wolc123

I am pretty stoked with the cold. Hopefully we will get a little snow along with it. The family and I are really looking forward to some ice-fishing and other winter sports up at the in-laws Adirondack camp next weekend. We got more than we needed last winter but at least a bit this year would be nice. Without this latest cold snap, I would have been a little apprehensive about heading out on the ice.

I took a bag of venison guts out of the freezer on Saturday and put it in the fridge. Tonight, I fried up half a liver with onions and it was very good. My wife is going to pickle the heart for Valentine's day. She is definitely a keeper.

I don't know much about the newer pellet rifles, but I do know that a Ruger 10/22 carbine, firing a Remington Yellowjacket High speed 22 LR hollowpoint bullet, will kill them cleanly, when struck behind the shoulder at ranges up to 100 yards. That is my go-to combination for night shooting from my bedroom window over a bait pile. It still has a crack, being supersonic, but not loud enough to wake the kids sleeping down the hall or the neighbor's. The last one I killed that way was a 53 pound male. He ran about 40 yards after impact, with the bullet entering the rib-cage but not exiting. As long as you keep your shots broadside and behind the shoulder, I don't see an issue with a modern pellet rifle. Coyotes are relatively thin-skinned.

When it comes to deer, there is very good reason that the 30/06 comes out on top of most polls. That is due to it's wide range of ammo availability. At remote outposts from South Africa to Alaska, there is nothing you can find easier. There is a big gap between the "also-rans", with the .270 and .308 tied for second in my book at least. I would never consider using below a .24 caliber for deer, but I am guilty of killing more coyotes with a .22 rimfire than any other round. The main reason for that is most were very late at night, from my bedroom window. I would rather risk wounding a coyote than waking up my kids sleeping down the hall. My .22/250, which I use during daylight hours, literally shakes the house to the foundation, waking not only my kids, but also neighbors 1/2 mile down the road. Coyotes are thin skinned and drop easy with a high velocity .22 rimfire (I like Remington yellow-jackets) behind the shoulder.

First off, I would not be concerned with the venison even though it is a "red" meat. Venison is about as "organic" as you can get, and you can see for yourself, just by the way it fries up in a pan, that it lacks most of the artery-clogging fat that beef is packed with. Even though it is red, it is likely better for your heart than store-bought chicken. Do substitute olive oil for bacon grease when you fry up your backstraps however. Since the deer population expanded sufficiently for the state to loosen up on the antlerless tags about 15 years ago, about 50% of our family's protein comes from venison, and no more beef is purchased from the store. We also eat a lot of fish (baked or broiled, not fried), all of which is also "free", thanks to liberal bag-limits and abundant supply, and fun to collect just like the venison. Another easy thing that you can do for your cholesterol is to start taking a couple garlic pills every day. They are available over the counter, cheap at the drug store and are coated to eliminate any "garlic-breath" or taste. Diet is the most important thing you can do for cholesterol, but exercise ranks nearly as high. It does not take a whole lot of effort, and you don't have to go to a gym. I do 20 minutes of light resistance training each weekday morning at home before work, mixing up the routines a bit every month to avoid the "plateau effect". That can be as simple as changing from incline to decline bench press or grip position on curls, etc. I do 20 minutes of cardio (alternating between bike and treadmill every other day) each weekday evening. I also use the stairs, rather than elevators and walk several times during each work day. I look forward to calls from the shop-floor downstairs, to take care of the frequent issues which develop down there. On weekends, I take advantage of any fun physical activity I can depending on the season, still-hunting the mountains for deer and bear, small game hunting, fishing, rowing, canoeing, swimming, snowshoeing, or skiing. As far as the blood pressure, the exercise will help a bit also, as will reducing salt in your diet. I never use a salt shaker at the table but use plenty of pepper. I keep a shaker of ground black pepper and another of cayenne at the table at all times. Stress is probably the biggest driver of high blood pressure. Getting outside and enjoying some fun activities can help with reducing it. Finally, developing a strong faith in Jesus Christ can get rid of all of it. There is no reason to stress for this short time on Earth when forever in Paradise awaits.

Corn has always been my most effective food plot. The cover and carbs it provides, right when deer need them most, make for a lethal combination during late fall hunting season. If you want to keep deer on your ground during daylight hours then, it is tough to do better. I check out the stomach contents of every deer I kill, and all those from around home have been loaded with corn. Many folks don't do corn because of cost, but there are ways of minimizing that. With much of my extended family in the dairy industry I always manage to acquire plenty of free seed. Those folks usually appreciate offers to clean out their big planters at the end of the season and that corn keeps well for many years, without significant loss of germination. It is pretty much all Roundup-Ready these days, which further reduces cost. Last year I even did a little experiment to see if corn which had passed most way thru a deer's digestive tract would still germinate (a little pile of corn was all that remained of my buck's gut pile after a few days and I pocketed a handful for test). I was also interested to see if it would retain the RR trait. Unfortunately, it was 0/10 on germination after the "passage". If you do go with old seed, a germination test is always a good idea prior to planting. On normal (non-consumed) corn, that was stored in a dry place without big temperature swings (a high shelf in the basement works good for me), I have not seen any significant reduction in germination on seed up to 4 years old. A big key to save money is to row-plant the corn rather than broadcast. That will allow for the most efficient use of fuel, fertilizer, seed, and herbicide. I always seek to minimize all of those input costs. Fertilizer usually follows fuel in cost, so that should not be so important in these days falling oil prices. Growing corn for food plots is looking better than ever this spring. I keep 3/4 of my plot ground in white clover, not so much to feed deer directly, but to minimize supplemental nitrogen requirement for corn plots. The fact that the deer like to come out at night and eat my nitrogen-producing clover is just a nice side benefit, plus it makes effective hunting plots during early archery season. Using a row-planter with a fertilizer applicator, and planting on old clover plots, produces some decent corn yield with just a light application of 15-15-15 starter fertilizer, and no additional nitrogen. Applying Roundup only on the rows using a sprayer attached to my cultivating tractor minimizes herbicide costs. This takes out all the weeds in the rows, where they would otherwise grow the most because that is where all the fertilizer is. The cultivator shovels remove most of the weeds between the rows. There are two plusses of removing "most" but not "all" of the weeds: First, greater attraction to deer of a slightly lower yielding, slightly weedy plot over a "clean" high-yield plot. Second, lots of money saved, not just on herbicide, but also on clover seed the year after the corn. It always comes back good on its own without reseeding, if you don't kill all of it with heavy, full Roundup application on the corn plots. The corn takes so much nitrogen out of the soil that the clover has a big competitive advantage over most of the weeds and very little seed is needed if done this way. To maximize the nitrogen production from white clover plots, they should be mowed a few times per season. When your clover starts loosing the battle to grass, you will know that the nitrogen level is getting high and it is time to take advantage of that "free" stuff, plow it under, and get in a corn plot. I have always done conventional tillage, involving a moldboard plow for primary, then a disk. It would take a long time, at today's fuel prices, to save enough to pay for a no-till planter, but I was almost ready to take the plunge when fuel got so high a while ago. A turbo-charged 4 wheel drive tractor minimizes fuel costs (pushing a "dead axle thru soft ground wastes a lot of fuel). A pull-type disk is far more efficient on fuel than a 3-point because of the improved soil contact.

In a good many years of hunting, I have long lost count of the deer I have killed, but only (2) were on public land. My first was a young buck on Allegheny state park, and the other was a year or so older mule deer buck on a Federal park in Colorado. Most of the rest were taken on our family's land in the flat portion of North-Western NY. The last few years, I have been spending more time hunting in the Adirondacks and that awesome scenery sure does have a powerful draw. I fully understand your situation. My in-laws have been building a camp, and plan on retiring up there. That has given me access to a plot of private land adjacent to the 6 million acre Adirondack park. Two years ago, I killed my oldest, and largest-bodied buck up there with a rifle, and big doe with a ML a few years before that. Although the deer may be fewer and further between up in the mountains, the quality of the experience more than makes up for it. I have taken a few larger racks at home, but the odds of killing an older deer are better up there due to the almost complete absence of hunting pressure.

I keep the hearts from all of them for pickling (hopefully my wife will do a couple for me for valentines day again this year). I keep the livers from 1-1/2 and 1/2 year old deer (those tender morsels are the best, fried medium rare, with olive oil and onions, a meal fit for a king, better even than tenderloins). The livers from older deer are tough and not worth bringing out of the woods. My mother in law even cooked up some "Adirondack mountain oysters" from a 4-1/2 + year old buck, a couple Thanksgivings ago, and they were ok. If you give that a try, I would recommend slitting them with a knife a bit before frying to reduce the mess in the frying pan when they "explode".

That's right, I forgot about that extra antlerless tag the bow permit could get him. If only they could figure out a way to keep the antlerless deer out in the daytime after they start detecting all the extra human scent in woods, one could really rack them up with a crossbow during them two weeks.

You will need to purchase your regular big game license in addition to your ML permit to hunt those 2 weeks with the crossbow. This will also allow you to get 1 or 2 DMP antlerless tags in some zones immediately, and another 2 after Nov 1 in the zones where the DEC is really struggling to get the deer population reduced. This means that you could legally harvest (5) deer total during those two weeks in some zones, but only one with antlers. In theory this might work, but the sad reality is that a few weeks of archery pressure puts most of the antlerless deer in those zones into the full-nocturnal mode prior to the opening of crossbow. The only way I see the DEC getting the population under control in these areas is to allow the crossbow at the start of the archery season. If they try letting the ML in early in these zones, as many think will happen, it will literally "backfire" with a bang, putting the antlerless deer "full-nocturnal" even earlier.

I use the saw for splitting the pelvis because I am a little anal (no pun intended) about making sure it is real clean in there. If I did not butcher my own, I would not worry about that as much. If I ever did loose the knife, I am certain I could get the whole job done with the saw, just a little slower and messier. What would you do if you lost your combo unit and that was all you carried? Maybe an old-style car, truck, or house key would work in a pinch. Those new electronic fobs wouldn't do you much good. A broadhead would probably work ok during archery season, especially if it were a fixed blade type. Speaking of gutting, a buddy once told me that he knew of someone who gutted rabbits without a knife. He said he just squeezed them in his hands while slamming downward against his knees and the guts just flew out the back on impact. Although I am not from Missouri, this I had to see. The next time I shot one, just a few days after hearing the far-fetched tale, I immediately drove it over to his house. Outside of the entertainment, he was completely unsuccessful in his attempt, and my Buck 110 was required to complete the task. That poor rabbit would probably have been a bit tastier if I had gutted it immediately like usual, rather than 30 minutes or so after the kill and the squeezing.

I also use an old "made in USA" Buck 110 and an "imported" Gerber folding saw (I think they sell for less than $15). The saw comes in handy for quickly opening the pelvis while field dressing as well as easily trimming branches around my stand up to 3" or so in diameter. I also like to minimize cost, weight, and space. The Gerber folder is cheaper and takes up less room in your pack or pocket than one of those plastic but-out tools. If you must limit yourself to just one tool however, that Buck combo you posted looks pretty good. I see that it is made in USA and given that, the cost seems reasonable at $75. It would not be for me because I like redundancy on critical items. I could complete the field dressing job, a bit less efficiently, with just the Gerber folding saw or the Buck 110 knife, if the other was lost.

In my opinion, the single most effective thing they could do, in the zones which have consistently fallen short of antlerless harvest goals, would be to allow the use of the crossbow throughout early archery season. The crossbow would be particularly lethal if it could be employed in the early part of the season, before the deer realize they are being hunted. As it stands now, the antlerless deer tend to be driven mostly nocturnal by the last two weeks when the crossbow is finally legal. I would be ok with a compromise, to appease the small but well-connected group of selfish anti-crossbow bowhunters, that would allow the crossbow to take only antlerless deer until the last two weeks, while they could take either/or with a conventional bow throughout the season. I would expect a crossbow to be at least 10 times more effective at killing antlerless deer in these overpopulated zones than a conventional bow. It is rare to find antlerless deer traveling alone in these zones and it is very difficult to make the draw of a regular bow when so many sets of eyes must be avoided. By combining the silence of a bow, and removing the need to draw with the deer in close, the crossbow may represent "the ultimate weapon" to finally get these populations under control. Letting the muzzleloaders in early, as many seem to think will happen, will backfire with a "bang". That will only force the deer to become nocturnal even earlier.

My favorite cold weather waterproof boots are the US Army, black "mickey" boots. Sportsman's guide sells them new/unissued for $80 or used/reconditioned for a bit less. They are quite warm and very durable, being made to US government specs to hold up for combat usage. They do not have a removable liner though. They are kind of goofy looking, but very comfortable to wear and walk around in. Since using them the last couple seasons, I doubt I will ever go back to "normal" winter hunting boots. I have never had any that offered comparable performance, even at much higher cost.

I was a little disappointed to learn last year that they stopped production of Genesee 12-horse after the brief re-introduction a couple years ago. The killing of another big Adirondack buck just won't be the quite the same without a few of them to celebrate with. The Genesee Scotch-ale is good, but just a little pricey for me. As long as they keep making Cream-ale and Light, I will be happy. I never had much fondness for high-priced, hoppy, fruity, foreign or even out-of-state brews. Beer does not improve with age like wine, and the closer it is made, the faster it can be delivered and enjoyed.

It is too bad they cant market it a little better and take some of the tax burden off those of us who don't play. Maybe they could even eliminate the Federal and state budget deficits using the willing contributions of the players.

The kick from almost any rifle is insignificant to those of us who grew up using shotguns for deer. The hardest kicking gun I own, and also the one I have killed the most deer with, is a 16 gage Ithaca deerslayer featherlight. I have shot a neighbor's Ruger #1, in 458 Win Min magnum caliber, and it felt tame in comparison. The reason that 16 gage slug gun kicks so hard, is it is built nearly as light as the 20 gage model, but fires loads nearly as heavy as the 12. That adds up to a punishing combination on the shoulder. For all my range work with that gun, I use a recoil pad, filled with silly-putty type material, between the gun and my shoulder. That takes all the "bite" out of it. I have never noticed the kick on a deer and have taken dozens with it including my first and my two largest racked bucks. The light weight makes it a real pleasure to carry and it is ridiculously dependable. For shots under 75 yards, there is nothing I would rather use and I still hunt with it when that is all I expect. The bottom line here, is that if you can handle the kick of a shotgun slug gun, the 300 Win mag should be no problem what so ever. Personally, I would never consider using one for deer in NY because of the limited advantage in ballistics compared to a 30/06 or .270, and the far greater cost and limited availability of the ammo.

Those "close-encounters" with big doe and a muzzleloader are definitely cool. Your story brings back memories of one I had about 5 years ago up in Zone 6C. It was a very remote area, and I think that the group of 6 antlerless deer that walked up on the oak ridge I was set up on had never seen another hunter. The lead doe was the largest of the group. When she presented a good broadside shot at about 40 yards, I hit her behind the shoulder with my 50 cal T/C. She did not even flinch on impact, and the rest of the group did not scatter from the "bang". She walked to within 10 yards from me and just kind of stared me down. I will never forget that sight. Soon her legs began to wobble, and she toppled over, falling down a steep incline. When I moved quickly then to reload, the other 5 deer ran off. When I finished reloading, I slid down the steep incline she had descended. I got to the bottom and found her struggling to get back up on her feet. I ended her struggle there with a second shot to the neck.

Once, during rifle team practice at high-school, while shooting from the kneeling position, my rifle discharged when I closed the bolt. It was pointed upward a bit at the time. I thought I felt something hit my jacket and the shooter to my right, who was somewhat of a jokester, clutched his chest, shouted out "I'm hit" and slumped forward. Fortunately, we were all wearing those heavy canvas jackets and eye goggles, so no actual injuries occurred from what was probably small chunks of concrete that the bullet knocked out of the ceiling part way downrange. The rifle I was using was an old Winchester, probably WWII era, and it had a trigger so light you could almost fire it by breathing on it. Following that ceiling hit, I always made sure I had it pointed at the backstop when I closed the bolt. I also closed the bolt a little more carefully and never had another misfire. That hair-trigger likely helped my scores a bit, and that was the only one of the old Winchesters, with which I could occasionally keep up with our top two shooters. The school's only two fancy Anchutz match rifles were reserved for them.

With guns, the run on .22 rimfire ammo put a damper on my own practice time for a while. Now it is back up to an all-time high, since I bought BB-guns for our two pre-teen daughters two years ago. With those two $30 outfits (scoped Crossman 760 and an open-sighted Daisy red-ryder) ammo is basically free. Each will put a BB thru one side of a beer can, so you can pour it out and re-use it multiple times. I shoot quite often, year round, probably averaging 50 shots per week or so. I am also blessed with a 500 yard range out back but, for the most part, I just check the zero on my deer rifle, slug-guns, and ML a time or two in the late summer or early fall. I use more "real" ammo on game than practice these days, including .22 rimfire. The only time I shoot my chuck rifle (22/250) at a paper target is when I buy a new 20 round box of ammo every other year or so to check the zero. With bows, I skipped hunting and practice with my vertical compound bow the last couple seasons after NY legalized the x-bow. I only fired enough practice bolts with my x-bow to verify the zero at various ranges because the bb-gun practice was also applicable for that weapon, even matching the trajectory fairly close. If I don't hear that the x-bow will get "full-inclusion" by April 1 or so, I will probably start practicing again with my compound, to get back in on them first 3 weeks of deer season. I was unable to fill my archery tag in those two weeks this year because the local deer had gone mostly nocturnal by then. I try to minimize the cost of wild game, after subtracting all input costs including licences, fuel, equipment and ammo. The BB-gun practice goes a long way towards making that happen, by maintaining proper shooting form for negligible cost. While most folks spend lots of money on hunting, I often manage to save a little by doing it. That makes my wife much more supportive of that hobby. I am also extremely fortunate that her and the kids love venison and fish. By making my own lures (bucktail jigs), I always come out money ahead on fishing.

Has anyone eaten reds? I have not shot many, but they seem too small to mess around with. They like to chase the grays away, which is the only reason I shot the few that I did. They are also much tougher to hit because they seldom stand still long enough for a good shot like grays always do. As far as eating goes, I like gray squirrels much better than rabbits. Many times I had them both cooked in the same crockpot at the same time and the squirrel is always tastier than the rabbit. They are almost my favorite small game to eat, behind only ruffed grouse. I don't remember eating any pheasants, as they pretty much disappeared locally a few years before I was old enough to hunt.

I stopped at a buddies cabin one time to pick him up to go to a pig-roast at another buddies cabin a few miles away. While I was there, we went back to his range, him with his cooler and me with my ML. After a few successful shots and several beers, a patched ball got rammed down the "powderless" barrel. After removing the nipple and pushing a little pyrodex in from the back side, re-installing the nipple and another cap, 3 or 4 times, we were able to get he ball to exit the bore. Lesson learned - save the beer until after the shooting. Fortunately, nobody got hurt and nothing was damaged. Another time I was sighting in my 30/06 on the range at the back of our farm, from the 100 yard bench. I walked over to the target, leaving the rifle on the sandbags, pointed down range. There was no one else around, so I assumed the it was pointed in a safe direction. When I looked back up-range, I saw a buck walk out of the brush, and right over to the bench. For a short time, he had his nose next to the muzzle. I hoped the gun was not loaded but you never know for sure, which is why you treat any gun like it is loaded. A picture flashed through my mind of him knocking the gun off the bags and it going off, hitting me. What a story that would have been. The anti-hunters would have a field day with that one "DEER SHOOTS MAN".

I did miss out on a wide-bodied, single-antlered buck with the side-lock/pyrodex. The load finally lit with the third cap when he was long gone after having walked right below my stand. He did give me a funny look from down below when the first cap went off. I switched to the in-line (TC Omega) the following year and never had any firing issues with that. It fired every time and hit about a dozen deer right where I aimed, killing them all. It was so much more accurate than the rifled slug-gun I had then (Rem 870 with Hastings cantilever scope barrel), that I even used it during regular season. I would probably still be using it if I hadn't located a rifled 12 gauge (Marlin 512) that shoots just as accurate, hits with twice the energy at 160 yards, and gives me 2 extra shots.

WJ: I'll be willing to bet you were using a "substitute" powder & not real Black Powder. Yep, Pyrodex. I am using 777 pellets now in my in-line, and when that runs out, I will switch to that easy-cleanup 209 stuff. For the squirrels with the .22, I also prefer the subsonic target stuff. Increased accuracy and less noise is a tough combination to beat. I shot on the rifle team in high school and the coach would always let me sweep up after practice and matches. I am hoping I can talk my daughters joining the team and doing that in a few years to "refresh" ammo supply. Back in the day, the girls were always the best shots on the team and it seems they still are by the write-ups in the paper. That last squirrel was one of very few that I did not recover after a hit and almost all were shot behind the shoulder. For many years, I used a Remington 510P single shot with a peep sight, then a 3x Bushnell banner scope. About 10 years ago, the accuracy went on it for some reason and now I use a Ruger 10/22 carbine. That is a real tack-driver inside of 50 yards. It shoots better than the old Remington bolt-action ever did.

WJ:"22 LR standard velocity solids are all you need if you know how to shoot. If you didn't recover the squirrel, how do you know where you hit it?" In this case, I had a good rest, clear broadside shot and had just verified the zero on the gun out on the range. I am quite certain the bullet struck near center lung. On any game animal with a gun or bow, I aim center lung, if available, because it provides the greatest margin for error and does not take out much meat. I do make some exceptions, such as a shoulder shot on a lead doe from a group when I have multiple tags. That has produced "doubles" for me on several occasions. I hate loosing the couple of chops that shot placement costs, but getting a whole extra deer makes it well worth the price. You make a good point on aiming forward of the shoulder on squirrels and I will give it a try at the next opportunity. I will then be able to see for myself how much meat it cost me. I consider head-shots on squirrels to be "unethical". Just because they are small does not mean they should not be respected. That said, I did disrespect one a few years ago with my side-lock 50 cal hawken on the last day of ML season for deer. The unlucky squirrel showed up right at dusk when it was time to unload the rifle. I had a bit of a "hangfire", but held steady until he literally lost his head completely.