wolc123

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.

You might want to keep your eye open for an old refrigerator. That way, it will not matter how warm it gets and you can still properly age your carcass before processing. A 1.5 year old deer should age for 1 week at 33 to 43 deg F. A 2.5 year old should age at least 10 days. Older deer can go two weeks. A fridge works perfect for that. People are always looking to get rid of old ones. Get one and remove all the shelves and drawers. I skin the deer and cut the rear quarters off. Those get hung from the tendons from hooks on the top of the fridge and I rest the front section on the neck at the bottom. Close the door and wait the required time before processing. After you learn how to properly age venison, you will never want to take it to a processer again. The cost savings is just an added bonus. No one that I serve it to has been able to tell that it was not top quality beef.

I did not see any last weekend up in my hot spot up in WMU 6C, unlike the previous weekend, when I brushed a few off from my jacket. Several frosts thru mid-week must have slowed them down a bit. The best defense against them is cold weather. I also treat my bibs and boots with Sawyers for these early hunts, prior to the onset of steady cold weather. Hopefully that will not be necessary for our next trip up there over Thanksgiving. My advice to folks wanting to hunt before the onset of cold weather would be to spend more time out on the lakes fishing instead. Ticks do not do well in the water and the fishing is great in the fall. The deer do not move a lot in the warm conditions anyhow, so you are not missing much (besides ticks).

It sure was warm. Saturday morning was about 40 at sunup and up to 70 by 9:00 and Sunday was warmer yet. It had not rained in over a week and 75 % of the leaves were down and very crunchy in the hardwoods. I did not see any natural deer movement but I did stillhunt to within 50 yards of one on Sunday afternoon, before it busted out of the cover and I could not identify if it had antlers or not. I tried rattling a bit each morning, about a half hour after sunrise. Saturday morning, I fooled another hunter who slowly stalked within 50 yards of my position (without breaking a single twig) until I whisled to alert him of my location. We got a pretty good chuckle out of that, when he stopped by my father in law's place on his gator in the afternoon. I skipped the Saturday afternoon hunt, because I could not have dealt with a carcass in the warm weather and the butcher shop I use up there is closed on Sundays. The bass fishing was pretty good Saturday afternoon, when I landed about a dozen smallmouths on bucktail jigs including a 19 and a 20 incher. The hunting was comfortable in the warm, dry weather, but the deer motion was lacking. I was a little dissappointed to not get some rainy or snowy weather to try out my new open-sighted Marlin 336BL, 30/30 lever. It was good weather for my old, scoped Ruger M77 30/06 bolt-action, so that is all I carried. We are heading up again over Thanksgiving and I hope the weather gets colder by then, and maybe a little snow.

I agree with most of this, however those other motions can be done slowly so as not to alert the deer. The draw has to be a quick movement. A quick movement is exactly what deer are genetically programmed to identify with danger, putting them in a state of high alert. Many deer, which have been "alerted" by catching a glimpse of that draw, end up getting struck high. Usually, that is above the spine and outside of the kill zone. Many bow hunters, especially those who do not butcher their own deer, have no clue how much depth there is above the spine, and swear that their arrow had to have struck below the spine (no mans land ?). This points to the biggest reason why I prefer a crossbow and would like to see full inclusion. Without that mandatory draw requirement with a deer in close, there is no good reason for "alerting" a deer. That should mean less wounded and un-recovered deer. We hear about lots of those every year during archery season (I think there were 2 or 3 last weekend in the "live thread). It is high time that the holdouts put their selfish objections behind them, and let folks use a more efficient weapon if they desire.

That's funny, I have done the exact opposite. I carried a Sharpfinger for many years, but started carrying an old classic Buck 110 that my father in law gave me, about 7 years ago. That old Buck knife is probably more than 40 years old, but it was in like-new condition when he gave it to me. He did a lot of pheasant hunting in his younger days, but not so much big game hunting. It was probably never used, until I broke it in on a early ML doe at his old camp in the Adirondacks, 6 years ago. It did ok on that one, with a factory sharp blade, but not so hot on the next few deer. It does not hold an edge nearly as well as my old Sharpfinger. I continue to carry it, mostly because I do not want to hurt his feelings by using another knife. When I kill a deer at his place, the first thing I do is call him on the cell phone, to get his ATV as close as possible (if I am far enough from his house that he does not hear the shot). He is usually there when I am gutting, and would certainly ask questions if I was using another knife. He carefully watches that whole process and is especially impressed with the butt-out tool (that worked very well for me both times up there last year, but failed two out of three times at home). I also find the folding Buck knife a bit clumsier than the Sharpfinger, and I miss that little notch on the backside of the blade for opening up the belly. I have learned how to get a good edge on the Buck though, and now that is something I make sure to do after every use. The sharpfinger was always good for the season, and sometimes went a few years without needing a touch-up. The Buck hosed me a few years ago, when I used it to finish off a "roadkill" button-buck that a hit and run driver had left at the end of our driveway. It took some tough hacking to get thru to the juggular, and I narrowly avoided being struck in the head by flying hoofs in the process. My daughter, who was holding a flashlight for me, was somewhat trammatized by the ordeal. The knife had lost it's edge, gutting and skinning a couple deer earlier that season. I think I will try and find my old Sharpfinger, prior to heading out at home with my crossbow in a couple weeks. I will continue to us the Buck up at the in-laws place however. It is the least I can do for the free room and board.

The nice thing about using the grind is that you can use the "lesser" cuts, like front shoulders, neck, and rib-meat. I like to cook the "prime" stuff like back-straps, medium rare on the grill, even though it would probably make very tender jerky. My brother in law mixes the ground venison and beef and uses a stainless steel "grease-gun" type tool to squeeze it into little strips that go in the dehydrator. He makes a few different varieties. The kids and I like the cayenne flavored the best. I have had some that others have made from straight ground venison and it is not nearly as good.

My brother in law makes some great jerky from grind. He mixes half venison half beef for the best results. More beef is too moist, more venison is too dry. 50/50 makes it just right. He raises beef, but has yet to kill a deer, so he is completely dependent on others for that part. I will set him up with a little as soon as I kill my next deer. Tough jerky is usually the result of using poorer cuts and/or not aging the carcass properly before processing.

Maybe one. I imagine those brave Mainers on day two of Gettysburg felt a little worse up on little roundtop, when the rebs charged up and all they had to stop them were their bayonets. They all had 60 rounds at the start.

My wife always pickles them for me. She uses an old recipe that my grandma used on beef and pig hearts and tongues. I always liked the tongue better, it is a little more tender. Deer tongues are a little small to deal with. I have a couple beef tongues in the freezer that I will throw in with the first few venison hearts this year. Moose tongue is the best wild game I have ever sampled.

I probably should have treated my jacket also, because a few jumped on it, when I returned to the spot where I had killed that tick-infested buck last fall, and attached my hammock seat to the same tree that I shot him from. I just swatted them off and made sure to do a good inspection in the shower that evening. I will not return to that area until after a few hard frosts, which means it is not happening this weekend.

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Sorry to hear about that. Lessons learned like that are never fun. I learned a tough lesson myself with my ML, 13 years ago, so I know about half way how you feel right now. I shot at a standing, quartering-away buck that was about 175 yards away with my 50 cal T/C, using about the same load. I had a very good rest and my scope was cranked up to the max of 7X. I felt confident in the shot because that gun had held a 3" group from a bench at 200 yards. The buck was standing on fresh snow, which added additional confidence in taking the shot. At the shot, he charged thru a creek and I watched him cross a field, a road, and into a field on the other side. I tracked that buck for about 350 yards, before loosing the trail, never finding a drop of blood on the snow. After a few hours of circling and grid-searching, I assumed a "clean-miss" and gave up. A week later, the crows helped me locate the half-eaten carcass in a little clump of brush about 50 yards beyond my widest circle. The bullet likely struck right about where I aimed, and probably clipped one lung. It was a little basket racked 8-point, and I left it for the mice. The last thing I wanted was a reminder of a piss-poor tracking job on my part. The memories of them "hard-lessons" stay with you longer than those of successful hunts do. I can tell you what I did to prevent any more "major" screw-ups over the last 12 seasons (there has been a few minor ones, including a poorly placed shot that required a quick followup last season). First, I think 150 yards is right about at the energy limit of that load. I would only fire at a deer at that range or a bit beyond if it was standing broadside. There is not enough energy there to penetrate much tissue for quartering to or away shots. That does not explain the 100 yard situation, where energy should be plenty from any shot angle. The way I have eliminated all the "major-errors" is by going right to the top. Jesus Christ has the final say where all living creatures end up (somewhere in the Bible is a verse which say's that He "knows where every sparrow falls"). That is the only book I have ever read that does not contain any BS. I try and read a couple pages every morning. Over the last (3) years, At least 2 deer have ended up in our freezer as a confirmed direct result of that habit, in addition to (3) more "probables". Other folks will give you other suggestions, but I can guarantee that this one works. It also helps a lot with fish.

I sprayed my bibs and boots with permathin, prior to heading up to the NZ last weekend for ML hunting. It did a good job of keeping them off from me. I did not bother re-applying for opening of rifle this weekend, because I think it is supposed to last for a few weeks, even if you wash it. One thing is certain, I will never bring another deer carcass home from up there. I picked over a hundred ticks off from the buck that I brought home last year, before and while I was skinning it. The $ 50 that the butcher shop up there charges for processing is well worth it, just to not have to deal with the ticks. There was not a single one in the box of packaged venison that they sent me home with from the doe I killed up there last year during ML season.