wolc123

They are trophy hunters and that’s what they do. I am thankful that God made me a meat hunter and I can’t think of any state that treats my kind better than NY. My advice to the complainers would be : pack your bags and move, if you don’t love it leave it.

I get about a year out of the big (54) pack of Hot hands. I usually use just one in my muff. It has a separate, inner pocket, that holds one. They last 10 hours. I usually add a second, fresh one to the muff on real cold days at lunch time, if I am doing an afternoon hunt. I am getting low on them now, and just picked up 10 of another brand at Runnings. Most of the Hot hands brand that I have used so far this year were purchased mid-winter last year, and they have still been lasting 10 hours.

I’d go with the rubber mats.

I see them as mostly nocturnal year round, but much more so after gun season opens in the southern zone. This is due to hunting pressure, gunshots, and most of the breeding having been concluded. There is always exceptions, but a quick look at the gun harvest thread's dates and numbers on this site, proves this to be true each season. There is always a significant uptick in daylight activity, for a two-week period centered on Veteran's day, corresponding to the rut. That ends right around opening day of gun, a double whammy that almost stops all daylight activity, unless the deer are pushed from cover. The extra half hour, before and after sunrise/sunset, probably resulted in a significant increase in gun harvest this year. I know that it enabled my only gun season kill after opening day in several years. Fewer daylight hours, fewer hunters, and the need to feed before winter, will soon cause another uptick in daylight activity, but it sure as hell hasn't happened yet. The only deer that I saw all weekend was holed up in the standing corn and didn't bolt out until I got within 30 yards. I am expecting good daylight movement during the Holiday ML season next week. The week off should do a world of good as far as getting them deer out in the daylight again. I still have (4) tags to fill, hungry folks to feed, plenty of powder, bullets, and primers, multiple paid days off of work in that stretch, and I can't wait for it. This is the best thing to come along since the early antlerless season and the hour of night-time hunting.

I don’t use much roundup, and hopefully I can stretch my current supply of that until things get back under control. I can also stretch the nitrogen pretty far, by growing all of my corn on old clover ground. I will probably skip the brassicas next year, because the deer haven’t touched then much this year and it takes a lot of nitrogen to make decent yields.

The cold wind forced me out of my $20 goosifer double ladder stand back in the woods after 2 hours. I’d have only made an hour without the quart of hot cider that I drank back there. Now I am up in my new, front barnwood wrapped blind where at least I have a little wind protection. The field am looking over, for the last hour, is the same one that I filled my only late ML tag on(from that big white heated blind in the background) about 10 years ago.

In stand at 1:56. Just as I suspected, no deer action whatsoever in the 10-2 time frame.

The only tag tag that I remember filling, during the late ML season, was a button buck that i shot out of my bedroom window. There was 5 minutes of legal daylight left on the last day of the season. I had worked 8 hours, rushed home, and did not have time to change into my hunting clothes. That one tasted as good or better than any that I killed deep in the woods. I am trying to muster up the gumption to get out there right now. I saw a big deer way out back yesterday, around 3:00 pm, but couldn’t tell if it was a buck or a doe. I have a stand over in the area it ran to, with pretty good protection from the north east wind, so that’s where I will go. It will need to have no antlers, or more than 3 points on a side, to get a shot out of me.

Our two girls were born just 10 months apart. The years have really flown by and I remember those days fondly, even though our oldest is now in college (home now for Christmas/New Years) and our youngest is in her last year of high school. They still get super excited about Christmas, and this remains their favorite time of the year. It didn't take much snow and freezing rain yesterday, for me to pull the plug on a planned late ML season overnight trip to my buddy's souther tier hunting camp, just so that I could stay home and be a bigger part of that excitement. There may be a lot more deer down there, and the odds of punching my ML tag would be better if I had gone, but it would not be worth the time I would have lost with the family. I went deer hunting with my ML for a few hours behind our house yesterday, and at least I got to see a deer back there, for the first time since the early September antlerless gun season. I could not tell if it was a buck or a doe, but it looked big. Maybe we will meet up again, during the new Holiday ML season after Christmas, when I will have 5 days off work and a lot more "free" time. Family time has consumed more than the usual amount of my hunting time this year, due to our youngest daughter's high school field hockey team's playoff run to the state championship downstate. Our oldest daughter goes to college down there, so that brought us all together, for a few days in November. Things always seem to balance out, and even though I lost most of my hunting time during the southern zone two week crossbow season (I have not had the time to maintain proficiency with a vertical bow since our kids were born), the new Holiday ML season will still give me a crack at punching that tag. I am very thankful that my wife and our girls love venison. Our meat situation is good right now, because sharing some time with my parents has yielded a button buck (my wife's favorite kind), during the early antlerless season, and a fine mature 9-pointer during gun season. Sharing some time with my wife's parents up north tacked on a mature doe during the early ML season. Another deer or two, during the late and Holiday ML season, would be the icing on the cake. I will keep trying, because I would like to share some more meat with extended family members, who could really use it. I cant help but notice how all three of the deer, that I have killed so far this year, have involved giving up some of my time to do something for others.

That’s why I never take mine out unless I need to.

Smidge above zero interest in deer hunting myself right now. Not much room left in our freezers, but I have a cousin that could use one. I saw nothing in three hours, starting 1/2 hour before sunrise this morning. I took a long lunch break and watched a movie with my wife, and ate cold pizza left overs from last night’s Christmas party with her brother and sister and their families. I had planned on heading south ,to my buddies camp this afternoon but the snow, freezing rain, and lack of a 4wd vehicle stopped that. I hadn’t even seen a deer while hunting at our place, since the early antlerless gun season in September, until 5 minutes ago. I walked to my truck cap blind in the far sw corner, where I have a 1.5 acre corn plot and a little patch of turnip radish mix. A single, large-bodied deer kicked out of the back of the corn, about 30 yards from me. I couldn’t make out the head. I am thinking it may have been a 2.5 year 8 point I saw back here in September. I would shoot him now if I could clearly identify him, and the same goes for any antlerless deer (still have 3 dmp tags and my bow/ml either/or). If it was the little spike or 4 point that I saw back here in September, they will get a pass. it’s not too bad in the truck cap right now, but I think I will close the back door, to block off the cold ne wind, which will make it a little better.

I sort of agree with that, and I never order them when we go out. I do order prime rib on occasion, but usually lamb chops, if available. I only eat fillets if there is no other main course selections but chicken (like at that wedding in the Falls). I also get “partials” on occasion when the center section is not done enough for my wife. She is considerably younger than me, and still has her teeth. She often goes for fillet mignon when I take her out. I am not much of a steak eater, and I never make them from deer. I chunk up the back straps and my wife slices them thin for hoagies or stir fry. I make a few roasts (the necks are my favorite), but most of the deer goes to grind. Like crappy, most of my favorite dishes are made with that, and all without any pork added. My brother in law raises beef cattle and serves up some decent T-bones on our annual family summer vacation up to their cottage on the St Lawrence. Once a year is about all I can handle of those.

I never had quail but love ruffed grouse. Are they similar tasting ? We also go thru lots of ground venison and my wife had been “spoiled” by it. She gets grossed out by ground beef due to all the fat that comes out of it when cooked. I do spend a ton of time trimming the fat out of venison, before I grind it, especially with does. I will butcher and grind another buck if I get one yet before Jan 2, but any doe will be given away for that reason. I would like to get some more use out of the new $ 30 grinder knife and 3/16 screen that I sprung for this year. It sure worked great on the 70 or so pounds of lean meat that I put thru it from that last buck.

Ok, I guess I will change “free”to “didn’t have to pay money for”. I see meat as a gift from God and a cost-free by-product of my personal entertainment. Most folks pay for entertainment, myself included. For most, that don’t come with the meat that you don’t have to pay for. That is why you will seldom find me out on a golf course, but quite often out in the woods or on the waters.

A wet heavy snow started and forced me into the lower level of my two story blind. A dead ash fell next to it during last Saturday’s wind storm and that is obstructing the view from upstairs. It broke up high and the top is supported by a nearby white oak so it does not block my view from down here. I was planning on driving down to my buddies southern tier camp around noon, but lacking a 4wd vehicle, I think I will pull the plug on that. I heard something moving around in the adjacent heavy cover, just before the snow started. It may have been a deer, but more likely turkey(s). That’s all I saw on my last hunt here a couple weeks ago.

I went out back at home for the first time since last Saturday’s 70 mph wind storm this morning. Walking down the lane, it looked like a dead ash had fallen on my favorite 2 level deer blind. When I got to it, I saw it was a near miss, by about 10 feet, but I did loose a piece of barn wood off the south wall of the upper deck. It looks like I got some work to do with the chainsaw after the ground freezes up. For now, I will use it as some added cover. To make up for the missing board, thru the Holiday ML season.

We were at a wedding a short time ago at what might be the fanciest hotel/night club in Niagara falls, where beef fillet mignon was served as part of the main course. There were some real steak lovers there who raved about how good the meat was. Each guest was served a decent sized fillet and some sort of fancy chicken breast, which I traded to my wife for her fillet. It wasn't cooked enough for her, but just right for me. I have always been able to put away good steak/prime rib in quantity. I ended up with 5 or 6 of those fillets at that wedding, including others received from friends who claimed they were not quite done enough for them. Everyone was pretty full, by the time the main course arrived, because there had been lots of appetizers served. We had arrived late, so for our appetizers, we had to settle for a big plate of bacon-wrapped scallops, that my wife had snagged from a waiter on his way to the dumpster. She has always loved those. While I did think the beef fillet was was very good at that wedding, and on par with that I have had on occassion at Russell's in Depew, none of those tasted as good to me as that from the 3.5 year old (est.), corn-fed 9 pointer that I had a few weeks later. A lot goes into making deer fillets good, starting with what the deer has fed on. A quick heart or double lung kill is helpful, as is a fast blood rinse of the fillets, during the gutting process. Getting the guts out fast helps a lot also. I cant imagine how the fillets must taste when folks have backed out overnight and it is no wonder that there is not more love expressed here by some folks for tenderloins. They should be removed from the deer asap, wiped off with clean paper towels, and be placed in a zip lock bag in a fridge for at least 5 days. I ate those pictured in that frying pan, after 6 days in the fridge, and that buck's stomach had been filled with corn. I cook them rare, in an iron frying pan with olive oil, and no added seasoning. The fact that I killed that deer has nothing to do with the fact that my taste buds react more favorably to it than any beef that I have had anywhere, nor does the fact that it was "free". All of the best things in life are free because we all have a Good Father who loves to provide for His children. I am also no fan of turkey or any white meat besides ruffed grouse. I never killed a wild tom turkey in the spring, but I have tried some that friends gave me, and found it worse tasting than store bought and farm raised. The young wild fall hen that I killed a couple years ago was still not good but at least equal to the butterballs.

I will take deer meat over beef every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Most folks have no clue how to handle a deer carcass, so I guess it makes sense that they prefer beef, which has been handled by professionals.

2021 was a memorable year for sure. No January memories stood out (hopefully next year will with a Holiday ML hunt.). Started my fishing season with a mess of smallmouth bass and single perch thru the Adirondack ice in February. There was a day in March, when I saw the sun rise over the Atlantic and set over the Pacific. That was pretty cool and took some of the pain out of having to travel cross country for work by air during all the COVID BS. Catching a few a pacific bay bass off the dock near my hotel made that trip even more tolerable, as did the fish tacos and the best cheeseburgers in the world. No hunting or fishing in April, but enjoyed the best Holiday (Easter) at home with the family. Can’t remember any fishing in May, but tried for turkeys a few time with none heard or seen. Bass season kicked off with a little disappointment, due to the closing of Buffalo small boat harbor for the air show on opening day. Did ok on the upper Niagara that day with the first of a fair number of limit catches of smallmouth in 21. Also broke the 20” mark with one on my last trip out there this year. Summer trips to the Thousand islands and Adirondacks provided plenty more largemouth and smallmouth bass but no walleyes or Muskies landed this year. September yielded a prized button buck, during the early antlerless season, and October the mature Adirondack doe that has eluded me for years, during early ML season. I missed most of crossbow season, due to our daughters playoff run in field hockey, but got to fish the Hudson in chefs spot(no luck) and meet cdbing in LI. No luck on opening day of gun, but popped a big buck (by my standards) the day after Thanksgiving. Depending on how I make out this weekend and during the upcoming Holiday ML season 2021 could go down as my best deer season. God has blessed me way beyond what I deserve this year and for that I am very grateful. Keeping Him up there in that top spot has panned out good.

Sounds like some of you folks need to brush up on your hunting, fishing, and meat preparation skills a bit, so that you are not so reliant on those scoundrels for your protein. If one accepts the fact that venison is red meat, which is subject to rigor mortis, then it is not too much trouble to age it to perfection and get taste and texture that can rival or exceed that of that fatty Japanese beef. This right here would be about the finest tasting fillet mignon that I have sampled, and that includes that from a fair amount of beef at some fancy joints:

If you are looking for the relatively stress-free acquisition of all the chicken you need, then I would go about it exactly the same way. I would probably be more into eating chicken myself, if I hadn’t been fed so much of it as a youth. We raised meat chickens back then. I even had the champion bird, at our county fair, in 1974. Being the oldest sibling, I always got to help, when my dad butchered. One time one flopped out of the old tin garbage can and into the creek, after he lopped off its head with a hatchet. I had to swim out and retrieve it. After they stopped flopping, he would dip them in a kettle of boiling water, then hand them to me to pluck. To this day, I won’t order chicken, when we go out to eat. Our kids might end up feeling the same way about venison and fish after they move out. Right now, they still seem to like it pretty good.

It is not really that difficult to kill deer from ground level or certainly a lot closer to the ground than many folks seem to prefer.

In that particular woods, I have never seen a turkey or a group of turkeys that were not accompanied by at least one deer. When I saw the turkeys in close that time, I immediately started to look for a deer. The buck showed up just seconds after the birds. I am not worried about Russia and China or an apocalypse anytime soon, because it is written that no one knows the time or the place. Those who have been making predictions, since biblical times until these days, are just false prophets. It could happen before I finish typing this, or in 100000 or more years. Time has no meaning to God. As long as you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior, then He will bear the full burden of all of your sins, and you have absolutely nothing to fear. There may be other ways into Heaven, but none that I am aware of. Now if He would bless me with just one more button buck, before Jan 2, 2022, I would be a real happy camper this winter , and my wife even more so.

I have used those Hornady Sst’s in my slug gun for quite a while and have noted the same thing. I like where they and that they don’t wreck much meat. I don’t like that they don’t leave a good blood trail. The final straw on them for me was when I found a chunk of lead in some stew meat from the 60 pound DRT button buck that i shot from 40 yards. When and if the ammo situation normalizes, I am going with Remington or other 12 gauge copper sabots and cutting back my maximum range as needed. I am stuck in a shotgun only zone so rifle is not an option.

I think you can still buy a Daisy Red Ryder for less than $ 40, and 5000 bbs can be had for $ 5. Remove the child-sized stock that comes with it and use it as a pattern to cut a replacement out of plywood that matches your deer gun’s pull length. Practice as much as you can (I like cutting beer cans in half with the bb’s as they are suspended from a tree branch with a wire on the tab). This is a cheap, easy, quiet way to get rid of that flinch habit, and get some practice at moving targets. (The can swings in the wind or from prior bb impacts).