wolc123

That is a new one for me also. What the anti-crossbow minority of bow-hunters really fear, and a few (like Belo) have openly admitted, is that more people will be able to compete for the same deer and/or the same hunting spots. Never before did they have to worry about those who lacked the time, dedication, or strength to master a vertical bow. The thought of all the additional elderly, handicapped, women and children has them shaking in their boots now. That is just some short-sighted thinking. Anything that can help get more people into hunting will help stem the tide of the dwindling hunter numbers. In the long run, keeping and recruiting more folks to the sport is in the best interest of all of us. Before any anti-crossbow bowhunter can claim not to be in the minority, I will again reference the poll several years ago, in the bow-hunting section of this very forum, that was showing support for full-inclusion by more than a two to one margin at the time it "mysteriously" went away. We will probably never know why that poll disappeared. Was there someone who's "agenda" it did not fit ? Since then, it sounds like even more have switched sides and now support full inclusion. Could that be because everyone grows old ?

Growing up, my dad hunted, but he was way more into pheasants than deer. The wild pheasants were pretty much gone by the time I was old enough to hunt, so we did not hunt much together. I only remember him killing two deer. His older brother (my god-father) was more into deer hunting and showed me how to gut my first kill (a button buck), while hunting with him as a teenager. My grandpa (mom's dad) was really into hunting, especially deer and squirrel, but he died before I was old enough, leaving me all his guns. I learned a bit from friends, consisting mostly of neighbors, and coworkers. Mostly, I learned by making mistakes on my own, and trying my best to avoid repeating them. On rare occasion, I was able to learn an important lesson from someone else. For example, I never walk up on a downed deer, lay down my weapon and get out my knife, until I stick the muzzle of my loaded weapon in it's eye and it does not blink. Had my uncle not learned that lesson the hard way, he would have harvested what he said was the largest deer he had ever seen. Since he was the one who was with me for my own first kill, that lesson really sunk in. I have been hunting deer for 36 years, and for 30 of them, I learned way too many lessons the hard way myself. It seemed that whenever I solved one problem, a completely different one would pop up from somewhere I least expected it. That struggle ended 6 years ago, when a coworker clued me in to what he thought was the source of his own troubles that year, and also of my own good fortune. I had killed a mature buck that year, due to what I thought was just "dumb luck". Mature bucks are rare for me, because I am a meat hunter and usually take the first deer that offers me a good shot. On the morning of that rare feat, I had also killed a fat button buck in the morning, and a friend had given me another, almost identical to it. With two fat button bucks hanging in the garage and ready to butcher, I was not very much into the afternoon hunt, even though it was still opening day of gun season. I figured I would pass some quite time up in a tree reading a book. I headed for the deep woods across the road, where I had not heard a single shot all morning, while our side had sounded like World War III. About 5 minutes prior to legal sunset, the book I was reading somehow fell from my hands, landing softly on the pine needles below the tree my stand was in. I decided to pack it in a little early, but I left my gun loaded as I carefully climbed down the tree. As soon as I hit the ground, a flock of turkeys landed right in the little patch of brush below my tree, some less than 10 feet away. Then the head and neck of the big buck stuck out from behind the brush about 15 feet away. I hit him at the base of the neck, with a slug from my grandpas old 16 gauge Ithaca model 37, killing him instantly. The older coworker explained his troubles to me over that opening weekend on a Monday morning. He had apparently missed a big buck on Saturday and a doe on Sunday. He is an elder at my good friend's church and he very rarely misses a Sunday. He felt bad that he had missed church for the hunt that weekend and he asked me if I had gone. I had, but probably would not have if I still needed meat. Then he asked what book I was reading. He was able to connect the dots, when I told him it was the Bible. He said "I guess you got to have things right with the Lord" if you want to be a successful hunter. In each of the last (5) seasons, I have seen that same lesson played out, as many as four times and not less than twice. I guess it makes sense that the Guy who "knows where every sparrow falls", would have something to do with where whitetail deer end up. It should be no surprise when it is "deer heaven" (our family's food supply). There is really nothing more that I need to learn about hunting, but I will still take all the free advice that I can get, especially from this site. Speaking of that, thank you Chefhunter for convincing me to fork over $ 6 for a Butt-out II. That tool has added at least an hour of "prime-time" over the last (2) years. And where would I be without that PA chest girth chart that G-man so generously provided.

You might be able to if you added a screw to the loop, like Chuck did, so that you did not have to pull the trigger on each shot. That might let you riddle a deer at close range, just like them two outlaws.

May you all enjoy this blessed Holiday.

Something looked familiar about that pose

A few bright spots in it not passing are that I will not need to spend another $300 or more on a backup crossbow, and the archery course will still not be required to hunt with one over the last two weeks of archery. It will be hard enough to hold my daughters attention thru one 8 hour hunter safety course let alone two. In addition, this gives us another excuse to hit the 3 days of legal crossbow, almost a month earlier, up at the in-laws place in the Northern zone. I guess it wont hurt to leave all the antlerless deer unmolested around our farm and my folks in the southern zone until the rut starts. When they give you lemons, make lemonade.

If it does pass, and full inclusion of crossbow is included, the sky will not fall and the world as we know it will not end, just as it did not in the neighboring states of PA and Ohio. I will mostly look forward to getting out there after some antlerless deer with my crossbow, before all the early archery pressure drives them nocturnal as happened the last (4) seasons. I will also fork over a few bucks for an upgraded crossbow, and to have a backup, as soon as I get the word that it passes. The anti's can take comfort in the fact that Oregon remains the only state that has never and still does not allow any deer hunting with a crossbow.

The Marlin also has few features that make it particularly good with a low-power scope. Removing the screw that holds the lever, and taking out the bolt lets you look right thru the bore at a target. Adjusting the scope's zero to that spot usually puts you on the paper, at 50 yards, with the first shot. A side tang, that mounts to the hammer, is cheap and makes it easy to pull it back real fast with the scope. Having a side eject, and the ability to mount the scope directly on the top of the receiver is probably the biggest advantage, over most of the other makes, when it comes to mounting a scope.

I went on my first Adirondack deer hunt, about 25 years ago, with my full-sized, Ruger M77, bolt-action 30/06. While still-hunting thru some thick cover, between the main highway an overgrown pasture, I jumped (3) deer, two of which ran straight away from me, while the third ran off to my left. I found the two that ran straight away in the scope and neither had antlers. I swung the rifle towards the one to my left, but the long barrel hit a branch and I was not able to get that one in the scope before it disappeared. A subsequent examination of the tracks in the mud indicated that one was probably a buck. I blamed having the wrong gun for missing a chance at that deer. When I got home, I bought a new Marlin 336 30/30 with a 3X scope. That compact, fast-handling gun was fun to shoot. That fall, I took it for backup on a Colorado elk/mule deer hunt, where I carried it for Elk on the last day. I fell down on my primary gun the day prior (Ruger M77), while dragging a mule deer carcass thru some rocks, so I was thankful for the backup. I did not see any elk on that trip, and that turned out to be the only day that I actually hunted big game with it. The following summer I fired it at a woodchuck from about 50 yards and missed it clean. I am not sure how I missed, but I did not trust it after that. A friend won a Canadian bear hunt in at a gun raffle later that summer, and I let him borrow it. He said that it worked very well on his bear. I ended up trading the Marlin for a Savage bolt-action 22/250, which I left at my folks place for woodchucks. I did not miss that gun until I started hunting the Adirondacks again, about 10 years later. Once again, my heavy, long bolt-action was just not the right gun for many situations up there, especially still-hunting, thru and around heavy cover, in windy, rain/snow conditions. My father in law has a brand-new, unfired Marlin 336 with a scope still in the box at his house up there. Looking at it, on a windy snowy opening day a couple years ago, made me miss the one I had. Last summer, I traded another scoped Ruger M77 bolt-action 22/250 for a new open-sight, Marlin 336BL 30/30. That compact lever-action should be ideal for deer hunting in and around the heavy cover in the windy/rain/snow conditions where my 30/06 bolt action is so lacking. I have yet to carry it on a hunt however, as the weather conditions on all the days I hunted up there last year were ok for a scope, so I carried my Ruger 30/06 (and did not see any deer). I am hoping for a little bad weather up there this fall, so I can use that Marlin lever action. It seems to work real well for popping jugs of water, off-hand from ranges under 75 yards. I don't really "like" any weapon until I kill a deer with it however. I am also going to try and talk my father in law into letting me use his scoped Marlin 336 up there on "good weather" days. I have plenty of ammo, and will take some up there and sight it in the next time we head up there on Memorial day weekend. I got him a nice whitetail shoulder mount up there already, to decorate his house and now he wants a bear rug. That should be enough to convince him to let me use his rifle rather than just let it sit in a box.

The older I get (53 now), the more comfortable I like to be while hunting. I have a few nice blinds now that allow me to stay out of the bad weather. This year, I am going to remove the lower ladder section from my last high tree stand, dropping it down to a more comfortable level. If and when the day comes that I can no longer get out of the house, I will continue to hunt from my bedroom window, right up to my last breath on Earth. After that, I will continue hunting thru eternity, up there in "The Happy Hunting ground".

Four Seasons Whitetails ranch to roast the "fatted-calf". Chefhunter arrived with his butt-out tool, using it as a bore gauge to verify the "perfect" shot placement and to remove the large intestines as clean as a whistle. The undamaged tenderloins were given to FSW/RWH. He ate them raw, and immediately converted from a trophy hunter to a full-fledged meat hunter, repeating as he wandered off that "its brown-down from now on". Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

You can't legally hunt deer with that one in NY. It is only 11.3" wide uncocked, which is well short of the 17" legal minimum.

I do not support it, but I think a nation-wide ban on all semi-autos is very likely within the next (5) years. The "assault weapon" definition is too hard for the smart-phone stupified masses to understand. Full autos were banned shortly after the previous Valentine's day massacre in the early 1900's, so it should come as no surprise when they ban semi's, after this last one in the early 2000's. I will miss my Ruger 10/22 a little for squirrel hunting, but life goes on. I will miss my dad's Browning sweet-sixteen shotgun a little more. He only let me use it once, on a grouse hunt. I went 2 for 2 with it, and they were both difficult shots. I never got close to that kind of 100 % kill percentage with my pump or side by side shotguns. I would like to see the line stay at full-autos. Bump stocks should be included under that definition.

My father in law has used them in the winter, mostly standing on a concrete floor in an unheated dairy barn, for many years, and he swears by them. He uses colder-rated, but slightly bulkier white ones on the really cold days and nights. About 12 years ago, he gave me a new pair of the black ones for Christmas. They were so goofy looking, that it took a long time for me to give them a try. 5 winters ago, after my feet got cold one too many times while wearing my old felt-lined packs, I decided to give them a shot. The last time I used them was last winter, on a dawn to dusk sit on the last Sunday of ML season, when the temp was in the teens the whole time. My feet have never got cold in them, with just a light pair of wool socks, even during long motionless sits on a stand. I don't find them too bulky or heavy for walking, and the traction they provide has been very good on all surfaces, especially up in the Adirondack mountains. The waterproof feature is nice, but they are low and only good to about 12". I needed to traverse a deep and wide ditch at home several times last year, to retrieve a doe that I shot on the other side. I put one foot down in a foot of water, took as long of a step I could into about two feet of depth in the center, then another step into a foot on the other side. By moving as fast as I safely could, and because the boot fit tight around the ankle, I managed to pull that off twice and stay dry. Unfortunately, the rope I had tied to the dead doe snapped while she was still on the opposite bank, forcing me into two more crossings. By the fourth one, the submerged foot got wet and I was thankful for the wool socks. They are the only boots I have used for hunting in cold weather hunting for the last 5 years , and are showing no signs of wear. I have no reason to consider any other type of boot for cold weather hunting (I am going to leave an long plank next to that deep ditch out back thru hunting season from now on and use that as a bridge).

It is cool that a Canadian made such a big contribution towards making sure his native land still speaks English.

That looks like it will make a nice strudy tree fort.

That tractor will handle an 8 ft three-point disk, or a 10 ft pull-type. The three-points are nice for working smaller plots, but the transports are much more efficient on larger ones. I prefer to use tools significantly smaller than my tractor can handle, because they work better in less than ideal soil conditions. For me, that usually means mud. Having the ability to work thru a little mud and get my plots in on time is very beneficial, because planting windows fluxuate wildly with the weather on our mucky bottom-land farm. For that reason, I use a 6.5 ft three-point or an 8 ft pull-type on a 4WD JD tractor of that size. 4WD tractors are great on disks, because not needing to push a "dead" axle up front thru the soft ground saves you a ton of fuel. You would need about 60 hp, in a 2WD, to handle those same disks. That tractor works great for snow removal, with a 7 ft blade on the back and the loader on front. I mostly push the snow backwards with the rear blade, and use the loader for pushing back the snowbanks at the end of the driveways. Traction on snow is excellent with loaded Ag tires on a 4WD, I previously used an old 2WD tractor with chains for that and always ended up messing up the blacktop with the chains. I would make sure you get a block heater to make for easier cold weather starts and cutting down on engine wear. The front loader is very handy. I bolt a couple pieces of angle iron under it for moving logs, and even made "fork-extensions" for that for lifting the heavy fiberglass cap on or off my pickup. I can dig trees out in under a minute, using a piece of c-channel, bolted under the bucket, as a tree spade. That same c-channel scoop lets me use that front bucket as a backhoe for putting in drain tile. The loader is also a back-saver on some heavier deer. A 6-foot bush-hog is perfect for that tractor. You will probably want a canopy while you are out mowing under the hot sun. That job is not much fun on an open-station tractor without one. I had a big fiberglass-factory installed one on a previous tractor. The first time I used my new tractor without one, on a sunny day, I knew I needed one on it. I spent a few hours making a larger one with a wood frame and an old boat cover. It is not the prettiest thing, but it has held up well for 14 years. It is bigger, lighter and easier to put on and off than that factory fiberglass one was. I take it off (with one hand) for the winter, or when I use the tractor in the woods.

I broke the laminated wood stock on my T/C omega about 10 years ago, and repaired it with Gorilla glue. It has held up very well. Apply water to one side of the broken area, Gorilla glue to the other, and clamp the parts together. That glue hardens stronger than any wood, even laminated.

I have seen that behavior a few times in the Adirondacks, during the late winter, around establishments where the owners dumped little piles of corn from a bucket to feed the deer. It always seems to be the does that are the most aggressive. They are much more territorial than bucks are. Even at home in WNY, the dominant does rule the roost year-round, always picking out the spots for their own family groups, which offer the best combination of comfort, security and food. Bucks and other less-intimidating doe groups are left with the "sloppy seconds". It is not just a late-winter behavior. One time at home in mid-September, during a combo fishing/early goose hunt, I got to experience one of those aggressive doe attacks first-hand. It was pretty intense. I was wearing camo coveralls, that had been hanging in the barn for about a year, and holding a shotgun in one hand and a fishing rod in the other. Clearly, the doe had no idea what I was, and must have thought I was another deer. The coveralls must have completely masked my scent. It was an extremely hot afternoon and as I neared the pond, I noted the doe and a fawn cooling themselves in the shallow water. When she saw me, she immediately charged to within inches, snorting and prancing all around me. She continued this behavior as I walked over to the bank and sat down. The fawn got out of the water and just stood on the opposite bank watching the performance. I tried to ignore it, put down the gun, and started casting (there were no geese back there that time). On my second cast, I hooked into a big bass, and it began to thrash around on the surface. That must have finally clued her in that I was not to be messed with, and she and the fawn high-tailed it into thick cover.

Everything has balance. Lower taxes would mean more traffic and more competition for limited resources. Gun laws make no difference to me, for I have no use for pistols and very little for semi-auto weapons (I would miss my Ruger 10/22 a bit). I have been to most of the lower 48, and there is no state where I would rather live, work, play, and retire than NY. I can take the cold a lot better than the heat. As a meat-hunter/fisher, I think NY is almost perfect, finding it relatively easy to live a substance lifestyle, satisfying nearly all of my family's protein needs, off the fat of the land and waters. I think that would be tougher to do in Alaska, based on some of the "reality" TV shows I watch that are filmed up there. I am very blessed to live half way between our two Great lakes, in a WMU that is grossly overpopulated with deer. In addition, I have unlimited access to family camps in the 1000 islands and the Adirondacks. There is no place (on Earth), where I would rather be stuck, and most of the time it seems like Heaven now. Every time my work or family vacations takes me out of state, I can't wait to get home. The only way I would move would be at gun point. So, my answer to your question is certainly NO.

When my wife asked how I liked this last night, I replied that it was good, but the gravy was a little thin. I suggested that she make soup with the leftovers. The "gravy "was actually beef broth. She chunked up the remains of the roast, along with the potatoes, carrots and onions, then added corn and noodles. The resulting "beef"- vegetable soup that she served for dinner tonight may be the best that I have ever had. It made almost 2 gallons. I will freeze whatever is left after the weekend in quart zip-lock bags to use for lunches at work. Based on how the kids are liking it, there may not be much left for that.

Mature (3.5 yr old "big") venison roast in the crockpot with gravy, potatoes, carrots, and onions. It was good, but well short of a .5 yr old "button" roast in both texture and flavor. At least we will have leftovers for a while. Buttons are my wife's favorite "BB's" but I was not able to get her one of those last fall. The older ones still beat the heck out of any kind of chicken for me.

I will pick two, starting with my national pick, the M1 Garand 30/06. No rifle is more responsible for most of us still speaking English in this country. Without it, German would likely be our official language. The German-engineered Mauser bolt-rifles were no match for John Browning's equally accurate, fast-firing semi-auto. Most folks these days have no clue how close we came to loosing that war. My personal pick is a Ruger M77 bolt-action, in the same caliber, for selfish reasons. This rifle has killed and allowed our family to eat every deer that I have shot it at. Without that "free" meat, more store-bought chicken would have been required to keep us fed. My wife and kids might be ok with that, but I much prefer red meat.

The reason I doubt we will see many human drivers eliminated in the next ten years, is because there has been no indications that a non-hackable and non-glitching computer is even close to development. Looking at the dash-cam footage from the recent pedestrian run-over in Arizona indicates that a human at the wheel might have prevented it. I am fairly certain that I could have, with over 30 years of experience dodging deer in similar conditions. I am constantly scanning the sides and have been able to dodge many by a combination of quick (anti-lock) braking and swerve. That said though, a forward/side-scanning radar linked with the brakes could have likely prevented it even better, and the technology is probably already here for that. That tool, combined with a human at the wheel, would be a big help in avoiding such accidents.

I see five good looking spots. I would have stands at the three points of the cross-hatched yellow triangle and let the wind direction determine which one I hunted, taking bedding areas, feeding areas, and access into consideration. The point closest to field E, or the upper one near the lane might be best early, before the gun opener. After they know it's on, the point closer to the center of the woods would probably be best. There are also a couple inside corners for good stand locations, one below the e in "Google", and another by that field to the south-west. They would be my first choice if the adjacent field held standing corn.