Coachdad

Buckmaster... That's a great buck. He's a 10 pointer? The big guys are never close to the camp are they? Another point is that a mile on the GPS as the crow flies, and could end up being several miles of actual dragging. Yeah,,, every buck has his own story doesn't it. I keep a hunting log in order to capture that story and remember it for years to come.

LOL... Hornady should send a warning that says... When using this bullet, if you think you missed,,, you didn't. Just wait a few seconds the deer will drop. :-) Seriously... I've been using the SST's for at least 10 years, and several guys who I hunt with also use them. This was the only buck who did that... As I think about it.. The Hornady bullet did it's job... The deer was dead within 30 seconds.

That's a beautiful buck in your avatar. It is a relief to see that someone had the same thing happen!!! An interesting similarity is that I use a .308 with Hornady SST 150 Grain bullet (with the red plastic tip) but they are handloaded. Is that the same one?

You guys are real nice,,, and I hope you don't get the impression that I'm bragging. Several of you asked to see the story of my 235 pound buck, so here is comes... This is a picture the 8 pointer I got in 2013. I blanked out my face because I don’t want the locals to recognize me and start hunting on my property while I’m not there during the week. Saturday Morning November 09, 2013 (Sunrise 6:42 Sunset 4:40) (Wind from the west 7 mph) The goal was to shoot a 6 pointer or better. (The week before I passed on a total of 8 deer and I missed a coyote also looking for a 6 pointer or better.) My plan was to set up my climber overlooking the saddle below the plateau where I saw 3 does and lots of sign the previous week. I would sit there for the first 2 hours and then work my way up the mountain to the plateau. I marked a good tree the week before that I planned to use in the morning. A friend of mine also went out in the morning. He was going about 2 miles west of me. It was a cold morning with temps in the lower 20’s. I got to my tree around 5:45 (sunrise was around 6:42). It was a nice tall straight tree that allowed me to go up about 35-40 feet and gave me a birds eye view of the hill. There wasn’t much going on, saw a few squirrels running up and down a cherry tree. Then around 7:50 I saw a deer up the hill to my right. I looked closer and I could see 2 small does running from east to west along the saddle, about 100 yards to the north of me. Behind them was a larger doe. Just as she came into sight, I could see a huge buck chasing her about 20 yards behind her. It didn’t take me long to see that it was a big buck (he looked like a 10 pointer). He had a very dark coat compared to the does and he looked as big as a horse. They were pretty high on the hill, and heading in the direction that would take them behind a few blow-downs getting them out of sight. Since they were all running, as soon as the Buck presented a good shot, I yelled out “mmmerp” in order to stop him. They ALL stopped in their tracks and I shot at the buck. But it looked like I missed him! All 4 deer just stood there (they didn’t know where the shot came from). So I quickly chambered another round and shot again. He just stood there again. At this point I’m wondering why I’m missing and trying to tell myself to relax, and shoot straight. So I quickly chambered a third round, and as I looked through the scope, I saw him stagger, so I didn’t shoot. He dropped in a couple seconds and tumbled down the hill. Once he started rolling, the other 3 deer started running down the hill too. They took off to the south. I called my friend on the radio and told him I had a “big buck down”. I told him that he was a 10 pointer the size of a horse. He offered to come right over and help, but I told him the rut is on and he should stay in his stand and hunt. I knew that I could drag him downhill to my property and then get the ATV for the rest of the way to camp. Since I was in my climber it took a while to get down, I couldn’t wait to see my buck, but I kept telling myself; “take your time he’s not going anywhere”. As I finally walked up to him I noticed that his neck was huge, and then I saw that he didn’t have any brow tines. He is a large 8 pointer without any brow tines (he should be a 10 pointer). I’ve never shot a buck without brow tines before. I checked to see if I hit him both times. He did in fact have 2 bullet holes in him. They were both right behind the shoulder about an inch apart. I’ve never shot a deer and have him not jump and run, let alone be shot 2 times without moving! (Very strange) Dragging him out of the woods wasn’t too bad since it was mostly downhill. I got him to the edge of my property, left him there and got the ATV. When I tried to get him on the back of the ATV, I couldn’t lift him enough to get him on. After about 20 minutes, I realized, I wouldn’t be able to lift him on. So I decided to try winching him on. I ran the winch cable around a sapling, over the ATV, and hooked it to my drag rope. I started winching him up from the side of the ATV. The sapling broke just as his head crowned the ATV rack. So then, I dragged the deer behind the ATV, ran the winch over the front rack, over the seat and over the back rack. As I winched him up onto the back rack, his antler stuck into my arm (through my sweatshirt). Once I stopped the bleeding, I started winching again. His head finally got on the back rack, I tried to lift his body, but couldn’t. So I winched him some more. As I winched him, his antler stuck into the seat of the ATV and put a big gash into it! So now I had to back him up to get the antler out of the seat. I winched him and twisted his head onto the seat. I finally had enough of him on the ATV to allow me to lift his hind legs on. Loading him on the ATV ended up taking about 45 minutes! I tied him on the rack and slowly made my way back to camp. My friend got to camp about an hour later. We decided to weigh him. We couldn’t believe when we hoisted him up the scale read 235 lbs. We put him down and tried again to confirm. At that point we figured the scale was wrong. So we decided to verify it by weighing my friend who said he weighed 205. The scale was correct.

Yeah... I also tried this but ended up just logging the details of the successful hunts. it is fun to look back after 10-15 years and read what you wrote (not to mention seeing pictures of a guy without gray hair).

As far as taste goes... I don't taste any difference from the ones I get down in Connecticut. But the Adirondack hunt is much better than the CT hunt. The deer in the Adirondacks are much more aware of their surroundings than the deer in CT. It is a night and day difference. Sometimes it seems like the CT deer are just plain stupid in comparison. I agree with you regarding the mild winter. Last year's mild winter gave my camp the best year of hunting since I've been going up there. Next year should be good hunting. (But it has been terrible for snowmobiling.) I'll post the full story of the 8 pointer on a separate thread when I get some time to edit it (maybe tomorrow)... My log book contains details that need to stay private such as GPS Coordinates.. The best parts of that story are after the hunt trying to get him back to camp. Cabelas sells scales that are pretty cheap. It is always good to have one on hand in case you get a monster that you want to weigh.

He was chasing does... Saturday Morning November 09, 2013

I'm wondering how many people keep a log of your successful hunts. I started hunting in 1977 and had quite a few successful deer hunts since. Unfortunately I didn't start keeping a log of successful hunts until 2001. Since 2001 I have logged the details of the hunt for every deer that I've shot (Bow, ML, Rifle). While I remember every deer, it is fun to go back and read the small details that have long been forgotten. I'm wondering if many other hunters do this... or am I overly anal.

Thanks - I shot a 235 pound 8 pointer in 2013 (this one was my BEST STORY ever)...but this 9 pointer from 2016 had a real wide rack and lots of mass.. All bucks in the Adirondacks are trophy's.

Just over 210 pounds

Thanks... I keep a log book so it was pretty much a copy and paste with a little editing.

This is a picture of the nice 9 pointer I got this year. I blanked out my face because I don’t want the locals to recognize me and start hunting on my property while I’m not there during the week.. Here is the story: There is a nice stand of oak trees about a mile north of my camp. It is a nice hike and mostly uphill. I had started a mock scrape in this area on October 15 using Active Scrape in a dripper bag. I set up a trail camera overlooking it. I refreshed it with Active Scrape on Oct 22, and I added 50% of Golden Scrape to the dripper on Oct 30 and dropped off my climbing tree stand at a tree nearby. At that point I had a few pictures of small bucks at the scrape and the plan was to hunt this area next week when the rut should be starting up. Saturday November 05, 2016 (Sunrise was at 7:38 AM Sunset was at 5:44 PM Wind was from the West 9 mph. ) I went up to my mock scrape area in the morning. My climber was there from the week before but I took the seat with me. When I got to my climber I found that the squirrels ate the bungee cord that keeps your boots in the stirrups while climbing, so I installed my seat and carefully climbed in without the bungee. When the sun came up, I realized that I was up too high and I didn’t have a good view because most of the leaves were still on the small beech trees. Since I was already all set up I just stayed there for the morning. I saw 2 does go by about 50 yards west of me. I could barely see them due to the leaves on the beech trees. As I was getting down from the morning hunt, I confirmed that I had a much better view about half way up that tree. So the plan for the afternoon hunt would be to only go half way up. When I got down, I went over to the mock scrape emptied the dripper into the scrape and refilled it with Golden Scrape. I grabbed the SC card so I could check it when I got back to camp. There were 4 pictures of bucks hitting the scrape, but they were young. I went out for my afternoon hunt about 1:30 PM (sunset was around 5:44). I tied a bungee cord on the stand for my boots and went about half way up the tree as planned (about 20 feet high). It was a quiet day; it was pretty warm and the wind was blowing from the West. I watched the squirrels and chipmunks scamper around and make noise all afternoon. I was now able to see the mock scrape which was about 40 yards south of me. Going half way up the tree allowed me to see much further now than in the morning. At about 5:15 PM I heard a branch snap to my northeast. I looked and looked in that area but I couldn’t see anything. But I knew it wasn’t a squirrel that made that noise. So I kept looking in that area. Finally I saw the top (black fur) of a deer’s tail. So I kept watching. Then the deer took a step, I could see it was a buck. I could see he was a good buck, but I couldn’t tell how good because the leaves were still too heavy. So I grabbed my gun, but I didn’t have a clear shot through the beech leaves. As time went on, I could only see parts of the deer. So I kept watching him. He was taking his time walking to the west. He would disappear from time to time, but I kept spotting parts of his body when he moved. Finally at about 5:30 PM he stepped into a spot where I had a clear shot at his vitals. I knew I had to thread the needle and I had to do so quickly while I still had the chance. So I quickly took aim and fired. When I hit him, he jumped and took off. Now I could see he was a REAL GOOD BUCK and I could see that he had been quartering away when I shot him. I think I heard him fall. Climbing down with a climber seems to take forever when you have a deer down. When I got down off my stand, I walked over to where I shot him, and found lots of blood. I followed the blood about 40-50 yards and found him. The blood trail was easy to follow. I hit him a little lower than I thought and I ended up hitting him in the heart. If he didn’t snap that branch, I would never had seen him. It is also a good thing that I was only half way up the tree. I don’t think I would have seen him if I was up high in the tree. Everything fell into place nicely. I can’t say if the mock scrape had anything to do with it or not, because he was at least 75 yards north of it. But I think I will do the same thing again next year just in case. He is a 9 pointer with a 20 inch inside spread. I’ll get him scored when I get him back from the taxidermist.

Thanks for the warm welcome... Yeah... I'm is the southern part of Adirondack park. It is still a 3 1/2 hour drive for me to get up there from Connecticut. I wouldn't want to have any of a longer drive. I average being up at my camp about 26 weekends of the year. There are no AG fields around. I own 50 acres and I'm bordered to my north by state land. The private land in the area is wooded but all logged off. The State Land is too mature and could use some selective logging (but of course that will never happen due to forever wild). I see a lot of does in my area and mostly small bucks. There are a few nice ones around. I got a nice 9 pointer this year. I'll post the story from this year's hunt in a separate post. Thanks again for the warn welcome.

Hi All, I just found this forum today and I'm loving reading many of the posts. I live in Connecticut but I've been hunting in Adirondack Park since 1994. I have a camp in Funton county. Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself.