wolc123

I rubbed evercalm on the licking branch above the first scrape and just pissed in a second one, about 50 yards upwind. This one is next to a trail that goes down into the creek valley. Now that I know there is a buck around, I am going to skip my planned fact finding visit to the “buck bedroom”, and use the half hour I save, sitting on a rock right here.

I do believe this may be a scrape, up on the scenic overlook. It wasn’t here when I walked by 2 days ago. There may be a buck around after all.

Bye bye

Two shots just wrong out from over over past the “buck bedroom”. I am getting ready to pack up my stuff and head that way. It seems a shame to leave this rotting gut pile but I got a schedule to keep today.

That one belongs to my father in law and I only take it out hunting when the weather conditions are ideal. He is very fussy about his stuff. Otherwise, I carry my 336BL with fiber optic sights. I have yet to fire either one on a deer. The rifle season bucks that I have killed up here in 14 and 16 were both with my scoped Ruger 77 30/06. That thing a bitch to lug thru three hills but when and if I run out of 30/30 ammo, I may need to use it again up here. It surely flattens the bucks though, as both of those were DRT. I am curious to see how the 30/30’s do after hearing some “mixed reviews” . I can’t imagine it is all that bad, considering that it has accounted for more NY deer than any other cartridge. A grey squirrel just hopped over the gut pile and I was tempted to check the zero on his head, but ammo is to valuable and scarce now for that, and I got to give the bear 10 more minutes. i sighted it in for him with a 150 gr bullets, on the 50 yard range, a couple years ago. I didn’t have a buck tag up here at thanksgiving that year, so I had some time to kill. He and my nephew have been shooting targets with it regularly since then, and he said that it is still holding a good zero.

Sounds like the usual high, over the spine, back strap shot that many think passed thru a mythical non-fatal void below the spine. if somebody gets him in the next couple weeks, they will loose s chop or two, but he will likely recover ok from that hit.

It it turns out I am a little closer to the gut pile than I wanted to be. That’s it 10 yards over my right shoulder. It was not easy navigating in the moonlight this morning. That explains why the two crow scouts flew away rather than landed on it earlier. They must have spotted the orange hat hanging from a branch above my head. I can only give mr bear another half hour or so to show up. My 9 day vacation up north is fast drawing to a close and I am on a tight schedule today.

Another shot just rung out across the lake. The bucks must be moving over towards FT Drum.

The crows have found the gut pile. Hopefully, their squaking will draw in mr bear.

I just heard a shot from across the lake. That is the first one I heard in the last 9 days up here, besides my own last Tuesday morning.

It was 30 degrees when I walked up the ridge to the vicinity of Tuesday’s gut pile (thats a boulder in the picture, not it) by moonlight. My seat was strapped to this tree 1/2 hour before sunrise. This is the first hard frost of the year, up here in wmu 6c. I have (4) in the tube, (1) in the chamber, my safety off, and my trigger half cocked, as I sit here waiting on a bear.

I am up getting ready now and it is going to be a busy day. I am more excited about getting home and seeing my wife, who I haven’t seen since she left her folks house up here last Sunday, and our daughter who I haven’t seen the Friday before that, than I am about killing a bear or buck this morning. I can’t remove the sling from my father in laws gun (I always keep my own in my pack unless I am dragging a carcass). I am going to load the tube with 5 cartridges one hour before sunrise and sneak to a tree about 50 yards downwind of where that gut pile is/was. I think my best chance at a bear will be at 1/2 hour before sunrise. I don’t know how good the “Marlin” 3-9x scope is in low light conditions but I hope to find out soon. I should be able to fool the bears nose if the wind changes because I showered with scent away soap last night, used scent away deodorant, I will go heavy on the Evercalm, and I will wear my ScentFactor jacket. I will strap my hammock chair to a tree and stay in that spot until about 9:30. Then I will start a slow stillhunt around the back side of that ridge. There is a spot near the center where I once saw a young buck feeding on nuts at this time of year. A little further north, is a spot near a steep cliff. In 2014, I sat in a red folding camp chair, up above that cliff on cold snowy morning, watching over the creek valley below. There was fresh snow on the ground, and looking down at the snow and pine trees along that creek bottom, with the Adirondack high peaks in the background, on that day was about the prettiest sight I ever witnessed. It got even prettier, when I noticed a big brown shape moving my way along the creek bed, about a mile away. A friend up there had told me that he had seen deer below that cliff, on a hunt the year prior, so I waited patiently in the spot he had told me about. I could only see it as it moved closer, through occasional gaps in the pine trees, but eventually I could tell that it was a wide bodied, decent racked mature buck, and the first antlered deer that I had ever seen while hunting in the Adirondacks. Old Jake caught my 150 gr Federal classic 30/06 bullet, thru his rib cage, from a range of a bit over 200 yards. I can’t see as well from there there now, with things overgrown more and no snow, but I will pause briefly, watch a while, hope the Marlin 30/30 can do what my Ruger 77 30/06 did, just over 7 years ago. One thing is for sure, the compact Marlin 30/30’s are way nicer to carry in these mountains. I won’t fully accept them, until I see how they do on a deer or bear, maybe this morning. Buck master says they suck. I hope that I get the chance to find out for myself. After a brief “creek watch”, I am going down thru the gap on the steep drop on the south end of that ridge and down to the main camp road. I will walk south on the road, cross the creek using the culvert, and head up the “scrape” trail which leads to the “buck bedroom” by the old lean-twos. There has been buck scrapes along they trail for the last 7 years, but I didn’t see any last Saturday. I want to find out if they were just running late this year, prior to going home today. What I find will have some influence over if I use my gun buck tag at home on opening day and if I will save it for my next trip up here on Thanksgiving. I hope to have all they stuff done by 11:00, then walk back to in-laws house, stopping to pack up my pop up blind on the way. I left that set up on an old pile of rocks and dirt, overlooking a power line cut. Finally, my mother in law is going to cook my other doe tenderloin (hopefully it will be tender by now) and eggs, I got to pack my SUV, and stop and pick up about 60 pounds of vacuum sealed “taco meat” , on my way home thru Harrisville, if it is ready. A bear or buck will throw thinks significantly off schedule. I am ok with that.

I was not able to sneak into the “buck bedroom”, as I had planned this morning, because the wind died down and the leaves were too dry to get in there without being heard. I set up in two different close downwind spots. I didn’t see anything, or even hear anything remotely sounding like a deer. When I was up there yesterday morning with my ML, I heard four different things close by, in heavy cover, that may have been deer. After lunch, I helped my father in law move some pine trees from the woods up there. He saw a small antlerless deer cross the logging road at about 1:00. I think it might have been one of the orphan fawns, from the doe that I killed on the other end of the ridge on Tuesday with my ML. I discovered a glitch with my Marlin 336BL this morning. I could not clearly focus on the rear fiber optic sight, with my single prescription glasses. That had not been an issue with my no-line bifocals, but those are back in WNY. The single prescription glasses worked great with the scope on my ML this year, unlike the bifocals, which I believe contributed to my shooting low and missing two deer with it last year. That is why I left the bifocals home. With that open sight situation this year, I don’t think my effective range would have been much over 30 yards and maybe it is good that I didn’t see a buck or bear this morning. Fortunately, there is little to no chance of rain in tomorrow’s forecast, so I will tote my father in laws scoped Marlin 336. I know that will work well with my single prescription glasses. My primary objective tomorrow is a bear. My father in law really wants a rug and would be thrilled if I got it with his rifle. I think my chances of that are better than they ever were tomorrow, considering the rotting gut pile from Tuesday. That should be providing some serious attraction by then .

I skipped the afternoon rifle hunt up north, to help my father in law nice some pine trees. After that, I got out about one hour, for what will likely be my last bass fishing if the year. No hits trolling most of the way around the lake. I went back to the spot where they were hitting best yesterday and caught a 10 incher and this 16 incher on a jig. I then lost that on a snag (8th one I lost total and that’s all I had), so I trolled back to the dock with no more bites. Unless it is real warm on the weekend after Thanksgiving, this will be my last fish of the year:

More prayers for you and your family Larry. Not much action in the deer woods yet anyhow, so there ought to be plenty around when you are ready to have at them.

Part of the problem with the current administration’s open border policy down south, is that more and more of those Mexican turkeys are showing up near our northern border.

I changed plans after moving about a hundred yards to the west. The wind is from the right direction now but way to slow to cover my sound thru the fast drying leaves and branches. I happened across the tree that I shot my last Adirondack buck from back in 16, and had a 15 yard encounter with a much bigger one last year, on this date. I am that much closer to my truck, and strapped to that tree again now, until I quit for lunch around 12:15 The buck in 16 came along just to the left of that big dark pine. That was on the Saturday after Thanksgiving when there was snow, which makes killing bucks and up here at least 10 times easier. I am still trying to kill my first without snow on the ground. If it don’t happen in the next hour it probably wont this year. Tomorrow morning I am going for bear.

Well since it don’t look like nothing is coming to me this morning, I am going in after them for a bit. One last cup of cider, then I am packing my chair, throwing a piss, and heading into the bush. Too nice of a day to lounge around any longer. I got fish to catch and lunch to eat.

I wonder how this adventure is progressing. I loose cell reception quite often here on the NW corner of the Adirondack park, So I bet there is little to none 60 or 70 miles further in. It is also not easy to charge batteries in there while “off the grid” so probably saving those for pictures. Can’t wait to see those. The last few days had to be pretty rough camping, as far as rain and cold. Blue skies today though and things look to be shaping up pretty good thru Sunday.

Looks to me like somebodies cow got out, probably a Hereford.

Pretty spot here to watch the sun come up here in 6c. I didn’t pack enough warm clothes for the temps in the lower 40’s and was needing a belly warmer. The hot cider did the trick and all is well now (other than a lack of deer action).

Best of luck to you Jerry, congrats on the retirement, and I hope you start lighting up the board soon with some good deer stories. There are not many deer around yet up north where I am now. Other than 3 (now 2) “camp deer” they must be holed up in the standing corn fields near Fort Drum. Hopefully, them combines finish harvesting before I come up here again over Thanksgiving. The fishing has been pretty good and I hope to hit that one more time after lunch today. I am heading back home tomorrow, where I have a little standing corn of my own, after a short bear hunt in the morning and stopping to pick up some taco meat.

Off to a decent start anyhow. My old pickup fired up and got me into position downwind of the “buck bedroom”. It just reached sunrise and I am in position in my tree hammock chair. I will try and sit here until about 10. Hopefully the wind changes from ne to nw by then and I can still hunt my way into the bedroom. If they don’t come to me before that then I will go where I think they may be holed up. One thing is certain, this little Marlin 30/30 is way better for carry duty than scoped T/C Omega that I have been lugging around all week.

Hopefully, us rifleman will give the southern zone bow hunters a run for their money on the forum this frosty morning. I can’t get Chuck Conner’s theme song out of my head right now, as I get ready to load up my Marlin 336 in another 23 minutes.

I can light up a buck or bear with my fiber optic sighted 30/30 up over here in the Fine town in just 88 minutes. How the heck is a guy supposed to sleep.