do you like the Evercalm? Is it worth the $$$?
I agree with rack attack, in that it isn’t perfect, but it definitely seems to help. I use to go thru more of it, but I got sick of all the ugly yellow stains around my stands and blinds.
Now, I just wipe a little on my boots, for the last couple hundred yards of approach to my stand, then open the stick again and lay it down when I get there. I get almost 2 seasons out of a $20 stick using it that way, so the cost is manageable.
To save a partially used stick for the following season, put it in a zip lock bag in the freezer, otherwise it will dry up.
I noticed Evercalm use was a common denominator amoung (4) of my last 3.5 yr and (2) 2.5 yr old buck kills over the last (6) seasons. Last year’s 3.5 was the most directly attributable to the Evercalm.
He actually froze perfectly still, when he encountered the trail that I had walked in on. He stood there long enough for me to clear the snow from my scope, and make the shot.
Had he not encountered that Evercalm scent, there is little doubt that He’d be at least 4.5 years old right now, rather than on my wall and in my freezer/belly, forever 3.5.
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11 hours ago, airedale said:
Decided to use my little Thompson Center 45 cal Cherokee sidelock this week for the muzzleloader extension, it is a very nice light weight rifle, I shoot the TC Maxi Balls which are a conical style lead bullet over loose Pyrodex. This is a very finicky rifle, after all kinds of powder-bullet combinations the TC Maxi Balls are the only thing I can get to shoot accurately, which is OK because they will work if I do my part.
Power is about the same as a 44 mag.
Al
That reminds me of my Traditions Fox River 50, which is also very small and easy to handle. I haven’t used it for deer hunting, since I bought my T/C Omega 50 cal, about 25 years ago.
I used that sidelock for about (5) years, only shooting it at one deer, a 2.5 yr old buck that had already dropped one side antler. Only the cap went off, when he walked right under my stand. That “snap” scared him a bit, but caused him no harm.
I also had a hang-fire with it one time, shooting at a big grey squirrel, which showed up at dusk on the last day of late ML season. I held my aim, and the patched round ball neatly beheaded it, about a second and a half after the cap went off.
A couple years ago I got that gun out and put some new fiber optic sites on it. I shot it a few times, and it worked pretty good, with some green-plastic sleeved pistol bullets, one 50 gr T7 pellet, and 25 gr of loose T7.
Mt plan was to use that, as I waded the creek up at my In-laws Adirondack retirement place, during the early ML week. I was going to bring along a fly rod also, and try for Brooke trout at the same time. The gun was so light, that should be doable. My big heavy Omega would never work for that. I’ve seen lots of deer sign, in the swampy creek bottom, thru the years on early ML week up there.
I also had a rough streak with my Omega, blowing good chances at 4 or 5 consecutive deer, and that pushed me back towards that old sidelock. I finally broke that bad streak with the Omega last fall, on a big Adirondack doe, and it also got the job done perfectly, on the next two deer I shot it at, this year.
Despite the restored effectiveness of my Omega in-line, I still would like to give that old sidelock a try. I’ve already put (3) in the freezer this year, but I could use one more average-size one. I’ll likely stick with the Omega, until I get that. I am planning to hunt every day of the Week long Holiday ML season this year.
If I do manage to get one more deer, before or early during that, then the odds are good that my old sidelock will see some action. It is definitely fun to shoot. Cleaning it was always a pain though. That has been a piece of cake with my Omega and T7 powder, since I started using foaming bore cleaner and a bore snake.
You can’t use a bore snake with a side lock, so cleaning that will still suck (literally), even with foaming bore cleaner. I’ll probably save that for my Omega, and just use dish soap and hot water. I’ll have plenty of time, being off of work for all 7 days that week.
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Nothing seen tonight. I could still make out the crosshairs on my 2-7x Redfield Revolution scope at 25 minutes past sunset on this cloudy night, with no snow.
The next time I hit that clover plot will probably be 1/2 hour before sunrise on Saturday morning.
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I’m in for the last 20 minutes of sun, plus 30. I noticed lots of deer scat on this little clover plot, on my walk back Sunday evening, so I’m trying to catch one out for an early bite tonight. I’m not going to be fussy and I am in pure “brown-down” mode. I have two dmp tags and my buck tag left in my wallet.
It looks like we are having a stretch of perfect carcass-hanging weather, over the next week, and it would be a shame to let an open hook in our insulated garage go unused thru that.
I think my odds of a little deer action tonight are ok, because I had to get on the brakes hard to miss a doe just up the road a bit, on my drive home from work just moments ago.Also, a fresh stick of Evercalm arrived in the mail today, so hopefully having that open next to me covers up my scent from those approaching from downwind. I also treated my rubber boots with a little, prior to my 350 yard walk to this stand.
Now, if I can just get one of these 2-3/4” 12 ga Hornady SST’s thru a shoulder blade or (3), all will be well. I don’t have much time for tracking.
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“Quick draw” handles made from chain links, hinge pins, hooks, and duct tape:
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Another vote for an entry-level Barnett here. I paid about $ 250 for my 300 fps Recruit, back in the spring of 2014, after they were first legalized in NY for deer hunting.
It has held up very well for the last 8 years. It certainly is not the fastest, but there is something to be said for “not pushing the envelope” when it comes to durability, longevity, and ease of use.
Other than the ends of the serving loosening up a little on the string (I was able to repair that in under 5 minutes, with a little loop of fishing line, used to pull the ends back under), it has been completely trouble free.
I bought it for hunting, and it’s performance has been nearly flawless. All but one of the (5) whitetail bucks, that I shot it at, died within hearing or seeing distance of taking the bolt.
The (5th) one probably would have also, had I not used the same mechanical broadhead on a second deer without resharpening the blades. I found that one about an hour after the shot, after a somewhat lousy 100 yard blood trail.
While it has got the job done every time on deer (and this coyote a few weeks ago), it did let me down on it’s first shot at wild game, in October of 2014. I missed a grouse, on an overhead shot at close range, during the 3-day northern zone crossbow deer season that year.
I thought about having it restrung a few years ago, but opted to purchase a second entry-level crossbow instead (Centerpoint sniper 370). That one is ok also, but I prefer the light-weight and easy-handling Barnett Recruit most of the time. When it comes to hunting, I definitely prefer having two decent entry-level crossbows over one expensive high-performance model.
I lost the rope-pulley device for the Recruit, in the excitement after killing my largest-ever bodied antlered buck with it, back in 2017. On my next few dmp hunts that year, I was able to draw it by hand, but it was tough on the fingers. I made up a couple hooks, using small pieces of chain, and they work great for a fast draw, maybe even enabling a quick second shot, if it was ever needed.
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The rain has let up. But the wind has picked up to about 60 mph. Lots of widow/makers are coming down, so I’m going to break early for lunch.
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I could only hold out for the first two hours after sunrise, in my swamp-edge hang-on stand this morning. That little thing is not made for sits longer than 2 hours in good weather. No action at all there early this morning, not even a squirrel. The wind was gusting close to 30 mph from the SW, and the light scattered rain started getting heavier around 9:30.
At that time, I made the 400 yard move, to my two story truck-cap blind. I’ve never killed anything from downstairs of this one, but did take what was likely my largest-ever bodied buck (43” chest girth) from the upstairs with my crossbow, about 6 years ago.lol
I shot my gun-season buck last year from another blind, here at my parents place. He ran past and died within 50 yards of this one, after taking this 20 cent, 16 ga Remington slugger from my old Ithaca. That slug never exited his rib-cage. It fell out from under the hide, when I skinned him. It knocked chunks of busted rib all the way through, so that there was a decent, 75 yard long blood trail on the snow, spraying from both sides.
I’d be happy if my old Ithaca 16 gauge could get it done on a unicorn with a single 3-1/4” spike today. I’ve gone thru a quart of cider and my last snicker bar this morning and I am now completely out of provisions. I guess that I should have rationed my supply better. Hopefully, the rain lets up soon, so I can make it to lunch with my parents, without getting too wet.
This blind has the solid end facing the prevailing wind direction (SW), and is super comfortable on horizontal-rain days, like today. My tree umbrella is nearly useless in those type of conditions.
What’s best about these two-story models, is the instant that the rain stops I can go upstairs, where there are no “blind spots”.
I still need to break in the first floor of this one, with a deer kill. So far, I have only killed squirrels from down here. There’s been about a dozen deer and a coyote killed from the upstairs of the similar one, that I have at home, and about half of that from it’s lower deck.
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175 lbs 14 oz field dressed if harvested the day of that picture. Hind quarters look thin, typical of a late post-rut buck. Would have been about 193 lbs field-dressed on October 30.
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I didn’t make it to my swamp edge stand last Sunday afternoon, as I had planned. My parents heard (4) shots back in that area in the morning, so I thought my stand on the other side of their woods might be better. I didn’t see anything there though. The swamp edge stand has always been a better morning spot for me.
It’s been quite a few years, since I still had a buck tag this deep into the season, but I am thinking that I might have a good chance of punching that this Saturday morning, from that swamp edge stand. It will be 1 year and two weeks since the last time I hunted it.
Three years ago, on the Third Saturday morning of gun season, two bucks chased a doe twice by that stand, the second time around, passing directly under it. My buck tag was long gone, and my Marlin 512 froze up, allowing that doe to escape unharmed.
I’m hoping that the bucks do go deep. I don’t have a deeper spot, than that stand. I can’t ever recall taking an antlered buck after Thanksgiving weekend, but I like my odds this Saturday. I’ll be packing my old Ithaca 37 16 gauge. That thing never fails to get the job done, no matter how cold it is.
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1 minute ago, luberhill said:
Butcher told him 140
Gross maybe, but lots of asymmetric reductions there, which would reduce the net.
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117-5/8”
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This was my first opening day of gun season, in the last 40, that I didn’t hear a single shot. Could be because I was too far away:
Otherwise, Overall deer numbers are as high as I’ve ever seen in both areas where I hunt (wmu 9F and 6C). Antlered buck to doe ratio, after October 1, has been the same 4:1 in wmu 9F this year, as it has been about the last 25 years.
Big change in that up in wmu 6C though. I had been seeing 4-5 antlerless deer per each antlered one up there the previous 10 years, but it was about 1:1 this year. Most of the bucks I saw up there were very small though (spikes and 4 points).
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I think it’s a plain brown deer that jumped into a bunch of fresh powdery snow during last weeks blizzard. Show me a picture of it on some green grass and I’ll believe it’s really a white deer.
Notice how the part above the snow line (between the antlers) is normal colored.
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50 minutes ago, GreenDrake said:
BTW...WOLC....I missed you opening weekend....
Not as much as I missed you all.
As far as the canning goes, I haven’t had canned venison in many years, but my mom used to do it when I was a kid and it was really good.
The last canned meat I had was from an old (est 8.5 yr) moose, down at my friend’s camp, about 4 years ago. He had initially froze all the meat from that, but it was so tough, you could hardly chew it.
He thawed it all out, then canned it with a pressure cooker. That stuff was delicious, and unbelievably tender after that. We just opened a jar, heated it on the stove, and poured it over noodles.
I do worry about my freezer (it’s about 40 years old and has been almost completely submerged several times when our basement flooded), so I’d like to get into canning someday. Probably won’t be till after I retire and have a little more spare time.
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1 hour ago, New York Hillbilly said:
I'm jealous of that grinder set up! What a great looking grind.
I'm here going nuts again with mine. Do you freeze the meat before grinding?
PS. The pickled heart recipe was on point.
That thing is probably over a hundred years old, I think my great grandfather made it. Him and my grandfather put lots of beef cattle and hogs thru it. Years ago, you could find places to sharpen the knife and screen. Now, I just buy new ones (#12) when it starts plugging. I think the 3/16” screen and a knife cost around $30 from Amazon last year.
I put about 75 deer thru the prior set, before it started plugging. I don’t freeze the meat first, but I do remove as much of the fat and tendons as I can. It will grind the meat almost as fast as I drop it in. Most of my butchering time is spent trimming the meat off the bones and trimming out the fat.
It also takes a little longer to vacuum seal the packs than it does to grind. Fortunately, my wife takes care of that part for me.
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4 hours ago, First-light said:
Great day in the woods. Didn't see a thing today.....lol Can we start talking about the second Rut!
I didn’t see anything today either. I hunted my food plot court at home this morning and the clover plot over at my parents this evening. I’d say we are definitely in the post opening gun week slow period now. They are all dead or in the thick cover by day and only come out at night.
I’ll be hunting my stands in or on the edge of the thick stuff the next couple weekends. They might be coming back out in the daylight by the last weekend of gun, but certainly by late ML and Holiday ML.
I think I have plenty of meat now, because the tiny-tined dmp tag buck from Thanksgiving morning had a more on him than I expected.
Maybe 35 pounds of grind plus 9 small roasts and (4) one quart packs of back straps, and that was after trimming off a lot of fat.
There’s probably room for one more average sized deer in our big freezer, but anything after that, I will be giving away.
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Just now, Four Seasons said:
Not to derail the thread but is the fat on that buck as thick as it looks?
Yes it is. He looked like a doe, ate like a doe, and was fat like a doe. It took me a while, after skinning him last night, to trim off all the external fat. Hopefully, there’s not so much inside. I’m cutting him up and grinding tonight. I wasn’t sure we had enough vacuum bags left, but it looks like we do.
I always just zip lock the first deer each year, because we go thru it so fast, vacuum sealing would be a big waste of time and money. This one (#2) needs to get vacuum sealed and won’t get eaten until after we finish up what’s left from that big one last year.
All except for certain “special parts” some of which I am enjoying for lunch right now. I can’t recall having any that were tastier. Maybe that Whitetail Instute “tiny tine turnips” he had for his last meal are worth what they charge for them.
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Wolcottsburg surf and turf for lunch:
Damn good eating right there.
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7 minutes ago, 50calpeephole said:
They weren't dumb enough to hang around the woods either
It was a successful hunt for me nonetheless:
I fixed my blown over blind and recovered my shooting sticks.
Got the Cherokee Ready
in Muzzleloaders
Posted · Edited by wolc123
I’m not Lary and I have no clue on flintlocks but I started having much better ignition reliability with my #11 percussion cap side-lock, after I started removing the little screw from the end of the nipple extension, and priming that channel with some loose powder. I would use a nipple pick, to help force some powder in there until it was full, then reinsert the screw.
I didn’t have any more hang fires or mis-fires, with the # 11 caps after I started doing that. If I do hunt with it this year, I’ll be sure to do that.
I still have to get thru (4) more shotgun hunts for deer this weekend, but I am really looking forward to the late ML and Holiday ML seasons this year. I’ll have at least (2) tags left for those, even if I fill my other (3) this weekend with the shotguns.
It would be wonderful to finally get a deer, with my side-lock. One issue I have with it though, is that the fiber optic sites are not much good for the extra half hours that we get now, before sunrise and after sunset.
The old 2-7X Redfield on my T/C Omega is great during that “extra” time. That is the main reason why I won’t bring out my fiber-optic sighted side-lock, until I have one more deer in the freezer.