wolc123

The WW & clover mix should do good for you. Winter wheat is more attractive to deer than winter rye and it will keep the weeds at bay, allowing the white clover to develop good for next season(s). They like oats even better, but the first good frost kills that off and will probably hit early on this "cooler than normal" season. The wheat should give you some good attraction this fall. It is often hit or miss with the turnips. On our farm, they hit them real hard after a hard frost, but at my folks place (about 20 miles away) they never go near them.

I would like to see a year round open hunting and trapping season on coyotes. That way, more folks could get in on some of that "lightning" action, after the hay is cut.

Happy birthday. I will have to try that Hammondsport someday.

We try not to skip too often but like I said, they got more out of watching "Miracles from Heaven" than they usually do from a church service. I am glad to see that you are still following this thread.

Lakers that size ^ are pretty tastey, cut into steaks and grilled over tinfoil and fresh off the cob sweetcorn. Much better than chicken and almost as good as ruffed grouse.

The "church" thing reminds me of another little "miracle" that we got to see last weekend. In addition to clearing the parking spaces at the public boat launch, and calming the river with a couple of well-timed showers on Saturday afternoon, He answered a prayer from my youngest daughter in church on Sunday morning. We had skipped church the week prior due to a schedule conflict. We did watch the movie together that evening (see thread title), and I think the girls got more out of it than they do from a typical church service. I had noticed her and her sister in a conversation before the start of this Sunday's service. There were no other young kids there then, and they had talked about going up front for the "children's sermon" that was shown in the printed schedule. At 13 and 14 years old, they thought they were a little too old for that, but they thought that the guest pastor had probably put a lot of effort into writing his "kids" sermon, and that he would be sad if no "real kids" showed up. About 2 minutes before it was scheduled to start, I noticed her hands folded in prayer next to me in the pew. She whispered to me that she had prayed for some kids to show up, so that she would not have to go stand up front with her sister. Less than a minute later, a father and mother with three young kids walked in, just as the guest pastor was walking to the center to start his "children's sermon". My daughter looked at me then and smiled, for now they were off the hook.

The answers you are looking for may be found in the Bible. No book is easier to find and it has led the national best sellers list for almost 2000 years. It does say in there, that God created the fish of the sea, the foul of the air, and the animals of the earth, for man to eat. It also specifies what types should be eaten. Whitetail deer and smallmouth bass fit the descriptions of the types that are proper for man to eat, but I am not so sure on the bears. Those "rules" on what types can be eaten have lost all or at least most of their significance since the death and resurection of Jesus Christ. He paid the full price of all of man's sin up there on that cross. I would be very interested in your "non-religious, agnostic" take on the film that is the subject of this thread. It would be worth a couple hours of your time to check it out. Your clicking and active participation on this thread shows that you are at least open to a religious discussion, which is a very good thing. The film does a very good job, near the end, of showing how "miracles" are all around us in everyday life. Nothing really happens by chance. For example, those thunderstorms that bracketed the time that we were on the river Saturday served to "calm the waters" by eliminating most of the big boats that usually stir it up into a raging froth on weekend afternoons. The Bible tells us that "calming the waters" is something that Jesus Christ is an old pro at.

I was thinking the same thing. Way too big for deer ticks.

That is why I would stick with the lighter bullets (150 gr) in factory loads. They would keep your pressure down compared to the 165's and 180's. You could probably get away with the 165's, if your rifle is in real good shape, but why push it ? That is way overkill for deer. If I had one, I would feed it with the Federal classic 150 gr bullets that have dropped my last two Adirondack bucks, dead in there tracks, from 300 and 50 yards. I imagine that I would tire quickly of lugging that big 12-pounder around the mountains however. It would be neat to use at home on DMP tags, from a blind with a good rest, if they ever decide to let us use rifles here in zone 9F.

He came thru good on the fishes this afternoon. (10) 14 - 18 " smallmouths, out on the upper Niagara river, between the 2:00 and 6:00 pm thunderstorms, plus a few shorter ones that we released. I just finished vacuum sealing (5) quart packages of fillets. Accu-weather was spot-on with their predictions, which changed our plans (we were going to hit lake Ontario for salmon). Those thunderstorms on the river made for a nice uncrowded, free, public boat launch. They also eliminated a lot of the big cruisers which tend to run up and down the river all day long on the summer weekends, creating wakes that make it very uncomfortable out there in a small craft. Smooth waters and hungry, hard-fighting smallmouth, it don't get much better than that. Thank you Jesus.

It is awesome that we have a hunting forum here that is so open to religious discussions. I can not think of many other hobbies that position folks better to receive blessings of God's grace. Well, maybe one other. Hopefully, He will bless us with a few fish this afternoon.

If you "don't believe in god", then where do you suppose you came from ? Evolution maybe ? Where did it start ? Basically, you are saying that at some point, something came from nothing. Do you really believe that is possible. Sorry, but that sounds just plain dumb to me. Don't worry though, your clicking on this thread, with this title, shows that you are still searching and that there is there is lots hope for you yet. See if you can locate a Bible, read it a bit, and maybe you will find your way.

I think it would be selfish (i.e: sinful) of me not to share what I have learned to be true.

I will take a shot on a deer if I believe that I have a 90 % or better chance of making a clean kill. What is kind of percentage do you look for ? How has your results been over the last 10 years (any clean misses) ? I figured that I had a 99 % chance of a clean kill at that "slightly" quartering-to crossbow buck from a range of under 15 yards. How many years have you hunted ? I was 99 % sure that the "Texas-heart-shot" rifle buck (50 yard range) would be killed quickly, but I was not expecting it to be so clean. I lost less meat on that one (a little bit near the exit wound at the front of the neck) than I did on the crossbow buck, where the mechanical broadhead passed diagonally thru the body. I was even more surprised that the guts came out as clean as a whistle, and a lot cleaner than the crossbow buck where the mechanical broadhead cut a wide swath from lung to butt. That Texas heart shot was as close to a perfect shot as I have ever made on a deer. I have heard others (including two or three on this forum) who have killed with that shot, but never so cleanly. There is a lot that goes into a "perfect" kill-shot. First, it has to strike the exact location where it was intended. In this case, I was able to verify the location with a bore gauge (Butt-out II). Second, since a "live target" is 3 dimensional, it has to be aligned perfectly with the projectile's path. Third, the point of aim has to be such that the greatest circular margin of error exists to allow for inaccuracy. Fourth, it can destroy no edible meat. Grampy, I appreciate your reply and I hope to extend my own streak in the coming years. If I had less hungry mouths to feed and more time to available to hunt I would raise my own shoot/don't shoot percentage to 99 % or so. I don't expect perfection but I do know where to find it. I have been practicing a ton with open sights this summer and I hope that pays off in a cleanly killed buck with my new lever action deer rifle this fall. I hope that Jesus blesses you with one with your new scoped bolt-action also and I am glad to hear that you give Him some credit for those you have taken in the past.

It might happen Grampy, but it has not in the last 10 years and I give Jesus all of the credit for that. As I have said before, about the only thing that I do not enjoy about hunting is being unable to recover deer that I have shot at. If it happens this year, you can trust that I will post it here for all to see. If I make a mistake, my hope is that others can learn from it and hopefully avoid making the same one. You might recall a thread I started last season on that very subject, where I tried to explain a "less than perfect" shot that I made on one of four deer that I killed then. I felt bad that the big doe suffered for a few seconds before I was able to deliver the second finishing shot. It was my own fault for trying to conserve ammo and not using enough of it on the target range. It also cost me a chop or two when the first shot struck above the spine rather than below as I intended. I made a mistake three seasons ago also, on the largest-bodied buck that I have ever killed. Careful investigation last fall showed me that the likely cause of my first well-rested miss at about 300 yards was an unseen branch. I could curse Jesus for that branch but I have to thank Him for providing another, to rest my rifle on, so I could bring that buck down dead in his tracks with my third shot. We got to eat real good that year as a result, and my father in law got the local wildlife "wall decoration" that he was looking for for his new Adirondack lake house. What some view as mistakes, I view as "learning experiences". Ideally, you learn before you shoot. How has your record been over the last 10 years ?

I have a bunch of WWII ammo made in 43 and 44 for them. They look like 156 gr FMJ bullets. I don't see why something inexpensive, like 150 gr Remington Corelocts would not work in it for deer hunting.

I give Jesus all of the credit for bringing me thru some physical trauma twice, that I should not have survived. Each time there were lots of prayers by family and friends. When God-fearing folks do not survive, I can only assume that the mission He has planned for them in Heaven is more important than on Earth. I lost a very good friend and hunting partner to ALS, while I was recovering from my last major deal. He was one of the first ones who stopped to see me when I was released from the hospital, but he was gone (on earth) before I was able to return to work. That disease is much crueler than Cancer and I don't know that anyone has ever beat it. I tried my best to get him to "see the light" before he passed, and I trust that I was successful and will get to do some more hunting with him someday.

You are implying that there is a limit on what He can do. How do you explain those who have recovered from cancer after the doctors tried all known treatment options and gave up ? How many deer have you hit (or missed) and not recovered over the last 10 years ?

Spot on there. Veterans day is always the peak of the rut (Sat Nov 11). I put in for that Friday off, two more days earlier in October for northern zone crossbow/ML season, and a half a day for Friday of the last weekend of late southern zone ML season. Hopefully, I will be tagged out by then.

I am sorry that you are scared. Nothing drives out fear like belief in Jesus Christ.

It's good to see all the posts on this thread, which is clearly all about religion. This is very relative on a hunting websitse, because I would have liked to know at 25 what I found out at 50, concerning the connection between Jesus Christ, and the fate of every living creature. If I knew then, what I know now, the (6) deer that I wounded and lost more than 10 years ago would have ended up in my freezer. If I can help someone else avoid making those same mistakes, then that is great.

I wonder what lesson He was trying to teach you and JR with that one ?

garden hackle

That's interesting. I hope Olcott and Wilson will be open for launching. My brother said that the St Lawrence was down about 1.5 feet last weekend, from it's peak earlier this year, at his place up on the St Lawrence. They are just down-river of Alex bay.

Welcome to a great site. What part of the Adirondacks are you from ? The only problem I have with the Hunting up there is it makes what we have back here in Western NY loose much of it's appeal. I would take a small Adirondack 6 point over a big flat-land 12 point any day. The scenery up there, and the lack of pressure makes all the difference. It definitely gives you a taste of what the hunting must be like up in Heaven, that's for sure.