wolc123

One of these years, I might get a buck with a 30/30. It sure is nicer carrying those around up in the Adirondacks, than my big heavy 30/06. My Marlin 336BL has fiber-optic sights and my father in law's 336W has a 3-9X Marlin scope. Both of them seem very good in low light. I hope to find out some day how the 150 gr Federal Fusion 30/30 ammo will do on deer. Hopefully, they will drop in their tracks and have minimal meat damage, as has both I have shot up there with 150 gr Federal classic 30/06.

CLP worked very well to free up the stuck firing pin on my T/C Omega ML. I will probably stick with that until something better comes along.

Our kids favorite meal, venison tacos. I ate three big ones and they were awsome with a Genny light. The 6-day hide-on, in-the garage aging of the 3.5 year old buck carcass worked out good, for the grind anyhow. It was very tender.

I spent the last 1.5 hours of daylight in the "scout-blind", but the scout did not show. I will give him one more chance Monday afternoon (if I still have my buck tag by then). This was about the best afternoon of the season from a weather standpoint, very light winds, no rain, nice soft silent snow, but no deer.

I am on the 5th season on the pair I have now and they are showing no signs of wear. I use them for hunting, anytime it is colder than about 32 F, and also for ice-fishing. Never had cold feet in them. The only drawback is, if you need water-proof deeper than about 10". I got a soaker on one when I had to cross a deep ditch several times when I killed a doe from the other side. If I ever need to go thru deep water again with them, I will try lacing them real tight and going real fast. I am guessing they will last me 15-20 years. My father in law always got around 5 years out of them, wearing them 8-10 hours, every day of the winter, on a concrete floor in an un-heated dairy barn. He used the warmer white ones, when it was real cold, but the black ones 90 % of the time. He gave me a new black pair, that I have now, for Christmas (so they were free for me) about 17 years ago. I always thought they were too goofy-looking to wear, but finally succumbed to his badgering, up at their retirement home in the Adirondacks, 5 years ago. I should have tried them sooner. I can't believe all the money folks waste on the fancy boots.

I always aim for $ 1 per pound for my venison, after subtracting input costs. I have got it for less than that a few years, including last. I am not doing so hot this year however, having purchased a new scope for my shotgun and 3 new mechanical broadheads for my crossbow. I am at about $ 3 per pound right now. Hopefully, some action over my last (3) days of ML hunting will bring it down some. I also prefer wild game, over food bought from the store or restaurants (especially the oysters). More folks probably would too, if only they had the balls to give them a try.

I am not all that into antlers, but I prefer a typical with some "character". Too much symmetry looks fake, and too much non-typical looks grotesque.

I am on the fence on the shoulder shots. With my 12 ga shotgun & SST slugs,, or 16 gauge and foster slugs, I go for them and meat damage is not bad. I think those relatively slow, heavy bullets are the key to minimizing meat damage. The most meat damage to a shoulder, that I have seen, was on the 2-1/2 year old buck that my neighbor gave me last year after he shot it in the hip and the shoulder with his .243. That was enough for me to take that caliber out of the running for my own use on deer. My 30/06 might be just as bad, but I never hit one there with it. I suspect that the heavier, slower bullet would be at least a little less meat damage however. There are times when a shoulder shot is called for, including a "multiple deer" situation, a deer close to the border of posted land, where I don't have permission to enter, or when tracking conditions are bad. You nailed it Larry. It did happen between Thanksgiving and Christmas and there is no doubt Who had a hand in the guiding of that bullet. I ain't that good of a shot on my own.

The secret was to get the pointed bullet inside the deer, without having to penetrate the hide. That would have caused some "mushroom" type expansion. A pointed bullet makes a pin-hole thru soft tissue. The first hard material the bullet struck, was the spine in the middle of the neck. That is why there was no noticeable tissue damage, until it reached that point. The exit hole thru the hide, in the front of the neck, was about 3/4" diameter. I will admit that I was expecting a messy gutting job. I was pleasantly surprised that it was one of the cleanest ones that I ever did. The meat loss, due to wound damage, was also close to the least that I have seen on a deer killed with a gun. I would like to find that bullet. It probably would not be too difficult with a metal detector. I will never forget the location of the best shot that I ever made. Others have taken the Texas heart shot, but none that I know of has pulled it off as successfully.

Not really, The range was only 50 yards, I had a very good rest, a 3-9x scope (on 3), the buck was perfectly still, and my Ruger m77 30/06 has always held a 3/4" or less group at 100 yards using the Federal Classic 150 grain factory-cartridge that I used. The buck's alignment was fortunate. Even the tenderloins were not bruised, there was no entry hole, and the guts came out as clean as a whistle. I was surprised that the butt-out II worked out perfectly on this one, also serving as a "bore gauge" to verify the centered placement of the shot on the intended "point of aim".

If the shot is perfectly executed, the only meat that is lost is a small neck roast. I know, from first-hand experience, that shot can be made on a standing deer, but not so sure about one that is moving.

Welcome Musky to the best site on the net.

Yeah baby.

Most of the corn planted these days is gly-resistant and it will reseed itself somewhat but not enough to amount to much. The corn that sprouts the following year retains the gly-resistant trait, so you would need to use a grass-specific type herbicide to kill it. I always rotate areas that were corn with a mix of white clover, wheat, and soybeans, planted in the early fall. A mower is used to clip the wheat before it goes to seed the following year and to control the grassy weeds (including reseeded corn) in the clover over the next several years. Ideally, you should have about 4 acres of clover for every acre of corn to support that rotation. The clover also provides the deer something to eat at night, but they will usually spend daylight hours in the corn which is the only plot that provides exactly the type of feed deer seek, along with the cover they need throughout hunting season. The clover also builds up nitrogen in the soil, reducing the fertilizer cost for subsequent corn crops. Spring planted soybeans may attract coyotes and does before and during fawning time. That is the reason I prefer to only use them as part of a fall-planted mix. Why not have their period of maximum attractiveness line up with early archery season ? An easy way to do 2 acres of corn would be to sub the job out to a neighbor with the equipment to do it.

Yes, technically, according to NY state, it is legally a ML.

Funny that you mentioned that. I did not have the pellet gun tonight (blind was too small for 2 guns) but I did see the only black squirrel that I have ever seen in WMU 9F, and a couple of greys. It was another deerless sit however, as has been the case every time since the first half hour of opening day. The good news is that I still have an either/or and an antlerless tag for the southern tier and if the weather is decent, I will try and get down to my buddies camp for the following long weekend with my ML. I was able to free up the firing pin on that with some CLP. so I should be good to go. They have lots of standing corn down there that is infested with does. Hopefully I will end up with a button buck or two.

How many rolls of tape have you gone thru so far ?

Time for me to go get the scout.

I hunted about 24 hours in the northern zone, with no shots taken, seeing 4 or 5 unidentified deer. I also spent about 24 hours in the southern zone, killing (2) deer and seeing about a dozen (all but three were antlered). I had our year's worth of venison in the first hour on opening day of crossbow season and the first half hour of opening day of gun season. I still have a buck tag, and (4) doe tags, which I will spend about 12 more hours working on thru late ML season, but I am not all that into it, since our meat supply is already secured. Depending on the weather conditions, I should end up with about 60 hours total. I would like to have had more time to hunt, but I am inundated with other work to do around home in my "free" time.

I do not expect to get a shot at him from the "scout blind", which is located in a hedge-row between two open fields. Deer seldom venture out on those open fields after gun season starts. I am pretty sure that it was him that I heard crashing thru the thicket behind that blind, just after I arrowed the older 8-point. That threw me off on the recovery, and caused the guts to stay in the older deer for an extra half hour or so. Getting the guts out ASAP is best for taste of the meat (you will never catch me "backing out until morning" ). My plan for this afternoon, is to be up in another blind in the mature hardwoods several hundred yards further back. That has been my best late-season spot thru the years. There is not much room left in our freezer, so he will have to share a shelf with a turkey and some other odds and ends. We have about a year's worth of venison in there now, and always try to eat it in the order that it was obtained. That means that the scout gets eaten last, and will likely go more than a year before consumption (other than the tenderloins, which go right away, and the heart, which my wife will pickle with the rest for Valentine's day). The best thing about the vacuum sealer is that you can stock up for the lean years on the plentiful ones, with no loss in flavor.

Sounds good. It is definitely my favorite blind. I did not expect much from it this year, since there was no standing corn near it (too wet to plant this spring). That is why the "scout" caught me by surprise on November 2 this year. I am going to hunt back there tomorrow afternoon. I don't think anyone got the scout yet this year (my neighbor took the 2016 3-point scout on Thanksgiving morning). This year's scout is a much larger-bodied 3-point, so he will not get a pass from me, if I see him tomorrow. My trigger finger is especially ithchy after another deerless day over at my folks place today. Even the squirrels stayed well out of range of the pellet gun that I brought along. Maybe so. I nearly did that this year because the body was big on the scout, even though he only had 3 points total. Fortunately, I stuck to my plan of "three or more on a side" for the first half of the season(s). It paid off, just like it did in 2016. This year's scout showed up about a half hour after the start of southern-zone crossbow season. Now that we are in the tail end of gun-season, he is back on the hit-list. It would be cool to get the pair back together again in our freezer.

You got me mixed up with another guy TG. I can not remember his name right now, but I think he was from Wyoming county. The only thing I said about older deer is that they need to be aged longer prior to processing and freezing, for the rigor mortis to work out. A nice feature of the button bucks is that they can be cut up the day after they are killed. I have ate very few older than 3.5, but I have never noticed any difference in taste or texture of 1.5 thru 3.5 year bucks, provided they were properly aged prior to processing. I know you have taken many older bucks and noted that none had scouts. Maybe it is just something that happens at my place. It happened twice in the last three years anyhow, and from the same blind.

Spots would be great. Almost time to "light them up". Even tree-rats are on the table today. My trigger finger is itching.

I don't think 12 - 20 is so many when it comes to button bucks. Hopefully another one will hit the freezer this season. I am making some good headway on the "mature" bucks also, with one on each of the last three seasons. Passing of the scouts has played a key role in that. I will start with you. Have any of them that you have taken (lets include 2.5's in there also since I know you have taken a few of those the last few years), showed up less than 5 minutes after a 1.5 came from the same spot ? If others want to "chime in" on the poll, have at it. I am going to go out shortly and try for my second antlered buck this year, or a doe / button buck or three, or at the very least, a tree rat or two. My chances of second 3.5 plus are slim for the remainder of this year, because I have just decided to go full "brown-down" from here on out. It would be selfish of me to hold out for a big one, considering all of the carnage that I have heard of lately with automobile hits. That includes (4) from the dozen or so folks who I was playing cards with last night. Us hunters are the primary means of limiting such destruction. The "passing of young bucks" and eating tags does nothing to help that situation. It seems to be antlered bucks that are involved in the majority of those hits. In future seasons, I will continue to pass the young ones in the early season, until my meat supply is secure, but holding out for a trophy now ain't going to happen.

What about morning hunts ? The 1.5 / 2.5 buck combo in 2016 was in the afternoon, but the 1.5 / 3.5 (mature by your definition) combo this year was in the morning (the little guy came out about a half hour after legal sunrise). Do you think this 3.5 would have waited until dark to walk past that blind on November 2 if he did not have a "scout" to indicate that the coast was clear ?