wolc123

"Bouncing around" keeps the hot spots from burning out.

As far as guns go, three Marlins have or will soon get a little work. I had enough free time, up in the Adirondacks last Thanksgiving weekend, to sight in my father-in-law's new-in-box, scoped, model 336 30/30. As long as there is no rain, sleet or snow in the forecast, that is what I will carry up there this season. I also swapped out the iron sights, on my new model 336BL 30/30, with fiber optics. That should cover me for the foul weather days up in the northern zone. The Marlin 512 bolt-action 12-gauge slug gun, that I use at home in the southern zone, will also get new optics this year. I am leaning towards a Redfield 2-7 scope, to replace of the beat up Bushnell banner 3X, that it currently wears. I also plan to disassemble the bolt, and clean and lube it well. I dropped it in a swamp, while dragging out a buck on opening day last year. A couple weeks later, on a very cold day, the bolt froze up and prevented a "chip-shot" on a doe. That was the second doe in ten years that owes it's life to a frozen bolt on that gun. As far as habitat improvements go, I am expecting to have a little more time for that this season. I will start with some hinge cutting in a couple sanctuary areas at home. For food plots, I hope to get some winter wheat in this year. I missed that at home last year, because the only little bit I planted failed, probably due to bad seed. The deer sightings were way down here as a result. Fortunately, they were way up over at my folks place, a few miles away. Thanks for that go to an energetic neighbor, who finally got the trespassing issues under control over there, when he bought an overgrown field out back. One change I will make over there will be moving a hang-on tree stand from right near his property line, to the interior of a block of woods that my folks own. I now know exactly where the property lines are, thanks to this guy's fresh survey posts. The posted signs he put up, spaced about every 10 foot along the line, help too. Last year, for the first time in 36 seasons, I did not see a single trespasser in those woods.

poached nutz

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Where will she sit and who will sit next to her ?

Moma did well today. Stir-fry made with sliced "big" button buck "hidden tenderloins" cooked medium rare. Might be the tastiest oriental dish we have ever had.

God is out and porn is in. How long will it be till dope is legal ?

My father in-law lives near the Lewis/St Lawrence county line (WMU 6C). He has been after me to shoot him a bear, so that he can make a rug, since they began building their retirement lake-house up there 6 years ago. He does not hunt or fish himself, but wants to decorate their place with native species. I managed to kill a nice Adirondack 8-point buck up there, and had a shoulder mount made for him in 2014. It looks kind of lonely up there all by itself on that wall. He still complains on occasion about my release of a 22" smallmouth bass, back into the lake, a few years ago. On the year they bought the land, his relator friend (who sold it to them) got an arrow into a big bear up on the mountain behind their house, but did not recover it. I have yet to see one alive during the last 6 early ML seasons. I did see a big dead one in the skinning shack at Nolt's (in Lowville) when I dropped a doe off there on an 80 degree, early-October day in 2016. Reading about the bear's attraction to apples on this thread gives me an idea how to step up my game a little this year. I have had good luck with deer while sipping on hot cider from a thermos. I usually reserve that tactic for cold weather, but nothing is stopping me from bringing a thermos of cider along on an early, warm-weather bear hunt. Baiting may not be legal, but drinking a warm beverage is. A nice thing about WMU 6C, during the (3) day early crossbow, followed by the (7) day early ML/crossbow season, is that antlerless deer are legal to kill. There is a pretty good population of them up there (I see about six per every one with antlers). They make nice "targets of opportunity", when you are out after bear. There is enough ag in the area, to make their meat taste good, which would likely apply to bears also. More often than not, those 10 days also include the peak fall foliage. You would be hard pressed to find better scenery on the face of the earth than you can find up there at that time. Good deer hunting, fishing and great scenery are worth the price of admission even if no bears show up. Adding my mother in law's spectacular cooking to all of that makes it tough to keep me out of there at that time. Good luck on your quest.

It is in your best interest to develop and maintain good relations with the neighbors. My folks farm, a few miles west of that location (where there is lots of AG), has been in the family for about a century. The block inside their "L-shaped" woods, is a big overgrown field that had been "no-mans" land for many years. A neighbor, around the corner, bought it at a tax-auction a couple years ago. He had it surveyed, and put many posted signs on the property lines. As it turned out, one of my stands, which I thought was on the back of my folk's "L", was actually on his land. He left blunt notes, with his contact info on it, and another that I had about 10 feet from the line. In more than 30 years of hunting those woods, I had killed just a handful of 1-1/2 year old bucks, and one button-buck. The hunting was never that great, due mostly to trespassing issues. There were very few hunts, when I did not see others wandering off that overgrown field, into our woods. They ignored the widely spaced posted signs that we put up along the edges. It is hard to exaggerate the improvement since that neighbor bought that overgrown field and laid down the law. My folks farm has yielded big-bodied 3-1/2 year old bucks for me the last two seasons, and what may be my largest ever button-buck last year. I also blew it on a nice doe last season, which would have been my first one of those over there. I have not seen a sign of another hunter in those woods since that neighbor entered the scene. I do my best to maintain good relations with him. Two seasons ago, I ate my gun buck tag, rather than killing a smaller buck late in the season, that was just on his side of the line. This year, I called him after downing my heavy swamp buck on opening day, to ask if I could drag it over the dry land on the corner of his field. As it turned out, my brother showed up with a big sled and we were able to use that and float it out over the water instead. The neighbor was nice enough to send me some trail cam photos he had of it though. He also sent me trail cam photos of the one I killed the year prior. He has given me permission to enter his land and retrieve wounded deer if necessary (if I call him first), and we have reciprocated.

There is lots of Ag in that area, which makes for some heavy deer. I killed 3.5 year old bucks, less than 6 miles from that spot, the last two seasons. Last year's field dressed weight was 182 pounds. The one the year prior may have been a little heavier but had a smaller rack. Local farmers hit the antlerless deer pretty hard with their nuisance permits (prior to October 1). That significantly improves the buck to doe ratio, and the average buck body size (they don't have to compete with as many does for the acorns). Downsides are: thruway noise, extremely flat, featureless land, and difficulty filling DMP tags. If your primary objective is a crack at a big, heavy buck, that should be a good area. Listening to that noise throughout hunting season gets old for me, and makes me very thankful that I also have access to a quieter and prettier spot up in the northern zone.

It is good to hear that you will not get points on your license. Hopefully, the fine will not be that steep. Law enforcement is under a lot of pressure up there, to slow snowmobiles down, due to all of the deaths and injuries lately. It is too bad that you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it does not sound like your ticket was deserved. Writing tickets does slow folks down, and that saves lives. Several factors have increased casualties: First, the suspensions are so good on new machines, that the operators are able to maintain much higher speeds on the trails, than was possible when most of these trails were developed. Second, the horsepower and top end speed of new machines is always increasing. Last but not least, climate change has resulted in warmer temperatures, less snow, and generally poor trail conditions for most of the winters in recent years. That, coupled with the booming economy, puts a ton of machines on the trails on those rare weekends when conditions are good.

I agree with Rob on the elk and pigs. The elk in PA are not Eastern elk, which were hunted to extinction in the early 1900's. They are from transplanted western elk, which are not really suited to the habitat on this side of the Mississippi. The biggest reason to keep then out of NY, is the threat they may pose to our wonderful whitetail population. There are few if any states, where the whitetail meat-hunter has it better than it is in NY right now, and I would like to keep it that way for as long as possible. Just last week, I heard reports of a disease down in PA, which causes deer to walk sideways and die in their beds with no signs of hunger or wounds. More than twenty were recently discovered in that condition. This is the type of thing that happens when "exotics" are imported. Moose, on the other hand, were historically native to NY, and they are now thriving again up in the Adirondacks. There are areas up there with more moose than deer sign. The time is right for a limited, lottery-type season on them. It would not hurt to take out a few bulls each season. Moose is also a little tastier than elk, which is another good reason to open a hunting season for them. As far as the pigs go, I hope they never establish a foothold in NY. I can tolerate an occasional meal of pork, but I would get sick of that real fast. Red meat is where it is at. Pork is on par with chicken, and just a small step above vegetables in my book. Our cold climate has been what has held them off for so long. The current warming trend is going to make it easier for them to spread north. When it comes to deer hunting, enjoy what you have now, because there is no way it will continue after the pigs make it up here in force.

The wall will be built, because the Republicans currently hold 5/6 of the power in Washington (Executive branch + 1/2 Legislative branch + Judicial branch). The best way for the Democrats to save some face, would be to roll over on this issue ASAP. That way they would get some credit for ending the shutdown. What do they expect to gain by dragging out the inevitable ?

Speaking from experience, the women would like it a lot better if it was tender. The best way to do that, is age it (like is done with beef) prior to processing and freezing. Red meat is red meat, and it is all subject to rigor mortis. That starts forming immediately after death. If you process and freeze before that breaks down, then the meat (especially the lesser cuts and/or older deer) will be tough. If you can find an old refrigerator and tear out the shelves, that works ok for aging skinned venison quarters. If you get the right temps (like we had opening week last season), aging them with the hides on in an insulated garage works even better. The hide insulates and keeps the meat from drying out. If you don't like aging the deer, it is best to just kill fawns, because they are the only ones that are tender without aging. A 1-1/2 year old should hang one week at 33-43 F, a 2-1/2 year old about 10 days, and older deer, about two weeks (not that I have killed many of those). Another good option on those tough, un-aged cuts is using a crock-pot to cook them, or thawing and canning them. My buddy did that with an 8-1/2 year old, un-aged moose and that made those almost un-chewable roasts delicious and very tender.

In 35 archery deer seasons, I have used 3 vertical (compound) bows and one crossbow. A limb broke on my first vertical after about 10 seasons so I junked it. I still have the other two, but have not hunted with them since getting my entry-level crossbow in 2014. I will keep using that until it breaks or until full-inclusion occurs, which would give me the incentive to upgrade a tad. If that don't happen, I hope to get about 5 more years out of it. It is showing no signs of wear yet and has dropped all four bucks that I have shot it at within 40 yards from where they took the bolts. If I had more days to use it, I would want a second one just to have back-up. So for me, the answer to your question is a nice, even ten years. I expect several lifetimes out of my guns, God willing.

Thanks for not banning God entirely. I will try to stop wolc'n folks.

A traditional (vertical recurve & longbow) deer season October 1 - 15 would be fine with me. One particularly bad thing, about the way the rules are now, is that northern zone deer hunters only get (3) days to use their crossbows, prior to the guns coming in. Extending that to 7 days would be a lot better, then the total of crossbow and ML + crossbow days up there would equal the crossbow head-start in the southern zone. Given the overwhelming and widening margin of support for full inclusion, as evidenced by this poll, it will probably happen within the next few years. A slight compromise - such as evening the number of days up, between the northern and southern zones, and/or introducing that "traditional" season, while lumping the crossbow into the same category as the compound, might delay it by a few more years.

I see we picked up a couple more against full inclusion. They are up to 11 now, and might need a full sized passenger van for the move to Oregon. I also see that the NYB website is down, which might explain the struggle to rally more opposition. The part I don't understand, is WHY you are against full-inclusion. Think about that for a while and type out your answer nice and slow if you wish. What do you think of opening up archery deer season on October 1 for "traditional" equipment, including recurves and longbows, then letting compounds and crossbows in on the 15th of October ?

One of the biggest advantages of the crossbow is all the free time it opens up to do other stuff. Maintaining proficiency with a vertical bow takes lots of time and year round practice. An hour of practice before the season, and firing a bolt into a target after each hunt, has been enough practice for me to get it done right with my crossbow on deer every time I have shot it at one over the last 5 years.

Does that mean you are for full inclusion ? I remember that you were against it, in last years poll, and I assumed that was still the case.

The Genny lights were not quite doing it for me. 3 vodka and milks later, all is well. Gotta like them "real" white Russians. Here's to Putin and clearing our troops from Syria. Go Trump. Keep saving our money until them Dems fall in line and help build us that wall.

Adding up the "no" for full-inclusion votes, I count: Belo, Doc, Fast-Eddie, Sodfather, & Buckmaster for sure. I wonder who are the other (4) ? It is still just enough to fit in to a mini-van and make the trip to Oregon, if the sky falls and full-inclusion passes this season.

If Adirondack whitetails are your primary objective, you can't go wrong with a Marlin 336 30-30. There was a brief period, when the Remlins were not quite up to snuff, but they seem to have their act together now. The 336BL that I purchased last summer is top-notch fit and finish and functions flawlessly. An older Marlin would also be a safe bet, if you don't mind going used. No caliber has killed more Adirondack whitetails, and none has better ammo availability. The .35 Rem may be a tad better on black bears, but not enough to make up for the decreased availability or increased ammo cost. Both of my Adirondack bucks have fallen to my big heavy Ruger M77 30/06, but it is a pain to lug around up there. I am looking forward to changing to a standard 336 30/30, with a 3-9 Marlin scope as my primary (fair weather) gun, my 336 BL with fiber-optic sites as my rainy weather gun, and my big, heavy bolt-action Ruger 30/06, with 3-9 Redfield scope will be relegated to backup duty. Both bucks dropped in their tracks when struck with that (Federal classic 150 gr ammo) but I assume the 30/30 would have the same results, so long as the bullet is put in the right spot. The compact size of the Marlin lever actions will be a welcome change.

I just completed this survey. I went all-in in favor of the crossbow and full-inclusion even though I am ok with most of the rules as they are now. The crossbow hunters in the northern zone are currently getting screwed pretty bad, with just three days before the guns come in. Us folks down in the southern zone already got it pretty good with 14 days including all of the rut. If full-inclusion does go thru, I wont be hunting turkeys in the fall anymore with my shotgun. It will be a little tougher to take them with my crossbow (as targets of opportunity while deer hunting). Oh well, at least I got to easily enjoy the drumsticks of a young fall hen one time. Has anyone else on this site received the DEC survey yet ?

It exited above his knee. I just posted the whole video on Chef's 1911 carry thread, trying to help talk him into another model.