wolc123

My grandfather, on my mom's side, was really into hunting. Unfortunately, he suffered a stroke and was bed-ridden before I was old enough for him to take me hunting. He also loved fishing and was able to get me started on that. I think I inherited my love for hunting and fishing from him. He left me his modest collection of gun's and fishing equipment in his will. He passed away the year before I got my first hunting license. I killed a lot of deer with his old Ithaca 16 ga, including my largest antlered buck. I also killed my second largest antlered buck, about 5 years ago, with that gun. My dad was never that into hunting, but took me out rabbit hunting a few times. I don't remember getting any with him. My first kills were squirrels, on my own, after school, in the woods across the street, with my .22. My dad's side of the family always did an opening weekend deer hunting trip to Allegheny state park. When I turned 16, I went with him for the first time. I did not see any deer, but he said that a bear ran right between us (about 50 yards apart). I did not see it either. I don't think you were allowed to shoot them the first week in the park back then. The following year on that trip, I killed my first deer (a button buck naturally), with gandad's 16 ga, while hunting with my dad's brother, who is also my God-father.

Would you consider yourself a trophy hunter ? As a meat hunter, it is hard for me to imagine better deer hunting than we have here in NY state. There is no place I would rather hunt. I am sorry but I find all of your posts nearly impossible to understand. It seems like you turn everything backwards. For example, in this case I said I was ok with 3 pt per side AR's but not 4 pts. What gives?

I was never a fan of turkey, even the farm raised stuff. That is the main reason I did not go after them when I was up there this last Memorial day weekend. My wife and kids love it though, so I would have went after one for them but I was scared of ticks, and I did not hear any gobbling around the lake at daybreak like I did a few years ago when we were up there at that time. Up on the NW corner of the park, where my in-laws live, there is some Ag including corn. That might explain why the venison from up there tastes as good as it does at home in WNY. It might also make the turkeys taste better than they do down on the SE corner of the park, where you hunt. Didn't you say that the deer don't taste too good down there also ? I guess the only way for me to find out if the turkeys are good, from up there, is to shoot one in the fall with my crossbow. I think the fall Turkey season ends the Friday before ML season, which should give me up to 3 days to get one with my crossbow. Maybe I will be blessed with such a "target of opportunity" while I am deer hunting. The only bird I ever liked the tasted of was ruffed grouse, and the ones from the NW corner of the Adirondacks are every bit as good as those from WNY.

I have never had venison that tasted bad, including several bucks that were 3-1/2 or a bit older. If the meat is properly aged (that means 1 week minimum for a 1-1/2 year old, 10 days minimum for a 2-1/2 year old, and 2 weeks for a 3-1/2 or older, at 33-43 degrees temperature, then they all taste about the same and have similar texture. 6 month old deer are in a class by themselves, and are tender and great tasting even without aging. Even they are a little better after 3-4 days of controlled temp aging however. The livers are another matter however, and the 6 month old ones are all that I keep. 1-1/2 year old deer livers are a little to tough for me to enjoy, and the 2-1/2's are worse yet. By contrast, beef liver stays pretty tender up to 3 years of age. The poor taste that others have experienced can probably be explained my improper aging after the kill, A sloppy kill that caused the deer to suffer before expiring, or deer from remote areas that don't get any quality feed. I am always amazed by the volume of hunters who have absolutely no clue how to properly age venison, and then wonder why their wives and girlfriends turn up their noses at the meat. Here is a tip for you: Learn how to make that venison taste good and she will encourage you to spend more time (and money) on hunting. Whats wrong with that ?

AR restrictions of 3 points on a side, for the first two weeks of archery and gun seasons, might be a good compromise. I would still only be for it if it can be shown, by looking at data from PA, that AR's improve hunter safety. I could see where slowing folks down a bit and forcing them to identify their target might improve safety. Without proof of that, I would prefer no AR's. 4 points on a side AR's for the whole season (as was proposed for my home zone of 9F in the subject bill) is a definite no-go for me, so I am glad it fell thru.

What do you use ? I spent a few hours this afternoon beefing mine up a little. It has served me well for about 25 years, but was in need of a little reinforcement. I made it to help get ready for a hunt out west. A few years before that, my uncle, who lives next-door, had his nephew (on my aunt's side) drop off a big truckload of stumps, behind our barn. He thought he was getting "free firewood", but it was just a big pile of unsplittable garbage. I dragged them back to the far corner of our longest hayfield and heaped them up in a pile with my grandad's loader tractor. I added a few buckets full of dirt a few times over the years, as they rotted down. At one time, I had marked stakes every 50 yards out to 500 yards, but I have been mostly shooting just out to 100 yards lately, now that all of my hunting is in NY. I still check the 300 yard performance of my rifle, every other year or so. Getting my hair parted one time, by a slug fired by a neighbor at a deer, convinced me of the importance of a good backstop for target shooting on our farm that is as flat as a pancake. That backstop has stopped thousands of bullets over the years. I know for sure that it did it's job at least one time, and that alone was well worth the time and effort it took to construct. I was on my 50 yard bench with my scoped 16 gauge slug gun. Just as I was squeezing the trigger, I caught the red color of an atv in the scope, behind and approaching the backstop. It was too late to stop the bullet, for the sear had already released, and it was on it's way. The lead would have been just about perfect. I had on earmuffs, so I never heard the machine approaching. Me and a friend, who was in a hedgerow behind me cutting firewood with his chainsaw, both heard the yell of the rider. We ran back there to check for blood or worse, but found nothing. The rider had escaped with just a good scare, thanks to that backstop. Another memorable incident that happened back on the range, was when I was checking the zero of my deer rifle in the early fall, prior to archery season. I was alone back there at the time (or so I thought). The rifle was resting on a shooting stand, on my 100 yard bench, and I walked downrange to change targets. I looked back up-range and saw a young buck walk out of the adjacent brush field. He walked right up to the rifle (that was pointed my way) and placed his nose next to the muzzle. I was quite sure there was not a round in the chamber, but the thought went through my mind of the headline in the newspaper "Deer shoots hunter with his own rifle". Last October, my 1/4 acre pond, which had held water for more than 25 years, dried up completely after the worst drought we have had in my 52 years. I took advantage of that opportunity to clean out all the sediment that had built up over the years, and also made it a few feet deeper using my 4wd, loader tractor. I ended up with a big pile of dirt next to the pond. Today was a great day to move all that dirt back to my backstop with that tractor. It has a nice canopy, which made it very comfortable under the blazing sun. Now my backstop would probably stop an armored piercing artillery round, for many years to come.

That is the probably the one I will buy when and if NY allows full inclusion of the crossbow. It looks significantly more front-heavy than the Barnett recruit I have been using the last (3) seasons. That should not be a problem for me because all of my stands and blinds are equiped with nice rests. I will probably continue to use the recruit for stillhunting thru cornfields, after getting the sniper. My 300 fps recruit has plenty of punch inside 20 yards. I also killed a heavy, 2-1/2 year old, busted up 5 point (was an 8 point before the rut) with it last season at about that range. The bolt penetrated diagonally, all the way thru his body, striking behind the front shoulder and exiting the ham on the opposite side, then burying a few inches into the dirt. The accuracy is certainly there, but I was not real happy with the energy performance of the recruit at longer range. That extra 70 fps of the sniper should correct that issue.

My older (13 year old) daughter is the exact same way. She wanted to stop at Subway today on the way home from lake Erie. She does ok fishing when the fish are shallow. The bass were hitting at about 25 feet today and that was a little too deep for her and her Zebco 33. She did do a fine job netting the (3) I hooked into. She was on the fence about going today, but I coaxed her into it by offering her $5 per hour plus a $1.00 bonus for every"keeper" bass (12-18"). She said that it was more fun making money that way than it is from babysitting. Maybe I will try and break her in on driving the boat for a little salmon trolling out on lake Ontario later this summer. It only takes me about 30 minutes to drive there. It was very nice out on lake Erie today, with moderate temperature, light variable winds, and just enough sunshine. I would have liked to get have gotten out a little earlier (she slept in until 8:00 am) but at least we hit the boat launch when it was not too crowded, both launching at 8:45, and retrieving at 11:45. The drive to lake Ontario is much more enjoyable because I can take back roads all the way. The highways around Buffalo are busy and in very rough shape. I would much prefer to eat the fish out of lake Erie however. We have enough fish to eat in the freezer now, so I will go for the sport of the lake Ontario salmon for the rest of the summer. The kings and steelhead usually start putting on a pretty good show by the end of July.

Cool looking fish. My older daughter and I were out on Erie for a couple hours, just before lunch (she got up late and I had to get in early). The smallies were hitting ok on the shoals in front of the Lakawana windmills. We got enough for one quart-sized pack of fillets (2) 17", and (1) 16". That is probably the last time I will be able to get out there this year, so that will probably be it for the "cleaner" fish. They sure were healthy looking, fat and fiesty fighters. All the rest of my bass are going to be the pcb/mercury/lead-laden ones from the Adirondacks this fall, unless maybe we can squeeze in a late summer / early fall trip or two down to Findley or Silver lake.

A few years ago, we were going thru the toll stop where rt 81 exits the 90. My wife and two daughters were back in the truck camper where they liked to ride, and because we would not all fit in the standard cab pickup I had then. The girls waved at the woman taking the tolls from the window of the upper bunk, She yelled loudly and angry at me: "Hey you can't have kids riding back there". As I pulled away, I replied "You got your rules and I got mine". I am sure that she meant well, but I asked my brother in law (a State trooper) when we reached camp, if I was breaking the law. He said, as long as there is an adult over 18 back there (my wife qualified), then it was ok. Now days, all of the "happy campers" get to ride in an extended cab pickup. We all liked it better when they rode in the back, but I suppose they are a little safer now.

My brother in law gave me an old John Deere LT150 a few years ago. It had a similar issue with a safety switch and I was able to by-pass it, I think I ended up clamping the sensor down. I like this mower a lot better than my other cheap gear-drive one because it is much easier cutting around all the trees and such with the hydro transmission. Before we left for vacation a few weeks ago, I thought that transmission had failed or the drive belt needed replacement (a major job) because the wheels would not turn when I stepped on the pedal. It turned out that 3 of 4 motor mount bolts had fallen out and the motor was pulling away from the belt when I hit the drive pedal. I was able to get one in on the opposite diagonal relatively easy, and it works pretty good like that for now. The other two are harder to get at, but I will try and replace them when I find the time. Too much fishing to do right now however. Good luck with it.

If you can keep some pods, it will be a good gun season and ML spot. Usually they steer clear of soybeans during the "yellowing" stage that lasts most of archery season. They always hit them the hardest right after they sprout, which is why I like adding some to my late-summer planted wheat/clover mix plots. Also, it is always easy finding "free" left-over soybean seed at that time. That way you get some of that "prime attraction" in early archery season, and then the wheat comes in to hold them, with the clover kicking in the following year. Unless your deer density is very low, you will probably need an electric fence on two acres to allow some pods to make it until archery season. Another less-expensive, easier option that may work is a couple strands of 20 pound test fishing line, one about 15" high and the other about 30", ran between "t" posts, around the plots. I did a lot of salmon fishing years ago and that was a good use for my old line. That worked for me for quite a few years to keep deer out of my pumpkin patch. Eventually they wised up to it and got in, effectively putting me out of that business. My kids have to buy their pumpkins now.

I was in a bad snowmobile wreck (involving a head on collision with a pickup truck) when I was a little younger than that. Full leathers protected me pretty good, but I dislocated a hip. The doc told me that there was a 9 out of 10 chance that I would need a hip replacement within 5 years. I guess that the blood flow to the ball joint usually gets severed during a disconnect. That was more than 25 years ago, and I have not had any trouble with it after they poped it back in at the Olean hospital, so long ago. I will say another prayer that he will be ok and I am glad to hear that he is doing a lot better. Keep us posted.

I was cutting clover with the bush-hog this afternoon, and got it about half done. There is a lot of timothy hay in the last big field. I saw a "horse" farmer neighbor at church this morning and I told him that I would leave that for last. He said he would cut it and bale it for his horses if some of his own hay gets rained on before he can bale it. I would say the odds of that is pretty good considering all the rain we have been getting. Horses do a lot better on timothy than they do on clover. If you keep taking the hay off a field every year, without adding fertilizer or manure, it keeps getting thinner. This field has not been baled in about 5 years, so it is pretty thick right now. I would not mind him cutting it, as it would save me about 10 gallons of diesel and thus lower my input costs a bit this season. The deer don't like that timothy much anyhow, compared to the clover in the smaller fields.

I skipped the sweet corn this year, after about 4 straight seasons of dismal results. It was too dry last year, too wet the year prior. This year looks like it is shaping up pretty good for that but my ground will benefit from the extra year in clover, so next years crop should be good. I usually like to get in a little sweetcorn because it makes it easy to eradicate the coons before they can get to the field corn.

I have not been out there since fathers day and it was very windy that day. We launched out of small boat harbor and got (6) "keepers" (five smallies and one LM) inside the black-rock canal along the outer wall (the wind was not so bad there). I usually fish jigs if the wind is not too bad, or troll large hot-n-tots if it picks up a bit. We spent a day in the Adirondacks and most of the first week on the St Lawrence, getting mostly smallies on jigs and LM on wacky rigged plastic worms and spinnerbaits. As a man over 50, the state advisory allows me to eat one meal per month of fish from up there, so I am definitely set for the year. Women and children are not supposed to have any however (I suppose it has something to do with mercury or lead). That is why I am hoping to secure a few more packs of Lake Erie bass, which the rest of the family is "allowed" to eat. They all love fish. It gives them a nice change from all the venison I suppose.

If you do or if you ever do, would you have any sympathy for them if they got hooked on drugs ? Also, thanks for "bumping" Jesus back up again. That is always a sure fire way to get a "like" out of me. You sure can't have too much of Him when people are looking for answers to the drug epidemic. He is the "secret weapon" that can help folks kick that habit.

We did ok the last few weeks, but could use about (3) more quart packages of bass fillets in the freezer. Hopefully the wind and rain stay down Monday morning out on lake Erie. My older daughter was on the fence, but I talked her into going with an offer of $5 per hour as first mate, with a bonus of $1 per "keeper sized" (12-18") bass. She jumped right on that deal.

I usually aim for "knee high by the fourth of July". Today was one of them rare days when, if you look close enough, you can actually see it grow. It takes warm weather, lots of moisture in the ground, nitrogen, and plenty of sunshine to make that happen. At about 3:00 pm this afternoon, after grilling the girls some deer-burgers for lunch, I stood on the edge of my 2-1/2 acre plot and watched as it grew past my knees.

Another advantage of having that "CSI" stuff available, is that it makes it easier to give deer that are hit with an arrow in the late afternoon a little more time before you start tracking. They say that the bloodglow works best when it is good and dark. Just about everyone agrees that it is usually best to give them some time before tracking, regardless of what tracking tools you use. In the late afternoons, I would often cut that wait time down to 15 minutes or so, to take advantage of the remaining daylight. I can still remember finding my first archery season antlered buck, only by catching a glimpse of his white belly in the last minutes of daylight. He was lying dead on his side in a patch of bushes about 100 yards from where he was struck. He was 15 yards from my tree stand when I arrowed him. The arrow pierced his heart, but entered the boiler room high and there was no exit wound. With the pump out, there was also no flow, so not one drop of blood to follow.entered high and did not exit. I might have lost him without that last minute of daylight, had I not started tracking when I did. Now, if I don't see them go down or hear the crash, it will be 1/2 hour wait minimum no matter what time of day they were hit. The only reason I would speed that up otherwise, is if the coyotes reestablish a foothold in the area. Fortunately, there are real good trappers to the east and west of our place, and they are doing a fine job of keeping them controlled.

Do you have any kids?

There are lots of lost folks like you out there. Don't worry about it too much because there is room for everyone in His kingdom. Fortunately we live in a country that still identifies as 75% Christian. There may or may not be other cures for drug addiction but many folks have found that this one really does work.

I will give you a clue, you can find your answer in the Bible. Here it is for those with little time: Faith in Jesus Christ will eliminate anyone's need for drugs. It really is that simple.

I know what one I am going for (see Texas heart shot thread) if I have my scoped 30/06 and a good rest. Placing a bullet within 1/8" of a pinpoint is a piece of cake for me with that in that situation. Hit that spot and the deer dies instantly and all you loose is a neck roast (been there and done that). I can't tell the difference in meat quality between a 3-1/2 year old and a 1-1/2 year old. The controlled aging time required before processing is about two weeks with a 3-1/2 but a week will do it on a 1-1/2. The 3-1/2 will normally provide about 2X the meat so that is worth the wait and a much better use of my buck tag.

I think it includes three packets that you open and mix with water or windshield wiper fluid in freezing weather and spray on the trail with a pump sprayer. Each packet is sized for an "average" track job. If it turned out to be a real long one, you could use all 3 and/or dilute it a little more. It is advertised as working even better in rainy conditions. I would not expect it would help recover a deer struck in the shoulder blade with an arrow but those usually heal up anyhow. It should find most that die within 8 hours including single lung, liver, and gut hits. It is supposed to show tiny drops of blood that you can not see with the naked eye in broad daylight. It sounds almost too good to be true but I am not willing to try a bad hit on a deer to find out. I hope I never need it on a deer I shoot. I know that I am not perfect though so I may need it someday, or better yet, might use it to help someone else find one.