wolc123

Happy New Year Chris. Maybe a vacation down in the sunshine or a little vitamin D would make you feel a little better. You still have about 10 hours today to work on those buck tags, are you going to give it a shot ? I am pretty sure that you could even use them on does if you wish, in any southern zone DMU.

I have not seen a deer on a morning hunt, since opening day of gun season. Only one moving on its own, just after sunset, since then, and three that I bumped from standing corn or heavy cover in the mid afternoon. Mom and dad saw one come out into a clover plot, 1/2 hour before sunset yesterday, if it does that again tomorrow, that will be its last meal. That adds up to about 10 consecutive deerless morning sits. That won’t stop me from trying one last time tomorrow. I definitely have way more confidence in the afternoon though.

I had baked St Lawrence largemouth bass and wife and kids had Upper Niagara smallmouth. Was delicious as always.

I was hopeful about tonight, because it was the first time in my last (3) attempts, that I made it to my back corn plot without spooking any deer. There must still be plenty of corn there, because the doves were all over it, but no deer showed up. That’s it for me deer hunting at home this season. My wife just told me she doesn’t want to go to the new years party we had planed on attending tonight, because she’s afraid of catching Covid. We are staying home and watching a movie instead. That means I will be able to make the early and the late hunt over at my parents tomorrow. Two more shots at a Holiday ML deer.

I would have traded you equal weight in backstrap for that heart.

My buddy owns a service station on my way to work. I take all of our vehicles there for oil changes, after the free ones run out at the dealer. I also get brakes, tires, and inspections done there. He has always taken pretty good care of me. Since we run only Chevy’s and a Toyota, that is about all the work that our vehicles have needed. I only do my own oil changes on tractors and small engines at home. I used to run Mobil one in all of my vehicles, but the newer Chevy’s call for special GM synthetic. I have now changed all three of our Chevy’s over to that, which costs about half as much as the Mobil 1. I wasn’t sure if the Toyota be ok on that, so I keep spending the big bucks on the Mobil 1 for it.

Given the current supply issues with bh209, I would recommend going with pyrodex or t7 powder for the short term anyhow. Cleaning is no problem with those, using a foaming bore cleaner and a bore snake. T/C, CVA, Traditions and others all make good 50 cal in-lines. There are likely good deals to be had now, at the close of the season. Find a .50 cal that you and the kid like and work up a good load for it in the off season. I use a T/C omega, but I would probably go with something a little lighter (like a T/C encore) if I were shopping for one for a kid these days. There is barely any perceivable recoil from a ML, compared to a slug gun, so an average 12 year old could handle most of them and your scope should work fine.

It looks like it was about an hour and 15 minutes per a recent note that my wife must have added (see hand written recipe card on prior page). I have (3) deer hearts in the freezer now and will keep trying for another, until 20 minutes past sunset tomorrow. I also have a couple of beef tongues in the freezer that will go in the kettle.

I pulled the plug on the morning hunt at 11:00, with no deer seen. I think I will have much better odds of seeing one later this afternoon, back by the good corn.

That was just a brief passing shower. I put the snare drum back up and now it has just about stopped again. I was able to move the support up a few inches during the previous lull, so at least it’s not bumping my head anymore. The tree umbrella works pretty good in light winds, like we have today, but not so hot on windy days when the rain comes in sideways.

Maybe the nocturnal deer will come out early.

It stopped raining here, so I took the umbrella down, and still no deer.

I think I did finally manage to kill a deer from under my tree umbrella during the early ML season up north this year, but the rain had stopped by the time she offered up a shot. I will see if I can pop one from under the “snare drum” today. Good, steady rain falling right now. Keep you powder dry folks. Note the finger condom is in place.

Bass fishing to. Man I hope Heaven is like it is here in NY.

I got into my new front tree stand at home about 20 minutes before sunrise. Did not spook any deer on the short walk back . Plan is to stick it out here until 1:00, then go have a bowl of soup in the house. I don’t expect to see anything this morning as the closest corn plot is pretty well consumed but there is some decent winter wheat in shooting distance and this stand is very comfortable. I am more confident in the afternoon hunt here, when I will head to a centrally located stand that I have not used since the September early antlerless season. It is in range of a good corn plot and another field of winter wheat. I hope that I can get to it without spooking any deer, which happened on my last two attempts to hunt that area.

Add that to the fact that our current whitetail population is at or near an all time high, and it gets very clear why it is important for us to at least make an attempt to fill our tags. I am very glad I was born in NY, where tag filling is getting easier every year. It must suck for those folks in the states with growing hunter numbers and dwindling game populations. I feel sorry for the poor bastards.

If it is a half ton, then it’s probably the 5.3 liter. I am brand blind, and I think most anyone would be, if they were in my shoes. I bought my first new GM truck, because my dad worked there, so I got the employee discount. That was a 1988. I drove a used 1979 prior to that, which had been a “company truck”. There were a few more in between those, and the two 2000’s that we have now. I have used vehicle types other than pickups, as my daily drivers since about 2005, so I haven’t been able to wear those last two out. I never looked at another brand, since none of the GM’s gave me any serious trouble, and any other brand would have cost me more money. Some of my friends have Fords , and I don’t have any problems with them. I don’t have any experience with Dodge/Ram, other than the chassis on a motor home that my parents had with a 44O cu inch engine. It always made that characteristic Chysler “not today not today not today” sound when the starter was cranking. We listened to that quite a bit one night at a local ice cream shop, when the ballast resistor failed, and dad had to get his GMC pickup and tow it home. Fortunately, it always worked good on long trips.

I did not see any deer from the trailer park stand tonight, but my parents saw one come out at 4:30, into the clover plot that I had hunted over until 1:30. They couldn’t see any antlers but they said that it looked pretty big. I am thinking it was forky and not the bb. I wouldn’t have shot him yet anyhow, unless he had already dropped his little salad forks. I used my last vacation day today. If my buck tag makes it thru tomorrow’s paid hunting holiday at home, then it will be game on for forky, New Year’s Day afternoon, back over at my parents place. They want me to come back over and cut up a tree that is partially blocking a trail, so I will take care of that first. I will probably skip the early morning hunt on New Year’s Day, and do some late morning chainsaw work over there instead.

You are quite clueless. The only trucks that I ever bought were GMC and Chevy. I alternated between those for a few years. My first was a 1979 and the last 2 (still have) are 2000’s. None gave me a reason to even consider . another make. All but the last 2 had the 5.7 motor, which was good but I’ll take the 6.0’s I run now over those any day of the week and twice in Sunday’s. I have yet to be stranded somewhere by my pickups.

Nothing all morning. Late lunch with parents and up in trailer park stand with crossbow for the evening shift. New seat I made the other day fits good anyhow. Crossbow makes a good tape measure for straight measurements but won’t work for chest girth.

$ 30 to Amazon for a new # 12 blade and 3/16” screen was a good investment for me this year also. The old ones, that I had in it the last 20 years, plugged a few times last year but no troubles this year. Now if only I could get another to pass thru it.

I am going to try and stick it out, until about 1:30, so that I can at least say that I gave the “deerless” 10-2 period an honest attempt. Not even a squirrel has stirred since 9:57. I would have gone “deerless” last year without this grunt call. I had to “settle” for a 2.5 year old. I think the older ones are too educated for those.

I thought they were way overpriced when they first came out. I think I jumped in when the cost dropped to less than $ 5.

There is hope for all of them though.

I struggled a bit with mine, the first year I had it. Proper cleaning is very important, after every use. Fouling, from prior deer, prevents proper function on subsequent ones. Proper turning until engagement is also important. It gets easier to use, after you develop the “feel”. It also makes a good drag rope handle, after you clean the deer poop off of it, or to drag an un-gutted deer to a clearing before the regular “intended” usage.