wolc123

When I was 16, I missed the first antlered buck that I ever shot at with iron-sights. The next season, I put a 1-1/2 power Weaver scope on that old Ithaca 16 gauge slug gun and have mostly used scopes since then. Over the years, since that first iron-sight mishap, I have shot at (3) more deer with them, using my Remington 870 smoothbore slug gun with. Two of those were clean (1) shot kills at about 50 yards, which is the range that I always sight that gun in at. The third was also a clean kill, but took (2) shots. Hunting at home, I only use the slug gun with iron sights on extremely rainy days. A button buck stepped out of the cover, as soon as the pouring rain stopped, and was feeding on clover about 100 yards away. My first shot was clearly high, as indicated by the patch of dirt that flew up behind him. He was not bothered much by that shot, just raised his head briefly and went back to feeding. I aimed a tad lower and brought him down in his tracks with my second shot, striking the spine at the shoulder. I have several enclosed blinds around home now, so I may not use the iron sights anymore around here. When hunting up in the northern zone with my Marlin 336BL, I will use fiber-optic iron sights on rainy days. Those seem to work real well in low light situations. If you are real concerned about low-light situations it would likely be simple to mount some of those on your garand. If I had one, I would definitely want to try it on a deer and I would use the factory sights, but I would only take the shot if I was comfortable with the sight picture. That might mean sleeping in a little later, or packing it up early. I am very comfortable with iron sight, because I take thousands of practice shots with them every year. Most of those involve cutting suspended beer cans in half, with an adult-stocked Daisy red-ryder bb-gun, off the back deck. 5000 bb's costs just $ 5.00. The only "real" bullets that I fire are at "real" deer and to check the zero on my weapons each season.

Spot on there for sure. I remember making trips, up the the Indian Lake area in the Adirondacks on two consecutive years, about 20 years ago. The first year I studied the maps and trecked deep into the 7 million acre Adirondack park, finding no sign of deer anywhere. The next year, I said "screw that" and concentrated on the thick brushy cover areas, just a stones throw from the main highway. That is where they were, and I finally got my first look at some Adirondack deer when I had a gun in my hand. Unfortunately, the three that I got my crosshairs on when they busted out of the cover were all antlerless, but a much bigger set of tracks went off in the other direction, and I am fairly certain they belonged to a mature buck. Some may have success trecking deep into the woods, but I fear that most of them are quite clueless and believe too much of what is printed in magazine articles. That is the best thing about these internet forums - the truth can get out. It took me another 10 years, before I finally broke the ice and killed my first Adirondack deer (initial shot fired with my ML about 50 yards from the lane to our rented cabin and the old "boss" doe actually expired right on the lane). Two of the three that I have killed up there since then were also within a mile of a main highway (another ML doe, and a 1-1/2 year old 6-point). My only mature buck up there was taken just a little bit further in (maybe 1-1/4 mile off the main highway). Sometimes, I think your odds of killing a mature deer would be improved if you do just the opposite of what is printed in the magazines. Those deer did not reach maturity by accident or by being predictable.

Don't forget the nuts. You are really not a true Steve Rinella fan until you fry up some of those in butter with lots of pepper. tip: cut a little slit in them first so they do not "explode" in the frying pan.

The Navy base study on recovery rates that Culver posted, for mechanical vs fixed broadheads, finally shed some non-biased light on that subject. I was not at all surprised to see that crossbows with mechanical broadheads came out on top, when it comes to recovery percentage, compared to crossbows with fixed, or vertical bows with fixed or mechanical broadheads. That study agreed with my own personal experience, which has been 100 % recovery with crossbow/mechanical (4 for 4), but significantly less with vertical bow fixed and mechanical. I have yet to try a fixed broadhead on a deer with my crossbow, and probably will not after reading that study. There is no question for me, that the crossbow is less likely to result in a non-recovered deer. There is no limit to the pre-concieved notions floating around on the internet, but seldom do we see such a scientific, non-biased, fact-based study results posted.

The 1.5 year old spike that I shot was killed on October 22, The other two were killed 4 and 5 days earlier (a very wide rack, est 4.5 year old 5 x 5 and a medium sized rack, est 2.5 year old 4 x 4). We butchered them out there, hauled the boned-out meat home in coolers, and split it up equally when we got home. It all tasted bad according to the other guys. The brother-in-law of one of my buddy's, who is a CO resident and set us up out there, loves to come up to WNY, because our whitetails "taste so much better". He actually prefers that over Colorado elk (I think they are about equal) but I don't know if he has ever tried a pre-rut mule deer. He did not want anything to do with the meat from the mule deer that we killed out there and could not seem to get it into our coolers and out of his butcher shop fast enough.

0

I do like it a lot, that in the southern zone, the crossbow gets the whole rut. That has always been my favorite time to hunt deer. I don't mind using the earlier part of archery season for turkey hunting with my shotgun or squirrel hunting with my .22. It is usually too warm to deal with a large deer carcass at that time anyhow. The thing that really sucks about the current rules, is that in the northern zone, the crossbow only gets (3) days before the early ML opens (who in their right mind would carry a crossbow rather than an in-line ML). It would be a lot better if the north got 14 days like the south has. That would open up another weekend, so us working stiffs could take advantage of the crossbow without having to burn vacation days. I think that other "big weekend" would be a real help to merchants up in that economically depressed area.

Some buddies talked me into going on a DIY elk/mule deer hunt, about 70 miles north of that location about, 18 years ago. They had taken elk on prior trips, which were very good eating. The year I went, the weather was a little on the warm side and the elk were still holed up in the "dark timber" at high altitude. Cold weather was approaching, and the mule deer were starting to migrate lower. We killed (3) mule deer bucks but did not see any elk. At that time, the OTC elk tags were $ 275 (bull with at least three points on a side I think) and mule deer buck tags were $ 125. How much are the tags now ? Make sure you bring your original hunter safety certificate because you need that to purchase your tags and you need to have it on you when you hunt. They do not recognize NY hunting licenses but they do recognize NY hunter safety certificates. The mule deer was certainly the worst tasting deer meat I have ever had, and that effectively cured me from any desire to shoot another. It tasted kind of like sage brush smells, which I suppose makes up much of their diet in the high desert area where we killed them. For some reason, the elk from the same general area tasted spectacular. It took me a couple of days to get use to the altitude diffence when I was in my late 30's. When I killed my buck, on the 6th day, I was well-acclimated enough to drag it 5 miles thru the Rockies by myself (We all helped the guys who shot theirs on the first couple days). I dragged that carcass along a creek (I was told that it was the same creek and waterfalls that is shown on a Coors beer can) most of the way, and I was very thankfulfor my canteen and a bottle of water purification tablets. I must have drank 5 gallons of creek water during the 4 or 5 hours that it took me to get it to our truck. Had I know how bad that thing would taste, I never would pulled the trigger or bought the $125 tag. Looking back now, I am glad I went. Now in my 50's, I would not want to do it again, unless it were somewhere where the odds of an elk was a lot higher.. Personally, I much prefer the scenery of NY's Adirondacks over the Colorado Rockies and whitetails taste way better than mule deer. The drive out there with (4) guys in an extended cab pickup was long and uncomfortable. We also stayed in a ski condo up in Steamboat Springs and got terrific off-season rates.

The big difference there, is that guns go "boom", while crossbows are silent like vertical bows. That means every deer in the county is alerted that they are being hunted when the guns open up. That tends to make them go nocturnal.

2.42

This will be the first year in many that I will not trap coons. I have no need to, because I did not get any corn planted due to the record rainfalls this spring. Those masked bandits are the most destructive thing there is on corn. They start the chain of destruction by knocking down the stalks, taking a bite or two out each ear. I used to think turkeys were part of the problem, but they do not bother the corn at all unless the coons knock it down for them. Fortunately, the racoon is about the easiest furbearer there is to trap, and it takes very little time and effort to eradicate them almost completely from an area. One night I took (4) with a single box trap (two little ones inside, momma sitting on top -dispatched with a .22, and another little one nearby also taken out with the .22). Marshmello coated with peanut butter makes great bait in the box-traps. The new dog-proof traps with a little cat-food in the bottom work wonders on those that get "trap-shy" from the box traps, of figure out how to swipe the bait without tripping the door. NY state allows a landowner to trap and kill "damaging" coons, prior to opening of trapping season, without a permit, as long as the carcasses are burried or burned. I always start trapping them right about now, when I am growing corn. If you go the "bury" route, dig deep holes or the coyotes will dig them up.

I will sell you an Allis Chalmers C (24 hp PTO) that could probably handle your 5-foot pull-type for $ 900. PM me if interested. It is tricycle front, which is not the best in hilly areas but is in decent shape with low hours. It is a 1942 model year with rare "pre-war" spoked front rims. A collector once told me that just those rims were worth $ 200 each. I have not started it yet this year, but it has never failed to go, as long as it is not too cold out. It uses a crank handle and does not have a battery. Carb. was rebuilt a few years ago, tires are good (not loaded).

Thats cool, I am ready for some smallmouths, after a week of catching nothing but largemouths up there. Hopefully they will cooperate next weekend on the Upper Niagara. Last year, a neighbor kid convinced me to fish my first and only bass tournament there. For that tournament, each two-man team could enter (3) largemouth and (3) smallmouth. We struck out on the largemouth, but probably had the three largest bass overall with our smallmouths. They only paid the top two places on overall weights, and we finished third, but at least the "big bass" money gave us our entry fee back. It felt strange being out there in a beat up, 30 year old, aluminum walleye boat, with all those new hot-rod bass boats. When the starting gun went off, we could only watch them all disappear over the horizon as our old Johnson was struggling to get our boat on plane. The funniest part was watching the kid walk up to the scale at the weigh-in with our three bass tails sticking out over the top of an old 5 gallon bucket. All the Bassmasters had their's in fancy plastic bass bags. Congats, it sounds like you had an awesome birthday.

What kind of tractor is it ?

Happy birthday. How is the fishing up there now ? The Largemouth action was pretty good in Lake of the Isles, when we were up a couple weeks ago (slow rolling spinnerbaits, casting purple Yum wacky worms, or Jig & pig in and around the weedbeds, were all working well depending on the wind. We did the best around the big weedbed at the back of the "lake". I did not have much luck trying for smallmouths, out in the river on the first morning, but after we located the Largemouths, we stayed on them every day. I am going to try and get my big boat out one more time on the upper Niagara for smallmouths, hopefully over Labor day weekend. Good luck on the rest of your trip.

How high is that blind? I have a few similar ones. The decks on mine are all 6 to 8 feet above ground level. I am most comfortable when hunting from that height, which is high enough to make my shots safe and to take me out of the line of fire from neighbors. Your walls look similar in height to what I use. I make a three foot high wall/safety-rail/weapon rest, around three sides of the deck with treated 2x4 wood framing. I now use vertical "weathered barnwood" siding on those 3 foot walls for cover. That stuff blends in real good in the fall/winter woods. I see you run the siding boards horizontal and paint them camoflage. Have you been able to trick any mature bucks from that setup ? For a few years, I tried using snow-fence, as siding around the three foot high walls, and I would weave branches and leaves thru that every season for cover. That was kind of "high-maintenance", and noisy. The worst part was that I was never able to kill a mature buck from one, behind that kind of cover. The barnwood walls have "done the trick" there, allowing me to kill a 2.5 year old buck three years ago, and a 3.5 two years ago, when concealed behind it, just 6 feet off the ground. The 3.5 that I killed last year was from a wide-open hang-on stand, 7 feet up, with no cover. The key difference there was that he was about 100 yards away when he took my sabot shotgun slugs. The two where I had the barnwood siding for cover were well within 20 yards when they took my crossbow bolts, and neither had a clue what hit it. Some type of cover is critical when it comes to getting mature bucks in close. For that purpose, I am loving the 140 year old American chestnut boards that my great great grandfather used on his barn. I dont have any pictures of my blinds, but you can see one of the old barns (now fully dismantled and replaced with a new metal pole-barn) in the photo below: p.s: That was NOT one of the "mature" bucks that I was describing above, but he was pretty tasty.

In that situation, I would surely go with the free rye. When you plant, I would broadcast the wheat over the tilled ground, then cultipack, then broadcast the clover, then cultipack again. If you do not have a cultipacker, and the plot is small, many passes with ATV or tractor tires (no implement needed) will do the same thing. The only time I use Roundup (actually cheaper knock-off stuff) is for spraying on the rows of corn. I use a cultivator to take out most of the weds between rows. I did not get any corn in on this wet spring, so there was none used on my plots this year. The 2.5 gallon jug of "Crop-Smart" that I have now is about 3 years old, and still about half full. Spraying it on the rows of corn is a very cheap way (compared to heavy nitrogen application) to increase the corn yield.

I get an equal, but mild rush whenever I see or hear a deer. It does not matter one iota how big it is or if it has antlers. I only focus on the antlers long enough to make the choice if it is a "shooter" or not. For me, an antlered buck is a shooter if it has three or more points on a side or is clearly more than 1.5 years old during the first half of the seasons (crossbow or gun). They are all "shooters" if I have unfilled tags after the mid-point. All antlerless deer are shooters if I have antlerless tags. That mild rush helps me maintain focus on making the kill shot. With the exception of a few early archery mishaps, I can not recall messing up a shot because of "the shakes". Up until last season, it was along time since any deer that I shot at escaped the trip to "deer heaven" (our family's food supply). Two does got away unharmed last year, thanks to a damaged scope on my slug gun, and an unseen branch during late ML season. That bad scope has been replaced now. I think many folks get buck-fever, and it costs them an occasional poor shot, because they are too fixated on the antlers.

Disks work a lot better if you turn the ground over with a plow first. They are not really intended for primary tillage. I checked out a couple of the plot areas that I am working on yesterday. The one that I planted 1/4 of with turnips (4) weeks ago is looking real good. I had plowed that one in the late spring, disked it a week later, and again a few weeks after, then dragged it a few times prior to planting. The turnips are up more than 6" and you got to look real hard to find any weeds in them. The other much smaller plot, which I planted 1/4 of with turnips (2) weeks ago, is not looking so hot. The turnips are only up about a half inch and you got to look hard to find them in all the weeds. Unlike the larger, nice-looking plot, I plowed this one on one day and disked, planted, and cultipacked the next. There was not enough time and cultivation to kill off all the weeds. I never use herbicide on late summer plots, mostly because I like to keep my family's venison as "organic" as possible. In another week or three (when it dries up again after the next good rain), I am going to plant the large remaining sections of each of those plots with a mix of winter wheat, soybeans, and white clover. I will also go over them both with a drag prior to the next rain to further set back the weeds. Early fall / late summer planted wheat and soybeans will usually out-grow any weeds, especially if they have been adequately supressed, with weeks of repeated cultivation, prior. If you have not picked up your seed yet, I would recommend wheat over rye in many situations. The primary reason is that the deer seem to prefer it (there have been a few years where I have had both in the same areas and they always hit the wheat a lot harder). It is also cheaper and easier to find than rye. If you have acidic soil, or want to follow up the following season with a heavy nitrogen using planting (like turnips or corn), then rye does have two positive advantages. It grows better in acidic soil and takes out less nitrogen. I always follow with white clover (actually planted at the same time), which fixes its own nitrogen, so that second advantage is not needed. Also, my soil ph is good, so that, coupled with the deer's clear preference for wheat and the lower cost, makes the rye/wheat choice a real "no-brainer" for me.

Most smaller disks lack "cleaners", which are small flat bars between the disks which remove the clumps and keep that space from clogging up. My 6.5 foot three-point disk does not have any, and I only use it when the soil is good and dry. My larger pull-type disk has the cleaners and it works ok even if the dirt is a little muddy. There is also no adjustment for "aggressiveness" on my small disk, but I can make it cut deeper by bolting one or two 200 pound steel plates on the back. My little Ford 8n can only only lift it with one of those.

I hear you there. I always try to wrap up the zero-checks, back on the range with all my guns by Labor day weekend, mostly because I do not like to bother the local bow-hunters with the noise. I have two of them hitting right where I want them to now, and that leaves (3) more to check next weekend. I do most of my practice shooting off the deck with a bb-gun. I will probably get out the crossbow in the next few weeks and check that from the deck also. I don't plan on hunting deer until October 16, when that season opens up in the Northern zone. As far as the regs go, they did have a 4 page flyer with the season dates, when I picked up my licence at Walmart, earlier this week. That is really my only concern. I am not aware of any rule changes since last season. If there has been, and I run afoul, I will claim ignorance based on the tardiness of rule book availability.

I forgot to contribute, when I bought my licence earlier this week. I paid $ 10 for (2) dmp tags in my WMU. My plan now is to contribute $ 10, towards the venison donation program, when I go back for (2) more dmp tags after November 1. Normally, they do not charge for those extra tags. Lots of folks go back for that second draw. I have always got those (2) extra tags, but It has been a few years since I filled one of them (I never filled both and I usually have a tough time filling the first two). I would like to see that $10 go to such a good cause. That gives me more incentive to make the short trip to Walmart, after November 1, to pick up those (2) extra tags.

It sure would suck to lose out on some "free meat" due to a dead battery. By the grace of God, I have not had any "dead battery" issues, with the cheap, Barnett red/green dot sight on my crossbow, since buying it in April 2014. I do take a few simple measures, to help insure that I never do. I start every season with a new battery (they are cheap). I adjust the intensity to a fairly low setting (uses less "juice", and makes for a more accurate shot with a smaller "dot"). It has (6) different intensity settings on red or green and I have never had it set higher than 3. I adjust the setting to a lower or higher level, as the the light level changes during the day. A setting of 1 is perfect in the woods near sunrise and sunset, while a setting of 3 is appropriate for mid-day, on the edge of an open field. For afternoon hunts, I turn it on as I walk to my stand (in case a target of opportunity shows up on the way), and turn it off at the last second of legal shooting time. For morning hunts, when I walk to the stand prior to legal shooting time, I leave it off until I get to the stand and that time arrives. So far, I have not forgotten to turn it off after a hunt. If I ever did, I would replace the battery prior to my next hunt (they are cheap). I always carry at least one spare battery in my pack (they are small and weigh almost nothing). Good luck with your red-dot. If it is a higher end model, it can compensate for failing vision, much like a scope can. Thankfully, my vision is still pretty good, so I can still get by ok with open sights at short range. Even so, I still prefer a scope when shots over 50 yards are expected. No matter how good your eyes are, they can only focus on one thing at a time. A scope, or a high-end red-dot, corrects for that issue. The error associated with an "out of focus" front sight, rear sight, or deer is no big deal under 50 yards, but will surely come into play at longer ranges. p.s. There is no such thing as "bad luck". It all comes down to Who has the final say where ALL living things end up. If He wants them in your freezer, that is where they will go. If you want to find out who "He" is, go pick up a copy of the best-selling book of all time and read it.

If your main concern is the 20-30 yard range, you might be better served by fiber-optic open sights than a red-dot, because they are not affected by rain, sleet and snow. That said, I love the cheap, Barnett factory red-dot (actually only used with "green dots"), on my crossbow. It has been 100 % effective for shots in the 15-59 yard range, on (3) standing and (1) fast-walking buck. I have yet to shoot at a deer with fiber-optics, but am hoping that changes this year, and I get a crack at one with those that I mounted and sighted on my Marlin 336 BL lever-action 30/30. That is my rain/sleet/snow Adirondack deer rifle. It shoulders and points exceptionally well and it seems that target acquisition should be a snap. Time will tell I suppose.

At least the DEC guys pulled the mower deck off their beat-up, hydrostatic-transmission Cub Cadet and put chains on the turf tires before hooking up the meat wagon and heading into the bush to recover the carcass of that possible CWD/EHD-infected 10-pointer. I wonder what caliber they used to bring down the "circling" buck, and how many shots it took.