wolc123

I probably won't go out until mid February when the kids have their mid-winter break. I love catching Lake trout then. They seem to fight more thru the ice than they do in the summer. When you hook into one of them, after dealing with multiple smallmouth bass and perch, it is quite the change. One nice thing about getting out early would be that it is faster to make the holes. My wife and kids love fried perch, but I just can't get too exited about catching them, due to the lack of pull. I also prefer eating grilled or baked bass. The oil in them keeps them moist, unlike perch or walleye, which tend to dry out too much when cooked that way. The lamest fish I ever caught thru the ice was a largemouth bass. I remember pulling a fat one in on a tip-up on Brantingham lake. It probably weighed more than 7 pounds. It felt like I was lifting up a piece of driftwood off the bottom, barely even shaking its head on the way up from about 10 feet down. The hardest part was getting it up out of the hole, due to it's girth. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera, but a girl was out there ice-skating and got to see it before I stuffed it back down thru the hole. I used to catch whitefish there, which were also fairly lame fighters but excellent eating when smoked with apple wood.

Prayers sent

Now that I stirred up a little interest with the nutty diversion, it is time to get this thread back on point. I understand the natural reluctance of hunters and fisherman to share information on what works for them (it is best to keep the competition in the dark, right?). I did leave out the number one thing I did right to enable my most productive ever, venison-producing season this year. That would be keeping things right with OUR Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It sounds easy but it is not always for many folks. Here is what I do: #1 Read the Bible every day. 10 minutes in the morning gets me thru two pages. I can do that in the morning while my car is warming up. God's word is written down - try reading it. Kill #2 (my largest) this year was taken on one of two days that I took my Bible up in the stand and read it there. My second largest racked buck ever (check out picture in last years DIY euro mount thread) was killed as a direct result of having a Bible up in the stand. Two of the three deer that our family was blessed with last season were received (from others) on the only day that I had the Bible in the blind that year. #2 Pray often. No need to explain this one. God wants to pour out his blessings on his creation (us). Don't be scared to ask for it sometimes. He don't always answer right away. I had to wait for the next morning for the antlerless deer I asked for this year (kill #1). #3 Bring yourself and your family to church regularly. I do skip a few during hunting season but Kill #2 was on a Sunday afternoon after I skipped the morning hunt to take my family to church. It was not the first time that happened. #4 (Kill #3). Do stuff for others. Take a kid fishing now and then, or offer someone else your best stand. They are not kidding when they say it is better to give than to receive. You always get more back when it is not your intent. Merry Christmas everyone.

I am going to get after the squirrels with my crossbow now that deer season has ended. I have not had any trouble with it on deer (2 for 2, both very clean kills at 59 yards and 20 yards), but there is always room for improvement. If I could hit a 1" kill zone consistently on squirrels, then hitting the 10" kill zone on a deer would be like taking candy from a baby. To the OP, I would recommend building your confidence with your bow that way. If you miss a squirrel, no big deal. If you try to build your confidence by being less selective with your shots on deer, it will most likely backfire on you, and you will end up hitting some outside the vitals and not recovering them. It is a lot easier to hit a deer outside of the vitals than in, just as it is a lot easier to miss them clean than hit them at all. A fair number of "experienced" bow-hunters have posted on here about wounded and lost deer and even "clean misses" this year. Do you really want to join that crowd? After you kill a few squirrels with your bow, you will probably reach a point where you can pick out the hair you want to hit on a deer and kill them clean almost every time. Squirrels are also tastey and abundant.

Certain states (CO for sure) require your original hunters ed card (from your home state) to buy a license. If you stay in NY, you will be ok, as TF just pointed out.

Honestly no, I fried up sets from a 6 month BB and a 2-1/2 year old buck this year, and these looked to be right in between, maybe 2-1/2" long and 1" diameter. I just left them back in the field this time however as they are only good if harvested fresh. Maybe my internet stalker the chef can provide a good recipe if you are interested.

Corn is the only plot that you can bank on for holding deer on your land during daylight hours. The reason is simple - it provides cover, in addition to carbs, exactly when the deer need both the most. Brassicas might work on a cold year, but usually only for the last 5-10 minutes of daylight, during late ML season. The neighbors and I took 6 deer in and around 4 acres of corn that I put in this spring. That action, which started just before the end of archery season, finally wrapped up yesterday afternoon when a neighbor kid pulled a little 8-pointer out of the corn, that he killed with his ML. Cover is a lot more important than food, and if you can't swing the corn (which provides both), it might be best to just let some areas grow up into heavy cover of whatever saplings, goldenrod, etc, just springs up naturally.

I think you did the right thing. I would have done it myself had I been fortunate enough to fill one of my last two DMP's. Not only did you take out a deer that may not have survived the winter anyhow, but some less fortunate folks may benefit from the food he provides. The experts there will be able to make the call on whether or not it is fit for human consumption.

ML and rifle deer were in woods, crossbow and shotgun were in field this year.

I checked out the gut pile, back in my corn field this afternoon, and found a nut-sack. I called the kid's uncle and found out it was a small 8-point, probably a 1-1/2 year old, based on the size of the nuts.

Deer carcasses and road-kills work pretty good. I place them in a pile, about 100 yards behind my bedroom window and shoot the coyotes at night with a .22 rimfire. They are thin-skinned and easily killed with a yellow jacket, placed behind the shoulder. The relatively silent report does not wake up my kids.

Tie: The big smallmouth bass I caught (on a bucktail jig), and released on opening day of Northern Zone early ML deer season and watching my daughters target practice with a .22 rimfire for the first time, on Thanksgiving weekend up in the Adirondacks. Getting to kill a deer shortly after each of those did make them even sweeter however. I would have slightly regretted time spent fishing or making noise shooting targets if I had to make the long drives home without any venison.

Now we have reached the end of deer season in NY state (most of us anyhow), what did you do that enabled you to fill tag(s) this year? There was no big, shoulder-mount worthy trophy bucks for me this year, but more pounds of boneless venison than on any of my prior 35 years hunting, and for that I am very thankful. 1st kill (Antlerless only bow/ML tag): I filled this tag with a 1-1/2 year old, medium-sized doe in the NZ early ML season. The first thing I did right on that hunt was to get myself into decent shape so that I could effortlessly cover a lot of territory and locate the deer. I also had a plan of what to do with a carcass in the extreme warm conditions (daytime high in the lower 80's) and dressed appropriately for the conditions. I adjusted my hunt plan on the morning of that kill to take advantage of the conditions I found (wet leaves, steady wind - perfect conditions for still hunting). 2nd kill (Antlered/Antlerless bow/ML tag): I filled this tag with a 2-1/2 year old, 5-point buck (started out as an 8 but got busted up early in the rut) in the SZ crossbow season. The first thing I did right on that one was to pass on two legal deer that would have otherwise used the tag. The first one was another, larger doe, up in the NZ on my early ML hunt and the second was a scrawny, tiny-racked 3-point, that almost begged me to shoot it 5 minutes before his big brother showed up. The most important thing I did right on this one was planting and maintaining some standing corn. He actually still had his hind quarters in the corn when my bolt struck him behind the shoulder from under 20 yards away. It was a tough year to grow corn with the worst drought we have ever had this summer. We got some rain, just in time to make a meager crop, and I preserved what I had by aggressively trapping the coons and spraying the weeds. 3rd kill (DMP #1): I transferred this tag to a friend and he punched it on a fat button buck on opening day of gun season. He likes hunting but does not care for venison. He recently retired from the army (E-7), with several combat tours, starting with the first Persian gulf war. He made a fine 100 yard shot on that BB, destroying very little of the top-quality, corn-fed meat. I was thankful that I let him use that stand that morning. I may have missed the vitals of that little buck, based on how high I hit his momma, when she showed up at the gut pile for milking time later that afternoon. 4th kill (DMP #2): This big doe was probably the momma of the BB up above. I killed her later that day from the same stand. My shot, behind the shoulder, from 100 yards, struck just low enough to break her back. A second shot (to the brain) was needed to finish her. Once again, this doe and her fawn would never have ended up in our family's freezers were it not for the standing corn that remained on our farm until a few weeks into gun season. 5th kill (Gun-season buck tag): This tag went on a fairly heavy-bodied, but small-racked Adirondack 6-point buck, that I was fortunate enough to take over the long Thanksgiving weekend up at my in-laws place. Even though all of the deer I had seen up there in my prior 12 days of hunting this fall were while still hunting, I chose to sit and ambush on the afternoon of this kill. The snow was just too loud and crunchy for still hunting, and I had located a group of does in some thick cover down in a valley. I got downwind of that valley and chose my spot along a trail where I thought a buck would use to scent check his harem. Although he approached from the opposite direction that I expected, I was able to make adjustments and kill him very cleanly within 15 minutes of taking my seat along that trail. Oddly enough, this Adirondack buck also had a belly-full of corn. My father-in-law said there was some unharvested corn a mile or two up the road from his camp. Tag soup (DMP #3 & 4): Even tough all our freezers are now stuffed, I hunted all I could thru last weekend, hoping to donate some for the homeless folks, but I did not see any deer on the last two weekends. A neighbor kid did haul one (not sure what) out of my front corn-plot this afternoon, that he hit across the road with his ML. That makes (3) for the neighbors, plus (3) for us this year on 4 acres of corn.

An old ladder busted on me the first time I used it this year, to get up on the upper deck of a two-level blind. Fortunately, I was on the first step and did not suffer any serious injury. I was thankful that it happened when it did and not a couple weeks later when a buddy (who is about 50 pounds heavier than me) was using that blind. The new ladder I installed worked very well for him and he was able to shoot us the tastiest of the 5 deer that went in our freezer this season (a fat button buck) from that upper deck. The day after I used it on my first deer of the season, I lost an old Buck 110 knife that my father in law gave me a few years ago. It must have slipped of the belt on my fanny pack when I put it on. The next day, I returned to the tree I had strapped my hammock seat to, and found it laying right there at the base. I am glad I found it, because I used it later on my buddy's button buck, and three more deer that I ended up killing this season. Also, my father in law would never let me hear the end of it, if I lost it. The last thing I lost, I also hope to get back. When we returned from our Thanksgiving weekend trip up to the in-laws Adirondack camp, I could not locate my hammock seat. I made a "miraculous" shot from that seat this year, getting an exceptionally clean kill on my second Adirondack buck in three years. I think I brought the seat back to their barn, but it may still be hanging on that tree. We are going back up for an ice-fishing trip in February, so I will probably have to wait until then to find out.

I would like it more if a crossbow could be used from the start of archery season. It is nice that the NZ opens earlier than the SZ, so at least there are 17 good days (including the peak of the rut) for me to use my crossbow in NY state. I would upgrade my equipment a bit, if they would let us use it all the way thru archery season. The $250 outfit I have now is just about right for 17 days. Having the rest of archery would make it much easier to fill my DMP's with my crossbow and it looks like I will be eating a couple of those unless a shot presents itself this afternoon.

That is interesting about the metal detector. I was thinking the same thing about a bullet that exited out of the neck of a buck I shot from the other end (no entrance hole was required), up in the Adirondacks on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I saved the empty 30/06 casing and I would like to find that bullet and fasten it on a board along with the casing, and the buck's cool-looking, reddish-colored, 6-point rack. It should not be buried too deep in the ground, having spent most of it's energy traveling lengthwise thru the deer, and I know right about where it hit. It was definitely a shot that does not come around more than once in several lifetimes, so finding that bullet would be cool. The copper jacket should show up pretty good on a metal detector. The exit hole in the hide was about 3/4" diameter.

Has he called "deer search".? A gut hit should be about the easiest type for the dog's to find, since it leaves the most scent. If she was hit in the liver or guts, she should be dead by now and with the cold weather, the meat should still be good. If the dog's cant find her, then it is more likely that the arrow hit a lot higher than that red dot, thru the thick back-strap area, above the spine. Arrows often strike high on alert deer because they immediately react to the sound of the bow's release, dropping down, resulting in a high hit. With a bow, deer often become alert when they catch a glimpse of the draw. If she was struck above the spine, she should recover ok from the hit. Good luck finding her. A little prayer might help a bit also.

I always shoot the largest antlerless deer first, as opportunities present themselves, without worry of age. On average through the years, about 25% have been button bucks. The only "sorting" I do involves antlered bucks, where I pass the occasional smaller 1.5 year olds early in the seasons. My goal is the same every year - maximize the pounds of venison harvested. I have never had enough chances on does to look for an older or younger one. If I did, I would look to harvest those that are 1-1/2 because they are a little tastier than the older ones. This year I did pass a "chip-shot" on one big, older doe during early Northern-zone ML, because I had used my "antlerless tag" on a 1-1/2 year old doe the day prior (see ML harvest thread) and would have had to use my "ether/or" tag on another doe. That turned out well, as I was able to cash that tag in on a 2-1/2 year buck during the Southern-zone crossbow season (see crossbow harvest thread). I have also used two of my four Southern zone DMP's on a button buck and a 3-1/2 year doe. I hope to use the other two by this Sunday with my crossbow, but I don't expect I will. The 5 deer in our freezer now are plenty for us, so any more I harvest will get donated. There is still way too many deer around here in zone 9F, so "being fussy" and not filling tags is not doing anyone any good.

I would recommend having a backup, AC powered sump pump and all the required pipe fittings in case your primary pump fails again. The main pump should be a good one, but the backup can be a cheap one. I depended on a water backup pump during the "October storm" in WNY and ended up with over a foot of water in the basement. Those things do not work if the city water pressure drops, as occurred during that storm (they simply add to the flooding in that case). A loss in water pressure is very likely during a major storm (clue- all municipalities use electric powered pumps). I also had a smaller flood a few years ago when the pressure switch on my main pump failed. The battery-backup pump that I tried could not handle the volume. Now I have a good "5 year warranty" main pump, a cheap backup always ready to go, a 7500 watt generator, and no more flooded basements.

I got up in the tree at 7:45. There were tons of deer tracks on the way back but none from squirrels or coyotes (my neighbor has trapped 8 of them so far this season, hopefully including the whole litter that had a den in a topsoil pile out back along the creek at our place). The sunrise was beautiful, but not a creature was stirring in the woods after it came up. The corn is all gone now, but the deer had a very busy night based on all the dug up clover, turnips and wheat I saw on the way back. Up in the tree, I started loosing feeling in my toes around 8:45. Drinking a quart of hot cider helped a little but I had to climb down about 9:15. The best part of today's hunt was the "free" workout trudging thru the snow which was higher than a foot in many areas. I also got to double that workout because when I got almost back up to the house I realized that my quiver and two arrows were still hanging back in the tree. I nearly fired up the old pickup to run back there but by that time the feeling was back in my toes, so I went for the additional workout. Good luck this afternoon.

9F?, I am going to stick it out in up in my woods stand in 9F, as long as I can (hopefully the wind is not too bad and the tree rats are out). I will probably head over to 8G in the afternoon. My brother in law signed me over a DMP for there (there is also a lot more tree rats over there). Good luck

TF, So you can stop scratching: The kill zone, centered on the a-hole of a standing deer, using a 150 gr 30/06 from 50 yards, looking from the back side, is approximately 8" diameter. An adult deer brain is approximately 2-1/2" diameter (I know that from doing a few European mounts over the last few years). If we define an ethical shot as one that kills the deer quickly, such that it can be recovered an eaten, then the THS is more than twice as "ethical" as the head shot. The problem with the THS is not ethics, but how much meat is left to eat. If the deer is properly aligned and the bullet is kept within a 3/4" diameter point of impact, the amount of destroyed meat approaches that of the good head shot. I do confess to one head shot on a squirrel however. It was the last day of ML season many years ago when sidelocks, round balls, and no scopes were required. About 2 minutes before sundown, a big gray jumped up on a stump below my stand. I had to unload anyhow, so I aimed at it's head and pulled the trigger. I had a hang-fire (just the cap went off, with a delay before the main charge ignited). I held on his head for the additional time required to blow it clean off (less than 2 seconds). I aimed for the head on that one because I thought a 50 cal ball tru the lungs would destroy most of the meat on the squirrel. Now just because squirrels are smaller and more numerous than deer, does not mean that they are not still God's creatures that should be treated with respect. I enjoy eating squirrel from time to time as a change of pace. I like the flavor more than rabbit.

All of my deer guns are cleaned, oiled, and in long-term storage now. Hopefully the crossbow gets a little action this weekend. If not, at least there is an easy cleanup on that. Then it's time to break out the .22 and side-by side 16 ga and get after the squirrels and rabbits.

I hope the grey squirrels are moving this weekend, starting tomorrow morning. That is what I am most after now with my crossbow (filling DMP's is secondary). There is not much room left in our freezers, and I look forward to the challenge of the smaller kill-zone. I will aim for a center-lung shots, with 125 grain, fixed broadheads. Most of the meat on them is in the hind quarters, so no THS's on them, and I see head-shots as "unethical", even on squirrels. Good luck to all those hunting this, the last weekend (for most of us) of deer hunting in NY state.

How did you make out on the one from this Monday? If the skin was left on and your garage is insulated, you could probably get away with hanging for the full week with no issues. If you already skinned it and your garage is un-insulated, then it is going to be froze pretty solid by Saturday morning. Freezing stops the normal breakdown process and should be avoided if possible. It looks like the temps are going to be on the rise, starting late Friday. I have Friday morning, Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon hunts planned to try and fill my last (2) DMP's. The temps in the long range forecast look good after Friday, for hide-on, inside the insulated garage hanging. It don't matter to me though, and I won't be processing another deer until next year. My garage butcher shop is closed for the season and I just carried the heavy grinder back down to the basement. If I get another deer or two this weekend, I will pull the liver (BB or doe fawn only), heart, tenderloins, and tail to keep, and donate the rest to the Buck & Doe shop. We were extremely blessed, with a record year and we have enough venison in the freezer now for at least a year and on half, depending on how many Christmas presents I hand out.