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If I manage to fill my buck tag (which is highly unlikely because I am holding for a 2-1/2 year or older buck now), I would definitely consider carrying my crossbow while working thru my last two DMP's. I have killed a couple of bucks it, over the last three years, but no antlerless deer yet. What I would like most would be to get a button-buck with it. There is not room for much more venison in our freezer now but I could always make space for one of those, even if it means throwing out a big turkey my wife got on sale. That button meat is so darn good that it is a shame to waste any of it with a gunshot wound. What they lack in quantity, they more than make up for in quality on the table. The liver and tenderloins of the one we killed Saturday morning were "to die for". There will be room for anther one, on the hook, when I process the rest of that one Wednesday evening.

Grouse are about the only bird that I like the flavor of. Their breasts are proportionally huge, compared to most other birds, and the white meat has a much better flavor than turkey or chicken. There is more meat on the breasts than the rest of the bird. We have usually baked the whole bird in the oven, like a chicken, but I have even cooked them over a campfire on a stick. It is pretty hard to mess up cooking a grouse.

I also carry 3 with the ML (one loaded and two speedloaders in jacket pocket), but I only use that when shotgun or rifle are not legal. I also reload the ML prior to tracking the deer and only one time, out of about a dozen killed with it, did I use the second shot. One time a doe that was hit thru the lungs started to get back up when I caught up with her so I gave her the second shot in the neck. My bolt-action shotgun shoots just as accurate as my ML, plus it gives me (2) extra shots and more than double the energy at 150 yards. With that and my rifle, I nearly always carry 10. It has been a long time since I have shot at a deer moving any faster than a slow walk. I still remember the last time, maybe 15 years ago. A 10 point buck presented a standing, broadside shot at about 75 yards. I calmly centered the crosshairs behind his shoulder and fired a 12 ga sabot slug, from a solid rest. He bolted over a ditch and into the woods on the other side. I tried to follow him thru the woods with the scope, looking for an opening. When he reached one, about 50 yards away, I pulled ahead a bit for a lead, and fired. He folded up dead and skidded into a stump, just like a pheasant hit with a full pattern. As it turned out, it was a pure coincidence that he died immediately after that running shot. It never touched him, but it was timed just as he ran out of steam from damage suffered by the first shot (thru both lungs). I am not sure where that second shot struck, but I know it was safe because it was fired at a steep down angle, towards the ground. That is one big advantage in hunting from a treestand over level ground, you always have a good backstop.

rachunter: The last time we stopped in there was while we were on a summer vacation, about 10 years ago. The daughter and her husband were running the place then. She said the son (Andy?) moved down to Florida or something. Back when we hunted there, he was a few years younger than us, and would always stop by our cabin and tell stories about the old days, hunting with his dad.

I had not seen a deer on opening day for the last three years. This year I saw one (a doe), in the afternoon and killed it. A friend hunting a couple hundred yards away saw two in the morning (a doe and a button buck) and killed the button buck. For me, it all comes down to how much corn is left on the stalks in the plots. When it is gone, so are the deer. It is going real fast now, and probably won't make it past Thanksgiving weekend. I feel very blessed to have plenty of venison now, and any additional will probably get donated to feed the hungry.

I always seem to have more luck when I pack light, and it makes it a lot easier getting into and out of the stands and blinds. Still-hunting is definitely better with a light pack.

We hunted out of Galusha's cottages on Lewey 26 and 27 years ago. I had my first run-in with an Adirondack buck on the second trip. I never got a shot off, but he was certainly a bruiser, based on the tracks. He was bedded in some heavy cover, just about 100 yards off the road, next to the old pasture, across the road from the cabins. I located the bedding area after finding a little hair on the barbed-wire fence around the pasture. I circled around down-wind and got within 30 yards of him when he broke out. I could not find an opening to get off a clean shot. We drove that swamp on the South end of Lewey with about 5 guys one afternoon but did not see anything there. The only deer sign I saw was right there next to that pasture. Most of the guy's hunted a long way from camp, but I was the only one who saw anything and it was only a stones throw away from the cabins. There does not seem to be a lot of food available up there, other than the road-side and old pasture grass.

Would that be from the swamp at the south end of Lewey lake?

I forked over $6.99 for the thing this year based on some good reviews on this site. It worked well the first two times, on a 1-1/2 year old doe and a 2-1/2 year old buck. The first failure occurred yesterday morning when my buddy killed a fat button-buck. I stuck it in to the stopper flange, gave it the recommended 1-1/2 turns, then pulled out. It latched on to a bit of intestine then broke free. I reached into my pack for the old reliable Gerber folding saw and cut thru the pelvis with that, getting everything cleaned out well. I tossed the Butt-out next to the gut pile. That afternoon, at 4:00 pm milking time, a mature doe came looking for her long lost son. She soon joined up with him in "deer-Heaven", when I dropped her right next to that gut-pile. I tried the Butt-out on her, with nearly identical results. In fairness, there was still some of the BBs intestine fouling the points and that may have contributed to the second failure. This ain't baseball, and that "wonder-tool" just lost it's place in my pack on the second strike. I think I will clean it up and "re-gift" it to one of my hunting buddies at the work Christmas gift exchange.

Just about any taxidermist will give you a green score for no charge. I am sticking with 140 +/- 5". Keep us posted when you find out.

I scratch my head when guys talk trash about folks taking button bucks or spikes like that yet think nothing of killing late season does that are often carrying two bucks. Remember, life begins at conception and most of the does are bred by now. I would love to fill my last two DMP's with button bucks, but I live in an overpopulated zone, so I will just take them as they come. If momma doe shows up with a BB, BB is going to get the first shot now. Antlers are a secondary consideration, it is all about the meat for me, and BB's are definitely in a class by themselves. I will pass 1-1/2 year bucks, but only because they are no tastier than 2-1/2's or 3-1/2's but have a lot less meat on them.

Approximately 140", 3-1/2 year old would be my guess from the pics. Conrats on the great buck. I am saving my own buck tag for something of that order of magnitude now. I like Federal classic 30 cal ammo. A couple years ago, I hit a buck that was a bit heavier than that one (smaller rack though), that was quartering away at about 325 yards. The bullet entered, centered on the 2nd last rib, traveled diagonally thru his chest, and lodged inside the opposite side upper front leg. That dropped the heavy buck dead in his tracks.

I will have to throw on a sweater when we go to Church this morning. Hopefully the boiler is working there.

I was wishing I had a cheaper slug with me yesterday to finish off the doe I spined in the afternoon. It was hard to watch her surfer, so I gave her a second $3.00 sabot to the head. At home, in a shotgun only zone, I am going to start carrying a few old sabots leftover from when I was trying different brands to see what worked best in my gun. None of them grouped as well, but would be great for point-blank finishing work. I hate to use the cheap fosters for fear of lead fouling of the rifling. It looks like the a consensus has been reached here, that TEN is the proper number of bullets to carry. I am going to up that to 12, with a couple of "finishers" in my pack. I will throw a couple odd-ball /mismathed 30/06 bullets in there for my Thanksgiving weekend hunt in the NZ next week. I have a drawer or two full of those.

This is perfect weather for hide-on hanging in the garage. Who needs a walk-in cooler? The meat pole is full now.

I am heading up to the ADK's for Thanksgiving weekend. I managed to get thru opening day today in the Southern zone with my buck-tag. If I can get thru tomorrow afternoon's hunt, then I hope to score on a bruiser like that up there. I nailed one up there in 2014, but no such luck last year. One thing is for sure, killing a big one up there is at least ten times better than doing it on the flat-lands down here. The scenery makes all of the difference.

I heard about a dozen before sunrise in 9F. My buddy shot a button buck about 1/2 hour after sunrise. That was the first legal shot I heard. I always have a vision of a game-warden going immediately to the sight of the first illegal shot. They could get the unlucky poacher on two charges: hunting before season and shooting before sunrise.

4 pm must have been the time for whopper does today. That is exactly the time I pulled the trigger on one when she came out to investigate the gut-pile of a button-head that my buddy had killed this morning. She looks to be in the 140 - 150 pound field-dressed range. She still had milk in her and I suspect that may have been her fawn. At least they are together now, on the meat pole. It has been a few years since I have been blessed with a button and man was that liver good for dinner tonight. My buddy gave me the button, and I am giving the big doe to my brother-in-law.

My two-story blind, at the edge of the back corn plot, has been the meat-hole this year. I killed a 2-1/2 year old buck from the upper deck with my crossbow, just as he stepped out of the corn a couple weeks ago. My buddy from work took a button buck from up there this morning (I just ate 1/2 the liver from that one for dinner, man was that good). I rode out the rain/wind this afternoon in the enclosed lower deck and killed a big doe when she came out of the brush at 4:00 pm, to investigate the BB's gut pile. Our family really can't use any more venison, but my sister's family was very thankful for that last doe. The DEC wants a lot does killed here in zone 9F, so I did my part. All three of them deer had stomachs loaded with corn. I still have another DMP for here plus one for 9A. Does anyone know if and where they are taking donated deer this year in WNY to feed the homeless folks?

I am heading out to an enclosed blind to see if grandpappy shows up. There were several active scrapes back there this morning.

The Good Lord blessed us again this morning. BB is hanging in the garage. The whole family is together now in "deer heaven" (our families food supply). Momma is on the second freezer shelf, daddy on the third, and bambi will end up on the 4th when I process him next Wed.

I came real close to shooting at a squirrel with my crossbow this afternoon. The funny thing was, that as soon as I decided to shoot, he got real skittish and would not stop long enough for me to get off a good shot. My buck tag is already punched and our freezer is nearly full with that and a couple does, but there is still room in there for a squirrel or two. My first shot at game with my crossbow was at a grouse. I went for a head shot and missed. I did kill a squirrel with a head shot from my old 50 cal side lock ML on the last day of late ML season quite a few years ago. It was just about sunset, and he just happened to show up at the right place at the right time.

I always bring 10 and once I needed almost all of them. There has not been many times that I used more than one and most of those have been when the first deer was down, and another gave me a nice shot (lots of button bucks have got to stay with their mothers that way). Many years ago, I fired 8 or 9 shots at a big buck. To this day, that remains the largest antlered deer that I have seen while hunting, and there is no doubt that "buck-fever" contributed to some of those misses. That was the only time I used more than 3 shots on a hunt. My first shot him high on a front leg, with a 16 gauge foster slug, from a range of approximately 120 yards. The antlers did not look that big at that range, especially thru my 1-1/2 power Weaver scope. My gun held a decent group at 100 yards, but I underestimated the yardage a bit, so the hit was low. That shot knocked him down, but he got back up and headed right towards my stand. I must have breathed on my scope when I lifted my head away. When I tried to find the cross-hairs as he got closer, it was all gray. I just pointed the muzzle down at him as he stumbled by, almost under my stand, but missed clean with the other 4 shots from that first salvo. He went into some thick brush, but was obviously in very rough shape, falling down every few steps and making relatively slow progress. I was a lot younger and faster then, and I thought I could catch him. His wide rack was slowing him down in the thick brush, and it did not take me too long to start closing the gap. Struggling to reload, I may have dropped a round or two. A few times, when he got into an opening, I got off another shot. When I knew I was on my last shot, I held my fire until I caught up to him, and put that last slug into his neck from point blank range. Some would call it luck that I was able to kill that buck, but I don't believe in that. As it turned out, he must have been struck low by another hunter a few days prior (my shots were on Thanksgiving morning). I noted as I was gutting him that a rear hoof was severed and hanging by some hide. The opposite diagonal front leg that I hit with my first shot was completely useless to him. He was running on two good legs and the rear stump. A deer on three legs looses very little speed, but I was faster on two.

The plywood is a great practical tip, thanks for sharing! I mostly hunt alone and have had sciatica issues, so have to really be careful when it comes to lifting. Now I'll be looking around here for a spare piece of plywood. Buckstopshere likes this Like this Quote I had some sciatica going on last season. That really put a damper on my hunting, especially up in the Adirondacks dealing with the steep terrain. What helped me get rid of that completely, was adding some seated leg extensions to (3 sets of 20 reps) to my morning workout a couple times a week. For loading deer on a vehicle, up in the mountains I always use my father in laws atv and a rope and pulley to lift into the bed of my pickup or onto the roof of our minivan. At home, the only vehicles involved are my tractors, and the lifting is done with a three point carryall on the back, or a front loader. On rare occasion when I have had none of that stuff available, I have removed the tailgate from my truck and used that as a ramp to slide the deer into the bed.

We just sampled a roast from that 2-1/2 year old buck for dinner tonight. It may be the most tender, best-flavored, mature whitetail deer roast that I have ever had. I am not sure if it was the 8 days aging in the fridge at 35 degrees, or the corn diet that buck was on for a few weeks before I killed him, but man was that good. A little bit of each I suppose.