wolc123

I shot this doe (37" chest girth) today at 2:30 in zone 9F with my Marlin 512 slugmaster and Hornady SST sabot. The shot was to the neck so not much meat will be lost. Gun season had not been going so well, and I had decided to skip this morning's hunt and take our family to church instead. It comes as no surprise that decision has paid off. One way or another, the good Lord has always provided for ALL of our needs. Now our venison supply is secure for the year, with the 60 or more additional pounds (per the PA game commission table) that this fat doe should provide.

Her chest girth (after gutting) was 37", which translates to a live weight of 146 and 115 field dressed. Edible meat should be 66 pounds per the PA game commission table. I am not sure if that chest girth is supposed to be before or after gutting. Either way, she was heavy enough when water-logged to break the rope I used to drag her thru that ditch. That resulted in me get a pretty good soaker on my left foot. I am thankful that it was unseasonably warm, or my foot would have froze as I made the long walk up to the barn for the tractor.

Gun season was not going so well for me, up until this afternoon. My buddy from work wounded a 4-point, just after sunrise on opening day and we spent about 2 hours of "prime time" looking for it. I went back after dark and spent another couple hours with the "bloodglow" looking more with no success. He had dropped it with a single shot, then texted me that it was down, but crawling away. I wish he would have used another shot or two, because the buck got back on its feet and escaped. I suspect he hit it above the spine, which temporarily parallized the back legs. The only live deer I saw, up until yesterday, were a couple of unidentified tails and buts well out of range. Yesterday a 1-1/2 year 6 point offered me a 40 yard shot over at my folk's place at 7:35 in the morning, which I did not take for three reasons: First, he was 10 yards onto the neighbors land and I was not sure he would appreciate it. Second, the shot would have been thru some thin brush which may have deflected my 16 ga foster slug, dropping the percent chance of a clean kill to just about 90 %. Third, I would not mind saving my buck tag for a shot at a bigger one. I was having second thoughts on my decision to skip this morning's hunt and take the family to church instead, as I laid in bed next to my wife and heard a shot ring out next-door at 7:35. After church, I got up a treestand that is on the back edge of a 5-acre woodlot at the back of our farm. At 2:30 pm, I heard something that sounded a little larger than a squirrel, and noted a deer approaching on the other side of a deep ditch. She was moving at a fast trot, and I led her enough to fell her, with a shot to the neck, when she reached an opening. I left the guts in to drag her thru the water and my rope broke as I tried to pull her up the steep bank. I am guessing she weighed about 150 on the hoof. She is gutted and hanging in the garage, bleeding out now. I will check her chest girth to get a more accurate weight estimate prior to skinning her, and post that with a picture in the harvest thread. The Lord was very good to us today, in providing plenty of venison to last until next year, so the last thing I want to do is weigh her on a "dishonest scale". I guess going to church this morning paid off. They are calling for temps in the 50's tomorrow and Tuesday, so it will be in the deer fridge for her. After a week in there, she should be perfect for processing.

I lost the rope-pulley draw device for my crossbow after killing a buck with it in the late afternoon on a Friday. I had planned on hunting the following Saturday and Sunday to work on my DMP's. I managed to draw the 150 pound entry-level model freehand on Saturday morning, but it was tough on the tendons of my fingers. Once was enough of that for me. Sunday morning, I took about 15 minutes to make up a couple pull handles using a few links of chain, a couple steel grab hooks, hinge pins, and some duct tape. These "field-expedient" handles are much faster and simpler to use than the factory rope-pulley device. A second shot from a treestand might be doable with them. Maybe I can try that tomorrow, where I have a hot spot that is only 300 feet from some neighbor's buildings. The crossbow is legal in that situation (250 ft setback requirement) but firearms are not (500 ft setback required). A double with the crossbow would be cool.

The pressure washer does work very well. Like DH say's, cut off the hide and ears first, then give it a blast. I get suited up in rain gear and place the skull in a wood frame (like an old pallet) out on the blacktop or concrete driveway. You have to flip it over a few times to get all the spots. It also takes me about 20 minutes with a 3200 psi washer to blast everything off. When done, just blast all the remnants off to the side of the driveway. and the birds always have all the mess cleaned up within 24 hours. It is so much better than having to smell up the house or boil in a pot outdoors, and then have to clean the stuff up manually afterwords. There are a few good Youtube videos on the process. This picture was taken with the one on the right, fresh off the blaster, two days after it was killed.

My brother in law makes the best jerky that I have had by a very wide margin. The stuff he makes is in great demand wherever he has brought it. He raises grass fed cattle and gets the best results from a 50/50 mix of lean ground beef and venison. 100% venison is too dry, and 100% beef (even "lean") is too oily. I don't like wasting good cuts of venison on jerky, which is what you have to do to get half-way decent stuff using sliced meat. Grinding the lesser cuts and mixing it with lean ground beef gives you the most bang for the buck (or doe). Right now I am about 25 pounds shy of having enough boneless venison for my own immediate family, to last until next season (our kids love tacos). Hopefully the deer start cooperating a little better for the rest of gun season and ML. That way I can send some his way. He has never killed a deer on his own, but usually ends up with plenty from friends and family because we all like his jerky so much.

I use to keep and eat all the deer livers, but now I only keep those from 6-month old deer. The older ones are too tough. That one looks ok in the OP photo. How old was the deer ?

But with every beat, another hunter or two supports full inclusion. So far I have seen none go from supporting it to not supporting it. The more threads like this we see the sooner it might happen. It would be great if it happens prior to next season. Maybe then I could get my first antlerless deer with my crossbow.

Those black army mickey mouse boots look kind of goofy but, along with a pair of heavy wool socks, they keep my feet warm on stand in the coldest conditions. They are also waterproof up to about a foot. You can find them surplus for $ 40 , or $ 80 new. That is cheaper and they work better than any other boot I have tried. I don't know how they would work for the sweaty footed folks however. Fortunately , I have not suffered from that. One other thing to consider if your feet are getting cold is a better head insulation. A face mask and warm ear flaps help out a lot. Most of the body's heat loss is usually off the head, and blood flow to the extremities (feet/hands) is typically reduced to conserve heat. Less blood flow to the feet, means they get cold. Keeping your hands in a muff, with a chemical hand-warmer can get some heat back in, as can drinking some hot cider (or coffee) out of a thermos. Getting out of the wind also helps. Better boots treat the symptoms but conserving or adding heat deals with the cause.

"The Lord detests dishonest scales," (Proverbs 11). He has no problem with tape measures.

I once killed a big doe, that woke up after getting knocked out by a car, using a pocket knife with a 1-1/4" long blade. Now I carry one with a 1" blade, just in case an opportunity comes along to best that personal record. The key is keeping the blade razor sharp, a good half-nelson with the left arm and finding the jugular on the first cut with the right. After that, it will be bare hands I guess. The local cops appreciate not needing to use their own weapons for that job, and the extra paperwork (and sometimes embaressment) which that entails. Much of this road carnage could be eliminated, if they would just let us hunters have at those deer a bit earlier with the crossbows. In this grossly overpopulated area (9F/9A), a vertical bow is next to useless on antlerless deer, because they always travel in groups and one pair of eyes will almost always catch the draw. 52. How are you able to predict what the DEC will do ? Have you killed deer with crossbows and vertical bows ? How about Reeltime with the crossbow ? Lacking experience with both weapons, what you say is just hearsay and adds no real value to your arguments. I have personally killed more than twice as many deer with a vertical bows than I have with a crossbow, but I also wounded a few with those that I never recovered. My shot and recovery percentage with the crossbow stands at 100%. That makes this personal with me.

We got to keep whittling away. If one or two more can be convinced on full inclusion it is a step in the right direction. Sooner or later it is bound to happen. There is no point in slowing down while we have the momentum.

That sounds awesome, congrats on a great year. My gun season is not starting out so good but I hope to change that this upcoming long weekend up in the NZ. I have scored up there on two of the last three Thanksgiving weekends, so hopefully this one will be good. I am looking forward to a little still-hunting, and some snow. One more deer would top off our freezer pretty good, added to that big crossbow buck and about one and a half deer left over from last year.

This was my fourth season, and best to date. I hunted one of the three days in the NZ (the last 7 days up there don't count because ML is also legal then), and saw two antlerless deer that were well out of range as I was still-hunting between spots. They saw me at the same time I saw them, and I was unable to close the range before they high-tailed it into cover. I hunted five of the 14 days in the Southern zone and saw single antlered bucks on three of those days. The second one was the largest of those, and also the only one that was in range. He might be the heaviest buck that I have ever killed. I think all the rain we had this year really helped them put on weight compared to the drought we had last year. The 2-1/2 year old, busted up 5-point that I killed this season measured 43" girth around the chest, behind the front legs. That amounted to about 100 pounds of boneless venison for the freezer, not only per the PA game chart, but also according to the big plastic meat containers that I use for processing. I have been able to fill my buck tag on the 3 of the last 4 crossbow seasons, but have yet to have an antlerless deer in range. I think full-inclusion would help out a lot there, as the wise old does in my neck of the SZ woods don't take too long to go full-nocturnal after they detect a little early archery season pressure.

I think threads like these are very effective because we are seeing more and more people who were previously against crossbows and full inclusion who are now for one or both of those. By contrast, I have not seen any evidence of anyone who was previously for crossbows and/or full inclusion change their mind to being against. The single biggest issue that seems to sway folks over to the pro-crossbow side, is less likelihood of wounded and non-recovered deer. It is true that a crossbow can still wound deer, but it is far less likely at almost all skill levels. A close second would be age-related health problems. Clearly the anti-crossbow folks are fighting an uphill battle. The ground they are standing on is based only on selfish elitism, which does nothing to help their cause.

I imagine that anti-crossbow organizations, like NYB, have instructed their members to slam crossbows and full inclusion and to use every opportunity in any public place to get the last word in, right up until their dying breath. This dwindling number of individuals have been duped into believing that the sky will fall, despite clear evidence to the contrary, from nearby states like Ohio and PA. At the same time, we are seeing the emergence of pro-crossbow organizations. I have to imagine that the antis now feel a lot like the Rebs did during the Civil War, after Gettysburg. They must be starting to realize that the cause they are fighting for is lost. I agree with the title of this thread and that it is high time we pro-crossbow folks make peace with them and comfort them in this time of the anti's great distress. That is why I keep bringing up the ANTI-crossbow "Mecca" of Oregon, where they could very likely live out their twilight years without the threat of a "crossbow" invasion.

I like it just like it is now. If it is "fixed", and more deer are brought in through habitat changes, then more hunters will follow. There is something special about being able to hunt for multiple days and never running across another hunter. One thing I like best about the hunting up there right now is that it usually gets better as the season progresses, especially after some snow. That is a stark contrast to most of the Southern zone, where the deer go mostly nocturnal after the first weekend of gun season. If you want more deer and more hunters, you already have it in the southern zone. We have the best of both worlds right now here in NY state. That is why I, as a pure meat hunter, consider NY to be the best whitetail state in America. If the trophy hunters don't like it, they have 49 others to pick from.

Full inclusion is likely to happen, because any polls taken of NY state hunters have indicated at least two to one in favor of that compared to leaving it 2 weeks only in the Southern zone, or 3 days in the Northern zone as it has been the last 4 seasons. That includes the poll that was posted on this site in the bowhunting section last year. NY state DEC is also on record of supporting it. When and if full inclusion does occur, there is no need for those bow-hunters, who have so valiantly opposed it, to dispair. Oregon will welcome you there, the only state that allows no crossbows at any time. Not only do they have a good population of whitetails, they also have mule deer, elk, and blacktails. In addition, the scenery out there is the closest that I have scene, in the lower forty eight, to that of NY's Adirondacks. Don't worry, be Happy.

That's cool. It would be nice if everyone thought that way. I have read on here a few times where folks have said they only take shots they are 100 % sure they can make. I guess that is ok if they are good with food from the store or eating out. I prefer to feed my own family with "blessings from Heaven". It sure don't hurt that it is also a lot more fun than standing in lines at grocery stores or cafes.

Thank you for your honesty on the unrecovered deer. Many folks do not have the guts to admit stuff like that on the internet. The most important thing the Bible teaches is to trust in Jesus, and I give Him all of the credit for the two dozen or so deer that He has blessed me with over the last 12 years, as well as those over my prior years where I struggled a bit more. Do you only shoot when you are 100 % sure you can make it ? My number is 90 %. I have been very blessed over the last 12 years that He has given me that extra 10% that I surely would have lost on my own. In the latest case, He allowed me to put more than 90 pounds of boneless venison in our freezer Friday night. I learned yesterday morning, just how much of His help was required for that. I had put a Crossbow bolt thru the "twofur" (deer that produces 2X the average amount of meat), on the previous week Friday, in the late afternoon. I could not find my bolt that evening. I saw it yesterday morning, while back up in the same stand. I had taken the shot in the last 10 minutes of daylight, thru what looked like a good opening at the time. As I stared at the fletching sticking out of the ground, 32 yards away in the bright light yesterday, I marveled at all the small (1/4" diameter or less) branches that the bolt had to snake thru to reach it's target. I counted more than 15. That was my first shot at a deer with my Crossbow in the woods (the prior two were 59, and 15 yards across open fields). I had seen the two 1" branches, a foot away, on each side when I took the shot, but not all the little ones in between. I have never been 100 % sure that I could make any shot on a deer. I had a handful that were 99%, and I actually did not make one of those. That was 14 years ago. My firing pin froze up and my Marlin 512, and it did not go off on a doe standing 15 yards away when I pulled the trigger. She would have been the only doe I ever killed at my folks place, but it was not to be. Maybe she was the grandmother of the twofur that I killed there this year. Only one of my shots was perfect, and that would be my infamous "Texas Heart Shot" which has been referred to on this thread was good for 5 or 6 pages on this forum. The fact that it keeps getting brought up is like the gift that keeps on giving. I judged my chances of a recovered kill to be about 98 % for that shot, at a standing buck at 50 yards. I can only take a bit of the credit there, for putting the bullet in the right spot. My 30/06 holds a 3/4" group from 100 yards so centering the bullet in a 3/4" hole from a rest at half that range was no big deal. All of the credit for lining the buck's body up with the gun barrel, so that the heart was struck, the neck was broke, very little meat was damaged, and the guts came out as clean as a whistle, belongs with He who calls ALL the shots. Several others on here have admitted to taking that shot, but I have not heard of another that was so perfectly executed. They all had to deal with significant messes at gutting time, from what I hear.

He is also the guy who has recovered every deer he has shot at over the last 12 years, and all in less than an hour. Must be "just a coincidence" right ? How has your record been over that time ?

Good advice there from 52 on the Honda. Mine has a 6.5 hp Honda on it and it does run fairly quiet. One more piece of advice on a splitter (or any other intermittent use small engine), is stay away from ethanol gas. My Honda is about 15 years old, but it has been given a new life the last three years thanks to the availability of that ethanol free stuff. It now starts on the first pull again every time, just like it did when new. Since I only split up front near my barn, I would probably look into a big 3-phase electric motor the next time, to make it even quieter the next time, eliminate fuel concerns and get rid of the emissions entirely so I could do it under an overhang.

I would recommend getting one that you can use vertical of horizontal. The vertical position is nice for real big diameter stuff so you do not have to lift it up as high. I am dealing with a bunch of real big ash trees now and it sure is nice to be able to just roll those big chunks up to the splitter and flop them down on the bed. In the vertical mode, it is very comfortable seated in a chair (or on an upside down 5 gallon bucket) in front of the splitter. I did the manual thing for many years and it is not bad for the young. I can certainly find much more enjoyable ways for burning calories now. A problem with splitting wood by hand, is similar to swinging a hammer or shooting a bow. It will lead to lopsided arm development and can lead to arthrits and other joint issues as you get older. Splitting wood with a hydraulic splitter is relaxing and enjoyable. If only I could find a way to make chunking up the wood and dropping the trees with a chainsaw like that. The funnest part is dragging the logs out of the woods with the tractor however. I feel sorry for folks who do not heat with wood.

i just finished getting last Friday's crossbow buck in the freezer. That 2-1/2 year old meat felt like it was aged just about right after hanging 7 days of temps in the mid thirties. I had to do it this evening because they are calling for low fifties tomorrow. After that it looks like good aging temps again for a long stretch. It is a pain skinning and processing on the same day, but I saved a little time by using zip-lock bags instead of vacuum sealing the grind. Now I have plenty of room on the meat pole for tomorrow. For you folks who do not age your venison, try looking up on google what the experts say about that if you do not believe. You will not believe how much better it is if you allow the rigor mortis to break down before you freeze it. Yeah, it is now opening day. Good luck to all of you later this morning.

It does not sound too tomorrow terrible here in zone 9F. The rain is not supposed to start until 9:00 am and the wind is supposed to be 10 mph at sunrise and reach a max of 15 mph at 1:00, then drop back down a bit. I think I am going to start out in my best tree-stand, for the predicted SW wind direction, and strap on my tree umbrella as soon as I get to the stand. I hope to be there 1/2 hour before sunrise. I will leave the umbrella up there, but move to a nearby enclosed blind if the wind picks up too bad and the rain goes sideways. The predicted high temp of 51 raises a concern over the buck that I shot with my crossbow last Friday, which has been hanging in my garage since then. I wanted to give that 2-1/2 year old 9 days before processing, but it looks like he will only get 7. He is going into the freezer tonight. I don't need the stress about "rotting" meat when I am out there tomorrow, and it will be nice to clear the space on the meat hook in case we need it.