wolc123

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.

Of those two, 30/06 gets my vote. I am 3 for 3 on deer with that (CO mule deer and 2 NY whitetails). Usually (non-election years) ammo is very easy to find. No experience with a .308. That said, I am switching to 30/30 levers for NY whitetails because they are a lot easier to carry in the mountains than my heavy 30/06 bolt. Right now, that ammo is also tough to find. There seemed to be quite a bit of .270 and other oddballs on the shelves at Runnings last weekend. They did have some .243 but I would avoid that due to excessive meat damage. I like heavier, slower bullets to minimize that.

With a vertical bow, form, bend at waist, etc come into play but not with a crossbow. I always put some ribbons out at 50 yards, in a few different directions, at all my stands to help out with the range estimate on deer. If the deer is inside of those ribbons, it is in range for my Centerpoint sniper. It needs to be 10 yards closer for my Barnett recruit. If there are no ribbons, I range a few objects, as soon as I get in the stand with my laser range finder. It helps to do that before a deer shows up.

I did it at my folks place last gun season, and that ended my buck sightings on what had been a very hot property, up until that point. It was a case of mistaken identity. It happened when she switched places with one of two smaller antlerless deer. I was hoping to use a dmp on one or both of those. That property is surrounded by ag lands, on which antlerless deer are largely depleted on nuisance permits, prior to October first. When the rut begins, the few surviving mature does become real buck magnets. I will try hard not to make that mistake again at that spot in western NY. At my spot up on the NW corner of the Adirondack park, the situation is quite different. I see about 6 antletless deer per every antleted one up there, almost exactly the opposite ratio I see at home. There is a distict browse line, all around the lake up there, telling me that more mature doe harvest is needed. Dmp's are nearly impossible to get up there, but I hope to take a mature doe during the early ML week. I plan on hunting every day of that up there this year. The last time I was able to do that was 2016, and it worked out perfectly.

I picked my first dozen ears of silver queen sweetcorn this afternoon. We are having it for supper, and that kind is always my favorite. The coons have not got into it at all, so we may get enough out of the few rows that I planted out back, to put some in the freezer. I trapped 4 coons earlier, near some earlier ripening types that were planted at the same time and a few weeks earlier, but the coons wiped out most of that before I got them. Coyotes found the shallow buried coon carcasses and have been keeping the corn coon free the last couple weeks. Hopefully, they move away before I start deer hunting in early November. I think you can legally start shooting them in October so I might have to try some of that.

I leave all of mine up year round. I try to inspect them all, replacing straps, chains and other parts as necessary, prior to October first. I no longer deer hunt the Southern zone until the last 2 weeks of archery season. Last year, I turkey hunted from my favorite elevated blind, on the last weekend in October. I then killed a 3.5 year old buck out of it, on my first deer hunt, the following Saturday. Generally, I have had the most success on the first hunt of the season, from any stand. My archery seasons have been much more successful, since I have been waiting for the last 2 weeks to start. I think there is a lot of guys who burn their spots out from too much early pressure.

Red sky in morning sailor take warning. Time to head to purgatory cove.

Yes.

Here's your sign:

Thanks, that might have done the trick. It looks like the three here (versatile, left field, and chef) may have finally backed off. Either that or they had a rough night and are still sleeping it off.

Where can I get 3 of these for versatile, chef, and left field ?

It must have been a hungry bachelor group. They were all kind of thin, unlike the shorter, but stout females, that I caught yesterday on jigs. The second one off the dock wrapped me around a sunken branch. As I was unleashing the boat, to try and get over to it, it got off the branch by itself. That saved my only Zara puppy. A half dozen more casts, as I floated, and I had my limit. The thin males today did not fight as hard as the stout females that I caught on the bottom yesterday, but it was cool seeing them hit the top water bait. Most hit as soon as the cast landed, before I even started to "walk the dog".

Good top water smallmouth action in the Adirondacks this morning, resulting in my fastest 5 fish limit of the year. (5) 15 - 16 inchers in 20 minutes on Zara puppy. I caught the first 2 off the dock, then untied the boat and drifted about 50 yards for the other 3. I have yet to put an oar in the water or start the motor.

No.

I will try and answer this one for you after I get in a few hunts with stock scope on my Centerpoint sniper. I liked it for sighting in with good daylight, but I am not sure how well it will do in the woods, just after sunrise and right before sunset. The stock red/green dot site on my Barnett recruit has been good in those conditions. My only worry with that is if the battery goes dead at a bad time (I always carry a spare), and the intensity control knob is hard to turn. I underestimated the range on my first shot at a deer with that Barnett, resulting in a low hit. What I thought was a 50 yard shot, turned out to be 59 yards and the bolt struck low. Fortunately, the errors cancelled out. Insufficient penetration at that range was trumped by shot strike location. The mechanical broadhead just made it thru the heart. Had that bolt struck higher, where I had intended, the recovery from a likely single-lung hit would have been much tougher.

That makes me amazed that we still have 3 on this site who seem to be leaning towards Biden. You would think that they would have jumped ship after he named his VP. She is much further left than he ever thought of being.

I also think it is a housecat.