wolc123

I grew more sweetcorn than I ever did this year (mostly because my RR field corn seed went bad). Most of that, I planted real late (end of June or early July). It was great having fresh sweetcorn into October. Global warming has really pushed back the early frosts we used to get. It was a big hit at out Octoberfest party at church, as well as a big harvest party that my neighbor had. Were it not for all that I picked for those two big bashes, I’d have probably had enough left to feed the deer for a week or so into gun season. My brother in law brought me a bunch more “fresh” leftover RR fieldcorn seed in mid July from one of his farmer buddies. I should be good for 3-4 more years with that supply. On a normal year, 4-5 acres of RR corn will last me thru the winter and hold deer the whole time, as long as I keep the coons trapped out of it. Deer are extremely efficient users of corn. Coons are on the opposite extreme. We have lots of wild turkeys around here, but they are too lazy to bother with the corn, unless the coons knock it down for them first. The local coyotes have been a big help in keeping the coons out of my corn the last few years. They usually take out all of the juvenile and female coons. Most that I have caught in traps are large males. I bury them shallow and the coyotes exhume them in a couple days. They must get addicted to that coon flesh because after getting the taste of a few, they hang around and take out all the female and young coons, before they can even get to the traps.

The deer will move into the corn as soon as they smell human scent or hear a gun shot. They will not come out until dark or the corn is cut. Ive been dealing with that situation for many years. The only way I can hold any deer on my place, during daylight hours in gun season, is to have some standing corn myself. Im screwed on that at home this year, because my RR corn seed got too old and mostly failed to germinate. I also planted quite a bit of sweetcorn this year, and left a little unpicked, but they finished the last of that a week and a half ago. My neighbors still have standing corn, so that’s where all the deer are by day now. Nothing else matters to them. Corn is king around here and has been for as long I can remember. I have yet to harvest a deer during gun season, that did not have a belly full of corn . Fortunately, all of the neighbors, near my parents place on the opposite diagonal corner of wmu 9F, have harvested their corn. That’s where I’ll be spending as much of my gun season hunting time as I can. The reason standing corn trumps everything else during gun season is because it provides the two vital ingredients that they need for survival at that time: cover and carbs. Nothing else has that unique combination. No tool that I own had put more “free” meat in our freezer thru the years than this one:

Here you go: left to right: 7, 12, 9, 10 7 was my first legally antlered bow buck (naturally my first bow buck was a button). 12 was a road kill that bought it around the corner from our place. I knew a taxi who mounted deer for $125 back then, and it seemed a shame not to get that heavy “driftwood rack” non-typical 12 mounted. 9 was my largest racked buck. It took me (9) 16 gauge slugs to put that one down for good but he was only hit with the first and the last. 1st shot broke his front leg at long range. He had a rear hoof shot off the week before. I was a little faster back then than he was on just two good legs and eventually caught up to him for my last shot. Split double brow tine 10 was the most points I ever got. I thought it was a doe at the time of the shot (head was behind a tree) and I was surprised by all the points. Killed same year as 7 on left on opening day of gun (7 was killed on opening day of bow). I got a “package deal” from another guy to mount both cheap (the $ 125 ea guy had died a few years prior). I think he charged around $175 ea and his normal price was $200. 8: My first Adirondack buck currently resides maybe 40 miles NE of your ranch. Father in law likes to decorate his place with “native local species” 6: My first legally antlered gun buck (my first gun buck was also a button). I mounted this one myself into a head that was given to me by a buddy. He had a big rack, from a buck killed by his grandfather, put on a new larger cape. He was going to throw the old mounted head away, but gave it to me instead. My dad made the walnut board cut the back on that one: Each of these was “special” in some way (first, etc.) and like I said, the numbers thing was just a random chance. Hopefully, if I ever do get that 11, it will be up north. We don’t have much extra wall space back here in WNY.

I’m after an 11 myself. By random chance, my current collection of shoulder mounts is otherwise complete, from 6 to 12 points, with no duplicate counts. This 3-1/2 yr old (9) from two falls ago would have cost me the $500 or so, had I got him before the rut, and he still had the two points that got deducted from fighting. That was a close call. My wife prefers the Euro mounts that only cost us 45 minutes of my time and a quart of gas for my power washer:

I doubt we will ever see full inclusion, given the political dysfunction in Albany, however the new disability permit that the DEC came out with this year has effectively circumvented that mess for anyone who wants it. I have not heard of anyone being denied that permit, after they get a doctors signature on the form, and the turnaround has not taken more than a week in any case. One thing that it looks like you have experienced, and I certainly have, is the much greater efficiency of the crossbow, compared to the vertical bow, when it comes to wounded and lost versus recovered deer. That is no coincidence, but rather is a direct result of the elimination of the need for a “fast draw” motion with a deer in close. That fast motion very often puts a deer into a state of high alert, which always results in “string jump” and causes bad hits. Those are facts that are irrefutable. NYBH has big problems with that. Just wait till the member or two on this site chime in here. I personally owe them a big thanks. Without their strong political opposition to full inclusion and the allowance of this far more efficient weapon on October 1, we’d have never had the early September gun season in my area, and there would likely be a lot less meat in my freezer. I might not get that form signed next year, even though my high blood pressure is a valid excuse. I’m just looking for the easiest way to get meat and my rifle, shotgun, and ML all trump the crossbow in that respect. I have easy access to to the northern zone, where I can use any of those in mid October at least. The deer hunting wasn’t so hot up there this year though, so I do think I’ll get that crossbow form signed next year. It’s nice to have “options”.

How about a black background with blue and purple pokadots.

No deer seen for me yet this morning but I’m very comfortable out of the rain in my truck cap blind. Ive finished most of my snacks and am starting to get a little hungry thinking about leftover panko crumb crusted baked largemouth bass fillets for lunch. My wife made that for dinner last night and it was spectacular. Ive got about a cup of hot cider left in my thermos. Hopefully, that will get me thru another hour or so.

I agree with that. The crossbow is way better than the vertical bow, but not nearly as nice as the ML. I’m not afraid to use a grunt call or rattle with my ML, because it fires a supersonic projectile. I want any deer that I shoot at with my bow or crossbow to be completely relaxed when my arrow strikes it. Any deer that responds to a grunt call or Rattling comes in fully alert. The ML also gives you the option of the DRT shoulder blade shot, which is especially nice on rainy days, like today, or 1/2 hour past sunset.

Daughter’s game is at 2:00 pm, so I can hunt till 11:30 or so. If I get one late, we might be a little late to the game. The deer skin pretty fast when warm though, and I should be able to have one skinned, cut in half, and in the fridge in about 45 minutes. Its about an hour’s drive to the stadium. Just about ready to start getting my stuff ready. I showered with scent free soap this morning and used scent free deoderant. I will wear my ScentFactor Jacket and treat my boot heels with Evercalm, every 200 yards or so, on my walk to the new tree blind on the front corner of our woods. I’ll also have a quart of hot cider for hydration, nourishment, cover scent, and deer attractant. I don’t care what the wind direction is, for that morning hunt, because that stand is up about 9 feet and the morning thermals should carry my scent up and out of play when I’m in it. If it’s from the south, west, or south west, I’ll walk in from the house. If it’s from the north, east, or north east, I’ll drive my field car (Durango), to the south west corner (about 300 yards away from the stand) one hour before sunrise, and approach on foot from there. I’m going with my CP Sniper crossbow tomorrow morning. I’m taking my laser range finder to check range to various landmarks so I know which of the (4) crosshairs to use. It will be interesting to see how that stock factory scope does in low light conditions.

Our daughter’s team won their first round college playoff field hockey game tonight, so no all day crossbow hunt for me Saturday. Hopefully, that will be a later game, but they don’t know the start time yet. I will need a little time to get a deer skinned and into the deer fridge, after the morning hunt, because it looks like it’s going to be a little warmer over the weekend.

I can’t wait. I’m torn between hoping that our daughter advances thru the college field hockey playoffs, or gets eliminated in the first round tomorrow night. Her playoffs have cost me most of the last (4) crossbow seasons. Either way, I’ll be out there for a few hours Saturday morning. That will be all day, if need be, if she looses tomorrow. The rut looks like it’s going to be just about peaked on that day. I just picked up (2) extra wmu 9F dmp permits today and I’m not going to be fussy with those. The first antlerless deer, that offers me a good shot, is going to get one from me. An antlered buck is going to need to be clearly 2.5 years old or older, or have at least (4) points on a side. There’s at least one, meeting those criteria, hanging around both of my local spots. My odds are probably best for DD-10, here at home. Not sure if his Timothy hay feeding pattern will hold, from this day in mid-September, but if it does I’ll be there with my crossbow.

Most likely not all on that one 60 acre piece. Deer wise up real quick, after you start whittling down their numbers. That’s the key to their survival. Two deer a year seems reasonable. Assuming an average yield of 50 lbs edible per deer, that works out to $ 30 per pound, just to cover the $ 3k in property taxes. That sounds very expensive. You could probably buy Wagu fillet mignonette or Alaskan king crab cheaper than that. I always shoot for $ 1.00 per pound on my venison, including most input costs. I don’t consider property taxes on input costs though, because I need elbow room anyhow. I just consider stuff like hunting license, ammo, fertilizer, fuel, and herbicide for food plots (I usually get free seed). I also don’t consider equipment costs, because I need that for property maintenance and gardening anyhow.

How many tags did you fill on that 60 acres last year ?

Fairly well stocked, thanks to the Good Lord and Redfields and Weavers:

Very good video. I agree with the guy’s grandpa: Weavers are for putting meat in the freezer, and Leupolds made sure that a guy couldn’t afford a freezer to put the meat in. That’s why it’s mostly been Weavers or Redfields for me.

Right you are, I was using the pre-Bidenflation cost. It looks like a 6 day, guided, est 85% success, Newfoundland moose hunt is up to $ 6k now. Even with that inflated cost, Luber would still be ahead, when it comes to cost per pound. ($ 6k for 500 lbs of moose meat compared to $3k for 100 lbs of whitetail meat.). He’d be getting 5x the (better) meat at just double the cost.

My mother in law sent me text, saying that she fried up the (4) perch that I caught for her last week for dinner tonight. She said they were very good. I’m hoping that all of the nearby corn will be harvested, and that there will be some snow on the ground, next time we go up there on Thanksgiving weekend. That will greatly improve my odds of getting a buck up there. Back here in WNY, Im taking this weekend off from hunting. I’m trying to get everything ready for winter. I got most of the leaves swept up off the lawn and piled up yesterday. I did the roof work today, sweeping out the chimney for the wood stove and cleaning the leaves out of the gutters. If the weather cooperates next week, I might try to cut the lawn one last time. I took the deck off my primary mower, to give more clearance for pulling the leaf sweeper, so I’ll need to use my backup mower for the last cut. I put the snowplow on my Farmall Cub. That works good for pushing up the leaf piles from the area where I dump them with the leaf sweeper. Before the snow flies, I got to get the rear chains on that Cub, and try to get the lights working again. I had to straighten out the plow frame before I mounted it because I bent it up a little in a failed attempt to use it for a front hitch to move my boat. Apparently, that was a little too much tongue weight for it. My 22 ton vertical hydraulic press (log splitter) made short work getting it straightened out.

Yes. For that amount you could take a guided moose hunt to Canada and come back with 4x the (slightly better) meat than you might get, if you tagged out on whitetails, on his 60 acres. My recommendation would be: offer $150 to lease the 15 acres of woods. See if you can find a farmer, who would pay $2850, to lease the 45 acres of tillable.

Ive always avoided Leupold scopes, because they were too expensive, however I did buy a new Redfield Revolution that was manufactured during the brief period when they were the “parent company”. The quality of that seems ok but not quite up to par with my older “made in USA” Redfield scopes. Hopefully, I’ll never need another new scope, because I don’t know where I could get one now, not being into the foreign stuff. I’d probably take my chances on a used one.

That looks good. Ive got to wait until Valentine’s Day to eat any myself, because my wife only makes it once a year. Hopefully, I will have a few more hearts, to add to the two in the freezer now, by then. I wasn’t able to get any more during my last (9) days of ML and rifle deer hunting up north. I Hope to be able to add up to (5) more to the batch between November 4 and January 1.

I had a very comfortable spot to sit in the rain for my 9th morning in the north woods, but no deer seen. The drive home went well and i am all unpacked. No more deer hunting for me until sz crossbow opens on November 4th.

I like his writing style, very blunt and to the point, and not the least bit “politically correct”. Way different and better than most of the stuff in print these days.

I have been in position, down in the steam bottom hot-spot, since 15 minutes before sunrise. I drove the plow truck down to the trail-head in the rain to save a little time and stay a little drier. There are a couple old, falling-down lean-to’s nearby, one of which held a soft-topped, swivel-based chair with arm rests and full lumbar back support. My father in law uses that for hunting beavers in the stream. I dragged it out a short distance, propped it up level next to a pine tree, and rigged my tree umbrella above. The rain had been falling steady, but I have been relatively dry and comfortable so far. Two problems I had in the rain yesterday, in my camp chair under the umbrella were wet knees on my bibs, from moccasional drops that struck them, and inability to swivel for 360 degree shot capability. This chair lets me shoot all around, and I’m wearing my insulated chest waders today, so no problem there. Today’s issues are it’s about 10 degrees colder (36 F), and the wader rubber boots are not as warm as the Timberland-pro insulated leather, composite-toe loggers boots that I had worn on my prior hunts. My knees are staying dry though. I’m going to try and hold out here until around 11:00, then head back for lunch with the in-laws, then pack up for the 4.5 hour drive home. Maybe I’ll make that 4 hours, to my parents house, and have supper with them. Only the appearance of a buck, with 3 or more points on a side or a bear in the next (2) hours, could throw a wrench in my plans. Our buddy, from down at the end of the lake, left his Cat #12 road grader parked blocking the trail so I’d have to drag any carcass out by hand. At least that makes for a nice, smooth drive back to my in-laws house, with no potholes.

Here is an oldy (written in 1962) but a goodie, that I am about 1/4 thru:

Just saw this. Is it’s too late to start now ? Ive never held any political office, but I did visit my favorite President’s house and farm this summer, during the barley harvest. It does seem like we could use a little Barnyard Diplomacy right about now.