wolc123

Prayers sent

Just like you are supposed to drive under the speed limit. Some "rules" are not enforced 100 %, as was the case here. Have you ever seen a peace officer finish off a road kill with their service pistol ? I hear that can be pretty entertaining at times. I bet that the town cops were thankful they did not need to subject themselves to that potential embaressment in this case. That might explain the desk officer's indifferent attitude when I turned myself in. Now I always carry a pocket knife with a blade ground down to 1", just in case I ever get the chance to "best" my previous record.

With any red meat, aging is good because it allows rigor-mortis to break down. The flavor is not affected, but the texture is and the meat become a lot more tender. The time required for aging depends mostly on the age of the deer. Younger deer require less time. 6 month old deer require very little aging and can usually be processed and froze on the day they are killed, and the meat will still be extremely tender. 1.5 year old deer take about a week, 2-1/2 year olds about 10 days, and 3-1/2 year olds and older about 2 weeks. I prefer aging the carcasses by hanging in my insulated garage, with the hides on, but to do that, the outside temperature has to be in the 30's and 40s, throughout the aging period. That seldom happens during early archery season. This is where an old refrigerator works wonders. My "deer-fridge" is an old GE, non frost-free model, from the 1950's. All the racks are removed and there are hooks on the top. I skin the deer, then cut the carcass in half length-wise, at the back of the rib-cage. I lay the front half on the bottom of the fridge, supported by the neck, and hang the back legs, from the hooks on top, from the tendons. This allows air to move around the sections (especially the "prime cuts"), except for the end of the neck on the bottom, and part of the rib cage which is resting on the side. Those parts turn purple and ugly and I just trim that away when processing. Lots of hunters skip the aging process and claim no ill-effects, however, a little internet research will quickly reveal that venison is indeed red meat, and as such, is subject to rigor-mortis and will benefit from aging exactly for the same reason that beef does. Properly aged venison, is extremely difficult to tell apart from fine beef, and in most cases, those who eat it will not have a clue that it is not beef. Even the ground meat benefits from proper aging.

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2.5 years, 153 lbs field-dressed. Weight will be down to about 130 lbs post-rut.

A warm hat and face mask help a lot. As does staying out of the wind. When the body looses temperature, the hands and feet are always the first places that loose circulation and temperature first. What type of boot you have on don't matter much if your core looses too much temperature. I never had a problem, on the coldest days, all day long if necessary, wearing standard army, black "mickey-mouse" boots that can be had for about $ 80 a pair new or $ 40 surplus. Why anyone would feel the need to spend more than that on winter hunting boots is beyond my understanding. The mickey mouse boots are also waterproof, but are not all that high. They really are not all that clumsy for hunting in, but they are kind of goofy looking. I think that is what prevents more widespread usage by hunters. To keep warm, I love a thermos of hot cider. Besides boosting my body temperature, deer are very attracted to the scent. Last season, a hefty 3.5 year old buck came in from down-wind, just after I finished a cup of hot cider on two consecutive hunts. He probably would have done it again had he survived the second encounter. Coffee might also keep you warm, but it's scent means "danger" to deer and will drive them to the next county. A muff with a chemical hand-warmer is another good way to boost your body core temperature. The warm blood from your hands eventually gets to your feet.

It probably would have made a good video. It certainly made a bloody mess in the snow of that front yard. More of a "mercy killing", as that doe would have suffered a bad concussion at minimum. Hunting by conventional means is outlawed in that particular town, which also bans the discharge of firearms. Anyhow, it was more than 25 years ago, so surely the statute of limitations has expired on the "poach", and like I said, we drove immediately to the police station where I admitted to the "crime" after it occurred. Back then, when I was young and single, my venison needs were much less than they are today. I made sure all of that one went to someone who needed it and it was very much appreciated. Looking back, I am thankful that the deer was not dead, and I have zero regrets of what I did. In addition to me getting a free tail, a family in need got meat, the highway department was spared some dirty work, and a butcher got an easy job to do.

Largemouth bass fillets are my favorite. That is all I am going to be eating this winter because that was all we caught on our St Lawrence trip this year. In the "eating advisories" for NY state, they say they are ok for men over 50, but not for women and children. I mark all the vacuum sealed packages. My wife and kids get all the Lake Erie and upper Niagara smallmouths (those are supposedly ok for women and children), while I get the St Lawrence stuff. I prefer the largemouths for cleaning, because they don't beat up my thumb as bad when I am knocking them in the head with a shilali. The smallmouths definitely fight better and are a lot easier for me to find in quantity around home. My wife made us a "mixed batch" last Thursday and it was awesome. I polished off the leftovers for lunch at work Friday I prefer bass over walleye and perch because it has more oil in it and does not dry out like they do while baking, broiling, or grilling. Those are much healthier ways to prepare fish than deep frying. Walleye and perch are better for frying, if you prefer that method.

I stop for tails (for making bass jigs), but never bother with the tarsals. If it is a fresh kill, I take the whole thing for the meat. The state police never mind getting a carcass tag for me. A town cop gave me a funny look once, when I walked up to the desk at the station, dripping with blood, and asked for a tag. He asked me if the deer had to be shot (the homeowner had called it in a few hours prior). I replied, "no, I killed it with my knife". His only words as he filled out the tag, was: "that would be no". That particular doe sprang back up on her feet, as I was getting ready to cut her tail. I had to hop on her back, put her in a hammer lock, and slit her throat with a very sharp 1-1/4" blade pocket knife. As she bucked me off, she landed a hoof to my leg, which caused a little pain and some swelling. The butcher later claimed that he had not ever cut up a cleaner deer. She must have hit her head on some unfortunate motorist's vehicle, and knocked herself out for a little while, until I woke her up when I lifted her tail.

Gun yes, bow or crossbow no (vitals are blocked by shoulder blade from that angle), but only if that was my pop-up blind. I have no interest in hunting out of it again after having been bitten by a spider in it last season. Letting a dying doe kick the crap out of it would be a good way to get rid of it.

Reading a couple of pages from the Bible, prior to leaving the house for the morning, or even while up in the stand while "on the hunt" hunt has helped me on several occasions, including this one from last fall: Keeping on good terms with He who controls the fate of all living things is the only "trick" that I depend on to keep my family very well provided with venison.

That was a bit further back (last year I got down to the last pack of grind). The bb last year was 100 pounds minimum field-dressed, per the PA chest girth chart, especially after adding the NY correction factor. Remember that in all 5 or 6 cases where members in addition to myself weighed and measured a deer, the PA chart came up short on the weight prediction. I have not carefully checked the edible meat prediction. I only personally killed two last year but I was given a couple by a neighbor. Those he gave me did not yield much meat (a doe fawn and a badly shot-up 2.5 year old buck) but I did have a few left-over roasts from 2017 last year (the vacuum sealed stuff keeps very well), and the two I killed were "massive" for their age class (6 months and 3.5 years). How is your supply holding out ? If you would like a few packs of vacuum sealed stuff (grind or roasts), send me a pm. I still have a few fawn roasts left for "special occasions". Cleaning out the freezer is a great motivator for the coming season. Don't be afraid to "send one" this bow season. It would be cool if you get another chance at that "goiter" buck. It looks like he has put on a few pounds this year.

This has been the busiest year I can remember, when it comes to non-hunting projects. I am thankful to have a couple extra weeks for planing, since I no longer bow-hunt (northern zone crossbow season opens October 16). Currently my plans are to hunt the last couple days of archery season (with my crossbow), and the first three days of muzzleloader, up in the northern zone. I burned 2-1/2 vacation days for that. I hope to get a little more "deer hunting practice" on squirrels at home with my pellet gun, on the next two weekends before that at home in the southern zone. I just removed the scope from that, and now it wears fiber-optic sights similar to those un my yet-untested Remlin 336BL, 30/30 deer gun. Killing a few squirrels with that pellet gun will boost my confidence for using those sights on deer later. After my northern zone crossbow/ML hunt, there will be a little break from deer, with some more squirrel hunting, but armed with a shotgun in case a fall turkey "target of opportunity" shows up as happened for me last year. I am still working on plans for the two week southern zone crossbow season, which starts in early November. I may try to place one more hang-on stand prior to that, but I am in pretty good shape with those that are ready now. Where I hunt on opening day of southern zone gun season will depending on what I observe while deer-hunting (5) of the (14) days of the southern zone crossbow season. I burned another vacation day for that crossbow season, plus have the two Saturdays and Sundays. I will have to be selective with my buck-tag on opening weekend and the next, to make room for what "might" happen next.... Thanksgiving morning deer hunt will be at home in a shotgun-only zone, then it will be back up north for a few days of northern zone rifle hunting. Those "paid Holidays" are sweet, and I am hoping for snow up there then. Almost every year that we have had it (and I still have a buck-tag), I have scored on an Adirondack buck. I took one last deer hunting vacation day - for "stretching" the last weekend of southern zone muzzleloading season. My buddies have a great camp, down in the southern tier. If I have a tag left for down there, that is where I will go. Otherwise I will be hunting at home with one or all of my (4) DMP tags (I have never been able to punch all of those). It looks like we will still have almost a hundred pounds of vacuum-sealed venison left in the freezer from last year on October 16. We go thru about 200 pounds per year. I don't think it will be too much trouble coming up with another 100 pounds before December 16 (my last deer hunting vacation day this year). Deer hunting is primarily about the meat for me.

"send it". There will only be one "first blood" on the NY Hunting forum.

I just watched that video on youtube. It brought me back about 30 years to my first archery kill. I had made a scent trail to my stand with doe in heat scent and a young buck came in on it, nose to the ground. My shot was low, resulting a a high front leg hit, much like the "clean track" dude in the video describes. My old Bear polar LTD compound was a little light on the poundage, and the three-blade 125 gr. Wasp broadhead did not penetrate very far, lodging high in the muscle of the opposite side upper leg. It broke a bone in the near side leg. Fortunately, it was a dry fall day and tracking conditions were good with all the dry fallen leaves. My buddy and I got on the trail, about a half hour after the hit. One of us always stayed with the last blood, while the other advanced. We "leap-frogged" the trail in this way for what seemed like a very long time. It seemed that the broadhead was continuing to cut up the deer and we would find stretches with good blood flow, and others where it was tough to find a drop. This went on until the late afternoon, when we eventually lost the trail near a grassy meadow on the top of a hill. My buddy walked the brushy area on one side of that meadow and I started around the other side. About half way around to where he was, I gave up and cut straight across the center, taking a short-cut to where he was. It had been quite a while since we had found even a single drop of blood, and we were about 2 miles from where the shot was taken, early in the morning. At that point, right there in the middle of that meadow, I almost tripped over the buck as it tried to lift itself up from it's second last bed. My buddy did not see the deer, only me fumbling to get an arrow knocked. I managed to get one thru its vitals. It was very worn down from our 1/2 day pursuit, and must have been low on blood, such that it only stumbled off another 30 yards or so, to its deathbed. On that deer, waiting would probably have been a mistake, because no "vitals" were struck. That would have allowed the wound to clot up and the deer probably would have recovered somewhat (other than the broken leg). Similarly, The dude in the video might have been better off getting a friend to help with an immediate pursuit, rather than backing out and waiting for the guy with the dog. That is especially true if he did not find his arrow.

It shouldn't be a problem as long as you got an old fridge in your garage that you could get a carcass into after skinning and cutting in half. Just be sure to prepare for the increased tick activity (Saywers , etc.).

It is always about the meat for me. I hope to get an antlerless deer up north (October 17-21), to replenish our supply of ground venison. We will be getting low by then (kids love venison tacos). An antlered buck on that hunt would have to be a 2.5 year old or older (only because they have more meat than 1.5's). My next hunt will not be until crossbow opens in the southern zone, when I will take any antlerless deer that presents a shot, but hold out for a 2-1/2 year old or older antlered (if I still have that tag), until noon on the first Friday of SZ crossbow season (the mid-point for me), after which, a 1.5 year old, 3" unicorn will be enough to earn my archery buck tag. When southern zone gun opens, once again it will be anything goes for antlerless deer, but I will hold out until Thanksgiving for a 2.5 year or older antlered one. There will be two reasons for that then, the main one being that I want to be able to hunt deer up North over the Thanksgiving Holiday. I missed that last year, having punched my tag on a big swamp buck at home on opening day. Of course there is also the fact that 2.5's or older bucks have a lot more meat on them than 1.5's which makes holding out for an older one a smart move for a meat hunter. After Thanksgiving weekend, the 1.5 year old, 3" unicorn will once again be in trouble, if I still have a buck tag, unless the freezer is already full of antlerless deer and an archery buck.

Thanks for your service and thanks for posting all those great videos of your canoe/camping/deer hunting trips. Watching them is the next best thing to going up there. Your videos help us all see that the real wonder of that area, is the beauty and scerentity of it.

I knocked a red squirrel out of a tree last Sunday with my pellet gun, but I could not find the carcass. No big deal, since they are too small to eat anyhow. I don't like them noisy little bastards and they seem to chase the greys away (which I do like to eat). The cheap scope on my $39 Dick's sale price Chinese Marksman .177 cal pellet gun has got to go. Horrible light gathering in the woods (it looked ok in the bright sunlight of the yard when I was sighting it in). The fiber-optic sights on that gun look pretty good, and those are what I will use on my next hunt. The view thru the scope was so bad, in the dark woods, that my only option was to aim for center of mass of the squirrel (at a 15 yard range) and hope for the best. The scope is going in the garbage. I was surprised that it seems to hold a decent group, in the bright sunlight, because it is mounted to the receiver and the barrel has to be tilted down and cocked to load the cylinder. The sights are both mounted to the barrel, which should result in better accuracy.

The last few years, I have been using (2) 8 foot, camo-painted ladders to access (4) stands over at my folks place. They are kind of noisy to carry around the woods. I am going to paint up a couple more and get them out there by the time Southern zone crossbow season opens. I completed my last stand move over there last Sunday, finding a cherry tree that was about 12" diameter, in just the right location. It is about 5 yards from the spot where I killed a big button buck last year, from a pop-up blind, with my crossbow. The shooting lanes I made for that are still opened up and will work good from the stand. The tree has good cover behind it and even had a burl in just the right spot to support the bottom of the stand, so that it does not sag and wobble on the strap. That one is on the edge of a clover plot where several nice bucks have been feeding regularly. It is going to be tough deciding if that is going to be my opening day of gun spot this year, or if I will go back to the one deep in the woods by the swamp, where I killed a nice 3.5 year old buck last year. I suppose that I will let the wind and weather make the call. At home, I still have to get the shooting lanes bush-hogged around a few stands. Maybe I can knock that off this Sunday afternoon if it is dry enough. All of my deer weapons except my crossbow are sighted in. That has never taken more than a half-hour, but I will try to get it done soon, just to make sure it is still in good shape. There is still time to get it repaired or replaced if necessary, prior to the October 16 northern zone opener. Until it breaks, or full inclusion happens, I am just going to see how many deer I can kill with that cheap, entry-level crossbow. If I keep my practice shots to a minimum, it might be good for another 5 or 10 years. Not bad for a $ 250 investment. It has produced nearly half of my family's venison since 2014 and has yet to let me down on a shot, or make me track more than 40 yards to find a carcass.

Coon hides are now worthless, but NY state allows landowners to trap "damaging" coons without a permit with no limits on number and no closed season. Outside of the normal trapping season (starts October 25), the carcasses have to be buried or burned. After October 25, you can just chuck them out in the fields for the buzzards. "Damage" is not clearly defined, but as long as you can show a nibbled kernal of corn and or a few downed stalks with coon tracks nearby, you should be ok.. They are not real fussy about enforcing that "damaging" definition, since the collapse of fur prices and the resulting demise of most trapping. If you don't bury them deep, the coyotes will dig them up. They burn good, because they are always loaded with fat.

I no longer hunt with a vertical bow, but since a crossbow is often considered "archery equipment", my first day might be October 17, up in the northern zone. If it is too close to dusk, by the time I get up there, my first day will be Friday, October 18, then it will be three more days of ML hunting before I drive home (no sense hunting with a 50 yard single-shot weapon when one good for 150 yards is legal). My second (or third) day of "archery" hunting will not be until around November 5 , when crossbow opens up in the southern zone. In between, I may head up north for a few days of rifle deer hunting, and I will definitely try to punch that fall turkey tag, at home with the shotgun, on a nice young tender hen. Those drumsticks were delicious in the crock pot last October.

I don't keep the livers from deer that are more than 7 months old, because I have nearly unlimited access to baby beef liver. Those from older deer are always a little on the tough side for my liking. Button bucks livers, on the other hand, are definitely in a class by themselves. They are so tender that they almost melt in your mouth (if cooked medium-rare or rare) and have better flavor than the finest baby beef liver. If my "free" supply of baby beef liver ever runs out, then I might keep and try a few from 1-1/2 year old deer again. I am thinking that those livers just might be tough because, like other red meat, they are subject to rigor-mortis. A week or so in the fridge, prior to freezing, might let that rigor-mortis work its way out, much like it does for the rest of the carcasses. I am changing my expectations just a bit, to hopefully include a 1-1/2 year old deer, so I can give that a try. The secret to the cojones (per Steve Rinella) is frying them in butter, and lots of pepper. Remember to cut a small slit in them prior to frying, or they will explode, making a mess of the Mermaid's stovetop.

I have struggled with that a bit over at my folks place the last few years. My dad is too worn down to help much and he does not have a loader tractor. This porker from 2017 had to be more that 190 pounds field-dressed (per the PA chest girth chart) and it was not too difficult to get it up on that rack without any help. It was a bit easier for me to get a 182 pounder on that rack last year (weighed on a "legal for trade" scale to shut up the PA chart nay-sayers). Throw the rear end up first, then the front or vise-versa. (It is only about a 10" lift). Those two were considerably easier than quite a few smaller deer, that I pulled a lot higher up into the bed of my pickup truck by myself, using the removed tailgate as a ramp. Loading deer at home or up at my in-laws by myself is much easier, thanks to having tractors with front loaders at both of those locations.

Lots of movies have mistakes that make the final cut, but no other that I know of, rose to the degree of naming the movie "The Deerhunter" and not showing any deer. Had I forked over the cash to see that one at the theater, I would have felt like I got robbed. I think that the mountain hunting scene, that Steve posted above, was filmed out on the West coast in the Cascade mountains. I suppose that was a lot easier on the budget than traveling east to PA would have been. Times were tough back then. These days, they can afford to travel east and almost shut down a whole WNY town for a month to make a movie.