wolc123

I just did a little more shooting with the Centerpoint Sniper 370. Top crosshair was right on at 13 yards: Second from top was right on at 30 yards (no picture) Two shot group with third from top crosshairs at 40 yards: Two shop group with bottom crosshairs at 50 yards: All using the oem scope and 100 gr field tips. All shots were from a rail, similar to what is on most of my blinds. The wind was blowing from the right side at about 6 mph.

I’m on the fence on that one. It’s too bad that they always have the playoffs, during the peak two weeks of the rut / crossbow season. I missed the bulk of that hunting last year, when our daughter’s high school field hockey team made the final four in the state championships . It was cool getting to meet fellow site member cdbing in Long Island, during the games. Her college playoffs start this Friday. If they advance to the next round, odds are that the game on Sunday will be half way across the state. I’ve already opted out of that one. If it turns out to be a home game, I’ll do my best to make it.

I finished dialing in my Barnett Recruit tonight. I had to crank it down 1/2 turn, on the factory green/red dot sight, to get it where I wanted with 100 gr field tips. I switched from 125 o-ring type mechanical broadheads to 100 gr NAP Spitfires, after I used up all that I had. I killed two deer with the last of my 125’s, but the last one (using it resharpened) wasn’t the best blood trail. I had to pull out my pocket New Testament and pray for help from JC to find that 3.5 year old 8-point, back in 2019. I went with 100 gr NAP spitfires because it was hard to find 125 gr. My Recruit is now right on at 10 yards with the top dot, at 20 yards with the middle dot (first photo), and 3” low at 40 yards with the bottom dot. I would not shoot further than 40 yards at a deer with it. My Centerpoint Sniper 370 is right on at 15 yards with the top crosshairs, at 25 yards with the second from top, at 35 yards with the 3rd from top, and at 50 yards with the bottom. I would not shoot further than 50 yards at a deer with it. Of these two cheap, entry-level crossbows, I definitely prefer the 2014 Barnett Recruit. It is not at all front heavy, and handles offhand as easy as my Ruger 10/22 carbine. I can also reload it much faster with a direct pull, using those two little chain/clip T-handles I made up after I lost my rope pulley device (in the excitement after killing my largest bodied buck with it back in 2017). I will most likely hunt with the Recruit, until my buck tag is punched (needs to have at least 3 points on a side or clearly be 2.5 or older). After that, I’ll see if I can fill a doe tag, or (4), with the Sniper. I can use the Recruit from any of my stands, blinds, or even offhand, while the front-heavy sniper would be limited to those with good rests. That, and a proven track record, are more important to me than the extra 10 yards of effective range that the Sniper gives me. I didn’t crossbow hunt as much as I would have liked, the last couple years, due to our youngest daughter’s high school playoff field-hockey schedule. That may or may not let off a little this year, depending on how they do on the college games this weekend. Im ready to hunt now, just not sure how much I will be able to do.

Got my (2) extra 9Fs at North Tonawanda Walmart today. The cashier there even figured out how to take my $ 10 donation for the venison coalition. The one at Lockport Runnings couldn’t figure out how to that, when I picked up my first two, in August. It would be nice to get another fat doe into the deer fridge with my crossbow this weekend.

Thanks for the reminder. I’ll hit Walmart for a couple 9f’s on my way home from work.

I miss that part, now that our girls are both off to college. The loot they picked up on Halloween always gave me enough snacks to last thru deer season.

If one is recoil sensitive, wouldn’t a 7mm-08 be a better selection for deer, than a .243 ? I wonder which one has better ammo availability right now ?

I didn’t get as much firewood made, as I usually do this season, because of the big barn demolition project that took up most of my free time. Fortunately, there is hundreds of standing dead ash trees out back. Those can be cut split and burnt on the same day, if I run out of seasoned firewood. I don’t know of any other tree species, that you can do that with.

We both know a woman who killed a moose with one. As long as the .243 bullet hits between ribs, and the animal is broadside, no problem. A heavier caliber reduces the need for such precise shot placement.

I took this picture today, of the inside of my two-story blind at home. I noticed that the back of the floor inside is rotted out, and needs a piece of marine plywood nailed over it. That will have to wait until next year. The inner part is still plenty solid enough to get me thru this season. I built this one on an old snowmobile trailer. I used to move it around, but this has been its permanent home, for about the last (10) years. Quite a few deer have been killed off both levels of this one. It didn’t cost me a dime to make, from “junk” that I had on hand. The best feature of these two-story blinds, is that there are no “blind-spots” on the upper deck, and they can be hunted in any weather conditions. I guess that’s actually the 2nd and 3rd best features. The best one was the cost - free. I've not seen another blind that can match any of that, at any price.

A guy, about 3 miles down the road, killed a big buck with his bow last week. My neighbor showed me a picture of it at church this morning. It looked like a wide, tall-tined 8 or 10 point (I took a fast look), that probably scored 150 inches plus. Soon after that, he turned around, in the pew ahead of me, and said that his son in law had just hit a nice buck behind his house and it ran onto my place (he must have sent him a text). He told him to wait and he would help track it when he got back. He didn’t wait, but found his arrow with no blood on it, so he thinks he missed. He said it was a 10 point, the largest of three bucks that have been running together back there. They have been feeding in my foodplot court. They cross that his place every day and bed in the woods behind his neighbor on the other side. I have seen them several times, and I think this is the one he shot at. I only counted 8 points though. I finished up most of what I had planned for today. I would have got it all done, but the same neighbor told me that his son in law noticed that my pop up blind was down. It took me a while to make a new top pole, to replace one that snapped, and get it staked down. Due to that little glitch, I didn’t get as much range work done as I had planned with my Marlin 512. I fired just two 2-3/4” Hornady SST’s. One from 50 yards, which struck 1.5” over the bull, and one from 100 yards struck 3” over. The ballistic chart indicates that would put it right on at 150 yards and about 6.5” low at 200. I also figured out how to get the Redfield Revolution scope on that gun focused better, with my single prescription glasses on. It’s just as clear now as the old Redfield Widefield on my ML, and I would feel comfortable with a 200 yard shot from the shooting sticks. Before I started any of that work, I finished splitting the firewood, that we will need to heat the house this winter, and got all the work done up on the roof (cleared the gutters, installed the heat tape, and swept the chimney). I ran out of daylight before I got my Barnett Recruit crossbow hitting where I wanted. It is hitting a little too high, so I need to adjust the red/green dot sight down a few clicks. I’ll have to work on that a little more this week after work. My Center-point Sniper was right on though, and is good to go as is.

I hope to get my two crossbows zeroed today. That’s usually pretty easy and can be done from the back deck. If I knock that off fast enough, I will also run back to the range and do a little more shooting with my Marlin 512, to get ready for opening day of gun, in less than (3) weeks. My coworker finally made it back from VA with his car last week, and brought me back the ammo that I bought for that while I was down there. Now I have plenty of slugs to do a little more tweaking and long range shooting. I might try a few shots at 150 yards, maybe even 200. I have a few spots back there, where a 200 yard shot is a definite possibility. I need to see what kind of group I can hold at that range with that gun and the new shooting sticks that I recently picked up. They seemed to work real well from the pop-up blind that I placed at the end of the gas line, in my foodplot court during the early September antlerless season. I had a decent, steady site picture from them, on a broadside doe at about 175 yards down the gas line, with my Remington 870 smooth-bore, open-sighted slug gun. That was about 75 yards too far to take the shot with that smoothbore. How nice it is in a “free” state with no limits on ammo purchase quantity and a pretty good selection. Only trouble was, I had to fly back, so I had to leave the ammo (and my pocket knife) with him and it took a while to get it delivered. Before I can get those deer weapons checked, I need to finish a few other outside tasks. I have about an hour’s worth of wood-splitting left, to finish up what’s left on my big trailer. I have not used that 20 year old splitter since May, and the little Honda 5 hp engine on it gave me a little trouble yesterday. It has always ran and started very well, since I started using ethanol free gas in it about (10) years ago, but it started out very rough. I ended up draining the quart or so of old ethanol-free gas from the tank (poured that into my old Ford tractor which runs on on almost anything). I put some fresh, stabilized ethanol-free stuff into it, popped off the air cleaner, and squirted some carb and choke cleaner into it as it was sputtering. It ran like it did when it was new again after a few minutes of that. After I get the remaining firewood split, I need to get up on the roof of the house and clean the leaves out of the gutters, sweep the wood stove chimney, and put electric heat tape in the gutters, to eliminate ice dams on the roof above the stove. Then we will be ready for winter and the awesome feel of wood fires on real cold days. I feel sorry for those who go thru winter in upstate NY without a wood stove, especially with the fuel prices we will be seeing this winter.

I love those construction style truck caps for making those. The ladder racks work perfect for supporting the upper deck. The cap in the above pictures is in real good shape still. The hydraulic cylinders that hold up the doors all still work. The one I have at home is in rougher shape, and I need to prop open the side doors with boards. That makes for very good sunshades though, so I don’t get any glare in my scope when I am shooting at deer from it. I should probably remove the cylinders and use boards to prop open the one over at my parents also: Do you like the marine plywood , shimmed sub-floor that I put in the upper deck of that one ? I couldn’t get the floor level enough for my comfort, with the lower supports, so that was the easiest “fix”.

This weekend, I am getting things ready for opening of southern zone crossbow season, which starts next Saturday. I got (3) of my (4) stands & blinds over at my parents place ready today. I started with the little hang on stand, back on the edge of a swamp, that I usually only hunt on opening day of gun season. It’s been up in the same tree going on (5) years now. The hard maple it’s in must be a real slow grower, because the chain isn’t even started to get grown over yet. That stand doesn’t have a rest, so I would need to use my easy handling Barnett Recruit, if I used it during crossbow. A tree fell across the trail to my 2-story blind over there. I cut up a Ranger load of firewood, to open that trail. I noted the supporting concrete blocks were very crooked. They must have heaved from the frost. I went back for a bottle-jack, and straightened them out. Lastly, I cleared the leaves from the upper deck of that blind, and my field edge blind, from which I killed (2) buttons and a 3.5 year old buck last season. I guess I got my $ 8.0 worth out of that padded office chair. Clearing leaves is what got me the only buck that I ever killed, from the upper deck of that two-story blind, so I debated leaving them. That was probably the largest bodied buck I have ever killed (43” chest girth), but the antlers were nothing special. The year that I killed that girthy one, there was a scrape about 20 yards from the blind. My hunt that afternoon started in a natural ground blind, about 150 yards away, in the middle of a a clover plot. It just didn’t feel right there, so I departed for the upper deck of the two story blind in the woods, with about an hour of daylight remaining. Mt parents witnessed much of the action that day from their house. They said that the big bodied buck entered the clover plot about 15 minutes after I departed. The watched it stop eating, lift its head, and stare into the woods (where I was). He was listening to me clear the leaves from the upper deck, no doubt thinking that I was a rival buck freshening up that scrape. I had wiped EverCalm on my boots and on the walls of my blind. Soon he came thru, trying to look “big”, and offered me a 15 yard, broadside chip shot. The only stand I didn’t check on over there, is the little ladder stand, near the back of the woods, that I access by the trailer park around the corner. That little platform won’t hold any leaves, so there is nothing much to get ready there. I did speak to the trailer park superintendent a couple weeks ago and secured permission to park on the dead end road that ends about 100 yards from my stand. I will hit that stand on an afternoon, when the wind is from the south. It is too close the trailers, to hunt with a gun. Hopefully, I can verify the zeroes on my two crossbows tomorrow afternoon. All of my stands and blinds are good to go at home.

There’s nothing quite as good as raw walleye cheeks washed down with a Genny cream ale. My favorite kind of sushi.

No egg sinkers ?

I had better swing by the fuel station before November 8, and pick up 10 gallons, so I have enough to keep my driveways plowed this winter. I am also fixing up this old gas tractor for backup, just in case the supply of diesel really does run out.

One possibility, is that it is a healed wound, that was inflicted by another buck last year. I witnessed such a wounding, while I was taking a break for lunch, on opening day of gun season last year. A button buck walked up next to a 4-pointer, that was out feeding in a clover plot, about 150 yards behind my parents dinner table. The 4-pointer stuck one of its little salad forks into the chest of the button buck, and rolled it up and over its back. I killed that button buck on last day of the first Holiday ML season (Jan 1 of this year). The brisket wound, which I had witnessed being inflicted more than a month earlier, was still a little pussy, and I trimmed away most of the meat in that area. This little buck may or may not have survived the rest of the winter. If he had, he may have looked very similar to that buck in the op, right about now. The area of that growth is almost exactly where the wound occurred on this buck, which leads me to believe that the cause may have been the same.

Spaghetti squash with ground doe meat sauce. Definitely one of my favorite dishes, and a lot better for me than real pasta:

My mother in law grilled baby beef liver, that had been marinated in bbq sauce, last week. It was very good. I generally only keep the livers from young deer, because those from the older ones always seem tough to me. I’ve always had access to a virtually limitless supply of free baby beef liver, so I have had no need to keep old deer liver. They do tenderize somewhat, if you leave them raw in the fridge for a week or so, before cooking. I save them, if I think the deer is under (2) years old. Those from milk-fed, 6 month old button bucks, cooked medium rare, are literally “to die for”. I prefer the flavor of those over Hereford or Angus baby beef.

I know how that goes. This dead ash tree fell down towards the end of gun season last year. It blocked any shots to the back, from the upper deck of my favorite (2-story) blind.

I do just the opposite, because the older I get the less I like “heights”. I lowered both of my “store-bought” ladder stands to 10 ft. I used the bottom 5 ft sections from those, on other “home-made” platforms, that are only 4 ft high. I killed my first deer, of this season, from one of those 4 ft high platforms. That was a 15 yard shot on a 3.5-4.5 yr old doe. I need to pay more attention to cover, and wind direction down low, but that is well worth the cost. Last year, I killed an even older doe (based on how tough her fillets were), with a 20 yard shot, from right down on the ground. I lost a neighbor to a tree stand fall last season, and I think it was 15 footer, that he fell from. He fell when he was attempting to move his stand. They found some of his tools up on the platform. He split his skull in the fall, and managed to get to his atv. He was found, barely alive next to that, where he had got stuck. He never woke up in the hospital. I see no reason to go up that high, especially if you are mainly trying to kill bucks. They are significantly easier to outwit than mature does, especially over the next (3) weeks.

“Breakfast” for dinner tonight.

Try the breasts in a crockpot with a can of cream of mushroom soup and some red potatoes. They are not too bad that way. Not as good as a venison roast, but about the same as cheap beef.

You did it at the right time (when you are relatively young). I did it once, when I was in my 30’s. I don’t regret going that one time, but that was enough for me. Now that I am in my late 50’s, I’d only hunt west of the Mississippi for elk again, if it was free. I would need to be paid a small fee to hunt mule deer again. I remember the first day at high altitude was sort of tough on me. After that, it didn’t seem too bad. I even managed to drag out my spike mule deer buck, 5 miles thru the Rockies, on the last day that I hunted, completely unassisted. Big mistake that was. It tasted like crap, compared to NY whitetail. Maybe that one actually did taste ok, but I never actually got to try any of it. We butchered the (3) that we killed out there together, mine was a 1.5 yr, and the others were a 2.5 yr 4x4 and a big 4.5 yr plus 6 x 5, that our local “host” killed, but didn’t want to keep any of the meat from. He still loves coming back to NY for our “tastey” white-tails, but he could not load that big muley’s meat into our coolers fast enough, when we left for home. The year that I took that trip to CO with my buddies was the only year that no one got any elk. They shared some of that with me, from their prior and later trips, and I thought it tasted just as good or slightly better than your average NY whitetail. I always wondered why the mule deer, from the same general area, tasted so much worse. I also think that they have goofy-looking antlers and hides compared to whitetails. What do the Idaho OTC mule deer and elk tags cost now ? Back when I went, CO elk tags were $ 375, and mule deer were $ 125. My favorite thing about that trip out west was the appreciation that it gave me for the raw beauty of NY’s Adirondack mountains. In my opinion, they are much more attractive that all that “high desert” out west.