wolc123

I am getting ready to sneak up and try to catch a bear feeding on the gut pile from Tuesday’s doe. It was warm enough yesterday to make it ripe, and the wind is right this morning.

I just went into my pack and tapped my “secret weapon” (a pocket King James Version) for a screen shot to simplify things for those who may have missed the point of Colossians 3:17.

Did you find her ? The compass tip is a good one but the best advice on that video is the Bible text written across the screen when you first tap the link. That one gave me this DRT on Tuesday:

I bow hunted for about 30 years and had some very limited success over that span, killing and recovering 6 or 7 deer, not missing any, but striking and loosing almost an equal number. Most of those loses were high hits (several shoulder blades and some high backs) caused mostly by the deer “ducking” at the sound of the bow’s release. It is likely that most of those deer survived the wounds. I know for sure of one that did, and only one (Hit too far back) that surely didn’t. That recovery percentage is horrible and archery season never contributed much to my family’s food supply (up until 2014 when crossbows were legalized for the last 2 weeks). I mostly just used archery season as scouting for gun season, which always provided the bulk of our meat. I am a “meat first” guy to the extent that FSW is an “trophy anter” guy. I can still picture the last buck that I shot an arrow from my vertical bow at, back in 2012, like it was yesterday. We were over at my sister’s house, which is built near the front corner of my parents farm, with our girls for a Halloween party. I am the only one in the family that hunts and my attention was drawn to a young 4 point buck that I saw standing back by the woodline. I left the party on foot about an hour before sunset, and walked down the roadside, to my parent’s house, on the other front corner of the farm. I already had my camo on for the party. I grabbed my bow and arrows out of my truck, and headed to a stand in a hedgerow, that was on the back property line. I wasn’t up in that stand 15 minutes when I heard crunching and sticks breaking behind me, in an overgrown field that hadn’t been farmed in about 10 years, on the back neighboring property. The owner had died and that land had been in tax receivership and was not posted, but I could not shoot that way from my tiny uncomfortable hang on stand. The buck was headed right for me though. I drew my bow as he crossed the hedgerow, thru an opening, right next to my stand. He had been walking at a brisk pace, but must have caught a glimpse of my draw 15 feet above, or heard it. He stopped abruptly, about 15 yards away, at a quartering away angle. I put my pin on the sweet spot, a little far back behind the shoulder due to the angle, and touched off my release. I can still see what happened then, as if it was in slow motion. He reared down and back, taking the arrow, with an old mechanical o-ring style broadhead, thru the neck, just below his head. He ran off with it almost centered and equal lengths of shaft sticking out both sides. i soon heard crashing sounds in the thick brush, about 50 yards away. That crunching sound went on for about 5 minutes, then all was silent. I waited the typical minimum recommended half hour (about until sunset), before getting down and walking into the brush where I heard the noise. I found him there, bled out, after taking that 2” diameter cutter across his jugular vane. I gutted him quick, went up for my dads wheeler, hung him from a tree behind their house, cleaned myself up, and was back to the Halloween party in time for the kids breaking of the candy filled pinyata. That was the last arrow that I will ever launch at a deer with a vertical bow. Thanks to the crossbow, my archery season efficiency has improved tremendously, now making up about 30 % of my total meat harvest, since 2014. That has been a real time saver, not needing to waste any beating up my shoulders and trying to maintain proficiency with a bow, and with archery season now just two weeks, instead of almost two months. As far as the tracking lessons learned, all but one since the crossbow became my only archery weapon along with mechanical broadheads, has crashed down in sight or easy hearing distance. I got fooled off the blood trail, by a crash I heard in the adjacent thick brush, on that one. That must have been another deer and resulted in that recovery taking about a half hour longer than it should have because I wasted that much time grid searching that brush patch. When that came up empty, I returned to last blood (which I had marked with orange biodegradable ribbon I always carry), soon finding my double lunged 8 pointer, about another hundred yards away. That will be the last time I sharpen and re use a mechanical broadhead. They have never gone over 50 yards with the factory sharp new ones. Sorry for the length, but you asked for lessons and that’s all I can think of right now. It is very comfortable here in this warm bed. My freezer is almost full, thanks to the early antlerless gun season at home and ML up north so far. I am in no big hurry to get out there with my ML on this predicted rainy day up in the Adirondacks. i almost forgot the most important lesson that I have learned in my 40 years of deer hunting. If you want to be the one who orchestrates the deer ‘s trip to “deer heaven” (mankind’s food supply) then you got to keep things right with He who determines “where every sparrow falls”. If you ignore that, you will need to buy some more chicken from the store and you might feed some venison to coyotes, and those will be the least of your problems.

It was too windy and warm for me to try to kill a buck this afternoon, so I went fishing instead, catching about a dozen smallmouth bass. The biggest one was my biggest of the year up here so far, and just 3” shy of the 22” I am looking for to mount. It looks like the wind will be from the south again tomorrow, so it will be back up to the gut pile again for me in the morning. As warm as it was today, that scent has got to be getting intense and I hope it will draw in a bear. There is rain in the forecast, but light winds, so the tree umbrella ought to work ok. I am also packing a plastic bag, so I don’t loose another heart. I wonder if pickled bear heart would be good ? I am going to give the rattle bag a shot, if it’s not too painfull on my blistered hands (from pile driving the snow fence stakes this morning). The last time I rattled up there about 4 years ago, I didn’t fool any bucks, but I did fool the guy from the end of the lake who thought he was walking in to a real buck fight. At first I thought he was a bear, on its hind legs, coming up out of the swamp. His chartreuse hat gave him away. He will need to ditch that for blaze orange or pink per the new rules this year.

I think Robin and his son are supposed to be up in the 5 ponds area this weekend. That looks like it is about half way between where you are going and where I am. It sounds like you are really going to be roughing it ala Robin. I hope you have a wonderful adventure. It looks like it is going to cool down over the weekend, which should get the deer moving. Getting an Adirondack buck with a bow and no snow has got to be one of the biggest challenges in hunting. I have been up here hunting with my ML since Saturday and have yet to see any signs of a buck. I am switching to my rifle on opening day Saturday, and will keep trying for a buck until around 10:00 Sunday morning. The butcher thinks they will have my doe done in time for my drive home at noon on Sunday.

Too windy for hunting this afternoon and afternoon deer action has been lacking anyhow. I went out in search of the elusive 22” smallmouth for a couple hours. No luck trolling (I took about 15 minutes to fabricate a rod holder), but got about a dozen on the old reliable 1/8 oz bucktail jigs. All but 2 were hard fighting 12 to 14 inchers. The lean 17 incher in the second pic didn’t fight as much as the smaller ones, but the stout 19 incher in the last pic might be the fight of the year for me. She jumped three different times and made a few long runs, taking almost 10 minutes to boat on 6 pound line. She still looked pretty healthy when I released her. Maybe she will make 22 next year and earn a spot on the wall. I am going to try for a bigger one again tomorrow Friday and Saturday. That might be it for the year unless it is warm on Thanksgiving weekend when I come up.

Maybe he is real fast with the trigger and riddles them, on center of mass in close, with 5 or 6 round bursts. That would fill them with more lead than a 12 ga load of 00 buckshot and that takes a lot of deer with dogs down south.

I didn’t see anything up by the gut pile this morning. Only the flies found it so far. No luck finding the heart either, walking up there and back. I had one yesterday’s doe’s tenderloins with eggs for brunch. It tasted good but was a bit chewy. She was probably 4.5 years old and it was likely near max rigidity from rigor mortis at 10:00 this morning. I asked my mother in law to save the other one raw in the fridge until Sunday. By then it should delaminate a bit. My hands are blistered from pounding in those 30 snow fence stakes across the end of the lake. I don’t think I will be up for a lot of casting m this afternoon so I guess it will be trolling for bass. There is a good west wind and a nice chop on the lake, so I hope the big ones are biting. I also got the heavy Honda stroke outboard off, chained the barge to a tree, and got the docks ready for winter. I probably won’t be using my new waders for hunting or fishing yet this year, but they worked good for that. Most of the work is done now so I ought to be able to “relax” hunting and fishing until Sunday.

Fresh filet mignonette and eggs:

Nothing but flies hit the gut pile up until 9:30 this morning. I made two last checks for the heart and liver on the walk up and down but no dice. Back in the house for brunch now. I will be putting a gallon bag in my pack prior to my next hunt. Thanks for the reminder Fletch.

Yep, I usually do too but I blew it there this time, and it cost me a nice heart.

I am going to hunt till about 9:30, go down and have brunch, then work driving snow fence posts the rest of the morning. It is looking like it will be a nice afternoon for fishing out on the lake. Old long tines better show up by 9:30 or he is safe from me until tomorrow morning.

That looks similar to where I am sitting right now but I didn’t see any rubs, just a bloated doe stomach about 40 yards up wind. The swamp is 200 yards to my left. It feels at least 10 degrees warmer today than it was yesterday at this time.

You still got to cringe just a little bit with every trigger pull, wondering about depleting your supply and where replacements will come from. Even if you reload, where are you getting primers and what are you paying ? I am thinking of making a run up to Bass Pro in Niagara on the Lake Ontario on Super Bowl Sunday like I always used to do and picking up a 100 pack of those. That is only about a 40 minute drive and our kids like to look at the fish. I am being very careful with the 30 or 40 CCI 209 primers that I have left now, but I am pretty well stocked on triple 7 powder. I am glad I didn’t make the switch to Blackhorn 209 because I hear that is especially hard to find these days. Runnings in Lockport had a jug of loose Triple 7 a few months ago, when I stopped and I dropped down to 100 grains, so my supply of that should be good for a few years with rationing. I will switch to loose when my last 40 50 gr pellets are used up. One thing I really like about the pellets is that they push out easy and then can be reused with minimal cleanup, loss or fouled breech plug threads. That was always an issue with the loose powder.

The wind is from the sw on the nw corner of the park where I am at. I would prefer that if was from nw because I don’t like going to the same spot on consecutive days. It will be ok though, if I can catch a bear at that gut pile, or scarfing up my lost heart and liver when I sneak in this morning. I am guessing I will run into the two orphan fawns and have to shoo them away. Just about time to head up. Good luck to you today.

My plan is to make every shot count, until the ammo situation rectifies. I don’t see that happening until the Republicans regain the White House. The reason I say that, is because I hear that there is no ammo shortages or price gowging up in Canada, where they don’t have Dinbatocrats in charge. With my current ammunition, powder, primer, and percussion cap supply, I should be able to hold out 50 more years or so, if it takes that long. I am using just a shot or two to check the zeros on every weapon each year, and 2 to 7 more to get the meat that I need or will donate to others who could use it. I no longer bow hunt, but any meat (deer) that I can collect with my crossbow subtracts from that total and extends the life of my current ammunition supply. I will continue regular target practice with my adult stocked Daisy Red Ryder. So far, the bb supply hasn’t been effected by the Dingbatocrat nonsense. I will be damned if I will pay a penny more than need be for ammo. Doesn’t it stress you guys out practicing and sighting in with “real” ammo ? It sure does me, which is why I switched most practice over to the BB gun years ago. It was also relatively stress free practicing with the crossbows last week.

After the 5 days that I took off this week, I only have 2 more until the end of the year, one will be November 11 (hopefully that “magic” lasts an extra day) and the last will be December 30. I still don’t know if my county (Erie) will ok the Holiday ML season but I will travel to a buddy’s place or my sisters in Wyoming county if they don’t and I still have a tag. I have finally regained some confidence in my ML, after a long slump, having punched my antlerless tag with it here up north yesterday morning. Work has been super busy lately and I heard we just landed another very big job before I left for my current vacation. For that reason, all the rest of my hunts will have to be weekends and holiday weekdays after Thanksgiving and Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Hopefully, the rut kicks off a little early up north, because I can’t kill any more does or antlerless bucks up here over the next 5 days.

Tomorrow’s wind looks like it is supposed to blow from the sw, just like todays. That means I will most likely go back to the same spot where I killed the doe this morning, tomorrow morning. I missed a small buck in that location during the late ML season last year. Hopefully, he’s growed up some and comes back tomorrow looking for some beech nuts. Maybe a bear will come for the doe guts. My ML is cleaned, the bore is lubed, and ready to be reloaded. I am not staying out too long, because my mother-in-law said she will make us a steak and egg brunch with the doe tenderloins. After that, I want to pound in stakes for the snow fence that my father in law puts up to catch the snow blown off the north end of the lake, and keep it off the road, that he plows all winter. That’s a noisy job with the hand held pile driver, but I brought my ear plugs. I got to protect my radar (hearing), which helped ton in killing that doe this morning. It is looking warmer tomorrow afternoon, so I think I will skip that hunt and try for a 22” smallmouth instead. I have a few gallons of gas to burn up and might give trolling hot-in-tots a try.

Do you think your dog could help, even on a leash? A gut hit gives off a lot of scent and dogs have great noses. I said a prayer that you will find her.

You must be so proud of your guy.

Ahh, to be young and dumb again. He probably gets lots of chicks.

My mother in law grilled the baby beef liver, that I brought up north, this evening. I got to admit that it was the best tasting and tenderest liver that I have ever had, including that from this years button buck. I will have to find out what kind of steer it came from and how long it was aged prior to freezing. On a related note, thanks to the NY state ban on plastic bags, I lost the liver and heart from the old doe that I killed this morning. I’m sure the liver would have been tough as hell, but I will miss that heart on valantines day. That is when my wife always pickles them for me. Oh well, maybe I can fill another tag or two before January 2. You can see the heart and liver in the crotch of the tree in this photo. I tried stuffing them in the carcass as I dragged it down off the ridge, tying the back legs closed. It rolled a few times and they must have fell out. I backtracked, after loading her in my father-in-law’s tractor bucket, but no find. They blend in perfectly with the wet leaves I suppose. I still have the heart from that tender liver steer in my freezer so that may have to suffice if I don’t kill any more deer.

Old “taco meat” and me go back a few years. Basically, because I had her patterned. The layout here is a narrow lake with wide flat area that slopes up to a parallel ridge. Last year and this year, I spooked her down on the flat in the dark, soon after I left my in-law’s lake house. Each time, she ran with her brood, up to the north end of the ridge. Last year I took a short cut, and got up there before she did, while it was still dark. Her nose saved her that time, and she winded me from about 15 yards away. Ditto last Sunday, only we tied that time and I heard her snorting about 100 yards away, but out of sight in the just legal light. I had heard her first snort, before I cleared the driveway down on the flat. I hunted a perpendicular ridge on the other end of the parallel one on Monday, to give her a break. This morning, I still hunted up to “her spot”, starting 28 minutes before sunrise. I reached “the spot” right about sunrise, with no contacts on the way up. At 8:00, I heard some crashing thru the woods, about 100 yards away. I saw just one deer without antlers. She hung up there behind trees for a while, with her tail about half way up most of the time, occasionally flashing as if to signal. I heard some quieter crashing far behind her. She doubled back and began working her way up to the beech trees I was hiding under. The whole time she was using her tail to signal the two fawns that I never saw until she went down. I had the wind to my advantage and I had treated my boots with evercalm prior to my walk up, and scraped more on the tree I was strapped to. I have never seen a deer this skittish, probably due to our prior encounters. She was probably starting to associate me with the evercalm and no doubt crossed my trail on her way up. When her head got behind a tree, I swiveled and lifted, and when she stepped out at 35 yards I pulled. I hope the fawns make it (she had lots of milk in her). She is at rest in a walk in cooler in town now, and should be made ready to come home with me on Sunday. We will have the tenderloins with eggs for brunch tomorrow and her salted tail is already in my car. I got the utensils cleaned up and ready for 2 bucks the rest of this week and this coming weekend. They will need some big antlers to trip my trigger now though, because we have almost enough meat now.

That gun worked real well for me for quite a few years, but I was almost ready to break it over my knee, after a rough stretch the last few years. It started with striking a branch with my shot and missing a big doe clean 3 years ago, then a bad hit on one doe and a miss on another 2 years ago, and another missed doe and buck last year. I am fairly certain that the cause of the last 2 clean misses was my new no-line bifocals, which caused me to shoot low. Now, I am using single prescription glasses when hunting and sighting in, and was finally able to get back on track with that gun this morning. I aimed for her shoulder blade, from 35 yards away, and that is where the bullet struck. That is the exit hole in the photo. The entry was centered on the shoulder blade, on the opposite side. I forgot to get a chest girth measurement but I am guessing that she is at least 3.5 years old and I had quite a history with her. I did not see the two fawns, that were with her this morning, until she went down.