wolc123

A permit is not required for landowners to trap and destroy "damaging" coons pre-season, but the DEC recommends burying or burning the carcasses immediately. I guess I have to start burning them or dig a little deeper. I did not catch any last weekend, but took and burried (7) over the three day Labor-day weekend. Prior to that, they had destroyed about 5 bushels of field corn. There has not been much additional damage, on my three acres of corn, so it looks like I am at least keeping up with them with (4) box traps and (2) dog-proofs. Since the free-fall of fur prices, the local coon population has exploded. Rabies and distemper use to help out but our county is now air dropping medicine. The only way I can grow small acreage of corn is to take them out myself. Fortunately, they are about the easiest furbearer there is to trap. If I have any corn left after muzzleloading season, I will harvest it for my parents laying hens. Last winter, a big doe got hit by a car in front of our house in February. She had a belly-full of corn (I noticed that after the coyotes opened her up). Harvesting the left-over corn in December should help prevent that from happening again.

It would be cool if some internet-savvy individual would post up a chart of how much territory ISIS controlled, when Obama was president, and how much they have now that Trump is in charge. Remember how Obama could not even bring himself to say "ISIS", but referred to them as "ISEL" . There is an awful lot of chatter and BS being floated about by both sides. Such a chart would be easy to verify, from independent sources, and might open up enough eyes to help create a Republican landslide in the upcoming mid-terms.

That reminds me, I have got to get my pre-season "damaging" coon traps back out there this afternoon. Usually, I just trap the weekends, so that I can quickly dispatch and bury them, per NY state DEC recommendations. It looks like the canines were pretty active back there over the last couple weeks, based on all the "exhumed" shallow graves I saw (and smelled) today while working on stands.

I am in.

Please tell us about how that "meeting" went when you feel up to it. I have been praying for you and am glad to see you posting again. I hope you are well and that you have a great hunting season this fall.

I used up my last mechanical broadhead last season and I am reluctant to buy more at the current outrageous price level. Thanks for your post, which helps me make up my mind on that. I have a good stock of Muzzy fixed 3-blade 125 gr left over from my bow-hunting days. Those will be the first ones I try this year, with my Barnett recruit (300 fps) crossbow, out on the range. If they group the same as my 125 gr field-points, then that is what I will hunt with this season. If not, I will try some older 125 gr three blade Wasps, or some Allens that I picked up on sale at Walmart last year. The three bucks that I struck with mechanicals, over the last 4 seasons, all dropped dead within 40 yards. If you are dropping them inside of 30, with fixed broadheads, then there is no point in my wasting any more cash on mechanicals. If and when I upgrade to a faster crossbow, they might make sense, because they should fly closer to field-tips at long range. Inside of 50 yards (which is my absolute upper extreme now) I doubt they will make much difference. I will find out this week out on the range. I always like to eliminate all the guesswork prior to the opening of Northern zone crossbow season on October 10.

I am not aware of a PA chart for elk, but I suppose I could extrapolate off the end of the PA chest girth whitetail deer chart. Since the PA elk of today came from western transplants (the eastern elk was driven to extinction by overhunting according to info in the PA visitor center), a western chart might make for a closer approximation.

Not when momma doe is still with them, but she usually takes the first shot. With a couple deer from my prior post, my buddy missed a doe from the upper deck of a two-story box blind in the morning, but killed the button. I assume that she was the one that I killed from the lower deck later that afternoon. She sure seemed to be attracted to that little gut pile.

I use to brush in my blinds every year by weaving leafy branches thru old wood & wire snow fence. That never worked out so good and was very high-maintenance. The leaves fell off and had to be replaced every season. Also, when the deer were in close, they would sometimes still pick out motion thru any remaining openings, and take off before I could take a shot. What I do now, is box them in below the shooting rails with old unpainted, weathered barnwood (140 year old American chestnut). That has been very effective and blends in quite well with the fall woods. I boxed three of them like that 2 seasons ago and we killed 3 deer out of one of them that year. Last year I killed one each out of the other two. None of those blinds had produced, when they were brushed in, but they are all working well now that they are boxed. Three of those kills were does and a button buck at slightly over 100 yards with sabot slugs. The other two were 2.5 and 3.5 year old bucks, at 15 yards or less with a crossbow.

Wouldn't it be nice if NY state would give those of us who buy regular, bow, and muzzleloading licences, a buck tag for each instead of two buck tags and an "antlerless only" ?

25 yards is where I dialed my pellet gun (rifle) in at. I think that is just about perfect for early-season "leaves on" squirrel hunting. I always dialed my .22 rimfire rifles in at 50 yards, but most of that shooting was after deer season when the leaves were down.

No, but I might try it for the first time with a pellet gun this weekend if it gets cold enough. I did shoot the head off one once with my old side-lock 50 cal, open-sited Gander mountain "fox-river-50" muzzleloader which is almost as small and light as a pistol. For cooking squirrels, I usually just skin and gut, then throw them in the crock-pot with a can of cream of mushroom soup and a little water. Sometimes, there will be a mix of rabbit and squirrel in there and the kids and I always like the squirrel better. I like the squirrel back-straps the best (meat above the rib cage ahead of the hind quarters), but the back legs are also good and tender after the slow-cooking process.

That means that this thread is (2) pages long and my post is now the first one on the second page. I did not know that at the time of the original post, hence the "edit".

No problem Rob, Lord knows I still make a lot of mistakes myself. Even way back then when I killed my first deer (when I was quite clueless myself) Jesus must have been helping me out. There were two twins running full tilt down a hill in the park, thru the woods. I aimed and shot when they reached an opening about 50 yards away. One of them folded up at my shot, struck clean thru the shoulder blades. It might not have been the one I was aiming at.

"Pike" not "spike". I must have been about 20 when I killed my first legal "spike" whitetail. I still remember that one pretty clearly. I did not see the horns until I walked up to the carcass. The 1-1/2 power scope on my old Ithaca pump seems to make them look smaller. Fortunately, I still had my buck tag. I was 17 when I killed my first deer (a button buck naturally) down in Allegheny state park while hunting with my uncle and father.

I am 53, and caught my first pike at 10, so I got you by a few years on that. Also, if this were just a single isolated event, your argument might make a little more sense (very little because the Bible says that Jesus Christ does indeed control the fate of all living things - anyone with a smart-phone can quickly verify that). Do you expect us to believe that you are right and the Bible is wrong ? If so, then please tell us the credentials with which you dispute what is believed by an estimated 75 % of American's today ? I don't know the fate of those 15 pike, because we let them all go. It was not that long ago, so some may still be swimming. The (3) bass were blessed with the happy trip to "fish-heaven" however. The fact is, this type of thing has happened repeatedly and no "once" living things have demonstrated it more clearly to me than the whitetail deer. I can't think of one that I killed and/or that my family got to eat, over at least the last 10 years, that did not have Jesus's fingerprints all over it. I will always give credit where credit is due, for surely I ain't that good of a hunter on my own. I will take a shot at a deer if I am 90 % certain of making a recoverable kill. That means that 10 percent should have been lost, yet none were over over that stretch, and very seldom have we been forced to the grocery store for meat. I freely admit to some struggles in my early years, before I made that "Jesus" connection. Those struggles went away in all things (not just hunting and fishing) after I figured it out. I sincerely hope that you, and the other semi-clueless 25 % figures it out also. p.s, Thank you Jesus for putting me on the top of the list on page 2.

Venison/barley/vegetable soup from the crock-pot. I was glad that my wife used the big one, because the kids loved it too. I can't wait for leftovers for lunch at work on Thursday (tomorrow is free pizza day).

Dead even tie between: - Barnett recruit crossbow and Veteran's day +/- 3 days - peak of the whitetail rut in western NY. - Scoped Ruger M77 30/06 and the first good snow up in the Adirondacks (usually around Thanksgiving). The scenery and lack of hunting pressure up north cancels out the higher deer numbers out west.

I would say it was more like, I always left open the possibility that Jesus was for real, and then one day He piled on so much proof (lots of it in the form of venison) that I could not help but believe that He really was. That is the best I can do with your question. Try googling the verse about pointing out the spec in your brothers eye while ignoring the log in your own. That might shed some light on this little disagreement. I still love you even though you disagree with me on how Christianity should be practiced and there ain't a darn thing you can do about that. Good luck hunting this season. I know the early stuff did not go so well the other night, but it will get better. Maybe carry a little Bible to your stand as a special "secret weapon" . That one has worked for me on a few occasions.

Lots of folks have that same hang-up. They don't think He has time to mess with little things, like deer and fish, when there are bigger problems, such as curing cancer, that He could spend time on . Such thinking implies that there are limits on what He can do. The Bible tells us otherwise. One example, that can be found in the 21st chapter of John, mentions some disciples who had fished all night (the time that was usually best), and not caught anything. Do you remember what happened when Jesus said to them "throw your net out on the right side of the boat and you will catch some" ? The nets were so filled, that other boats had to be called to help haul them in. Can you provide just a single example that indicates that there are limits on what He can do ? The fact is, He wants to bless His followers. The Bible story that I referenced, was very similar to an experience that a buddy and I had a few years ago down on Findley lake. We had fished from sunrise until noon, with not so much as a bite, on a late summer day. We came back in for lunch and our families thought we were foolish for heading back out when clearly there was a big storm on the way. We donned our rain-gear and went back out. When the storm hit the rain must have completed a circuit and caused our boat's radio to come on. It was tuned onto some local Christian channel and the song was about Jesus. At that very instant, the fish began to hit as I had never seen before on that lake. In the next hour we landed 15 northern pike (many in the 30 inch class) and 3 nice smallmouth bass (which ended up as dinner). When it comes to deer, I can not think of a single one where He did not play the primary role, and I can not put to words how much "easier" it has become since I made that connection.

I think you hit the nail on the head with that one. Clearly, everyone has a different definition of "ethics". I remember taking some pretty strong ridicule from folks, over a couple deer that I killed with single shots to the heart (one with my crossbow and the other with my rifle). They thought that the shots were "unethical" because the range was too far or the shot angle was improper. Then there was the guy who thinks killing a button buck, or even a 1-1/2 year old, is a horrible thing to do while killing does post-rut (that may be carrying two) is perfectly acceptable. What everyone chooses to harvest and how they choose to do it is only up to them and the law. There are plenty of deer in this state for all to enjoy. That said, I have no problems with folks suggesting what they think may be a "wiser" way. I hope that I never get to wise to stop learning. It makes it a lot easier to learn, when folks offer up suggestions for free, as is done all the time on this site. Please keep the helpful advice coming. The two best suggestions that I got for free on this site were Chef's recommendation of the Butt-out II and G-man's of the PA chest-girth chart. Those two wonders have saved me lots of "prime-time" and made it easier to quickly estimate the volume of venison required to feed my family from one year to the next. If there is one point I would like to help other hunters with, it would be to learn who controls the fate of all living things and keep things right with Him. Doing that makes it a lot easier to send them deer to "deer Heaven" (man's food supply).

When you line up that first shot on a live deer, aim for top of the heart (or a little lower if it appears to be alert). "Aim small miss small" - a near miss in that region will get the job done just about every time.

Mine looked like they gained about another half inch of growth yesterday, when I checked my coon traps this morning. No more coons in the traps and the corn damage looks to be under control for now. I will hit them again next weekend just to make sure. A combination of winter wheat and young soybeans just might outdraw oats and maybe even white oak acorns. I am thinking that the deer and turkeys will probably get all the soybean before the frost but like you say, with "free" soybeans, it is not even much of a gamble.

I like how he still seems to think that we are fighting the cold war and that Russia is the "real" enemy. I guess that his handlers must have told him to keep pushing the Russia thing, until after the mid-terms, and being a good "puppet" he obliged. They are doing all they can to deflect public notice, that ISIS has had it's butt kicked, since Trump took over.

A couple of nice catches there. ^ ^