wolc123

My little friend just stopped by to say hello. Some big bully knocked one of his points off the left side since I saw him last. He is down to just three now. Too bad he didn't knock off the other side, so I could put him on a dmp tag. He had all four when I passed him up, on opening day of crossbow a couple weeks ago, about 20 yards from where he is standing in this picture:

I have seen them get on them pretty good in mid-December, if it is cold and snowy. The one bb, that I shot from my bedroom window on the last day of ML that year, had a mouth full of turnip greens when he died. I can't recall ever seeing them eat the bulbs, but they like the greens after they get frozen good.

I am settled in also, for the afternoon sit in my back woods stand. This is the spot where I killed my last late season antletless deer in 2017. Maybe lightning will strike again. A little relaxation will be good anyhow. My 3 hour lunch "break" was pretty productive but not to relaxing. I fried up a big onion and about a pound of liver. I like the flavor of venison liver a little better than beef, but not quite as tender from a deer older than 6 mo. I also freshened up my coyote bait pile with the butchering waste from Wednesday night. There was nothing left in that field but a rib cage from a big roadkill buck that I dragged out there last week. Afyer that, I cleared a dead ash blowdown that was blocking the lane, and fixed the exhaust leak on my wife's van. I also put the hitch carrier on that, in anticipation of needing it to bring a doe home from my folks place tomorrow. I think my odds of getting one of those over there is a lot better than here.

6-point liver and onions for lunch. Not quite in the same class as bb but not bad.

Yes, pace yourself. I know all about dragging a deer full of guts out of the water. It is certainly no picnic. Once you reach the high ground and get the guts out, it will go a little easier.

I am going to stick it out until around 11:30, then go back up to the house for lunch. Yesterday's store-bought turkey was ok, but I am really looking forward to half the "organic" liver from Saturday's free-range 6-point. After 6 days in the fridge, it ought to be real tender, when I fry it up with some onions. After that, I got an exhaust leak to work on, with my Wife's van, then its back out for the afternoon sit. No deer seen yet this morning, but I did hear 3 shots within a few hundred yards. Hopefully, the drivers will kick out a few antletless deer after lunch. I have (4) 9f dmp's to work with. I would be happy to punch just one, especially if it was on a tasty bb.

Some of these purple-tops have reached the size of basketballs now. The deer have picked the adjacent corn clean, but have not touched the turnips yet. This ought to be a good spot for Late ML season.

The winding down of the rut is surely another contributing factor. Most of the does must be bred by now. There is still a slim chance, that you have one nearby, that is not yet. About 10 years ago, on this very weekend, I had one of those spots where the doe had (almost ) everything that she needed. She must have still been giving off some hot scent though, because I watched a basket rack buck walk into that wet corn field, from across the road. I still think about that little buck quite often, because that was the last one that I shot with a gun, but could not recover.

I rarely hunt higher than 10 feet, but I have had that happen twice in 39 seasons. The first time, maybe 30 years ago, my Ithaca 37 16 ga with Weaver 1.5x scope fell into a ditch with about a foot of water in it. I dried it off, oiled it up, and it has worked fine ever since. No such luck when I dropped this Marlin 512, from a little higher, onto frozen ground 10 years ago. That sheared the two #10 screws, that held the scope base, clean off. I drilled it out, and tapped for 1/4" screws, but the old Bushnell banner 3x scope it had on was never quite right afterwords. Last year, I put this new Redfield revolution 2-7x on it and it is back to being the tack driver that it always was, prior to the drop. Hopefully you can make your shotgun better also. Maybe put a fancy wood or composite stock on it.

As long as it takes to get some snow cover. Knowbody knows where they are hiding by day now, but they still need to come out at night to feed. When there is snow, folks will get on them tracks and push them back out. Also, when it is warm, they dont need to eat as much. You will start seeing action again, when the temperature and the snow falls. Prior to that, the only option I know that will work, is driving the heavy cover I am hoping that some of the young locals will be pushing the adjacent jungle this morning, as they often do on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving. Otherwise, I am just enjoying the warm temperatures, and relaxation in my most comfortable stand. I brought along my favorite book to read, so either way, my time won't be wasted.

What is the cost for a new one ? On opening day, I tried this Flextone buck collector plus for the first time, when I knew for sure that there was a buck in hearing distance, and it brought him in on a wire. I think it cost around $ 20. It also makes a doe sound and a fawn bleat, but I have never used those features. One thing is certain about it. I would still have a buck tag today, if I did not have it with me last Saturday. Edit, I just checked Amazon and I see they are up to $ 50 now, so maybe not that much price difference compared to the vector, and that definitely has prettier wood.

It has been 7 years since I spent the long Thanksgiving weekend deer hunting in the southern zone. It had been pretty lame for at least 10 years prior to that. Basically, driving them out of cover was the only way see any. I no longer enjoy hunting that way. I would only do it, if I could find no other way to get venison. I am not too concerned with that this year, since our freezer is stocked pretty good now. We had quite a bit of left over, from the last couple years, and my opening day buck yielded a good amount. I did not see any deer this morning, but I only hunted for a couple of hours. I plan on putting in quite a few more hours over the next 3 days. I will be thankful for just one chance at an antlerless deer, thru this weekend. I think my odds of that are pretty good. One of my local spots has improved a ton, over the last 7 years, thanks to a new neighbor who ended some chronic trespassing issues. I will be hunting there all day Saturday. The spot I hunted this morning has held steady and has some great looking food plots this year. I am hunting it again tomorrow. I am definitely heading back up north for the late ML season. It starts a week earlier up there. As long as there is some snow by then, my spot should be loaded with antlerless deer. The best thing about it is, I will be able to hunt for a buck again.

Looking at the 2020 gun harvest thread, I guess I am a "point" guy. As long as it has 3 or more of those on a side, then it is a "shooter" for me, prior to Thanksgiving. After that, a single 3" spike is enough.

Quit at 9:30 and no deer seen, just one fat red squirrel. The knot pulled apart on my seat support (rope was a little too short for the span), so I got to test the safety rail again. I stood for the last 15 minutes. I have had enough of deer hunting until tomorrow morning. It is too warm for hanging a carcass now anyhow, and I wouldn't have time to skin one and get it in the deer fridge before we have to leave for the small Thanksgiving dinner gathering. I heard one shot nearby at 8:30, and 4 more a bit farther off at 8:45. Maybe someone across the road was putting on a drive. I am planning on being out there at home all day tomorrow, in a couple of my more comfortable stands.

Thanks and same to you.

The rope support is not real comfortable but better than standing. I will cut a 2x6 treated lumber cross piece and bring it back on my next usage. I know how wide it has to be by the length of my gun, from the butt pad to the middle of the clip. I am going to give a doe another half hour or so to show up today before pulling the plug. I might get out in another field edge stand, for the last half hour or so after the turkey gets eaten, if the weather is good.

It has a new strap and a safety/shooting rail rail all the way around, so there is no danger of falling. Also, only 7 ft high (that is the height I am most comfortable hunting from). Standing sucked though, so I used a "field expedient" (my drag rope), to make a new seat support: So far, so good.

It is rather comfortable out now. The rain has stopped and there is a 5 mph sw wind. Scratch that, as I was typing, the screws pulled out of my seat, it fell to the ground and now I got to stand. Good thing I put the umbrella up high enough, but it is blocking my view a bit, so I think I will take it down. Right after I did that on opening day up in the nz, a big buck snuck in on me. Hopefully, a doe will try that today. I think I can stand for an hour for so, then it is time to get ready for turkey.

My cousin is a local DEC officer. If I see him this Sunday, I will try and get the inside scoop. Because covid has made this a year of rash decisions, I also would not bet against it. We are not talking normal times here folks.

I am under mine now. Sure got a lot of use out of it this year. I snuck back to my front stand, during a brief lull, and got it up just as it started coming down hard again. This damn popular tree is too big to reach around for the straps, but I have one side lashed to a branch, and the other side to the support. It seems to be holding well in the light wind. I have a good view of my bedroom window from this stand, thinking that is where I should be.

He didn't say it is a go, but rather, that it "still can" be. There is a difference. It sounds like there has not yet been a ruling on if it can go this year. I believe that you are mistaken, if you think it is too late for this year. Do you realize that there is almost a month left to make a decision ? If they decide on December 23rd, modern technology will make it easy to get the word out. Although I am not banking on it, my guess is that it will happen this year. The reason being that anything that can help with the covid situation, like getting people outside and hunting, will not be denied. Keeping folks in houses, crammed around TV sets, is asking for trouble.

There is rain and light sw winds in the forecast this morning. Looks like I will be bringing my tree umbrella and hunting the stand overlooking my front corn plot. I have a nice enclosed blind by the plot farther back, but that one is picked clean and not as good for this wind direction. My other option is to hunt the front plot from my bedroom window. My wife needs to get some sleep though, she was up late cleaning up my butchering mess, so I think I will go out. It sounds like the rain is letting up a bit now.

Thanks, and same to you. I have a little extra motivation this morning. My daughter said that 4 deer crossed the road in front of her yesterday, onto our block. She struck one lightly with her car, just after pulling out of the driveway. I don't see any damage on the car. I need the motivation, to try and punch some antlerless tags, as I rarely get too excited about doing that. They just harvested a big corn field down the road, so the deer are running for cover. Hopefully, I see a little action this morning. I am going to hunt near my best remaining corn plot.

Dont use a butt-out tool as a grinder stuffer. I broke the tip off and that cost me a hamburg or so, as I had to take the grinder apart and clean it out before continuing. I threw out a little meat because I didn't want to feed the plastic chips to our kids. A wood hammer handle works a lot better. It was pretty easy to reform the point on the butt-out with a file. Hopefully, I will be able to use it again for it's intended purpose on a doe or two yet this season. It worked good on my buck and yes I did wash it prior to trying it as a grinder stuffer.