wolc123

I walked quickly to my spot, up on the north end of the east ridge at 30 minutes before sunrise. I didn’t still hunt because I wanted to get up here before sunrise . My tree hammock seat is strapped in up here, with 5 minutes to spare. Im near the top of a local rise so the morning thermals ought to carry my scent up and out of play. Deer may arrive from any direction up here, to get at the hickory and beech nuts. I’m strapped to a smaller tree that will allow for full 360 degree shot rotation. When the daylight gets a little better, I’ll throw on my camo head net to dampen the mandatory blaze orange hat a little, and hide my shiny shooting glasses. Two minor setbacks, first I lost my right glove thumb muzzle cover on the walk up. It was too loose of a fit anyhow and it’s not supposed to rain today, so no big deal there. Also, I got up here and realized that I didn’t have my binoculars. Worst case scenario there, is that I end up using my buck tag on an unseen spike. I can live with that, since it’s mostly about the meat for me. My Evercalm stick is open and stuck in an overhead branch. I wiped some on each boot prior to the walk up. Ive got a quart of hot cider and a bunch of candy bars. Shouldn’t be any trouble hanging out here until 11:00 or so. It would be nice if a deer or two arrive on scene before that.

I’m thankful that most of the leaves are down up here. There’s still enough to make for some nice scenery though. The white birch are still holding as are a few other red and yellow late-droppers, plus there’s lots of evergreens for contrast. Im hoping for some snow before Sunday. That makes the deer hunting at least 10 times easier, and makes the scenery even better. It looks like they are calling for a wsw wind today and no rain. We haven’t had that direction yet since I got to here last Friday. That will be good for hunting the spot up on the north end of the east ridge, where I got my last early ML doe up here, two years ago. I’ll be still hunting my way up to that spot, staring 1/2 hour before sunrise, and hang out up there until 11:30 or so. There’s lots of mast yielding trees up there. Hopefully, the deer get sick of all the standing corn around here this year, and stop by for some nuts today.

Last year at this time, the deer up here were feeding in the shooting range meadow at night. I got out there an hour before daylight Saturday (opening day of ML), and none showed up. I tried again tonight and no deer showed but it sure sounded like there was a bear, up on the ridge behind me. It sounded like it was ripping a log apart up there, starting about 5 minutes after sunset. I don’t know what else could have made that noise. Maybe I’ll try and get in position up there tomorrow night, if it’s not raining.

Well good for you, I’m glad somebody likes them. Whenever I’ve shouldered a rifle with them, the scope lined up with the middle of my forehead. I like a good cheek weld. That helps me get on target faster. I can’t remember too many situations, when getting a good shot off at a deer, didn’t come down to fractions of a second. This last one, that I killed a few weeks ago, was a rare exception, and see thru mounts would definitely have worked. I’d probably have to go back 30 or more before I could find another though. It’s definitely been a long time since I killed a deer with open sights. I screwed up on my last attempt by trying it while wearing progressive bifocals. I found out the hard way, that they don’t work any better with open sights than they do with scopes.

I can smile now, because the rain stopped, sun came out, and they were hitting on topwaters this afternoon. As Pygmy say’s, smallmouth on top waters is about as much fun as can be had with your clothes on:

The see thru mounts always put the scope up way too high. Check our the Warne removable mounts. They may do what you are looking for, based on AD’s post on top of P.2 on this thread.

It’s raining and no deer in sight but at least the Bills eeked one out last night.

Say hello to my little friend:

The rain picked up again so I had to put the top up:

I’m setup in my tree hammock chair, down in a stream bottom area in wmu 6f, this morning. The rain was light during my walk in, 15 min before sunrise (7:15), but it has let up now. I brought along my tree umbrella in case it picks up again. The roof is getting real bad on that long abandoned lean-to in the background, so that wouldn’t offer much rain protection. I’m planning on sticking it out here until about 11:00, then lunch back at my in-laws lake house. After that, we are heading into town for supplies. No signs of deer so far this morning, only squirrels. I’m amazed at how those little reds can break sticks.

In a way, I’m thankful for that “void” a little bit today. Had I been able to find a decent, new, mid-range scope, I probably would have put it on My Remlin 336BL, this past off-season. Instead, I’m sticking with the fiber-optic open sights that I put on it a few years ago. I got a bad hit on a buck late last season with that gun. My usual reaction to such a mishap, is to blame the equipment and spend money on new. If Leupold had not dumped the Redfield Revolution line, there would be one on it right now. Fortunately, I discovered the real root cause of that bad hit back on my range a few weeks ago. A few years prior, I discovered that wearing no-line progerssive bifocals adversely effects the vertical impact of bullets, when using a scope. The problem showed up and caused (2) clean missed on deer with my old 2-7 Redfield on my T/C Omega ML. I rectified that issue by getting several cheap pairs of straight prescription glasses to use while shooting and hunting with scopes. Using those same cheap glasses with the open sighted Remlin 336BL put the first shot at 50 yards 7” high. Two more shots and I had the rear sight dialed in, but I now know why I got a high back hit on that buck. Not only are progressive bifocals bad with scopes, but the same holds true for open sights. I verified the issue by switching back and forth between the bifocals and straight prescription glasses, using my adult stocked Daisy Red Ryder shooting cans on the back deck. From now on, it’s cheap , straight prescription glasses for me wether I’m shooting with scopes or open sights.

Early antlerless gun season at home in wmu 9F produced a button buck, on the first Sunday just before sunset, with my Marlin 512. On the second Sunday of that, I killed a mature doe over at my parents place, just after sunset, with my T/C Omega. Good thing our freezer is in decent shape early (also had about a deer and a half left in there vacuum-sealed from prior years), because the hunting has been tough so far, up north at my in-laws in wmu 6c & 6f. Two days into early ML week and no sign of any deer yet. I will be heading to the spot where I have had the most sightings up here over the last 10 years this morning. I’m not expecting much there either, because they usually don’t move in there until the snow comes. The weather has been colder than the last few years up here this week though, so maybe they will be in there early. Regardless of what I see in there today, I’m going to hit it again on my last hunt of this trip, next Sunday. We are supposed to get a winter mix of precipitation on that day. The smallmouth bass fishing was ok on Saturday afternoon at least, with (4) legal keepers (all released), from 12-16” going for my 1/8 oz bucktail jigs. It was too rainy to fish yesterday afternoon. Probably won’t try that again today because we are going into town for supplies. Ive already helped my father in law finish most of the tasks, to get the place ready for winter, so the rest of the week should be a nice relaxing break from work, unless a deer or two show up to add some excitement.

That ones not far from me either. I think I drove over it at least (3) times on the way up here. The rain just stopped up here now and it’s pretty nice out.

The rain stopped up here in wmu 6f, right on schedule, at sunrise. I’m in my spot now waiting on a deer.

I don’t care that you don’t care about me but I care about and am very thankful for you. Without you and a small group of like-minded others, I’d be eating a lot more store bought chicken, and I don’t like that too much. Now stop worrying about this and go get the big one. Im stuck here in a truck cab waiting for the rain to stop. At least I had time to cut me a muzzle cover. Hopefully, I can get a 5th deer out of that right hand neoprene glove:

Scientology logic or not, I’m just the thankful for my high blood pressure medication. It sounds like that will enable me to get out there chasing the big bucks with my crossbow on October 1 next year. My freezer is too full now to mess around with it yet this year, thanks to the early antlerless gun season that you anti/crossbow folks pushed the DEC into giving us back home (3) years ago. Thanks a lot for that by the way. There’s nothing like being able to legally light up the deer woods with gunfire in a September. Here’s to you, and best of luck to you for the rest of the seasons and stay safe up there in the trees:

Was it the Oswegatchie ? I’m not hunting too far from there this week, and I know of a few spots where I could see that happening. Bad as it was, that doe probably suffered much less than about any other way that she could have departed. The stream, where I’m at, is running high from all the rain the last few weeks. I think it flows into the Oswegatchie. Im just thankful that there’s not much more of that rain predicted for the rest of the week. It seems that the last few years up here this week, I’ve had to hunt from under my tree umbrella, more often than not. The dry weather was nice, but I couldn’t find any deer yesterday. Hopefully, I’ll see at least one today. I’ll be hunting closer to the steam. After reading your story, I’ll go for a shoulder blade shot, if I do see a mature doe or a buck with 3 or more points on a side, in range. If a deer flips into the stream here, it would most ikely get swept down thru a big culvert, into some posted land where I don’t have permission to hunt (not right now anyhow). I hope to catch up with the owner this week, and rectify that situation. He’s trying to make peace with my father-in-law, after a recent property dispute. My father in law hasn’t budged yet, but the neighbor did bake him a delicious apple/blueberry pie, so it seems that he’s at least willing to negotiate. I think if I told him how good that pie was, he’d grant me retrieval rights. As far as the shoulder blade shot and meat damage goes, it wasn’t bad at all, on a big fat doe that I shot a few weeks ago with my ML at home, during our early antlerless season. That shot was from 50 yards with a 240 gr xtp bullet and (2) 50 gr T7 pellets. The bullet caught the back lower corner of the inboard shoulder blade (she was slightly quartering to me), and dropped her there in her tracks. It didn’t hurt the back straps at all and I had to trim away only a few ounces of bloodied up meat around the wound. There were not any deer up on the ridges by the nut producing trees yesterday. Maybe they are all down by the stream. We shall see, in the next few hours, I guess. Good luck the rest of the season.

What type of broadhead were you using ? I had the same thing happen to me on the last deer that I killed with my vertical bow. That was a 4 pointer, back around 2012. It must have caught a glimpse of my draw, causing it to go on high alert. I drew as it passed thru the hedgerow that my stand was in. It stopped walking, quartering away, about 25 yards out. I aimed for the center of the last rib. Upon my release, it reared down and back, taking the arrow, with o-ring style mechanical broadhead, thru the center of the neck. It ran off with that arrow sticking out both sides. Probably hit the jugular. I heard it crash, about 50 yards away, and flopping around in the bushes for about 2 minutes. I still waited 1/2 hour before I walked over to where I heard the noises and gutted it. Even though I got to eat that deer, that experience soured me more than any other, on hunting with a vertical bow. The best thing that the crossbow has going for it, is the elimination of that draw motion with a deer in close, that so often cause a deer to go on high alert. How many “high back” or shoulder blade hits have we read about on this site alone over the years ? Unless one is willing to get way high up in a tree (the older I get the less I am into that), it’s very tough not to alert a deer by drawing a bow.

Sorry to hear about that Eddie. I know it’s tough, but try not to worry about it too much. The fact that we don’t get to eat all of them is not the end of the world, even though it might feel like it, at times like these. Lessons are learned the hard way and time will lesson the pain. That’s why it’s called hunting. The bad stuff makes the good stuff that much better and there’s way more good stuff than bad stuff.

I also like straight power scopes on certain short range guns. The two that I still have, definitely have more kills on them, than all of my other guns and scopes combined. I think that the cheap Simmons “22 magnum” scope on my Ruger 10/22 is 3x or 4x. That’s just perfect for squirrels. It’s also not bad at night with moonlight and snow. I’ve taken a few foxes and coyotes with it in those conditions. That thing has been horribly abused and has never given me a hint of trouble. Same goes for the old Weaver K1.5 on my grandad’s old Ithaca 16 ga featherlight model 37. Both of those guns are best used at under 75 yards range. That’s about the cutoff, beyond which I prefer the variables. I have connected on shots a bit over 100 yards with both of them though, including my largest antlered buck with the Ithaca/Weaver and my largest coyote with the Ruger/Simmons. The “larger targets” certainly helped in both cases. Ive also killed lots of crows at just over 100 yards, on my carcass/bait pile, with that Ruger 10/22 and it’s 3 or 4 power Simmons scope. That’s the distance, from my bedroom window, to the bait pile across the creek our back. I usually play the wind a little with the .22 at that range. I definitely would not want to be without the variables on my longer range weapons. The last, early gun season doe that I used one on just a few weeks ago, was a great example of why that is. My ML was up on the rail and my binoculars were hanging, when I heard her approaching hoof steps at sunset. I reached for the gun (scope was set to 2x) and quickly found her in view at about a 60 yard range. She was feeding her way closer, on a narrow strip of clover. I wanted to make damn sure that she was a mature doe and not another button buck as had been my prior twilight kill, a week prior. Easier said than done in the fading light. I’d have been screwed with my fixed 1.5x scope (that seems to Nashe then look smaller). A quick reach for the power knob, cranking the old Redfield up to 7, revealed every detail on her head. I now knew for sure that she was a mature doe, and I didn’t have to make a big move reaching for my binoculars, to do it.

Ive always been a Redfield fan. Too bad Leupold didn’t keep the Revolution line going. I’m glad I got my 2-7 before they unloaded it: Two kills for me already this year, with my 2-7 Redfields. The one on my T/C Omega is an old “low-pro”. I also have one of those in 3-9 on my Ruger M77 30/06.

That should have been long enough to get it past rigor mortis, unless it was more than 3-1/2 years old. At this point, I’d thaw it all out, chunk it up, and can it, using a pressure cooker. My buddy did that with an 8-1/2 year old moose a few years ago. It also was as tough as shoe leather, until he did that, which made it tender and delicious. I suspect that even the grind will be tough, if you go that route. I’ve been eating venison for 50 years and never had one that was tough, except for a few tenderloins that I ate too quick, from older deer. I did hear of a couple of friends having that trouble though. One was obviously a very old buck (6-1/2 plus), and the other was a 2-1/2 year old buck that survived 8 days after a bad bow shot. If vas very highly stressed carrying an arrow around for a week.

How many days did it hang after you killed it until you froze it ?

I’m definitely going for it next year, when I will be turning 60 (on Christmas Day). My right shoulder is not quite right and I have been on blood pressure meds for the last (3) years. I’ll go for the “permanent” one. If I knew for sure that the “early antlerless gun season” that they started (2) years ago would be permanent, I wouldn’t even bother with it. It’s all about the meat for me. Filling the freezer has been a walk in the park, since they started that. I guess I can Thank NYBH for that. Had they not successfully lobbied off “full inclusion” the last (3) years, we’d have never been able to light up the deer woods with gunfire in September.

I don’t pay much attention to my hunting clothes, other than having a “scentfactor” , light camo jacket, that I assume is supposed to create some type of scent barrier. I hang it out in my hunting room, when I’m not wearing it, with my other stuff. I don’t want to wash that one too much, because I think that might weaken the “scentfactor” containment system. I don’t remember ever washing it, and it’s maybe (5) years old. It never really gets dirty. I let my wife wash several different pairs of bibs, when they get dirty, in regular clothes detergent. I do spray those with Sawyers after every wash, (maybe 2x per year on average). I shower with scent free soap, every other day when I’m on hunting vacations, and I always try to play the wind. I apply Evercalm to my boots, prior to walking in to my blinds, and I open the stick and lay it down up there when I get into position. As far as playing the wind goes, one thing that has helped me greatly the last few years, is using a closed cab vehicle to get downwind of the deer prior to my walk in. That is more effective than an open atv or side by side (plus old cars and trucks that no longer pass state inspection are much cheaper than open atvs or side by sides). That trick works in all three of my hunting spots. At home, the town highway crew excavated the ditches and made nice wide, well-drained lanes to the far corner of our farm. If I get a NE wind, I can be on the SW corner in minutes with my old Durango 4x4, even after a heavy rain, and the deer have no clue what’s hitting them. Over at my parents place, I can drive my “on road” vehicle into the trailer park around the corner and walk in from the back side, from a dead end trailer park road that butts right up to their woods. I left my old 4x4 pickup truck up at my father in laws place, in the Adirondacks, when it would no longer pass state inspection. He uses it for plowing snow in the winter, and I use it to get downwind of the deer in the fall, on the old logging roads that he maintains year round up there. I also believe that there is no fooling a deer’s nose, and if you can’t get into position from downwind, you may as well stay in the house.