wolc123

Nobody can prove that he did not not accept Jesus Christ as his savior before he passed. If he did, then he is with Him now, and will remain for eternity. That choice is there for all of us.

It is important to note that the membership of this forum supported full inclusion of the crossbow in archery season, over leaving things like it was (14 days SZ, 3 days NZ) by about a 2:1 margin, when a poll was posted in the archery section a couple years ago. Since that time, it appears that more have joined in support of full inclusion. Personally, I support it, but I am very thankful for the two weeks we get now in the Southern zone. Those two weeks include the peek of the rut, which is my favorite time to hunt deer. I am also thankful for those extra three days, up in the northern zone, about a month earlier. I switch over to my ML, over the last 7 days of the early season, up there so I only consider the NZ crossbow season as (3) days. It is nice to be able to get out hunting up there while there is still some good color on the hardwoods. I do believe that opening up all of archery season to the crossbow would improve the DEC's ability to control the deer population in some of the zones where they have struggled. Eliminating the need to draw with deer in close, coupled with the silent report, have the potential to make the crossbow the ultimate antlerless deer killing weapon. That ability has been squandered the last 4 years, because those antlerless deer have mostly gone nocturnal by the time the crossbow was legal. It does not take much early archery pressure to force the wise old does to keep their groups hunkered down by day. I have not struggled filling my bucks tags with my crossbow, but I have yet to get a shot at an antlerless deer with it, for that reason alone.

Sometimes, you can make your own "Luck". Last fall, I "accidentally" fooled one (just a 3.5 year old, which is "mature" in my book) using a sneaky trick. Almost every evening, from mid-summer through pre-rut period, that particular buck would feed in a foodplot, usually entering well before legal sunset. I had a nice, natural ground-blind overlooking this plot, but he never showed up on the days I was in it. Somehow, he always knew when it was safe to feed there. It was almost as if he had some type of magical sixth sense which allowed him to survive his first two antlered seasons. I don't often have a "hit-list", but this buck was on mine from the first time I saw him on the day I planted that foodplot. His luck ran out on the Friday before Veteran's day last fall. I had forgot the adjustable-height chair that I normally use in that ground blind. I went to it anyhow, using an upturned 5-gallon bucket to sit on. I soon realized that the bucket was not high enough to allow a shot over the trimmed branches, which formed the blind. About 1/2 hour before sunrise, I decided to make a move to a two-story blind that was about 100 yards into the adjacent woods. I would not have moved, had I been in that tall, comfortable chair. The wind and weather were almost perfect, so I climbed up to the upper, open deck of the blind. The blind overlooked a spot, back by an old gas well, where every year there was a big buck scrape. I had passed a few small bucks from it, over the three years it was there, but never killed one from it. It was my first time up there that fall, and I was initially disappointed by all the leaves that had collected inside the three walls that formed the shooting rests. Then I decided to try and sound like a buck clearing leaves from a scrape, as I cleaned out those leaves. Using my hands like hoofs, I scraped them all out and down and out over the open side. Then I placed my crossbow up on the rails and got comfortable in the plastic swivel chair that was up there. The buck had entered the foodplot about 10 minutes after I left according to witnesses. He fed on clover just like he always did until something got his attention. His head came up and he stared towards my direction, then bee-lined it into the woods. I caught the motion about 15 minutes before legal sundown. My crossbow was already up and pointed in the right direction. When he reached an opening I squeezed the trigger. He bolted back towards the plot, but I soon heard a crash. I said a quick prayer, for an easy recovery, got down, and reloaded. Hearing the crash, and wanting to use some remaining sunlight, made me decide to only wait about 5 minutes before following his trail. As soon as I made the first turn, I saw the big carcass piled up near the center of the thin strip of woods, the white patches of the throat and stomach still visible in the fading light.

You have (3) good choices: .357 magnum, .41 magnum, and .44 magnum revolvers. Try all three and see what you are the most comfortable with. I have fired them all, and would definitely choose the .44 magnum for your application. It's kick is not much more than the .41, but it does offer the advantage of better ammo availability, including the cheaper .44 special for practice. Similarly, .38 special ammo would be a cheap practice round for the .357. If you can't handle the recoil of the .44 magnum, you could always buy it anyway, and use .44 special ammo for your tracking purposes.

Maybe you have watched too many "dirty Harry" movies. I too was a little scared of the .44 magnum prior to firing one. That caused me to anticipate the recoil, flinch and cleanly miss the target paper at 50 yards with my first shot. Had that shot been at a wounded bear, I may have been eaten. The recoil turned out to be very tame, compared to some other weapons I have fired with a pistol grip, including a short barreled 12 gauge slug gun. Lots of folks are scared of the recoil of a .44 magnum, just because the name sounds tough. Unless you are a small girl, I would recommend giving one a try. You can always visit a range where someone will let you try one before making the purchase. After I felt that "wimpy" recoil on my first shot, the next one struck right on target.

Most of the land I hunt in the southern zone is as flat as a pancake. As long as I am shooting from an elevated position, it is easy to see over the entire trajectory of the bullet, thru the deer and beyond. In this situation the running shots are extremely safe. Shooting towards the ground from above is comparable to shooting into a backstop from the same level. I am most comfortable hunting 6-10 feet above level ground. A fall from such a height would probably not hurt me that bad (it would also be very unlikely considering the 3 ft rails around most of my stands), and there is little worry about where my bullets will end up.

We had one show up on 10/30/2017 in WMU 9f on the other side of the state. My daughter took the photo out of the window that I have shot coyotes from. It was on the pile where I throw all my butchering remains.

I can not recall seeing a double-lunger going much over a hundred yards. I will never forget the first one, a busted up 6-point that my dad shot at the edge of a cornfield with his Browning sweet-sixteen, before I was old enough to hunt myself. That thing ran just under 100 yards, straight between two rows, painting them both red. 40 or so years later, I have yet to take one on our place that did not have a belly-full of corn.

That sounds like a single lung hit. 10 yards away is a pretty steep angle from up in a tree stand, unless it was real low, so you would have had a tough time getting both lungs. Also, the 250-300 yard distance is just about right for that. 14 years ago, I lost and found one (two weeks later with the help of the crows), that expired after a run of almost the same range, on a quartering-away shot with my ML. What kind of broadhead were you using? A wide-cutting mechanical would be best for such a shot. I used my last one this past fall, and definitely need to resupply before heading back out with my crossbow this year. Thanks for posting this, because it helps convince me to get some more. I have yet to have one make it farther than 40 yards after taking one of those. Stuff still happens though, no matter what type of equipment you use, so it is good to have tools for recovery. The dog probably struck out on that one, because he ran away full speed, as most lung-hit deer do, leaving a tough trail to follow after the hole sealed and the visible blood petered out. Had that been a gut hit, the dog would have had a lot more scent to follow. I also used up the last of my "bloodglow" last year, which is a CSI-type tracking agent that makes blood glow bright after dark in the moon and starlight. The stuff works pretty good, but not good enough to find a deer hit outside of the vitals. I think it would have found yours, if you had enough of it. Again, thanks for posting this because it helps convince me to order some more of that stuff. If nothing else, having it in my pack gives me the confidence to archery hunt right up until sunset. Prior to having it, I would usually pack it in at least 15 minutes prior to that to allow for a little tracking light. Some folks don't like to hear it (and I don't care), but I have found a sure-fire way to recover every deer that I have shot at over the last 13 years. That is to keep things in order with He who controls the fate of all living things. Three ways to move in that direction are: read the Bible and pray daily, get to church almost every week, and do stuff for others expecting nothing in return. I only shoot when I am 90% or more sure of a kill and recovery in time for my family to eat the meat (antlers don't do much for me). I give Him ALL of the credit for all of them, especially that extra 10% that I should have lost.

Both is the way to go if you can swing it. My in-laws retirement home is on lake up in the Adirondacks that offers good smallmouth bass fishing and good deer hunting and it don't get much better than that in NY state. It sure is nice to not have to choose between my two favorite outdoors pursuits.

If Treeguy comes up with a reasonably priced scale I will consider that, otherwise I am sticking with the tape measure.

A two-story deer blind made from an old construction-type truck cap. The base platform is a couple feet off the ground with a 3 ft wall across the front and both sides. The cap is bolted down on the wall. A second deck is built on the cap's ladder rack, and also has a 3 foot wall on three sides. That is open on top, for hunting in fair weather conditions. In foul weather, rain/sleet/snow the lower level is great. The side doors fold out and up providing added rain protection and the three foot walls make great gun or crossbow rests. The back is open and the solid end faces the prevailing wind direction. I made two and have taken most of my deer from them over the last few years.

I prefer to kill stationary deer, but with four hungry mouths to feed and limited time to hunt and land access, I don't always have the luxury of waiting for them. Two years ago was great, with (4) offering me standing "chip-shots". We ate real good and even had leftovers for friends, extended family, and coworkers. Last year was a lot tougher, and the only two I shot at were moving, one at a fast walk and the other at a medium run. A third was standing in range, but never got off posted property, so no shot there. I was comfortable shooting at the two moving deer last fall because I had fired thousands of shots at moving targets over the summer. Both deer were broadside. Each took the hit thru the lungs, struck within a couple inches of my point of aim. A key to making those shots was lots at practice at tougher shots - ie smaller targets. Thanks to that practice, I was 90 % sure I could make those shots. I would not have taken them had I been any less sure than that. All that practice was cheap and certainly helped fill the freezer last year. I put an adult sized stock on my daughter's Daisy Red Ryder bb-gun and paid about $5 for 5000 bb's. I used those to cut beer cans in half, as they swung from a tree branch, on a few feet of bailing wire, attached to the clip. As the can gets cut through, and the lower part of the can starts to separate, the remaining strip of aluminum supporting it gets narrower. The wind and bb impacts keep the can moving at various speeds. This is fast shooting, with no running back and setting up cans after nocking them down. An even greater challenge is dropping the top half of the can by shooting off the clip. After enough of that, killing running deer is much like taking candy from a baby or shooting ducks in a barrel. Back on topic, I would also put the .223 near the bottom as a deer round. If you want small and light something like a Ruger American in .243 might fill the bill but is still on the low end of what I would be comfortable with.

Splitting and stacking goes pretty fast by myself. I use a small tractor with 3 point carryall on the back and hitch on the front to move the splitter. I unhitch the splitter near the chunked up logs and back the carryall up next to it, tossing the split pieces into it as I go (holds a little over 1/2 face cord). When it fills up, I drive it over to the storage area/shed and stack it. My splitter operates horizontally (for smaller stuff) or vertically (for big stuff), so very little manual lifting is required. The base is low enough, in the vertical position, that I can roll the big stuff onto it and sit on a chair while splitting and never need to lift anything heavy. The tractor's hydraulics lifts the carryall up to the perfect height, so no bending over is required to unload it. At 53, I can still split and stack all day long for days on end with very little or no pain, but chunking up the big stuff with a large chainsaw does bother my back more than when I was younger, if I push it too long. I minimize that pain by doing all the limbing, chunking up the smaller stuff, and even the finish cuts on the big stuff after rolling, with a smaller, low-vibration saw. I also break up the chunking job with frequent splitting and stacking breaks. I have made adjustments to minimize the pain and that keeps the job of processing the wood fun. When it stops being fun, I may stop doing it and start using more natural gas for heat. My favorite part of firewood production is dragging the logs out of the woods with the tractors (antique tricycle-front in the summer or modern wide-front 4wd in the winter), but splitting and stacking is a close second.

That looks like the view from something Robert E Lee and George Picket may have been a sucker for - cemetery ridge at Gettysburg PA. It was good that they never got it.

I like Stewart's egg-nog. It tastes great and reminds me of fall in the Adirondacks.

$29 at Harbor freight, and much easier to load than a pickup truck.

At this point, I consider the "work" of processing firewood more like "play", and having several lifetimes supply of "free" wood on-site makes it very cost-effective, compared to other heat sources.

I am very thankful for that PA chest girth chart you provided on here last November. It seems to be pretty spot-on for accuracy and saved me the expense of a scale. If I can't scrounge up enough time or reclaimed treated lumber, I may need to spring for a few new store-bought tree-stands this year and attach them to oaks, cherries, or maples. I recently cut the emerald-borer infected ash trees trees that supported 3 ancient wooden ones. It was a little sad thinking about all the venison harvested from them, but I am happy to see those trees going into the woodstove now and I am very thankful that they stood firm long enough to prevent any falls over the last 30-40 years.

As far as what we have in NY, my favorite wild game meat would be whitetail button-buck liver, followed closely by tenderloins, backstraps, and even the roasts of those extra-tender "fatted-calfs". The corn-fed ones are truly in a class by themselves, especially when cooked rare. Next would be ruffed grouse breast, which is also in a class by itself compared to any other bird I have tried. This white meat actually has lots of rich flavor, not the bland, cardboard taste of turkey or chicken. It is hard to beat squirrel in the crockpot, which I much prefer to cottontail rabbit. I have often made mixed batches and the squirrel is always the tastiest. For fish, my favorite to eat is largemouth bass, followed closely by their much harder fighting cousin, the smallmouth bass. These fish have just the right amount of oil to remain moist when baking, grilling or broiling. Perch and walleye are too dry for these healthier cooking methods and they don't put up enough of a fight to be worthy of much of my time. Fish tacos made from grilled, just barely keeper-sized bass are as good as seafood gets.

"if it ain't broke, don't fix it", describes most of the gear I use, however I am willing to part with a few dollars to try new stuff on occasion. Especially if I think it can make things significantly better or expand my options. For example, when crossbows were legalized four years ago, I purchased an entry-level model which has performed flawlessly, greatly improving my archery season success percentage. I also picked a new rifle last year (open sighted lever action 30/30), because I was lacking a proper rifle for still-hunting in rainy conditions. That one has not had much use yet. Mostly, I just use the same old stuff that has worked for years. I find that hunting (or fishing) success depends a lot less on the cost or age of your gear than it does on your relationship with He who controls the fate of all living things.

I only use the wood stove when the outside temperature is below the mid 30's for extended periods. This winter has not had too much of that, which is why we have used a little below average. It gets too hot in the house when it gets warmer outside. It sure is nice having the living area up in the 80's and seeing the heating bills get lower when it is bone chilling cold outside, thanks to that wood. I also enjoy producing the firewood. Having an almost limitless supply available on-site, and all the equipment to make it very easy, makes a big difference. When I was younger and single, I did all the splitting by hand. I do appreciate the hydraulic splitter now, and I am thankful that I let my wife talk me buying it right after we wed. At 53, my arms and shoulders never feel sore. All those impacts can not be good for the joints. Right now, I have about 10 face cords worth of trees down (all ash). I always cut the trees in the winter. If winter conditions are right (they were not this year, or the last two, when we never had more than 2" of frost in the ground), I will sometimes drag a few logs up front for processing. With mud under snow like this winter, I just leave them lay where they fall, tops and all. That way, the buds start to sprout, even though the roots are severed, speeding the drying process. On our mucky, bottom-land farm, there are only two good times for dragging logs: mid-winter on cold years and mid to late-summer every year. Mud on bark should always be avoided, because it quickly dulls chainsaws, and the ruts also damage the land. When it comes to dragging logs out of the woods on soft ground in the summer, it is hard to beat an old tricycle front tractor. It is too bad that the overabundance of lawyers these days prevents their continued manufacture. Getting your steering tires out of the same track as your drive tires makes for a softer footprint in the woods, and considerably less rutting. Forward visibility around stumps is also a lot better on a trike. When the ground is frozen, it is tough to beat a wide-front 4wd tractor with forks on the front loader and a log winch on the back. With this kind of equipment, it does not take much time or effort to knock out a years supply of wood.

I have used slightly less than average so far this winter, or about 7 face cords. On colder winters, I have used as many as 10. I try to stay 2 years ahead and keep the seasoned wood covered under a shelter or tarp. Most of what we have been burning over the last 10 years has been ash, which makes up about half the trees on the 5 acre woodlot at the back of our farm, and most of the trees in the hedgerows. The emerald ash borer is hitting them pretty hard, so it will be a long time before I can get back to burning oak or cherry. Ash makes good heat but it also lives up to its name in making lots of ash to be cleaned out of the stove. Oak and cherry make more heat and leave much less ash to be cleaned up. It is too bad that the emerald ash borer did not get here 100 years earlier, so I could be burning those "cleaner" woods now. The reason many folks like about ash, is that it will burn ok unseasoned, which can not be said for many other hardwoods. That is no advantage for those of us who always make time to season their wood.

It don't get better than that. If FSW/RWH ever tried that he might loose interest in antlers.