wolc123

You are not kidding that prayers work. Some folks like to chastise me for praying for "trivial" things like getting a deer, when folks are dying of cancer and stuff like that. They don't realize that God knows no limits and has plenty of good stuff to go around for those that love and believe in him. That's the real beauty of being a Christian, reaping all the blessings he wants to shower us with. Were it not for the power of prayer, I would be sitting on an empty freezer right now instead of one that is still about half full of tasty venison. Now hopefully he comes up with a few limits of bass next weekend for the kids, the wife and myself so we can start filling the other half. I am not afraid to ask.

There are lots of folks into animal rights, but why isn't anyone concerned about vegetable's rights. After all, they are totally helpless in most cases, and unable to run or defend themselves. Morally, eating wild animals is actually the "higher ground", certainly higher than eating domestic livestock. I know I could survive on an all-venison diet. The Inuit people up in the far North easily go for months on nothing but reindeer meat, and have for centuries. To them and me, vegetables are "what food eats".

The second rifle was handy and it was a pitiful sight watching it crawl away those "split seconds" using only its front legs and trailing the pile of guts. I don't like to see any animal suffer. This was my first shot from a box of new bullets (40 gr Federal premium sierra varminter HP) and I wasn't overly impressed with the 30 yard performance. My last box of 55 gr plastic-tip Hornady's always exploded internally when struck mid-body at short range, putting the lights out instantly every time and seldom leaving any external marks on the chuck. I don't like disrupting the neighborhood more than necessary hence the "little gun" for the second shot. Also, the ammo is orders of magnitude cheaper. I usually get as many chucks as I fire 22/250 rounds, rarely shooting over 100 yards. It has been several years since I missed one with that rifle.

I eat them indirectly. They make great fertilizer when I bury them under my apple trees. I just took my first of the season 15 minutes ago. A fat one I have been after for a couple weeks crawled out from under my barn as I was doing dishes. A rushed shot from our bedroom window with my .22/250 hit a little far back, leaving the entrails piled next to it. A second, well-aimed .22 rim-fire shot to the center of the head quickly ended the suffering of the eviscerated chuck. Hopefully it will be good for a half bushel or so of delicious Cortland apples this fall. I only like to directly eat animals taken during the cooler months when I don't have to deal with the bugs. Fish are the way to go in the warm summer months. In the fall, I have often thought about tossing a young coon in the crockpot but haven't tried it yet. Thanks for the tip about removing as much fat as possible, I will be sure to do that if I do decide to try it this fall. They also make great fertilizer.

The outdoor writer spoke the truth. There are many examples in the Bible where God points to the fact that it is ok to kill and eat animals, birds, and fish. Heck, one time Jesus even helps a couple of his buddies fill their nets with fish when they were down on their luck. Then there's his parable of the prodigal son, where the father kills the "fatted calf" to honor the return of his "lost son". Rather than trying to take God out of the sport of hunting, I applaud that writer for having the courage to put more of him in it. Anyone can "preach to the coir", but it takes guts to stand up for God in front of a hostile crowd. I can tell you from first hand experience that God is more important to my own hunting success, or lack thereof, than anything else. He knows when and where every sparrow falls, so I know of no better way to personally get animals and fish into my family's food supply, than to lean on him.

I put in 2.5 acres of soybeans yesterday in zone 9F. I had to skip some low spots because they were still wet from the 3" of rain we had last Sunday. I like to "sweeten up" my early August wheat/clover mix plantings with some soybeans so now I have plenty of extra seed for that. You can almost see the corn growing now after all that rain last week and a little warm-up. I don't think we ever had another year where almost all of May's rain came down in one day.

I live in one of those areas that is overrun with deer. The problem here is that the deer are natural born "survivors" and have adapted such that even the folks hunting them at night with nuisance permits have a tough time killing them. The real key in getting the population down to a proper level is killing mature does and they are definitely the most elusive targets around. Trying to take them out with a vertical bow in the daylight is about the least effective method imaginable. They always travel in groups, so the only way to draw a bow with all those eyes in close is to get dangerously high in a tree. Shots from such an angle are often non-lethal. As soon as any significant hunting pressure is detected, these deer go nocturnal, completely so after the first few daytime gun-shots are heard. I see the crossbow, used early, as the real key to taking out more of these wise, older does. Getting in early and without noise, before hunting pressure gets intense would help a ton. Just like a ML, a crossbow does not require that draw movement in close like a regular bow, so it can slowly be moved into position for a shot without spooking a group of deer. It also has the huge advantage over a ML of a silent report. To only allow crossbows at the end of the bow season defeats the advantage, when many of the does are already nocturnal due to pressure. In areas that need a reduction in population, they should open crossbow, for antlerless deer only, at least two weeks ahead of the current regular bow season. They also should allow folks to use a regular bow during that special pre-season if they wish. I don't like the idea of easing restrictions on the nuisance permits. The biggest problem with those is all the wasted venison. It would be a lot better to give sportsman who use the meat better tools (crossbow) and more time to get the job done.

I don't care for the practice of "catch and release" any time, in or out of season. To me, that is just the senseless maiming of a fine food source. People who feel inclined to do that should stick to Wi fishing games and such. Catch, photograph, and release is even worse, because it prolongs the fishes suffering and reduces its chance of survival. If a non-target, out of season, specie is caught "accidentally", it should never even be taken out of the water, and should be released ASAP. Playing games with live things just isn't cool to me. Killing them, legally and in season, and eating them, is what I am made for. I think the state does a pretty good job of managing the resource, and I support them going after folks who intentionally go for fish out of season, using any means possible. At least this law should make folks think twice before posting pictures of out of season catches, which is certainly not a very bright idea.

Now that oil and gas prices are low, it probably makes sense to keep the fracking ban in place in NY. Look at it as money in the bank. It makes more sense to withdraw it when prices come back up. Its not going anywhere. Let PA and Ohio sell theirs when its cheap.

I think the best thing to do about tresspassers is to eliminate the need to "post" your property and make it a crime to hunt any private property without written permission of the landowner. Tresspassing with a weapon should be a felony. Just getting rid of all those ugly signs polluting the countryside would make that worthwhile. That is the way it is done in most states West of the Mississipi and it seems very effective.

The Bible works good for me, on my last 3 bucks anyhow. 2 seasons ago it slipped out of my hand for some strange reason, with 5 minutes of legal shooting light left. I decided to pack it in early then since I had already filled an antlerless tag in the morning and had a couple other "nuisance permit deer in the freezer. When I climbed down to pick it up, a flock of turkeys and a nice big 8-point buck immediately landed on my position in the patch of brush under my tree stand. It was an easy 10 yard neck shot on the buck with one minute of daylight remaining. I would have stood out like a lite bulb to them turkeys had I still been up that tree in my blaze orange cammo. My cross-bow buck last year showed up right after I took my eyes off an "old rugged cross" that I set up behind our house. Finally my steer-bodied, rifle-season, Adirondack 8-point showed up last season right after I prayed that God just let me see a buck. All we had ever seen, even on trail cameras, at my in-laws new camp up there were antlerless deer. Practice, scouting, reading about hunting techniques and all that may help some folks I am sure, but keeping myself in good with the man upstairs works best for me. After all, He is the one who has the final say where all deer end up.

Thanks for the Amazon link. I just ordered one. I cant wait to use it this cross-bow season up at my in-laws Adirondack camp. The light weight and easy to carry feature should make it great for packing into the mountains. It's going to be hard giving up my "lucky", red , $19.99 camping chair, but the ability to swivel, and ease of carry of the new seat will help with that. I just picked up the mount today of the buck I shot up there last gun season using the old cheap but bulky red chair. I hope to do even better off the DR from Amazon this season. It does look comfortable and it should allow me to go deeper into the woods if need be.

Kind of gross looking antlers, but I really liked the song, definitely one of my all time favorites and delivered by one of my favorite singers. I will have to put some lily pads in my pond. They also make great cover for bass.

Where would we be without smartphones? More "clean" money might get added to our countries GNP, which includes proceeds from lawsuits. That makes it easier to keep up with China and India where lawyers are fewer and further between. Their money is mostly "dirty" over there, coming from actual manufacturing products which generates environmental pollution. Luckily for her, there are lots of lawyers available here in NY to take cases like this. Not a whole lot of folks going into engineering or manufacturing over here anymore. Good luck to her and her law career.

It would have taken about 2 more weeks of winter to do serious damage to the herd where I live and do most of my hunting in zone 9F. I don't see any signs of winter kill even on last years fawns. In fact, there are two large, pregnant looking does, each with two of last years fawns with them, almost every time I take the mountain bike around our "back 40". They are keeping the wheat, which I put in with some clover on a little 1/2 food-plot last fall, eaten right down to the clover. Usually I have to mow the wheat down with a bush-hog around this time so the clover can take off. With the record numbers of acorns we had last fall, the deer went into that tough winter in exceptionally good shape. I wasn't able to take any does or fawns last fall, but our freezer is still pretty much stuffed from the 2 bucks I used my tags on, a road-kill button-buck, and we finally finished a big, 2-1/2 yr, 8-point that a friend gave us during bow season. As far as I can see, it will be easier than ever to fill that freezer back up this fall. I have not been up to zone 6C yet this spring, where I took my largest buck last fall, but the in-laws have been seeing plenty of does up there. I hope to check it out on Memorial day weekend myself.

Hang in there JJ and keep an open mind. Someday God may pile some proof on you when you least expect it. Hearing about it and reading about it just is not the same as seeing it with your own eyes. I was nearly blind and am now almost 20/20. It took nearly 50 years and a good amount of proof (as you have read a little and commented on in some of my other posts) for me to buy the whole Jesus story. Also, in that dog attack, I don't think a relatively silent crossbow would have been effective at turning the dog around before it got some teeth into me. I have one other little tip I learned recently that may help some home-owners who are being harassed, specifically "barked at" by their neighbor's dogs. My brother-in-law lives in a fancy sub-division down in VA. He is military, semi-retired and his next door neighbor's leave their dogs out all day, contained by an "invisible fence" that runs between the two properties. Every time they went out in the yard, the two big dogs would bark at my brother-in-law and his family and guests. He is quite tech-savy and was able to locate a device that emits a signal, very painful to dogs, at a frequency outside the range that the human ear can detect. The dogs don't bark anymore, and their owners are none the wiser. You might say they were given a little "attitude-adjustment". A dog's ears are extremely sensitive. While that may help the canine catch prey, it also opens them up to pain far greater than humans would experience from a loud, high-frequency sound. If you are having problems with neighbors dogs crapping on you lawn, I would think this same electronic device, hooked to a motion sensor, would be a very effective deterrent.

Anyone who would shoot a dog for pooping in their yard is a loon, and loons should not have guns, so it sounds like justice was done. Could they have taken his guns without the SAFE act? If not, then score one for the act. I am 100% for taking guns out of the hands of proven loons. This guy certainly proved what he was. I have been on the giving and receiving ends of dog attacks, so I can understand both sides. The first was when I was about 13 years old, sitting on the bank of our neighbor's pond, fishing with our family pet (black lab) by my side. The pond had nice paths around it and was used as sort of a neighborhood park. A pretty girl, my age, who I knew from the school bus ride, came walking by with a young, miniature Siberian husky on a leash. When she got right next to us, my dog lunged with no warning at the little white husky, tearing a chunk of flesh out of the side of its neck with a single lunge. I will never forget the sight of that red blood all over the white fur. I apologized and said my folks would pay the vet bill. A couple stitches and the little husky healed up good. I was very thankful that no charges were filed, and that our dog was not taken away. The other attack came a few years ago, and it happened on our farm. I was deer hunting on the last afternoon of gun season, from a ground blind near the center of our land. Reluctantly, I had posted the farm that year, at the urging of my wife. I had never had any luck with posting in the past, and without exception, have had more trespassing issues with the signs than without. About a half hour before legal sunset, I looked up toward the road and saw two women and two dogs come walking down our lane. I could see a big, loose German shepherd and a small "yip-dog" on the leash. They had no idea I was in the blind, located right near the center of our "back 40". When they were about 30 yards away, on the other side of a thick hedgerow, the big dog must of picked up my scent. He began barking loud, and when he saw me, he charged through the hedgerow. I timed my shot perfectly, just as he jumped into the back of my blind. My placement was a little off though, just to the side of his head, close enough to likely cause a little hearing damage, possibly some powder burns, but no bodily damage. He let out a yelp and turned tail at the mighty report of my 12 gauge, 3" slug. The women said "that shut him up". I asked them if they had noticed the posted signs and they said that they didn't think I would be back here. That was the last year I put up posted signs and I have not had any trespassing trouble since. That "miss" was a heck of a lot more effective than any posted sign ever was. I won't call it a warning shot because I heard they are illegal.

The biggest issue everywhere for getting crossbows into archery season is a selfish minority of bowhunters who want as many deer as possible for themselves. They especially don't like the thought of "sharing" with children, elderly, women, or the disabled. I find that about 10 - 15 percent of bowhunters fall into this group. They are all extremely passionate about "their" sport. It is unfortunate that this group has been able to hold out the crossbows as long as they have. It seems that the tide is against them now however as more people, especially lawmakers, realize that they are almost completely driven by selfishness. As far as I know, the sky has not fallen in any of the majority of states that have now allowed the crossbow into archery season. Yet this group still clings to their "gloom and doom" predictions of the beginning of the end of bow-hunting. Regular bows are still legal in all those states. As far as NY grouping the crossbow closer to a ML that a bow, I agree with that in one way at least. The effectiveness of a crossbow on deer is much closer to that of a modern, in-line ML than a bow. A good crossbow is very effective on deer to at least 59 yards as I learned first hand last season. A bow is good to about 30. Not needing to draw with a deer in close, not needing to "hold" at full draw, being able to shoot from a rest, and using a telescopic sight really adds up to make the crossbow about 10x more effective on deer than a regular bow. I also think it is selfish to "challenge" oneself at the expense of the quarry. Give me the most lethal weapon that I can afford and the law will allow. I don't want to "give the deer a chance". I want them dead fast with as little "suffering" as possible. The crossbow does a heck of a job at that. Where I hunt the most, the deer pretty much go nocturnal soon after the first shot is fired during gun season. Using a crossbow then would not be effective like it is during archery season. You should use every possible opportunity to expose the pure selfishness that drives the opponents to the crossbow. That will help win the "folks in the middle" to your side. I have waited a long time to hear just one legitimate, non-selfish reason for not allowing the crossbow into archery season.

I was kind of mad now, that I let the guy at Walmart talk me out of getting the fishing license last fall when I got my hunting license like I have always done in the past. Luckily the Walmart computer was up today and I was able to get one. Does anyone know if you can buy a fishing license early and get the full 365 days tacked onto the end of the year you paid for? If so, I will just buy everything at the end of August again. The less time standing in line waiting for a computer the better.

For turkeys, I would skip the shotgun altogether and get her a crossbow. They recoil less than a .22 rim-fire. As far as I know, they are now legal throughout turkey season. A Barnett Recruit would be a good selection for her. The stock is fully adjustable for a small kid to a large adult. I would bet she could hit a tennis ball consistently, from a rest, at 40 yards with the stock red-dot sight. She would have a much better chance of a clean kill on a turkey with that than a .410. In a couple years she could use the same weapon for deer. If you have to go with a shotgun, I would go with a gas-operated 20 ga. like a Remington 1100. That would be perfect for pheasants and adequate for turkeys at shorter ranges (less than 30 yards). In hunting situations in NY, the 410 is a good squirrel gun, but that is about it. If they ever open a dove season, it would do a good job on those little birds. I do love shooting trap with my 410 as it is a real challenge. I have an old Winchester mod. 20 break action 410 that my granddad bought for my mother when she was about 12. It is a sweet little gun and I hope to get my 11 and 12 year old daughters squirrel hunting with it some day, and maybe shooting a few clay birds. Trap is like shooting ducks in a barrel for me with a 12 gauge. I don't like challenges with live game though as I think it shows a disrespect for the game and increases the chances of wounding.

Congrats on your first bow kill . That is something you will never forget for sure. The only thing better will be when your son gets his. In my opinion, the there is no finer food on the table than NY whitetail taken during archery season. My mouth waters just looking at the photo you posted. Fortunately, the good Lord blessed me with a similar buck last season and the girls and I just polished off a taco salad with plenty of venison grind in it as I type.

There are many reasons not to feed deer, but there never has been any shortage of people willing to justify it in their own minds. Some say food-plotting is feeding and sometimes can be. I use food-plots simply to ease the task of killing deer during hunting season and a perfect plot would be consumed 100% by the last day of ML season. The best way to help deer thru the winter is to kill enough in the fall to reduce the number to well under carrying capacity in a tough winter. Most places in NY, at least where I have hunted, have quite a bit more deer than they should. This past winter was tough but it stopped just in the nick of time, before any excessive winter kill in the areas I hunt (western zone 9F and northern zone 6C). By far, the best way for a deer to perish is from a well-placed bullet or arrow from a hunter. Starvation, road-kill, predator-kill, or disease are far less pleasant, as that video shows. What we need is more hunters and better tools (CROSSBOW, RIFLE) to get the job done. More and more formerly "shotgun-only" areas are converting to rifle and the crossbow has finally gained a small foothold, so at least NY is headed in the right direction as far as the tools go. I don't know how we can reverse the trend hunters leaving the sport faster than entering it however. If we don't reverse it we will likely see a lot more of that starvation in the future.

The last time I hunted out of state was Colorado about 15 years ago and back then you did need you original hunting cert. I was thankful to have still had mine back then. The deer hunting in NY state is so good now that I don't see me having any desire to hunt out of state again (I am mainly in it for the meat). I have to admit that the elk from out there are very tasty, almost as good as the whitetail we have here. I would never consider shooting another mule deer however. Even the outfitters out there didn't like eating them compared to elk or NY state whitetails.

I am glad to hear of all the 12 - 15 inch largemouth. As a pure,"meat" fisherman, that is exactly the size I am after. I usually release bass over 15", and try and move to an area where the "eating size" ones are. I also prefer catching smallmouth as they put up about double the fight, pound per pound. On the table however, I would give a very slight preference to the 12-15" largemouth. The fillets seem to be a little sweeter and a good amount thicker. Now that they have the round gobies to feast on, the smallies in Lake Erie, Ontario, and the Niagara and St Lawrence rivers are getting quite fat themselves however. If you are looking for large smallies on Lake Erie, I find they often suspend during the summer . If I can get my jig to fall thru them, there are often good 12-15" "eaters", on the bottom below. I can never resist setting the hook on them big ones when I feel them pick it up on the fall. We have about 4 quarts of bass left in the freezer, which should be right on to get us to the 3rd Saturday in June.

How is the largemouth bass population looking there these days? I am planning on taking the wife and kid's out there for opening day this June as I heard they are very plentiful there these days. I spent many a spring day there in my youth catching "calicoes" and perch at my uncle's cabin. Now days, I prefer catching and eating bass, as their higher oil content makes them a little better for baking and grilling. It's hard to beat the perch, crappies, and walleyes for frying though. I like washing them down with Genesee Cream-ale.