wolc123

No wind at all tonight and no signs of deer yet. I am only sticking it out till sunset at 7:30. If nothing shows by then, it will be my first early season afternoon without a deer sighting. I would stick it out for the last 20 minutes of useful daylight if I saw something or if my Repel tick defense held off the skeeters a little better. I am up in the cupola of my 2-story blind. The next time I hunt it will be opening day of x-bow in November. There is no corn near here but the adjacent white clover patch by looks good. Also, the big white oak next to it has more acorns than I have ever seen on it. They ought to be good and ripe by peak rut time.

I am going to try and do my part for the DEC and fill my second DMP. I just finished processing my bb from Sunday (it yielded about 30 pounds of meat, mostly boneless except for the neck roast). The deer fridge is ready for a mature doe now. I am going to hold out for one of those with my last tag. I had two of those in range on my 3 afternoon hunts so far, but neither offered me a clear shot. A nice 2.5 year old 8 point buck taunted me with multiple "chip shot" opportunities on my other afternoon hunt. I did not see a deer of any kind on the two mornings I was out. I plan to be out there for 4 of the last 5 afternoons. Hopefully, a mature doe will show up in range on one of them. I could use some grind because our kids love deer tacos (I made the button buck all into roasts, chops, and stew meat). I am a little concerned that the mature buck action will drop off later, if I take a doe away, but not so much to refrain from helping the DEC achieve their management goals. Not taking advantage of this early antlerless season is a somewhat selfish move by trophy hunters and I don't want to be associated with that, being about as pure of a "meat guy" as could be imagined. I have been using Repel mosquito and tick repellant and it has done the trick on the bugs, and does not seem offensive to the deer. I was happy to not find any ticks on the wmu 9f bb that I skinned Sunday night. It was too hot to hunt tonight (85 F at my house), but ok for butchering in our insulated garage with the AC cranked up. I am liking this early antlerless gun season, and I hope to see it continue in future years. It beats the hell out of letting the farmers feed the coyotes with "nussance deer" as has been the fate of most antlerless deer around here for the last 20 some years.

What I saw showed September 11 - September 19 (special 9 day early antlerless season). If it ended Saturday evening, it would have said September 11 - September 18 (special 8 day early antlerless season). I will give it until 20 minutes past sunset on Sunday the 19th if necessary (those last 10 minutes are too dark to make 100 % ID of the quarry anyhow). I am probably going to hit my folks house on Thursday evening and I will leave the old Ithaca 16 gauge over there (if I don't fill the tag Thursday). Their place is on my way home from where I got to go Saturday morning thru Sunday morning,. I just got to remember to bring the damn blaze orange hat. Being able to stop on my way home will give me about 30 more minutes for my last early antlerless season hunt. One thing I really like about this September early antlerless season is that I have seen deer on every day that I hunted (just none before 6:00 pm). I did not have a single good shot opportunity at an antlerless deer during all of southern zone crossbow and gun season last year and didn't fill a single dmp. If the DEC wanted filled dmps, then the early gun season seems to be a good move. Maybe there were several versions of the rules circulated. Belo thought he had to wear a blaze orange or pink hat AND vest, whereas what I read said "OR" not "AND". What I saw was very clearly written on both the ending date and the blaze orange requirements.

I have been stopped on the water in my boat, 5 or 6 times. They wrote me a ticket for not enough life preservers on Chataqua lake once. A CO made my wife return her first walleye on Silver lake (it might have needed to be stretched about 1/64" to make 15"). The other times, they just asked to see our fishing licences. I have never seen one while hunting,

I moved out of the cap to a nearby open topped blind at 6:40 pm. I Saw what looked like an antlerless deer, near the edge of some brush, about 5 minutes later. It was just over 100 yards away. It hung out there a couple minutes, then moved back in the brush, never offering a good clear shot or positive identification. Could have been a mature doe, or small spike but definitely not a mature buck. I am holding out for a mature doe with my last dmp. I have a little quality meat now, but I could use some more quantity (and some taco meat). Yesterday's bb is still aging in the deer fridge. Young ones like that don't need much of that, so I will probably skip the hunt tommorow after work (sounds a little on the warm side), and cut it up. I don't think I am going to grind any of it, seeing how there is so little to spare. With the shot damage to the front shoulder, I will be lucky to get 30 pounds of meat out of it. Some of that will definitely be a bone in neck roast, 2-4 small boneless roasts from the hind quarters, and maybe another small one from the non shot-up front shoulder. The backstraps look good, probably enough for a meal for the wife, youngest daughter, and me, sliced up for a stir-fry. The tenderloins will make a good appetizer before supper, but no where near enough for a meal. I will cut everything else up for some real tender stew meat. I will probably hunt out back here again Wednsday evening and back at my folks Thursday. I don't think my odds are good form the new field-edge tree blind where I spooked the deer and killed the bb. I will probably go for the mid-woods two-story blind and bring my old Ithaca 16 gauge. Shots will be short in there, with all the leaves still on the trees. That is the gun that got my last mature doe on that farm, back in 19. There is just something nice about using grandpa's old gun on his old farm. Depending on the weather, I might hunt Friday afternoon at home, and I have other obligations all day Saturday and Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon is a possibility, for one last early-season antlerless hunt, with the location TBD. This early hunting is ok, as far as deer sightings, but the warm temps and skeeters are making me look forward to October ML season up in the northern zone, crossbow, regular and ML season at and maybe most of all, Holiday ML season at home. Snow and frozen bugs would be great right now.

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: