wolc123

The trick is seeing the deer before it sees, hears, or smells you. That is easier said than done. Dry, noisy leaves and no wind is a no-go, as is crunchy snow and no wind. Wet leaves and steady wind is good, soft, wet snow and steady wind is better. It is much easier to see a deer before it sees you when there is snow on the ground. I was able to stalk into firing position on deer up there 3 times this year (single doe, doe with a button buck, and 1 small antlered buck) prior to the snow. I killed the single doe with my ML in the early season (zone 6C). The buck was distracted, and feeding up on a ridge when I snuck in on him mid-way thru rifle season. He was not yet a "shooter" for me at that point. Knowing where the food is and where the does are is a tremendous help when deciding where to still hunt. You can cover ground fast in between those spots, as long as you slow way down when you get close. When the conditions are right, still hunting is great, but there are lots of times when finding a good spot to sit and letting the deer come to you works better. I always let the conditions I find determine the method I use on any hunt. This year, hunting the Adirondacks 14 days total in three trips, from the start of ML thru almost the end of rifle season, I saw around a dozen antlerless deer (all while still hunting) and 2 bucks (one while still hunting and one while seated). I would guess that I sat two hours for every hour that I still hunted. I have done better up there by waiting until sunrise, then still-hunting to my spots in the morning, than I have by getting to the spots before sunrise. Is that a Marlin 336 30/30? I had one years ago and really miss it now. My big heavy Ruger M77, 30/06 with 3-9 Redfield is not the best for still-hunting. That Marlin would be just about perfect.

It looks like you have most of the bases covered there. One thing I would add (if you don't already have one) is a big, old refrigerator. I have an old GE, non frost-free model from the 50's that does a great job of aging the carcass (1 week for a 1-1/2 year old deer, 10-14 days for 2-1/2 or older deer) at just the right temperature (around 35 degrees F). I removed all the shelves and drawers from inside. I skin the deer, and cut the hind quarters off. I hang the hind quarters from hooks on the top and rest the front section on the neck against the bottom. More often than not, over the last 10 years or so, it has been too warm to age carcasses by just hanging them inside my insulated garage (with all the windows covered), especially early during archery season. Aging the venison allows a breakdown of rigormortis and produces more tender red meat. Some say it also improves flavor. What kind of skinning setup do you have? A small block and tackle and a gambrel to hook the tendons works pretty well. I usually saw off the front legs above the knee and the rear legs below the knee, then skin them back far enough to expose the tendons for hooking the gambrel. When it is cold enough to hang the carcasses outside the fridge (it was for (1) of (5) that I did this year), I leave the hides on to insulate against daily temperature extremes and to keep the meat from drying out too much (not an issue inside the non frost-free fridge, but I don't know if it would be in a modern one). I remove the hide a day prior to finishing the processing job, to split up the work load a bit. I tried the "golf ball" /truck skinning method on a fresh-killed one this year without success.

There, or a head on, open-mouth, down the throat shot would be the two perfect places to put one to eliminate all pelt damage. I went for that one with a big red fox with this bullet from my 22/250. I was slightly off target, creasing his jaw a little. It was nothing that the taxidermist could not cover with a banty rooster in his mouth.

I would go with Hornady V-max bullets to minimize pelt damage. These will give you a tiny entrance hole and explode inside with no exit hole. The 150 gr Core-Lokts will punch a .30" dia entrance hole and at least a 1" diameter exit, every time and from any angle. A THS bullet placement would completely eliminate both the entrance and exit hole with the V-max. Good luck on the yotes.

1.) Do some hinge cutting in sanctuary areas, and open up some white oaks in the woods and hedgerows (this winter). 2.) Put in 3-5 acres of field corn, fertilized a bit heavier than last year (this spring). 3.) Trap and kill raccoons. 4.) Fill both buck tags with 2-1/2 year olds. 5.) Fill antlerless only archery/ML tag with a 1-1/2 year old doe. 6.) Fill (3) DMP tags with mature does and (1) with a BB.

They said in that video that there is only 2 tasers available for 800 Buffalo police officers. I think the cop did an excellent job using the equipment he had available. The perp was not hurt badly and that gentle nudge with the bumper was enough to subdue him so that he could be peacefully taken into custody. A taser may have caused him to have a heart-attack and die. It looks like everybody wins in this one, the taxpayers had to buy less tasers, the perp was not hurt badly and has already been released from the hospital, and the cop did not put himself or others under unneccesary risk. If that is not an example of outstanding police work I don't know what is. The cop should get a medal for that one.

I was his real target and the one who rattled his cage, causing the breakdown. His (and others) selfish, elitist arguments against the crossbow are built on lies, which always lead to self-destruction. Sorry you got caught in the crossfire Doc. By the way, I only killed four deer this season (I transferred one DMP to a friend), and the local area (zone 9F) is still badly overrun with deer. My cage is going to be rattled if I hit one with my car, driving back and forth to work, and that anger will be directed at those who are "holding the line" against the crossbow.

Were there many ticks on that one? I have never seen as many on one as this buck from up on the NW edge of the Adirondack park had on him. All the ones I found were in the white-hair areas on the belly, throat, and rear. They show up good in those spots and I picked off and killed a hundred or so, prior to skinning. Hopefully, they only live in the white hair areas, otherwise he must have had thousands on him that I missed. I always throw the fat and bloodied meat trimmings, carcasses and hides on a pile out back from which I have shot a few coyotes and lots of crows (excellent target practice with the .22). My neighbor has really figured out trapping the coyotes this season and pretty much eradicated them from the local area.

Sorry Belo, I did not want to let FSW down after I finally got the picture. Now he has what he asked for. Also, to me personally, an Adirondack 6-point is worth more than a flat-land 12, especially one with those red antlers. Also, thanks to the shot placement and deer/barrel alignment, very little edible meat was lost. I am going to try and get a scale up there even if I have to buy one myself. On a sad note, the ticks that I piked off him probably totaled over a pound.

I have heard that the number of deer hunters in NY state has been declining for a few years now. Texting, smart-phones, and other distractions are surely part of the reason the youngsters are not getting into it like they use to. Even with full inclusion, it is unlikely that this trend will be reversed. Allowing the dwindling number of hunters access to a more efficient way to kill deer is at least an attempt to stem the loss, when it comes to managing the state's deer herd. I hope they never come up with a better way of managing the deer herd than hunting. They might have to if hunter numbers drop so far that they can no longer control the herd. Would you prefer buck contraception over full inclusion? How about wolf or mountain lion introduction?

Thanks, now I don't feel so bad about feeding so many to the birds this year.

A box trap baited with a peanut butter coated marshmellow works very well. When and if they get too smart for that, a little cat food poured into the bottom of a dog-proof "beer-can" style trap will get them every time. Fortunately, raccoons are about the easiest furbearer there is to trap. Does anyone know what the hides are fetching this season? I have let the buzzards eat quite a few due to the poor market in recent years. Some day, I might toss a carcass in the crockpot, because I heard they are not bad eating. I imagine that one which has been on a steady sweetcorn diet would be especially tasty and there is only one way to find out if that is true. A few winters ago, about this time of year, I found a big one dead out in my barn with his head stuck under the bucket of my tractor, and his foot tangled in the netting of a big salmon net that he must have dragged around for a while before getting stuck and suffocating. The fur was very "prime" on that one so I gave it to my cousin who skinned it and tanned it for me. Trapping season is open now, and NY state regulations allow a landowner to trap raccoons that are causing property damage to be trapped and killed by the landowner without a licence or a DEC permit. During open trapping season, you may dispose of the carcass almost any way you wish (I prefer tossing them out in a field and letting the buzzards and coyotes eat them). A landowner may also trap and kill raccoons, that are causing damage, without a licence or DEC permit, prior to the opening of trapping season, but the carcass must be burried or burned.

I would never call you bad, but you do sound a little bitter. How is that helping your cause? Have you ever drank poison and expected it to hurt those you are mad at? I suggest you kick back and let it go. Someday you might be thankful for full inclusion. It might allow you to enjoy a few extra years of "quite-time" archery hunting with your kids and grandkids. Sharing the deer and the woods with others who may not be as big and tough as you is not such a bad thing.

I will have to talk my father in law into getting a scale when he moves up there full time. At least the last time he let me hang one in his barn (prior to pouring the concrete floor - now that is off limits). He had a rope and pulley in there and I could lift my 200 pounds off the ground on the other end of the rope while that older buck's heavy rear was still in the stones. This one was smaller for sure, but it would be nice to eliminate the guess work. I don't know if you caught the part about the standing corn up the road this year, or the belly-full this one had. That can pack on the pounds in the fall. There is also quite a few does for every buck up there (10:1 or so) so less chasing and easier for them to keep adding weight thru the rut. Do they have the red antlers down in the Speculator/Lewey lake area where your camp is? I agree on the "any Adirondack a trophy" part, especially when they got those red horns. The buck I shot at home this year with my crossbow, may be a year older, a bit heavier, and had larger antlers, but it does not mean nearly as much to me. I also ended up with more meat from the smaller Adirondack rifle buck due to the "special" shot placement. Did you have to trim away much meat from that big one you riddled up there this year?

If you get on the whiskey, let somebody else drive. Happy New Year

You will still be very welcome in OUR woods with your longbow, recurve, or compound. I don't mind sharing, especially with trophy-hunters who pass on many of the "good-eaters".

We have a lot less snow out west in zone 9F (about 2"). I just got back from a short walk around on my cross country skis. The conditions are pretty good for that. There sure were lots of critter tracks in the fresh snow. The concrete bridge across the creek out back was especially popular with them last night. Muskrats were detouring sideways across it as they paddled along the banks, and deer and turkey were using it to cross. My neighbor has taken 8 coyotes so far this season, and that is one of the few tracks I did not see today. I had my Ruger 10/22 slung on my shoulder. I don't know if it was the excitement of seeing some rabbit tracks, or the sole breaking loose on my left shoe, that caused me to fall down pretty hard. I think I will try a little JB weld on that Alpina shoe and see if it will bind the hard rubber sole to the leather upper. If that don't work, I will drill thru from the bottom and grind flat, some machine screws and nuts put in from the top.

It has been a long time since I struggled to fill my own freezer but there are still a lot of hungry folks out there who could use some venison. Full inclusion of the crossbow would make it a lot easier for me to help them get some, or for them to legally get it for themselves.

Thank's for the Jesus bump DP.

Would it increase or decrease the challenge if there was less deer? How about if there were more hunters? If you hunt for the "challenge", then shouldn't you support full inclusion for that reason? I will admit that I do not hunt for challenge. I always try and use the best equipment I can afford to help minimize the challenge. Meat is my primary driver, always has been and always will be. The more efficiently I can make clean kills the better.

Spears and rocks are not legal hunting weapons in NY. I am a very strict interpreter of the rules and never knowingly break one. Hopefully they let us use crossbows next season. I have struggled killing does with my vertical bow because they are always in groups and fooling several sets of eyes when making the draw is tough. The crossbow get around that problem. Relative silence and "no draw" make it the nearly perfect weapon for killing does in these overrun areas.

I can't speak for others but I am quite certain that I would not have any trouble filling all of my antlerless tags if I could start with the crossbow on October 1.

My mother in law finally sent us a picture of the THS buck. He is hanging from the same tree as my ML doe (see ML harvest thread) from my first trip up there this fall and you can again see my father in law's meat wagon in the background. That doe died a short distance behind the barn in this picture (we still loaded her in the wagon). This buck was my second easiest Adirondack recovery. After a cell phone call, my father in law was able to back the wagon up to him with his ATV, before I even finished field dressing. The antlers are small, but I like their red color. That seems kind of unique to Adirondack bucks, although the last, larger buck I killed up there had antlers colored more like the ones down home in the Southern zone.

I am hoping that at least one of my "Irish twin" daughters gets into it when they get old enough over the next two years. They sure are good at helping to empty the freezer. It would be nice if they would help me fill it.

As a pure meat hunter, this was my best year. I did not see any real large-antlered bucks. I passed a few small ones and I killed the two largest-bodied ones that I saw this year. I also killed one very large doe and another average-sized one. The best-eating deer so far (based on the tenderloins and liver) was the button buck that a friend shot on our farm (I transferred one of my DMP's to him). I was somewhat thankful to make it thru the year without a mountable buck but with plenty of venison. Now I can put that money towards a new rifle for my oldest daughter. Next year she will be old enough to hopefully help fill the freezer, not just empty it. The drought did not hurt me much because I live on a mucky, bottomland farm where corn grows better on dry years than wet ones. I lost my whole corn crop to wettness the year before and killed zero deer here. The corn I had on my best drained soil this year did not pan out very well, but in the low spots it did ok. I sprayed the weeds and wiped out the coons by trapping to save what I had until ML season. We ended up killing a total of 6 deer (3 antlered bucks, the BB, and two big does) in and around 4 acres of corn. That brought the cost of boneless venison down to less than $1.00 per pound after subtracting all input costs. I will probably have to wait for Heaven see better results than that. God sure has been blessing me down here on earth.