wolc123

Shooting games can be fun, but the cost of ammo and difficulty of locating it (I don't reload), can take much of the enjoyment out of it for me. It was not so bad, back in the old days, when it was just me. My daughters started getting into shooting just about the time the doomsday horders began scarfing up all the .22 rimfire ammo, and that really put a damper on things. To correct that issue, we now do most of our target shooting with BB guns. That is a short range game, but it can still be fun and challenging. 5 cents for 100 shots is the best part. Our favorite shooting game involves hanging pop cans by the clip from wires attached to a tree branch, about 15 yards off our back deck. The winner the one who cuts their can in half the fastest and/or with the least number of shots. 50 to 75 shots is usually about what it takes. The challenge increases as the can swings from the BB impacts, or the wind. It gets real challenging when the bottom half is hanging from the last narrow shard of aluminum. Shooting the clip off to drop the top half adds even more to the challenge but usually takes many more shots. I have done that several times but my daughters are not quite there yet. Not only is this BB gun practice extremely cost-effective, but it is far less disruptive to the rest of the family in the house and the neighbors. My favorite gun to use is my younger daughter's $30 Daisy Red-Ryder, which I put another $40 into with an adult- sized stock and a "big loop" steel lever. My older daughter has a $30 Crossman 760 with a factory scope that is a little better for pinpoint accuracy but has a much slower rate of fire. I liked shooting that Daisy so much that I got myself a Marlin 336 BL for deer hunting this fall. It is almost exactly the same size as the BB gun, but weighs about twice as much. I was pleased with the ease and speed at which I could pop water-filled jugs at 40 yards with that 30/30 Marlin after all that open-sight BB gun practice with the Daisy. The deer should be in trouble up in the Adirondacks this fall. I will admit that being a cheap-skate has gottten me into trouble at times. Last season I hit a doe about 6" higher than I intended (just above the spine), and that caused me to loose a few chops and forced me to use a second finishing shot to end her suffering. The gun was hitting a little too high on the range at 100 yards but I was to cheap to use the additional $5 ea sabot slugs to dial it in. That cost me at the table and mad that doe suffer more than she needed to. As others have also mentioned, I like to play with my laser rangefinder while in a stand or blind, and range landmarks where I expect a deer may appear. I can usually guess them pretty close under 150 yards. I like to pick out a very small spot on an animal to shoot at, and knowing the exact range and the performance of the bullet/arrow almost makes hitting that spot "childs play".

BPS, up in Niagara on the Lake, has a very good selection. Walmart in Lockport was not too bad yesterday. I cleaned out their stock of 3/8 oz black and blue weedless Arkie jigs at $1.59 ea. We are heading up to the the Thousand islands in a couple weeks. I usually stock up at the tackle shops at Black lake, which are always very reasonably priced.

The tastiest were the half dozen or so button bucks that hit-and-run drivers abandoned (fortunately I have avoided ever hitting any deer while I was driving). Some other useful items included a full-sized fiberglass truck cap that fit my old Chevy Silverado perfectly. It had a "free" sign on it. The only thing wrong with it was the faded pine-green paint. An $ 8.00 quart of hammered-black paint made it look as sharp as a new one on my truck. Other good finds included a 3500 psi, Honda-engine power washer and a portable Husky air compressor that my neighbor across the street wheeled out on garbage day a few years ago. The power washer had a plugged hose, and was missing the air filter & cover and the nozzle. I unplugged the hose, put a $15 air filter & cover on it, and my brother gave me a spare nozzle he had. It has worked great for the last 3 years. It makes real quick easy work of euro mounts and skull cleanups. My wife likes it when I use it to clean our house's deck and siding. She is most happy that I don't smell up her kitchen anymore boiling those skulls. The compressor needed only a new plug. It is handy having that smaller one in the garage over the winter, so I don't need to go out thru the snow to use the big one in my shop.

Thanks Jerry. Law enforcement response times, on Saturday evenings for "injured deer" are probably not that good. It would have been tough for me to watch the deer suffer, while waiting for them to show up. Not only would I have felt sorry for the suffering animal but the meat that it yields looses quality in proportion to the time it suffers. Maybe the deer was already dead, and it was just "nerves" that made the legs kick. If and when it happens again, I will call the police first and ask them what I should do.

The deer I was referencing there was a bb that was hit at the end of our driveway, three years ago. It was dark and I had just returned from a hunt at my folks place (last Saturday of ML season), about 20 miles away. The phone was ringing as I walked in the door. It was our neighbor who lives across the street. She said she just heard brakes squeal and a "bang", a few minutes prior. The car had left and she saw a deer lying on the shoulder. I found the deer lying down, eyes shut. It kicked quite a bit, as I slit its throat. I gutted it, hung it up in the garage, and called the state police for a tag. They dropped it off the following morning. I doubt the vehicle was "wrecked", since it was able to drive off. The deer only weighted about 60 pounds, field-dressed. The meat damage consisted of some minor bruising on the shoulders of the impact side. There were no broken bones. It looked like it just had the wind knocked out of it by the crash. That year, the first deer that made it into our freezer was a 2-1/2 year old buck that a friend killed early in archery season. Later, I added a 1-1/2 year old buck that I killed with my crossbow, and an older one that I killed with my rifle. Those three were good, all tasting similar. That bb was in a class by itself however, far more tender than those older deer. Would you have done anything different in that situation? Was I wrong to thank God for the gift of that "fatted calf"? The only time He blessed me more than He did that season was last year, when He provided me with another "gift" bb (slightly larger with less damaged meat), two mature does, and a 2-1/2 year old buck with my crossbow. Best of all, he allowed me to make a "perfect" shot on my last buck with my rifle. The Chef himself convinced me to get the tool that helped verify the perfection of that shot.

I remember opening up some small square bales that were smoking hot inside, many years ago. That was caused by baling them before the hay was dry. We have not had much good hay-drying weather yet this season, so that would be my bet on the "root cause".

Maybe you don't realize that it is the Holy Spirit who is pulling your strings. You started this most recent personal attack on me by digging back about one month, and it was you who first brought religion onto this thread. You will probably say that it was I, with my comment that "life begins at conception. Later, I used science, which you claim to embrace, to prove that NEW life does indeed begin at conception. How else do you explain why a fawn fetus dna does not exactly match it's mother ? Maybe four seasons will jump in on that one. I am still waiting for him to tell us why shooting a doe post-rut, that may be carrying two buck fetuses is ok, but killing a bb is not. What it comes down to is that you simply can't handle the truth at this stage of your life. Do not worry about it, for there is always hope for you and all the other nonbelievers, who might stumble across this thread. Thanks again for carrying on this discussion. Lets go for a third page anyhow. Why don't you jump over to some of the other threads that I am on, and bring a little religion in there also? You just can't have enough of Jesus Christ on a hunting website. The Bible says that He knows where every sparrow falls after all. Who knows, the next time you loose an arrows in a deer, He might make sure that deer does not suffer much, and ends up in your freezer. He has done that with every deer I have shot at, with a bow, crossbow, ML, shotgun, or rifle, over the last 10 years. He has even let be be in the right place at the right time with my pocketknife to take care of some tasty road "carnage" a few times. The only way I know that I can make that long "perfect" streak continue, is by giving Him all of the credit, every time. I know that I am not that good of a hunter on my own. How many deer have you fired upon, over the last ten years, that did not end up in your freezer (or someone else who you gave them to) ? You have left a record of at least one on this site, in the bowhunting section. If you want to improve on that statistic, you might consider opening up the Bible from time to time, and accepting Christ as your savior. What is there to loose? A few more deer maybe ? Those might end up being the least of your troubles if you stay lost too long.

"backfire"

It has been a little bit on the cold side for corn. I don't expect to see much growth until the nightime low temps are in the sixties and daytime highs are in the eighties. Looking at the long range forecast, that looks to be about a week out. I expect to see some sprouting in about two weeks.

I am very thankful for you and the fact that you keep bringing up religion. There simply can not be too much of Jesus Christ on a hunting web site (especially on a Sunday), and the downstate NY support is especially appreciated. Hunting and fishing are the two hobbies that position folks the best to absorb the blessings of His grace. You show me that there is some hope that NYC will finally get with the program and join up with the Christian revival that is sweeping our country right now. There is no one on this site that has strengthened my own faith in Him more than yourself and for that I am forever grateful. Keep up the good work, lets get it on for a few more pages. Maybe I will get the first word on page 3 also.

It is not that difficult Chef, all it takes is a little "child-like" faith.

Thanks Chef, You just hit on the best part of being a Christian. Those Jewish guidelines you are referring to may point us in the right direction, but strict adherence does not guarantee a place in Heaven. It is not "good works" that gets us there. It is much easier than that, requiring nothing more than the acceptance of Jesus Christ, The Son of God, as our Savior. P.S., I slipped up a little bit this morning and had some bacon (from a pig) with my eggs. Our family should be good with the "rules" for dinner however. I just finished forming up some venison hamburgs, mixed with raw egg, and put them back in the fridge. They will be ready for the grill later this afternoon.

I finally managed to get a 2-1/2 and a 1-1/2 acre corn plots in yesterday. It was not easy with the heavy rains we have had this spring. This is the first time I remember needing a 4wd tractor on the planter. I was able to drain most of the standing water from the plots earlier in the week by opening some ditches but some of the lower spots were still muddy. There is more heavy rains in the forecast today and later this week, so it was basically now or never for the planting. I was surprised that my old JD 246 planter did not plug up thru the muddy spots. I put new shoes on it a few years ago, and those probably helped with that. I remember it plugging up on some wetter years in the past with the old wore-out shoes that were on it when I bought it "well used" from a local sweet corn farmer. He was asking $200, and took $175 for it about 20 years ago. You could find used planters cheap back then, before the deer food-plot craze and the spike in scrap metal prices. The starter fertilizer did not go on quite as heavy as I wanted. It looks like it was 50 pounds per acre, on 36" rows. That was with the gate openings set at 3/4" on the planter's fertilizer hoppers. At least it makes the math easy for calculating input costs, right at $10/acre for fertilizer. I paid $10 per 50 lb bag of triple-15 fertilizer. Seed was free, and fuel cost for tillage was a bit less than $10/acre. Throw in a little more for cultivating and spraying in July, and my total input cost, for that 4 acres, should add up to around $100. Who says planting corn is expensive? After that corn is up about a foot, I am looking forward to trying out an old, 2-row, 3-point cultivator, that I just traded an old snowplow for. The row width matches my planter perfectly. Using that, on a modern 4wd diesel tractor, should reduce time and fuel costs considerably compared to the antique gas single-row machine that I used in prior years. My next project is setting up my 15 gallon, 12-volt tank sprayer and dual nozzles on that cultivator, so that I can apply the gly, just on the rows while cultivating. Leaving a few weeds between the rows (that the cultivator shovels miss), makes the corn plots much more attractive to deer than the "clean" ag corn on surrounding acreage. Those "weeds" are mostly white clover, which comes back very well on its own the year after the corn if you don't nuke it down completely. That saves lot's of cash, that would otherwise need to go towards clover seed. Free clover is always good. The free nitrogen it provides for future corn plots is even better than the food it provides the deer at night.

A President went thru the White House door, and did what he said he will do. We are all now drinking that free bubbalub, and eating that rainbow stew.

I have been shooting more deer off the ground the last few years than from up in trees. You hit right on the primary reason for that. I expect that percentage to increase even more in coming years because I am getting into still-hunting up in the Adirondacks. The tree stands that I do have are mostly less than 10 feet up, and all have rails all around. Only one of (4) deer that I killed last season was from an elevated blind. For those folks who do feel the need to get high up there in trees, the safety harnesses are a good idea, especially if their stand lacks a rail all around. I have no doubt that it is only because I do have Someone looking over me that I survived all those years up in high treestands without a harness or safety rail. I also understand that a safety harness won't keep me around when He decides to call me home. I do hope that when my time here is up, that I don't go from a fall out of a treestand. That seems like it would involve some pain and suffering. Cutting down those last couple dying ash trees this past winter will help make sure that does not happen to others or myself. The ladder to that elevated blind that both myself and a big guy from work killed deer out of last fall does need some attention. It was scary watching him get down from there after shooting the tasty button buck for us. I will do my best to find the time to make that ladder safer this year. Thanks for the reminder.

Because a little iron in you diet is better for your body than copper, and cleanup is easy after the iron pan is seasoned. PM me if you have any old iron frying pans to give away.

If you don't do a soil test and are unsure of your soil ph, then I would go with a horse mix. That will do better in acidic soil. It contains more timothy and less clover. Deer like the taste of clover more, but the timothy grows taller and provides better bedding cover. If you have baled the hay off what is there now for 6 years, without adding fertilizer, it has got to be getting pretty thin. Have you spread any manure on it? After you reseed, I would stop baling it and just keep it bush-hogged once a year, cutting in late June. The green-cut hay, left to decompose on the field, will add nutrients back to the soil. The tender stuff that grows up after, towards fall, will provide some good night-time feed for the deer during hunting season.

Full inclusion of the crossbow would go a long way towards the elimination of tree-stand accidents. Eliminating the need to draw with a deer in close, eliminates the need to get real high in a tree. Also, a rail makes a great shooting support for a crossbow, and that rail also keeps you safer up in a stand than a safety harness.

I fry eggs in an iron frying pan on most Saturdays and Sundays (not enough free time in the morning on work days). I always use olive oil and get it hot before cracking the eggs. They never stick. I use a plastic spatula to flip them onto a plate when they are done, and to scrape any remains from the bottom of the pan. For cleanup after cool-down, I wipe it with paper towels, no soap and no water. I store the iron frying pans vertically, on hooks behind the stove. Usually there is enough residual oil for corrosion protection thru the week, if not I wipe with a little more olive oil. My iron frying pans are more than 75 years old. With a new iron frying pan, or one that has been misused (with water or soap), it might take 4 - 8 cycles as described to fix the cooking surface. I find cooking and cleanup easier with a seasoned iron frying pan than with a modern "non-stick" one. The iron that ends up in you is also healthy. I can't imagine why anyone would want to use those modern pans. What happens to that "non-stick" coating when it flakes or scratches off ? My favorite use of those iron frying pans is for frying up tenderloins or button buck livers (also using olive oil).

None. Unlike prior years, I did not hear any gobbling around the lake last Memorial day weekend when I was out in the boat fishing at sunrise. Also, I was scared of ticks in the woods and I don't care for eating turkey. My wife and kids like it, but the will have to settle for the store bought stuff. They did love the perch dinner that I was able to provide.

It sounds like you are on the right track with the pasture mix and corn. I am hoping to get that same combination out there by the end of the day tomorrow. I did get the pasture mix in prior to about 2-3/4" of rain that hit the Thursday before Memorial day. We got another inch or so after that, so getting the corn in was in doubt. I just finished the last pass with the disk, and with no equipment failures, I should be able to get about 4 acres of corn in tomorrow. It was all I could do with my largest 4wd tractor, to get my undersized disk through a mud-hole on the last plot. I lost traction and needed to straighten the disk and use the front loader to pull myself out (that front loader is almost like a "get out of mud free card"). Tomorrow, it will all get culti-mulched at mid-day and planted in the late afternoon. That last pass with the disk was the riskiest part (of getting stuck). They are calling for over an inch of rain Sunday, and more in the days after that, so it is basically now or never for the corn on my mucky, bottomland farm. The pasture mix is sprouting and looking good and I am glad to have got that in earlier. The corn is always what puts the meat in the freezer however. We did so well in and around it last year, that just a couple deer would probably get us thru this year. Happy planting.

I never used one, and I am very thankful to have survived 36 years of deer hunting with just one fall. That was way back when I was in high school, using a climber that I made in metal shop. I was able to cushion my landing by hugging the tree on the way down from about 15 feet. I suffered no major injuries, just some brush burns and torn up the sleeves on my jacket. Over the last two years, the ash trees that supported my last couple wooden stands have succumbed to the emerald ash bore, so I cut them down. I always made sure they were safe each year, before hunting season. I was very relieved when the last one was down on the ground. That one was put up by my older cousin more than 40 years ago. I killed my first buck out of it, but I sure did not trust that dying tree to hold it up any longer. I tried to be careful cutting that tree up for firewood, but managed to hit a few nails that were hidden over all those years, plus a little barbed wire that was grown over deep in the stump. Now it is all metal ladder stands with good rails, and new straps every year, or elevated and ground platform blinds with 3 foot rails all around. Not only do those rails keep me safe, but they provide great gun and crossbow rests. Shooting from a rest with a telescopic sight makes it easy to pick out the individual hair where I want my bullet or bolt to strike on the deer. Now that crossbows are legal (for the rut anyhow), I don't suppose I will ever again hunt with a vertical bow. As long as I don't do that, I can't see a need for a safety harness.

My corn plots are too wet to plant now. I missed a small dry window before last Thursday's 2-1/2" rainfall and got in a few acres of pasture mix instead. Hopefully, the fields will dry out enough so that I can get the corn in by the end of June. I have planted it as late as July 4th and still had pretty good crops.

It was about noon when we passed that buck, still holding his head up. He must have been struck minutes earlier. Apparently you need to be on the lookout at all times of day and night. After witnessing this today, I will be a bit less selective about filling my tags this fall. A small buck that I pass on, in hopes of a larger one, just might be the one that takes out a motorcyclist. If my tags are filled then I did my part, not only to feed my own family, but also to protect motorists.

We counted about 10 road-kill deer along the Westbound stretch of the I-90, between the Rt 81 Syracuse exit and the Rt 77 Pembroke exit on our drive back from the in-law's today. Traffic was backed up a mile or so, around Montezuma, as a state trooper was finishing off a young buck (looked like it had about 6" of velvet antlers). It still had its head up, but most have broken it's legs. I thought it was odd to see so many at this time of year. That is about the most I have seen over that stretch, even during the fall rut time.