wolc123

canis lupus

Raeder

No surprise here. It is a lot easier to kill deer with snow cover than it is in the rain. Brown on white is easy to see and easy to track. This aint rocket science.

An annual poll is a good idea. It gives us a feel for the current state of the battle. The interesting thing is that "yes" for full inclusion now has a 6:1 lead over "no". Last year that lead was 3:1 and the year prior it was 2:1. Has NYB membership dropped off that much ? It might be explained, based on the previous comments, that "no" voters are choosing to pout rather than participate. I voted "yes", but it would not be the end of the world if the rules stayed the same. Having the crossbow available in the southern zone throughout the rut is awesome. To make things fair across the state however, the folks up in the northern zone ought to also have 14 days before the guns come in, unlike the 3 days they got now.

Where did you set it ?

Happy birthday

You guys are a little early, still got 38 minutes to go. Thanks anyhow.

nothing

As I recall, It was April of 2014 when crossbows were legalized in NY state. Where and what hunters could use them in 2011 ? As far as "full-inclusion" goes, there was a time when I was strongly for it, but now not so much. I am very thankful that they are legal for the two weeks that always includes the peak of the rut in the southern zone, and for three days a month earlier up in the northern zone (ML is open for the last 7 days of early crossbow up there, so I only count 3 days as the true early crossbow season). Rather than "full-inclusion", I would prefer to see a two week "traditional" archery season, starting October 1, which would be limited to recurves and long-bows. The rest of the season should be open to crossbows and compounds, and the archery course should be required for crossbows. I also think that the current limits on crossbow poundage and width should be retained. Those limits help keep crossbows and compounds at the same level of magnitude of performance. NYB must be a little stronger up in the northern zone than they are in the southern zone. They have been able to limit the early crossbow season to just 10 days up there, compared to 14 days in the southern zone. That don't seem fair too me. Why should northern zone crossbow hunters be discriminated against like that ? Adding another weekend to crossbow season up there would help bring more sorely needed "tourist" dollars into that economically depressed region.

Vacuum sealing helps a lot. We have eaten grind after 4 years in the freezer with no difference in quality. That is always 100 % venison however. Adding pork greatly decreases freezer life because pork is high in fat, which is mostly oil that does not freeze. If I want to make venison hamburgs on the grill, I always mix a little raw egg with the grind. and make the patties several hours prior to grilling. I keep them in the fridge until then. The time and egg helps keep them from breaking apart when they are on the grill. I will try and get that one from my wife. She does not do it the same every time. Venison, barley and water are the primary ingredients, along with potatoes, carrots and whatever else she may have around. I do know that a frozen roast is used and the crock pot is set on low for 8 - 10 hours. I think her new one is usually programmed to turn down to "keep-warm" after about 6 hours. She takes care of all the cooking inside the house, while I do most of the grilling out on the deck. We have a big upright freezer in the basement. Every year, near the end of September, I move what remains in it up to three fridge/freezers upstairs, in order to defrost it. That, and trying to use the oldest stuff first usually keeps any from hanging around too long. We rarely have any grind last more than a year now, but often have roasts around for a couple years. The soup from a two year old, vacuum-sealed roast does not taste any different than it does from a fresh one.

I am praying for him also. I just went back thru the archives and he did post a video in 2017 (edited above post). He had some better weather then than he did in 2016. I was up there, about 40 mi NW of him, in 2017 but I did not make opening weekend of rifle up there this fall.

He is an older guy from VT who did a solo canoe tent camp deer hunt several years on opening weekend of gun season in the Adirondacks (Lows lake area). His last video was from 2017. The videos were always posted in the "Big woods" section. He did talk about some health issues so I hope he is doing ok now. His videos were also on youtube.

That's one of my favorites too. Especially when made with ground venison - way better for your heart that way. My mom always makes it with ground beef, so I prefer my wife's. Not much difference in taste between the two, but I give my wife's the slight edge (and a big lead if it is ground button-buck like we are into right now).

It's all camera angle. Most fisherman know that you can make a minnow look like a lunker. It works for deer antlers also.

I found one last vacuum-sealed roast from 2016 while repacking the freezer this year. I will ask my wife to make crock-pot barley soup with it.

Rattler, you definitely got my opening day big-buck story beat. I killed mine this year on the edge of a flat-land swamp. I could see a trailer park thru the trees (plastered with posted signs) in the background, while listening to traffic buzz by on the big highway a few hundred yards away. A 3" spike mountain buck would mean more to me than a booner from the flat-lands around home. Hopefully, next year I will be able to punch another tag on one up there.

That certainly seems to be the case with older deer. It is easy to do the same thing over and over, but that also makes it easy for them to pattern us. When I got busted by a big 3-1/2 year old buck in a stand on one edge of a swamp this year, I moved that hang-on stand to the other side of the swamp soon after he disappeared. That helped me kill him on my next hunt. It was the first time I had been in that stand at the new location. The year prior, I killed a slightly larger chest-girth, but smaller-racked 3-1/2 year buck with my crossbow. That happened after I moved from a ground blind on the edge of a food plot, to a tree stand in the adjacent woods, with only 15 minutes of daylight left. It was also the first time I had hunted that stand that year. It was almost like he was watching me in the ground blind and did not come out to feed until he saw me leave. The noise I made clearing the leaves from the deck on that other stand must have sounded like another buck making a scrape, and quickly drew him into range. After they survive a couple of seasons, you got to work a bit harder to get where they don't expect you to be.

Overall, I would rank it well above average of my 36 deer seasons, about 4 from the top. Were it not for a couple of mishaps on does late, it would have ranked higher. On the fifth year of trying with my crossbow, I was finally able to punch a DMP tag. The best part was: it turned out to be a giant button-buck, rather than the mature doe that I thought it was, when I released the bolt. Bucks (with or without protruding antlers) are much easier for me to process, with less fat to trim. There is no deer more appreciated on the dinner table by my family than a button buck. On my last day of crossbow hunting, I blew it on a mature (182 pound field dressed) swamp-buck, when he caught me putting the shiny chrome cup/top back on my Stanley cider thermos. He still had all (8) points then, and would have been my highest scoring buck (10" G-2's, perfectly symmetric), had I killed him on that day. In the photo, that thermos is over my right shoulder as I was filling out his carcass tag . A last minute stand move and my slug gun did him in less than a week later, minus a couple of antler points. Those missing points saved me the expense of a shoulder mount anyhow. I would have rather put my archery tag on him though, because using the gun tag kept me from deer hunting over Thanksgiving up in the northern zone. The deer hunting up there was better than last year, on my other three trips, with more deer sightings but none with antlers. That was where I missed my last doe, during the late ML season, due to an unseen branch that deflected my bullet. While it was a very good season for me, it would have been better without those two missed does (I messed up on another one twice due to a mis-fire and a bad running shot - you can read the details of that one in my "lessons learned thread if interested)), and better yet had I been able to fill my archery/ML buck tag. Like He has always done, The Good Lord blessed us with all the venison we need this season (a friend also provided us with a couple, including the first doe fawn that I have ever processed). I would have liked to have been able to kill a few more myself, to give to others in need, but it was not to be. Hopefully those two does that I missed clean will give birth to bucks that will be far more appreciated by someone. I got to assume that was His plan for them.

I am very thankful to be quite regular, and have always been able to take care of that business early in the morning, prior to spending part or all of the day in the woods. I feel sorry for you folks who have to pack the TP. As far as piss goes, this was the first year I let it all go from the stand. It did not seem to bother the deer at all. I guess the warm cider cover scent might help out with that.

The in-season stand move also worked for me this year. I think that most of us hunters tend to be very predictable to mature bucks and does. A last minute stand move is a good way to get them off their game, and into our freezers. The hot cider did its job this year too, keeping my hydrated, full of energy, warm, and providing enough cover scent to allow a group of three deer to make 4 circles around my stand (7 feet high) when there was a very light steady wind.

I am thankful they are also the tastiest

That brings back memories of my first antlered buck about 35 years ago. I had my Ithaca 37 16 ga and it was not loaded yet, near sunrise, when I heard crashing in the brush next to my stand. The buck stepped out, just as "legal" sunrise occurred. I jammed a slug into the bottom, hoping it got into the chamber, as I pushed the action forward (a side opening Remington 870 would have been better). Fortunately it did, allowing me to kill that 7-pointer. Shooting straight down has not happened for me since then.

I think he read until he got the the part about button buck. We had tacos from it for dinner tonight. Man were they tasty. Too bad you folks ain't into those "fatted calves". You don't have a clue what you are missing. I am thankful for that and thankful for folks like you though, that leaves more for me and my family.

No problem, you got plenty of time until October 1 2019.

Now that the fat lady has sung across most of the state, what are the lessons you learned this year ? It is always better to learn from other's mistakes, rather than the "hard way" by making them yourself. I made a few this year, that cost me two doe for sure. Fortunately, with help from a friend who gave us a couple of deer that he killed on opening weekend, my own immediate family's year's venison supply was secured before I paid the price for those mistakes. I would have liked to have killed another doe or two for my extended family and friends, but my mistakes stopped that. Sorry about the length of this post, but I made a lot of mistakes this year. A string of mistakes cost me the first doe, on the third Saturday of gun season. When sighting in my Marlin 512 Bolt-action on Labor day weekend, at 100 yards, I saw two "bulls" when looking at the target thru the Bushnell banner 3x scope. Not knowing which to shoot at, I moved in to 50 yards, where I could only see one. The two shot "group" I fired was centered a couple inches above the bull, so I let it go at that. On opening day, I shot a heavy swamp buck from 100 yards away. My first shot felt bad, but the noise stopped the fast-walking buck. My second shot broke his back and put him down. I walked over and gave him a third to the neck from point-blank range as he was pulling himself up with his front legs. The first two shots struck just under and right on the spine, just behind the diaphram, about 15" to the left of my point of aim. While dragging the 200 pound plus (with guts in) carcass out of the swamp, my gun slipped off my shoulder into the muddy swamp water. Later, I used my dad's gun cleaning rod to push the mud out of the barrel, and I oiled the outside of the gun. The temperature was below freezing the next day I was up in that stand with three DMP's (I had already used one on a button buck with my cross-bow) and no buck tag. About an hour after sunrise, I heard branches breaking and bucks grunting. A small four point and a tiny spike (close to 3") were in hot pursuit of a doe. They drove her in a wide circle around my stand. The range was too far for a running shot at her thru the broken hardwoods but, like good beagles on a rabbit, they brought her around for another lap. This time she passed almost under my stand. I pulled the trigger and "click", no "bang". I ejected the "dud" but was unable to get another shot the doe. The little spike stopped about 30 yards out but I was not willing to gamble that those horns were under 3" so he got a pass. After they all moved on, I climbed down and had no luck finding that "dud" in the snow. I wanted to see if the primer was pricked. After about 15 minutes of searching for it, I climbed back up the tree. About half hour later, I heard that old familiar branches breaking and grunting again. The "beagles" brought her back around for a 3rd and fourth lap. Usually I pull the trigger if I am 90% sure of a shot, but I let one go at less than that because I wanted to see if my gun would fire. It did, and I am about 90 % sure it was a clean miss. The doe showed no reaction of being hit, and I found no blood on the snow in several hours of searching. The one bright spot of this "miss" was that the next day the temperature got up to 60 degrees, so the carcass may have spoiled had I connected, since I always like to hang them a while. A couple weeks later I found that "dud" and the primer was not pricked. The firing pin must have been frozen back on my first "point blank" mishap on that doe. To correct those mistakes, that bolt will get disassembled, cleaned and oiled in the off-season. That cheap old scope will get shit-canned and replaced with a new Redfield Revolution 2-7X. Finally, I will do my best to stick to my "90%" or better rule before pulling the trigger. The week after that miss, I missed another doe up in the Adirondacks with my ML. Much shorter story here. It did not take me too long to find the branch that deflected the bullet. On this doe, I am more than 95 % sure it was a clean miss because I tracked her all the way to where she bedded, about a mile away, and there was no blood the whole way, or in her bed. After killing and recovering every deer I have shot at over the last 14 seasons, the Good Lord was due to teach me a couple of lessons. The bright spot of the last one is that I think this was the mother doe who frequently visits my in-laws house, along with her two fawns, to clean up under their bird-feeders. Now that entertainment will be able to continue up there for them thru the winter.