wolc123

I have long considered deer to be gifts from God, and there is no better place for them than "deer heaven", or us hunter's food supply. Certainly that is the best place for them to end up and involves considerably less suffering than any other way they could check out. It's pretty much a win-win deal if there ever was one.

Our kids are 10 months apart in age and I lost my job right between their births. They are not kidding when they say it will make you stronger. I ended up with a far better job. Also, NY state has some "premo", health benefits for folks who find themselves in that seemingly unfortunate situation. The hospital stay didn't cost us a dime for our second daughter, and even the expensive baby formula was free for a while. It was nice to be home helping my wife with two infants as I don't know if she could have hacked it on her own. Keep the faith, because God will always work things out for the best, for those who love him. I am very thankful to have stayed in NY, where we have good hunting and fishing and scenery that are second to none. This past winter was a bit of a stretch but it looks like we made it thru now. It would take a lot more than that to force me into those sweltering hell-holes below the Mason-Dixon for anything more than a brief visit.

It was a real slaughter out on the main road in 9F this morning. A large group of "yarded" deer tried to cross at morning rush-hour and 3-4 didn't make it. A guy at work said one hit the side of his car as he was slowing, and he saw several pummeled at 65 mph by the cars up ahead. I imagine the coyotes have forced them onto the roads as the footing is getting good for them now with the melting and crusting snow. Overtaking starving and tired deer must be like taking candy from babies. I saw a monster of a coyote out of my bedroom window last night in the waning moonlight. It was so tall, I thought it was a deer at first, until I saw the long, bushy, hanging tail behind.

I can clearly remember two that got away without a shot. Each was due to a gun-failure caused in part by state-mandated rules that handicapped the hunter and increased the odds of a deer getting wounded or getting away without a shot fired. The first was a "unicorn", buck with 4 points on the remaining antler. The missing horn didn't bother me, as I am primarily a meat-hunter who cares little about antlers anyhow. He was a heavy deer, at least 2-1/2 year old and would have provided lots of meat for our family over the winter. He walked under my stand, in mid-December, right at the end of late-muzzleloader season. Back then you were not allowed to use scopes or in-lines. Kind of like today, where you are not allowed to use crossbows for the first few week's of archery season, or rifles in some zones during gun-season. Some practical jokers just like to make it more of a challenge for folks to gather meat I guess. I pulled back the hammer on my side-lock 50 cal., lined up the iron sights with the top of his shoulder, and pulled the trigger as he passed below. The #11 cap went off and he bounded off. I kept the gun aimed, hoping for a "hang-fire", but the main powder charge never lit until I put another cap on. By that time he was long gone. The previous weekend, I had a hang-fire while shooting at a grey squirrel, right at dusk, but was able to decapitate him by keeping the gun aimed until it went off. Now we can use in-lines and scopes and muzzleloader hang-fires/misfires are largely eliminated. My second failure to fire, was a large doe, This time in early December right at the end of gun-season. I was hunting a zone where rifles are still banned. It had rained on Saturday and I didn't do a good job of cleaning and oiling my old, bolt-action slug-gun prior to the Sunday hunt, when the temperature dropped well below freezing. I saw the doe walk into a patch of cover, well out of range. I got down out of my stand and circled around downwind. As I approached the spot slowly, I saw her there, between a couple small trees, just about 20 yards away and looking right at me. I slowly positioned my gun, putting the crosshairs on the top of her heart. Nothing happened when I pulled the trigger. The firing pin was froze back hard. It wasn't until I brought the gun in the house later and thawed it out that I could get it to fire. I cant imagine something like that happening with a rifle, and once again, it was a long, more expensive winter for us, forced to get meat from the store. Those losses due in part to equipment failure and politics, not withstanding my own incompetence, are the ones that bother me the most. I do feel very blessed to have been able to take both the largest bodied buck, and the largest racked buck (separate deer), that I have ever seen while hunting. I have also been thankful later on many occasions for not being able to get a shot at a particular deer. They say "some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers" (Shout-out to Garth Brooks playing in Buffalo tonight) and he surely proved that to me twice this past season. The first was a small-bodied 4 point that snuck in on me as I was sound asleep in my ground-blind on the second last weekend of archery season. When I awoke to the sound of his footsteps, just 15 yards away, he was staring right at me. I tried to slowly raise my crossbow and get a shot to no avail, he bolted off before I could get it in position. The story had a happy ending however, as I caught a mid-week break from work and was able to take his bigger brother to fill my archery buck-tag and a significantly bigger part of our freezer. I just pulled the last of his liver out for lunch today and it was delicious. The second lost shot opportunity was another, even smaller-bodied 4-point that bolted off before I could stalk within shotgun range on opening day. Had I been able to plant him there, my tag would have been filled and I would not have had the opportunity to take the largest-bodied buck I ever took the following weekend up in the Adirondacks. "Real-guns" are legal up there. Thanks to that "moose" of a deer, we probably have enough vacuum-sealed venison for a couple years, and my father-in-law got the mount he wanted for his new cabin.

I just saw a group of 5-6 on the drive home from work. I watched them from less than 50 yards away in the broad daylight. The adults look ok, but the only one that looked less than a year old in the group was a pitiful sight. It's hide was hanging loose and it was visibly trembling after each leap. "Leaping" is the only way it could maneuver in the 30" or so of loose snow. I doubt it will make it thru the night. It looks like 1-1/2 year bucks and does, in this part of zone 9, will be few and far between this coming season. They are calling this the coldest, snowiest winter ever recorded at the Buffalo Airport and it looks like the winter kill of deer may reflect that. I am glad I made plenty of hay while the sun shined last season. I'll have to see if I can get me some bear this year.

I do moderate resistance training (bench, curls, abs) 1/2 hr on Monday, Wed, Fri Mornings, and 20 minutes on rowing machine + abs on Tuesday, Thursday mornings before work. Also do 1/2 hour of cardio (bike or treadmill) + crunches (250) each weekday evening. That hour or so a day is well worth it when hunting season comes around. I substitute real work like hauling or splitting firewood, or outside biking, snow-shoeing, skating, skiing, etc, whenever possible and always on weekends. I change up the routines slightly on a monthly basis to avoid the "plateau" effect. Something simple like switching from incline to decline bench presses/pushups, or grip position on dumbels/barbells or rowing machine is all it takes. I also keep an old low-letoff, high poundage compound bow in the basement that I start drawing as part of my morning routines, starting around April, thru the end of archery season. I draw it left and right equally, although I only shoot right. Keeping in shape definitely makes hunting easier and more enjoyable, especially in the mountains. Your legs should get the most attention if you want to make hill-climbing easier. Once you get your legs into shape, you can ditch the ATV with no problem, and go places you cant even think of with one of them. I am in better shape at 50 than I was at 25.

Largemouths don't put up much of a fight thru the ice. I did catch my largest ever in NY state that way however. It was so fat I had a hard time squeezing it up out of the hole in Brantingham lake. It had to be between 8 and 10 lbs. Smallmouth bass, on the other hand, seem to fight almost as much thru the ice as they do in open water, as do rainbow and lake trout.

I am mainly a meat-hunter, so I doubt I would ever pursue the brown bears. I cant imagine them being very good eating. I know the black bears over 300 lbs or so ain't much good. I don't expect we will have too many bucks survive this record-breaking winter in upstate NY, so a 250'ish pound black bear is number one on my target list now. Finally there is some warmer weather in the forecast. It won't be too long now until lots of them that size should be coming out of their winter hide-outs. I think my odds of encountering an eating-size bear will be better than just about any buck for a while anyhow. I am going to switch my 30/06 over to 180's prior to making the fall hunt this year. I will save my 150's until the buck population gets re-established in a few years. If not, it's been a long time since I hit a deer with a 180 and it will be interesting to give it a try again. The last time was a spike mule deer out in Colorado about 15 years ago that field-dressed about 140 pounds. He got back up and staggered off about 30 yards prior to expiration, after taking one in the shoulder from 100 yards. Eating that mule deer sure made me appreciate the taste of our NY whitetails and black bears. I'll take the Adirondacks over the Rockies any day.

I would go along with the 130 gr 270 as a close to perfect deer load at least. I would consider the 180 gr 30/06 to be a so-so load for deer, elk, and moose, and close to perfect for black bear. With that pair you could indeed cover all North American big game but they are too close in performance to make a good pair. A couple better classic American "pairs" would be a .243 and the 30/06, on the low end, or the 270 and a 300 Win mag on the high end. Either of those pairs would widen the spectrum a bit over the 270 30/06 pair. My favorite deer load is a 150 gr 30/06 and I would rate that as a little closer to perfect than the mentioned 270 load. The main reason for that is ammo availability, and more capacity for bigger loads on larger game. I used it last fall on my largest bodied whitetail to date, shown in the photo. That big Adirondack buck field dressed well over 200 lbs. I know that because I could only get the front of him off the ground with a rope and pulley before I lifted myself in the air and I weigh 200. Thankfully we had an ATV to make the lift. He was quartering away at 300 yards and I struck him high on the second last rib. I had at least 100 ft of elevation on the buck when I fired the shot. The bullet passed diagonally thru his chest, above the heart, destroying both lungs. It lodged inside the opposite arm-pit. He dropped dead on impact, never taking a step or shedding a drop of blood from the entry wound, and there was no exit. When it comes to dropping deer on impact, it depends more on when the bullet strikes than most other factors, including bullet energy or design. If the arrival in the boiler room coincides with the power-stroke of the heart, the resulting over-pressure of the cardio-vascular system will end up in an immediate "lights out" of the brain. I would guess that's about 1/3 or the time based on the numbers I have seen myself using various calibers and loads over the last 35 years or so. Certainly that buck with the destroyed heart at 100 yards in a prior post took a lot more energy than I delivered at 300 yards with my 06, but the timing was just off a little.

My grandpa always wondered why people liked to crap in the house and eat outside.

One thing I have learned to bank on, is that any text or spoken words, no matter who's fingers or mouth it came from, outside of the Bible, is bound to contain lots of fiction. I am blessed to come from a long line of threshers, and have never struggled much to remove the "wheat from the chaff". My ancestors actually had a couple big Oil-pull tractors and a giant threshing machine that they would haul around in the early part of the previous century to do that actual job. That was before everyone switched to combines. I still have the manuals for some of those machines. The more time one spends in front of a TV, computer, or smart-phone type device, the easier and faster they can loose their ability to separate truth from fiction. That is why we are seeing such a sharp uptick lately in the number of people who can so easily be "sold a bill of goods".

I had my first road kill rabbit a couple weeks ago, and it was the best tasting one I ever had. It came hopping over the snow bank just after I turned out of my driveway. I took evasive action but still felt that distinctive thump as a tire rolled over it. I threw it in the trunk and gutted it when I got to work with the little knife on my keychain. I skinned it when I got home, let it soak in saltwater for a couple hours, and it went into the crock-pot the next morning, with a few potatoes and some cream-of-mushroom soup. That made two good meals for myself, supper that evening and lunch the next day. The snow has been to deep for me to chase any rabbits off the road this winter so it was a real treat, and a welcome diversion from an almost straight venison diet, with a little smallmouth bass mixed in from time to time. Over the years, we have eaten close to a dozen deer that were struck by cars, including several that I had to dispatch myself with my pocketknife. One time a big doe must have just knocked herself out cold when she ran into the side of a car. Her rump was cold when I felt it, so I was going to just cut off her tail and use it for bass jig-tying. With my knife in my right hand, I grabbed her tail with my left and it was like turning the crank handle on my old Allis Chalmers tractor. She leapt to her feet, I jumped on her back, getting her in a half-nelson with my left hand, and knifed for her jugular with my right. She bucked me off just as I got that warm stream of blood across my arm, kicking me hard in the leg as I fell. When she bled out, and we butchered her there was not a mark on the carcass, and it was the cleanest butcher job I ever had. It did look like a bloody massacre had occurred on that snowy front yard however, and my leg swelled up so much from that kick that it was tough getting my jeans off later. Deer are regularly struck near our house, but fortunately we never hit any of them ourselves. They taste just like the ones I kill with my gun or bow, are easy to get, and save me some ammo and arrows. Only one time was there a lot of bloodied up meat, with the vast majority requiring less trimming than most shotgun or rifle kills. Many times I have been able to be a little more selective about what buck I took with the bow or gun, thanks to an unfortunate motorist or two. I would estimate that about 15% of our venison has come from road-kills.

I read a bunch of that stuff about dove hunting in NY and I would definitely be for it. Keep up the fight and you will likely be successful as there is really no good reason not to hunt doves in NY. The crossbow battle is not completely won yet and wont be until we get full inclusion. I am thankful we got the peak-rut period at least, which enabled me to fill my buck tag. As it turns out that was a blessing in disguise, with this mega-winter we are getting. I am thankful now to have not killed any does with the crossbow last fall. We are going to need all the pregnant does we can next spring to make up for what certainly looks like will be the largest winter-kill in modern times. God works in mysterious ways, but he clearly runs the show and determines the final outcome. Keep him on your side and you will get what you want, but not always right away.

.22 LR semi-auto (squirrels, rabbit, coons, fox, porky's, coyote-night), .22-250 bolt (woodchucks, coyote-day), .30/06 bolt (elk out west, deer/bear - NY zone 6), 12 ga bolt (deer - NY zone 9), .50 ML (deer/bear). Those 5 cover all the bases well enough for me. If either of my daughters get into it in a few years, I will get a .243 bolt.

We saw two just like behind that Fed-ex truck on the way to church 5 miles away this morning. One looked to be a large, but thin old buck that had dropped its antlers prior to the crash. Like Doc says, those that starve won't show until late March or April so you will have to wait a while yet for off-road pictures. There is no end in sight for the extreme freezing temps in the long-range weather predictions. The one saving grace may be the bumper-crop of acorns we had last fall which will hopefully give the mature does enough reserve to deliver their fawns. The antler-worshiping crowd may be in for some slim pickings next season however. Only a small percentage of the bucks alive now will likely make it till summer. Those that don't starve or get run-over will be easy pickings for the coyotes.

I am very thankful for the two bucks I took at extreme range last season (59 yards with my x-bow, and approximately 300 yards with my rifle), as they may be the last I see for a while. I just returned from snow-shoeing out back on our farm in Western NY and it don't look good for very many bucks making it thru this horrific winter. The snow is so deep that deer are being forced onto the roads, where they are falling to vehicles in greater numbers than I saw during the rut. It certainly didn't help things there that other hunters took the fewest deer locally last season as they did in any I can remember. I was wanting the crossbow early next archery season to concentrate on does, but the way it looks now, I will be best off letting them go and focus on just filling my buck tags again. If I do get any antlerless tags next season, I will try and use them on button-bucks only. We are going to need all the does we can get to make up for what may be the largest winter-kill in recorded history. I read today that the February temperatures have been the lowest in 145 years. I don't have too much trouble killing bucks with my compound, as they usually travel alone, and I only have to wait for one set of eyes to look away or pass behind a tree when I make the draw. That don't work so well with groups of does, where eliminating the need to draw with all them eyes in close, would greatly multiply the effectiveness of the crossbow.

I thought maybe this was a thread about state-wide antler point restrictions in NY state, based on the title.

I like the idea of including it as part of the regular bow-hunting course. I would look at other nearby states, that have full-inclusion in archery season, and see what percentage of participants use which type of weapon. Course content could then be weighted accordingly. Maybe they already do it, but a little section on muzzleloaders in the regular hunting course would be good also.

I have switched to BB guns for most target practice, especially with the kids. Hard to beat 5000 shots for $5.00. A Daisy Red Ryder or a Crossman 760 at 3 pumps will only penetrate one side of a pop can, allowing you to reuse the BB, so shots are often "free". I am saving all my remaining .22 ammo for dispatching trapped animals, and for squirrel, and rabbit hunting.

I have seldom if ever found: "you get what you pay for" to be true. I have often seen: "the best things in life are free", and "a fool and his money are soon parted".

I did well last year in the adjacent 6C area during rifle season. The 8-point in the photo field dressed well over 200 lbs. There is also good numbers of partridge in the area (missed one with my x-bow). The bucks were kind of few and far between but does fairly plentiful up around the town of Fine where I hunted. (1) doe may be taken during the ML or archery seasons. There is a good number of coyotes in the area closer to Ft Drum as they seem to use that largely un-hunted property as a refuge. That likely hurts the deer and turkey hunting more in 6N than most of 6C. I would bet that 6N has some of the best coyote hunting in the state. The bear hunting is good in the area also and I plan on hitting that a little harder this season, as they say the smaller ones (less than 250 lbs) are real good eating. I only ate the tenderloins so far from that 6C buck and they were just as tasty as those from several younger bucks killed out west in zone 9. Just a little chewier, probably due to old age (he had to be at least 4 based on tooth wear). The scenery in that area is also tops of any I have hunted in the lower 48 or Canada. Heading North, towards Theresa and further from Ft Drum and its hungry coyotes, it seems that the deer, turkey, and partridge get more numerous, but the scenery looses some luster, you get further from the snowmobile trails, and the average size of the bucks gets smaller. Bears get fewer and farther between also. Fine is fine for me, and I am extremely thankful that is where my in-laws chose to build their retirement home.

Thanks for posting such a good example of the futility of putting ones trust in "gadgets" and modern technology. Life on earth is fleeting, whether it be 1, 38, or 120 years. Most likely she got her act together with Jesus Christ and accepted his gifts of grace and salvation. They say there are: "no athiests in foxholes" and I would think that would hold true for mountaintops during Blizzards also. Now she can get on with the important, and forever part.

I cant argue with any of that G-man as it correlates quite well with virtually all the experiences I have had over more than 30 years of archery hunting. I guess those folks who keep piping up say "string jump" is a big issue at 60 yards are just a little lacking in practical hunting experience. Once folks get a few years and shots under their belt with a crossbow they will appreciate it a little more. I don't really agree that deer are always alert. Mature bucks maybe, does with fawns, mostly, but 1-1/2 year old bucks during peak rut are prone to destraction, such was the case with my horny 60 yarder.

The stuffed cabbage was awesome and I will be sure to pack some leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I didn't get as many jigs tied today as I was hoping for because the roof started dripping from an ice dam. I did manage to get that cleared and all of the snow shoveled off from that area, plus got the vents up there cleared of snow. I have never used anything for smallmouth bass that came close to my hand-tied buck-tail jigs. The lake at the in-laws new camp in the Adirondacks is loaded with smallies and snags so I go thru plenty of them. I devote about equal time and energy to smallmouth bass and whitetail deer and I would be hard pressed to choose one over the other. I feel very blessed to have both available nearby. It don't hurt that they both taste great also. Speaking of food, I brought up some vacuum sealed fillets from the basement freezer and it will be smallmouth bass fish tacos for dinner tomorrow. They are as good as the Mahi-mahi ones they make down in San Diego CA. Right about now, after that episode up on the frozen roof, I would give them the edge in the weather department though.

The fact that the crossbow may be loud compared to a compound is not as big an issue as you may think regarding "string-jump". Deer are used to hearing loud noises, and it is only "alert" deer that typically "string-jump". The need to draw a conventional bow, while the deer is in close, is the quick motion that is often caught by the deer putting them in the "alert" state. By the time a "relaxed" deer reacts to a crossbow (no need to draw), it is too late for "string-jump" to have an effect. After you get a few years under your belt with a crossbow, you too will see this demonstrated as I saw happen this year. I watched a six-point buck stand rock solid from the time I released my bolt, 59 yards away, until the time the arrow pierced his heart just below the valves. I had no silencers of any kind on my entry-level $250 crossbow. This concept may be too difficult to grasp until you see it for yourself. I remember my last "lucky" kill with my compound. I tried to draw on a four-point buck when his head got behind a tree. He must have caught the motion a little. He paused, quartering away at 25 yards. When I released the arrow he dropped straight down at the sound of the release, taking the arrow though the neck. Had I used a crossbow, he would have never been "alerted" by the draw and would have taken the shot thru the chest where I aimed. At least the tracking was easier for me that time but I wont bank on "guessing" where the deer will be when the arrow arrives. This is the biggest factor that makes the crossbow a true "wonder-weapon" on "live-targets" compared to a conventional bow. They seem so lethal that I cant help but to feel a little sorry for the deer now. Had the native American's been armed with the crossbow, it is unlikely that the white man would have established a foothold on the American continent. On paper targets, compounds and crossbows may be similar in effectiveness, but on live targets the crossbow is an order of magnitude more effective. I think we owe it to the deer to hunt with the most effective weapon available but I have nothing against folks continuing to use a compound if they wish.