wolc123

Close. I’ll be 57 for 2.6 more hours.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He looks a lot like George Custer.

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 ?

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.

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 .

How’s the knee coming along Eddie ? Do you think you might be up to getting out for the Holiday season ? The (5) day break, from any legal hunting pressure that the deer are getting right now, coupled with the ending of the “generational” storm, that’s just beginning today and scheduled to end Christmas Day at 7:00 am, should combine to make Monday one of the best days for deer hunting, that we ever had in WNY. The timing couldn’t be better. I have heard that we are supposed to be getting record low barometric pressure during this storm. Just imagine how hungry those deer are going to be, after hunkering down thru that. They need food to build those winter fat reserves, as do we. What better place is there for us to get it ? Certainly not from vegetables. I hunted the weekends pretty hard thru the end of gun season and I was getting pretty tired of the lack of any daylight deer action. That was just the reaction of the local deer to hunting pressure and the abundance of food. The only deer that I seen around home since Thanksgiving, was in the last (5) minutes of legal light one Sunday evening. My old Weaver 1.5X scope was not up to that task. Come Monday, after 3 days of storm and 5 days of no hunting, we ought to be seeing daylight action, just like it was before Thanksgiving, or back during the early September antlerless season. How great it will be to see that again, this time with (2) buck tags in my pocket. I’ve only been able to hunt the weekends mostly. I have even lost a few Saturdays (in addition to the gun opener), because we have been so damn busy at work. How great it we be to be to hunt thru a paid Holiday on Monday, when there should be lots of deer out in the daylight. I am hoping for a light, prevailing SW wind on Monday. If we get that, I’ll hunt my front wheat/clover field in the morning, my back east clover field at mid-day and my back west turnip and wheat/clover plots in the evening. Each of those areas draw deer from different, thick-cover, sanctuary/bedding areas, so punching (3) tags thru the day should be possible. Tuesday I’ll head over to my parents on the opposite corner of WMU 9F. I’ll try my “trailer park” stand on the back side of the swamp, with my crossbow in the morning. I have not hit that stand yet this year. Mid-day over there, I’ll open up the trails thru the woods with my chainsaw. There were some trails blocked before the storm, so I know there will be lots more after, from all the dead ash trees. In the evening over there, I’ll hunt the big clover plot, from my super-comfortable stand on the edge of the woods, that got me (3) deer last season: punching (2) tags on Tuesday should be possible, so I might be able to wrap it up then. If not, I’ll go up north to the new spot in WMU 9A on Wednesday. I ran into a retired co-worker at another retirement party last night. He owns the woods adjacent to my brother and sister in laws place up there. It is a great deer spot, that I used to hunt. I lost permission, after my sister in law (somewhat of an anti-hunter) jogged past a gut pile that I left in the lane at our fall vacation rental up in the Adirondacks, about 15 years ago. My plan is to hunt the edge of my old work buddy’s place. I told him at the party, that I’d bring him a van load of old barnwood. If a struck deer runs onto my brother in laws, I’ll drag it off prior to gutting. I might go down south, to my sister and brother in laws place near Letchworth, on Thursday. That’s another hot-spot, that I have not hunted in a few years. It’s too far for me to drive normally, but not mid-week, when I don’t have to work. If you need any help dragging one near Genesseo on that day, pm me, because I’ll probably be in the neighborhood. So thru Thursday, I will be have been hunting (7) different spots and I only have (5) tags. If there are any tags left after that, I’ll start the cycle again at home on New Years weekend Friday, parents place Saturday, and old work buddies/in-laws on New Year’s Day afternoon Sunday. Hopefully, I will have a little bit of butchering to keep me occupied on another work paid Holiday, the Monday after New Years.

I’ve processed (3) so far this year (one way back in January) but I am ready willing and able to do a few more. I really like processing them, when it’s cold out, and I don’t have to use my deer fridge. I much prefer hanging them, with the hides on, in our insulated garage. I know there are many folks who prefer the back straps, but the inner tenderloins are my favorite by a wide margin. If folks could just figure out how to rid them fillet mignons of the piss, poop and gut-juice flavor, they’d like them a lot more. All that takes is a quick blood rinse, when you finish gutting, then a paper towel wipe-down and refrigeration for a week, before eating. Also, get the guts out of the deer ASAP, regardless of outside temps. The longer the guts are in contact with the tenderloins after death, the worse they taste. Minutes make a difference. A butt-out saves time there. It is also nice to have some oysters, to go with my surf and turf, so hopefully I can punch at least one of those buck tags. I still have half of a mini-spike liver in the freezer, but I sure wouldn’t mind one of those from a bb. Also, I only have two hearts for my wife to pickle for me for Valentine’s Day this year, so a few more would be great.

I can’t wait for Monday. I’ve been looking forward to this opener, more than any of the other 4 or 5 that I tried to, or did participate in this year. For the last 40 years, opening day of regular gun has been my favorite day of the year (it was Christmas, which is also my birthday, prior to that). The Buffalo November 22 blizzard of eliminated opening day of gun for me. I still have (2) buck tags and (3) doe tags. I also have that full week off of work. I just secured a new 30 acre hot-spot tonight, in Wmu 9A, where (3) of my tags are valid, in addition to the 100 acres I have sole access to in WMU 9F, where all (5) of my tags are good. WMU’s 9F and 9A are both grossly overpopulated with deer so I am going to do all I can personally to help rectify that situation. I know plenty of people who would really appreciate the meat. I could really use one more deer in the freezer, since our oldest daughter moved back home. I will be very thankful if I can add that to the (3) that are in our freezer right now. I could probably squeeze (2) more in there. I plan on hunting all 7 days. If I do manage to punch 2 more of those tags and pack the freezer, I’ll switch from my T/C Omega in-line, to my Traditions Fox-River 50 side-lock. I’ve never killed a deer with that and I would like to. I hope that 130 acres will be enough to minimize the pressure and keep the activity up all week. Time will tell. I’ll be happy with (1) but I’m going to try for (5). My plan is to be totally non-selective on the deer, but I’ll look for shots that I am at least 90% sure that I can make.

When and if my Durango field car ever craps out, maybe I’ll get one. It would not work for any hunting that I do, but it would be good for that. An added bonus would be the free workouts, hauling it way out back, when I want to shoot. Even more, when I forget or run out of something back there, and need to run back to the house. Another nice bonus would be not having to move the benches out of the way, every time that I bush-hog the range grass.

It looks like something that would work ok on clear, level ground, but not so hot on hills or in heavy cover. That pretty much takes it out of any serious consideration for me. On level ground, I am not comfortable hunting from ground-level. I do like the way that it appears to offer full 360 degree rotation. It seems that deer have away of appearing from a direction where I least expect (ie behind me).

I stayed up in the stand until 1/2 hour past sunset. Unlike the old Weaver 1.5X scope on my Ithaca shotgun last weekend, I could still clearly make out the crosshairs on the old 2-7X Redfield on my Omega, right up until the last minute. Too bad no deer showed up at closing time tonight. I’ll give it a try again tomorrow night, then no more deer hunting for me until the December 26 opener of the Holiday ML season.

Deer Numbers are up in both spots where I hunt (wmu 9F and 6C). Antlered to antlerless ratio is down a bit at home in 9F, but I am still seeing 2 antlered for every antlerless deer, including my Thanksgiving morning surprise, which turned out to be a small “just barely dmp-legal” spike buck. Most other years, I had seen an average of 4 antlered deer per every antlerless one here after October 1, as a direct result of local farmers hitting the antlerless ones so hard with their nussance tags, prior to that. I’ve only seen one good shooter buck at home after October 1, too far for me to shoot at. Lots of 1.5 year olds. While the buck/doe ratio is down to half of what it usually is at home this year, it was up by a factor of 4, along with overall deer numbers, up north at my spot in WMU 6C. I actually saw as many antlered deer as I did antlerless, over early ML week and Thanksgiving weekend of gun up there this year, where it had been averaging about 1:4 the last 10 years. Unfortunately, all but one of those bucks were 1.5 year olds. I think that there were two reasons for more deer sightings up there this year. First, I took out the old, very dominant doe, last year during the early ML week. She never tolerated many other deer in “her” spot. Many others have moved in to fill the void that she left. Second, I brought a spare 3-point hitch lawn mower up there for my father in law in the spring. He has been using that to keep some meadows and roadsides mowed all summer. That has provided some rich green forage for the local deer herd. Pine needles and leaves go only so far, while green grass draws them in from miles around.

After a couple of slippery, snowy highway hell-rides, to Rochester Thursday, and to Elmsford Friday, to pick up our daughters from college, it was smooth sailing home on Rts 81/17/390 today. I made it back in time to hunt the last (2) hours, from my Poplar-tree stand. This one is identical to the Cherry tree one, over at my parents place. Only difference is that I have yet to kill any deer out of this one. Hopefully, one shows up before a half hour past sunset, to try a little wheat/clover mix, from my front plot. I can see our house from this stand. Hunting from it, in the sw wind that is blowing right now, will have the lowest impact on tomorrow’s planned morning and evening hunts, from stands further back to the south.

If you ever had your hair parted by a shotgun slug, as I have, then you might feel safer up off the ground. Having felt the pressure wave of that slug against my face, before I heard the gun shot, was a feeling I will never forget. I “hit the dirt”, after that first shot. The next (4) landed close by, some spraying dirt against my face. The only place where I am comfortable now, hunting deer from the ground, is up in the mountains where there are seldom other hunters within miles of my location. The steep terrain also minimizes overspray. The two locations, where I hunt in WNY, are both flat as a pancake. I very rarely hunt from the ground in either of those spots. My pop-up ground blind was destroyed in a wind storm this year, and I was thankful to see it go. I am also not overly fond of heights, so I am most comfortable hunting from stands that are only 4 to 10 feet high. That’s high enough to get my own vitals out of the crossfire, yet low enough to minimize injuries from a fall. I never wear a safety harness, but I do have rails around all but one of my stands. When hunting from flatlands, I also appreciate the fact that getting up off the ground puts my own shots into the ground. I’d rather take someone else’s shot than hit someone by mistake. I hunt shotgun-only areas of WNY that are densely populated with people. I like to be able to fire at deer that approach from any direction, without concern of striking an unintended target. Getting up above the ground helps a lot with that. The folks who say “what about ricochets” in such situations are overly paranoid and/or clueless. This is one of my favorite and most comfortably stands. I made it with a 4 ft square vinyl deck, 8 ft above the ground level, with 3 ft high, weathered barnwood walls around 3 sides. The entry opening is on the back side, which is lag bolted to a tree. The front faces the prevailing wind direction, and is supported by (2) pt landscape timber’s. There is a super-comfortable padded, swivel base office chair on the center of the platform. I paid $ 8 for that, at a barn sale, and $ 5 each for the front timber’s at Home Depot. All the other materials of that stand were “free”, and it took me about (3) hours to build. If I bring along my tree umbrella, I can hunt it in any weather conditions. I put it up last year, and killed (2) bucks from it then. It has produced one for me so far this year, and I still might score another from it, before the holiday ML ends on January 1.

I made it to that little hang-on stand, deep in the woods on the edge of the swamp, about 20 minutes before sunrise Thursday morning. The first hour or so was nice with light wind, and a light dusting of snow. Then the wind started picking up and frozen rain started. The wind kept increasing along with the temperature, which turned the frozen rain into regular rain. I had a rain jacket on, but I was worried about keeping my scope clear, (2) hours of that tiny , uncomfortable stand was all I had in me. No deer showed up. I moved to the upper deck of my two story truck cap blind and put up my tree umbrella to keep my scope clear in the rain. To many “blind-spots” down below, but I held out until lunch time up above, where the umbrella kept out the rain and the maple tree blocked most of the wind: No deer seen from that spot either, just a few grey squirrels. I had lunch with my parents, then missed the afternoon hunt because I had to drive out to Rochester to bring our youngest daughter home from college for Christmas break. No hunting for me Friday or Saturday, because I am downstate getting our oldest daughter home from college. I am very thankful that she has had enough of that, after 1-1/2 years. We just had a damn good last dinner at my favorite food-joint out here (the Eldorado diner in Elmsford). Good food and great service but it wouldn’t bother me at all if I never set foot on the east side of the Hudson again. I hope to get out ML hunting at home on Sunday. I’ll probably hit the upper deck of my two-story blind there, for the first two hours. I’ll try to spend the last (4) hours in my natural blind, which has already produced (2) deer for me this fall. You gotta play the hot hand right ? There’s no corn left on the plot back by that, but it looked like the deer were hitting the Whitetail Institute “tall tine Tubers” pretty good. Quite a few of the purple-tops were eaten in half, last time I was back there, and about 1/4 of the green tops were eaten off.

I use crop rotation, and a plow, disk, corn planter, and cultivator to minimize glyphosate usage. If you can turn the ground over with a plow, 5-6” deep in the late summer, then get the ground worked up with a disk and plant a wheat/white clover mix after September 1, it will outcompete most weeds. The deer will usually hit the wheat hard, from fall until early spring. You can mow what’s left if it down the following May, then get a few more years from the white clover, with just a few mowings a year for maintenance. That clover usually lasts me 4-5 years, before grass begins to take over the plot. The grass starts to outcompete the clover, as the nitrogen level in the ground gets built up, by the clover. That’s when I plow it under again in the spring, and tap into that “free” nitrogen for some RR corn. The only place I use glyphosate, is directly on the the rows of that RR corn. 2.5 gallons of glyphosate lasts me about (3) years, spraying an average of (4) acres of RR corn one time (in early July) as I cultivate to remove the weeds between the rows. My 2-row cultivator matches my corn planter, and there are (2) sprayer nozzles, lined up with the rows, on the loader arms. That makes it easy to adjust to the height of the corn. For this rotation thru the years , you need about 4 times as many acres of clover as corn. The corn gives the deer cover and food during daylight hours throughout hunting season. They utilize the clover at night, after the pressure is on. I like my venison as “organic” as possibly and I would rather not use any glyphosate, however that would greatly reduce corn yield and/or require way too much fuel.

I think that the heavier weight of the Marlin 336, compared the Winchester 94, is the primary factor in its lower felt recoil.

What do they charge for a rug ?

How to eat good:

It is in NY state. It is subject to the same 500 ft “set back” rules as a center fire or shotgun or rim-fire rifle. I have one deer stand, that is only 300 ft from a building I don’t have permission from, so I got to use my crossbow there (250 ft setback requirement). The crossbows also got the shaft in NY, where vertical bows only have a 100 ft setback requirement.

It’s ok to have powder and bullet in it, as long as there is no percussion cap or primer on it. It is still a “firearm” though, so you need a lock on your case, if you leave it unattended in the vehicle. With my in-line, I always load it the first day of the season, and just uncap it at the end of each hunt. I leave it out on my unheated barn, or out on the porch at my in-laws, to avoid the condensation moisture from bringing it into and out of a heated space. Never had a mis-fire or hang fire from doing that. Last year, my load was in from mid-December until January 1.