wolc123

I saw my first deer in the southern zone, since Thanksgiving morning, on my last gun hunt of the season at my parents last night. I had planned on hunting my swamp edge stand deep in the woods over there, but they saw a single deer the evening before at about 4:00, crossing the clover plot behind their house. That’s all I needed to hear, to ditch my plans for the small, uncomfortable hang-on stand in the swamp, in favor of my large comfortable platform stand on the edge of the clover plot. Unfortunately the deer was late (about 25 minutes past sunset) and I couldn’t quite make out the crosshairs on my old Weaver 1.5x scope. It looked like a tall, but thin doe or very small antlered buck. Had it been 2 minutes earlier, I’d have had a nice, quartering-to, 60 yard shot. It just walked on by, without stopping to eat. That clover plot definitely needs rework, and that is in the plans for the off-season next year. Im going to do about 1/4 of it in turnips, and the remainder in wheat/white clover. I just finished cleaning and oiling my 3 center-fire deer guns and they are all back on the safe. Looking forward to ML. I am hunting with that Thursday and Sunday mornings and afternoons. First hunt will be that swamp-edge stand over at my parents Thursday morning, then probably back to the clover plot edge in the afternoon. If that deer stays on the same schedule, I think the Redfield 2-7x scope on my ML will be a little brighter and maybe give me a shot.

What kind of power washer do you have ? I always skip the boil completely, with this 5 hp, 3200 psi model. It takes me about 1/2 hour, to blast out all of the soft tissue, after skinning the raw head. My wife still complained a little, walking past the mess on the driveway the same day, but the birds and vermin always have the mess completely cleaned up by the next morning. Far less complaints overall, than when I boiled them in the house. Another nice thing about keeping them raw, is that you don’t weaken the delicate bone structure around the nose or get any of the yellowing, that can come from too much heat. I don’t really care for shiny white or camo-dipped euros, preferring instead the natural “raw bone” color.

“Dmp spike buck” liver and onions for lunch. Impressive flavor and almost as tender as bb liver. Best part is, it’s big enough for 3 hearty meals, instead of just one: I am taking the leftovers, from the half that I cooked today along with some leftover salmon from dinner last night, for lunch at work tomorrow. That will help make a second “surf and turf” courtesy of this guy: The salmon might not be as good as the oysters were, but the liver is on par with the fillet mignons. If I don’t see any deer in the woods this afternoon, it might be because they smell this medium rare liver on my breath.

Last sit with my Marlin 512 got completed this morning and no deer seen. I killed just one very fat, Thanksgiving-day morning “dmp” buck with that this year. I’m giving my Ithaca model 37 16 gauge one last chance this afternoon, over at my parent’s place. They haven’t been seeing much, out on the clover plot, so I’ll try and “tough it out” on my little swamp-edge hang-on stand, deep in the woods. That’s my normal opening day stand, but I missed that this year due to the Blizzard of 22. I tried it on a very windy Saturday morning, the week after Thanksgiving, with nothing seen. Hopefully, something will move thru there this evening. Next weekend, I’ll try and get out Sunday morning and Afternoon with my T/C Omega 50 cal. That one’s already got me two deer this year, a New Year’s Day bb, and a big September “early antlerless season” doe. I’ll most likely be using that to try and punch one or more of my (5) remaining tags over the Holiday ML season this year. I don’t have to work at all during that this year, and I hope to hunt every day of it.

Thanks, Our oldest daughter is moving back home next weekend, so one more deer would be nice. I didn’t see anything again tonight. I am hunting here, an hour or so before church tomorrow morning, then over at my parents place, in the afternoon. That will be it for gun season. I probably won’t be able to get out much during our regular late SZ ML season. I’m really looking forward to the Holiday ML season this year though, and I should be able to hunt every day of that. It looks like you have a great place up there with tons of potential, plus some good deer right now. I couldn’t believe how just mowing some grass seemed to attract deer at my in-laws place, over in WMU 6C this year. There seemed to be an over abundance of little bucks up there. It was weird to see almost as many antlered bucks as I did antlerless deer. Someday, I’d like to try some food plots up there. I had to look twice, to see that big one of your nephew’s was from the southern lease. I almost hit one just like that, on Thanksgiving evening on rt 81 in Sandy Creek, with our suv. He was standing broadside in the middle of the slow lane and I was doing 75 when I saw it. Fortunately, there was nobody in the fast lane and the road was dry. The anti locks on my equinox worked great, and I swerved left and that buck jumped ahead at the last moment, missing us by an inch or so.

I’m in for what might be my 7th “no-see-em” post-Thanksgiving weekend gun season deer hunt. In 40 years of deer hunting, I can only remember killing a few, during this portion of the season. I am in the stand where I killed the last two, and it’s #7, so maybe I’ll get lucky. I couldn’t have got back here undetected on foot to this, farthest from my house stand, with the NE wind that’s blowing about 13 mph. I drove my field-car 3/4 of the way, so that I could make the final approach from downwind. It would have been a perfect wind for the pop-up blind that I had on the west side of my foodplot court, but that blew away over a week ago. I’ve killed more deer from this maple tree stand, and the close-by ash tree stand that it replaced, thru the years than I have from any other location. That includes my largest antlered buck, several “doubles”, and even my only turkey a few falls ago. The ash tree stand was big and comfortable, but I made this maple tree replacement a bit too small. It is also a pain to get in and out of. It’s definitely going to get reworked in the off-season. I sat in that truck-cap blind, that I can see about 150 yards down a shooting lane, for the first hour this morning. That is way more comfortable, but the windows are a real pain to open and close when the temps are below freezing. I usually only hunt out of that in high winds and rain. The last deer I killed from here was a big doe on this same weekend, about 5 years ago. She was running full tilt down that now green grass, across the ditch. It was a lot colder and there was snow then. I soaked one foot crossing that ditch several times to fetch her carcass. Now I have a big white oak plank, propped up against a tee back here, so that I can use it to cross the ditch if I ever drop another one over there. I’d love to try it tonight, but the water is so low now, that I probably wouldn’t even need it.

If you want to start shooting right away, a “rag-bag” makes a decent target. Take an old 50 lb feed bag and fill it with rags, worn out clothes, etc.. Tie the top closed with a piece of twine. That’s a lot cheaper than a commercial crossbow backstop, usually considerably lighter, and stops the bolts pretty good. Only drawback is, You just can’t leave it outside in the rain, or it will get pretty heavy.

All of my hang fires and misfires were with pyrodex. I am hoping that the 25 grains of loose T-7 FFFG, below my 50 gr T-7 pellet, does the trick for me with a # 11 cap in my side lock. Time will tell. Hopefully, I’ll find out before January 2 ‘23. (2) T-7 pellets, above a 209 primer has never hesitated for even a millisecond in my in-line, even after being in there almost a month. This was January 1 of this year and that load had been in there since early December of ‘21:

On the target range, I used 25 gr of loose FFFG T-7 on the bottom, then a 50 gr T-7 pellet, without priming the nipple channel, and I had no hang fires with the standard #11 caps. I’m thinking that, with the smaller grain size of the “FFFG”, extra priming of the nipple tube should not be necessary. What happens out in the damp and cold woods seldom replicates what happens on the target range though. For that reason, I am not going to try it until my freezer is nearly full of venison taken with my shotguns, in-line ML, or crossbow. Most of them never fail to fire on time, when I pull the trigge. I do have one shotgun (Marlin 512) that does not always cooperate when it’s real cold out. I finally learned my lesson on that one, after the froze up firing pin saved a second doe at point blank range. Now, I only use that gun when the temps are above 32 degrees thru the whole hunt.

I’m not Lary and I have no clue on flintlocks but I started having much better ignition reliability with my #11 percussion cap side-lock, after I started removing the little screw from the end of the nipple extension, and priming that channel with some loose powder. I would use a nipple pick, to help force some powder in there until it was full, then reinsert the screw. I didn’t have any more hang fires or mis-fires, with the # 11 caps after I started doing that. If I do hunt with it this year, I’ll be sure to do that. I still have to get thru (4) more shotgun hunts for deer this weekend, but I am really looking forward to the late ML and Holiday ML seasons this year. I’ll have at least (2) tags left for those, even if I fill my other (3) this weekend with the shotguns. It would be wonderful to finally get a deer, with my side-lock. One issue I have with it though, is that the fiber optic sites are not much good for the extra half hours that we get now, before sunrise and after sunset. The old 2-7X Redfield on my T/C Omega is great during that “extra” time. That is the main reason why I won’t bring out my fiber-optic sighted side-lock, until I have one more deer in the freezer.

No doubt about it, corn is the place to be late-season. I had plenty of it last year (it lasted till March), but I cut my acreage in half this year, due to high fertilizer and fuel costs in the spring. The deer had me cleaned out by mid October. It didn’t help that my neighbors also eliminated or cut way back on what they put in. I do have plenty of good turnips out there still, and lots of winter wheat. I’m hoping that keeps some deer around thru the Holliday ML season this year. I could only hunt a couple of days of that last year, but there were deer in my corn every day that I hunted it. This year, I have that whole week off work and I am planning to hunt every day. I just wish I had planted a little more corn this spring. Oh well, I do have plenty of cover back there and hopefully the turnips and wheat will do the trick. I don’t know of any wild game (or food of any kind) that is quite as tasty as a corn fed and fattened whitetail deer.

I’m not a fan of high winds but the cold don’t bother me much. I can easily sit for hours in zero degree F temps, if I have on my Mickey Mouse boots, long underwear, down vest, thinsulate lined jacket and bibs, face mask, wool hat, and my hands in a muff with a hand warmer. Throw in that wind though, and I’d definitely pick the calm, rainy 45 degree day. Deer don’t move much on windy days regardless of temps. A tree umbrella is a cheap easy solution to rain on a calm day. I always thought that the snare-drum like noise, that the rain made on the tree umbrella would scare the deer away, but I finally managed to kill two while it was pounding it, from less less than 20 yards away. Former site member Tacs always said that the drum noise wouldn’t bother them, and by-golly, I guess I proved him right.

Not sure about that. I’ve always observed that when they catch human scent, the immediate reaction of a mature deer (does even more so than bucks) is to bolt for cover at maximum speed. That particular buck was “on a mission”, near the end of the rut. It took something “very special” to stop his brisk walk and hold him in place for the long time that it took me to clear both lenses of my scope. That’s why I attributed that one to the Evercalm more so than any of the others that I killed while using it. The only bad thing that time, was that most of his vitals were covered by a big tree where he stopped. I had to aim considerably farther back on his rib cage than I preferred. I still caught the second last rib and both lungs with my 16 ga foster slug. The slug didn’t quite make it all the way thru him, but did blow out enough chunks of rib, to make a halfway decent double blood trail in the snow. He made it into some very heavy cover and I had to use that special dual-purpose tool as a handle to drag him out to where I could gut him and get to him with my dad’s Ranger. Order of operations is very important in such a predicament (drag first gut second). I’ve had other mature deer approach from directly downwind, when I had Evercalm wiped on my stand or tree. I hope the open stick produces that same result, but I haven’t been doing it long enough to find out. It also works on more than just deer. One of the more hair-raising experiences that I had with it, occurred during early ML week up in the Dacks, a few years ago. I had treated my boots with evercalm and was wearing full camo (that was before the orange hat or vest rule). As I followed a well-used deer trail up a mountain ridge, I was nearly intercepted by a big coyote. I raised my ML, when it was ready to pounce, less than 10 yards away. I have never seen one move as fast as that one did, when it saw me lift that gun. I could not get off a shot, before it disappeared into heavy cover.

I agree with rack attack, in that it isn’t perfect, but it definitely seems to help. I use to go thru more of it, but I got sick of all the ugly yellow stains around my stands and blinds. Now, I just wipe a little on my boots, for the last couple hundred yards of approach to my stand, then open the stick again and lay it down when I get there. I get almost 2 seasons out of a $20 stick using it that way, so the cost is manageable. To save a partially used stick for the following season, put it in a zip lock bag in the freezer, otherwise it will dry up. I noticed Evercalm use was a common denominator amoung (4) of my last 3.5 yr and (2) 2.5 yr old buck kills over the last (6) seasons. Last year’s 3.5 was the most directly attributable to the Evercalm. He actually froze perfectly still, when he encountered the trail that I had walked in on. He stood there long enough for me to clear the snow from my scope, and make the shot. Had he not encountered that Evercalm scent, there is little doubt that He’d be at least 4.5 years old right now, rather than on my wall and in my freezer/belly, forever 3.5.

That reminds me of my Traditions Fox River 50, which is also very small and easy to handle. I haven’t used it for deer hunting, since I bought my T/C Omega 50 cal, about 25 years ago. I used that sidelock for about (5) years, only shooting it at one deer, a 2.5 yr old buck that had already dropped one side antler. Only the cap went off, when he walked right under my stand. That “snap” scared him a bit, but caused him no harm. I also had a hang-fire with it one time, shooting at a big grey squirrel, which showed up at dusk on the last day of late ML season. I held my aim, and the patched round ball neatly beheaded it, about a second and a half after the cap went off. A couple years ago I got that gun out and put some new fiber optic sites on it. I shot it a few times, and it worked pretty good, with some green-plastic sleeved pistol bullets, one 50 gr T7 pellet, and 25 gr of loose T7. Mt plan was to use that, as I waded the creek up at my In-laws Adirondack retirement place, during the early ML week. I was going to bring along a fly rod also, and try for Brooke trout at the same time. The gun was so light, that should be doable. My big heavy Omega would never work for that. I’ve seen lots of deer sign, in the swampy creek bottom, thru the years on early ML week up there. I also had a rough streak with my Omega, blowing good chances at 4 or 5 consecutive deer, and that pushed me back towards that old sidelock. I finally broke that bad streak with the Omega last fall, on a big Adirondack doe, and it also got the job done perfectly, on the next two deer I shot it at, this year. Despite the restored effectiveness of my Omega in-line, I still would like to give that old sidelock a try. I’ve already put (3) in the freezer this year, but I could use one more average-size one. I’ll likely stick with the Omega, until I get that. I am planning to hunt every day of the Week long Holiday ML season this year. If I do manage to get one more deer, before or early during that, then the odds are good that my old sidelock will see some action. It is definitely fun to shoot. Cleaning it was always a pain though. That has been a piece of cake with my Omega and T7 powder, since I started using foaming bore cleaner and a bore snake. You can’t use a bore snake with a side lock, so cleaning that will still suck (literally), even with foaming bore cleaner. I’ll probably save that for my Omega, and just use dish soap and hot water. I’ll have plenty of time, being off of work for all 7 days that week.

Nothing seen tonight. I could still make out the crosshairs on my 2-7x Redfield Revolution scope at 25 minutes past sunset on this cloudy night, with no snow. The next time I hit that clover plot will probably be 1/2 hour before sunrise on Saturday morning.

I’m in for the last 20 minutes of sun, plus 30. I noticed lots of deer scat on this little clover plot, on my walk back Sunday evening, so I’m trying to catch one out for an early bite tonight. I’m not going to be fussy and I am in pure “brown-down” mode. I have two dmp tags and my buck tag left in my wallet. It looks like we are having a stretch of perfect carcass-hanging weather, over the next week, and it would be a shame to let an open hook in our insulated garage go unused thru that. I think my odds of a little deer action tonight are ok, because I had to get on the brakes hard to miss a doe just up the road a bit, on my drive home from work just moments ago. Also, a fresh stick of Evercalm arrived in the mail today, so hopefully having that open next to me covers up my scent from those approaching from downwind. I also treated my rubber boots with a little, prior to my 350 yard walk to this stand. Now, if I can just get one of these 2-3/4” 12 ga Hornady SST’s thru a shoulder blade or (3), all will be well. I don’t have much time for tracking.

“Quick draw” handles made from chain links, hinge pins, hooks, and duct tape:

Another vote for an entry-level Barnett here. I paid about $ 250 for my 300 fps Recruit, back in the spring of 2014, after they were first legalized in NY for deer hunting. It has held up very well for the last 8 years. It certainly is not the fastest, but there is something to be said for “not pushing the envelope” when it comes to durability, longevity, and ease of use. Other than the ends of the serving loosening up a little on the string (I was able to repair that in under 5 minutes, with a little loop of fishing line, used to pull the ends back under), it has been completely trouble free. I bought it for hunting, and it’s performance has been nearly flawless. All but one of the (5) whitetail bucks, that I shot it at, died within hearing or seeing distance of taking the bolt. The (5th) one probably would have also, had I not used the same mechanical broadhead on a second deer without resharpening the blades. I found that one about an hour after the shot, after a somewhat lousy 100 yard blood trail. While it has got the job done every time on deer (and this coyote a few weeks ago), it did let me down on it’s first shot at wild game, in October of 2014. I missed a grouse, on an overhead shot at close range, during the 3-day northern zone crossbow deer season that year. I thought about having it restrung a few years ago, but opted to purchase a second entry-level crossbow instead (Centerpoint sniper 370). That one is ok also, but I prefer the light-weight and easy-handling Barnett Recruit most of the time. When it comes to hunting, I definitely prefer having two decent entry-level crossbows over one expensive high-performance model. I lost the rope-pulley device for the Recruit, in the excitement after killing my largest-ever bodied antlered buck with it, back in 2017. On my next few dmp hunts that year, I was able to draw it by hand, but it was tough on the fingers. I made up a couple hooks, using small pieces of chain, and they work great for a fast draw, maybe even enabling a quick second shot, if it was ever needed.

The rain has let up. But the wind has picked up to about 60 mph. Lots of widow/makers are coming down, so I’m going to break early for lunch.

I could only hold out for the first two hours after sunrise, in my swamp-edge hang-on stand this morning. That little thing is not made for sits longer than 2 hours in good weather. No action at all there early this morning, not even a squirrel. The wind was gusting close to 30 mph from the SW, and the light scattered rain started getting heavier around 9:30. At that time, I made the 400 yard move, to my two story truck-cap blind. I’ve never killed anything from downstairs of this one, but did take what was likely my largest-ever bodied buck (43” chest girth) from the upstairs with my crossbow, about 6 years ago.lol I shot my gun-season buck last year from another blind, here at my parents place. He ran past and died within 50 yards of this one, after taking this 20 cent, 16 ga Remington slugger from my old Ithaca. That slug never exited his rib-cage. It fell out from under the hide, when I skinned him. It knocked chunks of busted rib all the way through, so that there was a decent, 75 yard long blood trail on the snow, spraying from both sides. I’d be happy if my old Ithaca 16 gauge could get it done on a unicorn with a single 3-1/4” spike today. I’ve gone thru a quart of cider and my last snicker bar this morning and I am now completely out of provisions. I guess that I should have rationed my supply better. Hopefully, the rain lets up soon, so I can make it to lunch with my parents, without getting too wet. This blind has the solid end facing the prevailing wind direction (SW), and is super comfortable on horizontal-rain days, like today. My tree umbrella is nearly useless in those type of conditions. What’s best about these two-story models, is the instant that the rain stops I can go upstairs, where there are no “blind spots”. I still need to break in the first floor of this one, with a deer kill. So far, I have only killed squirrels from down here. There’s been about a dozen deer and a coyote killed from the upstairs of the similar one, that I have at home, and about half of that from it’s lower deck.

175 lbs 14 oz field dressed if harvested the day of that picture. Hind quarters look thin, typical of a late post-rut buck. Would have been about 193 lbs field-dressed on October 30.

I didn’t make it to my swamp edge stand last Sunday afternoon, as I had planned. My parents heard (4) shots back in that area in the morning, so I thought my stand on the other side of their woods might be better. I didn’t see anything there though. The swamp edge stand has always been a better morning spot for me. It’s been quite a few years, since I still had a buck tag this deep into the season, but I am thinking that I might have a good chance of punching that this Saturday morning, from that swamp edge stand. It will be 1 year and two weeks since the last time I hunted it. Three years ago, on the Third Saturday morning of gun season, two bucks chased a doe twice by that stand, the second time around, passing directly under it. My buck tag was long gone, and my Marlin 512 froze up, allowing that doe to escape unharmed. I’m hoping that the bucks do go deep. I don’t have a deeper spot, than that stand. I can’t ever recall taking an antlered buck after Thanksgiving weekend, but I like my odds this Saturday. I’ll be packing my old Ithaca 37 16 gauge. That thing never fails to get the job done, no matter how cold it is.

Gross maybe, but lots of asymmetric reductions there, which would reduce the net.