wolc123

Not a public one.

I finally saw a few deer on my 6th early antlerless hunt, on The afternoon of Tuesday September 13. It was about 60 degrees, when I walked out back at 6:00 and there was a steady 10 mph west wind blowing. I have been wanting to hunt my deer foodplot court, on the west edge, but the wind hasn’t been right (east would have been best). I couldn’t wait any longer, so I headed to my “natural blind” located about 75 yards to the east of those plots. On my walk back, there was a unicorn fork horn buck standing in the clover plot along the east side, that I had hunted the evening prior. He moved into cover as I passed, then came back out to feed, 10 minutes after I settled into my blind, 175 yards directly upwind of him. Evercalm works well for 1.4 year old bucks apparently, because he fed there for at least 15 minutes. At 7:00, I caught movement in close,upwind to my west. A young doe passed 5 yards away. I slowly moved my gun towards her and she bolted off after catching that motion. I nearly fired, but caught more movement behind her. That was a much larger doe and she stopped, slightly quartering away, at 15 yards, allowing for a quick heart-shot, with my 50 cal T/C Omega ML, with 24O gr black sleeved bullet and 100 gr of T7 powder. She bolted off, swinging thru a little patch of cover, and emerging in a shooting lane 50 yards to my NW. I saw her flop down dead there. She is the same “back strap momma” that I have seen and photographed several times. The smaller doe with her must have been her last year’s fawn. The coyotes probably got this year’s. She didn’t have any milk in her, and she was very fat.

I stopped following it when they took out the cigarettes and let in the Toyota’s .

I am sure it has, since it was new back in the 1950’s . I like the old non frost free ones like that because the meat don’t dry out too much in them. Back strap momma is a deer fridge filler for sure. A little pressed for time tonight so I didn’t get a chest girth measurement. She was very fat and didn’t have any milk in her. Coyotes must have got this year’s fawn. I trimmed all the external fat that I could and she’s in the fridge till Saturday late morning. ML is cleaned, and all gear is washed. Only glitch was I forgot my Gerber saw so I brought grandpas old meat saw back with the tractor when I fetched her to cut thru the pelvis. I always do that to make sure everything near the tenderloins is rinsed clean (with fresh blood from forward of the diaphragm) of any piss or poop. I’d rather my tenderloins taste like blood than that stuff.

The Good Lord certainly provides. His timing was perfect this time. I think last years fawn was with her and passed first at 5 yards upwind. I was ready when she came by, and made the quartering away heart shot at 15 yards. She bolted thru a small patch of brush, made a half circle thru my shooting lane, and I saw her drop there, 50 yards away. She’s gutted, tagged and hanging in the garage now. I have a church elders meeting at 8:30 and I will skin her, cut her in half and hang in the deer fridge after that. It’s plugged in and cooling down now.

BDD Back in Burger and back-strap.

The young buck is back out munching on the clover plot I hunted over last night. He’s a damn unicorn. I thought maybe so, after zooming in on the earlier pics, that I took on the walk back. He had a single, tall, well-polished fork on the left and nothing on the right. Must have broke it off on some earlier sparring. He is 175 yards directly downwind. I have an open half stick of EverCalm laying down by my feet, and he hasn’t a clue that I am here.

On my 6th time out since the September 10 opener, I finally saw my first deer of the 2022 early antlerless gun season. Unfortunately, it wasn’t antlerless. It looked like a 1.4 year old 4-point. Better than nothing I suppose. He will be safe from me until 15 minutes past sunset (30 if there’s snow) on January 1, 2023. He was standing 10 yards from the stand I hunted last night, 20 minutes ago, on my walk back to my natural blind near the center of our place.

I still have quite a bit of vacuum-sealed meat left from my last “toddler” buck (January 1, 2022 kill), including the neck roast. I could bring that up to your ranch during early NZ ML week if you want to host a peace party with Belo. I still have one Ruby red Kolsh left, which really makes a good gravy with it, in the crock-pot. Sorry that I didn’t keep the nuts from that one, because it was dark when I gutted him. Their removal is a somewhat delicate operation requiring very good lighting. If you ever decide to try a pair (most guys lack the nuts to do so), remember the key ingredient (per Belo’s hero Steve Rinella), lots of pepper. Also, remember to slit thru the outer membranes first, or they will explode in the frying pan, making a mess of the kitchen (lesson that I learned the hard way on my first pair of Adirondack mountain oysters in 2014). Happy hunting to you this year. I will pray that your high-fence herd, and the wild ones outside the fence up there and down at Letchworth, escape the ravages of EHD and CWD. It sounds like there is no need to worry about the latter. I trust your words on that one. p.s, thanks for the compliment on my gun-season buck last year. He would have been nicer, had I taken him pre-rut when he still had all 11 points, and more importantly, a few more packs of hamburg on him. I am down to just (7) packs.

No deer seen tonight. I left the stand at 7:45. I heard something in the thick brush to the east at about 7:30. If it was a deer, it may have winded me, because the wind was blowing directly that way.

Cool hunt Bolt action, your boy ought to be pretty well hooked after that. I made it out to the upper deck of my two-story blind, near the center east side of our farm, at 5:51. There is a steady 20 mph west wind, and this location is the best I got for that. Hopefully, something antlerless comes out to the little plot of clover I am watching over before 7:45. Legal time ends at 8:30, at my location, but it would be to dark to identify antlers at that time. Last September, I saw a decent 2.4 year old 8-point from this spot on my first evening hunt, but nothing antlerless. I dont think that I saw that buck again, until June 21 of this year. I think it was him that walked across our back yard as I was putting up the pool. Maybe I will see him again tonight. I’ll try to get another picture of him if I do. This was him on June 21: He has a “normal” antler on the left, and a funky one on the right, the same as I saw post-velvet last September. It is nice out here tonight with the wind, no skeeters at all. It would be nicer if big momma backstrap were to make an appearance before 7:45. I’d also be happy if I could get a pic of “funky right”. He would definitely be a shooter for me this year, but not till November when crossbow opens up.

I guess you didn’t read my post. The meat from a 3.5 year old, properly aged, is every bit as tender as that from a 1.5 year old. I have the facilities to age the 3.5, regardless of outside weather conditions (deer fridge and insulated/air conditioned garage), so it don’t make any sense for me to kill 1.5 year olds early in the season(s). As far as the baby deer go, they have made up about 25% of my antlerless kills over my 40 years of deer hunting. If I were more selective with antlerless tags, those would have most likely gone unfilled. I always target the largest bodied antlerless deer first, from any group. Most of my hunting has been in areas where herd reduction is desired and a “baby buck” kill benefits more people overall, than an unfilled tag in such areas. If the Good Lord grants me such a “fatted calf”, who am I to deny His wishes ? So will I take one “in a heartbeat” ? You are very right that I have, when I had a tag and there was no larger antlerless deer in range. They are a renewable resource and one buck can service many does.

I am a pure “Meat hunter”. I don’t pass too many legal bucks. I could count them on both hands. I don’t regret any of them, because almost without exception, I was able to use that tag later on a larger buck. A couple times, the bigger one showed up in less than two minutes. The longest it took was (6) days, last gun season. The primary reason that I pass small body/antlered bucks is to get more meat. A 2.5 year buck produces about double the useable meat as a 1.5 year old, and a 3.5 about half again more than a 2.5 year old. I have managed to kill 3.5 year old bucks on (4) of the last (6) years and (2.5’s) the other (2). That required passing about (6) 1.5’s. As long as the carcass is properly aged (length of time at 33-48 F), then there is absolutely no difference in the texture or flavor of meat from 1.5, 2.5, or 3.5 year old bucks. It makes zero sense for me to waste a tag on a 1.5, from a meat volume standpoint alone. At the same time, I don’t regret a single antlered buck that I have killed, and I have yet to see a larger buck after I had punched my tag, while out later with only antlerless tags. Some day I might regret a pass (if I ended the season with an empty freezer), or a kill (if a giant showed up later), but I am thankful that it hasn’t happened in my first 40 deer seasons.

I didn’t see any deer or squirrels. I did hear what sounded like deer moving around in the thick woods behind me. With all the green leaves and holes in the canopy, from dead ash trees, the visibility is terrible in there.

I didn’t get to hunt as much as I had planned on the early antlerless gun-season home opener this year. We drove East to Rochester, for our daughter’s, in college field hockey. I hunted just the first two hours before we left, from a truck cap blind in our back yard, and didn’t see a deer. While we were in Rochester, I learned that a good friend was having a birthday bash, which started at 4:00 pm. We drove home, after a post game lunch with the team. I walked out back and I brought along my ML to check my coon traps in the sweetcorn. I walked back to my natural blind, on the downwind side of my back foodplots, and spent about 1/2 hour of mid afternoon there, seeing nothing but a few skeeters. They were not too bad. At the birthday party, I was informed of some every day early morning deer presence, in the field next to my house. This morning before church, I hunted my closest stand to that field, for the first two “legal” hours. I may have heard a deer, but did not see any. A fat grey squirrel climed up to my poplar tree blind, but I didn’t have my pellet gun. After church, my wife made us a real good lunch of eggplant Parmesan, then I loaded the truck with gear and drove over to my parents. Over here, I cut a half truckload of downed ash to clear a trail in the woods for dad, helped ma move some boxes in the basement, took a short nap (late night at party/early rises caught up with me), and ate dinner with them. I got set up in my cherry tree blind, in the woods on the edge of a clover plot, for the last (2) hours of legal. I am well armed with my ML and pellet gun, waiting on a big doe or a grey squirrel. Nothing seen yet, but I just heard a branch snap behind me. My parents saw a big doe, with a decent sized fawn, on this plot two evenings ago. I was hoping that my earlier chainsaw work might stir up some deer curiosity. One hour of legal deer hunting left this weekend and all is well.

I got set up at 6:00 pm in my evening stand over at my parents. 1/2 hour past sunset at this location is 8:01 pm. They seen a doe with a decent sized fawn in this clover plot two evenings ago. I brought my ML and pellet gun and I am waiting on a big doe or a grey squirrel.

21-7/32”

No wind at all this morning and only one mosquito so far. I also had a fat grey squirrel climb up my tree. I should have brought my pellet gun. I will bring that along with me over to my parents this afternoon. A few squirrels for the crockpot would be nice. It’s been a few years since I had any of those. Extra deer hunting lately has cut into the time that I used to spend hunting those. I always see more squirrels, over at my parents place, than I do here at home. Hopefully, that holds true today.

I made it up into my poplar tree blind about 1/2 hour before sunrise. I decided to hunt this stand for a couple hours, before church this morning, because of a report I got at a party last night. A guy drives by our house every morning on his way to work at 4:30 am. He says there is always a group of deer in our field, in front of the creek, between our house and my aunt’s next door. If they are bedding in the 7 ft tall grass in front of this stand, I might see something, but nothing yet. The new chair I put up here a couple weeks ago is very comfortable. It will be hard to stay awake these two hours. I did hear what may have been a deer crossing the creek from up front and moving into that tall grass about 10 minutes before sunrise. I brought the tree umbrella with me, because there is about a 50 % chance of rain, but nothing yet. I will also bring it along this afternoon, over to my parents place. I killed my first deer from under it, while it was raining, over there on January 1 of this year. That was with this T/C Omega that I am hunting with right now. I guess I will bring it over there this afternoon, rather than my Ithaca 16 gauge, as I had originally planned. That way, I won’t have to repack my bag of gear. If I don’t kill a deer today, then I will keep hunting the weekday evenings at home (rain or shine). I have yet to hunt my foodplots during “prime-time”. That might happen tomorrow afternoon, if nothing shows up in the next hour here, or the last two over at my parents later.

I didn’t see a deer in the first 1.5 hours hours this morning, then drove to Rochester for daughters college field hockey game and lunch after. I am back home now. Mt buddy is having a birthday party at 5, so I will miss “prime time” hunting this evening. I am out in my natural blind now, looking over the back plots, for a half hour or so. Wonder had to walk back out o check the coon traps (nothing in n them), and I brought my ML. Nothing but skeeters so far and I didn’t bring spray or thermocell, so I’ll be pulling the plug for the day soon. The turnips back there have gone bonkers with all the recent rain. The corn is starting to brown out, so it must be to the mature “full dent” stage. I will take a closer look at that, and the fresh wheat/clover planting behind it, after a couple hour “sunrise” hunt back there in the morning. I don’t want to get too close to it now, because I don’t want to leave any scent over there.

I’ll be “legal” on my next hunts:

Just remembered, the Democrats new rules on firearm transport are now in effect. I need to look for an old padlock, and drill a couple holes thru the edge of one of my cheap plastic hard cases, before I drive over to my parents tomorrow. I might stop for gas on the way and have to get out of the my truck. I was going to put a rear window gun rack in that, but I guess that’s not going to happen now. I also need to replace last years green back tag with this years orange one. I imagine that it is illegal to hunt with last years back tag so I might as well quit now before I get busted . My primary objective of this morning’s hunt was to not spook the deer out of their bedding areas and blow my chances on the evening hunt. On that I believe that I have succeeded. Between that and the old green tag, I think I will pull the plug an hour early. That will also give me a better chance of getting rid of any poison ivy oil. It sure is comfortable out here in the warm weather and no problem with skeeters so far.

I have been playing with my laser rangefinder. The field on the other side of the creek is narrower than I thought. It’s only a 77 yard shot to my sweetcorn from this blind, and the tall poplar tree, in which I have a blind 7 ft up, is just 98 yards away. The county rerouted the creek, in the late 1970’s, to eliminate two rusted out road bridges. An “inner loop”, which ran thru our farm, had crossed under those old bridges. Google maps still shows the old creek bed. These fields were sized by my German great great grandfather, in the typical European method, with hedgerows 110 yards apart. Erie county threw that middle field width off, when they rerouted the creek. If a doe comes out of that high grass to feed in the tender, recently trimmed white clover, the window and stool height in this blind is just about perfect for a good rest. About an hour to go and nothing seen yet though. I am a little concerned, that maybe the coyotes have run the deer off. They have exhumed all (7) of the “damaging” coons, that I buried around that sweetcorn patch, so far this summer. The morning deer action was nonexistent last September also. I am leaning towards hunting my back plot area this afternoon. The wind direction is SE now, which is good for my pop up blind back there. I can walk to that blind, without spooking anything, with that wind direction. Hopefully, I will be able to give my new shooting sticks a try.

Nothing seen for me yet. I heard what sounded like raccoons moving around in the little patch of brush behind me. I can almost see a box trap on the corner of my sweetcorn from this blind. I will check that, and the other one back there, on my walk back for the afternoon hunt. A bit of trouble as it looks like there is some poison ivy growing up in along the inside wall of my blind. I don’t think I touched it at all, but might need to shorten the hunt a bit and wash up good, just in case I did in the dark.

Lookin out my back door: I started the 50 yard walk to my blind in just a t-shirt, but there was a little nip in the air, so I went back for a light jacket. In the blind, I found a heavy dew on my padded bar stool and used my jacket sleeves to dry before sitting down. I just popped the top on the Evercalm stick. 19 minutes till “go time”.