wolc123

Plastic is ugly. Wood, especially laminated, is not.

If you can't get to your scale, but want to get an approximation of field dressed weight, measure her chest girth just behind the front legs. If it is 38", that would equal a fresh dressed weight of 126 pounds, a live weight of 157 pounds, and 71 pounds of edible meat. 37" would be 115 pounds field dressed and 66 pounds of edible meat. The full chart is available on the pgc.pa website. I like chest girth measurements better than fresh weight, because when you place a fresh killed deer on a scale, most of that weight is made up of water. Water has no nutritional value. "Volume" is the important measurement - How many pint, quart or gallon-sized freezer bags will the deer yield ? Chest girth works better than weight for estimating volume because it is less dependent on how dried out the carcass is.

A momma doe with twins would be cool. Those extra tags would let me keep the family together.

I picked up a couple more 9f's today, bringing my total to four. It has been tough filling them around here the last few years. I will be thankful if I can fill one this year.

Mostly smallmouth bass for me, out on Lake Erie, the upper Niagara, St Lawrence, and a small Adirondack lake where my in-laws built their retirement home. Do you tie flies ? I take the bulk of my smallmouth bass on bucktail jigs that I tie. I have made a few trout flies and even tried them once up in the Adirondacks, but only caught a smallmouth on them in that nice looking trout stream near the North Pole. I do get out trolling on lake Ontario sometimes and take steelhead on rare occasion. They are much harder to land that kings, with lots of "aerial action". I did not get out there this year, but this was the last one from the year prior:

We have not had any in years. The houses are too far apart, here in the flood-plane. I just drove our kids to a nearby subdivision on higher ground, where the pickings should be much better. I hope so, because those chocolate treats are great up in the deer stand and I have a lot of time planned up there over the next few weeks.

I had the hide tanned from the last big one that I killed from our bedroom window at home. It looks cool, hanging next to the bar in our billiard room, but one of those is enough for my wife and I. If I were ever to kill one up at my in-laws place in the Adirondacks (I was nearly bushwacked by a wolf-sized one up there a few weeks ago), I am sure my father-in-law would spring to get it tanned. He wants to decorate their retirement home with "local species". I got him a nice whitetail buck shoulder mount for the wall, but he is still asking for a smallmouth bass, lake-trout, and bear rug. I am sure that he would love a coyote hide. What is the average cost for getting them tanned these days? I think I paid my cousin about $ 50 to tan one, about 10 years ago, but he does not do it anymore. As far as what to do with the rest of them, I just throw them out in the field. The meat must be very bad. Those are the only carcasses that the crows will not even touch. They just lay out there and dehydrate until I turn them under with the plow in the spring. Anything else (deer, racooons, possums, skunks, rabbits, turkeys, fish etc) are devoured fast.

I have been fishing NY for closer to 50 years, but I also have 36 deer seasons behind me (38 small game). The revolvers seem like they would be pretty neat. Back before rifled shotguns were legal in NY, several of my buddies were using T/C contender pistols in 35 Rem. I nearly went that route, going as far as taking the NY pistol course. They legalized rifled shotguns before I got my permit, so I never followed thru with it. I may have, had two of my best friends not missed out on what they claimed were "the largest bucks they ever saw" because their 35 Rem pistols failed to fire. The revolvers seem like a much better idea to me. A couple years ago, an older friend brought over a Ruger single-action, stainless steel, scoped 44 Magnum for me to sight in for him (he had recently suffered a detached retina and did not want to do it himself). He brought some expensive hunting ammo, and I missed the target completely with my first shot from 50 yards. I was a little scared of it, and anticipated a big recoil. I was very surprised that it actually was quite tame. I explained that was probably the reason I missed the paper and he reluctantly gave me another round to try. I put that one near the center of the target and he was "good to go". He has lost interest in hunting now (I guess that is common for retired folks) but I can see where it would be fun to hunt with one of those. He would probably sell it to me cheap if I ever got my permit.

Chomping here too. I just checked the long range forecast and made a plans for what stands to hit on Saturday and Sunday. Rain early Saturday and SW wind will keep me in my enclosed two-story blind at home (top level is open). I will go upstairs when the rain lets up as the view is better from up there. I am not sure what bucks remain around here. A neighbor nailed the big one a couple weeks ago, so there is no telling what will have moved in by now. I would be very thankful for my first antlerless deer with my crossbow (especially if it is a fat button-buck). Saturday afternoon, I am heading to my folks place, where there might still be a big, wide eight around, although they have not seen him in about a week. I did see a large-bodied fork-horn, with one side broke off, walk right up to my new pop-up blind over there last Sunday afternoon. That big body will tempt me, if he offers a shot, although I usually look for at least three points on a side to punch my buck tags during the first half of the season(s). I can not hunt that pop-up that day because my sister is planning an afternoon "haunted hayride" in the area. I will be up in a hang-on stand at the far corner of the property. Hopefully they "scare" the deer over that way. I will pack my tree umbrella in case the afternoon rain they are calling for shows up when I am up there. I can't hunt early Sunday, but the weather looks great, and the deer should be moving all day during that peak-rut time. I will be out at home, from late-morning to dark, in a stand that has produced the last two times I used it. They say "things usually happen in threes" so I will find out if that is true on Sunday. edit: Chomping even more now. I just dropped the girls off for tricker-treating, in a nearby subdivision, and we saw (3) deer exiting our block on the way. The last one was a wide-bodied 2.5 year old buck that I had to get on the breaks real hard in order to miss with my car. Had I been driving my truck or my wife's mini-van, I would have tagged him for sure. There will be no passing of that one on Saturday or Sunday, with a big body and 8 or 10 points to go with it.

Welcome and good luck with your crossbow. In my opinion, there is no finer weapon, or better time to kill a deer in NY's southern zone than those two weeks when it is legal. What are you shooting ?

That is the perfect weapon for hunting in the rain. Every whitetail deer that I have hit with mine has dropped dead in its tracks. Did your's run far after taking the bullet ? Plus, it has plenty of range to get out beyond the tree-umbrella no deer zone. I was sitting under one with mine, up in the northern zone yesterday morning, but the "no deer zone" extended as far as I could see during the rain on that day.

At least we have deer hunting to get exited about in the fall. But we still don't know if a mature buck will get within archery range of a tree umbrella during a hard rain. Congrats on that beauty. What did you kill him with ?

Yep. Shot this guy under one last year. It may be loud to you but rain is noisy everywhere in the woods. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Was it raining hard when he showed up ?

That makes sense, since it is a lot farther south. Did you see any deer sign ? What gun did you carry ? On Saturday morning, before the rain and snow, I saw one of the most well worked buck scrapes that I have ever observed. It was about a foot and one half wide, three feet long, completely cleared of leaves and pine needles, and excavated about three inches deep into the dry ground. I pissed into it and rubbed Evercalm on the licking branch, then set up my tree hammock seat about 40 yards downwind. Nothing but red squirrels showed up in the couple hours that I watched it. Certainly the rut is in full-swing up there right now and there is at least one mature buck in the area.

You got that right. There looks to be a lot more rain in the long range forecast, although Saturday and Sunday don't look too bad. Those will be my first days out deer hunting in the southern zone. I will be sure to have that tree umbrella with me both days. I also have one of those cheap pop-up blinds that Aldis was selling last year pre-positioned in a good spot. That will give me another good rain option. I suppose the "bombs going off noise" would be nearly identical or worse inside that during a hard rain. I watched a large-bodied, small-racked buck walk right up to it, late yesterday afternoon, after the rain stopped. If he repeats that performance next weekend, I might be in it and I might be shooting.

Well we know it works with does at long range, but we do not yet know if it works with mature bucks at short range. The world wonders.

A good thing about them, is that they enable you to stay out there, stay dry, and be in position as soon as the rain stops. While hunting at home, I have used my enclosed blinds like that, but so far I have only been able to kill does from under the roofs during the rain. I have moved out of them to nearby stand, immediately upon the stoppage of the rain, and killed bucks on several occasions however. I suppose that if the rain was accompanied by high winds, the noise of the rain hitting the umbrella might get drowned out, but deer seldom move in high winds and rain. Also, a tree umbrella does not provide much protection from the "sideways" rain. Were any of those mature bucks ? Like I mentioned above, I have killed a handful of does and a button buck (imagine that) in the rain (with light wind) from under a blind roof, but never an antlered buck. It was very comfortable under that tree umbrella on Sunday. It is easy to carry and setup, so I am sure that I will be using it again. It worked much better from the ground with the cheap 3-legged stool that I got at Aldis last year, than it did with my tree hammock seat. That thing acted like a funnel, collecting water that ran off the tree, resulting in a wet bottom. The tree umbrella also works well from a ladder stand (except for the seeing any deer part). I used it like that opening day in the rain last gun season and saw nothing.

What WMU were you in ? Was there any snow ? Up on the NW corner of the park, in WMU 6C, we had the first decent tracking snow of the year on Sunday morning. It lasted for a couple hours after sunrise, before the rain took it out. Hopefully, there will be more snow on Thanksgiving weekend. I killed bucks up there in the snow in 2014 and 2016, so I am due for another this year.

Has anyone ever killed a decent buck from under one of these while it is raining hard. Mine kept me pretty dry and comfortable on Sunday morning, thru some heavy rain, but the sound it made was loud and unnatural. I cant imagine a mature buck approaching within archery range with all that noise. I was up in the Northern zone, with my 30/06 at the time, so that was not such a big deal. No deer showed up even at long range.

If you have not done it yet, I would recommend a few practice shots with your broadheads, especially if you will be using the fixed-blade type. Others have reported big differences in the point of impact compared to field tips of the same weight and I have experienced it myself with one brand (fortunately on the target range). I shoot 125 grain broadheads and field points with my 300 fps crossbow. Muzzy fixed blades and o-ring style mechanicals fly identical to field tips in mine, Wasp fixed blades were very close (within 2" out to 40 yards), but Allen fixed blade 125 gr were way off (about 8" low and 6" to the left at 40 yards). They say the differences can be even greater with higher speed crossbows.

Venison, like any red-meat, is subjected to rigor mortis. That is what causes the muscle fibers to stiffen after death, and is the reason you often see road kill with four legs sticking straight out. The stiffening starts when the blood stops pumping. The tissue reaches its maximum stiffness about 8 hours after death. If you freeze it at that stage, the meat will be tough. Even ground meat is tough and chewy if not properly aged. How long the carcass should be aged (at 33 to 45 deg F) depends primarily on the age of the deer. 6 month deer are tender without any aging, and may be processed immediately. 1.5 year deer are ready in 5 days, 2.5 in 10 days. Older deer may take up to two weeks before all the rigor-mortis has broken down. When you age your deer, an easy way to tell if it has hung long enough is to feel the meat. It is ready when the feel is similar to how it felt when freshly killed. If it is rubbery, like a pencil eraser, then it needs to be hung longer. An old refrigerator (like Crapynice shows above) works perfect for this, if conditions are too warm for hanging. I skin the deer and cut the hind quarters off. I hang the back half by the tendons, from hooks attached to the top of my deer-fridge, and rest the front half on the neck at the bottom. I use an old, non-frost free fridge, and it keeps the carcass moist and at just the right temperature, for up to two weeks, no mater how warm the outside temps are. I prefer to hang the carcasses skin-on, in my insulated garage, but climate change has made conditions tough for that until late gun season for quite some time now. Leaving the hide on keeps the meat from drying out too much, and insulates against day-time high temps and night-time low temps.

I was up for the fall peak, a couple weeks ago, and the Adirondack colors were also not as vibrant as usual. There seemed to be an abundance of grouse up there this year. I am taking my scattergun the next time I go up there over Thanksgiving. The turkey hunting was not bad at home in the southern zone. I killed my first of that species ever (a fat young hen) on my second time out last weekend. She made (6) good meals for our family. With a crop full of corn, even her drumsticks were tender.

I finally had my first couple run-ins with deer up there this weekend. Traffic on the 90 and 81 was light and I got up there in time to hunt the last hour on Friday. It was a calm, pleasant evening but with no deer action. Saturday morning brought a steady east wind. There was no rain, so I grabbed my scoped Ruger 30/06, and headed for a prime spot for that wind. As I was still-hunting my way to it, just after sunrise, I bumped a couple of antlereless deer. There were two scrapes near "the spot", and one looked like it had been freshened very recently. the leaves were dry and crunchy and the wind was light, so I set up near these scrapes, but nothing more showed up before it was time for one of my mother-inlaw's big late breakfasts. After filling up, I knocked the crap out of the smallmouth bass for about an hour at mid-day out on the lake, then helped them put away the boats and winterize the place. Saturday afternoon brought steady rain and north east wind. All the moisture quieted the crunchy leaves and the wind covered my noise and scent, making conditions right for still-hunting. I was glad for a chance to try my Marlin 30/30, but I did not run across any deer in a couple of hours of moving thru the woods and swamp edges. The rain increased and I holed up in an old lean-to until it let up a bit, then slowly made my way back to the in-laws house, still not seeing any deer. It rained hard most of Saturday night, but at some point it turned to snow and I awoke this morning to a nice dusting, which made for good tracking conditions, probably the first of the year up there (Buckmaster3600 must be loving it). The snow/rain was stopped at sunrise, so I grabbed the Ruger, a folding chair, and my tree-umbrella, just in case. Heading up the trail, where I was nearly bush-wacked by a big coyote a couple weeks prior, I soon crossed a coyote track. That one set of tracks was the only signs of coyote I saw this weekend. A little farther up that trail, and average sized, fresh-looking deer track crossed. I followed after that track, with a light wind blowing at my back. About 50 yards into it, a second set of slightly smaller deer tracks joined it. I took a few steps, then scanned as far as i could see, then repeated the process. The tracks meandered uphill, into some young hardwoods. As I got close to the top of the hill, I heard the sound of deer running thru the trees on the opposite side. Moving quickly towards the noise, I got to the crest just in time to see the two disappearing over the next ridge. I could not tell if either had horns, but my guess would be that it was the same antlerless pair I had seen the day before, about a half a mile away, probably a doe and fawn. Unfortunately, the ridge they disappeared over marked the edge of the property I had permission to hunt, so I was unable to continue this track and find out for sure what they were. I did make note of the area where I had found them feeding however, and someday when the wind is right, I will try and capitalize on that information and location. Soon after that, the rain started coming down hard and I hunkered down under my tree umbrella, in a spot overlooking a trail, with no more action. They are safe from me until the Friday after Thanksgiving now. So far, no shots fired by me after two trips hunting up there this season, but the peak fall colors last time and the first good snow this time, with no other hunters seen (besides the coyote), more than covers the cost of admission. I would make the trip just for my mother-inlaw's cooking. Thanksgiving can't get here fast enough.

Robin posts his solo canoe tent hunts on here every year in the "Big-woods" section. Those are the best that I have seen.

I will get in all the crossbow hunting I can on the 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th, & 11th of November. Prior to that, I hope to punch my gun buck tag up in the Adirondack's this weekend. I have never done that before the archery tag. The weather conditions up there this weekend look perfect for still-hunting with my new rifle (open-sighted Remlin 336 BL lever-action 30/30). I have been waiting two years for the right weather conditions to take that gun hunting. The rainier and windier the better.