wolc123

Thanks for posting that Tacs. It looks like if I get another one in the morning, I will need to crank up the AC and hang it in the garage till I grind and zip lock the first one and free up the deer fridge. I always put the grind from the first deer each season in zip lock bags. It will be gone in a few months, so vacuum sealing would be a waste of time and money. I’ll use that all up before I finish the last (7) packs of vacuum sealed grind from last season’s 9-point. Frozen vacuum-sealed venison is good for at least (4) years with no freezer burn.

Kind of an ugly fish. I winter if they taste good or fight hard. Did you guys get any Muskies, bass, pike, or walleyes ? What were the biggest ?

Not sure, but maybe I’ll call them Saturday and find out.

I wasn’t planning on hunting again until Sunday afternoon, over at my parents place, because my deer fridge won’t be available until Saturday evening, when I finish processing doe # 1. Now, I am thinking of getting out here at home on Saturday morning. Hopefully, the Buck and Doe shop could take doe # 2 for the Venison Donation program. If not, I’ll crank up the AC in the garage (it’s supposed to be 80 degrees outside on Saturday), and leave it hang in there till I process the other one. They were not able to take a cash donation for that at a Lockport Runnings when I picked up my first two dmp tags this year. I’ll try again at Walmart, when I go back for the other (2) on November 1. Maybe I can give them some meat before then. The reason I want to go out is that the local deer population seems to be way too high. I base that on the distinct browse lines that I see on all of my hedgerows, and the super heavy usage I saw on my wheat plots in the late winter and spring. I think the local farmers eased way up on their nuisance permits here on the NW corner of wmu 9F. Not so on the SE corner at my parents place. I have heard that they hit them extra hard out there this year, and that lines up with my observations. Also, my food plots out there don’t look so hot. I have been itching to check out my “deer Foodplot court” in a morning prime time hunt, to hunt from the pop up blind that I brushed in back there, and to try my new shooting sticks. The only glitch is that I dropped my ML on the carpeted basement floor, when the sling pulled out as I was cleaning it Tuesday night. I don’t trust that it is still zeroed without testing it first. I need to do that prior to my October NZ early ML week hunt, but not until after early September antlerless gun season is over. For that reason, I am going to run my short, open-sighted 12 ga 870, which will also handle better in the blind, on Saturday. No change in my plans for my parents place on Sunday (if I still have my last tag). I was going to use my Ithaca 16 ga on that hunt anyhow. I have a very good supply of slugs for both of those shotguns.

Happy birthday, and I hope you are able to make it out deer hunting this year. Don’t be afraid to reach out here, if you kill one. I am sure there are lots of folks who would help you drag it out, no matter where you are in the state. I’ll be in the NW Adirondacks for early NZ ML week, opening week of gun, and Thanksgiving weekend for sure, and in WNY the rest of the season, if you are near any of those places.

No, but she had her heart shot out from under her with a 50 cal from about 10 yards away.

The Schrade sharpfinger really worked well on Tuesday evening’s doe, especially for skinning her. The hide always comes off easier, when it’s warm, but this one came off much easier than usual. That’s because I put a little extra time into sharpening the “gut hook” this year. I used the little white sharpening stone that came in the sheath of the Schrade 153UH for that. It worked better, after I did that, than it did when it was new. I simply used the corner edge of that little white 153UH stone to get that notch, on the back near the tip of the Sharpfinger, razor sharp. That made slicing down the neck and legs as easy and quick as pulling down a zipper. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack my Gerber folding saw on that hunt, so I brought back grandpa’s old wood-handled meat saw to cut her pelvis, when I fetched the gutted carcass with my loader tractor. I forgot the Sharpfinger on that trip, but fortunately I had my little “made in USA” Imperial EDC in my pocket. That wasn’t the first time I used that to work on gutting a deer. It didn’t make my first picture, but you can see it in the bucket above the saw up above. It definitely needs some sharpening. I’ll be better prepared on my next time out (probably Sunday afternoon after I finish butchering). I still have one more dmp tag that I can fill.

I have had very good results letting 2.5 year olds age for 5 days minimum and 3.5 year olds for 9 days. Ideally, the aging temperature is between 33 and 43 deg F. Leaving the hide on helps insulate against daily temperature swings and let’s you get away with 32 to 55 deg F, so long as the average daily temp stays in the preferred range. An insulated garage, with a concrete floor helps a lot. Cover the widows in the day, to keep out the sunlight, and open them at night to let in the cool air. I was shooting for 10 days in the insulated garage with my 3.5 year old post-rut buck last year, but I had to cut that to 9 days. The average temperature outside was predicted to be 62 degrees on day 10, so I came home a day early from a NZ late gun-season bear hunt. That middle aged buck turned out marvelous. It always amazes me how some on this site, including at least one educated as a chef, seem to have no comprehension of how rigor mortis affects red meat. Even ground burger can be tough, if you freeze it before rigor mortis has passed. A simple, often free, “deer fridge”, is a great help in maintaining that preferred temperature range in these post-global warming days.

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”