wolc123

I am in position. Would have been back here sooner and beat the rain but supper was to succulent not to savor. The deer action hasn't gotten good until about 6:30 the last two days anyhow. Got to break out the deet because the skeeters are bad in here. Still have a 9f dmp. Come on momma doe. Phone on pocket till 8:00.

I have waited over 2 years for a meal this tasty:

The bo hat alone likely cost me a close look at what was likely a good buck last night . An "optional" vest, had I been wearing it, would have been completely hidden from that deer's sight, by my 3 ft barnwood wall. I would like to trade my bo hat for a camo one, after I am up in my stand like I always did but that would now be breaking the law if I have a gun, no matter how you interpret the new regs. It is a small price to pay in exchange for the extra half hours on either end of daylight however. Only 20 minutes of that is usable later but the full 30 is good early, if you have a decent scope on the field edges where I hunt.

Sunday Sept 12, 7:30 pm, wmu 9f, Marlin m512, hornady SST, 28" chest girth

It sure freed up a lot of time for me when our youngest passed her road test. She has always been real into sports so it has been tons extra driving around for the wife and I. I wasn't thrilled about burning a half vacation day a coulple weeks ago to take her to Buffalo for her road test. It has paid off in spades though. Since she passed and can now drive herself across town to practice and games, I can spend every afternoon this week trying for a doe (no more bb's for me this early gun season). If you are looking for an easy place for her to pass that test, try William st in Buffalo (about 5 minutes from the Galleria mall).

Actually I am, you read the fine print a little closer to will find the word "or" when it comes to hat/vest. I have always been a real stickler when it comes to the rules.

I drop the block on my T/C omega inline, point the muzzle at a light, and make sure I can see light coming thru the touch hole. That way I dont need to waste a primer. A few times, when no light was visible, I pulled the breech plug and drilled it out. Powder residue plugs that up pretty solid if you dont clean it good. I am using Traditions foaming bore cleaner now, after use, and that always gets rid of all the powder residue in the stainless steel breech plug. I have not had any more plugging issues since doing that. I have never had a misfire or hang fire with my in-line (always have used the see the light trick), but have had a few with my old side-lock. That was mostly corrected by firing a #11 cap, prior to loading, and feeding some loose powder down the spark channel. I have killed over a dozen deer with the inline, but not one yet with the sidelock. It misfired the only time I fired it at a deer. That was before I learned the pre load cap and loose powder trick. I aim to try it again this year, with a brand new set of fiber optic sights. I am bringing it with me up north, during the early ML week, next month. It is a light weight carbine that would be real nice to carry in the swamps where the deer tend to hole up at that time.

I didnt save them because, it was too dark while I was gutting.

That will be tomorrow's dinner, along with the tenderloins. It is in a bag, along with the heart in the bottom of the deer fridge now. Chest girth was 28".

Not my biggest bb, but not my smallest, and definitely my earliest. Momma wouldn't give me a clear shot but jr did at about 7:30:

I just got busted by a deer. I blame it on this damn smart phone and my orange hat. I was looking at some pictures of our eldest daughters high school graduation, when I heard a snort. I looked up and caught the motion of an unidentified deer, at the edge of the field, as it turned and bolted deep into the woods, snorting the whole time. It was about 40 yards upwind of me. No clue if it was a buck or doe but seeing that it was alone, I am guessing buck. This is just about the time that I saw the 8 point at home yesterday. I should have learned my lesson on opening day of gun last year up in the northern zone, when the biggest Adirondack buck I ever saw snuck to within 15 yards of me, in the rain and I was reading from this site. He even gave me a warning by snapping a twig a half second before his head and neck popped up out of the gully. That gave me time to drop the phone and lift my gun. There was no warning this time and my gun still rests on the rail. Lesson learned: in wet conditions, leave phone in pocket and use eyes on perimeter. I normally rely too much on my ears, but they dont help much when the ground is wet. Oh well, I got about an hour and a half left. Maybe a doe will show. I doubt I will ever see whatever that spooked one was from this comfortable stand again. This is where it was. The phone is going in my pocket now, until about 8:00.

There is 3-1/4 hours left of opening weekend of doe season where I am at and I am in position. The new seat is awesome and the tree umbrella is doing its job. Hopefully, I can do a little better than the Bill's did with the Steelers.

Definitely not. The slug that parted my hair (I had way more of that back then) had to be less than an inch away. I used to do a lot of drives and other hunting from the ground prior to that, but you couldn't pay me to do much of that now. At least in areas where there are lots of "aborigins" around (that is my word for other hunters who I don't know). It is not too bad on the ground, up in the northern zone most anytime, and down in the Southern tier after Thanksgiving.

Thanks, Just 15 more minutes till I pull the plug this morning. The rain is holding off but it is very windy and the skeeters are not too bad. I have a little more confidence in a doe this evening over at my folks place. I unplugged the big freezer to let it defrost last night so I got to dry it out and start it back up. I usually do that every 4 or 5 years. We have not been this low on meat since October 2016, so it was a good time to do it.

I am on the fence on this one. If his rack dont get busted up, he will be slightly larger than the 2.5 yr 6 point that I killed last year. He has a similar "crab-claw" antler but on the opposite side of what "Joe" had. I took this picture of him yesterday and he seems to be a full time resident at our place. I am pretty sure that he is the same buck that i passed multiple times here last year when he was 1.5. I watched him for about 5 minutes yesterday and he has at least 7 and possibly 8 points. It looked like there was no brow tine on the crab side but maybe an extra 1" sticker. It is mostly about the meat for me though, so he will likely have to put a few pounds on that frame for me to use a precious buck tag on him during the first half of the seasons. I would get more meat from antletless deer if I could, but they seem to be rarer than hens teeth around here. Joe:

2 minutes till legal shooting and it is starting to sprinkle a little bit. If it starts raining hard, I will have to move downstairs. This new 2-7x Redfield revolution scope makes the whole 30 minutes prior to sunrise useable out on the fields anyhow. I think it is brighter than one of my old illuminators.

Congrats chef. I am in position in the cupola, 21 minutes before legal shooting. It is good to see some photos of flat-heads on the ground. I am still waiting to see my first live one of the season. Hopefully, one will show up today. If not, I will have to do a little of that "after work" weekday hunting for the rest of this week. The extra half hour (20 minutes of which is usable out in the fields) after sunset will give me some extra prime time. I will probably have to burn up that 20 minutes driving over to my folks place on the opposite corner of wmu 9f though, because I have yet to see a doe here at home. I still haven't hit my tin can truck cap blind on the back corner though. I will try it if we get a cooler or a rainy afternoon later this week. It sure is windy this morning, but that makes it quite comfortable in the heat, and keeps the bugs away pretty good. I will stick it out until about 8:00. I have to allow time for skinning, quartering and getting in the deer fridge before church at 9:30.

The does must be staying in the woods. I saw just one buck out in the fields at home today. I am going to be about 10 yards into the woods, over at my folks place, on the opposite corner of 9f tommorow evening.

My guess would be regular.

The barnwood really fools them. The 8 point this afternoon had no clue I was up there and offered multiple 30 yard broadside chip shots. If only he didn't have them damn horns. Unless he puts on a few pounds before early November, I will probably hold out, with my buck tag, for one more like these two. My wife photographed them on the other side of our block while coming home from the grocery store a few weeks ago:

I stayed up in the cupola until about 20 minutes past sunset, when it got dark enough, so that I dont think I could have clearly identified a doe thru my Redfield scope on 2X. My only deer sighting today was that 8 point about 1.5 hours before sunset. I will probably try the cupola again in the morning for a couple hours before church. It is not supposed to rain until later tommorow. I plan on heading over to my folks place before the Bill's game. After dinner with them, I will try out my new blind over there, along with the comfortable new $ 8 chair, and tree umbrella if need be. They have been seeing a doe with two fawns regularly over there in the evenings. I have 2 dmp's and no problems with making an orphan or two. Antlerless tags are typically tough for me to fill in my two wmu 9f locations, because I usually see about 3 antlered deer per each antletless one. I think that is mostly due to the local farmers hammering them antlerless deer hard on their nuisance permits, prior to October 1. We will see what the final talley of sightings is this year. Right now it is one antlered and zero antlerless.

Decent 2.3 year old 8 just stopped by for a bite of clover. Where the hell is his sister ? Velvet is all gone. He seems to prefer chewing on woody browse.

Spaghetti squash with meat sauce. Not too much meat left in the freezer. Hoping to start re-stocking that during the next week. Summer is over, so time to drink up my remaining Kolsch.

I am up and in also. Changed plans a bit, because I thought it would be too hot in the tin can aluminum truck cap blind where I planned on going tonight. I am up in the cupola of my two story blind watching over a clover and wheat plot. The wind is still blowing hard enough to hold off most of the bugs. I have a can of deet ready to go if I need it. I saw a doe right by here one afternoon last week. Hopefully, she shows up again before 8:01. Just felt a skeeter on my neck, time for a spray.

I agree, but unfortunately, that dont work for everyone. I had an incident many years ago that continues to effect how I hunt until this day. I saw a doe, at the edge of our property, that was well beyond the effective range of the my 16 gauge smoothbore. I got down from my tree stand, and attempted to close the range. She walked away, thru a thick hedge row, onto a neighbor's hay field, that I had permission to hunt. I was wearing a blaze orange jacket and hat. I stepped through the hedge row and immediately felt the pressure wave of a passing slug against my face, then heard the first of 5 shots. Feeling a shot before you hear it is something you never forget. I hit the dirt, and the dirt started hitting me, as the other 4 slugs landed nearby. The doe stood in the middle of that field and the other guy on the far corner (in blaze orange head to toe) had unloaded his semi auto on her. He probably came much closer to me than he did to her with those 5 shots. Now, I seldom venture off our own property (in the southern zone), and I spend most of my time about 10 ft up a tree.