wolc123

No bow hunting for me, until crossbow opens for the peak 2 weeks of the rut in November. I might get out next Sunday afternoon at my parents with my .22 for squirrels. I saw a bunch of them over there today, while I was out putting up posted signs.

Here is the story of Jake, my first Adirondack buck, which I killed in 2014. I named him Jake after a young real estate agent who sold my in-laws their place up there. I got to hunt with him a few times up there, and he showed me the local hot-spots, saving me the 10 year struggle that I had at the old spot where I got that doe a few years prior. I consider him a good friend and he was very close with my father in law. I was hunting another ridge top , near a spot that Jake had told me about on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. There was fresh snow that morning, and the view from up there was breathtaking. A creek wound thru the valley below. It was late morning, and my stomach was churning thinking about my mother in laws breakfast (she is a phenomenal cook). As the sun got higher, it started breaking up the ice along the banks of the creek down below. I was almost ready to pull the plug and head down for breakfast but it was just so beautiful up there that I decided to stick it out just a little longer. The only thing missing was a deer, and a buck in particular (does are off limits up there in gun season). The odds were not with me there, as I had never even laid eyes in a buck in 13 years of hunting the Dacks. In some desperation, I said a prayer and asked the Good Lord if I could just see a buck. When I finished that short prayer, I looked down the valley to my left and immediately saw a dark shape moving my way, along the far bank of the creek, maybe a mile away. It looked very large and I thought it might be a moose. It kept disappearing behind pines growing along the bank, but would keep popping back out a little closer. As it closed the range, I could tell that it was a deer, and it was also a buck with clearly visible antlers from several hundred yards away. I was sitting in a red folding camp chair, and I cranked the scope on my heavy 30/06 up to 9x. My shot felt good as I had a good sight picture, from approximately a 250 yard range, with the gun resting steady on my elbows against my knees. It must have been a clean miss (the autopsy later revealed that that it was). The buck just kept on walking. He must have thought sound of the rifle shot was just more ice breaking. I got up out of my chair and followed along with him, up on the ridge. When he reached the next opening, I took an offhand shot. Another miss but it at least got his attention and stopped him. I found a tree to rest on and let another one rip. Then he just vanished. There was a big pine tree right next to where I last saw him. My plan then was to get down to that tree and pick up his trail. Easier said than done in that steep and rugged country. That creek was deep and there was no way to get across it without climbing back down to the road to the camp. It was an around and about route that took a long time and covered a lot of distance. I left my red chair up top as a marker. When I got down over to the other side of the creek, I could see my chair up on the ridge top. I walked that bank of the creek until I got to that big pine tree. I found Jake laying there under it in the snow, eyes wide open, and not a mark on him. Mt 3rd shot, a 150 gr Federal classic, had struck his second last rib, as he stood at a quartering away angle, and passed diagonally thru his chest, lodging in the armpit on the opposite side. He’s not my largest buck but he’s definitely my favorite because an Adirondack buck is worth at least 10 times to me what any flatland buck is, by virtue of the scenery up there alone. Sadly, the man Jake never got to see that mount, but it will hang up there in his honor as long as I am around, he passed away in a tragic drowning accident while he was fishing with his girls, before I got the mount back from the taxidermist.

Here is the story of how I killed my first deer up there, which was a doe on opening day of early ML season, about 10 years ago. It finally happened on about my last year of hunting that spot, where my in-laws always rented a little cabin on a little “off the grid” lake, for a long weekend in September and Another in October. The October weekend hit on the gun opener or the ML opener, about every other year. I didn’t hunt as hard on the gun years, because there were so few bucks around that spot. I only ever even saw (2) in the 10 years of hunting up there, and that was in September when I was not hunting. Two 6-pointers ran across the driveway on my drive into camp. I never got to see a buck up there while hunting. That opening weekend of gun, I was out on the lake fishing. The cabin was towards the east end of the lake and I was not to far from it, in a 12 ft rowboat, casting the shoreline, below a steep cliff. The wind was blowing towards that cliff. I could see oak trees up on top of that ridge, that ran right up to the lake. I hadn’t showered in a couple days. so I must have been emitting some pretty strong scent. It was warm that morning, and the fish were biting good, so I suppose that I was generating some sweat and smell while casting and reeling them in. That’s when I heard a deer snorting up on that ridge. There are so few people around there, that the deer are extremely sensitive to their scent. The following year, it was ML season for our October trip. Rather than fish that Saturday morning, I loaded my T/C Omega 50 cal, and climbed up that steep ridge in the dark. I found white oak acorns all over up top, and a nice comfortable big flat rock to sit on. About 10 minutes after sunrise, I heard the sound of leaves crunching and branches breaking. Soon I could see the dark shapes of a group of 5 or 6 deer, slowly working their way up from the side away from the lake. None had antlers and the largest one was out front. I was wearing full camo and the wind was in my face as I watched them get closer and closer. I shot the leader, broadside on center thru the lungs, at about a 20 yard range. She took about 5 steps towards me, and just stood there for what seemed like 5 minutes, staring directly at me, like she she had absolutely no clue what just happened. The deer behind her stood there also. This area was so remote, that it would not surprise me if these deer had never encountered a hunter . Eventually, her legs began to wobble, and she fell over and tumbled down the steep rise to my left. I reloaded and but-slided down behind her. I wasn’t sure of my exact location, and was very surprised to see that she had landed on one of the switchbacks on the driveway to the cabin that my in-laws had rented. As I stood next to her there, she tried to stand up and I finished her with a neck shot. My in-laws were sitting at the table eating breakfast when I walked in, a little bloody from the gutting job, and carrying the her heart in a ziplock bag. I asked my father in law if I could use his ATV to fetch her and I hung her up in the boathouse. My sister in law still gives me flack about leaving that gut pile in the middle of the driveway and her having to jog past it that morning. I always like to leave gut piles out in the open, because the birds clean them up faster that way. When we left two days later, not a trace remained l. The key to killing that doe was knowing what the preferred food was at the time, and getting to it before she did. Without them snorts that I heard the year prior, I’d have never known.

Scenery pictures from the October (leaf color) hunt last year and a December (first snow cover) hunt. Those are my two favorite hunting times and the two best scenery times up there. So far, I have only managed to kill antlered bucks up there in the snow, but the fishing is better during the early ML week, so that is my favorite time up there:

I have been hunting deer near and on the NW corner of the Dacks, at least for one long weekend, for the last 20 years. For the last 10, since my in-laws built their retirement home right on the edge of the 6.5 million acre park, I have hunted it for about a week and a half every year. My first two long weekend Adirondack deer hunts were 30 and 31 years ago, down near the SE corner of the park. Contrary to what most believe, it is not all that difficult to kill deer up there, especially now that almost all Adirondack DMU’s are opened for antlerless harvest, during the early ML season. Had I been up a week earlier, 31 years ago with my ML, I’d have had a big doe on my second hunt. The deer might be few and far between, compared to many areas folks are used to, but there is still plenty of them up there. You just need to figure out what they are eating, and how to get at them without spooking them. If you are in reasonable physical condition and get a some snow-cover, your chances of success up there will increase by at least a factor of 10. The deer are way easier to see against that snow background. Their tracks will show you exactly where they have been and will lead you directly to them. In my opinion, there is no place in the United States that has better scenery than we have right here in NY’s Adirondack park, and there is no place that I would rather hunt deer. The only downside of figuring out how to kill deer up there, is that it takes much of the luster out of doing it at home in a less scenic, more heavily populated area (with deer and people). Having a little success up there (and free room and board) has effectively cured me of any desire of taking any more Western Elk hunts. Glad I did that once, when I was young, but I would only do it again if it was free. The primary reason that I hunt deer is for the free meat. I never had the chance to eat a deer from the SE corner of the Adirondack park. Those that I have had from the NW corner, have been every bit as delicious, as those from around home in WNY. The tenderloins were a little tough on this 5.5 year old plus Adirondack ML doe from last year, but her grind was good: In a couple weeks, I will be up there chasing some of her offspring.

No frost yet here on the far end of WNY, half way between Lake Erie and Ontario. Those big ponds usually hold that off for quite some time. Just to be safe, I picked and froze all of our remaining sweetcorn two days ago. That was the first batch all year, that the coons didn’t wipeout almost completely. Here is a picture I took yesterday of some of the remnants of that ongoing battle. (6) adult male coons and one juvenile gave their lives, but managed to destroy about 1/4 acre of sweetcorn. They were burried nearby, only to be exhumed by coyotes within a few days. I have to assume the the coyotes took out all of the female and most of the young coons in the area on their own, without the help of me and my traps. Hopefully, the little coon-free area that we have created here, will lead to some better turkey hunting next year.

Because you would have been a longer path to ground than that which was already established by the flooding. Electricity always takes the shortest path to ground.

Pop-up Blind Decision: The last few years, I have been bringing my pop up blind along with me, on a 9 day mid-October NZ ML week thru gun opening weekend hunt. There is always significant amount of rain thru that stretch, and the blind has been a good way to get out of it. Here it is deployed up there in my favorite spot for it- on top of an old ramp that was made of stone, more than a century ago, for loading wagons with barrels of maple sap: A nice thing about that location, is that it is very close to the house that I stay in up there. Bad things about it are: The deer don’t start using that area heavily until snow starts sticking around, and that hasn’t happened until well into November the last few year's. Also, some new neighbors have purchased the adjoining property and deer activity up there is inversely proportional to human activity in an area. Because of those new folks moving in, and because I have not seen a deer from it up there in quite some time, I was on the fence about wether or not to bring it up with me this year. I can’t think of any other good spots to put it up there in October. My “early antlerless” gun season hunt from that blind at home, one week ago today, has nocked me off of that fence. Based on that hunt, I truly believe that I have located the perfect location for that blind, so I am not going to move it. I did not kill a deer on last Saturday’s hunt, but that was only because I had selected the wrong weapon. Resting that “wrong” gun on my new shooting sticks, I had a brief, steady, standing broadside 175 yard shot opportunity on a big doe. I didn’t take it because the effective range of the gun is about 100 yards short of that. 15 minutes later, I had a close to perfect 20 yard shot opportunity at a “shooter” buck, which of course I couldn’t take, because they are off limits in the “antlerless only” season. It was cool watching him and a smaller buck spar for a while that morning, about 50 yards downwind of me. They had no clue that I was in there. My open stick of Evercalm, a scent lock jacket, and a pre hunt shower with scent free soap, really neutralized their noses. Where the blind is now, I can get up to a 200 yard shot from two of the windows, using my ML or rifled shotgun from the shooting sticks. It is in just the right spot for hunting my best foodplots with an east wind. I didn’t have that wind until last Saturday, thru the early antlerless season. Here it is, lightly brushed in, where it will stay until January 1, 2023 (last day of Holiday ML season). Those “tall tine tubers” (just sprouted behind the cultipacker when that picture was taken) are now about 2 feet tall. I don’t expect the corn to last that long, because the deer are really hammering it right now. I only ever killed one deer from that blind, back in 2018, the year that my wife bought it for me at Aldis for $ 30. That was a big button buck, on a clover plot with my crossbow, over at my parent’s place. I think it’s going to see a bit more action this year.

5 minutes behind, just a random bypass. Coyotes only target mature bucks at the end of the rut when they are slow and weak and easy to catch.

Belo’s still pissed that I killed too many bb’s. That’s one thing he has in common with FSW. Good news for both of them, is that I am trying my best to hold off on killing any more of those till 2025. I almost hit the United Club, rather than the Mediterranean grill at Nomad’s suggession, since it was almost right across the hall from my gate. Glad I didn’t, because the barmaid (sorry Belo if that’s not a “proper” term) at the grill was great and the food was spectacular (some type of grilled mozzarella and tomato sandwich).

TC Omega 50 cal/Redfield Widefield 2-7/240 gr XTP bullet to the heart: worked good from 10 or 15 yards last Tuesday. Unfortunately, I dropped the ML on the carpet in the basement while cleaning it that night, so I need to recheck the zero, prior to my next hunt on October 15.

You made good time, the barmaid said it was 10-14 minutes between gates and you did it in 8.

Hasn’t reached WNY, yet. Tongues are still pink out here. Redhearts are fatal though and that’s what killed this one:

Nice job. I am surprised that he didn’t want you to recreate the droopy ear. Did he have any trail cam pics of it on that condition ?

We will have to do a toast to Texas of Yeager in Chicago for our 8’s this fall: Yours is not lined up quite as well in the picture. You better move your blind about 10 yards to the left of the camera.

My 1/4 acre plot of old “free” Whitetail Institute “tall tine tubers” was looking pretty good last Saturday. Lower than recommended seed rate, extra fertilizer worked into the ground before planting, and lots of rain, have made it go bonkers: It still hasn’t drawn any deer out of the adjacent standing corn though. Maybe it will attract some, after they eat up all of that, and we get a hard frost.

Looks good, just about perfectly proportioned. How did you fix the ears ? How old do you think the buck was ?

Would you be willing to part with any 150 gr core lokt ? I get over to your neighborhood somewhat regularly, for our daughter’s college field hockey games. Cash, or I could trade you many different types of 30/06 , 1 for 1, including military match ammo.

Have you hunted that area before ? My first contact with some Adirondack deer, happened about 35 years ago, not too far to the East of there. We hunted from Galusha’s camp, on Lewey lake, just a little south of Indian lake. We were mostly after bear, and one was killed out of that camp on our first year up there. I think the camp is now operated by the original owner’s daughter and her husband. Her brother, who was around 15 years old when we were up there, told us a story about his father killing a bear at very short range with bird shot, while he was small game hunting on the other side of the lake. The first year up there, I had a topo map and a compass and I hunted far from the camp and the highway every day. I saw no signs at all of deer or bear in the deep woods. I did note a little deer hair on a barbed wire fence, around a little horse pasture, across the highway from the camp. The following year, I noted that there was a thick, brushy area right along the highway, next to that pasture. One morning, when the wind was right, I walked into that brush with my scoped and loaded 30/06. I hadn’t gone 50 yards, when two tails went up and ran directly away from me, and a third ran off to my left. I settled my crosshairs on the two in front. Neither had antlers and I only had a buck tag. The one out in front was clearly a big mature doe. After flushing them, I crossed over the tracks that they left in the soft ground. The one that went to the left had significantly larger tracks than those from the big doe, and they spread out a bit in the front. My guess is, that it was a buck, and a good sized one at that. I probably could have got some lead into him, if my focus had not been on the two “straight-aways”. The lesson I learned there, was that you need to find the preferred food, to find the deer. There is very little of that in the mature surrounding forests, that have not been logged in over a century. The grass on the highway shoulders, and particularly that horse pasture, were gold-mines. There was a former member here, by the name of buckmaster 760, who has taken quite a number of big bucks around that area, all but one by tracking in the snow. He got at least one without any snow, and that was quite a story. He riddled the monster with his pump gun, but it still made it into a swamp and was a very tough drag, due to it’s heft. My own estimate, is that it is at least 10 times harder to kill a buck up there, when there is not snow on the ground. Snow makes it a lot easier to see them, but more importantly, it tells you exactly where they have been, and leads a trail right to them. Your odds of snow are slim now with global warming, in early ML week. Buckmaster proved you don’t need it. I have blown two chances myself, counting the one described above, and an even worse one two falls ago (up on the NW corner of the park on opening day of gun). I’d have had that one for sure, were it not for my damn smartphone. Leave that in your pocket while hunting. That buck was within 15 yards of me. I will be up there trying again this year. I did manage to kill two bucks up there in the snow, in the years between the two snowless blown chances. The best way, to up your odds of killing a deer up there without snow, is to do it in early ML week when doe are now legal again. I have managed that (3) times, including last season. That is simply a numbers game. I see about 6 times as many antlerless deer up there, as I see with antlers. Good luck to you.

I agree, and by sheer coincidence, the fish were the “spoiler” for da bears in 85. If the Bills get past them Sunday, and Allen stays healthy, it should be a coast to a Super Bowl win.

I hope you get your target doe crappy. I know that we have one fella here, who believes that the world revolves around antlers, and doesn’t buy it that mature doe are tougher to kill than bucks. I am quite certain that he is mistaken. Our Maker designed the females of all species to be harder to kill than the males. I see that play out with deer every season. Last Saturday’s morning hunt at my place was a perfect example of that. That hunt came 4 days after my “Pearl-Harbor” surprise attack kill of the lead doe back there. On my walk in, while it was still dark, two bucks were upwind in the corn. They heard me approach, and bolted out of there into some heavy cover, when I was about 50 yards away. After I set up in my pop up blind, and maybe 1/2 hour after sunrise, I saw a mature doe way out on the far side of our farm, well over 200 yards away and upwind. She was extremely skittish, and kept lifting her head and looking my way. There was no doubt that she recognized danger, and was not going to fall easily. It was like Midway for the Jap’s and the American carriers then, when it came to my chances of killing her. She had read my code book. The closest she got all morning, was about 175 yards, feeding on clover broadside for just a few seconds. I may have got her with my scoped ML or bolt action slug gun, but wouldn’t have had a prayer with the open-sighted smoothbore I had that day. Now contrast that with the bucks that I had just scared out of the corn. Just after that doe went away, I heard antlers ticking directly downwind, on a side where I had the blind window zipped up. I had an open stick of Evercalm on that side for scent cover. The larger of those two bucks (most likely one of the two that I had flushed out of the corn earlier) then approached my blind and may even have licked it. I took that picture of him at 20 yards, after he turned and walked away. Killing him would have been easier than shooting a duck in a barrel with a skatter gun, and he was at least a 2.4 year old. You talk about dumb and clueless, that sure was a picture of it. There have been a few times, in late gun or ML season, when I have seen groups of deer containing one or more does, and a mature buck. The buck has always been last, often far back, and struggling to keep pace with the does. The does seem to move like lightning in comparison. Which one do you think the pack of coyotes or wild dogs is going to catch ? The mature bucks loose strength and speed throughout the rut, while the does continue to get stronger and faster. This is not a coincidence, and helps prove the existence of an all-knowing divine creator, The Lord our God. I am very glad that He made deer with one purpose in mind - TO FEED US. He also ensured that this food supply would last forever, by deliberately making the females harder to kill than the males. You and I know that, but it appears that we have at least one here who hasn’t a clue. It’s up to us to keep giving him (and others) an education.

these two were in my backyard (a long way back) last Tuesday.

They are damn good replicas for sure, a lot better than the little one in front of my barn with half the paint wore off. I need to see if I can get our “artist” daughter to touch it up for me some day.

Maybe the designated big pen hunt will be close to you and he will invite you to the post-hunt party. There will be plenty of food, if he invites me. I could bring along some fresh smallmouth bass fillets, if he does it later in the early ML week, and maybe even some fresh doe tenderloin. As previously stated, I’d rather skip the big pen hunt, but I am always in for a party with good food, especially when I can provide it. My freezer is very well stocked right now, and the fall meat harvest has only just begun.