wolc123

A couple weeks ago, I got my short range deer and bear gun sighted on my 50 yard bench. I took care of the longer range ones on my 100 yard bench this morning. Ammo scarcity and high prices have severly limited my target practice this year. I settled for one shot each from my 30/06 (1/4" left and 1/4" low), and my 12 gauge bolt action shotgun (1" left and 2-1/2" high). It took 4 shots to get my 50 cal ML dialed in but that was no big deal because ammo is still real easy to get for that (apparently the prepper/hoarders are not into ML's). I upped my powder charge from (2) 777 pellets to the max of (3) on that to gain a bit of range.

I think the Barnett raptor is similar to the Recruit, and not nearly as front-heavy as the Centrepoint Sniper. If so, you may be ok without a rest. I had good rests for 4 of 5 bucks that I killed with my Recruit. The only one where I did not, I rested my elbows on my knees, from a seat in a pop up blind, and that worked fine. The Recruit is so well balanced that it is relatively easy to shoot offhand for shots under 30 yards. I am looking forward to trying some corn field hunting with it that way this season, on windy days.

I will never forget my first Adirondack deer, which was the lead doe of a group of 6 or 7 antlerless deer. It was up on a ridge in some oaks, and they came up to feed on acorns, on opening day of early ML season. The spot was very remote, way off any main highway or any public access. I doubt those deer had ever seen a hunter before. Even after the muzzle blast from 20 yards away, and taking a bullet thru both lungs, the leader had no clue what hit her. She just stood there staring at me, until her legs started to wobble, and she fell down over the edge of a cliff. The others just stood there watching, and did not move until I got up from my seat on a rock, to go after her. I located that spot the year prior, when I heard deer snorting up on that ridge in the morning while I was fishing from a rowboat in the lake down below. They must have winded me. The morning that I fooled them the next year, I had a favorable wind.

That is what I have done for many years. If that big doe is part of group, the reactions of the others is interesting, after she gets dropped with a shoulder blade shot. Usually they hang out, rather disoriented for a bit, providing a great opportunity for a double (with a repeating firearm). Most of the times that happened with me, I only had one antlerless tag, and/or my ML, so the double was not an easy or legal option. There were a few gloryous occasions though, where I was able to send a button buck to deer heaven, along with his mamma. It dont get no better than that.

What crossbow do you have ? I just picked up a Centerpoint Sniper 370, which is quite front-heavy and I would not care to use it without a shooting rail. I still have my old Barnett Recruit, which does not have that issue, and is definitely what I will use now, if I hunt out of any of my 3 hang on stands. You dont get something for nothing though, and the price I pay with the Recruit is limited range (less than 40 yards for sure). My hang-ons are all in spots where shorter shots are the norm. My stands that are on the edge of food-plots or on open woods, where longer shots might be expected, all have 3 ft high rails, all around, similar to the upper box on my favorite, shown in the photo. A 50 yard shot at a standing deer, with the front-heavy Sniper, should be a piece of cake from that. A few times in the past, I have made shooting rails around hang-on stands by nailing combinations of 2x4's and branches. That may be an option if your crossbow is real front heavy. I did it for gun-season. I am in a shotgun only area and my primary gun (Marlin 512 bolt action, scoped 12 gauge) is quite heavy and handles very much like the Sniper. The Recruit is a lot closer to my secondary gun (Ithaca featherweight deerslayet 16 gauge pump). That one handles like a dream and gets the call when I hunt out of a rail-less hang on stand during gun season. .

I wear a camo hat when walking between spots in the Northern zone, during ML and rifle season. I switch to a camo hat upon reaching my spots, and hang the orange hat on a branch above. I go with all camo, never any orange, during crossbow season.

I like the short break at Christmas, but I really like the idea of deer hunting after, up to new years. We always get a paid mid week holiday or two thru that stretch. Hunting deer mid week, without having to using vacation time, is awesome. The deer action always picks up in late December, especially when I have some standing corn left. The odds of that happening this year is as good as it has ever been, due to the near perfect growing season we are enjoying. If this goes thru it would greatly increase my chances of filling some extra dmp's.

I borrowed a snow jet once when my moto ski broke down. It was lighter and quieter.

I leave my camera in my pocket until the buck is on the ground:

The heat feels good tonight:

This is a 1/8 acre turnip plot that is saddled between a 1/8 acre silver queen sweetcorn plot and a 1-1/2 acre RR field corn plot. There was another 1/8 acre of bodacious sweetcorn to the left of the silver queen, which was entirely wiped out by coons. I tilled that under and just put in a wheat/white clover mix on that spot. I trapped (4) male coons and the coyotes are now keeping them in check (they dug up the three largest coon carcasses). We ate some of the silver queen for dinner tonight, have had it for 4 or 5 other meals and have put that many quarts in the freezer. I will probably leave the rest to harden for the deer. The coyotes have been doing a good job of keeping them away also. It has been a couple weeks since anything but humans got to eat any of that corn. If you can get rid of the coons (they are the easiest furbearer there is to trap), a half acre of corn would likely be enough to last into gun season. Otherwise, forget about it. Wild turkeys will not bother corn unless coons knock it down for them. Deer also prefer to eat it when it has been knocked down, so it is good to leave a few coons around if you have sufficient acreage of corn. I probably wont trap any more this year. This ought to be a prime deer hunting location this year. There is also a white oak, just to the left of the plot that is loaded with acorns this season:

This one made eye contact with me from 75 yards away when I was in the upper box on the stand in the bottom photo on November 2 last year. He may have seen me there when he was a year younger and knew where to look. I stayed perfectly still and he eventually moved in range of my crossbow. I waited for him to move to a point where the crosshairs aligned with his chest, before moving my trigger finger.

My first one with protruding antlers was 1985, first bb was 1983 (no pics of that one). I will try to dig up a pic of the 85 one after dinner. Grandpa's Ithaca 37, 16 ga featherlight deerslayer (still the hardest kicking gun that I own), I am wearing his old woolrich outfit in this photo. I miss the truck (also my first), 1979 GMC "heavy-half", but I still got the gun. I carry it a time or two each season and I also killed my last deer (a doe on his old farm) with it last year. Larry might have sold me the oil.

I would love an extra week of ML season after Christmas. Hopefully, crossbows will be legal then.

Ammo availability might be better for the 30/06 right now, but the meat damage thing has me leaning towards the .308 if I had to pick between those two. That "tad more ass" from the 30/06 is going to wreck more meat. That said, when I bought my 30/06, 30 some years ago, I had only one hungry mouth to feed (myself), I was in my "trophy" stage, and meat damage was of lesser importance. Unlike my most recent rifle purchase (30/30) which was the clear winner, over the .243 alternative that I considered, in terms of less meat damage. Deer meat dont mean much to some folks apparently, especially those who have a strong preference for domesticated animals like chickens, pigs, and cattle. I prefer wild game over any of that and I am thankful that the rest of my family does also.

That's the fact Jack, which is why the .243 is such a mess maker. I had considered getting one but one bad experience with lost meat put me on a 30/30 instead as my primary Adirondack deer rifle. Back, "sort of", on topic, the meat damage on the two whitetail bucks that I killed with my 30/06, using 150 gr Federal classic ammo, was minimal. Just a little bit of rib meat on one that I stuck diagonally, thru the rib cage. A small amount of neck meat was lost on the one where I aced the Texas heart shot.

That buckwheat is tough stuff. I bush hogged some that was no where near ripe (still in the white flower stage) a few weeks ago, then went over it a few times with a disk. That "unripe" buckwheat sprouted pretty thick. I buried it again today with a drag prior to seeding wheat/soybean/white clover mix.

The most meat damage I ever saw on a deer was a 2.5 year old 8 point that my neighbor shot two years ago (2) times with his .243. Both shots were broadside, the first to the hip and the second, to the shoulder. Neither bullet exited the carcass. He gave me that shot-up buck and a neck-shot doe fawn, which field dressed less than 70 poinds and yielded almost the same amount of usable meat. I have hit many deer in the shoulder and several in the hip with 16 and 12 gauge slugs and never had near that much meat damage. That tells me that speed is the main factor in meat damage, and a heavier, slower bullet causes less.

I got this plot planted today, along with two smaller ones (less the soybeans), farther out back. No trouble with any equipment, and just enough daylight to finish.

I have a feeling we will see Chef back on the Trump bandwagon less than 5 minutes into the first debate.

3 miles of wall since Trump had been president or in the last half hour ? If somewhere in between, please make the correction.

Nice job. I replaced our fire pit this year also but not quite as fancy. The old rusted out tractor rear rim was just not cutting it any more. It is a lot easier to keep the fires going in this cut-off air compressor tank:

You really see it, when you cut them up yourself. I processed an older doe last year and she was not as fat as they typically are. I think that may be because she was older (at least 3.5), and there were not many other does in the area, so she got chased around a lot by the local bucks. I am fairly certain she was the same doe that I missed the year before, when two 1.5 year old bucks chased her past my stand 3 weeks into gun season. I dont yet know how good her meat will be, because we still have a buck in the freezer to finish eating first.

Good point. Carry on chef, versatile and left field.

I much prefer shooting bucks, because they are quicker for me to process. It takes me a long time to trim most of the fat out of the does, and they always have a higher percentage of that than bucks do. Leaving that fat in the meat limits how long it will taste fresh out of the freezer (fat does not freeze), and it sticks to the roof of your mouth when you chew it. Not really an enjoyable dining experience. To avoid that, I try to use my antlerless tags in western NY on button bucks, and I usually give away the does. Up north, I found a great processor in Lowville (Nolts) that does a good job of trimming out all the doe fat.