wolc123

Not sure what you mean about “proven wrong multiple times”. Isn’t g-man out there maybe proving me right currently ? Is the recoil of 7mm-08 too much for you ?

It is good to see that you have enough sense not to hunt deer with a .243 if you don’t have a valid reason to. Mowin must be recoil sensitive.

Ours went out at 4:06 pm. Wife called power company and they said 1000 are out in the area. I see a line down along the road in front of our house. I am going to wait until 6:00 to start the generator. One cord to the sump pump, one to the freezer and one to the house for a light. We have a wood stove for heat and enough gas for a week or so if needed.

These .243 guys seem to be more than just a little “recoil” sensitive. Hopefully g-man finds that doe and the fish in his pond get by for the winter on the structure they already have.

The concern here is more on recovery percentage, which may be better with a 30/30, compared to a .243, when the bullets hit in about the same spot. Much of that is due to the size of the hole, fat/gut plugging etc. . As far as the math and logic goes, all you need to know is that the area of the hole is proportional to the diameter squared, and the bigger the hole area, the harder it is to plug.

It varies according to the shape of the rack. This one was pretty easy to hold in place with one of my rubber boots. Quite often, I use an old wood pallet or something to hold them in place. The ones with smaller and non-symmetric racks are the toughest. This was the easiest and quickest that I have done in a few years. It took about 20 minutes and just over a half gallon of gas. My tank holds a half gallon.

30/30 ?

When I thought there was a chance one of my smaller framed daughters might take up hunting deer, a few years ago, I had narrowed the rifle selection down to a 30/30 or a .243. Neither one took it up, so I am sure glad I went with the 30/30. I probably would have gone with the .243, had my neighbor not blessed me with a buck he shot up bad with one, just as I was trying to decide. The 30/30 lever also looked way cooler than a black plastic .243 bolt I was considering. How has your recovery percentage been with the 30/30’s compared to .243’s ? The 30/30 has really seemed to stand the test of time as a short range deer gun. The .243 was ok when it was the only game in town for a light- recoiling, longer range round, but seems to be eclipsed now by rounds like the 7mm/08, 6.5 Creedmore, etc. . They still kill deer, and even moose and elk if you hit them in the right spot, and so will a .22 short rimfire. That spot is mighty small, compared to what you can get away with using a 30/30, and most other popular deer rounds. If I was out there in this wind looking for a doe right now, that someone tapped with a .243 and couldn’t find it, I’d be tempted to throw it into the pond for fish structure.

Call it what you want, but there are at least two of us here, who don’t rank the .243 very high as a deer round. It might be marginally ok for women, children, and the recoil sensitive, so long as they stick to broadside, behind the shoulder shots.

Too bad she didn’t use a .44 magnum or a 30/30.

The weather was good to finish the euro on my 3 X 6 gun buck today. I messed up the DEC report with this one last week, because I didn’t notice the little 1-1/8” sticker on the right side base. I called him in as a 3 X 5. It was dark and I didn’t have my bifocals. Not sure if that excuse would hold up in court, but that’s what I am going with, if the site-monitoring DEC stop by today. Had I taken him during crossbow season, before he broke two off on the left, I’d have been forced into a shoulder mount. He would have been my first and only 11 pointer. By pure coincidence, the shoulder mounts that I did spring for have 6,7,8,9,10, and 12 points. The 12 was a road kill, so this “one time” 11 would have completed the “straight”, He also would have had the most points on a buck that I killed while hunting. I am sure that my wife is happier with the $ 4.99 in ethanol-free gas, that this one cost me, than she would have been with a $ 500 - 800 taxidermy bill. She was not overly thrilled, walking out to her van this morning, before I had time to blow off the mess.

A whole Deere and part of a deer were out at our place this morning:

I think you are nuts to rule out Chevy. I have been running this 20 equinox over two years without a lick of trouble. My folks have about 5 years on theirs, also with no problems. My fwd gets 32 mpg around town, and their awd might get a hair less. That’s my 00 Chevy Silverado 4x4 in the background. It has also been a great truck. I gave it to my father in law, for snow plowing. I only get to use it now, when I go hunting up at their Adirondack retirement home. It beats the hell out of an atv, for getting downwind of deer on the logging roads. I also used it to haul my early ML doe to the butcher up there this year. I can’t imagine a Ford, or foreign job lasting 21 years, doing the kind of work that thing has. The a/c in it even works good still (it was about 80 degrees on the day I hauled the doe to the butcher where they had a big walk in cooler).

I wonder if left field, versitile hunter, bowman Mike, chef , and gobbler chaser think this dude got the shaft ? will cnn or msnbc cover the story at all ?

It is all about the meat for me. If I can’t get them at 1/2 year, when the meat is of the highest quality, then I would prefer a 3.5 year old when meat is usually at the highest quantity, in a free-range deer. After that, both quantity and quality drop off. There is no appreciable difference in quality (taste) between 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 year old deer. I think lots of folks like to target older deer, because they are more of a challenge.

I haven’t had the time and weather yet to power wash my euro. Saturday looks good, it is supposed to get near 60. I will save the lower jaw. No plans on sending in a tooth, because I am 97 % sure he was 3.5. :

If your goal is to hold 3.5 year plus bucks, then I would suggest a few changes. I think your problem is that your property is basically being controlled by older does. They will always dominate the choicest ground and with oaks apples, corn and hay, that sounds pretty “choice” I would start by cutting out the apples and asking the farmer to cut the corn earlier for silage. The old dominant does will then move out to be closer to the food sources. The vacancies, in your heavy cover areas, will be filled by older bucks. Leave the oaks (you will just have to trust me on that one).

I think most of the complaints have been from folks who hunt in suburban areas or areas visible from a road and don’t want other people, especially those who may oppose hunting, to see them. The only change I made because of the new law, is that I no longer swap out my orange hat for a camo one, when I get up in my stand. This hat didn’t bother this 3.5 year old, from 50 yards away, when I was 8 feet up a tree. Maybe it would have if the sun was still up, but it had been down 6 minutes:

What nonsense ? I am lovin the changes this year, and was able to cash in on three of them so far: early antlerless gun season, reopened antlerless Adirondack early ML season, and the extra 1/2 hour past sunset (I only needed 6 minutes of that one). Without them changes, there might be three more paper tags in my wallet and an empty freezer. I think the best is yet to come, with the Holiday ML season. That orange hat/vest law was a small price to pay for all of that. I always wore one anyway, when walking around with a gun. I was a little discouraged earlier this year, after missing most of the two week SZ crossbow season, due to other unexpected commitments. That new Holiday season takes away all of the pain of that yet unfilled archery/ML buck tag. Bravo NY DEC, and please keep up the spectacular work, that makes NY state a true meat-hunter’s paradise, while also looking out for the other groups (motorists, farmers, and homeowners) who have an interest in maintaining optimum deer numbers.

Nice, that looks like a good solid 2.6 year old. He definitely would have been a shooter for me this year, even if it was on opening day. Congrats and you really deserved it after all that persistence.

My observations are based on what I have seen a few times when fishing a shallow lake (Findley in the SW corner of NY near Erie PA) where I have got mixed bag limits. If you are loosing smallmouth from deep water, it is probably the thermal shock that is doing them in. A boat draws warmer water from the surface for flushing the live well, so if you are catching smallmouth deep and largemouth shallow, it makes sense for the smallmouth to die first. When I have caught both species shallow, on the same day, the smallmouth have consistently been the last to belly up in the livewell.

I’d say 150 yards, unless it’s a standing broadside shot from a good rest, when you might stretch it to 200 for a behind the shoulder shot. The energy gets insufficient in that range. Freehand, I wouldn’t shoot at a deer with any weapon over 100 yards away.

The only walleyes I have easy accesss to are mostly the big slobs out in Lake Erie and the st Lawrence River. They taste ok if you eat them fresh but really suck after any time in the freezer even if the fillets are vacuum sealed and handled like I described for the bass above. I suppose they would be ok, if you don’t mind white flakey meat that tastes like algae. They are also very fragile in a live well, so usually go in a cooker with ice. I will have to try the “filleting” while twitching” trick on one some time, if I can keep it alive, and see if that makes a difference.

What most folks mess up with bass, is they toss them in a cooler with ice and let them die with the guts still in them. They taste the best when you keep them alive and as healthy as possible, until you are ready to fillet them. Wack them over the head, to knock them senseless, and get the fillets off fast. If the meat is still twitching, when you take it off, it will taste very good when cooked. You don’t have to eat them right away. You can dry the fillets with paper towels and vacuum seal. They will taste like fresh-caught, up to a year later, when frozen.

Button buck and barley soup and salad. Damn that was good. Glad I didn’t make any grind from that one.