RoadKill44

Huh? I've had deer run by at warp speed. He was bent on getting out of that space at that time. I don't think it was caused by gravity waves. That's my theory.

Back in my younger days (Before I knew better) I reached out with a 12 gauge and dropped a doe about 90 yards out with a slug to the back of the head (a lucky shot). My first year with rifle nailed a bedded buck with a neck shot at 100 yards. Of course I dialed the scope up to 9 power and I had a tree providing a solid barrel rest. With my bow, two were taken at 20 yards and the crossbow harvested a buck at 40 yards. I wouldn't attempt beyond 30Yds with a bow or 40Yds with a crossbow. But that's me.

I too tried the Throw & Grow without luck. Possibly because I raked the leaves and planted in June. The exposed soil, dry conditions, lack of sunlight and pH were probably all against me. Still the number of oaks seems to produce what the deer are looking for and no harm was done. It can be tough making a good spot better. One thing I did do was to clear a path like Growalot mentioned. I call them shooting lanes never more than 6 to 8 feet wide and never more than 5 or six lanes all radiating from the blind. The fallen limbs and brush cleared from the path are leaned and tangled into trees and brush on one side of the path creating a fence of sorts. Deer passing through end up walking toward you in those paths. I also do not touch the brush in the blind area unless it's obviously blocking a shooting lane. Even then I'll bend it over three feet above the ground to create natural blind and living browse. I leave a lot of the area untouched and avoid clearing out too much. A deer standing in a heavy brush area or behind a hemlock blocking your shot, will eventually step into one of the shooting lanes. A second suggestion is to ask the owner if you can clear a few trees from around those oaks you mentioned. That will help them produce and open sky for more low browse to grow. As you said the green paste in the gut is probably grass or clover. If they have access to grass or clover you may have a hard time competing with their current source. Any low browse near the blind is something different and provides a cause to linger while passing through.

A better picture showing clips (top clips only at this point) and the curtain fold-over concept to adjust mesh height. The clips are 3/4 Inch wide binder clips with a screw and washer holding them in place.

That'll work. To keep them from blowing in the wind, do you have dowel to secure on bottom as well? I had problems with wind even with weights. Not so much because of the movement but noise would make them look up.

I've gone through the same thing. Both my wife and daughter-in-law sew and visit Jo-Ann's regularly. I managed to get light weight waterproof camo material and small netting mesh and made curtains for my tower blind. The curtains are 12 inches wide and a little less than 30" long. The top 14 inches and the bottom 8 inches are the rain proof camo Material. The middle 8 inches is the "see-through" mesh window. The bottom also has a 2 Inch high pocket were I insert a 1-1/2" by 1/4" wooden slat 11 inches long for weight to keep the curtain from blowing in the wind. Clips hold the curtains in place such that a slight tug gets them out of the way for an archery shot. While they are in place I can duck in behind the curtain and still watch the game through the mesh. The window openings are 2ft high by 4ft wide for archery. Shown here are the two curtains, one on each side, with a 12" by 24" solid curtain clipped at the top center. The only adaptation I have made was to remove the wooden slat weights and add clips to hold the bottom of the curtain as well. I found that a heavy wind would still blow the curtains and the wooden slats made noise falling back against the window frame. With two years of experience I can vouch for there value. They're the nuts!! The cloth is quiet and breaks the wind. The clips stop movement, allow for quick removal and with added length the placement of the mesh window height is adjustable.

Nope - Don't reload.

8X - Passed on two bucks early archery 8X - Myself at camp took 1 buck + 1 doe 8X - Seven others at camp 3 bucks + 1 doe 8H - Zero taken with 1 near opportunity late archery. 9H - Son got a nice buck out of his backyard

Revisit Yellowstone for a week or two. I was last there in Aug. of 2000 and it was fabulous then. One highlight was waking up at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel to Elk Bugling just outside on the lawn. Yosemine would be nice too. Hawaii, Mount Rushmore, Grand Canyon, Pikes Peak, Bad Lands, Colorado Dude Ranch, Painted Desert, Glacier National Park ... I think I need a bigger bucket.

How about a plaque like finished board - Lets say a three to four foot long 1 by 6 with routed edges. This board would mount flat to a wall like a plaque. Then strategically place short finishing nails about an inch down from the top of your plaque/board. Drive the nails in at a slight slant such that 3/16" to 1/4" remain showing for hanging purposes. I would also recommend predrilling the nails to avoid splitting the board. Optionally you could use wooden pegs, dowels or cup hooks but this would limit you to hanging the calls from their lanyards. Hanging the calls from the handle end may cause the calls to open awkwardly and result in a poor display. However, at the risk of changing the tone of your calls (for better or worse), drill each with a small 1/8" diameter hole through the base in the opposite end. With the calls hanging "handle down" and with the nail spacing arranged for the variety of call widths, I believe the display would have a better appearence. You may not even have to drill the hole completely through to the box interior if the call bases were thick enough. And, I really don't think a small hole would effect the calls tone as long as the hole is in the base. You may even find room to drill the hole in the thicker box end piece.

Slow Cooker - Venison /Corn Chili 1 Lb. Ground Venison (Chopped & Pre-Fried), 15 Oz. Can Diced Tomatoes, 15 Oz. Can Red Kidney Beads, 15 Oz. Can Kernel Corn, 4 Oz Can of Mushrooms 1 Pkg. McCormick Chili Mix. seasoned with Salt, Pepper, and Crushed Red Pepper. Two meals tonight and plenty left over for Super Bowl Snacking.

Fangs and a cool mounting idea. What a treasure.

I managed to find two of the old photographs that best shows the mane prior to being caped out. One is the only close-up and the second is as it hung shortly after taken. There were several pictures taken but nearly all others were positioned (frontal head shots) to show the rack.

My two dogs were barking up a storm around 4:45PM. In the long shadows of house from the setting sun, there were eight doe crossing the yard along the hedge row. There was no horn visible but a couple could have been buttons. so they are still around.

The webinar mentioned using this website to download recordings from both webinars. http://blogs.cornell.edu/cerp/deer/ I haven't gone this link yet but, for those who didn't attend the webinar, this is the link they gave. Warning - Each session was 1 hour 30 minutes long. Other interesting information is supposed to be there too.

The wife and I put down 6 inches of backstraps sliced into medallions and fried with a sprinkle of oregano. Also on the plate was sweet tater and broccoli. A glass of white zin. Mmm Mm

The good news is: It sounds like your freezer is not empty and inspite of the difficulty, you do enjoy yourself. Seven weeks off work is a vacation bordering on partial retirement. Gotcha beat - Retired. [Grinning]

Well then to answer that end of the topic, I've primarily hunted big woods for 56 years. It is private land but up until the 80's there was 400 to 500 acres of solid woodland. The key word is was. Gradually strings of posted signs appeared blocking off portion after portion until now we are limited to 100 acres. All is still big woods but not as public as it used to be. Yet it survives and supports eight hunters out of our cabin. We get five to ten deer each year on average. We often talk of our record year (1989) when ten guys harvested 16 deer. We had five buck hanging the first day. The most enjoyable part for me is the first week of deer hunting out of the cabin. 6 to 10 guys waking up to venison and pancakes, spending the days in the woods and exchanging stories in the evening. I've just gotten into hunting suburban backyards which presents a whole new challenge. This is definitely private land on a small scale. Here I'm on my own but the number of deer seen and the challenge keeps me going back. Compared to big woods this is no woods.

It seems then that you have made the choice to hunt as you do. There are many others doing the same thing and I would be the last to say it's wrong. For me it would be a tough hunting method to adhere to, passing up on a 6 or 8 point hoping to fill the tag with a monster. However, if and when you achieve your goals, you'll be able to snap your suspenders with a little more pride than the rest of us. That's why they call it a sport. I applaud you. Doing the math 11 different bucks at a 3 doe to 1 buck ratio is an estimated 44 deer. 44 deer on 400 acres amounts to 70 deer per square mile. I'm no expert either but, those numbers scream "sanctuary" and overpopulation. Big bucks, little racks - ditto. What are your fawn drop and fawn survival numbers. Are you seeing any triplets in the early spring? or are they mostly single births? How big are your doe groups during hunting season? Doe will remain within a mile of their birth location. Buck on the other hand will range out four or five miles from their birth location. So it is vary much the possibility that your neighbors are dropping those bucks you pass up. I'm just learning about this stuff myself, hence the claim of not being an expert. I've just been doing a lot of research and reading over the last year or so. Maybe my mind is just geared to see problems where they don't exist. But this surely matches what I've read.

The fact that blood is visible on the head and the deer is bedded just off the road would indicate deer/vehicle accident. The big lump and struggle to limp away reinforces the reason for bedding in the open and near a road. If hit by a car the shed may be near the road rather than were bedded. I do have road kill experience - hence the name given to me many years ago. I've seen three or four deer along the road but, where one use worth bothering with, I was on another urgent mission and couldn't take the time.

Several years ago, a young hunter brought in the spleen instead of liver. Spleen is the same color and from the same general area but it's more gelatinous and definitely not liver. The kid took a kind ribbing and now he knows the difference. On the left are heart and liver. The right shows the smaller spleen. Size, shape and skin gloss is one way to tell. Also the liver is attached to the diaphragm. In left hand photo the attachment would have been on the upper right opposite the feathered edge.

If any daring soles out there want to try venison liver here is how I prepare it. Liver is sliced across its width, not lengthwise. Slice the liver about 1/4 inch thick. Flop the slices on a dinner plate with ample flour to coat both sides of each slice. Let all slices rest on the flour as you get the frypan ready. Put a large frypan on medium heat with two tablespoons of butter. A cast iron skillet works best. Important Note: Once in the frypan, you want to handle the liver as little as possible. Moving it, flopping it and flexing the meat will toughen it. Place the liver slices next to one another were you want them to stay. Again don’t move them around and salt as desired. Experience will tell you when they are ready to turn. About 2 minutes. Turn them over only once, leaving them where they fall. Some blood may rise through the top cooked side. This is ok. Experience will tell you when they are ready to serve. About 2 minutes. If too much blood surfaces, you might have to flip them again for a short time to seer the blood. Liver should be cooked through. (Not red in the center) A large frypan should hold about eight slices of liver. Should you need to fry a second or third batch, scrape the pan a little and add two tablespoons of butter for each batch. We usually fry onions with butter ahead of time in a separate smaller frypan. Cook the onions browning them slightly. Serve a teaspoon of fried onions in each liver slice. Liver is often coupled with a side of fried sliced potatoes.

I may be opening my mouth where I shouldn’t but, judging from many of your statements your property may be at or beyond carrying capacity for the deer you have. Here is what you’ve written: My family and I own about 400 acres. Our land holds a lot of deer with a really good buck to doe ratio. I would guess I'm somewhere around 3-1 doe to buck ratio. It's not a lack of deer I see a ton of deer at home. Some are decent bucks but it has never held a "big" one. a lot of 110"-120" but nothing bigger. I’ve read where deer at carrying capacity will start to suffer. Doe will be small, fawns will be few and bucks will not develop those big racks you are looking for. Other signs are seen in the habitat. When down on one knee, can you see for long distances in the woodlands. No abundance of browse at the 1 to 4 foot level. More of your words: It's not that I'm not killing deer, I'm not seeing deer I want to kill. I see a lot of deer but rarely shoot any at home. I passed on 11 different bucks at home this year. I have only shot 1 deer on our land in the last 3 years. I am the first to admit that I am way more "picky" I’ve read where deer populations grow each spring by 40% to 60%. That means conditions will get worse unless the population is reduced by an equal amount. Weaker doe drop few fawns and during hard times fawns suffer more than the adult deer. Runt fawn bucks don’t develop those big racks when they do mature. Being a meat hunter I would suggest “Start shooting man”. LOL At least treat this as food for thought. If I were a hunter for big Racks I’d look into it. I think there are a few experts (deer biologists) out there. Maybe the local DEC could help you. Here is a link. It wasn’t the one I was looking for but it’s a start. http://www.buckmanager.com/2013/07/16/determining-carrying-capacity-for-deer-management/

anyone for legalizing atlatl?

I don’t believe there is any one knife that can be the best thing to carry into the woods for deer hunting. Depending on your needs, one size doesn’t fit all. While there are multifunction Swiss army knives, very few deer hunters are carrying them. Here is what 55 years of experience has brought me to. Starting left to right: I have a Gerber saw. The 5-1/2 inch lock back blade folds down to 6-1/2 inches and fits handily into a cargo pant pocket. I use it the cut brush and branches up to 4 inches in diameter. For me it’s a must carry if you intend to patch ground blinds and clear shooting lanes. Next is, what I call, my Toad Stabber. Made by Imperial, this was my first hunting knife and it’s been on my hunting belt since 1959. Nothing fancy, a plastic handle but the blade has held up remarkably. It has gutted and skinned many deer in its time but I consider the blade too long and big for gutting and too awkward for skinning. Still I hang on to it to cut the small twigs and branches too small for my saw. To cut a rope or just whittle a stick to pass time, out comes the toad stabber. I would never dull my razor sharp gutting knife on other uses. Next is my Parker longhorn skinner. Both 3-1/2 inch lock back blades fold to 4-1/2 inches. This knife holds an edge very well but I don’t carry it into the woods. Although it too has gutted a few deer, I consider the blades too long for gutting and use it exclusively for skinning. My Toad Stabber is probably too dull after cutting twigs and my gutting knife is too small for skinning. The last one is my gutting knife. This little 1-7/8 inch lock back blade becomes part of your hand allowing you to blindly reach up inside a deer cavity with both hands. The rest is getting to know where to cut and in what order to cut things. Knowing where and what’s next is probably more important than which knife to pick. Hey, a Mini Buck 425 for $15 is well worth a try. I’ve converted two fellow hunters that I know of. Sharp and small is the key when it comes to gutting.