wolc123

Thanks for posting this. It reminds me that I have to make a whitetail deer neck roast or two this season. I have been wanting to do one for a few years now, after reading on this site how good they are. I always forget about it early in the season and something always happens to foil my plans later. Two years ago, my 150 gr 30/06 bullet took out the neck-roast on its way out of my last buck, and last season my 12 gauge SST struck a little farther forward than I intended, on my last doe's shoulder blade. That made a bloody mess out of her neck. I wonder what a giraffe would taste like .... horse maybe. I never ate one of those either, but would not hesitate if given a chance. There would probably be more meat in the neck, than the hind quarters.

My wife has never and will never hunt, but she is a very good cook and loves venison, as do our daughters. She use to fish when we were dating. We got married on the third Saturday in June and spent the next week bass fishing on the Indian river lakes and the St Lawrence river (during the daylight hours). She lost most of here interest in fishing after our daughters came along (we did other stuff at night). Our younger daughter is into fishing and even outfished me once on smallmouth bass this summer. Our older daughter is into shooting a little bit, but not hunting. They are both really into high-school sports, which does not leave much time for hunting and fishing. I am thankful that they all love venison and fish, which saves me some cash on food, and keeps them pushing me to hunt and fish. It is a lot easier for me to to make time for those pursuits, when my wife and kids encourage it.

There has been global warming and global cooling for as long as the Earth has been around. What's the big deal if it is getting warmer now ? The folks who are blaming it on man sound kind of silly to me. God has always and will always be the one at the controls. At some time in the past, it must have been a lot warmer. Fossil records indicate that the shore of lake Ontario was all the way up to the Onondaga escarpment. There must have been a lot less ice at the poles back then, for the lake level to be up that high. I think it is kind of cool that I no longer need 4wd to get back and forth to work thru the snow, and I don't use as much firewood as I use to. It also seems like it is good for upstate NY real estate value.

My sister and brother in-law had our older daughter up to their cottage this weekend, to hang out with her cousin. I met them near a thruway exit this afternoon. About 5 miles from home, I stopped at a 4-way stop that was installed recently. Like most other drivers, I rarely bring the car to a complete stop at those, but I did that time. About (2) miles later, on a desolate crossroad where the brush grows close on both sides, I looked up to see a big doe bolt across, just inches from the front of our car. We were traveling around 55 mph and the time was about 6:45 pm. Our venison supply is dwindling, but I sure don't want to get one that way. I have had quite a few close calls driving to and from work, but that was the first one with family onboard. It would not be so bad with my old pickup truck, but we were in a small car. God sure got a big thank you for that miss. Thanks for the reminder Larry. One thing is for sure, I am going to get all my DMP's for 9F this year. It looks like a trip to Walmart will happen this week, to pick up the first two.

You hit the nail right on the head there. That is always the first thing I do when I find them.

What I like best about that Simmons 22mag is it's durability. My 10/22 is frequently carried around uncased behind the seat of my pickup or on a carryall on the back of a tractor along with traps, shovel and bait. The scope tube is scratched and dinged up, but it never seems to loose its zero. Even at a hundred yard range, I kill more crows than I miss with it, when they are pecking at the carcass pile behind our house. This woodchuck never even twitched when struck in the side of the head with a Rem yellowjacket. I cant imagine why anyone would want to dump more money into a .22 scope.

I have a couple of friends who have camps in that area. One of them gets 1-1/2 year old bucks regularly (usually spikes and 4 points, with the occasional 6-point, but I have never known him to get a "mature" buck. The other guy rarely sees much action, and it has been a few years since they killed any deer at their camp. It is tough to get doe permits there now, so the deer population must not be so great. You can check that out yourself on the DEC website if you are serious about coming out west. The local fire-hall use to run a pretty good snowmobile dice run every year, but I am not sure if they still do. They also do a decent gun-raffle every year, for which I have contributed a bit of cash over the years, but never won a gun. I don't think the hunting justifies more that that price on the property, but if there is any timber there, you might be able to cash in on that to recover some of your purchase cost.

The Simmons .22 mag on mine has been flawless for the 20 or so years that I have had it. I treat it rough and it always holds zero. They are about $ 40 new from Amazon.

I use (3) different guns in the big woods of the Adirondacks. Two of them have got the job done on every deer I fired them at. I am still waiting for that first shot at a deer with the third, a Marlin 336BL 30/30 with open sights. Some day, it may earn the top spot, but the jury is still out. I can not call a gun that I have not fired on a deer with my favorite, but it is definitely the most fun to carry. I like how compact it is, how quick it is to get off fast followup shots (the big loop is great for that), and I like the open sights for rainy and wind-driven snow conditions. I did not see any of that last season up there, so I never even carried it in the woods. It did very well on the target range though, popping gallon jugs filled with water almost every time out to 75 yards or so. My current favorite is a full-sized Ruger M77 30/06 with 3-X Redfield low-profile widefield scope, and loaded with 150 grain Federal classic bullets. It has a few issues, including a well-rested clean miss on my first and largest Adirondack buck, back in 2014. I know for sure it was a clean miss, as was my second rushed offfhand shot, because the autopsy showed only one hole. I am about 90 % sure that the first miss was caused by a branch strike. Fortunately the third, well-rested shot struck right on the mark and dropped that heavy buck dead in his tracks. That rifle also killed my last Adirondack buck very cleanly in his tracks with one extremely well-placed shot, and got the job done in the big woods of Colorado on a mule deer. The rifle is a bit heavy and bulky for lugging around the heavy cover and steep hills, and I am not overly fond of the scope in rain and snow, so hopefully the Marlin lever-action will fill in those gaps. My T/C Omega 50 cal muzzle-loader has also gotten the job done every time up in the Adirondacks, but it has the same weight, size, and scope issues as the Ruger centerfire.

My enthusiasm increases as our venison supply decreases. The grind has been going especially fast lately, and I hope it lasts until mid-October when northern zone crossbow and ML season open up. The first deer this year will all go into grind, except the backstraps and tenderloins. I have been ramping up the target practice, on the back deck with the BB gun, and hope to have the zero checked on all the real guns and crossbow by Labor day weekend.

What ML/load are you using ? I have a 2-7X Redfield low-profile widefield on my T/C Omega 50 cal, shooting 100 grains of triple 7. That combination has been deadly on deer every time (about a dozen total) out to about 200 yards. The energy gets a little marginal out that far, but the accuracy is still very good. Quite a few years ago, I Iearned a hard lesson when I gave up tracking a deer I thought I had missed at that range a little too soon. Now I limit my range to about 150 with it, only use it during ML season, and assume EVERY shot is a hit until PROVEN otherwise. Fortunately, I have not struggled to find a deer that I shot at with any weapon, in the dozen or so years since that mishap.

We also got plenty on this side of Tonawanda creek from that one. It had to be well over an inch, because our pool overflowed. I have to get back and see how much it brought our pond level up. It was down to about 4 feet deep at the end of the this summer's drought a couple weeks ago. It holds about 8 feet when full. I dug it 6 foot deep, 25 years ago, and it dried up for the first time, in early October of 2016, after the big drought that year. The drought that year lasted a lot longer than the one this year. I used the opportunity to scrape out all the sediment accumulation and I went a couple feet of deeper into the clay bottom. I put some fresh Lake Ontario bluegills and largemouth bass in there last fall. Maybe I will take the kids back and see if we can catch any now that recent rains have given them a bit more room. The deer sure have been using that pond through the drought based on all the tracks in the mud. Hopefully, that last rain gets the turnips I plated last Sunday going good. My nephew brought me a big bag of leftover soybeans, so I am all set now on seed for a few wheat/soybean/white clover plots. Those will go in after Labor day on my remaining buckwheat ground.

Have you ever canned venison ? My mother use to do it when I was a kid, and it was always pretty good. My buddy killed a moose, that the taxidermist estimated to be 8-1/2 years old, a few years ago. The roasts that he had in the freezer were pretty tough. Those that he chopped up and canned (using a pressure cooker) were tender and excellent tasting. Eventually, he thawed out the rest of the roasts and canned them too, which made them all good and tender. That canned old-moose stroganoff over noodles is one of the finer meals that I ever remember at a hunting camp. I am sorry but canned vegetables just don't do much for me, so it is hard for me to get excited about that. To me, vegetables are what food eats.

There are a lot of good crossbows out there these days. With the trouble in your left shoulder, it will be important to have a good shooting rail on your stands. Some crossbows are awkward and front-heavy. A shooting rail eliminates that issue. Some of the compact models actually handle pretty good for offhand shots, and are not so front heavy. The Barnett Recruit that I purchased for $ 250, four years ago, falls into that category. It has also held up very well and has got the job done all three times that I shot it at deer. Each of them dropped dead within 40 yard from where they stood when they took the bolt. I probably will not purchase another crossbow until full inclusion happens. When and if it does, I may upgrade slightly, to something with a little more speed, such as the Centerpoint sniper 370 (the Recruit is only 300 fps). The Sniper looks a little more front heavy, but that should not be an issue for me since most of my blinds and stands have shooting rails. The accuracy of these crossbows is spectacular, especially when fired from a rest. Energy still limits their range however, and my 300 fps Recruit is really only effective on deer to about 50 yards. Penetration was marginal beyond that. The one time I went a bit further, I never would have found the buck within 40 yards, had the bolt not struck where it did (heart). 370 fps should make an effective 60 yard deer killer. One other advantage of the light-weight, entry-level Barnett Recruit is that it has low draw weight and is easy to draw. In the excitement after killing a heavy buck with it last fall, I lost the rope-pulley draw device. I was able to draw it without it on my next few hunts, but doing it hurt my fingers a little. I made up a couple of t-handles with short pieces of chain and hooks, which eliminated all the finger pain. I can reload the crossbow a lot faster with those, than I could with the factory rope-pulley draw device. That would be a big advantage if there ever was a need for a second shot.

16 ga shotgun, (3) different 12 gauge shotguns, 30/06, 50 Cal ML, (2) different compound bows, crossbow, dull Buck 110 knife, and a sharp Buck key-chain knife (1-1/4" blade length). The small, sharp knife worked a lot better for slitting the throat than the big dull one. These days I always carry a pocketknife with the second blade ground down to about 1" long and always kept razor sharp. Most of my kills have been with the shotguns (I live in a shotgun/ML only zone), but there were a few years when I was able to take at least one deer with shotgun, bow (or crossbow), rifle and ML. The rifle kills have increased since the in-laws moved up to the northern zone a few years ago, gaining me access to a sweet spot up there. I have to drive thru a town that does not allow hunting and is infested with deer to get to and from work every weekday, so it takes some very careful defensive driving for me to avoid killing any with a vehicle myself. The two that I dispatched with knifes had been struck by hit-and-run motorists.

I am not sure if you can handle the truth, but as far as your question about the innocent little children: Sometimes He has more important work for them to do upstairs. There is no pain or suffering up there (for those who accept Jesus Christ as their savior). No strings attached, it is as easy as that.

We only got a few drops from that one. I am hoping for more now. I found a small bag of leftover turnip seed down in the basement today. I used some of our winnings from a bass tournament that we fished yesterday to buy fertilizer. I managed to get a small plot in on some of the ground that was buckwheat. I love turnips for ML season. I worked a lot of 10-10-10 into the ground with the drag prior to broadcasting and cultipacking, so there should be some good growth if we get a little more rain. They say maybe Tuesday.

I am sorry that you are lost Rob. I will pray for you. Think about picking up a Bible and reading it a bit. What could that hurt ? I am glad that this website places no limits on "Jesus" talk. It sure is a target rich environment for "lost souls" such as yourself. Remember, that it was Storm that brought Him up this time, but I am glad you took the bait.

The Guy upstairs watches everybody's back, along with every other living thing. When He say's your time is up, it don't matter what you carry. That is why it pays to stay on good terms with Him.

We have got about an inch and a half over the last two weeks, on the other side of Tonawanda creek, in zone 9F. The corn is looking good now and is starting to tassle. That rain also woke the grass up around the house, so I had to mow it again. Not needing to mow the lawn is the best thing about a drought. I cut the white clover plots one last time after the 1" rain on the 25 of July. Those are also looking good now, especially since the additional 1/2" of rain that we got last Saturday afternoon. I will not have time to get any turnips in this year, but I do plan on putting in a couple small plots (maybe 1.5 acres total) of wheat/white clover/ soybean mix sometime in September. The buckwheat is looking real good in those spots now after those couple rains - lots of pretty white flowers. Hopefully, I get my $30 for that seed back in venison this fall. I have some leftover clover from last year, about a bushel of wheat, and my nephew thinks he can come up with some "free" soybeans.

It is kind of refreshing to read about the snow-folks during mid-summer when it is so hot outside. Thanks for posting.

My long range rifle experience is extremely limited. My 30/06 bolt-action with a 3-9X scope got the job done one time at little past 300 yards with a 150 gr bullet, but it took (3) shots to hit that deer. I am about 90 % certain that it was a branch strike that caused my first miss from a good rest. My second shot was rushed offhand, when the buck was moving (slow), so it is no wonder that one missed. Fortunately, that one got his attention, and he stopped walking just as I reached a tree to rest the heavy rifle on. The third, well-rested shot struck right on the mark, dropping him dead in his tracks. That experience has taught me to only take a shot, at that kind of range, at a standing deer, on a calm day, from a good rest, and across an open field. The deer moving when the super-sonic bullet is in the air is of absolutely no concern to me. As long as it was still when the shot was fired, there is minimal chance of that deer getting out of the way before it strikes. I definitely have to thank the good Lord that those two misses did not cost me any venison, just a couple little pieces of lead. I am also thankful that I learned, a long time ago, to assume every shot is a hit until PROVEN otherwise. Without that lesson, I would have never taken the second and third shot at my first and largest Adirondack buck.

It depends on how many days you are planning to hunt. If your only plan on getting out a few times, then two spots might be ok. My best hunt from any stand is very often my first one, each season. The reason for that is: each time you hunt a spot, you leave scent behind. Deer are mostly nocturnal, so even if you see nothing by day, they will smell the scent you left behind, when they visit the area at night. That is also one of the reasons why I don't use trail cameras. I am the only one who hunts on about 100 acres total in the southern zone, between my folks place and our place, and I currently have (10) stands and blinds on those two farms. That gives me coverage for various wind conditions. Each season, I tweak the location of stands a little, mostly based on what happened and what I saw on the previous season. This afternoon, I located a good tree to move a stand to over at my folks place. I am also very short of free time this year, so that move, and lowering a high tree stand to a more comfortable elevation at home, will probably be my only "tweaks" this year. Less pressure means better hunting, and my hunting at home in the southern zone has got a lot better the last 5 years, since my in-laws moved up to the northern zone. Now I hunt half as much at home, but still average about the same number of deer here as I did when I hunted twice as much. We have been eating real good when you throw in those "bonus" deer from up north. The deer are fewer and further between up there, but the scenery is many times better and the hunting pressure is many times less. Up there, I mostly hunt from a seat on the ground, always picking an optimum spot based on the wind. I also still hunt between spots, but have only taken one deer that way, compared to (3) from the seat. With 500 acres of private land up there, adjoining 6.5 million acres of public, there is no reason to hunt the same spot more than once a season, or at least not more than one on a long weekend.

We are in pretty good shape right now, with about 20 packs of grind left. There were only two deer for me last year, but the first one was big and yielded about 2 times the average. We get most of our protein from venison and it usually takes (4) average sized deer to make it thru a year. I had a very good year the before, so we went into last season with about a deer and a half, vacuum-sealed in the freezer including lots of grind. We still have many roasts and even a little back-strap left. Our kids just love venison tacos, so the grind is almost always the first thing we run out of. (2) years ago, we ran out of grind the first week in October, but still had a lot of roasts left. I was ready to thaw and grind a few, but fortunately I was able to take a Northern zone doe with my ML, the following week. The fine folks at Nolt's in Lowville ground the whole thing, except for the back-straps and tenderloins. The grind we have now should get us thru till mid-October, when hopefully the new stuff starts coming in. I don't like grinding roasts. I am really hoping for a button buck this year as it has been a few years since we were blessed with one of those special treats. The last two were given to us by others. I have not shot one myself since 2012, so I am way overdue.

The southern zone ain't too bad, the way it is now, since those 2 weeks includes all of the rut. I don't mind having October available for small game hunting and stuff and it is usually too warm to deal comfortably with that much meat at that time anyhow. It would be nice if the nothern zone got (2) weeks, prior to muzzleloader, rather than just the (3) days they have had for the last (4) years. Time marches on, and as it continues to take it's toll on the anti's, more and more of them will come out in support of full-inclusion.