wolc123

No crimes committed yet. I sat last night, watching where that bear trail led into the swamp, until 1/2 hour past sunset. At that time, I could still just make out the crosshairs on my old Redfield scope. No bear or deer showed up though. If the wind stays blowing from the south, as it had been all week, I am going to try getting up in there 1/2 hour before sunrise tomorrow morning. It’s real close to my in-laws house. The weather is supposed to be dry and warmer tomorrow and there are a few tasks they want me to help complete, so I won’t stay out long in the morning.

No rain yet this morning up here on the nw corner of the park. The wind is from the sw and it is predicted 50 % chance all day long. I brought my tree umbrella and I suppose I will be needing it at some point. I am back up here on the north end of the ridge where I sat the first (3) mornings, after a (2) day break. Hopefully a doe will show today, or at least a grouse. Just today and tomorrow for an antlerless deer, then it’s bucks only with rifle Saturday and Sunday. Good luck to you.

I am trying to imagine an exit strategy for Russia in Ukraine, that does not end in Nuclear Armageddon, but coming up empty. I wonder if our (4) resident leftists will admit that they made a mistake in voting for Biden, when they feel the thunder and see the approaching mushroom clouds ? At this point, our best hope lies in a Republican retaking of the legislative branch, thru a purge of Democrats of historic proportions, in the upcoming midterms. The Republicans would be well advised to use lots of recent footage of Biden and Harris talking about how they have been “fixing” things, for their campaign advertising. Roll that in with footage of the southern border situation and food prices at the local grocery stores. At least there are no more mean tweets.

Trolled up a few smallies on a small silver shad-rap this afternoon, anchored by this stout 19 incher: They still have plenty of fight left in them, but it’s not going to last much longer as the water temperature is falling fast. The lake will probably be froze over next time we come up on Thanksgiving.

The wind is in my face and I’m loaded for bear (and deer). I just hope that he shows up before 6:41 pm for beach volleyball. I am watching the trail that he used going back home over the ridge last night: Hopefully, I can get 240 gr of lead into “the middle of his middle”, then finish him off with my razor sharp Buck 110 if need be.

I didn’t see any deer or bear sign across the main road on the state forrest last night. I did pass a few hunting camps, on the short stretch of private land, between the main road and the big chunk of state land. A couple of them looked pretty crowded. There’s a private hunting club, of about 6000 acres, behind the 1000ish acre state forrest. I imagine most of the guys that I saw at the camps hunt back there. There were signs up: “logging in process” but I didn’t see or hear any signs of that. I’ll stick to the 400 acres of private land, and 100 acres of water that I have all to myself on this side of the main road, for the rest of the week. Hopefully, those guys will push some game over to this side of the main road. I am going to hunt close to that road on opening day Saturday for sure, because that’s where I blew a great chance at a huge buck two years ago on opening day. I tried a low spot close by this morning, where there is always tons of deer activity after the snow hits, but nothing showed up early. After that, I helped my father in law with some more “heavy lifting” tasks - putting chains on the tractors that he uses for snow plowing. Once again, my arms were in no condition for casting after that, so I trolled a few times around lake, getting a few more decent smallmouth bass on the small silver shad-rap. This fat 19 incher just didn’t want to say “uncle”, and I drifted about half way down the lake before I was finally able to land it on 8 lb line. While we were working on the tractors earlier, my father in law pointed out some bear and deer tracks, where they must have came thru last night, out on the volleyball court, right next to the house. I am going to get setup tonight, downwind of the spot where those tracks led up and over the ridge. I’ll sit in my moose camo pattern chair up there tonight, till 1/2 hour past sunset. No rain in the forecast, so I won’t need the umbrella. Hopefully, it’s a good-eating, easy dragging sized bear of about 200 lbs, if it makes it over the ridge with my 240 gr of lead. I don’t care how big it is, if it goes down on this side, because my father in laws big new Kubota will lift well over 1000 lbs. I’ll guess 253 lbs field-dressed, based on the size of these tracks:

It’s too bad they can’t figure out how to move more freight on rails and get more big trucks off the highway. They are the cause of about 90 % of the trouble I see on the big highways.

Wow, that will make 62 pounds of bad-tasting meat. I’d prefer a 200 pounder and 20 pounds of tasty stuff. Bears are like sheephead. Very little useable meat on them, and the big ones taste like crap. With some folks, it’s all about the skull size though.

Why the orange hat and vest ? Only one is required by law. Is hunter density high where you are at ? Yesterday afternoon, I hunted an unfamiliar state forrest across the road, and there were other hunters around, so that would have been a very good idea. I couldn’t locate any deer sign over there, so I won’t be going back this week. I might, if I had remembered my orange vest, but I know that I left it home. It is highly unlikely that there are any other hunters within 4 miles of where I am right now though, so I feel fine in just the orange hat. I always take it off and place it on top of my tree umbrella, when it is raining. No more of that predicted till Thursday, then clear Friday thru Sunday. Are you staying thru opening week of rifle ? I checked out my opening day spot yesterday morning. Two years ago, I blew a great chance at a monster buck, because of my damn smartphone, from that spot on opening day. I’ll be ready for him this year, if he shows up there again.

I think in that situation, I’d have hacked off the back straps and hind quarters ASAP and ran. You’d still end up with about 2/3 of the recoverable meat.

That’s what I usually try to do. I maybe shouldn’t have pulled up close behind the guy, who had been tailgating me on my drive up here Friday night. I am just so sick of being tailgated, over that stretch of route 3, that I felt the need to retaliate. All I was doing was putting myself at risk. He was driving a much newer truck, than my old 3/4 ton Chevy. No doubt, it had a much shorter stopping distance. Had he slammed on his brakes, and I piled into the back of him, it would have been all my fault. Then there’s the fact that If we do nothing, these dip shits just keep on being dip shits. Maybe my front bumper on his ass, for a mile or so, taught him just a little bit of a lesson and he won’t be so quick to do it again. It did seem like he backed off a little from the next car he was on when I got up close behind him. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t I guess. Thankfully, we won’t be dealing with any of this bs in the next world. As long as I can, I’ll just surround myself with plenty of iron and just keep going. If those tailgaters in the aluminum trucks give me any trouble they’ll get more than they bargained for.

Day 5 up here for me. I had run ins with multiple unidentified deer on two evening hunts, but no morning action yet. No deer seen or heard the last two days. Right now, I am near an old, long-abandoned camp, in a spot that always gets real heavy deer activity, after there is snow on the ground. It’s a heck of a lot tougher up here with no snow, but hopefully one will will show up a little early. The first three mornings, I sat in the spot where I killed a doe up here last year at this time. The wind was right for it all three mornings. I gave it a break yesterday and today, but will probably go back there again tomorrow or Friday. There are young hardwoods, up on that end of the ridge, with nut-producing trees that have often held deer at this time of year.

Another vote for a used T/C Omega 50 cal. Cleanup is easy with T7 powder, foaming bore cleaner, and a bore snake. Cleaning was a pain before I descovered the foaming bore cleaner.

I really like the reddish color of that rack, and how it has the little nub near the end of the right beam.

For deer yes, but not for bear as I’d never be able to drag one out of this gully. I am on state land tonight, so I can’t use my father in laws atv or loader tractor.

I shouldn’t be reading this right now, as I am sitting in a place where the DEC releases trouble-making black bears and I am only armed with a ML and my Buck 110. I was going to stay till 1/2 hour past sunset, but I think I will quit at sunset (6:12 pm). The knife is good and sharp anyhow.

They are not bad, but there is very little meat on them. That’s probably why they are such piss poor fighters, compared to comparably sized bass. A long time ago, my wife and I went down to the Dunkirk area on Lake Erie for an overnight camping/fishing trip. The only food that we brought was a few potatoes, figuring we would catch enough fish to eat. We couldn’t get into any bass or walleye that day. Rather than starve, we kept what we thought was plenty of sheephead for us, and the crew back at the hunting/fishing club, that I belonged to back then. We had done this several times previous, always catching plenty of bass, and the guys would help themselves to all that they wanted. Fortunately, those 3 or 4 camp “regulars” all turned up their noses and went back in the cabin, when they saw us cleaning the sheepheads. I couldn’t believe how little meat there was on those fish. Less than half of what you would get from an equal length bass. There was just enough for my wife and I, to eat all that we could, and we had kept at least (10) of them. I kept the smaller ones, because I thought they would taste better, probably 12-14” average size. We added a little extra garlic and cayenne pepper and they tasted just fine. That was the only time I ever ate sheephead.

I struck out in the morning up on the north end of the ridge, not seeing any deer (3) in a row. The wind has been from the south each day, as it was again today. I had to switch it up a little, so I tried a perpendicular ridge down on the south end, near the main highway. I figured If I hunted close to the steep drop, the morning thermals might carry my scent up out of harms way. No dice and nothing but red squirrels seen there. After lunch, I helped my father in law move patio furniture into the barn and pounded in snow fence stakes across the shore on the north end of the lake. My arms felt like they were going to fall off after pile driving about 40 stakes. I wasn’t up to casting after that, so I trolled 1-1/2 times around the lake, picking up a 15”, 16”, and 18” smallmouth on a small silver shad-rap. The wind is still blowing from the south. I am going to try hunting some state land across the main highway. It’s a different DMU over there (6F), which is open again this year for antlerless ML harvest. It was last year also, for the first time in many years. That state land is so remote, that it is a preferred spot for the DEC to release trouble making bears that they trap in “touristy” areas like Old Forge and Long Lake. I never wasted much time over there because it was closed for antlerless most years. Now that it’s not, I’ll take at least one shot at it tonight, and maybe have a better chance at a bear.

As long as you get the guts out right away and rinse them, there’s no problem. I always save as much blood as possible, forward of the diaphragm, saw thru the pelvis bone, spread out the back legs, then rinse that rear channel out real good, with the fresh blood. I’d much rather have my tenderloins taste like blood than gut juice, piss, or crap. Once I get the carcass to the house, I wipe those tenderloins off real good with paper towels. They have always tasted awesome after that treatment. I had an old Bushnell Banner scope go bad on me in 2018, which resulted in my point of impact shifting about 24” to the left at 100 yards. My first slug passed thru the center of the 3.5 year old buck’s guts, and the second struck about 4 inches higher, breaking his spine. Those tenderloins tasted as good as any, after a quick blood rinse, but I had the guts out in under 15 minutes. All bets are off for sure though, if you leave that mess in there overnight, probably regardless of outside temperature. The above described one, and my 2016 crossbow buck, which was quartering away and the bolt & mechanical broadhead deflected back thru, are the only two where I had to deal with gut juice on the tenderloins. A great many had spilled piss issues and the blood rinse always eliminates any flavor traces of that. I suspect they the vast majority of folks who don’t like those inner tenderloins have had piss, gut juice, or crap contamination issues. There is no excuse for that, when you almost always have gallons of fresh blood to rinse them with.

Yep, smoothbore. I am in a “shotgun only” zone (wmu 9F). I was running low on 12 ga sabots last season, so I had to press grandpa’s old smoothbore 16 ga back into service. I picked up a shit ton of those 16 ga Remington sluggers at a sporting goods store, up in Brewerton for $ 1 a box, at a going out of business sale about 23 years ago. Back in the day, that old Ithaca always shot Winchesters and Federals a little better, but it still has an effective range of about 100 yards with the Remingtons. I use it on real cold days also, when the firing pin on my rifled 12 ga Marlin 512 bolt action has a tendency to freeze up. It was very cold the day after Thanksgiving last year. That buck might have lived to be a 4.5 year old this year, if I had my Marlin 12 ga bolt action that day. I also prefer the old full diameter 16 ga foster slugs for short range work, because they give much better blood trails, than the Hornady 12 ga SST sabots. Even though that slug didn’t punch all the way thru, it knocked enough chunks of rib thru that there was good red spray on both sides on top of the dusting of snow. That was fortunate, because it was pitch black dark by time I got after him and he made it about 50 yards into some jungle like brush after taking the slug, before he crashed down.

Ithaca 16 ga model 37 featherlight, about 40 yards, 4/5 oz Remington slugger. It passed almost all the way thru his rib cage but did not exit. It fell out intact, while I was skinning it. I pressed it back into the spent case and used as as an antler ornament, along with the lower jaw:

It feels like about 35 up here on the nw corner of the adk park. Nothing moving but red squirrels so far. I just finished a quart of hot cider, put on a face mask, and opened up a hand warmer. Going try try and hold out here till about 11:00. Wind is about 5 mph from the south.

Sounds like you are doing it right. I only ever processed one deer that had been left out overnight with the guts in it (outside temp was in lower 40’s). I threw away the tenderloins and made all the rest into grind. It was not as tasty as those that I have gutted right away, but fine for tacos or spicy chile. That was a big doe that a neighbor gave me. There is no way in hell that I would leave a deer that I shot out overnight with the guts in it no matter where it was shot or how cold it was. I’d be out with a lantern if need be.

That’s true, but often that rain stops quickly, and the deer activity picks up immediately, to make up for the lost time. It’s great being in position when that happens, and that umbrella lets you be there right then. That was the case for me on New Year’s Day. It had been pouring for about my whole second hour in the stand that day. Fortunately it was clear when I walked in so I could get set up without getting wet. It let up a little bit towards sunset, and the buck came out for an evening bite of clover. It was still raining when he came out, but not pounding on the canvas like a snare drum, as it was 1 minute before he stepped out of the heavy cover, almost right below my stand. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. Why not be dry, warm, and comfortable while you wait ?

One thing I don’t like about them, is that it is very loud under it when the rain is falling hard. I’d have never believed a deer would approach when that was happening, had not one walked almost right under me on New Year’s Day this year. Also not the best when the wind is intense and the rain comes in sideways.