wolc123

My brother in law is retired now, but he was a state trooper, and set me up with them multiple times. Before I met his sister, I drove to the Amherst police station one time, with one that I had noticed laying next to a mailbox and finished off with my 1-1/4” keychain knife, still steaming in the back of my pickup. I will never forget what that late night desk officer said, after I walked into the station dripping with blood (it turned out to be a bloody massacre, when the deer suddenly awoke as I was cutting off its tail for bass jigs). Someone had called in the deer earlier, and he asked me: Did the deer have to be shot ? “. My reply (as I stood before him covered in blood head to toe) was “no, I killed it with my knife”. He then said “THAT WOULD BE NO”, as he filled out and handed me the carcass tag. I gave that deer to a buddy (I had a good year hunting myself and I only needed the tail). He took it to a butcher who told him that he had never killed a cleaner deer, especially not one that was a road kill. It must have ran into the side of a car and knocked itself out. I had felt the hide of its hip as it laid there, and it felt cool. I was only going to cut off its tail, but it came too when I started cutting, and stood up suddenly. That’s when I jumped on the big doe’s back and slit its throat. Good thing that little knife was razor sharp. She did manage to buck me off and land a hoof to my lower leg, giving me a heck of a bruise.

I never used a dog, but a prayer worked good on the last one that I shot with an arrow (crossbow bolt actually), back in 2019, and could not find right away. That was also my largest archery season buck and second highest scoring rack overall (my prayer got answered quick that time). I just sent one up, that you find yours this morning. One other thing that you (and the coyotes) got going for you is if the shot was far back, lots of scent usually escapes, making the scent-tracking job considerably easier.

Nice trick Otto, disguising your journal as “trail cam pictures”. I am not much into those, so I skipped over it. It sounds like you have been seeing plenty of action. I am itching to get back out there myself. Next Saturday, and opening day of northern zone ML season can’t get here soon enough. I thought I might have a little non-deer bedroom window hunting action yesterday. There was a red fox, about 50 yards out back catching mice, when I looked out, just after sunrise. My .22 was ready, but I checked the regs first and the season don’t open until October 25, so no shots fired. I keep that gun there, in case I see coyotes (that opened on October 1). Good luck hunting and thanks for posting the journal, even though it was a little tricky to locate.

Another good option, in just (4) more days, is to head north. Crossbow opens up there, on Wednesday October 12, and ML opens on Saturday October 15, gun on Saturday October 22. The incredible scenery, and lack of hunting pressure up there, way more than make up for the lower deer density. I don’t miss bow hunting at all, since I started doing that, especially now that we have the early antlerless gun season here in WNY. My shoulders are good (probably because I stopped shooting my bow before I turned 50), but I have not had the time to maintain proficiency with a vertical bow, since our kids started playing sports. If full inclusion of the crossbow doesn’t pass, in (7) more years when I retire, then maybe I will get back into bow hunting. More likely, I’ll just spend a little more time small game and fall Turkey hunting. The odds are pretty good, that I will move up to the northern zone, after I retire. I can’t say that I miss bow hunting at all. The crossbow is so much more effective for me, and the Adirondacks are so much nicer of a place to hunt, that I say “good riddance” to it. Every time I read in the “live tread” on here of “high back hits”, and bringing out the dogs in the morning, that feeling gets reinforced. Burn your bow and don’t look back.

Sounds good, but I always feel just a little empty (and hungry) if there’s no killin involved. Good luck up there. I can’t wait till next Friday, when I head up for (9) days of hunting and fishing. I am going to try for some brook trout, along with deer and smallmouth bass. My wife is up there now. She said that her dad found one trapped in a spot, where the beavers had built a dam, and the water had then receded. He got it back into the lake alive. If I catch any, they will be dinner.

It wasn’t easy getting it out of the factory, but I managed to do it this morning: it’s been sleeping in there for about 15 years. Hopefully, my mechanic can wake it up in time for some snow plowing this winter.

Good luck. Somebody on here said deer like eating that, so maybe one will come right up to you. I should a doe while hiding behind a patch of it last month.

I am going to carry a headlamp and a flashlight in my pack this year, especially when I hunt at my parents place. Last year and on New Year’s evening, it was very dark, by the time I finished gutting the three bucks that I killed over there (two buttons and one 9-pointer). All of them were killed within 5 minutes of sunset. The lights don’t work on dad’s Polaris Ranger. It was a pain gutting those, while trying to hold a flashlight. I prefer a small, hand-held flashlight for walking in in the dark. That is especially handy for me, on opening day of gun season. The last (4) seasons, I have hunted this small hang-on stand, near the back corner of my parents woods on that day. It’s very thick and brushy back there, on the edge of a swamp. That stand is very tough for me to find in the broad daylight. I usually only hunt it, on that one day each season. Fortunately, it is located about 50 yards from the corner of their property. The neighbor is one of those “posted sign every 50 ft” type of guys. He also paints bright orange stripes around most of the trees that he posts, and even some in between the 50 ft spaced signs. A fool-proof way for me to find that stand in the dark, is to walk to the line of orange striped trees using the flashlight, then follow along to the corner post tree. I make sure to cover my scent tracks, with Evercalm applied to my boots, and I wear gloves to avoid leaving any scent on branches that I touch in the dark. I have killed a mature buck or doe from that stand on three of the last (4) times that I did that. The first one was a long (100 yard plus) shot into the swamp. That year, I had stumbled around aimlessly in the dark, until it started getting light, before I found the stand. The last (3) years, I found it very easy, with the flashlight/corner post method, and I killed the last (2) deer within 40 yards of the stand. it is so much better to get up into position, well before daylight. There is no way that I could do that there, without a flashlight. That is the back corner tree posted sign, to the left of the stand. I met that neighbor. He is very nice to me and my parents (probably because any deer he shoots on his overgrown field will likely expire in my parents woods or swamp, which border it on two sides). We don’t post facing his way, and I even called him on my cell phone after dropping that first big buck about 50 yards to the right and 50 behind that corner post. It was a lot easier dragging out across his corner, than floating it thru the deep water. He had asked me to call him first if I ever needed to track a wounded deer into his property. I assumed the same would apply for the “dry” drag shortcut, across his corner. I think the colored lenses are best left for varmit hunters. All they do, is steal useful light, from the deer hunter.

I just bought a tractor. I wasn’t real happy with my last Farmall cub, but that one was almost worn out when I bought it, and it was heavily modified. This one has pretty low hours, no noticeable wear, and it is all original. I paid $ 783.17 for it at a “silent auction” at work. It has not ran in about 14 years and supposedly had carburetor issues. I sold my last, barely running, 9/10 worn out Cub for $750, two years ago. I bid as much as I was willing to spend, to the penny. I hated cultivating with my last Farmall Cub (“cultivision” gave me a stiff neck), but I liked it for plowing light snow. This one came with a factory snowplow, and decent R1 tires with chains on back. I am going to drop it off at my Farmall mechanic’s place tomorrow, and ask him to change the fluids and get it running good. He just happens to be half way between my place and work and he is letting me borrow his trailer with winch (handy for non-runners) to pick it up. I will use it for snow plowing this winter, and take it over to my parents place for foodplotting in the spring. Dad had a nice little 6ft, pull-type Bissel disk over there, that will be just about perfect for it. The foodplots really need reworking over there. My favorite thing about the Cubs, is that they were designed to fit in a standard sized pickup truck bed. It’s great not to have to mess around with a trailer, or drive it the 20 miles over there on the road. I hope this one holds up a little better than my last one did. I wanted to give Farmall one more chance, because that was always what my grandpa ran over at my parents place when he farmed it. He had an F-20, and an F-14. I’ve now shot plenty of deer on his old farm with his old shotgun. It’s only right that I work that land with his old brand, even if it is a little smaller. He worked about 50 of his 70 acres with 34 hp and two tractors. I am only going to work a couple of those acres, with the 10 hp Cub.

I wanted to try sleeping in the woods, at home in WNY during the early September gun season, but my tent got tore up on a summer camping trip. I couldn’t get the stakes in, on that solid rock site, up on the St Lawrence. High winds knocked it down and ripped it up pretty bad. I will sew it up with some fishing line, when I get a little free time over the winter. I even had a nice campsite picked out over at my parents place. The back of their woods touches a dead end road, in the trailer park, around the corner. I even cleared it with the trailer park superintendent and the guy who owns the closest “double wide”. I set up a small ladder stand back there and hunted it a few times last season. Killing a deer, after spending the night in a tent, is just one of this “bucket list” things that i would like to accomplish. That adventure will have to wait until next September. I killed several, including my first Adirondack deer, after spending the night in my old truck camper. A room in the basement of my in-laws lakeside retirement home is my current accommodations while hunting up there. It helps a lot that my mother in law is a great cook. They even put in a new bathroom for me down there last year. They close down the outhouse after it freezes. Maybe that will still be open next week. outhouse:

I can’t wait. I was a little worried that I was going to miss opening day morning, because I am going down to VA next week for work. I managed to get that pushed up by a day today. Now I can get back on my original schedule, of heading up north, mid-day Friday. I am planning on staying up there, thru opening weekend of gun season, and driving home 9 days later. I might even get up there in time, to catch the last hour or so of crossbow season, on Friday October 14. I am way more exited about ML though. I know of a few nice bucks around up there this year. That would be a nice bonus, but I’d be thankful for a doe and a few smallmouth bass. I will be hunting up on the NW corner of the park, on the border of WMU 6C & 6F. I see that they are both open for antlerless early ML harvests again this year. There seems to have been a big spike in deer numbers (bucks and does) around my spot up there, since I took out the dominant, and very territorial doe up there last fall. That is my favorite time of year up there. At no other time, is the hunting and fishing as good, simultaneously. Throw in some lingering late leaf color, and that might be what Heaven is like. There is no place on earth that I would rather be, that’s for sure. I could legally bring back (3) deer from that trip. The odds of that are slim, because 2 of them would need to be antlered bucks. I have yet to kill one of those up there, when there wasn’t any snow on the ground. It’s been considerably colder lately, than it has been the last few years, so we might just see some snow up there over those 9 days. That wound be awesome. Ideally, it will be in the 70’s and sunny the first weekend, with good remaining leaf cover, and in the 30’s the second, with 4” of fresh powdery snow.

I hit one in almost the same spot with a 16 ga Remington slugger last fall (his head and front shoulder was hidden behind a tree and I aimed as close as I dared to the tree). He only ran off about 40 yards. There is a big difference in how a broadhead kills (by hemoraging) and a bullet (by shock and hemoraging) and that usually increases the room for error considerably. He made it into some heavy cover but there was a decent blood trail on the sparse snow so it was an easy track. I never tried the heart stab for finishing but it seems like a good idea especially if you want to do a shoulder mount. The jugular slit works good, if they are on their feet. Use your right hand, if you are on their back, and have them in a hammer lock (or antler hold ) with your left hand. I only did that once with a doe. Not sure if I would attempt it again.

I would donate a vacuum sealed frozen pack of chunked button buck (your choice of January 2022 or September 2021 kill).

I have had mixed results from processors. It’s been more than 20 years, since I used one around home in wny. I am fairly certain that I did not get my own deer back the last time I did. It was a thin, rutted-out, 2.5 year old 10-pointer. The box of boneless meat that they gave me back seemed like it weighed almost as much as the buck weighed field-dressed. It think maybe they just lumped all the meat together from the deer that they took in that day (Sunday after opening day of gun season), and divided it up based on antler points. Maybe during slow periods like early archery you get your own back, but certainly not when they get slammed. The opposite happened last year, with an old doe that I killed up in the Adirondacks during early ML season. That one was considerably larger than the previous doe that I had processed up there, but I got significantly less meat back from it. The problem is, the processor that gave me more meat back was about an hour’s drive, while the closer one is only 15 minutes away. Since I already have enough venison in the freezer to last a year, I suppose I will use the close one again this year. I don’t butcher my own up there for multiple reasons: First, I do not have a good place to do it. My father in law gets mad if I miss a drop of blood while cleaning up after filleting a few fish out on his boat dock. Second, it’s usually too warm during early ML week to deal with a carcass and age it properly. Third, the last buck that I hauled home to wny from up there to process (when it was cold over Thanksgiving weekend) had so many ticks on it, that I swore I’d never bring another field-dressed deer back from there.

Do your wife, girlfriend or kids like it too ?

Look for an old fridge too, that way you can properly age your meat to get past rigor mortis, if it is too warm out to properly hang for that long. A 2.5 year old deer should hang about a week at 33-43 F to get past that. Older ones benefit from a little longer and you can get by with a bit less with younger ones. Most hunters don’t have an issue eating tough venison, but wives, girlfriends and kids often do. Even grind can be tough if the deer was not properly aged. My venison is so tender (even from 3.5 yr old plus deer) that my wife and kids beg me to spend more time hunting. There’s nothing too tricky about butchering your own. Temperature control in these days of “global warming” is what folks seem to struggle the most with. I don’t know why, since I can’t ever remember not seeing used fridges in the free section of Craigslist. This old non-frost free GE is from the 1950’s but still comes on and works like a champ whenever I plug it in: The temperature outside was in the lower 80’s on the day I killed that doe. I cranked the ac in the insulated garage down to 65, (4) days later, when I took her out processed. I would have let her hang in there a little longer, but I had to free up the fridge, in case I needed it for another the next day. I ground most of her, and that burger has been plenty tender. The real test will be when we try some of the backstrap.

That does sound crazy. Our house is a bit over 2500 sq ft and the highest bill this summer, when the central ac was running 24/7, a big freezer and (3) fridges was $ 120.

I do to. Un-recovered deer is one of the toughest things of the sport. If someone can get just a bit of encouragement and/or good advice from forum members, it can reduce those numbers. Shooting a deer is a lot different than shooting a target. Targets don’t flip to a state of super-high alert, when they catch a glimpse of you drawing your bow. And that target is always in the same place when your arrow arrives as it was when it was released. Maybe NY state should get with the program and make crossbows legal for all of archery season, and we could cut down a bit on these sad stories. Remember that non-biased study of deer recovery percentage that Culver posted a few years ago from the military base ? It showed a very significant advantage of a crossbow with mechanical broadheads, when compared to one with fixed blades, or compared to a vertical bow with either type of broadhead. The other great thing about the crossbow, and not needing to draw with a deer in close, is that you don’t need to hunt from the stratosphere to help hide your draw. How many tree stand fall injuries do we see every year ?

I know how you felt because I did almost the same thing to my left knee Friday night. I tripped on the last step while carrying a big deep cycle battery down to the basement for winter. I also twisted and sprained my right ankle and hurt my right wrist and left elbow on impact with the concrete floor. Due to injuries to all four limbs, no one seemed all that bad. Lots of pain remained on Saturday morning. Right ankle is still a little sore but everything else feels good now.

Certainly, there is very little room for error on that shot, if you want a clean gut job. My archery season buck that year was a much messier gut job. That one was slightly quartering towards me, and the arrow deflected back thru the guts after passing diagonally thru his chest. It exited from the lower ham on the opposite side. I couldn’t imagine what had happened, when that busted up 2.5 year old 8-point staggered away, dragging a back leg, after taking a mechanical broadhead in the chest. I was pleased to see him drop dead about 20 yards short of my pond, where he was headed. I am glad that pond was close, because it took a lot of water to wash all that gut-juice, poop, and corn out of that body cavity. Similarly, I was at least thankful to be close to the creek for that Adirondack buck, but it turned out that I didn’t need it.

That was a memorable hunt for sure. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which we had spent with the in-laws at their Adirondack retirement home, on a little lake up there. After Turkey leftovers for lunch that day, our two daughters and my niece and nephew and me burned thru a couple boxes of .22 ammo on the rifle range, which is next to their house. With all that shooting, I wanted to be as far as I could from there, for the afternoon hunt. I walked down the main camp road, almost all the way to the paved road, over a mile away. That took me over a little creek, that winds thru a valley, and up a ridge, where there is a mature pine forrest. I knew that there was a group of antlerless deer bedded down in the thicket around the creek, but they were all “off-limits” during gun season. I was positioned well downwind of and above them, where I had a good view of a trail that ran along the upper part of the ridge, along the edge of the pines. I was hoping that I might catch a buck walking that trail, scent checking on the does, down below. I was expecting one to come from the west, and I had my “tree-hammock” chair, positioned for a shot from that direction. I was armed with my heavy Ruger M77 30/06 and I had the 3-9x scope dialed downs to 3. There was about 6” of powdery snow on the ground, and the view from that spot was spectacular, with the pines behind, mountains in the background, and creek down below. About 15 minutes after I got comfortable in that chair, and was enjoying the view, I heard a stick break along the trail to the east. Twisting my neck around, I could see the buck about 60 yards away, and walking towards me. I began a slow turn, shuffling my feet and turning the pedestal like a turret in a tank. At the same time, the buck turned around, and was pointed back to where he had come from, when I got into position to shoot that way. He was now 50 yards away, standing still like a statue, and facing directly away from me. I had heard of this shot, but had never attempted it. I was very confident in my rifle (it always held a group of under an inch at 100 yards from a rest). I had a super steady rest with my elbows against my knees. I settled the crosshairs on “the spot with no hair”, and pulled the trigger, sending a 150 gr Federal Classic right up his poop shoot. The buck flattened out as was if he had been struck with a sledge hammer. I walked up to him, and noted a flow of blood from the front of his neck. I was dreading the gut job. A few others on the site have taken that shot and complained of a horrible mess when gutting. Surprisingly, it was about the cleanest of any that I have ever done. Even the butt-our functioned perfectly, doubling as a bore gauge to verify the accuracy of the shot. The only internal organ damage was a groove across the edge of the heart. I did loose the neck roast from the exit wound. There was no entry wound. I guess those other guy’s attempted Texas heart shots must have been near misses, or maybe the animal (a few were caribou) must not have been quite so perfectly aligned. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Sometimes, He wants you to get a little dirt on your hands. My father in law suggested that I move that little 6-point rack to the “popped out eye” cape. He likes to decorate his place with mounts from up there. Right now, my first Adirondack buck is the only one on his wall. I’ll be up there trying for another (and a bear and a big smallmouth bass) in less than 2 weeks. I can’t wait.

I fell asleep and didn’t make it out until sunrise. I blew a chance at a “target of opportunity” on the walk back, when I practically stepped on a bunny. It appears that the coyotes have driven off or eaten all the foxes back here which are far more effective rabbit predators. I don’t remember ever seeing as many rabbits around back here as I have this year. Not a very nice morning to be in the stand with a steady 25-30 mph north wind. I give the coyotes about another 1/2 hour max. At least their noses won’t be able to pick me up in this wind.

The reason I took the coyote drive yesterday evening, was that they must be very hungry back there. They already dug up and ate the skunk that I burried back there the other day. How hungry does one need to be to eat a skunk ? Maybe I’ll go back this morning before church, sit in my front stand with my .22, and try for one.

That dark red rack on your buck is very cool. In 40 deer seasons, I have only killed (2) that were that color. I think both of mine were 1.5 year olds. They were both 6-pointers, when I killed them, but the first one had busted off his 7th post (brow tine). This busted up 7 was my first antlered buck, taken on opening day of gun season in 1986, at home on our farm in wmu 9F. I originally had the rack on the dark board that the second one is now on. My buddy gave me that crappy mounted cape (that he was going to throw out) when he had his grandpa’s big buck re-mounted onto a new cape. My dad made the dark walnut board for the back. This next one is my last Adirondack buck, and the second buck of my last “2-buck” year (not counting bb’s), back in 2016. To me, an Adirondack buck is worth at least double what a flat-land WNY deer is, because of the scenery up there. This one is worth triple to me, because of the color of the rack, and because it was the best shot that I have ever made on a deer. It was the only time, that I know for sure, that my shot hit the exact spot (within 1/32”) of where I aimed. It also has that cool little bulge on the end of the right antler. Some day, I am going to switch positions of those two racks, putting the Adirondack one into the crappy cape, and the WNY one back onto its original board. The bulging eyes on the crappy cape are appropriate for my shot location, on the Adirondack buck, at the instant of bullet entry.

Old boss doe tacos. This is the first time we have had tacos since the girls both went off to college. It seems like we have them every other meal when they are home. I won’t be needing as much venison this year.