wolc123

Those two corn plots (about 4 acres total) did not directly add any meat to our freezer last year, but they contributed indirectly. They did that by taking some of my hunting pressure off of my parents place. I was very surprised to see that there was still a little corn left, on the smaller plot, when I was back there two weeks ago. I hunted 5 of the 7 days of the last Holiday ML season, and I saw more deer then, than I did thru all the rest of gun season, after opening day. 3 of the 4 deer that I saw, on those 5 Holiday hunting days, were in and around that small corn plot. I took (3) deer (all bucks, two antlerless, one antlered) from my parents farm, one doe up at my in-laws in the Adirondacks, and none at our place during all of the 21/22 season. By the looks of all the tracks in the snow, the deer population is pretty good back by those corn plots right now. They are really hitting the adjacent winter wheat hard, and digging up turnips, that I also planted nearby. Hopefully, I can keep them around until September, when early antlerless gun season opens up.

It’s also pretty when them little white flowers come out before going to seed and I can see why the bees like it. The German name makes sense and brings back some memories of stories my grandfather would tell. His great grandfather came over here from there, and homesteaded our farm prior to the Civil war. When he talked about buckwheat, grandpa would always say: plant in June and harvest “in October drunk or sober”. I am definitely picking up a bag when I buy my fertilizer this spring, if just for an excuse to enjoy a little more Genny.

Sounds like you did real well with finding an existing house. I can't imagine trying to do a new build now, with the hyper-inflation that we are seeing. I couldn't believe the cost of building materials at Home Depot last week, when I picked up some electrical stuff, to finish up the wiring of my pole barn. You also saved the headaches involved in trying to find workers who are willing to work construction. I have never seen it as bad as it is right now for that. One things for sure, corners are going to be cut, to get the jobs done. You were very fortunate to find a house built back when the economy was sound, even if the layout might not be exactly as you would have preferred.

I usually broadcast plain old winter wheat into tilled ground, after September 1, cultipack, broadcast clover, then cultipack again. The clover always looks great the next year on those plots. The winter wheat is also a good draw the first fall. By the looks of my plots right now, that wheat seems to have also been the preferred forage of the deer over the last two winter months or so. I would try your buckwheat trick, but I am afraid my deer might starve the first winter after that. I had 1.5 and 2.5 acre corn plots last year, and that is where I am putting in white clover this year. I will brush-hog them in the spring, when it gets dry enough (there was still a little corn left on the smaller plot last week but its nearly all eaten up now). The deer have been hitting the adjacent wheat plots really hard, the corn yield was exceptional on the smaller plot, and I trapped out most of the coons, so the corn has lasted way longer than normal. After I chop those old corn stalks in the spring, I will disk up those two plots, then control weeds with a drag after every rain. I am going to try a slight variation this year, on those two plots. Half of each will be the same as last year (wheat and clover planted after September 1). The other half will be oats and clover (planted the same way I do the wheat later), but planted in mid-August. I am doing that for one reason - early antlerless gun season. Oats are preferred by deer significantly more than wheat in the fall. The early antlerless gun season seemed to be a huge success here in wmu 9f last September, so I assume they will do it again this year. I am only doing half of my plots that way, so I will have a good comparison of August planted vs September planted clover the next year, and the deer will still have that wheat for a winter food source. Maybe, I will try your buckwheat trick on the center part of the larger plot, where the soil is not as good. That was an old creek bed that the county re-routed about 50 years ago and nothing ever grows very well there. That way, I can compare the clover grown with wheat, oats, and "rolled" buckwheat, the following year. As long as I can keep my cost of boneless (except for neck roasts) venison down around a buck a pound, after subtracting all input costs, I will be happy. The buckwheat should help with that because fuel is looking like it will be mighty expensive this year and that will save me lots of that by eliminating the need for tillage over the summer. I like to keep my venison as "organic" as possible by minimizing herbicide usage. The only place I use gly, is directly on the corn rows, applied as I cultivate. I get about 3 years out of 2.5 gallons of gly, and that saves me big bucks in fertilizer and fuel, both of which will be astronomically priced this year, from what I hear.

Awesome looking home, congrats. Is that third garage bay on the right going to be the butcher shop ?

Look on the bright side - mid term elections.

All of mine are less than 9 ft up now, and all but one have safety rails. It’s about time to remove and reattach my last little 8 ft high, “rail-less” hang-on, that I only use on opening day of gun season. If I leave them on a tree for too many years, they grow into them. I think I will drop that one down to 6 ft, trim some shooting lanes around it, and add a safety rail. I was very reluctant to change anything on it, after scoring from it on three consecutive opening days of gun season. There was no shot for me from it last year. I saw 5 deer that morning, well in range, but I could not get a clear sho at any of them. Lower is safer, with or without a safety harness or rail. The accidents seems to happen, more often than not, on the climb and descent. I lost a neighbor last year, who fell and split his skull, while working on his 12 ft high stand. He might still be with us, if that had been a 6 footer.

Proving whose stand it was would be tough, but if it’s on your land then it don’t matter, and it should just be a matter of calling up the tax map on your smart phone, and showing the officer your photo id. Not sure what you could do on a lease or on public. All of my stands are on my land, or that of my parents. If it was one of the ones on their place, I think law enforcement would believe me, since my last name is the same.

Smart move. You couldn’t pay me to hunt mule deer again, because those I ate tasted bad compared to whitetails, and it is ALL about the meat for me. I have never tried blacktail, but I have heard that they are at least as good or better than whitetail. I have not hunted there, but work has taken me to Northern Oregon, and Southern Washington blacktail country a few times. It is a scenic area and the closest I have seen to NY’s Adirondacks, in the lower 48. Way better than the high desert Colorado Rockies. The Timberline lodge up on Mt Hood was cool, but that’s a ski joint, and I don’t know if you can hunt from there.

I agree, because the combination of skull size, body size, and antler size works well to determine age up to 3.5. Sometimes you got to use all three. An example of that would be that third from the top buck in the op. I initially called him a 2.5 in the 2019 crossbow harvest thread, based mostly on body size, because his body was significantly smaller that the 3.5’s I had taken in the two prior years. By the time I finished skinning and power-washing his skull, it was too late to edit and correct his age on that post. His skull was the same size as those other two 3.5’s, and his antlers were larger, so 2 out of 3 of those shitty aging tools said he was at least 3.5. What is the cost of aging a single buck from deerage.com and how long is the usual wait ? If it’s more than $ 5, and 2 weeks, then I see a lucrative opportunity for the inventor of a skull-thickness aging caliper, for aging bucks over 3.5. I don’t know that I have ever killed one older than that, but I’d be willing to spend $ 6 to find out, and not a penny more.

He’d have likely filled you with lead before you got too deep with your cut don’t you think ? A chainsaw is no match for a repeating rifle. Thats why such matters are best left to law enforcement (police or DEC). In such a situation, I would simply call 911, report an armed and belligerent intruder on my property, and let them sort it out. That’s what some of our tax money goes to support. Most perpetrators will run off when they hear you make that call. Some are dumb enough to hold tight, and be taken away in cuffs. Either way, it becomes somebody else’s problem at that point and you can get back to hunting. Taking the law into your own hands is just plain dumb.

QuitUrBitchen

No Genny down there ? Are you missing it and all this pretty white stuff ?

Congrats, that is a great school on a very scenic spot on the Hudson. We stopped by to check it out with our youngest daughter, on the way home from dropping our oldest daughter off, at a downstate college last fall. They have some women’s sports teams, but unfortunately not field hockey, and that is what she excels at.

I planted it a few times, mostly as a cover crop on ground that was tilled up in the spring, to control weeds over the summer. It does not tolerate frost, so it should not be planted before June 1. Basically, it was a waste of time on my mostly level, low-lying, rich, dark soil. On hilly, marginal soil, it works good for building up organic matter, while controlling erosion. On my flat land, I prefer to control the weeds by working them over every few weeks with a drag. I get better fall-planted clover/wheat plots, when I do that over the summer, compared to when I work in early June planted buckwheat. That is because the buckwheat usually re-sprouts and partially shades the wheat and clover, until the frost finally kills it off. Working the ground multiple times, thru the summer, would not be good on hills and where the soil is poor, because erosion would increase from the extra cultivation and make the soil even worse. That is where buckwheat would be worth a try, especially if you want to keep your venison "organic" (no herbicides). Buckwheat is a good natural weed stopper. Buckwheat will usually be killed off by frost by October 1, opening of bow season, so I have no use for it on flat land. I think the main reason folks like to try it is because it has "buck" in its name. Unless you have hilly, poor soil, I see no good use for it in a foodplot.

That’s just about exactly what I’d do. I get to enjoy lots of that almost free right now, so no real need for the lottery win. (my brother and sister’s have a place in the Thousand Islands and in-laws in that Adirondack border region). I haven’t been anywhere, in the lower 48, with better scenery than those two places. I’d also keep my place in wny, because the fish out here are healthier to eat, and the whitetails are more plentiful.

There is a lot more that sucks about snow blowers. The biggest problem I have with them is that they only work well on light, fluffy snow. Then you got those damn shear pins. My favorite combo, for clearing snow from our driveways, is a 4wd tractor with loaded, unchained R-1 tires, front loader and rear (backward facing) plow. I love clearing and moving snow with that rig. I have plenty of room for stacking snow. a few times, I made sledding hills for the kids in the front yard, when the snow piles got too big at the end of the driveways. I’d certainly go with the atv plow in Biz’s case. .

Wow, not a single vote for the .243 in that contest, in areas where bears may be encountered. We don’t see such unanimous opinions around here too often.

How about something more useful, and pivotal the killing of a decent buck last year (a two buck year for me) ? I lost a glove on a successful New Year’s Day hunt this year. The one I have left is of no use to me now, as I will need to shop for a new pair, before the fall season. If you would like it, pm me your mailing address, and I will send it your way. It is a light camo glove with white rubberized striped palm-grip lining. I loved those gloves, when there was a dusting of snow, because they helped break up my outline, just like snow camo. They may have contributed to the kill of that busted up 3.5 year old (est) 9-point (originally an 11-point), last year. He stood still as I used one of those gloves to clear the snow out of my scope. There was a light dusting of snow that afternoon.

Maybe so, if you are ok with being a vegan. I try hard to give the credit for ALL of my hunting success, to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It says in the Bible, that He has the final say of where ALL living things end up. I am always very thankful, when that ends up being “Deer Heaven” (my family’s food supply). Enjoy your green beans, lettuce and carrots partner.

That is interesting, and indicates that most of the skull size (not thickness) growth might happen by 3.5. A combination of three crappy aging methods (antler size, body size, and skull size) might work ok up to 3.5. After that, a skull-thickness caliper, that would fit into the eye socket of a euro, might make a good aging tool.

There is one thing posted signs are effective at: attracting poachers. Most of them interpret “posted” as “good hunting”.

Scull skull size is far from perfect, but a tad better than antler size or body size as an age indicator, wouldn’t you agree ? CA might be the best, if you are willing to pay and wait.

There seems to be more variation in antler size and body size, within an age class, than there is with skull size. At least that seems to be the case ,up to 3.5 years of age, for a whitetail buck. Aging deer is certainly no cake walk and it’s easy to understand why there is so much disagreement on methods. They don’t even know for sure how old Milo Hanson’s world record typical was. Most sources say 3.5 but a few say 4.5.

182 dressed weight seems right about on the average for a 3.5 based on my limited experience, so the DEC probably had it right. I have plenty of light, red-eye, spring-bock, and 12 horse in stock now (all in cans) so hydration shouldn’t be an issue if you stop by, and you are welcome anytime.