wolc123

My grandad's old16 gauge Ithaca model 37 kicks like a mule but it has brought down every deer that I have shot it at, since I mounted a 1.5X Weaver scope on it back around 1983. I only hunted with my dad's Browning sweet 16 one time, but I went two for two on ruffed grouse on that hunt, and they were both difficult shots. Those experiences have made the 16 gauge number one for me. I also think the looks and proportions are just right. The barrels on the 20's look too skinny and 12's look too fat. The only downside is the ammo cost and availability. No big deal for me though. At the rate I am using them, I should have an easy lifetime's supply of 16 gauge Remington sluggers, that I picked up for 20 cents each. Here is this year's handiwork:

The white hots might be the cleanest currently available in pellets, but the loose blackhorn 209 is supposedly less corrosive, cleaner burning, and produces more velocity. It would be nicer if they made it in pellets however, and I am hoping they might by next season. This year, I am sticking with my remaining supply of 777 pellets. I hope I can fill my gun buck tag this weekend with my slug guns. If not, it is good to have the ML working again. I just scored a vacation day on Friday for ML weekend, and I already had that Monday off. If nothing else, I will still have an antlerless-only tag that I can use then. Good luck with your's also.

I was able to free up the firing pin on my T/C Omega tonight with some CLP. I put a few drops on each end of the pin and also removed the small screw below it and added a several drops of CLP in the screw port, then put the screw back in. After this lubricant treatment, I pushed/pried the pin back and forth with a screwdriver a few times, before it freed up. Now it is back to working normally. The hole thru the breech plug has also clogged up with corrosion a few times, and I had to open it back up with a small drill bit. Next season, I will switch to Blackhorn 209 powder and hopefully be done with the corrosion issue.

Liver from a pre-rut, well bled-out, 3.5 year old whitetail buck, with onions and a Genny light. Some red meat was a welcome change, after getting all of my protein from birds over the last (4) days. The key to making those livers from older deer tender, is to hold them in the fridge for about a week, prior to freezing. I am looking forward to the leftovers for lunch at work tomorrow. No photographers around today for a medium-rare "cooked" picture, but it is still inside on this one taken late in the morning, a month ago today:

I see that a lot late in the rut or post rut. I always attributed it to the fact that the bucks basically stop eating during the rut and loose strength in their legs, while the does continue to feed and remain strong and fast. I think that is part of nature's way of protecting the mature females from predators like wolves and coyotes. They can catch up with the rutted out bucks but the mature does are the hardest for them to catch, and the most necessary for the survival of the species. Mature bucks and fawns are more "expendable". That is just basic "nature 101". The mature bucks hanging around with a "little buddy", before and during the early rut seems to be an entirely different phenomena. It is almost like they are thinking "lets see if he makes it thru there safely, before I come out". That definitely seemed to be the case with the two 3-point - 8-point pairs at my place in 2016 and 2019. Each of those mature bucks was killed from a big two-story blind that has been in the same place for about 10 years. I think the older bucks associated the blind with danger, and refused to pass it in the daylight until their little buddies made it thru. In the case of the wild turkey scouts: in that particular woods, I frequently see deer and turkey together. Each species seems to use the other for their particular stronger senses. The deer appreciate the turkey's superior eyesight, while the turkeys benefit from the stronger sense of smell of the deer. It is kind of like the convoy systems that kept freighters safer from subs during WW I and II.

When I look back at the last (6) mature bucks (for me that means 2.5 years or older) that I have killed, I find it very interesting that 1/2 of them used scouts of one form or another. I had heard of that for crow hunting, but it is very clear to me that whitetail bucks also utilize scouts. My 3.5 year old gun-buck from 2012 employed a flock of wild turkeys as his scouts. I shot that buck in heavy cover, right in the middle of that flock of turkeys, wearing a blaze orange camo jacket, and having just descended from a tree stand that was above the patch of cover. My 2.5 year crossbow buck from 2016 used tiny-bodied, 1.5 year old 3-pointer as his scout. That little buck walked 10 yards from me, stood broadside, and looked away, almost begging me to shoot him. less that two minutes after I gave him a pass and he walked into the adjacent cover, the larger buck appeared from the same spot he did. The rack on this one was significantly larger, and the body looked to be at least 2X in size. He took a slightly different path and did not offer quite as easy of shot, but there is no doubt that he would have lived, had i shot the scout. I got a good look at the little scout a couple weeks later, when a neighbor killed him by accident. He did not see the tiny rack, and he thought he was a doe. Dejevu happened with my 3.5 year old crossbow buck this year. This time both the big buck and the little buck were considerably larger. Even though it happened in the first hour of daylight on opening day of crossbow season, I was sorely tempted by the 3-point scout. His rack was significantly larger than that from 2016. His neck was swollen and his body looked fairly large as he began to work a scrape just 10 yards from my stand. He stood up on his back legs, to reach the licking branch above the scrape, offering me a perfect Biz-o-world type "shirt-pocket" shot. It was all I could do to hold off, but maybe, just maybe, history would repeat itself. Sure enough, less than (5) minutes later, Mr big 8 shows up. Mr big 8, once again appeared from the exact same spot, but he hung up about 50 yards out, locking eye contact with me. I won the stare down, and eventually he started moving closer. I moved my eye towards my scope, taking full advantage of the crossbows ability to fire without a rapid draw movement. It was awesome watching him walk into the viewing field of the scope and only needing to move my trigger finger when he stopped, with his chest aligned with the crosshairs.

During gun season, I wear just a blaze orange hat, when walking to and from my stand, regular camo jacket and bibs. When I get up in the stand (out of the crossfire), I switch to a camo hat. If I am sitting on the ground (which is normally only in the lower hunter density northern zone), I hang the orange hat above my head, then put on the camo hat. I use to wear a blaze orange camo jacket during gun, but the deer in our area often use wild turkeys as scouts, which can pick that stuff out from a mile away.

The areas that I hunt in the southern zone are extremely flat, with a total change in elevation of less than 4 feet over an area of approximately 100 acres. In that situation, getting up in the air a bit, not only makes me feel safe from others stray rounds, but also gives me confidence that the ground will form a backstop for my own shots. With ground that flat, just 10 feet up is more than enough, and most of my stands are only about 7 feet up. Many years ago, I walked to the edge of our farm, to shorten the range to a doe which had stepped thru a hedgerow at the border. The next field was owned by a neighbor, who did not hunt, but gave permission to me and the neighbor on the other side. When I stepped thru that hedgerow, my hair was parted by the first of (5) slugs fired at that doe by a "guest" of the other neighbor. I hit the dirt, and the dirt started hitting me, as (4) more slugs landed nearby. The doe was out in the middle of the field, half-way between me and that neighbor's guest. I was wearing blaze orange, but all he saw was that deer. That was all it took to drive me up into a tree most of the time, where I am far more comfortable than on the ground. Feeling the pressure wave of a bullet, before hearing the report, is something that makes quite an impression on you. Many of those, who have been in combat situations, have a good understanding of that feeling. If there would be some way to demonstrate that feeling, in the hunter safety training course, there would likely be a lot less accidents. My fear of being shot by accident only applies to flatlands of high hunter density. I am comfortable hunting from the ground in hilly areas, of lower hunter density, such as exists thru most of the northern zone. For me, 7 ft is the perfect height. High enough to get out of the crossfire, and make a backstop for my own shots, but low enough that a fall would hopefully not result in serious injury. That being said, my most comfortable stands are 7 feet up and have a three foot high combination safety rail/shooting rest/wind break/cover fence, all the way around.

The "nonsence" is thinking there is a "lull" following the peak. In reality, there is a continuous lessening after Veteran's day, with no second peak.

Some doe come into heat early, some don't get bred on the first cycle, and go thru a second cycle. There is a continuous progression, starting about a month prior to Veteran's day, peaking on Veteran's day, and slowly diminishing until about January 1. The "2nd Rut" thing is basically nonesence. In NY state, the closer it is to Veteran's day, the better your odds of finding a buck on a doe.

My feet were just fine in a $ 40 pair of army surplus mickey mouse boots and a pair of wool blend socks, sitting still for 4 hours in 9 degrees F up north this morning. Why anyone would want to spend more than that on cold weather boots is beyond my understanding. They are also waterproof, but only about 10" high.

I regularly use one up in the northern zone and I like it a lot. Pros: easy to carry, very comfortable (can even fall asleep in it), can shoot 360 degrees around. Cons: a little noisy to set up and take down, no good in rain (fills with water that runs off the tree). I might be the only one who ever perfectly executed a Texas heart shot on a whitetail buck (that means the heart was hit, there was no entry bullet hole, the guts came out as clean as a whistle, and the meat damage was limited to a small neck roast). I did it from that chair. The 360 degree feature came in very handy because I had to turn 180 degrees with the seat to make the shot. At about this time of year, back in 2016, this little 6-point was 50 yards away and walking towards me from behind. He turned around 180 degrees at the same time that I did, presenting me with that "special" shot angle. The seat has held up very well, in fact I was in it up there for 3.5 hours in 9 degrees F temperature this morning, and was quite comfortable the whole time. The deer were not moving much this year however.

Not much deer action up there, but my mother in law really knocked it out of the park with her Thanksgiving dinner this year. She got a fresh turkey this year (usually she uses frozen ones). Her dressing, with all the cut up giblets, was the best that I have ever had. I made it up there for the last hour of daylight on Thursday and that was the only day that I saw any deer (3 or 4 unidentified ones in the heavy cover about 40 yards away). There was just a light dusting of snow (not enough for tracking). Walking around on the frozen leaves and pine needles, in calm conditions, was so noisy that I could hear a red squirrel scampering around from over a hundred yards away. That left me no chance of sneaking in close to a deer, and basically sent them all headed for the hills once they knew what was up with my hunting pressure. My father in law let me hunt with his scoped Remlin 336W 30/30 on Friday and Saturday. That thing was a pleasure to carry up there compared to my big heavy Ruger bolt-action 30/06. Too bad that I did not get to try it on a deer. I was surprised how good the fit and finish was on that gun. It must be an early one, when they still had real "Marlin" parts to assemble at the illion NY factory. I used my Ruger on Thursday (only day that I saw any deer), and again this morning after I cleaned and oiled his rifle for him on Saturday night (he would never let me use it again if I did not take "extra-good" care of it). We never got the rain, sleet, or snow I was waiting for, to try out my own Remlin 336BL 30/30, with it's new fiber optic sights. Oh, well, there is always next year. Once again, I got to see the lake freeze over. It happened this morning this year, while last year it was the Friday morning after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, that meant no more bass fishing for me up there this year again on Thanksgiving weekend. Al in all, not a bad weekend. The best part was to food. The worst part was the cold and the drive home. It was rough crossing Oneida lake at about noon today with zero visibility on Route 81. My cold-weather gear, consisting of: Mickey-mouse boots, Gander mountain guide-series bibs, Eddie Bauer goose-down vest, Walmart scent-factor jacket, Polaris face mask, woolrich hat, and Bass-Pro muff with two handwarmers, worked out ok. I was relatively comfortable for 3.5 hours at 9 degrees F this morning, seated in my tree-hammock chair. We probably will not get up there again until Ice-fishing time on President's day weekend in February. I will have to try and fill my gun buck tag at home, in the Southern zone, over the next two weekends this year.

The Woolrich pants worked out very well this morning, but the jacket did not cut it. That's what I ended up doing to it, as I sat in my blind to get out of the rain and 40 mph wind. The sleeves were way too tight on my upper arms. It felt like a nurse was checking my blood pressure on both sides at once, and had the little pump up rings filled up all the way with air. My hands kept loosing feeling, due to the lack of circulation. I had a muff with a handwarmer in it, but that did not even help much. I also had a very sharp pocket knife, so I removed the jacket and went to work on the sleeves. Now I have a very comfortable Woolrich vest, and a couple of nice buffalo-plaid wool muffs that the kids can use to keep their hands warm while we are ice-fishing. The sleeves may have been a little better, had I not had a thin base layer and a quilted flannel shirt below. The rain stopped about 8:00, and I went up in my woods stand, next to the ditch. The only critter that showed up before I left at 9:45 was a grey squirrel. It was comfortable up there, in the cold and wind, wearing my Woolrich pants and vest. I would still be there if I did not have to make the long drive up to the Adirondacks for the big meal tonight at the in-laws. I will try this outfit again next weekend at home for sure. The wool vest will be great under gor-tex raincoat.

I spend a couple minutes looking for mine today also, but no luck. I marked the first blood with a surveyor's ribbon. That is still there, but no sign of the bolt. It looks like I will have to offer the kids a reward if they can find it for me in the spring. I would like to re-sharpen the mechanical broadhead, replace the o-ring, and go for a third buck with it.

I will be up near the Lewis/St Lawrence county line. How is the snow ? I heard they were supposed to get a little tonight. Happy Thanksgiving and good hunting to you. No more "roughing it" for me up there, since the in-laws finished their retirement home. I sort of miss the days when they stayed in a little "off-the-grid" cabin with just a big fireplace for wood heat, and I was in a truck camper with a propane heater. The indoor plumbing and all the other comforts of home that they have now is pretty nice though. They even added a new bathroom in the basement for me this year. Their place is built on a hill, so I can walk right out of that basement, through a sliding glass door, and hunt in the woods or fish in the lake. My mother in law always feeds us very well, even when it is not Thanksgiving. I will have to do a lot of hunting on this long-weekend to burn off all them calories. Nothing burns them better than dragging a big buck out of the valley.

No that ain't me. I assume that it's a younger airedale. Somewhere, I have a picture from me in 83 with my first antlered buck while wearing it. I will try and find it, scan it, and post it some time after tomorrow's "reenactment", if I can pull it off.

My wife found an old red-checked Woolrich pants and coat set like that, in my size, at an antique sale last summer. I have not shot a deer in an outfit like that since I outgrew my grandad's back in 83. I will try again in the morning, wearing the "new" stuff. I might as well take along his old gun also, since it worked ok for me on a doe on opening day this year. We don't really need any more venison, but it would be cool to be blessed with a bit more while suited up and armed like that. Buckmaster talked me out of taking it to the Adirondacks this weekend, because he said that water would run off the "tucked-in" pants, into my boots during a creek-crossing. No creeks to deal with here, and I left an old barn plank to use as a bridge if necessary, next to the ditch that I got a good soaker in a few year ago. I had to ford that ditch multiple times after shooting a doe on the other side. Walking the plank with the tucked in Woolrich pants should work out fine if need be. At the very least, I will try to report back here how warm they are.

I always hunt the morning at home in the flat-lands of northern WNY, then drive up to the in-laws in the Adirondacks, for the rest of the long weekend. Last year kind of sucked up there, because I punched my buck tag on opening day of southern zone gun season. No such luck this year. As long as a big one doesn't show up on Thursday morning, I should still have mine. My mother in law is the best cook I ever met, so the meal is always quite good. I am not a big turkey fan, but her sides are amazing. I especially like her dressing with all the chopped up giblets (heart, liver, gizzard, etc). The food up there is always great, but the best part is the hunting and the scenery. Oh how I miss the snow and the mountains and the pines. At least we had good snow at home for opening day. I hope there will be good snow up there this weekend. Thanksgiving is my third favorite holiday (Christmas is first, Easter second). It has been a long time since I killed a deer on it (too much driving and eating), but I did kill my largest antlered buck at home on that day, back in 1988. The Saturday after has been pretty good for me lately though. That is the day that I killed both of my Adirondack bucks (8 point and 6-point). I would rate a spike, or even a muzzleloader doe (I have taken a couple of those up there also) significantly higher than a 10-pointer at home. the scenery makes that much difference. Until you have done it, you will not understand. Even a western elk/mule deer hunt pales by comparison (the high desert ain't all its cracked up to be).

You are not alone. I have not seen any antlers since gun season began, and I have not seen a single deer since about 8:30 on opening day morning. I think I blew any chance I may have had at a buck over at my folks place, by killing what might have been the only mature doe left in the area, by mistake. I was after the button buck she was trailing. She threw me a curve ball that morning, when she traded position in line with him, after my first sighting of the three-deer antlerless group. Prior to that, throughout crossbow season, I had seen antlered deer on every sit over there, including one big one that was certainly "a shooter".

Sounds like the Woolrich pants are out for Adirondack tracking (I don't think they will stretch around outside of the Mickeys, ). I guess I will stick with the Cabelas bibs and just tighten the boot laces prior to the creek crossing. It is almost a certainty that I will need to cross a deep creek if I do any serious tracking in my spot up there. Thanks for the tip. I am packing my foot locker tonight and space is limited. I will wear the "new" Woolrich pants on my Thanksgiving morning hunt at home instead. I have not killed an antlered buck wearing those since my first one back in 1983. I will bring a roll of electric tape to go around the outside of the bibs prior to the creek crossing. I will remember to carry that in an inside pocket so it unrolls easy in the cold.

Whatever gun you get, make sure to use the BH 209 powder so you won't have corrosion issues. The firing pin on my T/C Omega 50 cal is bound up right now and I have only used loose pyrodex and 777 pellets (last 3 years) in it. If I can not free it up by ML season, I will use my Barnett recruit crossbow instead. I just picked up some new NAP, 100 gr, mechanical broadheads "just in case".

Same here, especially after crossing a creek in sub-freezing temperatures and getting my feet soaked. I will pack along the Woolrich pants my wife recently bought me and tuck them into my waterproof "mickey-mouse" boots, cinch the laces tight, and see how that works. I did not have a pleasant experience on a late season doe that I had to retrieve from across a deep ditch at the back of our farm a couple years ago, but I don't think I had the laces tight, and my modern Cabelas "guide-gear" bibs were not tucked in. One foot was completely numb by the time I made the thousand yard walk back up to the house.

I may try some tracking up there this coming long weekend. My father in law gave me the green light to use his scoped Marlin 336 30/30 and I will also have my own fiber-optic sighted "big-loop" one, in case it is snowing. My preferred technique up there (with my big, heavy, scoped, bolt-action 30/06) has been to locate where the does are bedded, choose an ambush site downwind, and hope to catch a buck "checking up" on them. That worked good in 2014 and 2016. The snow/tracking conditions were perfect last year but I was "tag-less", so I spent some time zeroing in my father in law's "new in box" 30/30 on the range. Unless a huge one shows up at home on Thanksgiving morning this year, I should have a buck tag for my trip up there.

That is a cool looking buck. I had a very similar 12-pointer mounted back before the wife and kids came along. It had been killed by an automobile, on the road around the corner from our house. The driver of the wrecked car did not want it, and a buddy from the town highway department got it for me. It seemed a shame not to have such a beast mounted (it only cost $125 back then), and it yielded over a hundred pounds of boneless meat. One of the points was broke off in the crash, but the taxidermist repaired it for me. Earlier that year, another buck had been killed at the exact same spot, and the driver of the van that hit it was killed in the crash. I am waiting for an 11 pointer now, to complete my collection of 6 to 12 point shoulder mounts (only the 12 was a car-kill). I still have my gun tag, so you never know, this might be the year.