wolc123

That’s odd. I have the same crossbow with the scope, bolts and field tips that came with it, and the cheapest bolts they had at Walmart. It has always been very consistent on targets, but I have yet to shoot it any game animal. It holds a 2” group at 60 yards. I bought it mostly for backup. If my Barnett Recruit were ever to break, or fail me on a game animal, I’d probably use the Sniper 370 more. I much prefer hunting with the Recruit, because it handles much easier. It is so light in the front, that it shoots well offhand. I’ve only hunted with the Sniper a few times, from stands that had very good rests, all the way around. I’d not wan’t to try an offhand shot with that front-heavy basterd. I suppose it’s 370 FPS would extend my effective range to about 60 yards. My longest of (5) buck kills with the Recruit (300 FPS) was a 59 yards “unintentional” heart shot. I had aimed center/lung, but underestimated the yardage at 50. I now carry a laser range-finder, so that I don’t repeat that mistake. Penetration was less than 8” at that range. 50 yards is as far as I would shoot at one now. That would have been a single-lunger, had it hit where I intended. Fortunately, that was enough to drive my mechanical broadhead all the way thru the heart.

I recommend sticking with your oem scope until it fails you, then upgrade if you wish. In the worlds of general George Patton “The best is the enemy of the good”. If you are looking for a place to put an extra $200, throw it in the collection plate at Church.

I never felt right about that, back when we used to raise beef cattle. That might be the main reason why I like venison so much more than beef. There’s no “deceitfullness” with the venison. Those deer know that I’m out to get then from the get go. I don’t ever pretend to be their care-giver or provider. It also helps, that I can still get my venison for close to $ 1.00 per pound, after subtracting input costs. We never got close to that for beef, 40 years ago, when that dollar went a lot further. I think it would be tough to produce small quantities of beef these days, for much less than $ 5.00 per pound. Today, with very high deer populations, liberal tag allowance, and relatively few hunters, I couldn’t imagine raising beef for food . My wife gets grossed out whenever she fries up ground beef, after being “spoiled” for so many years, by lean corn-fed venison. If deer are properly fed (clover and corn) and handled well after killing (gut quick and age carcass) then that meat tastes as good or better than the finest beef, in my family’s opinion anyhow.

My sister and brother in law’s farm is 10 minutes off the nw corner and (3) of my best friends have camps that are located within 15 minutes of the se corner of that park. The deer (body size and antlers) seem significantly bigger on average, on the nw corner. That’s got to be because there is way more ag (mostly corn) up that way.

I had a little bit of deer action on my last Holliday hunt tonight. My seat cushion fell down to the ground right around sunset. Right after that happened, I heard twigs snapping behind me. Two antlerless deer were moving along the edge of the swamp, about 75 yards away and headed my direction. They turned into the swamp about 50 yards out. I could not have gotten a clear shot at them, even if I had my scoped ML, because there was thick cover in between us. No chance at all with my crossbow. I am not sure if they heard my cushion fall, picked up my scent, or were just not going to pass me close by for another reason. I stayed up in the stand until about 20 minutes past sunset, when it got too dark to see in the woods. No other deer showed up. That’s a wrap for the 22/23 season. We have slightly more than (3) average-sized deer in the freezer right now, which should be just enough to last us until next September, when I hope they do the early antlerless season again. I definitely don’t have enough meat to make it until next early NZ ML season, in mid-October. I would have liked to have added one more, because I always like to have at least one in reserve. Vacuum-sealed pure venison lasts at least (4) years in the freezer, with no loss of flavor. The only bright spot of not getting one the last few days, is that the outside temps are supposed to get into the 60’s. That would have forced me to fire up my deer fridge. It would have sucked to have to do that in January, to avoid spoilage. That also leaves plenty of room for fish in our big freezer this summer. I should have a lot more time for fishing this year than I did last, since my barn dismantling project is just about done.

I’m settled in, for the last (2) hours of the 22/23 Holiday season with my crossbow, at my trailer park stand. There’s a row of double-wides, 300 ft off to my right, and a swamp to my left. Several mornings ago, I saw the highest concentration of deer tracks that I have noted this year, back here on the snow. That’s all melted now, so it should be easier for them to get at the acorns that are burried here under the oak leaves. I’d be very thankful if just one shows up before 5:19 this evening. Merry

My experiences have been the same as that. Blowing is like an alarm, to warn other deer in the area to get alway fast. It is almost always the last thing I want to hear while hunting. I heard it once, while I was fishing a small Adirondack lake in the fall though, and I used that sound to locate a prime feeding spot (oak trees up on a ridge) to kill a deer up there, the following season. I never would have found that spot, had my scent not drifted up onto that ridge the year before, and alerted the deer that were feeding on acorns up there. That was my first and most memorable Adirondack deer kill. I’ll never forget waiting until the wind was right, then sneaking up onto that ridge with my ML, before sunrise. I’ve never seen a more completely surprised look on a deer, as the lead doe gave me after taking my 50 cal ML sabot thru both lungs. She just stood there staring at me, until her knees buckled, and she toppled over the edge of the steep part of the ridge. The 4 or 5 smaller antlerless deer behind her did not disperse, until after she fell, about a full minute after taking the shot. This spot was very remote and it was almost like those deer had no clue what a hunter was.

Almost 2000 sq ft, with (2) full bathrooms, (2) gas furnaces, a wood stove, and bar-room, with regulation-sized billiard table.

Nothing yet:

I wouldn’t get too carried away with over sizing. Maybe a half size larger. These boots are so warm, that I have never “doubled up” on socks with them. A single, standard weight pair of wool-blend socks works best for me most of the time and a heavier weight pair on real cold days. The only thing I don’t like about them, is that they are only good for about 10” of water. If you do go in deeper than that, and have an extra, dry pair of socks with you at the time, you could dump out the water, put those on, and probably be good to go (if the socks are wool or wool-blend). I have also found that if they are laced fairly tight, and your bibs are not “tucked in”, you can take a quick step into deep water and not soak one. I got into trouble that one time after repeated steps into a deep ditch with loosened laces. I like the regular black ones for hunting or ice fishing, but bulkier white ones are available for even colder conditions. My father in law has some of those. He spent his whole career working thru the winter on cold concrete dairy barn floors all day long, and he liked the white ones, when it was real cold.

I really like them. My father in law gave me a pair, that is stamped “1989”, as a Christmas gift, about 20 years ago. I’ve used them on most cold weather hunts the last 15 years. My feet have never got cold in them, except for a time when I submerged one several times. Mine are showing no signs of wear, and I expect they will last quite a few more years. I have not heard of any non-military style boot, they can equal their performance at any price, and I think they only cost around $ 40, back when he bought them. They work very well with the snowshoes since I cut the openings in the rubber bindings 1/4” wider all the way around. My feet got real cold wearing those Sorrel packs, the first morning of Holiday ML season. No trouble with that the other cold days in the Mickey Mouse boots. I think the folks who spend big bucks on fancy cold weather boots are nuts.

No luck at home, trying for a last minute 2022 buzzer-beater. I stayed in my stand until the last minute of legal light, seeing only a rabbit crossing my shooting lane at sunset. My neighbor saw me walking back and texted that there were at least 5 out there before dark yesterday. I am guessing that they scent check the plot from downwind before they leave the surrounding heavy cover. He killed a big doe in his woods yesterday and saw the herd on my plot ad he was hauling it out on his wheeler. Our creek is at flood stage and fully navigatable now. I could use a motorboat or canoe up the far drainage ditch, to haul a carcass back from my turnip plot, if I needed to. I wore a pair of black rubber knee-high boots for the walk back and forth this evening. The coyote I killed back there during crossbow season, well over a month ago, is still laying untouched next to the bridge.

Just killing time, back in my truck cap blind, since there’s no deer out to. On the walk back to the house for lunch, I’ll check out the rubbish pile that I burned yesterday. It was still smoldering a bit, when I walked past it 45 minutes before sunrise this morning. The all-day rain should put it out very well. I always like to burn before a rain for that reason. Also, I thought that might smoke some deer out of the front wheat field and sanctuary areas, to the back plots, that I am hunting today. I’m planning out next years food plots right now. Most importantly, I need more corn. Standing corn is the only sure fire way that I know, to hold deer on my ground through December. The 2 acres that I got in this spring only lasted until October. I’m going for (6) acres next year. I have the leftover seed for that right now, but I will need to spring for (6) 50 lb bags of fertilizer next spring. I cheaped out this spring, and only bought (2), because it was so damn expensive. I will split that up into (3) 2 acre plots, one in front of this truck cap blind, one on my front field, and one next to this year’s corn, over on the west side. All of those will be planted on old clover plots, which really minimizes the nitrogen needed to get decent corn yields. I also have plenty of gly left, to spray the rows of those 6 acres of corn. If diesel is still way more expensive than gas next year, then I will have a couple of gas-powered tractors, that can do most of the work. I try to keep the cost of my boneless venison under a buck a pound, after subtracting all foodplot input costs, but that is probably going to be tough next season.

I left a scene like that one time, on a corner lot, over in the next town. No hunting is allowed over there, and it was grossly overpopulated with deer. These days, the coyotes and a well-regulated bait and shoot program keep deer numbers in check over there. I slit the jugular on a big doe with a knife, after she had been struck by a car, knocking herself out temporarily. She came too when I tried to cut off her tail (for making bass jigs). I then jumped on her back, and had her in a hammer lock with my left hand, as I cut with the pocket knife in my right. She made it into the center of the guy’s front yard, bucked me off, and spun around spraying blood just like a rotary crop-sprinkler. I still wonder what the guy must have thought, when he saw that bloody scene on the snow the next morning. The town cop, who was working the desk that night, wasn’t very happy when I walked into the station splattered with blood. The resident had called it in earlier, when it was laying next to his mail box. He asked me: “did it have to be shot”. I replied: “no, I killed it with my knife”. He said: “that would be NO”, and wrote up my carcass tag. There was not so much as a bruise on the body of that deer, according to the butcher who cut it up for my buddy. I had already harvested several deer that season, so I really only wanted the tail and the heart. No sense in wasting a fresh kill though, so I gave it to my buddy who now owns the service station, up on the next corner.

No deer showed up in wmu 9A, where I stayed until 1/2 hour past sunset. I’m rigged for rain at home in 9F this morning, holed up in the lower level of my two-story truck cap blind, watching over an old clover plot. They are calling for rain all day today. I’m thankful to have made it back here without soaking a foot or both. My Mickey-Mouse boots are only good for about 10” of water and I had to have gotten close to that a few times crossing the low spots. The creek is at the top of the banks from all the snow melt-off. There’s quite a few deer tracks, scat, and signs of foraging on the adjacent clover, but it’s probably all happening at night. It’s quite comfortable in here, with a very light sse wind and about 45 degrees. I’ll probably stay until 11:45 or so, hoping to catch a deer dumb enough to come out in the daylight for a bite. At sunset tonight, I’ll strap my tree umbrella to the dead ash tree and hang out in my natural blind, by my turnip plot, on the other side of the farm. That will be my last shot at making 2022 a 4-deer year.

I’m on some new ground, up in wmu 9A, for the last 2 hours today. Weather is good with a light ssw wind, cloudy and about 52 degrees. I’m seated about 200 yards from my wife’s mini-van, but it would be an uphill drag, if I killed something. I brought a sled, but there’s not a bit of snow left here. I’d probably call my brother in law next door, and see if he could bring his atv back, unless it was a real small deer. My sister in law might get pissed, but she’d get over it. The neighbor on the other side took deer (3) out of here thru archery and gun season. No one has hunted these woods since regular gun season ended. He just pointed out a run that the deer use back here and said to get ready for them around 4:30. I might not see anything, but at least I’m giving my home herd an evening off, until I get back after them in the morning, and I got rid of a van load of barnwood.

Killing two birds with one stone today: Deer watch / fire watch:

Not yet. Maybe I’ll run into them, when I go back over there on New Year’s Day afternoon. That trailer park is pretty empty now, because most of the residents are snow-birds who winter in Florida. I did see them both (the real actors who played the parts), along with “Julian”, at the Riviera theater in North Tonawanda a few years ago. Julian is almost completely bald now and Bubbles is a heck of a guitar player. Ricky still looks the same. I think I heard that the actor who played Leahy died.

I am planning my last (5) 2022 and first 2023 Holiday hunts right now, as I sit in the upper deck of my comfortable 2-story blind, over at my parents place. I don’t expect to see anything tonight, because this is my 4th consecutive hunt, in their 60ish acres of woods over here. I have been staying out of the center though, working just the edges, so something might still show up in the half hour after the sun sets. I have not seen a deer during daylight hours, in the southern zone, since Thanksgiving morning. Who said that hunting pressure don’t make deer go nocturnal ? I thought maybe the week off around Christmas might get some back out in the daylight. It ain’t happening on the three days that I have been out so far. Here is the plan I came up with for my next (6) hunts: Friday morning: Home front Poplar tree stand. It’s the closest stand to where my kids saw (3) deer including (1) with antlers, (2) nights ago. If the sw wind continues, hunting that stand will have the least impact on my other home spots. Friday evening: My tree hammock chair, set up on buddies land adjacent to my brother and sister in laws place up north of me in wmu 9A. The deer concentration has always been heavy in that area, where I was kicked out of (by my sister in law) about 15 years ago. I’m bringing my buddy a van load of barnwood and he said I could hunt his woods. There is light rain in the forecast Friday, so I’ll bring my tree umbrella. I’ll bring that out with me in the morning at home also. It works real well in my poplar tree stand. Saturday morning: My two-story truck cap blind at home. There is more rain in the forecast Saturday. I’ll stay upstairs if it stops, and hunt the bottom when/if it rains. Saturday evening: My natural blind on the west of my turnip plot and best wheat/clover plot. That’s where I missed the doe, 15 minutes after sunset on Holiday hunt 2022, day 1. This spot is probably still my best bet for filling a tag. As long as the winds stay south or west, my earlier hunts shouldn’t impact it much. I’ll bring along the tree umbrella for the rain. Sunday morning “hangover” hunt” (My wife said she’d be the DD for the New Years party, so I anticipate a “slight one” for me that horning): My bedroom window. I have not hunted that yet this year, but did take a nice button buck from there durning the regular ML season, about 10 years ago. I’ll bring my uncapped but loaded ML in the house from the barn the night before, without worrying about condensation. If that saves a deer, then it just wasn’t meant to be. If no deer shows by sunrise, I’ll fire a shot into a topsoil pile from the window, to help wake up our kids for church (no deer move now when the sun is up anyhow). Shooting a deer with my ML from that window is legal, because I have good relationships “and shooting permission” from all neighbors with buildings within 500 ft. Sunday evening: Trailer park stand at the back of my parents place. ML will be unloaded and illegal there, so my crossbow is all I got. Also, I seen more deer sign back there this morning, than any of the other spots where I have hunted this Holiday season. My Barnett Recruit has a geen/red dot sight that should work well for that full last half-hour after sunset. I’ll be very thankful, if I can fill just (1) more tag, but I’m still going for (5).

I held out in my trailer park stand, behind the swamp, until 11:45 and didn’t see any deer. That must be another one of them spots, where all the deer action is pm or the very early am. I stopped at McDonalds after, and brought lunch over to my parents place. I had planned on hunting my little hang-on stand, on the south side of the swamp this evening, but my legs said no. They are too sore from 3 days straight of snowshoeing and trudging thru deep snow. I won’t hunt that little swamp/edge hang-on again until opening day of southern -zone gun season 2023. Right now, the little trailer park ladder stand, on the other side, is the leading contender for my last Holiday Hunt on the afternoon of January 1. I got one on that day this year, with my ML, but it looks like it will be the crossbow this Sunday, next year. I only made it back as far as my two-story truck cap blind, near the front of their woods. It’s over 300 more yards back to the swamp and my legs just don’t have that in them, let alone if I killed something back there, and had to drag that far. Also, after more than (4) hours in that uncomfortable single ladder stand this morning, I was not yet ready for (2) hours in a marginally more comfortable tiny little hang-on stand. Its an almost perfect hunting temperature, at about 50 degrees, cloudy sky with a light sw wind. It don’t seem like late December weather. Too warm for hot cider, so staying hydrated with bottled water.

The squirrels are getting active, hopefully the bigger stuff gets going soon:

I couldn’t remember if I locked my wife’s minivan this morning. My ML, which I plan on using tonight from my stand on the other side of the swamp, is in it locked in a plastic case. I just got done still-hunting to “remote-range” of it and back, so that I could make sure it was locked. The heaviest concentration of deer tracks is about 100 ft of where I parked. I’d need a vertical bow to hunt that spot. Im hoping that if I can see a buck at long range, maybe I can draw it in close to my stand with my grunt call. I called in a 2.5 year old buck in these woods with it and killed it on opening day of gun in 2020, so I know it works. The weather conditions are the most comfortable so far of this season, but my stand is the least. I’m going to try my best to hold out here until 11:45 or so. Deer tracks as far as I can see in almost every direction will help with that.

I stayed in my clover plot edge stand, on the south edge of my parents woods, until 1/2 hour past sunset last night and didn’t see any deer. I drove into the trailer park around the corner at 1/2 hour before sunrise this morning. I am now in my small, very uncomfortable ladder stand that is in the high part of their woods, north of the swamp. This stand is only 300 ft from the nearest “double wide”. I don’t know the owner of that, and about 4 others, that are less than 500 ft away, so I am armed with my crossbow this morning (250 ft setback per NY DEC). I did meet the guy from the last trailer on the dead end road where I park (I’ll call him “Julian”), and the trailer park supervisor (I’ll call him “Mr Leahy”) is an old school buddy of mine and he gave me the ok to park on the end of the road that buts up to my parents woods. He did a nice job of plowing a good wide space for me there after the blizzard. Usually, Julian has his suv parked there but it’s up next to his trailer now. It’s been over a year since I hunted this stand and it took me a while to find it in the dark. This end of the woods is high and dry and I am surrounded by the heaviest concentration of deer tracks I have seen yet this Holiday season. There are lots of oaks back here and it looks like the deer have been foraging on the acorns that the squirrels have burried under the snow and leaves. I have only hunted this location about 6 times and have only seen one deer from it. That was a big 3.5 year old 8-point, during crossbow season in 2018. I blew my chance on him that day, when he busted me at 15 yards with my shiny chrome cider cup in my hand. He got busted up by a bigger buck later that week, loosing (2) of his points. That saved me the expense of a shoulder mount, when I killed him the following Saturday (opening day of gun) with my slug gun from my stand on the other side of the swamp (600 ft from the nearest trailer). One nice thing about no firearm this morning is no orange hat needed. Now if only a deer or two would show up looking for acorns.

I’m in my clover-edge stand at my parent’s place for the last (2) hours. There are several sets of tracks across it, from last night, but it don’t look like the deer have been hitting it too hard. The last one that I killed on this farm, was from this stand 362 days ago, so I’m due for another. The clover was starting to look pretty lame this fall. I am definitely going to start reworking it next year. It tried a little frost-seeding last spring, but that didn’t seem to help it much. I am going to roundup and disk the front and back 1/8ths of it next summer, and plant the front part with heavily-fertilized turnips in late July and the back part with a wheat/clover mix in early September. in future years, I will plant the prior year’s turnip 1/8th with wheat/clover, and the next back 1/8th of old clover with turnips, on the same schedule. That’s a similar rotation as I do at home, but substituting turnips for the corn, that I use there. No need for corn here, because the neighbors always plant plenty of that, and it’s a pain getting the equipment over here. My neighbors at home didn’t plant any corn this spring, which is the main reason that the little bit I put in got completely wiped out by early October. The permanent stand that I’m in now can cover the front part of this clover plot good and I’m going to move a double ladder stand from home, to cover the back part. The conditions right now are the best I’ve seen so far this Holiday season. Light sw wind, partly cloudy sky, and about 40 degrees. The snow has melted down to about 6” depth and a walk back without snowshoes was not bad at all. All I need is for a deer to show up in range.

This reminds me of a story your buddy Al told me, a bit over a year ago. Many years ago, a woman who boarded her horse at their farm, asked about the dead and skinned “horse” that was hanging from a beam down on the far end of the barn. The “horse” was actually a moose that his mother had shot out west with her .243. They had gutted it out there and hauled it whole, all the way back home to WNY, in the bed of their pickup truck.