wolc123

One interesting thing is that all of the deer that I have seen this week have been within 10 minutes of legal sunrise. The 3 Sunday were 5 minutes after and the 3 today were 10 minutes before. I can't say there had been much daylight activity, so still hunting thru the bedding areas might be a good option I dont want to do that yet, on our limited area and with my one-shot ML, but it might be a good option for Sunday, if the conditions ate right. I will be looking for wet leaves and a steady, strong wind. Opening day Saturday morning, I plan on sitting close to the edge of a state forest, and hope some aborigins (my word for people I dont know), push something my way.

I have heard that the DRT thing, from a chest hit, has more to do with the time that the bullet arrives, than anything else. If it strikes on the heart's power stroke, the system pressure overloads and it is "lights out" instantly. If the bullet arrives on the heart's relaxed "intake" stroke, the animal will run until loss of blood flow to the brain, regardless of bullet type or caliber.

I saw some movement in the pines off to my left, but I suppose whatever it was was frightened off by the snare drum that forms my "roof". It started raining a bit harder again, but the closest weather station (about 20 miles east) is calling for a 10:00 stop. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer. I am down to my last cup of hot cider. The south breeze has also picked up a bit, so hopefully that will make things warm up for out on the boat. I just finished reading up on the fine points of ned rig fishing (thanks for that tip Tacs). I also just completed a field modification of my camp chair drink holder. After carrying that space blanket around I'm my pack for 10 years I finally found a use for it. The drink holder must have been designed for a beer can, but now it works a lot better for a little thermos cup:

I might have to, I lost my second last, non-rattling deep diving crankbait on a snag on Sunday, shortly after landing an 18 incher on it. I have a perch finish countdown Rapala that I was thinking of trying, from the same batch of my buddy's grandpa's lures. Glad to here that. Are you and your dad coming up to camp for the gun opener this Saturday ? I was wishing I had my fiber-optic open sighted Marlin 336BL under the tree umbrella yesterday afternoon. I had to keep wiping the fog off my ML scope lenses every 10 minutes or so. No trouble with that this morning though. The humidity must be lower. The scope had not needed wiping yet. I am currently waiting for the rain to let up, so I can go back to the house for a warm, hearty brunch, and then head out on the lake to try for that elusive 22 inch plus smallmouth. This tree umbrella is keeping me dry but is very loud. I wonder if anyone has been able to kill a deer from under one while it was raining.

My wife is happy that I travel half way across the state to hunt at her parents place for 10 days and I am just about half way thru that right now.

My own personal experience with whitetail bucks and centerfire rifles is just two and both had one bullet hole. The first was quartering away and had an .30 inch diameter entry hole, thru the hide, and over the second last rib. The bullet did not exit, but lodged in the armpit on the opposite side. The second had no entry hole, but exited the front of the deer chest near center, making a 3/4 inch diameter exit hole thru the hide. Both bucks were DRT, and both bullets were 150 gr Federal classics.

It is mostly the spray and pray guys that want the two holes. If you put your bullet on the right hair, one hole is always enough.

I am back out under the tree umbrella this morning. I slept in a little. I was not real excited about heading back out in the rain after about 7 hours of that yesterday. It is supposed to stop raining at 10:00, so I am sticking close to the in-laws lake house so that I can get out after that big smallmouth again. I think I had a buck in close to me yesterday, based on a freshly worked scrape that I found and sounds that I heard. I am set up on a powerline cut this morning, maybe 500 yards from that scrape. I have seen lots of antlerless deer at this area, later in the seasons on Thanksgiving weekends, when there has been snow. They must like to browse on grass and other greens that sprout up here. I have yet to hunt this spot in the morning, nor have I ever seem any antlers here. Hopefully, this will be the day for two firsts. Three unidentified deer must have been watching me walk in just before sunrise. I saw 3 white flags go up (one longer and taller than the other two), and heard some snorts as they bolted deeper into those pines on my left. I am guessing they may be the same big doe and two fawns that I saw Sunday, less than a mile away. They were about 50 yards from me when they took off.

I had a Ruger model 77 mk2 22/250 for a long time (I traded it for the Remlin 336BL 30/30). It was an extremely flat shooter and super accurate with a 4-16x Weaver scope. It was great for woodchucks. I thought about trying it for deer, but the scope would have sucked in the woods with it's super fine crosshairs. It was also just as big and heavy as my model 77 30/06, so there was really no point in me using it. I miss that gun for chuck's. Most that I shoot have been less than 70 yards away, and none ever even flinched after I hit them on center of mass with that. Now, I aim for the heads with my 10/22, which works ok bit is a little bit tougher shooting.

Here is a fun, cheap, convenient way to get that open-sight practice in these days of high priced and ammo shortages. You can still get 5000 bb's for $ 5. Get yourself a $ 30 Daisy Red Ryder, put an adult-sized stock on it, to match your hunting rifle's draw length, and use it to cut suspended cans in half. For added challenge, try dropping the top half off the clip. You get practice at moving targets when the can swings from the wind and/or previous shot impacts. Friendly competitions with kids and/or drinking buddy's can be had over how long it takes to cut a can, or how few shots. Getting to know those sights and how to use them to hit little moving targets at close range, makes hitting bigger ones at longer ranges a lot easier.

You dont see as many posted signs west of the Missisisipi. It seems that easterners have a hard time knowing where they are and the signs help them out with that.

Many poachers won't bother playing their game on land that is not posted. To them, "posted" means "good hunting". If you want to attract them, put up signs, and the more signs, the better the hunting must be. It gets kind of like a dog chasing it's own tail. A big waste of time, in my opinion. Them signs ain't worth the paper they are printed on whether they are signed or not. It is kind of like gun control laws. You will keep out the honest folks who you wouldn't mind there any how, but you will give the hoodlums what they are looking for - less competition from honest folks.

That is quite a bit further east than I have hunted. I hunted a bit further to the west of our current location, around the Antertp/Theresa area, for about 10 years, prior to the move here. The local deer population is pretty good now, but always gets better as it gets colder and they move in from Tug hill. We are in a narrow band that does not get much snow and they like to winter here. There is so many around thru the winter, that it looks like professional landscapers trim all the branches on trees all the way around the lake below about a 6 ft height. That makes it nice for shoreline casting, when the lake is not froze. Not much worry about snags. I heard 4 distant, single shots on opening day of ML, but nothing since, and I have not seen any signs of another hunter. I have seen 3 antlerless deer since Saturday, and definitely a fresh buck scrape today. I am pretty sure I heard him working that one this morning. No signs of coyotes this year, which is a good thing.

I had to modify the plan a bit after lunch because the rain picked up a little. I took the plow truck back to the end of the trail where I saw the fresh scrape from this morning. I holed up in an old cut off fuel tank blind for a while. The 1/4 inch steel handled the heavy rain very well. Now it has let up a little again, so I moved back under my tree umbrella in a new location, directly down wind of the scrape, with my back to the swamp again. I tried a little rattling but no success. Good thing nothing came in, because I had forgot to re- cap my ML, after I got out of the truck. It's all set now, but I am just going to hang tight till dark and hope a buck, doe, or bear bumbles into range. Visibility is good here, to the scrape, and there is lots of fresh deer scat in the area. All loose balls that appear to be from doe.

Back when my father in law lived on Lower Mountain road in Cambria, he found a native American stone hand axe when he was tilling his garden. Someone told him it might be a thousand or so years old.

I am roughly half way between Lows lake and Black lake, on the wmu 6c/6f line. Lunch was some excellent home made New England clam chowder, sent over by a nice lady at the end of the lake, washed down with a Doseques Especial. Bibs are dry, cider thermos is refilled, battery charged, and I am ready to head back out after that buck, doe, or bear.

I agree with all of that. Back when I thought maybe one or both of my daughters might take up deer hunting, I considered purchasing a .243. I was leaning towards a Ruger American. When it became clear that hunting was not in the cards for them, I went with a 30/30 instead, as my second centerfire deer rifle. I am still waiting to see how that does with the deer meat damage. Maybe I will find out this weekend. Ought to be less than my 30/06, given the much lower velocity and comparable bullet weights. The meat damage that I experienced on the two whitetail bucks that I killed with my 30/06 (both with 150 gr federal classic bullets) was minimal, however both of those bullets were perfectly placed, from the given shot angles. I am used to the recoil of my Ithaca 16 gauge featherlight shotgun, so I barely notice any of that from the 30/30 or the 30/06. They both feel like p-shooters to me, compared to that slug gun. I pretty much just shrug it off when I hear folks talking about recoil from center fire deer rifles, or even pistols for that matter. My buddy brought over his 44 magnum Ruger pistol for me to try and I was a bit intimidated by it at first, remembering the Dirty Harry movie. It literally felt like a cap gun, compared to the time I tried a pistol grip on my short-barreled 12 gauge Reminton 870.

I am in here now with my bibs in the dryer and lunch on the stove. Not sure what it is yet. Saw a freshly worked scrape on my walk out. That might explain the breaking branches I heard while I was hunkered down under the tree umbrella for a few hours this morning. Apparently, there is something other than does around.

No, but they supposedly release trouble-making trap and transfer black bears, right across the road from my current location. The hair stands up on the back of my neck every time I hear a twig break over the sound of the rain drops. No more fawn bleats from me this morning.

I am thankful that I put a lot of time into getting that thing sharp enough to shave with, prior to my trip up here. I have used dull knives to dispatch road-hit deer, with such a move a time or two, with less than stellar resuls. I will take a short, sharp blade over a long dull one for that kind of work every time.

What side is the juggular on, on a black bear ?

Good deal and best of luck to you. There is no place on God's green earth that I would rather be than right here, right now. Now if only the fat doe that I saw yesterday would step out into this shooting lane:

OK round for women and children, but many better choices if you weigh more than 110 pounds.

I just sent out a few fawn bleats but I am a bit scared of a bear with them big old claws and teeth, having just my single shot ML. At least it is a .50 cal, but that did not work out so well for old hatchet Jack. I unfolded my old razor sharp buck 110, just in case it goes hand to hand.

We are getting low on grind and I am after a big doe for that purpose. I am being a little too fussy and blew a great chance on one of those yesterday morning. Sort of reminds me of the lyrics an old Hank song: "Now's the time for patience. Don't fire on the first one. Don't waste your bullets on a little bitty baby, get a full grown wowowoman." Hopefully, she shows up before noon or the time I run out of hot cider. Maybe I will try a fawn Yelp with my combo grunter. Heck, that might even draw a bear up out of the swamp.