wolc123

I am not sure if I ever read truer words on this forum. Thanks for the reminder. I can only think of one place that might be better, but I ain't quite ready for that yet. If all goes well, I will be heading up Friday (about 30 mi NW of Lows). The only thing I dont like about hunting up there, is that it takes much of the luster out of hunting the noisy, busy flatlands around home in WNY. The best thing about it, is that it has cured me of any desire to do another hunt on the west side of the Misissippi. That is especially nice during this Covid deal, and on the pocketbook. The Rockies got nothing on the Adirondacks, as far as the scenery goes, and whitetails are better eating than muleys. Maybe they will open up a moose season up there some day. I like the taste of them better than elk. I don't do much canoeing, but I rarely fire up the outboard on my rowboat in the mornings. I definitely see and hear a lot more wildlife, when using the oars for power, before any other boats come out on the lake. If I can get reception, I will try to post some "live" pics of some crossbow, ML and rifle deer hunting action, starting this Friday. Just 2 days away and I can hardly wait. Here is one from the last morning I was up there on Labor day weekend:

Yes, I usually just go with a single, medium thickness pair of wool socks with them. They fit good at my regular size like that. I would order your regular size, which might allow for thicker socks or an additional pair. It would be best to err slightly on the "too big" size. About 10 years ago, the cost was $ 40 slightly used, or $ 80 unissued, so $100 sounds reasonable.

That is what I have been using for deer hunting the last 6 years. My feet have never got cold in them and they have held up good. My only complaint is they are not quite as tall as I would like for crossing deep water. I have got pretty good soakers a couple times, when I had to cross deep water to recover downed deer. If it is a narrow ditch, I have been able to tie them tight and step in the middle without it coming thru a time or two. After the water is all froze, they are tough to beat, and they are especially good for ice fishing. If you dont mind the goofy looks, the Micky boots are the way to go.

I noticed some growing at home in WNY last weekend. I am heading up to the Adirondacks Friday for early ML week thru opening weekend of gun. I think I will pick a few pods to put in my pack. Sometimes the wind gets swirling in those mountains.

That's why they call it hunting. Nothing is guaranteed. I just watched an episode of Meateater, where Rinella gets a bad hit on a big bull elk with his ML. He does a pretty good job of explaining that feeling we all get when it happens. It will happen to all who do it long enough. I think it is the third or so episode on the last season on Netflicks, if you want to check it out. The tough lessons are the ones that teach the most. That meat will go to the vermin, but much more will go to your freezer some day, thanks to the lesson learned. I lost a few myself thru 38 gun seasons and 36 archery seasons. Just like Rinella, each time I waited until the next season to hunt again, even though I still had an "unpunched" tag. I could handle loosing one deer in a season, but I am not sure I could handle more.

Invite chef over, sounds like his spot has gone sour.

I am looking forward to getting up there this Friday, and finally some relaxing Adirondack deer hunting. Depending on how the drive up goes, I might be able to start with the last 2 hours or so of the 3 day, northern zone crossbow season. I spent last weekend near Inlet, rifle hunting for bear, but only saw deer. I will be up at the in laws place, on the NW corner of the Adirondack park, for all of early ML week, thru opening weekend of gun. I have not been able to do that since 2016, when I was able to fill both my antlerless ML, and antlered gun tag up there. I am bringing my crossbow, ML, and open sighted Marlin 336. If the weather is dry, I will use my father in laws scoped Marlin 336. I have killed 2 bucks up there with my big heavy 30/06, but I am really looking forward to seeing how the compact, easier-handling Marlin 30/30's work on them. Our venison supply is holding out ok, but we are getting low on grind. I would be very happy with a nice ML doe, which I would get all ground except for the backstraps and tenderloins. October is my favorite time up there: Deer hunting in the mornings and late afternoons and smallmouth bass fishing in between. Work has been quite hectic lately at our "essential" business and this vacation can't come at a better time or at a better place. Even if the hunting don't pan out, my mother in laws cooking is always phenomenal and the scenery is always wonderful.

In morning hunts on flat lands, I dont worry much about the winds, if i am hunting from a stand that is 6 or more feet above ground level. Thermal currents will carry my scent up and over the deer. The biggest concern is getting to the stand without tipping them off. Sometimes, depending on wind direction, I will take an extra long route to avoid my scent drifting across areas that might hold deer. In the the larger mountain area I hunt, in the northern zone, it is tougher because there is always going to be deer up higher than I am. I often use my truck, to get down wind of where I think they are, rather than walk in. Not much scent gets out of the closed cab, as I cruise down those dirt roads. There are miles of private dirt roads throughout the area I hunt up there. An open ATV dont work as well for that. I try to keep the wind in my face after getting out of the truck, as I still-hunt between the "hot-spots". Other things I do to help fool their nose is use some cover scent (evercalm), and an attractant (hot apple cider). I dont know if it is a coincidence, that I was able to kill 3.5 year old bucks on each of the last 3 years since I started using the evercalm. I wipe a little on the soles of my boots before walking to the stand, then wipe a little on a rail or tree when I get in it. One of those bucks actually came in from down wind 2 weeks in a row, in the morning, as I was sipping hot cider from my thermos. He won the day that I had my crossbow and was not able to get a shot, but lost the following week when I had my slug gun.

I am guessing that you dont live on the land, which makes the situation more difficult for you. Posted signs are not worth the cost of the paper they are printed on in cases like this. Dudes like the perpetrator interpret "posted" as "good hunting". More signs mean better hunting. You are dealing with someone with extremely limited mental capacity. What I would do, is find someone else to do the dirty work for you. Befriend a local, and give them permission to hunt that area or maybe just game recovery privledges, in exchange for keeping an eye on things when you are not around. Good choices would be a police officer, retired one, or another neighbor who already has plenty of land to hunt in the area. A side benefit of you giving other neighbors permission to hunt your land, is that they usually reciprocate, even if it is just game recovery privledges. Good luck, and I hope things work out well for you. Think of it not as a problem, but as an opportunity to make some new freinds.

Offhand, I can only think of one soldier's grandson, who might be a loser.

Pine trees have played a big role in several of the more memorable bucks that I have killed over the years. There are not many around the areas I hunt in WNY. There is a small clump in the mostly oak hardwoods across the road, where I had permission to hunt for many years. I had a hang-on stand in one of the larger ones, about 12 feet up. I could see a long way in all directions from that stand on opening day afternoon back in 2012. After a couple hours up that tree, all I saw were squirrels, and another hunter still-hunting across the back of the woods. 5 minutes before sunset (I always keep track of the time and unload my gun at the last legal minute), I dropped the book I had been reading. Since my venison supply was already sufficient, thanks to two good-sized button bucks hanging in our garage (one mine and one given to me by a neighbor) , I decided to skip those last 5 minutes, and pack it in early. I was not so concerned with safety back then, so I had no safety harness on and I did not unload my gun before climbing down. Somehow, I managed to get safely down, despite those two safety violations. The second one proved fortunate, because the instant I got to the ground, a flock of turkeys landed right in that clump of pines. I froze right there, because I frequently see deer with turkeys in those woods. Sure enough, the big rack, head and neck of a mature (3.5 year old) buck appeared from behind the trunk of a big pine, just 10 yards away. With two minutes to go, I raised my grandad's old Ithaca model 37 and dropped that bruiser right there, with a 16 ga Remington slugger, to the base of the neck. Had that book not fell when it did, those turkeys would have spotted my blaze orange camo from a mile away, and that buck's story would have ended different than a short trip to deer heaven (my family's food supply). I had also sent a small 1.5 year old 5-point there with my bow from up that pine a few years prior. The land owner was not overly thrilled with me taking the big one with my gun and I lost permission to hunt that spot thereafter. 4 years ago, I used my crossbow to kill what may be my largest-bodied buck (another 3.5 year old with a 43 in chest girth) from the top deck of a two-story blind. It is in the middle of the only patch of pine trees in the woods over at my folk's place. I killed my first and largest Adirondack buck (from up on a ridge 300 yards away), as he stood at the base of a big pine tree along a creek bank. My first two shots missed that one. The first well-rested, standing shot must have struck a branch, and the second was rushed offhand while he was moving. The sound of that one stopped his walk, just as I reached a nice pine tree up on the ridge to rest my gun on for the third, instantly-fatal shot. Recovering that carcass would have taken a lot longer without that other pine, down on the creek bank. I was able to use it as a marker to find him, after a very long difficult hike to get to the spot. My last Adirondack buck was also standing under some big pines, on a trail overlooking a doe-infested valley, when the top of his heart was neatly sliced, and his neck broken from another 150 gr bullet from my 30/06. I took that shot from 50 yards away, while seated in my tree-hammock chair, attached to the base of another pine tree.

Prayers sent for your family.

Ohio has full inclusion, which means a crossbow is defined as archery equipment and therefore is legal to use throughout archery season. The guy on the previous page was hunting in Ohio, not NY. Ny considers a crossbow to be more like a muzzleloader.

Ohio has full inclusion.

That is my favorite deer gutting knife.

That is the way it is with my spot by the trailers. My folks own the woods behind them, but there is only about 300 feet width to a swamp. I can legally hunt the center, edge of the swamp with my crossbow, but not with my gun. I would have moved a stand closer to the trailers again this year, but I did not have time. It is easier to get a close shot in that bottleneck, than in the wider stretch of woods, where I moved the stand for gun season. Hopefully, I can fill my antlerless and my antlered archery/ML tags up in the northern zone, prior to southern zone crossbow season. Then I won't miss not having the better stand location army folks place.

I just verified that you are correct. I don't hunt with one any more, so it is not as big of a concern for me.

With a gun, it is 500 feet from a building, without permission. With a crossbow, I think it is 250 feet, and 100 feet with a bow. I had to strategically place a stand over at my folks place, scaling off google maps satellite view, to optimize its location from the nearest mobile home. Two seasons ago, I dropped a nice buck with my slug gun, 300 feet from the nearest trailer, from 510 feet away. I had moved the stand from my crossbow location, where I blew a chance at the same buck, the week prior, when I was only 300 feet from the closest trailer.

Looks like the shoulder blade stopped it. Odds are, that deer will recover from that wound. About 20 years ago, I put a 125 grain muzzy in that spot on a buck that was killed with a gun 4 weeks later and the wound had healed up well. Just a scar, and some missing hair to mark the spot. With 45 pounds, that is almost like hitting an armoured plate. I used a 60 pound compound back then.

What wmu are you in ? I am due for one this season, since the last was my off year. My standard practice of taking the largest antlerless deer from a group, at the earliest or any opportunity, has yielded close to 20 bb's thru my 38 deer seasons. Only 2 were outside of my home wmu of 9F. First was my first gun kill, in Allegheny state park and second was my first bow kill in Darien. Several got my second bullet after mamma got the first. The majority were by themselves, and just happened to show up at the wrong place and wrong time. An example of that was my only late ML season kill. I watched him stand up in the standing corn that I was glassing from my bedroom window. When he walked to the edge for a mouthful of turnip greens, I slid up the window and dropped him there with 5 minutes of legal daylight remaining. It worked out well because I did not have enough time after work to change into my hunting clothes, but I did throw on my vest with backtag before capping the load to make the shot legal. It is strange that after 20ish bb's, I have yet to kill a doe fawn. I did eat one that a neighbor gave me a couple years ago. It tasted just like the bb's, just smaller. Seems like a waste of a dmp to me.

I am heading up that Friday for the same stretch. I might catch the last hour or two Friday with the crossbow if the drive is good. Then a full week with the ML, followed by 2 days of rifle. I will try for a big smallmouth, if it gets warm enough to take a boat out at midday, and help my father in law get everything ready for winter. No luck on bears in the center of the Adirondack park last weekend. Maybe they will cooperate more, up on the NW corner, in a couple more weeks. Good luck on your hunts. Our venison supply is still pretty good, with about 1.5 deer left in the freezer, but I am hoping to fill at least my antlerless tag up there over that stretch. That was no trouble for me last time I had a full week up there in 2016.

I did it once and will not do it again. I used mechanicals on my last (6) bucks. The first (5), all dropped dead within 40 yards of where they took the arrow, or bolts (one was with a vertical bow, the other five with crossbow). Those were struck with new, "factory-sharp" blades. Being too cheap to buy new heads, I mixed and matched my best parts from the used ones, and attempted to hand sharpen the blades, on the one I used last year. That buck, struck perfectly thru both lungs, made it about 150 yards before expiring. After that scary revovery, I will use new ones from now on.

I hunted the first two hours of daylight and the last three on Saturday. I did not see any signs of bear. We saw around 6 deer, between Old Forge and the camp on 4th lake, feeding along the edge of route 28 , on our drive up Friday afternoon. One looked like a 1.5 year old 6 point, the others were does and fawns. The spots I hunted were difficult, very steep terrain, North of 28, off the #5 snowmobile trail, that runs on what must be an old railroad bed, between Old Forge and inlet. There was a steep rock cliff, about 200 yards North, and I could not locate a pass thru that. I did not know the location of our camp until the drive up, or I would have studied a topo map prior. The leaves were nice, probably just "post-peak", and it was a pretty good workout, hunting up that mountain. One of the younger guys went with me in the morning, but I went in alone in the afternoon. Had I been able to locate a pass thru that rock ridge, I would have hunted this morning also, but I thought sleeping in and resting up for the 4.5 hour drive home would be a better use of my time. I did learn that there are smallmouth bass in 4th lake anyhow. They were not along the shoreline, but I paddled a kayak out to that point and hooked into an 18 incher, in about 12 ft depth, around 10:30 saturday morning, on a bucktail jig. Fortunately, it jumped and threw the jig, right next to the kayak, or I would have been tempted to try and fillet it with my big "old-timer" hunting knife. The knife is still clean and sharp and ready for bear again (and deer), in a couple weeks, for early ML week, and opening weekend of regular gun season.

I wonder what the hunting NY anti-Trump foresome of chef, versatile, lefty, and bm have to say about that ? They always seem to find a way to ignore reality.

It depends on the buck to doe ratio, and available food. A buck that does not have to compete for does and has plenty of food might add weight continuously. In rare instances (like NW Adirondack edge next to a corn field), that can happen in the wild. I know because I saw it myself. I will post the photo of the fat hind quarter, mature, Adirondack buck that I killed on Thanksgiving weekend in 2014, to help convince the naysayers, after I get home from my current Adirondack bear hunting trip. In the vast majority of NY lands, the bucks struggle to find food thru the rut, and have lots of competition for hot does. That causes then to loose weight thru the rut. By November 1st, thier hind quarters have withered to the point where they struggle to outrun coyotes. That is not the cases where there are plenty of does and plenty of food. If you are still not convinced, think about a domesticated whitetail buck in a stall, in a barn. Would he not gain weight continously ?