wolc123

Unless you were in danger of starving and have no better weapon available, I would not recommend a 410 for deer. It will get the job done if you are close enough. Some folks could probably kill a deer with their bare hands. I once brought down a big doe, that was wide awake after having been temporarily unconscious from striking her head on a car, by slitting her throat with a 1-1/4" blade key-chain knife. Fortunately, it was brand-new and extremely sharp. I had a much tougher time this past winter finishing off a small button buck in a similar situation with my old Buck 110 lock-blade hunting knife that was badly in need of sharpening after a "busy" season. Just like a sharp blade on a little knife is better, I suppose a little bullet in the right spot is better, but you will definitely run out of energy at about 50 yards with a 410 slug. Thank you for bringing up the 410 however, for it reminded me that I have one and lots of #6's available. That is what I should take out for squirrels this weekend. With all the leafs still on the trees, it will give me much better odds of getting enough for a meal than the .22 that I was planning on using. I don't plan on chasing deer until x-bow opens in the Northern zone in a couple more weeks. We have been hitting the venison so hard the past several weeks to make room for the new stuff in the freezer, that a some squirrel will be a welcome change. With the cold front moving in, and acorns aplenty, the 410/squirrel action should be real good this weekend. Normally, I like to use a .22 for squirrels as it also gives me good marksmanship practice for deer hunting. Shooting deer with a scoped center-fire rifle or crossbow gets as easy as shooting ducks in a barrel after you hone your skills enough on squirrels with the 22. Squirrels provide much more realistic practice than paper targets or cans plus are great eating. Right now it is the eating that concerns me more than the practice (I have had plenty of that this summer with the girls and their bb guns shooting cans), so the 410 it will be. I probably would buy some slugs for if I found them as you never know when you might run across a coyote while squirrel hunting.

That is a very good point on "string jump" that very few NY hunters are aware of. Some of them know enough math to calculate how far a deer can move in the time it takes the arrow to reach it, but have no clue of a deer's sound "danger-zone". Beyond about 40 yards, string jump is a complete non-issue. That might even drop to 30 yards if the deer is upwind in a good blow. 15 -30 yards, is where string jump is a big concern. The sound of a bow releasing it's energy from longer range is a natural sound to a deer, not much different than a bird landing or a branch falling. There have been many times when I have observed deer keep their entire body in the same position for 5 minutes or more. Some examples are when they are eating a favorite food source, like acorns, corn, brassicas, wheat or clover. During the rut I have often seen bucks focusing like a statue on hot does, and have killed more than a few in that scenario, including my 59 yard x-bow buck last season. I don't have a problem with the 100 yard shots if the shooter is confident in his ability and equipment at that range. Personally, I will keep my shots under 50 yards with my current crossbow setup. I know I can keep my bolts on a pie-plate out to 60 yards, but I am not satisfied with the 8" of arrow penetration I got on that buck at 59 yards last year. Had the arrow struck somewhere other than the heart, the story may not have had as happy of an ending. You can read about what others use as an effective range, but real-world experience is the best teacher. Like Clint say's "a man has got to know his limitations" You won't find those in any book or on-line.

I switched to a scope about the same year you did. The year prior, I did take my first deer (a "button-buck), with open sights, using my granddad's Ithaca model 37, 16 ga slug-gun. Looking back, I think I may have actually been aiming at a "twin" running in front of it. I don't think I led that one enough, and the slug hit the close-following deer perfectly thru the front shoulders. It all happened so fast I cant be sure which one I shot at. My uncle, who was with me at the time, still talks about that shot all these years later. The shot definitely contributed to some overconfidence on my part. My luck ran out when I missed a closer shot at a big-antlered, slow moving, buck a few weeks later. I don't know if it was "buck-fever", or if I just did not bring the rear sight up enough and shot over his back. That was the last deer I missed with that gun, since getting a 1-1/2X Weaver mounted on it all those years ago. The following year, I got my first antlered buck with it when he stepped out of the brush, right below my stand. I put the crosshair on his front shoulder, pulled the trigger once and that was all she wrote. That gun/scope combo holds decent groups to a little under 100 yards (aprox 6" dia), using Winchester foster slugs. I took my largest antlered buck ever with it, about 10 years later. My first shot at that one was a bit over a hundred yards. The shot struck him low, breaking a front leg up high. God helped me a bit then as he so often has. The buck had been struck just above the hoof, in an opposite diagonal rear leg about a week prior, which left him with just two good legs. Most folks know that a deer on three legs is nearly as fast as one on four. Two legs is a different story. A lot younger and faster then, I had no trouble closing the range and finishing him with a neck-shot from point-blank range. I never would have taken that initial long shot without that scope, but getting that buck still took some more of that "special" help. I took my second largest-racked buck, again with that same gun/scope at point-blank range, and again with some of that "special" help just a few years ago. My Bible slipped from my hands with about 5 minutes of legal shooting time left. I climbed down to get it with the loaded gun (sorry to the safety police). Immediately upon reaching the patch of brush at the base of the tree, a flock of turkeys landed right on my position. They were the pawns for the wise old buck who thought their superior vision would keep him safe. He got the surprise of his life with that shotgun blast to the neck. I wonder why that Bible slipped from my hands when it did? Coincidence maybe? Roughly a hundred other deer have fallen to that and several other gun/scope combos over the years. I have killed and recovered in the neighborhood of a hundred deer with various gun/scope combos. I have also missed a couple and wounded one that was later killed by a friend. I also lost one that I tracked for a long distance, but was not able to locate until the crows led me to the carcass a week later, half eaten by coyotes. I don't remember all the details of most of them. I have only ever shot at 3 other deer with open sights, since that first miss so long ago. I killed them all. First was a big doe that stepped out of the brush, standing broadside in a shooting lane at about 70 yards. The slug hit her in the neck, killing her instantly (I had aimed for the front shoulder, so it was about a foot off). Second was a nice 8-point that arrived on the scene and stood over a doe I had dropped with my scoped ML about 3 minutes prior, again at about 70 yards. I had my "backup-gun", a 12 ga, Remington 870 with open sights and a short, smoothbore deer barrel up in the stand (same gun used on doe up above). This time my slug hit right where I aimed, on his shoulder blade, putting him down right next to the dead doe. The third one was another somewhat messy kill. The conditions for a scope were bad with a cold rain falling all morning. I was in my warm ground blind armed again with the 870. When the rain stopped, I walked over to and climbed up into a tree stand, overlooking a clover plot. Soon a young buck stepped into clover about a hundred yards out and began munching. I had a nice rest in the stand, and an empty freezer late in the season. I took the shot. The buck looked up, then resumed feeding. I noticed a spot of mud fly beyond the buck where the slug struck so I knew my shot was high. Using the standard "artillery" method, I aimed lower on my second shot, this time seeing mud fly in front of the buck. I had him "bracketed" now, and the third shot struck home, putting him down with a high shoulder hit. Again, not real pretty but the job got done.

Last year was the first that I used gloves while field dressing a deer. The only reason I did it, is my father in law is very concerned about cleanliness, and I was staying in his recently-completed cabin up North. About an hour after I called him on the cell, from the scene of the kill in a marshy creek bottom, he showed up carrying a gallon of water, a bar of soap, and a roll of paper towels. I did not need that stuff with the gloves, and did not have even a drop of blood on my hands after I finished gutting. I still feel bad about abandoning that gallon glass jug back there in the marsh, but we did not have room to carry it the mile or so to his ATV, with me dragging the buck and him carrying my gun and stuff. I attempted to recover it this past Memorial day weekend but the bugs were just too bad then. I will try again in a couple weeks when I am up there with the x-bow. I have to admit that the gloves were nice, and I will probably use them again. The ones I used were fairly tight fitting, blue-rubber coated, white-cloth work gloves. They are much tougher than those 50-pack, cheap nitrile ones. My bullet struck the buck centered on a rib, fracturing it into some sharp splinters. They did not penetrate the glove when I scraped against them. When I got home, I washed the gloves in soapy water and they still look like new. There is always plenty of time for a full clean-up back home, but saving some time cleaning up on the hunt is a great benefit of the gloves. Had I got one drop of blood in that new cabin I doubt if I would be invited to hunt there again.

My vertical bows are collecting dust this year. The time saved practicing has been a big help with the "honey do" list. I already have my vacation scheduled for the x-bow in the Northern zone, at the tail end of archery season and the start of ML. They made my home area in the Southern zone doe-only now, for the first two weeks anyhow. That does not excite me much, considering how much venison we still have left from last season. I will just have to take about a 1 week break with the x-bow, when I return from up North. That will be a good time to get some squirrels, rabbits, and grouse. Bucks will be legal down here after that also, just in time for the peak rut. By then we should have last year's venison all used up. I love it when a plan comes together. Full inclusion for the x-bow would be great, but I can live with the rules like they are now. The different start times in the Northern and Southern zones make it much more bearable. Speaking of bears, I hope to get a crack at one of them with the x-bow in a couple weeks up in the Northern zone. I am just hoping the bear will run away rather than at me after taking the bolt. That is a bigger concern with a x-bow than a vertical due to the much slower reload time.

I have only hunted deer in one other state (Colorado) and I much prefer NY. The high desert of the Rockies does nothing for me as far as scenery, and cant touch the absolute beauty of NY's Adirondacks. I did learn first-hand that whitetails are a lot tastier than mule deer anyhow. I seldom have trouble securing enough venison in NY to last my family until the following season. I do love the cold during hunting season, and the snow. Not needing a walk-in cooler most years, keeping bugs and hogs away, and improved tracking are all big plusses. There is no place I would rather live or hunt. Whenever I travel, to any of those other states for any reason, I appreciate what we have here in NY more.

I will never forget our anniversary day and month, because our wedding occurred on the Friday before opening day of bass season. We spent our honeymoon week at a remote cabin on a lake that was loaded with bass. I did forget the year however, when I filled out my passport application this year. I also mixed up my wife's birthday with my oldest daughter's (just 4 days apart). Apparently the Fed's are not all that careful with the background checks because the passport came through without delay. I actually have to hunt and fish a little more since having the kids (they eat a lot). I hope they will be into helping me out a bit with the hunting/fishing as they get older. They do pretty good now practicing with bb guns and fishing from the dock. They don't have a whole lot of patience yet for out in the boat or up in the stands/blinds.

My wife likes my hunting and fishing because it reduces here grocery bill. She is not thrilled with the occasional taxidermy bills however, nor is she overly excited when I purchase new equipment. She has almost become addicted to the venison and now turns up her nose at beef. She does push me a bit to take smaller bucks (probably to avoid the taxidermy charges), and buttons are here favorites. I usually get her one of them every other year or so. She definitely helps keep my focus where it should be, on the meat, and not on the antlers. She also keeps me from pissing away cash on all the "latest and greatest" gear. Finally, she makes butchering go a little faster for me by running the vacuum sealer now and then, and she can cook venison as well as anyone. I will definitely keep her and am far better with her than without.

Personally, I could care less what size antlers, age, etc. bucks others choose to kill. Who I am I to try and stop someone from killing a young buck if that will satisfy them? I definitely do not support any type of mandatory antler restrictions. Antlers are secondary for me, meat comes first. In addition to the headgear, bucks put on a lot of body-mass between their first and second year with horns. That is the only reason why I pass on some smaller 1-1/2 year bucks, earlier in the respective seasons (archery and gun). Near the end of those, I will gladly take a 1-1/2 year buck with a single 3" horn if given the chance. I don't count a season as completely successful if I have not filled both of my buck tags. Does are merely an added bonus. That said, most of the deer I have killer over the last 30 some seasons have been does strictly due to tag availability. I definitely prefer killing bucks. They are faster for me to process, with less fat to trim, the antlers make nice "grab-handles" to drag from the woods, and reminders of successful hunts, and they taste as good or better than does. Leaving some does also helps keep the local population strong and insures future success, much more than leaving some bucks. To those who wish to see mandatory antler restrictions, I suggest to look not at restricting others to increase your own odds of bagging a bigger buck, but look at improving your own skill-set. You have full control over that.

The bass fishing was spectacular as always this year with smallmouth limits (I am a stricktly "catch and eat" guy, no "senseless-maiming" of fish for me) almost every day we went out up on the St-Lawrence this summer, and at my in-laws camp in the Adirondacks. Just a little "hit and miss" out on the Upper Niagara this year, but the neighbor kid took a nice musky on our last trip out there. He got me that day on the smallies too, but couldn't quite keep up on the largemouths the following week down on Findley lake. I am still planning on hitting the smallies a few more times, up at the in-laws, between morning and evening x-bow and ML deer hunts in a couple of weeks. Last year the lake froze up there, on the morning after I took my rifle-season buck. The lake temperatures are up sharply this year at this time. We might even get to have some fresh fish up there, along with our turkey and venison, this thanksgiving. I am extremely thankful for the ease with which one can "live off the fat of the land" here in NY. I gotta go, as I can smell that my wife has some of that fish just about cooked.

I am just about ready to go now. Spring planted foodplots (corn & soybeans) are not looking so hot but the late summer planted stuff (brassicas, wheat, clover) is looking good. I put an upper deck on one of my ground blinds that would have netted me a small buck last year if I had it then. I have 6 tree stands and three ground blinds ready to go, including clearing access paths and shooting lanes. I should be prepared for any wind or adverse weather conditions. I may hang one more portable over at my brother-in-law's place nearby and have already secured permission for that. I picked up one of those swivel, hammock-style seats to use with the x-bow and ML up in the northern zone in a couple of weeks and over the long thanksgiving weekend with the rifle. I have been getting lots of "marksmansip" practice along with my girls, mostly with the BB-gun. That's the best way to go now that .22 rimfire ammo is so scarce. 5000 bb's for $5, and you can re-use lots of them as they only pass thru one side of a pop can with the Daisy lever-action or with 4 pumps on the Crossman. Rather than watching the Bill's go down in ugly defeat to the Patriots on TV last Sunday, I listened on the radio out on the range. That let me use that time productively to get my ML, short range "foster" shotgun, long range "sabot" shotgun, and rifle, all hitting where I wanted them. I had already fine-tuned the x-bow a week prior. I even signed the little cert in the book to make me legal with that. I have been keeping up the pressure on my wife to use venison and we are finally down to the last shelf on the freezer. I have even been doing some burgers on the grill myself on the weekends to help her out a bit. I defrosted the freezer a week ago to help get ready for the new stuff when it starts coming in, hopefully in less than a month. I even fixed up a pressure washer that I garbage picked this spring and I cant wait to try it on a European-mount this fall. All I have to do yet is sharpen some knifes, pick up a couple more DMP tags when they come out Nov 1, and see if I can find my "missing" rattling horns.

I have rattled in a few. It does seem to work best early in archery season or late in ML season. I don't think I would do it again during archery because the bucks that respond are too "alert" when they approach, literally looking for a fight. "String-jump" is a much bigger issue in that situation. The last big one I rattled in during archery dropped about a foot when he heard my arrow release, taking the arrow right on the shoulder blade. Fortunately he was not hurt too bad, and a friend was able to take him "all healed up", a month later with a shotgun slug. A pure, unexpected "ambush" shot gives you much better odds of a clean kill with archery tackle. With a super-sonic bullet, no worries there. By the time they hear the shot, it is too late, as they will have already taken the hit. I rattled in a monster a few years ago in mid December. There was about 15 minutes of daylight left when I smacked an old, 7-point rack together a few times. Immediately after I saw a group of two does followed by a huge lumbering buck come running from across the street, about 500 yards away. The does passed right below my stand, but unfortunately the buck never got close enough for me to risk the running shot. Years prior, when we had to use side-lock ML's, I rattled in another big one, that had already lost one horn. That one came in at a slow walk, right below my stand. I centered the sight on his shoulders as he passed under, but only the cap ignited, not the main charge. He picked up his pace a little at the "crack", but got away unharmed. I may try the rattling a bit with the crossbow this year. Even though it is subsonic, as long as I keep the shots close (under 20 yards), string jump should not hurt too much, even on "alert" bucks.

I would say about 40 acres minimum per person, but it is very dependent on neighboring properties, type of land, and deer density. In the southern zone, I used to have a pie-shaped, narrow, wooded, 6 acre slice out in the neighboring town that was very productive for several years. It was in an agricultural area with lots of corn and soybeans nearby. When hunters moved in on three sides and built stands I could see from my own, the action dropped right off. I sold it when the hunting tanked. Now I hunt about 100 acres total of family-owned land between our farm and my folks. That is just about right for me and a guest on occasion. This land is about 1/3 mature hardwoods, 1/3 brushy cover, and 1/3 fields. The fields are about half planted in food plots - mostly clover with some corn, wheat, soybeans, and brassica. Up in the northern zone at my in-laws camp, there was 500 acres of private land with 3 hunters for the last three years. The deer density is a good bit lower up there, so more than 150 acres per hunter was good. That land consists of 400 acres of hilly, mature wooodland surrounding a 100 acre lake. There is also a thick, marshy creek bottom winding thru the hills with several beaver ponds. The woods are about half pines and half hardwoods.

After about 10:00 am on opening day morning, thickets are the place to be if it is a big buck you are after. Get into or on the edge of one and pay consideration to the wind as you enter your location. I killed my largest, symmetric-racked buck ever, just a few years ago, in the middle of a thicket where maximum visibility from the ground was about 15 yards. The range was 10 yards on opening day afternoon and I was on the ground, having just descended from my tree stand, which would have given me about a 50 yard shot in most directions in the thicket. I never would have gotten that buck from up in the stand however as he was with a flock of turkeys. They surely would have picked me out in my blaze-cammo, up in that tree from a mile away. That is a favorite defense tactic of big, old, wise bucks around here (hang out with turkeys to capitalize on their superior vision). The turkeys like hanging with the bucks to tap into their superior sense of smell. Together, they have a nearly impregnable defense against the hunter. God only knows why I got down from that stand with my loaded gun and 5 minutes of legal daylight to go.

Corn really fattens them up, that's just like all the 1-1/2's look like around here. This year will probably be tougher for me at home in the southern zone because my corn plots didn't do so well due to all the rain we got thru June. Driving around the fields on our farm tonight, it looked like there was hardly any ears on the stalks. I also noted that the emerald ash borers look to be killing off the trees that have held my two most productive stands for the last 30 + years. This will definitely be the last fall for those. Fortunately, last year was a banner year in both corn and venison production so there is still plenty of vacuum sealed venison in our freezer. Hopefully there will be another heavy acorn crop up in the northern zone where I plan on being at the tail end of archery, start of ML and mid rifle season. That will definitely be my best chance at filling the freezer again this fall.

That sounds like an excellent choice and a great buy. Keep us posted on how it works out for you this fall. It would also be nice to hear what kind of 100 yard, three shot groups it can put down from a rest. My old M77 30/06 with 3-9 Redfield widefield/low-pro scope still holds just over an inch with 150 gr, Federal classic ammo.

Back in the day of the M77's, Ruger bolts were a good step above the Savage. I have not heard anything bad about the American, and that is definitely the way I would go if I were looking for a new rifle today. My old M77 30/06 was still driving tacks at the range this past Sunday and has yet to fail me on a deer, so I ain't in that market yet. I did have a Savage 22/250 chuck rifle for a few years and it was nearly as accurate, just not real good in the fit/finish category compared to the Ruger M77 22/250 mkII that I replaced it with. It does sound like there are there a lot of good options out there these days in economical bolt-action rifles. Even the Mossberg is supposed to be pretty good.

The standing corn surely played a big role in that buck harvest last year. I would not expect a repeat this year with the soybeans and I would recommend moving the stand or better yet, putting up another. If you can get it near some standing corn, do it. Mature soybeans are near the bottom of a deer's preference list during hunting season, while corn rates on top. If corn is not an option, I would put the stand deeper into the woods on the edge of some thick cover, downwind from a trail or funnel area. If there are white oaks nearby, even better. Walmart had some nice hang-ons for $48 and splitting your time between two stands will make each more effective by reducing scent. Congrats on that fine looking buck. Corn or acorn fed bucks are about as good as it gets on the table.

If you are in one of the zones that has too many deer, then take the doe at the first opportunity. I live in one of them zones but my doe sightings are typically few as they wise up much faster than bucks. As soon as they detect a little hunting pressure they become fully nocturnal. Rarely do I ever see any doe now after opening day of gun season. A few years ago, a group of about 6 antlerless deer came by my stand about 1/2 hour after sunrise on opening day of gun season. I shot the largest one with my ML. The rest dispersed, but before I got down to gut her, or even got the ML reloaded, another group of 2 antlered deer came along on their trail. Fortunately, I also had a shotgun up in the stand and I used that to put the larger of the two bucks (an 8-point) down right next to the dead doe. If I ever killed another doe early on opening day and there was still a lot of time until lunch, I would get the guts out of her asap and prop her up to cool in the shade near my stand. The meat is always my biggest priority and taking care of that comes first, but I see no reason not to capitalize on a "free" decoy. During gun season, a dead doe shot in the shoulder blade is usually sufficient to hold accompanying fawns in place so you can send them to "deer heaven" with their momma if you have adequate DMP's. That is usually not a problem here as anyone can get (4) DMP's plus (2) more "transfers" the last several years. That said though, I don't agree with the fact that does are better to eat. They all taste the same, but I will take a buck over a doe because I butcher all my own and I can do a buck much faster with less fat to trim. The fawns are in a class by themselves when it comes to table fare and I always hope for at least one every season. Their momma always gets the first shot however as I will take the quantity over the quality every time and killing the mommas does way more to control the out of hand deer population.

I am not qualified to give advice from a medical standpoint however I was fast approaching blindness myself, a couple years ago. What I can tell you with certainty, is that it can't hurt to give a little prayer for healing to the Man upstairs with the "sense of humor". He also has the sense to provide anything asked for to those who love Him.

I have always gutted them in the closest, semi-clear spot to where they fall. It don't make sense to me to drag that extra weight around and getting the guts out asap also improves the quality of the meat. Meat is the primary reason that I hunt. I cringe when I hear of folks "backing out" and coming back to find their deer the next morning. If they only knew the effect those steaming guts had on the flavor of the tenderloins they would never do that again. The coyotes are too abundant now in most of NY to get away with that anyhow so it's not such an issue any more. Of the hundred or so deer gut piles I have left in the woods over the last 30 some years, three were particularly memorable. The first was from a big doe up in the Adirondacks. I shot her early one morning with my ML, high up on an oak ridge. She was the largest of a group of 5 or 6 antlerless deer and she led the group as they climbed up the ridge to feed on acorns. I will never forget how she just stared me down after taking the sabot thru the lungs, until her knees began to wobble, then she toppled over the edge of the ridge. I slid down after her and was surprised to find that she was lying dead center, on the private gravel road that twisted around the mountain leading to the cabin my in-laws had rented for the long weekend. That made for a very easy recovery. I gutted her right there in the middle of the road. I walked down the road to the cabin, finding the whole gang of in-laws seated around the kitchen table eating breakfast. My older sister-in-law, who is somewhat of an anti-hunter, was not able to choke down her eggs after getting a sight of me holding the bloody bag containing the heart and liver. My father-in-law let me use his ATV to recover the carcass. Later in the day, I caught some flack after my sister-in-law reported the gut pile in the middle of the road after her morning jog. I told them I would clean it up the next morning, but not a scrap remained the next day. It must have been easy for the scavengers to locate it there. The next gut pile I remember was that from another doe that I had shot on a rainy opening day morning about 6 years ago. She and a button buck, nearly as big as her came by my comfortable ground blind about a half hour after sunrise. I shot her thru the lungs with a 12 ga sabot at 50 yards and she ran into some thick brush, falling in a little clearing about 50 yards in. Even with the rain, there was plenty of blood to follow and it was an easy recovery. I gutted her right there in that little clearing in the brush. That was right in the middle of the longest streak I have ever had of consecutive successful hunts. The Saturday prior I had filled my archery tag buck tag with a nice tasty 6-point, 1-1/2 year buck. The following day I killed another big doe from a tree stand in a hedgerow a couple fields away with my longest shot ever with a 12 ga sabot (163 yards). Since our venison supply was ok, my brother-in-law took that one home for his family, transferring his DMP to me. Fortunately, we tagged it proper, remembering to dot all the i's and cross all the t's, because the DEC pulled my niece over on their drive home with it strapped to the top of their mini-van. Just 16, it was her first time driving with her learners permit and I hear she got pretty nervous, maybe even cried a little bit, when she saw those red lights flashing. The following Saturday, seeking to extend my streak to 4, and fill my last DMP, or my gun buck tag, I stayed out a little longer than usual on the morning hunt. Sure enough a big button buck walked out of the brush and began feeding on clover, standing broadside, about 75 yards from my ground blind. I aimed behind the shoulder and fired the "chip shot". He ran into the brush, across about 50 yards of fresh snow. I was surprised to see no blood on the trail. I walked back to where he had stood and on very close examination, located two drops of blood the size of a pinhead. When I got back on his trail, I found him in the brush, right in that little clearing where his momma had fallen the week prior. All but a few scraps of her guts were cleaned up, but the area was littered with fox/coyote tracks. The last gut pile that stands out was that from the 6-point buck I killed with my x-bow last season. I gutted him at the edge of the brush he died in and I examined his stomach contents as I always do, to see what he had been eating. It was stuffed with corn as is always the case with deer killed on our farm. The following weekend, all that remained of the gut pile was two little piles of corn. I decided to do a little experiment and see if that corn would sprout, after passing half way thru a deer, and if it did, if it would still be "Roundup Resistant". I planted 12 kernels in an egg carton and not one sprouted.

I usually plant a clover and wheat mix in late August. The first fall, the wheat is the primary draw. For a little added early attraction, I often add some soybeans to the mix. Many foodplotters mis-use soybeans, thinking they need to produce pods. Ripe soybean pods rate very low on a deer's preference list. They certainly do love the sprouting greens however, and adding some to your fall wheat/clover mix provides a great early draw, much like the more expensive Austrian winter peas (AWP). A lot of foodplotters use rye rather than wheat in their late-summer mix, which I see as another mistake for 3 reasons. First, and most important, deer like wheat better and will not feed on rye if there is wheat close by. Second, wheat seed is easier to locate. And lastly, wheat is less expensive. In some situations however, rye is better. That would be when you plan on using it to prepare the spot for a high nitrogen-using spring plot the next year, such as corn. Rye takes up less nitrogen than wheat so the corn gets a better "jump" when you disk up the rye, compared to wheat, and allows you to use less starter fertilizer. The clover you planted this late-summer will likely not do much to attract deer this fall, but if you are into turkeys, it should attract them. They are especially fond of "baby clover", and love pecking at them little sprouts when you can just barely see them. Deer prefer tender clover, but they need a pretty good mouthful to feed efficiently. It is good to keep your clover tender by mowing it several times a season after it gets established. That also helps control the weeds and it is usually not too difficult to keep a white-clover plot going for five or six years, doing nothing more than cutting it a couple times per season. Look for your clover to be a hit with the deer next fall if you are able to mow it a couple times. Also, it is not too late to broadcast some rye or wheat over the top of your clover if you want a bigger draw this fall.

A neighbor kid did a European mount for me on an older buck a few years ago using the standard, boil it repeatedly and scrape method. He shot a young buck and was going to do that one, so I figured it would be just as easy for him to do (2). Mine turned out pretty good, but his 1-1/2 year skull got a little cracked up. It looked like a real pain of a job, messy, smelly, and time-consuming. I still have not "whitened" mine, but it don't look too bad the natural color. My wife is not crazy about it, and the kids think it is a little "scary" looking. I think it looks cool hanging on a rough wooden beam similar to that post. The next time I do one, I am going to use the "pressure-washer" method to clean the skull. I have heard from several friends that it works very good: fast, no smell, but still some mess I suppose. As long as I do it "out behind the barn" that should be ok. I garbage picked a nice high-pressure washer this spring, so I am ready to go. Another friend digs a big hole and covers the skull with dirt, letting nature take its course over the winter and spring. I don't think I have enough patience for that. It would look nice to have another one hanging on the opposite side of that beam at the front of our bar. Last years rifle-season buck would have been perfect, almost a match for the one the kid did for me, but my father-in-law really wanted a regular mount for his new Adirondack camp.

I like my venison or beef medium rare, and of those, I definitely prefer venison if it is properly aged. The worse thing you can do with any red meat, especially venison is to overcook it. That should be a crime. I would rather eat it raw than overcooked. Those folks who like their meat well done would be better off sticking to pork, chicken, or turkey. Even fish is much better when it is not over cooked. I am getting hungry now for some lightly seared tenderloins. It has been almost 9 months since I sunk my teeth into some of those. Hopefully I will get some more of that in about a month.

My first deer was a button buck in Allegheny State park back in the early 80's with a foster slug from my granddad's old, open-sighted, 16 ga, Ithaca model 37 "deerslayer" pump. A set of twins came barreling down a hill as fast as they could run. I lined up with an opening and shot at the lead one when they reached it. Looking back, and remembering a couple other times when I struggled after that with running shots, I think that the deer that folded up like a pheasant (struck perfectly thru the front shoulders) was probably the second deer. A couple years later I took my first antlered buck (A busted up 7-point) with the same gun after mounting a scope on it. He was standing under my tree stand with his nose in a "tobacco juice" stain on the snow that I had been making since I got in the stand about an hour before sunrise. That seemed to hold his attention better than doe urine, and it was the last thing he ever smelled. My first deer with a rifle (Ruger M77 .30/06, with 165 gr, Hornady "light-magnum" ammo) was a mule deer buck out in Colorado in the mid 90's. That will be the last one of those I ever shoot as they are horrible tasting compared to whitetails. I also don't care for the shape of their antlers compared to whitetails. I used the same gun, with a Federal "classic" 150 gr bullet, last fall on a big Adirondack buck. That was my first whitetail with a non-muzzle-loading rifle. We are eating that one right now and it tastes better than the finest beef. I have lost count of the deer I killed with my T/C Omega 50 caliber ML, but I think the first was a huge doe which was the largest from a group of 6-8 antlerless deer. She stood broadside and fell in her tracks, at 75 yards. The rest of the group dispersed at the shot. Before I could reload, two bucks came up on her trail. This happened on opening day of gun season in a shotgun-only zone about 12 years ago. Fortunately I also had my Remington 870 pump with open sights on a short deer barrel. The smaller buck stood about 25 yards from my stand, while the larger one stood right next to the dead doe. He got to meet her up there in "deer heaven" when my 12 ga foster slug got him in the shoulder blade.