wolc123

For many years, I would estimate the yardage and I got pretty good at it after lots of practice on the range with my bow and a full-size 3D deer target. That method works well if you have a lot of spare time. Lacking that these days, mostly due to family responsibilities and work, I now use a laser rangefinder. I bought it last season, after hitting a buck about 6" lower than the hair I intended to hit, due to underestimating the range by 9 yards, the year prior. Fortunately, he only made it 40 yards after taking the arrow thru the heart. I don't actually range the deer with the rangefinder, but use it from my stands, on landmarks (trees, rocks, stumps, etc.), especially spots where I think a deer might present a shot. The one I bought works very well from 10 to 400 yards and I use it with a crossbow, ML, smooth bore and rifled bore slug-guns, and a rifle. I know the effective range of all these weapons from time on the range, and the rangefinder allows me to stay within that with no "guesswork". It has a feature to measure the true horizontal distance, which is a concern if you are hunting from a higher elevation than your target, such as a tree-stand or a mountain ridge. Again, due to limited free time, and the legalization of the crossbow (for a short part of archery season anyhow) I no longer hunt with a bow. When I did, I used a single pin and I learned where to aim on the deer's vitals based on the estimated range. My bow shot relatively flat from 5 to 25 yards, and all of my shots were in that range. If the deer was close, I would aim low, at the heart, if far, "high lung", just below the spine. That usually resulted in a center-lung hit. I don't recall ever missing low, but I did strike a couple in the shoulder blade, when they "jumped" the string after hearing the bow release. Fortunately, they usually recover well from that injury. A friend actually harvested one of them a month later whith a gun and his shoulder was all healed up with just a big scar to show for it.

While bass fishing up there earlier this summer, I caught a couple (24" and 27") on a drift a few miles downstream of Wellsley island, out in the main channel on the US side, in front of goose bay. I never target walleyes, but have caught a few others by accident up there over the years, mostly in that same area. This was the first time with two in less than 15 minutes however, so maybe their population is up a bit. They were in 28 and 30 ft depth, on the edge of a a narrow shoal, which rose to within 5 ft of the surface and dropped off to over 60 ft deep on each side. The smallmouth were fewer, but bigger than normal this year (stuffed from round gobbies I suppose). The walleyes also looked to be fat and well fed. I hope you knock the heck out of them to make room for more bass.

I like a mix of winter wheat, white clover, and soybeans planted in late August to early September. Get the ground tilled up, adding some 5-10-5 fertilizer, prior to the last pass with a disk. Broadcast the wheat and soybeans, then cultipack. Broadcast the clover, then cultipack again. The sprouting soybeans will soon draw in deer from miles around. They will hang around thru hunting season to feed on the wheat. Bushhog that down the following late spring, before it goes to seed. The clover will then give you 3-5 more good years with just one or two mowings a year. Prior to all that, a soil test to determine the PH is a good idea. Lime is often needed to get good clover plots but wheat will grow on poor soil.

The South is an ok place to visit in the cooler months, but I could never live down there year round. I spent most of last week working down on the Gulf coast and that is about all of that I could take. Walking out of the air-conditioned hotel each morning your glasses fog over instantly in the 100% humidity. Forget about doing anything "physical" outside from June thru September. Letting folks live there almost tax-free is about the only way to get them to stay. You don't realize how good we have it in NY in the summer until you spend some time down there. As far as the deer go, the further south you go, the smaller they get. In Southern AL, MS etc a 2-1/2 year old buck often field dresses less than 100 pounds. Land overrun with wild hogs makes foodplotting completely futile. You usually have to work for hours to get a largemouth bass to bite and they lack smallmouths down there. I could never live somewhere without my favorite fish and only tiny deer (you cant eat the antlers). Our family also spends a week every summer in Virgina beach (visiting family) and the heat is nearly as bad there. The small plane from Mobile AL landed a long way from the gate in Charlotte NC last week and the walk outside at mid-day, under the hot sun, to the air-conditioned airport was brutal. Just like Hank Jr says, "that hot old sun makes you beg for your next breath". If you don't do well in the heat, don't do it.

I am hoping to get crack at one with the ML up in the Adirondacks this fall. I got a glimpse of one last fall and there were many sighting around my in-laws camp. They have ATV's, ropes and pulleys up there, so getting it into the truck would be no problem. A buddy shot small one down on the PA line a few years ago and gave me a bit of the meat and it was very good. I have heard that those that field dress less than 200 pounds are good, but the larger ones are not so hot. Another buddy shot a big one up in Canada that same year and the guides just brought the hide and skull out of the woods, telling him the meat would not be fit for dogs. There is a lot less usable meat on a bear than a deer. I can usually extract about half the field dressed weight in boneless venison from a deer while I hear that you only get about 10% of a bear's live weight in boneless meat. They carry most of their weight in hide, bone, guts, and fat. I would be thankfull for one of any size. The crockpot can make just about anything taste good and the rug from a big one would be cool.

"IF I shoot a doe I don't remove her from the woods until it is to dark to make another kill, I figure just her being near my stand will bring in other deer. " Great idea that I saw work once. It didn't take the long though. Two bucks showed a few minutes after I killed the lead doe from a big group of antlerless deer with my ML. I did not even have time to reload the ML, and used my backup gun (Remington 870 12 ga) to drop the larger buck right next to the dead doe. That was a particularly easy recovery, as they were right on a logging road thru my woods. After gutting them both, I walked back to the barn and got a tractor and put both of them in the bucket to get them out. I always like to get the guts out of the deer ASAP and I am not sure that having a gutted doe around would be as attractive as a "fresh" one. Do you gut them and leave them nearby, or do you leave the guts in until dark?

I just got back from a quick check of my winter wheat (deer like that a bit better than rye, but it uses more nitrogen)/soybean/white clover plots that I put in just over a week ago. Everything was sprouted up real good and there was a group of turkeys out there eating the sprouted soybeans. The rain we have been getting over the last couple weeks has been just right for some great looking plots at this stage. Even the corn plots planted this spring are now looking good and I spooked a doe and fawn out of one when I rode around it on my mountain bike yesterday afternoon. The coons are hitting those hard already however and I will definitely need to trap them heavy this fall if I expect any to last until gun season.

I use five different guns/sight combinations, depending on the season, zone, and weather conditions. With few exceptions, these have each got the job done every time, even when I pushed their effective range a bit on several occasions. Since most of my hunting is in shotgun-only zones, I will start with those. My first deer gun was my grandad's old Ithaca 16 ga, 37 deerslayer pump. On my first year hunting, I missed a buck with it clean. Back then it had open sights. I mounted a 1-1/2X Weaver scope on it the second year and have been 100% with it since. I suspect "buck-fever" and a poor sight picture cost me that first miss. A long time ago, some folks said I got "lucky" with this combination on my largest antlered buck (I know different) as it was a bit over 100 yards on my first shot. My shot struck low, below the vitals, but breaking the bone high on a front leg. Fortunately, the buck was also missing a back hoof, from another hunter's poor shot a week or so earlier, and I was able to close the range on foot as he struggled to get away on two good legs and the stump (a young hunter is a bit faster than a deer on two legs). A point-blank shot to the neck finished him off. I still use this combination a few times a season, and killed my second largest antlered buck with it just a few years ago (at a 10 yard range). I like to use this gun later in the season, after the deer have been forced into cover, where shots are expected to be under 75 yards. Seeking to extent my reach a bit, I picked up a used Remington 12 ga, 870 Wingmaster pump. It came with a short, smoothbore barrel with open sights, and I mail-ordered a long, rifled, cantilever scope barrel and a 2-7 Redfield scope. That combination was a dissapointment, vertically stringing shots like a thermometer, depending on how warm the barrel was (someone should start a thread on what guns they don't carry and why). In the couple years I used this gun, I missed a few deer clean, on real cold days, and hit and killed several, but not always where I aimed. I ended up trading the barrel and some cash for a T/C 50 cal Omega ML (I put the Redfield on that). Oddly enough, that 870 has been 100% for me with the open sights and the short barrel it came with. I killed a nice 8-point with it a few years ago at 75 yards, when he showed up 2 minutes after I had dropped a doe with the Omega. I don't like scopes in the rain, so I still use this gun on those days and have taken several other antlerless deer with it. For a few seasons, I used the T/C ML throughout gun season in the shotgun zones, until it let me down one time when I pushed the range a bit on a 1-1/2 year buck, late in the season. The shot was about 150 yards and likely struck the buck right where I aimed. I ended up loosing that deer and not finding him for a week, half eaten by coyotes. I was confident in the shot, with the buck quartering away, having a good rest and having practiced from that range. The issue here was energy, with not enough remaining to deliver adequate shock at that range, or to drive the bullet all the way through. He was standing on fresh snow, and showed no reaction of a hit at the shot. I followed his trail for more than 400 yards until loosing it, then grid searched a couple hours, never finding a drop of blood. I ended up finding him later, with the help of the crows. The bullet probably had passed thru one lung, based on the 500 yards he traveled, but there was no exit wound and not a drop of blood or hair where he stood when shot or along his whole trail. I have killed many other deer cleanly with this combination, but now I only use it during ML season. My go-to long range shotgun now is a 12 ga, Marlin 512 bolt-action with a 3X Bushnell Banner scope. This thing is a tack-driver, holding tighter groups on the range than the T/C Omega, but best of all, packing more than double the energy at long range (and two extra shots - rarely needed though). My longest kill with it was a doe at 163 yards where it literally knocked her off her feet. My only problem with this gun, as a confirmed cheapskate, is the cost of the ammo. That is the main reason I still tote the old, foster-slug using, Ithaca pump on occasion. I also don't like the Marlin when it is real cold because it froze up on me once and would not fire on a nice fat doe at a 15 yard range. I hope that a disassembly and good cleaning of the bolt has corrected that problem. In rifle zones and Western hunts, I use my Ruger 77 bolt-action 30/06 with Redfield 3-9X scope. This one has got the job done every time at ranges up to 300 plus yards. It is a little heavy for my liking up in the Adirondacks however and I am thinking of getting one of those Ruger Americans .243 caliber. If either of my daughters decides to get into it over the next few years, I will have to get one of those for sure.

The problem with the sleds, is that you have to go back out to get them, leaving your deer in the woods. Not a great idea with all the coyotes around. My suggestion would be to call a friend or relative on your cellphone as soon as you kill the deer. Give them your gps position, if you each have one, or some identifiable terrain features if not. As you are gutting the deer, they can be on their way to help. They can carry out all your gear, while you drag the deer and you can take turns if necessary. I did that two years ago, with my father in law helping me on a 200 plus pound, field-dressed Adirondack buck, and it worked great. I had to drag that sucker a mile or so thru swamp and thick bush until we could get his ATV to it. I never could have done that while carrying my rifle and other gear. Another suggestion, for future seasons, would be to get yourself into better shape. It does not take a lot of effort and will help you in all areas, not just hunting. Try starting some morning weekday workouts before work and some cardio stuff after. A couple 20 minute workouts each day can do wonders. Dragging deer is a lot easier and you are much less likely to sustain injuries doing it if you are in decent shape. I had gotten rather spoiled on this for many years, mainly just hunting my own flatland farm and using a tractor with a loader or 3-point carryall to bring out all the carcasses. Hunting the in-laws Adirondack camp the last few years has forced me to get back into shape, which makes hunting those elevations a lot easier, in addition to making the drags a piece of cake. Also remember that even if you are in good shape, you will need to drink a lot of water to drag a deer a long way. Get one of those special straws, or carry some purification tablets, along with your canteen, especially in warmer weather conditions. I bet I drank 4 gallons of creek water on one five mile, Rocky-mountain mule deer drag when I was younger.

Man that is nasty looking. Thanks for the timely warning as that is about the only job left for me to do this year other than on the range, sighting in and practicing with my weapons. Was it a chain saw that did the damage?

The older I get, the lower I like to be. With a crossbow (which does not have to be drawn with deer in close) or a gun, there is no good reason to get up so high. I still have one small, store-bought ladder stand that is 15 ft up. I am a lot more comfortable hunting from my other stands that are 10 ft or lower. I also have a couple two-story blinds made from old construction-style truck caps with open blinds built up on the ladder racks. The covered lower-level floors are up about 3 feet and the upper decks about 9 feet. These are extremely comfortable in any weather conditions. All of my stands have three foot rails and/or walls all the way around which provide safety, cover, wind break, and shooting support. As a side note, over the years, I have killed lots of antlerless deer and young bucks from the stands, but my last two mature bucks have been taken from ground level with my feet on the dirt (or snow). Bucks have a hard time getting old if they don't learn how to avoid "danger from above". Learning how to hunt effectively from the ground may significantly increase your odds of harvesting a mature buck.

I am glad to hear of your plans and wish you all the best over there. Due to a vacation conflict at work, I had to push my own trip back a bit. Now I am heading up for the opening of ML season on Sat October 15th. Fortunately, a close study of the map shows that a large portion of the area that I hunt is in zone 6C, where antlered or antlerless deer are fair game up until the opening of rifle on Sat October 22 (I killed my big buck a couple years ago just over the border of 6F, which is "buck only" during ML this fall). I will still bring the crossbow, but only hunt with it if it is warm and rains. I will also be bringing along my 30/06, and if the weather is favorable, I will likely stay up there thru Sunday October 23 (I don't need to be back to work until the 24th). I would be thankful for one antlerless deer from the trip, but it is good to know that I could bring back two, plus a rifle buck, if everything goes just right. If that happens, our family would be set for the year with venison, and I won't need to hunt at all down here at home in the southern zone. One thing that is guaranteed, is that the spectacular scenery (which comes across very well in your videos) always makes the trips up there memorable. Seeing deer is just the icing on the cake. Good luck to you and your friend. I hope to see some video of that "icing" on your canoes this fall.

Because venison is our family's primary source of protein, meat is usually the main objective when I hunt. I pass on 1-1/2 year old bucks early in archery and gun seasons because they add a lot of body weight over the next several years. You can't eat the tags however, so late season, the 1-1/2 year bucks are in trouble if I still have mine. I do expect to be a little more selective than usual this fall for several reasons. First, I am hoping to get a crack at a big Adirondack buck that I missed a chance at late last season (I spooked him on my walk into the woods in the dark) and second, our vacuum-sealed venison supply is still pretty good.

The rule of of thumb that concerns me most these days is keeping things right with Jesus Christ. If you can manage to do that, everything else just seems to fall in place (not only hunting). The Bible says He knows where every sparrow falls so you better believe He knows where all the whitetails end up. He has helped me get 3-4 into my family's food supply (deer Heaven) for the last 10 or so years now, and filled my live-well with fish nearly every time I have been out. If you don't know where to start, try reading the Bible a bit each day (first thing in the morning works for me). Throw one into your pack and read it when things get slow up in the stand. A little prayer now and then can't hurt, nor can a church service, and doing something nice for the less fortunate always pays off more than it costs.

My fieldcorn plots are looking ok, considering the drought we recently got over, but the coons are already hitting them a bit. I will need to trap them heavy this fall if I want to keep some corn around until gun season. I am about half done planting winter wheat / soybean / white clover plots. I still need to place one more tree stand, box in a blind and trim a few shooting lanes. We spent a little time on the range yesterday morning, making sure the .44 mag, scoped, Ruger Redhawk my buddy just purchased was on the paper at 50 yards. He was not able to check it out himself, due to some eye trouble. Not being a pistol shooter, I missed the first shot, probably out of fear of recoil. It was actually quite tame however, other than some muzzle jump. My second shot struck 2" from the bull. That is all he let me fire, using his hunting ammo at $1.00 a crack. I made a quick shopping trip this morning with the wife to Walmart and picked up my hunting license (9T DMP tag which required two pref. points and a 9F). We also stopped at Tractor supply and I picked up a $20 broadcast seeder to replace the one I broke on yesterday. Not much hard work remains, with the firewood all done and most of the stands and blinds ready. In the next several weeks, I plan on lots of time on the range with the crossbow, ML, shotguns, and rifle. There is still plenty of vacuum sealed venison in the freezer, but we are going start hitting that harder now to make room for the new stuff. We got all the fixens for stroganoff, lasagne, stir-fry, and barley soup at Walmart today.

I am looking forward to your film from the first week of rifle this fall. The scenery is always fantastic. It looks like the state has decided to close ML season to antlerless harvests this fall so, other than a better chance at warmer weather, not much advantage for you going up a week earlier this fall. Maybe one of the three button bucks I saw last fall in the 40 miles to the NW of Lows location, will disperse that far wearing its first set of antlers. I am moving my own trip another week earlier (October 12) and packing my crossbow. I hope to get a crack at the big boy I saw up there last fall, but I would be happy with a 2-1/2 year old buck or even a fat doe (I think they can still be taken, until opening of rifle, with archery tackle including a crossbow over the last 10 days). With possibly as much as 9 days up there this October, there should be plenty of time for some smallmouth bass and lake trout fishing and also a little grouse hunting. The grouse population looked good up there last fall. It has been several years since I have been blessed with one of those excellent-eating birds. I just bought my NY tags today including turkey (there were also a lot of them up there last fall). Getting one of them with the crossbow would be cool. I don't care for their meat but my in-laws, wife and kids all love it. I am glad you are feeling better and look forward to more videos. Thanks for your service.

From the video, it looks like the guy made a very good hit on the bear with the spear. I see little difference in what he did and those who choose to hunt with a longbow or recurve. As a natural born killer, none of those are for me, but I respect those "fighters" who are willing and able to put in the time and effort to become proficient with those weapons. As far as the AU goes, I never used that stuff anyhow and now I never would. Kind of like I could never get fully behind the Buffalo Bills when PETA-guy Marv Levy was at the helm. Those folks don't have a clue, for God never would have put man's eyes in the front of our head if he didn't want us to eat meat. As far as the trophy-hunting thing goes, I have no use for that personally but I also respect those who do it. I can understand, from a Biblical perspective, how they have more trouble from the anti's than us meat-hunters however. Anyone who can read can see that Jesus himself helped his buddies fill a boat with fish (to eat) and how the Father (who represents God) killed the "fatted calf" to celebrate the return of his prodigal son.

It looks like there is some confusion here. Bloodglow is not a UV light. It is a chemical that contains an active ingredient which, when mixed with water (or windshield wiper fluid in freezing temps) reacts with blood to glow in the natural star or moon light. Every blood trail is different, and If I knew a deer was gut shot, I would leave it 8 hours even though I have bloodglow. For other hits, I am waiting 30-40 minutes before tracking. The two deer I have shot since getting the bloodglow two years ago were struck in the heart and diagonally thru both lungs, so no tracking has been needed. Again, I hope never to need it, but being human, I am prone to making mistakes. Bloodglow is just another tool. The biggest thing I rely on now to keep my family fed with wild game, is my faith in Jesus Christ, the one person who walked this earth without making mistakes. I pray for all those who continue to struggle and have yet to learn that fact. It would be nice if all of us could spend eternity up there in that Happy Hunting Ground.

Everyone makes mistakes and leaving it in the woods overnight was the biggest one he made on that hunt. He was understandably afraid of being mauled by the wounded bear. When it comes to deer, there really is no longer a good reason to leave them overnight. A gut shot deer will normally expire within 8 hours and tracking them in the dark with "bloodglow" is supposed to be a piece of cake. I picked up some two years ago and I hope never to need it. I do feel a lot more confident hunting until legal sunset with it available however, knowing that it should be very easy to find a hit deer after dark.

I was never one who sought to challenge myself when living creatures are involved. When I hunt (or fish), I simply want to make those living creatures dead as quickly and humanely as legally possible, then get the meat prepared for my family's consumption. That means that I will always choose the most lethal, affordable weapon that the law will allow. I respect my quarry an I feel I owe that to them. If others choose to hunt with more primitive weapons, I don't have a big problem with it, providing they put in the time and effort to become proficient with their weapon. Hunters are born into one of two groups: Killers or Fighters. One way to tell them apart is to watch them fish. The killers will usually take their catch home to eat, while the fighters will usually release them to possibly be caught another day. The fighters like a challenge and seek to maximize it, while the killers seek to minimize the challenge. There is room for both in the sports of hunting and fishing, but the two groups will never see eye to eye on the "best" way to get the job done. As far as that spear-chucker goes, pure fighter, and there is nothing wrong with that.

She is in God's hands now and no longer suffering. Your love for her will never end and you will see her again someday, and then have eternity to spend together. My prayers are sent and may God bless you and your family.

I agree with Grow that doe are much harder to kill with a vertical bow than bucks. The main reason for that seems to be that the doe are almost always in groups thru archery season, and more than one set of eyes must be fooled in close while making the draw. That quick motion is exactly the type of thing those deer are wired to detect with their excellent periforal vision. Usually it sends the group high-tailing it into cover immediately or at the very least puts them in a state of high alert, which greatly increases "string-jump". I see the crossbow as the ultimate doe-killing weapon for three reasons, with the most important being the elimination of the need to draw with groups of deer in close. The second reason is it's silence, equal or nearly equal to that of a vertical bow. This gives it a big advantage over the ML, who's blast would alert other deer at great distance. Finally, I think most would agree that far less time and effort is required to attain lethal accuracy with a crossbow, especially if fired from a rest using telescopic sights, than a vertical bow. That means there will be more efffective hunters in the woods. The key is to let those hunters in the woods when they can do the most good at lowering the antlerless population. That would be the start of archery season, before the bulk of the population has gone nocturnal after detecting the early archery pressure. I would even settle for a compromise with the anti-crossbow bowhunters whereby the crossbow could only be used on antlerless deer for the first two weeks in the overpopulated zones only (those that had 2 week antlerless only last season), and ether sex for the rest of the season. They don't seem willing to give an inch however. I guess they would rather keep the automobile as the best control of antlerless deer in these overpopulated zones.

I will give it a try and let you know how it works out in a couple months. Anything that can speed the skinning process a bit would be good, especially with all the deer ticks we are seeing lately. I saw some on all three South-western NY (town of Centerville) deer that I skinned last fall. I just picked up an extra air compressor for the garage, so it should be quick and easy.

Wouldn't one of them little needles that you stick in a nozzle for blowing up footballs and basketballs work for that, assuming the deer was not gutted? I also would never delay gutting a deer, but I think I will give one a try on a gutted one for skinning the neck, forward of the shoulder, and the rump area. Those areas always take me the longest to skin using the conventional method.

How can a Bible help get you a deer: I had killed a large button buck early in the morning on opening day of gun season (those are the best eating). A good friend killed another, almost identical one that morning and had called my wife asking if she wanted it. These are her favorite to eat, so of course she said yes. Now, with plenty of butchering to do and well stocked with top-quality venison, I was not overly excited about the afternoon hunt. The woods behind the house had sounded like WWIII that morning with all the shots (only one was mine), so after hanging the second BB in the garage, I grabbed my Bible and headed for my stand across the road, hopefully to spend some quite "reading time" until sunset. It was still opening day after all, and I still had my buck tag. It was a very warm afternoon, and the hours were ticking away as I sat up in a stand in a pine tree above a little patch of brush. Not much activity, other than a few squirrels and another hunter passing by at the far edge of the woods, about a hundred yards away. I am anal about the sunrise/sunset times, never loading my gun until sunrise and unloading it at sunset per the times printed in the paper for the date. With 5 minutes of legal daylight remaining, for a reason which soon became very clear, the Bible I was reading slipped out of my hands, falling to the forrest floor below. Had I not already had 2 deer hanging in my garage, I surely would have stayed up in that stand for the final minutes. I decided to pack it in early however, but I did break a cardinal safety rule and left my gun loaded as I carefully climbed down the tree. As I reached for the Bible, with just 3 minutes of daylight remaining, a flock of turkeys descended right on my position in the patch of brush. There were birds less than 5 yards from me. They surely would not have landed there, had I still been up that tree in my blaze orange cammo. Suddenly a wide rack, head and neck appeared from behind a bush at about 10 yards. I quickly raised my gun, centered the crosshairs on the base of the neck, and flopped that old boy down right there with two minutes to go. You can see a picture of the european-mount in the taxidermy section in the DIY european mount thread. I would post the picture again, but some folks here get offended by multiple posts of the same picture. In those woods, I had often seen deer and turkeys together. No doubt that old buck felt safe with the birds due to their superior eyesight, and I am sure they tolerated him thanks to the power of his nose. Because the Bible fell when it did, his line of turkeys got breached this time, giving him the surprise of his life and effectively ending it. That was not the first nor the last time that JC showed His cards while helping me get a deer. The fact is, I never got any on my own.