wolc123

I won’t miss the ash trees when they are gone, after pretty much using nothing else for firewood, since the first hint of the emerald ash borer showed up, about 10 years ago. I so miss the days when I burnt more oak, maple, cherry, hickory, and walnut. All of those make more heat than ash, and far less ashes. The problem I have, is that more than half of the trees in my woods are ash and about 3/4 of them are dead and the last 1/4 are dying, along with most of the trees in the hedge rows. I don’t think they offer much to wildlife, compared to oak at least. They are easy to split, but that is the only good thing I can think of about them. The town cleared all of them from one propety line ditch a couple years ago, leaving many dump truck loads of logs, most of which I gave away. That saved me a lot of work, by not needing to cut them down myself. I will start cutting more this winter, from the middle. Hopefully, I can talk the town into clearing them from the other side soon. My new nieghbor is ok with that. The town will only clear them from a line if both nieghbors agree. (They won’t clear for a landowner in the center their property). I am thinking I have about 5 more years of ash burning to look forward to. Hopefully, none of the dead ones falls and hurts someone before then.

There might be something to that. One side tenderloin, from the old Adirondack doe that I killed during early ML this fall, was quite chewy for breakfast the next morning. After 5 days in the fridge, that from the other side was quite tender, when cooked the same way. She may have been 4.5 years old though, and I think the age of the deer is the biggest driver in how long it takes to pass the rigor mortis. I have eaten a lot of them fresh from corn-fed wny deer and they were never too tough. I think the buck I killed last Friday night in wny may have also been 4.5 years old, so I am giving those 6 days in the fridge, just to be safe. I like them a lot better when they are tender.

I never touch them with any water, which can promote bactetia growth. If any piss or gut juice touched them during the gutting process then I rinse them with fresh blood from ahead of the daiaphram. I remove them, wipe them dry with clean paper towels, put them in a zip lock bag, and into the fridge. They are good to eat right away if the deer is less than 8 months old, but should remain in fridge for about an week minimum if older. I will be having some for supper tomorrow, after 6 days in the fridge.

Gas for my power washer was cheap last year, so “joe” (top right) was less than $ 5. This year will be a good bit more.

No rattles out of this 1960’s Ithaca when the big ones sneak in close on a calm, cold evening :

Sorry for your loss. I saw a pretty good YouTube video, where a guy disassembled and cleaned a bolt from a Marlin goose gun. It didn’t look too difficult and that is probably the same as what is in my M512 slugmaster. Looks like a good winter project.

Nope

Yea, but he didn’t say “dented”, he said : “well dimpled”. To me, that rules out a gun issue. I know I have a gun issue with my Marlin shotgun, because there was no sign of a dent on the primers, when I used it on freezing cold days, after getting it soaking wet in rain or swamp water submergence on my prior hunts. If he finds someone else with one of those oddball caliber guns, then he can have them test the questionable ammo. I think I will lock my questionable, oil-lubed firing pin assembly Marlin shotgun in the trunk of my car, on a real cold day this winter, and see if it will fire with one of my extra slugs the following morning. I will let you know how that goes. If it don’t go “bang”, then I will take the bolt apart and clean it good with brake cleaner, prior to next September’s early antlerless season. If it does go off, I will clean and lube the bore, add another drop or two of cpl to the firing pin, and put it away for safe keeping.

Not all guns react the same way. On both of my FTF’s, there was no visible dent on the primers, and the gun was soaked the day prior to freeze up. That leads me to believe that trapped water was the culprit. Either that, or The Big Guy preferred that I take the buck(s) later, that those two does were pregnant with. I now have plenty of meat, no gun buck tag, and I never had much love for processing does (takes me too long to trim off all that fat). For that reason, I am going to stick with that lubed-up Marlin the next time I get out there with my three dmp’s, here in the sz, which will be the last Saturday of the season. Hopefully, it will be good and cold and a doe (or better yet a button buck) will give me a chance to see who’s right). Then I will know for certain whether or not I need to use the Marlin or my (always fires) Ithaca, the next time it is real cold and I have an valid buck tag.

If the primers were well dimpled, then that rules out any issue with the gun. I don’t know if I can buy the “oil on the firing pin” issue. Two big does owe their lives to “no dimple” issues I had with my Marlin 512. Both of those happened on freezing cold days, after I had hunted with the gun in the rain and warmer temps on the previous day. Some day, I will strip that bolt apart and clean it good, but for now, I soaked both ends of the firing pin assembly with CLP oil, and I have only been using it when the temps have been above freezing. I think my freeze ups were due to water in there, and the CLP oil ought to reduce that. I am in a shotgun only zone and fortunately, I have a backup gun (60 year old Ithaca 37 16 ga.) that has never failed to go boom or kill the deer I shot it at, since mounting a Weaver 1.5 on it 39 years ago. Some of those have been when the temp was below zero. It’s effective range is only about 75 yards though, while the Marlin is good to at least 163 yards (my farthest kill with it).

Yes

The tag you used during early archery season was good for an antlerless or an antlered deer (I assume you bought an archery license). You can buy a muzzleloader license and get another tag to use with your crossbow, but you will only be able to use that for antlerless deer, during late muzzleloader season. Most of NY is 2 bucks max with one needing to be taken during gun season while the other needs to be taken in early or late archery/crossbow/ml seasons.

I had to aim considerably farther back than I wanted to last Friday, because the shoulder was behind a tree. The slug hit near the back of the rib cage, about midway down, penetrating thru to the opposite rib, but not exiting. Hopefully, I will be rewarded with more meat, because of that. I will find out Sunday afternoon when I skin it. My experience has been, that slow moving shotgun slugs don’t cause a lot of meat damage compared to fast rifle bullets, when the shoulder is struck. What caliber and bullet were you using ? Here is what the 16 ga Remington slugger looked like when it fell out under the hoist: After taking the hit, It trotted off at a medium speed, about 20 yards forward, turned 90 degrees, then 60 yards to the left before going down in some real thick stuff. I would have preferred a shoulder shot, because recovery would have been way tougher without the dusting of snow. I don’t think that slow moving slug would have wrecked much meat on the shoulder, based on my past experiences with them. I really like the shoulder shots when there is a group of antlerless deer and I have multiple dmp’s. Very often, the others will stick around a while when the leader goes down.

I have the same concern and that is the main reason why I would never leave one overnight. If I ever served our kids some gut-tainted venison they would stop eating it completely, and that would be the end of life as we know it.

I think Jeremy using the Evercalm as deoderant trumps that. I sprung for one of those Scent-away deoderant sticks this year and that may have helped with that old buck and doe that I was able to fool. I also use their body wash/shampoo and a Scent-factor jacket. Both got down wind of me before they caught my lead. Great idea on the leaves and bushes.

No problem. G-man has me a little worried now about the residual effect though. I can’t fault him for raising the concern. After all, he is the first to post the infamous PA chest girth chart on this site, on which I have grown so dependent.

Good point, and if it didn’t work so well, I certainly wouldn’t. As cheap as I am, I even tried saving the unused stuff from one year to the next a couple times. That didn’t pan out the first time, when I just left it in a drawer. It worked when I put a third of a stick in the freezer though. That was the last year when I used the last of it up on the first day of northern zone gun season, and was not able to get a shot off at the monster that snuck to within 15 yards of me. I was too cheap to replace it after that and had to settle for a 2.5 year old buck at home later, that was dumb enough to come in to a grunt call. I think a new stick only cost $ 15 this year. Based on his chest girth, that’s about 90 pounds of boneless red meat hanging in the garage, so that’s not a bad investment. He’d have never stopped long enough for me to get off a shot, were it not for that Evercalm.

The argument I have heard about the foot application only, of an attractant scent, is that it will lead bucks away from and not towards your location, because the scent is strongest where you put it on (at your car, cabin, wheeler, etc), or in my case, about 200 yards from my spot. I tried to reverse that at a few times with Tinks 69 and others but the results were inconclusive. I would apply it at my stand then backtrack in a few different directions. The only buck that ever responded to any of that stuff, no matter how I used it, was a button that ended up being my first archery kill. I even used piss I had recovered from does killed during peak rut a time or two, with no positive results. Not only has the Evercalm fooled (5) 3.5 year plus bucks for me, but it also worked on a doe at least that old, and a coyote (I almost got jumped once by one that had to have thought I was a deer). Its reaction, when I lifted my ML just 7 yards away, was priceless. I rarely hunt a location more then once a week, so maybe that is long enough for the “residual effect” to wear off. The old buck that showed up for me Friday night, at a location where I had wiped EverCalm 6 days prior, is pretty good proof of that.

Could be, because I had put it on that same stand 6 days prior (on opening day). It does leave a residue. A little 1.5 year old four point calmly fed 30 yards in front of my stand that evening and walked a circle around it within 50 yards without any alarm.

The first time I used it was in 2017. Prior to that, I hadn’t even seen a buck that looked like it was over 2.5 years of age, for about 5 years, while I was hunting. I had a close encounter with a 3.5 that year, and each year since, always using the Evercalm as I described in the earlier post. The best part was, that I was able to not only see them, but to kill them, 4 out of 5 times. I’d have hit that 5th one were it not for this dang smart phone. When I connect the dots of those 5 bucks, the only common denominator is the EverCalm. The real clincher for me was the one this past Friday. I first saw him over 100 yards away thru some thick stuff and could immediately tell he was a shooter by the high rack. He was walking a parallel course to the field edge my 8 ft high stand was on, 5 minutes after sunset. When he reached The closest point, he was directly downwind and near the trail i walked in on. Before evercalm, any deer and especially older bucks sped up or bolted the instant they got my scent or crossed my entry trail. He stopped and not just for an instant. I could see his mid section, but his front and back were hidden behind trees. He remained motionless long enough for me to clean the fog and snow off both of my scope lenses and ventilate his rib cage. Now he is on a hook in the garage.

I apply it to the back of the heel of each boot, a couple hundred yards from my stand. When I get to the stand, I wipe some on a branch or the trunk of a tree or the wood or metal rails of my blind. The “solid deoderant” type applicator is very convenient compared to liquids.

Are you looking for a bear ?

Speaking as a bb specialist, who has killed them using every legal means during every season, I can say with certainty that it is a mature doe. The main giveaway is the long nose.

That had been my experience with other scents but not this one.