wolc123

Didn't you get one of those 3" or so spikes last year ? I will bet that one was good eating. I hope he has a little brother up this way on Saturday. That would be the wackiest thing I ever saw. Anyhow, thanks for getting this hot-topic to three pages, that might help some folks fill some tags.

There is nothing on line or in the news about it but some high school kids (classmates of the ATV driver) mentioned the deer at lunch today. The fact that there is no hunting within a few miles of there is also part of the problem. Opening those areas to crossbow and vertical bow would be a good idea. It is no wonder that deer cause accidents in areas where vehicle crashes are the only way to kill them legally.

This certainly removes any regrets I would have over killing a smaller buck. I hope that those folks who don't mind eating their tags when they don't have to would put a little more thought into that decision. Filling those tags is especially important in WMU's like 9F (where the latest tragedy occurred) that are grossly overpopulated. I will be sure to post a photo of that little 3" spike for you to ridicule on Saturday if I get him. Maybe I will go for a frontal heart shot with my crossbow if one is offered. That would be about the only angle I have not hit one at. I hope you get the trophy you are looking for.

Does this mean I should not shoot a "baby-buck" ? I recall that you consider 1.5's babies, as well as .5's (button bucks). Are 2.5's ok ?

There was nothing about it in any of the news reports, but the kids mentioned the deer at lunch today.

You make a good point. Maybe I will cool down a bit by Saturday morning. If not, that little 3" spike might pay the price. In 35 years I have yet to fill a buck tag and later loose a crack at a larger one as a result. This just might be the year.

The DEC depends on hunters to get the job done. When a selfish desire of some of them for a larger deer, prevents the filling of some tags, is where the trouble starts.

Only if you had opportunities to but didn't.

I follow that moog and 7600. As long as you fill that tag by the end of the season you should be good. I only passed one 90% or better shot last year and I filled my tag on a larger buck 5 minutes after that pass. It is the tag-eaters that we need to be most concerned about. You fellas have done your part.

Grampy (and a few others) might be a little grumpy thinking about some of the deer they have passed. I am sorry for that.

We can all make a difference if we stop worrying about one-upping each other by killing larger antlered deer. It was tough sitting down at lunch today with a bunch of those classmates, knowing that I had passed on a few deer in years past. At least I am thankful that the one I passed at home last year got killed a couple weeks later by my neighbor.

A dead buck (of any size) can not kill someone but a live one certainly can. Does that make sense to you ?

D Does that mean you have been passing a few ?

What if you pass a little four point, and it survives the season to become a big 8 next year, then comes thru the front window of a delivery van, killing the driver ? That is how the other fella bought it in our town about 20 years ago. I would have a pretty tough time sleeping if I ended the season with a tag in my pocket and had passed a legal deer.

Same here.

We often hear about how folks have "passed" on smaller deer, so that they might get a chance to use their tag on a "more mature" one, or one with larger antlers. I have to admit that I have done that myself. The next time you get an opportunity to do that, think about this a little bit: Today I learned that the girlfriend of one of our girl's classmates was killed last weekend when their ATV struck a deer. She was a freshman in high school. That is the second time that I know of, where a deer has caused the death of a person within 10 miles of our house. What if that deer had been "passed" by a hunter looking for a larger deer ? I had planned on passing smaller bucks for the first weekend of crossbow season. After hearing about this tragedy, I will now target the first deer that gives me a shot, that I am 90 % certain I can make. I don't care if it only has a single 3" spike. We really do not need more wall decorations that bad. I was also not sure if I was going to get the 2 extra dmps that will be available on November 1st, but now I will make sure to get up there and get them on my lunch break on Wed. I will also hunt as often as I can, until my tags are filled. My own family only needs (3) deer this year to last until next season, but the processors will accept all the donations they can get for the hunters feeding the hungry program. It would be selfish of me to pass any deer when I have a tag, so I will not do it again. It is real easy to do, until it strikes this close to home (for the second time).

That looks like it would be a very good blind for crossbow hunting someday, but maybe not until next year . The swivel seat and rail all the way around should allow for a 60 yard range radius, if you have a 350 fps or more crossbow. With a 300 fps model like I have, I would limit shots to 50 yards. I killed my first deer at 59 yards with my entry-level model, but penetration was only 8" (fortunately thru the heart). An extra 50 fps would probably provide plenty of energy for a pass thru at 60 yards, based on that experience. As has already been mentioned, deer may avoid the area for a while, so it might not get good until the end of gun season this year. By late ML season, it may work ok. I moved a big two-story platform blind into a different hedgerow a couple years ago, and the deer really avoided it the first season. Last year it was good for three kills though, including a 2-1/2 year old crossbow buck at 15 yards, and a doe and button buck at 100 yards, a week later. There were also numerous other deer in close to it last year (that got passes). The year before, not a single deer appeared within 200 yards of it, from the start of crossbow, until the end of ML . If you leave that tower up all year, it might be great next season. 3 deer is a record for the most that have been killed from a single stand in a season at our place. A shotgun slug would be ideal from that stand in that type of cover. The deer might feel safe sneaking thru the surrounding brush, and deflection from a branch strike would not be as great of a concern with a relatively slow moving, large diameter shotgun slug, as it would be with a rifle bullet or arrow/bolt. Cammo up to the rails is a good idea to hide your motion as you rotate your body to make a shot. I wrapped the upper platform of my blinds with old barnwood, up about 3 feet, and it keeps me hidden very well. The deer never know what hits them. Good luck with it this season. You will not be needing any luck next year.

Welcome to the forum. You are wandering in the right direction for sure. There is no place on earth that I would rather hunt deer than NY's Adirondack mountains. I have been around a bit, and the scenery up there is second to none. It is hard to put into words what that adds to the deer hunting experienced. "Best in world" scenery, combined with minimal hunting pressure, is a tough combination to replicate. One drawback is that it is addicting and can cause the hunting in other areas to loose some of it's luster. Another, if you are hunting the more remote areas, might be the flavor of the venison. They say the "bark-eaters" are not so tasty. The four that I have taken from the edges of the 6.5 million acre Adirondack park, near agricultural areas, were just as good as those from the corn fields of home however.

Like to, cant. I finished wire wheeling it shortly after it started raining this afternoon. It cleaned up pretty good. Then I spent about 10 minutes getting it razor sharp with a stone. It should be good for the season now. I am really looking forward to trying it out next Saturday. Hopefully the deer cooperate. Some colder weather would be great.

With SZ crossbow opening next week, maybe we could use a "heart shot collection" here, since there is one in the bow section. This was my first shot at a deer with a crossbow (300 fps Barnett Recruit) when they became legal in 2014. I suppose it is a little easier from a rest, with telescopic sights, than it would be with a vertical bow. Oddly enough, my first antlered buck with a vertical bow was also a heart shot.

I tried rattling, using a rattle bag last Saturday,on opening day of NZ rifle season. I had located some deer down in a swamp, the week before, during ML season. I got set up downwind of that swamp Saturday morning. I rattled about a half hour after sunrise. I tried it again a half hour later. After about 10 minutes, I noted a dark shape coming up out of the swamp, in my direction. It looked too tall for a deer. At first, I thought it might have been a bear standing up. As it got a little closer, I noticed "it" was wearing a bright chartruse-colored hat. My own blaze orange hat was hanging above my head on a branch. I suppose it blended in with the bright colored leaves and the other hunter did not see it. It was only when I whistled, after he had closed the distance to about 50 yards, that I got his attention. I will say that he did a very good job keeping silent while stalking through the crunchy leaves, because I never heard a sound. He never would have gotten that close to a deer however, as he was walking directly downwind. When he heard the whistle, he waved, turned and disappeared back into the swamp. It turned out to be a neighbor, from down on the far end of the lake. Later that afternoon, he stopped by my father in law's place and we got quite a laugh out of the episode. It was too hot for any natural deer movement anyhow, and we were not overly concerned about the loss of any good hunting opportunities. Even though no deer was involved, that will be an opening day morning that we will not soon forget. The lesson here is that when you rattle, don't be surprised if you fool more than deer. It would be a very good idea to wear some blaze orange if you do it during gun season. I don't like doing it during archery season (although it can be very effective then) because the bucks are always very alert when they respond. They are actively looking to get attacked by another buck. Shooting at an alert deer with a sub-sonic weapon is a recipe for "string-jump", and a poorly hit deer. I have tried the rattle bag a few other times, but it has never brought in a deer. It is much easier to carry than my set of "real" antlers. I have used those to rattle in a few bucks over the years. 4 or 5 responded during archery season, the last of which I struck in the shoulder blade due to the "string-jump" issue mentioned earlier. That was the last time I tried it with a bow. The last buck that responded was a giant that I may have called in from the other side of the road, during SZ late ML season, about 7 years ago. I watched that pair of deer cross the road and run across a big open field towards me, less than a minute after I stopped rattling. A doe was in front and got into range, but the trailing buck veered off, taking a short cut to catch her, and did not offer a shot.

Good News, I found my old Sharpfinger this morning, in the bottom of a silverware drawer in our kitchen. It looks a little rusty, but nothing a wire wheel can't clean up. I found the sheath down in the basement a few weeks ago, while I was sorting thru some old hunting and fishing gear. That find, coupled with Daveboone's mention of that model, really intensified my search for that "long-lost knife". The knife and sheath must have got parted about seven years ago, when I probably threw it in with some bloodied up meat trays and grinder parts for my wife to wash after I finished butchering. Washing dishes and vacuum sealing is usually the extent of her contribution to the butchering process. Her dad gave me the Buck 110, a few weeks after I "lost" it, so I did not try real hard to find it. I am glad I located it now, just in time to get it cleaned up and sharpened in time for crossbow hunting at home and at my folks place next weekend. The Buck 110 will be my "Northern Zone" only knife from now on. Using it over the last 6 seasons has made me long for that easier-handling, better edge-holding Sharpfinger.

I prefer to age them by hanging in my insulated garage, with the hide on, but only do that when the predicted daily high temperature over the 1-2 week aging period is less than 55 degrees. The hide not only keeps the meat from drying out, but it also insulates against daily temperature fluxuations (too cold at night or too hot at midday). (3) years ago we had nearly perfect aging temperatures from the rut to Christmas. The last two years, the "deer" fridge did most of the aging. This year is shaping up to be more of the same.

Man that is sad. I remember getting more than $ 40 for avg. sized raw coon pelts, back when I was in high school. A few of those, and a bunch of $ 8- $ 12 muskrats easily paid for my first boat and outboard motor with plenty to spare. Also, you could buy a lot more for $ 40 back then. A coon today will not even buy you a whopper at Burger king, certainly not the lobster and filet minion that it would get you back then. It is no wonder that coon populations are out of control and rabies and distemper runs rampant. Oh well, the buzzards got to eat too I suppose. This will be the last weekend trapping for me, as I will use all my spare time to hunt deer with the crossbow, starting next Saturday. There is more corn than ever left for them here this year, thanks in large part to the (8) coons, (3) possums and (1) skunk that have met with an early departure.

What do you think coons will be fetching this year ? I got a decent sized one this morning in a Duke dog-proof baited with cat food. He was dispatched with a .22 to the head and is currently "resting" on the creekbank, about 100 yards behind our house. I am sure the buzzards will find him within the hour. There is still time to save the hide, which looks reasonably prime. At this point in the season, a dead coon is worth about $ 17 to me in corn savings. Those taken prior to Labor day are worth double that in corn savings but the furs are not as good. One nice thing about taking them after trapping season opens is that they can just be thrown out in the field for the buzzards, which saves time compared to burrying the ones taken earlier.