reeltime

thanks Larry, all my neighbors know I hunt and several of them always stop over this time of the year when they see lights on in the shop. some neighbors are not real big on hunting and I don't hold that against them and will be the first to be there to help them when they are in need of help, I always keep them in mind when returning from a successful hunt just to keep peace in the neighborhood.

will be at camp to set with dad the first couple days. I am tagged out so i am just another set of eyes and ears for him and of course the designated deer dragger.

while I have never been a big fan of public display of dead deer I understand the different thoughts on it. some people don't have a truck so they have no choice but to somehow get their deer home, whether in their trunk, cargo carrier or on the outside of the vehicle and with the ticks if I had a car or suv it would certainly be on the outside of the vehicle. basically we have 3 classification groups of people in regards to the sport of hunting. 1. Hunters. 2. Anti hunters/animal rights folks. 3. folks that are middle of the fence, not animal rightists, not hunters, not against hunting. its not that we need to be hiding our kills from the anti hunters because no matter what we do we are not going to sway their thoughts. they are a smaller majority in percentage than hunters. so now we have probably the largest group the folks that are on the fence, THOSE are the people that we need to concern ourselves with, by our actions as hunters WE have the greatest possibility of putting them on one side or the other and chances are displaying a dead deer on a car with blood all over the car or by making a mockery of the kill will more than likely just add more numbers to the anti side. nobody is saying we should not be proud of our sport and heritage, I think what people would like is respect for the sport and the animal ALONG with other people. people say its where our food comes from its part of the process,,,,, there is far more beef, chicken, pork consumed worldwide on a daily basis than venison,, so whens the last time you saw a dead cow on a car, a dead pig, chicken etc. you don't see pictures of dead cows hanging in peoples yards. Folks will do what they want, myself even as a lifelong hunter am appalled at some of the public displays of deer in a manner that makes me as a hunter and sportsman feel embarrassed to be lumped into the same group. All I am saying is we do not need to hide the fact that we are hunters, but just because we are hunters does not mean we need to disrespect the animals, other people and more importantly the heritage of hunting.

if you want to do a seed blend of food plot mix from one of the many suppliers just get an ingredients list and head to a local ag store. Generally its far cheaper and they have it in stock or can get it. if you buy biologic you end up paying allot just for the brand name.

bullets time of arrival and pressure stroke of the heart? I have heard allot of crazy things about deer shot placement but I have to say that right there takes the cake! whether a deer drops in its tracks or runs depends on many factors, bullet placement, displaced/transferred energy, physical damage results and also the individual deer. fully alert deer, and or deer running with a center rib shot, lungs liver are likely to bolt after a shot that that goes through with little energy transfer. with a faster, lighter bullet .243, 22-250, 222, 220 swift where you may not get an exit hole the entire energy load is transferred to the animal so you not only get the physical damage but all of the kinetic energy transfer. some deer will run, some will not, no possible way to put a number on how many will run -vs- drop. break the shoulders and you will likely drop the deer on the spot, same as a well placed center line base of the neck shot, both are causing catastrophic physical damage to skeletal structure, whether it be shoulder blades or cervical spine in the neck. shoulder shots provide more room for error than the neck shot but either will work to anchor a deer on the spot. no matter where or with what you shoot a deer with you are going to have some loss of meat, granted some shots will obviously cause a greater loss of meat but one thing for is for certain, you shoot them in the highest probability of anchoring on the spot and you may loose a few pounds of meat, you hit them in a spot where they may run 60-100,,,150 yards and you MAY end up loosing all of the meat because someone else gets the deer.

hey, who you callin old?

congrats to your buddy, wheelieman, beautiful buck that appears to carry good mass all the way out the main beams.

we returned from Pa. last night and I stopped by a customers house to check on their progress of having the house prepped for new hardwood floors. wasn't looking good as what was hidden under the carpet was hideous but not unexpected for a 100 year old farm house. in one corner the floor dropped 1.5 inches in 4 feet.. Anyway, started on that this morning and worked like mad till 2:30, I asked the customer if he cared if I went and jumped in my stand till dark and then come back and work if by chance I didn't shoot a buck. He just laughed and said sure go ahead, I was home and in the shower in 5 minutes. gear gathered and back on the road. I had an encounter with what I thought should of been a good buck 2 weeks ago one evening but it was way late and I was just setting in the stand waiting for all the deer to leave when this buck came in and let a hair raising loud grunt rip and when he did so every deer around me scattered. he finally left and I was able to get down and sneak out of there about 7pm without tipping any other deer off of my presence and I was sure to soak down the stand and climbing sticks with scent killer when I left. I get in there tonight and was kinda later than I wanted but the high winds last week littered my once clean walking path with limbs and a foot of crunchy leaves. I hook up the bow and ascend the 38 feet into the stand I call skyscraper, get the bow up knock an arrow hang it up, hear something and see a deer coming through the beech brush. a nice little 7 pointer walks under me smelling the scent killer I had sprayed on the climbing sticks on the way up. He hung around for a little bit and walked off, I get my pack off and calls out and tucked into my pockets and here comes another deer, he walks under me and its a small 5 point, he leaves, 5 minutes later I hear another deer coming and its the devil deer, little body ( probably a late 2014 drop) with 2 1.5-2" white spikes. I am setting there thinking well this sucks, each buck to come through is getting smaller in size so next one will probably be a button buck. My customer texted me asking if I saw anything yet, sent him a reply with still waiting on a shooter. I had just looked at my phone to check the time and it was 4:10, I hear another deer coming and out steps a basket rack 8 point. he mills around for a few minutes and then looks hard to the west, changed body posture turned and slinked back into the brush to the east. within a few minutes I see a doe to the west headed towards me and then I see HIM, she eases out into the field and with a slight n/ne breeze all evening and these deer coming from a direction they were not expected to be coming from I thought it was gonna get blown but the scent killer proved its worth and they both went out in the field directly downwind of me only 70 yards out. He just stood there watching her and I knew the only chance I had was to call and see if I could get him to investigate. I did a short tending grunt series to him and he spun around on a dime and marched right to the base of my tree but coming in on a side where the hemlock limbs provided no shot. I let him walk by the tree passing within 2 feet of the climbing stick, walked out to 6 yards stopped quartering away. As he walked under me I came to full draw, when he stopped the green pin was tight on the shoulder and high on his back. at the shot the fletching and knock disappeared right where the pin was but he just walked away! he walked a half circle about 20 yards out stopping 2 times, I could hear the blood dripping on the leaves! He walked another 10 yards ending up behind me, the whole time I am as silently as possible trying to get another arrow out and on the string while keeping an eye on him, when he just fell over kicked his feet a couple times and then it was over. I hung up the bow, took out my phone and looked at the time it was 4:30 on the button. I sent Judy and my customer a text that said big 8 down. sat there till 5 and then I had to get down to get my hands on him. filled out my tag stuffed it in his mouth and headed for the truck to come to the house to get the deer cart and change out of my hunting clothes. My customer was at my house and he went with me and had not seen a picture yet. He was a little surprised when he first saw him laying by the log. just under 18 inches inside, dead on 20 inches outside. lacks brow tine length but good G2's at 9" pretty decent 3.5 year old 8 point with a good body weight at 168 dressed.

while its true that you will never be 100% scent free, I do believe that you can get the scent level down to a point that it makes the animals believe that you may be farther away or had been through the area much earlier. I am a scent control fanatic, have been for years and will not be changing my routine anytime soon. I never wear a set of hunting clothes more than one set without rewashing them. all are washed with scent free/uv free soap. I have all of my suits in airtight containers and or scent free bags with earth wafers, from socks to coveralls or bibs, I never wear regular washed clothes while hunting. when I get to where I am hunting I spray down with scent killer spray, I spray the steps on the climbing sticks, and the leaves where I set the bow while I climb into the stand. with all I do I still play the wind, all those commercials for scent killer clothes and such and the "forget the wind just hunt" if you follow that philosophy you may be successful but i would bet that you will struggle to do so consistently and especially on mature deer. Keeping your hunting area and yourself as clean as possible and as scent free as possible will be your greatest advantage to not alerting deer to your presence, I can say that almost every buck I have killed was done so either the first or second set in a stand.

butchered today and did some measurements. 6 foot 9 inches from base of tale to tip of nose. conservative measurements on remaining side 77 inches. I will have to get a more accurate measurement later.

generally my treestands are never under 20 feet, most are 24-30 feet I do have a few at upwards of 38 feet. with the climber its hard to tell how far I will climb generally though its 25-30 feet. as far as ground blinds go, while just setting one up and hunting it you may get a shot at a deer but in my experience with them if your hunting turkeys you can set them up right in the middle of a field and have a turkey walk up and literally stick their head in the blind ( when that happened it really freaked judy out) but for deer you better brush it in and certainly set up with the wind being favorable to where the deer are traveling. what I tell people is if I came in your house and set my blind up in your living room how soon do you think it would take to notice it? remember we are in their house, they live there 24/7/365 the same with cutting shooting lanes, they notice, it takes time to get accustomed to it, some older bucks will avoid the area all together once they sense a change or human presence. an example of a properly and successful brushed in ground blind for deer.

Last year I missed a good buck at 5 yards when I clipped 1 little witch hazel branch. I said then that since the arrow clipped his left front leg that was the only buck I would hunt for last year. had no other encounter with him through the end of archery. I saw him 3 times in rifle only once where I had a sure kill no shot as he was right on the skyline and no way I was taking that shot so I passed him. I saw him this spring and a number of times through the summer and fall, with little free time to hunt I took this week off and focused 100% on his core area. passed up some bucks both saturday and monday most being 1.5's and 2.5's. Tuesday with the rain I didn't hunt. wed. morning was perfect wind for the bedding area flat in his core area, got in early with intent to set dark to dark. just at daylight I had 3 doe come running through with 2 respectable 8's following, 1 being a 2.5 and the other bigger one might have been 3.5 but he got through before I could get a full assessment of him. about 15 minutes later I can see a big buck on the skyline about 200 yards away, almost exactly where I saw the one last rifle season. he chased a doe the opposite direction. it seemed a bit misty in the air and was foggy so I checked the radar on the phone and saw no rain in the area. it was just after 7. I look out on the flat and like a phantom he just materialized out of the fog. it was Tank and he was walking directly at me. this area was logged 8 years ago and is just a sea of multifloral rose, blackberry, witch hazel, poplar, maple and sumac. I am 28 feet up in a double trunked cherry tree so I am looking down through all the brush. He makes a scrape 40 yards from me and made quite the production of it as he had leaves and mud flying 8-10 feet in the air. i couldn't really see the rack just a glimpse here and there but knew it was tank. He was on my silvertop trail but going backwards on it I covered the can call and gave a muffled bleat, he stopped looked then took another step so I bleated again making him stop. he started walking away again so I hit him with a tending grunt. he bristled up turned 180 and here he comes. still in the brush. slowly he is coming now he is right on the silvertop trail and I am 100% focused on his front shoulder. 30,25,20,15,10, he walks behind 2 mid size maples I ease to full draw, 8,7,6,5,,,, he stops settle just off the shoulder and just as I released I thought I remembered him taking a step. He lunged forward, then ran as best he could out through the maze of tangled briars. I saw him when he got over to the other side of the bedding area about 100 yards away, he stopped and was wagging his tail like a beagle on a rabbit. He turned to the right and in a couple steps he was out of sight. headed right towards an even worse area of treetops and all the other stuff listed above, you can not even crawl through their tunnels. I sent judy a text telling her I just shot tank but had not checked the arrow yet but felt he was liver hit. I eased down the tree and checked the shot site and sure enough the arrow is dripping with liver blood and stomach. I ease back up to the stand, get my pack on and let the bow down and ease back down and slowly and quietly ease to 500 yards to the truck. I was constantly checking the weather, but knew I had to wait. If I pushed it and he got down into that hollow we would never find him. Even though I watched that fletching go through his shoulder I KNOW what evidence is present on the arrow and that tells me to wait. I gave him till 4 when we got back to the stand, eased 30 yards out the scuffed leaves trail and no blood.... I told dad I was going to get in the stand and direct him to the last spot i saw him. it took him almost a half hour to get out to 100 yards to the spot. I said stay there and I will get over there, I work my way over and now within sight of where he should be standing but no orange hat, I call out to him ( not shouting ) no response,,, now dads 83, yeah in good health but ya never know.... I call him on the phone,,, where the heck are you I told you to stay here, him- im right here. me- well where the H$%^ is right here not where I told you to stay.. him- im right here with your deer... I almost dropped the phone. I got down to him and i was elated then deflated when I realized his left side was gone! I wanted to puke! once I knew it was tank I never looked at his head again. after tagging and dressing I got back to camp for the cart, back to the deer and then the work began.. about 3 hours into the trip out dad says I don't know why you shoot deer back here because we go through this every time. all I said was I think the results speak for themselves. by the time we got back and got him washed out and hung up I had forgot to get pics. and I was a bloody mess from my own blood, tired, sore, dehydrated, etc. so I got a couple pics this morning. I also put him on the scale, 214lbs dressed. antler bases are 8.25 and 8.5 inches. pretty respectable numbers even for a half rack.

and there in lies the rub, people thinking crossbows are the "Cure all" for poor shots. if you hit them directly in the shoulder blade it probably doesn't matter if its a longbow, recurve, compound or crossbow, chances are pretty high you will not recover the deer. people think that just because they have a scoped crossbow they can shoot deer at 60 yards. while they may get lucky and kill one making it common practice will likely result in more wounded and lost than shot and recovered. there are plenty of unrecovered deer shot with a crossbow every year where crossbows are legal, they are NOT a cure all to poor shooting, shot selection and shot placement.

were these bought from lowes or home depot?

i would NOT recommend a cable or rope, no matter how many ribbons you tie on them. a gate would be my first choice and can be purchased fairly reasonable from tractor supply. You most certainly have to be careful doing anything that could be construed as a means of causing personal or property damage. While it does stink that in today's society it seems the criminals have more rights than the victims, it is what we have to deal with until things change. We all want to do things to keep those machines off our property but remember doing something like spike boards, cables, chains, covered ditches, whatever people can think up may be fun to think about, do, brag about etc.... BUT let some kid get killed or worse yet maimed for life and YOU have to live with that the rest of your life, on your conscience, through the courts and maybe even in jail depending on the circumstances. set up a trail camera, get plate numbers, descriptions, pictures, dates and times and allow the police to handle it, they get a few trespassing and property damage tickets they will find another route and word will get out to stay off your land.

we took the grandkids to camp last week. I left at 1 am wed. so I would be there in time to shower, load up the climber and gear and go set in a tree for a little while. I also got to set for a few hours wed. evening until everyone else got there. Thursday morning I took Gavin to our south pasture and at daylight we had 3 deer working their way out of our hay field into the pasture but they had to get down the hill for a safe shot, as I was explaining to him why he couldn't shoot while they are on the skyline what I didn't know was there were 10 more deer standing on the well pad right above us and they ended up busting us. They trotted down the well road on into the weeds where I wasn't comfortable with the set up, the deer were nervous, low light even though it was legal shooting time, the tall weeds, his first shot at a deer and using a 220 swift. They ended up moving out of the pasture and we moved on to another spot for a few hours. Did some work around camp on the driveway and then hooked up the brush hog on the 504 and went to the south pasture and did some much needed mowing. The afternoon found us tucked into the brush on a point in the pasture, it was pushing almost 70 but I knew deer were coming into the pasture every evening. just before the end of legal shooting time I see a deer come out down by the water tub. I knew it was the orphan fawn from this year and I was gonna tell Gavin to let it go but he was already on the gun so I walked him through everything and when he was on it to let me check the scope first. he had the crosshairs right where they should be. I let him back on the gun and said when your ready shootBOOOM.. he didn't wait for me to finish. The deer dropped where it stood. what a mix of emotions walking up to the deer, watching a 9 year old finally tasting success after 2 years of trying, seeing the joy and excitement in his eyes and hearing it in his voice was something else. I was proud of his patience, persistence at practicing and of the 150 yard shot that he made. he has more than proven himself on the bench so I had no reservations of allowing him to shoot. Friday morning was Addison's turn, back to the pasture before light, just at daylight one of the big 8 points walked through and up over the hill into the hay field. ( no antlered deer with rifle for the kids) there were already 6 doe's and fawns in the pasture when a doe stepped out 20 yards to our left but she picked the 3 of us out right away, she didn't spook but was really nervous and ended up walking back in the woods. I look to the right and 2 doe's are walking right to us at 50 yards. I got Addison and the caldwell system moved into position but she was shaking so bad she missed even with the shooting system. we checked, double checked and triple checked that she indeed missed, went back to camp set up her chair, the caldwell system and a target and a box of 22's and had her shoot, she never missed shooting at 40 yards. did some more mowing and set up a ground blind where deer had been coming out every night for 2 months. got it pretty well brushed in and we got in the blind about 3:30. again it was pushing 70, she was wide awake,,,,me I was fighting fatigue but stayed awake. At 6pm. she whispers papa a deer,,, I had already seen it, then a second one came out and that one was the one I wanted taken if at all possible, it was a 3 year old doe that had never dropped fawns. Addison was really shaking, almost hyperventilating, I got her calmed down and had her get on the big deer but she couldn't shoot as the other one was standing behind it. Addison finally started to calm down after about 10 minutes. I told her to line up the scope and let me check it. the deer was 50 yards broadside. so she moves the gun this way and that way and after a minute or so says ok, I check and the crosshairs are right behind the shoulder. I ease the safety off and said now double check the crosshairs and then gently squeeze the trigger. When the rifle cracked the deer did a super exaggerated mule kick almost doing a face plant right there, tucked her tail and bolted off only to make it 80 yards, Dad watched the whole thing from his stand 20 yards from us and he watched it fall. When he said its down Addison was so excited she couldn't even talk. we gathered her stuff up and got out of the blind and waited for her mom and dad to get there. to say everyone was excited would be an understatement. and for a 6 year old I cant even imagine, but I could see it. our blind setup. to say these 2 are hooked on deer hunting would be an understatement! its a real shame that NY can not get with the times to do more with the youth hunters.

western pa. on my family farm

the master bed and bath, the washer/dryer was never talked about when I drew up the blueprints and having them thrown in after things were built really threw a monkey wrench into my planned master bath. oh well I guess I will survive,,,,, I will say that washer is a 1 and DONE deal!!! when and if it dies the washer and dryer are going downstairs! I will build a laundry room addition before I carry another washer up all those stairs! or at least ask for help next time! I got bored one saturday evening and decided to build another built in dresser. this past friday I built the master bath/laundry cabinet, I built the washer/dryer cabinet a couple weeks ago when I put them in.

we broke ground on the camp addition 5/5/2014, working weekends, during vacation, a day here and there, missed most of july's, august's and all of january, february and most of march. we did some looong hours while there simply to try and take advantage of what little time I could be there to work on it. the only thing left is finishing the basement and that is going to have to wait, i would like a little free time to enjoy it but I have slacked on farm work there and need to spend some hours on the tractor mowing before it snows......and MAYBE even get to set in a tree for more than an hour here or there. its been a tight couple years as I did everything out of pocket,,,,turns out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are not so bad. :-) the original camp kitchen dining room, installed recessed lighting when I had part of the ceiling down to plumb in master bath on second floor. also installed heat runs in kitchen and downstairs bedroom, and put an electrical outlet where she wanted the microwave to set on the tea cart. living room with new curtains ( the lace ones are GONE) holy moly curtains are highway robbery! also built a bookcase one night when I had an extra hour to kill. grandkids bedrooms as they call them we still have a bunch of pictures and fish and duck mounts to find wall space for.

if you buy the archery license AND mzzleloader its a combined tag. but you can buy just the archery or muzzleloader license in addition to your regular license.

if you buy the archery license AND mzzleloader its a combined tag. but you can buy just the archery or muzzleloader license in addition to your regular license.

I bought the go pro this spring in hopes of recording some turkey hunts and after 3 recorded kills I have to say that its the worst 400.00 investment I ever made. all 3 birds are less than 35 yards and all 3 look like a speck of pepper on the video! and the sound quality is terrible. the first bird in pa gobbled 20 times at 20 yards or less and its barely audible on the video. maybe it will be more useful on the charter boat this year.

there were lots of happy bucks running around. like I have said many times since this all started back in early 2000's doc, they went the wrong way on unit sizes. another issue is the northern tier of the state went to a 3 point to a side while the richer soil western central area was 4 points to a side, ALOT of folks started going back to their camps in marrienville, benezzette, emporium because their thought was I have a better chance of shooting a legal buck, when the buck didn't come along they shot a doe. the first couple years it was combined buck/doe all season and thats when they really trimmed numbers. they did clear cutting throughout the ANF and then fenced off areas to protect from deer browsing, the results were very noticable, but again like I have said it went too far in some area, but to set back and allow the herd to grow at the rate it was growing back in the 70's/80's would likely of been more detrimental to the herd especially with the human population increase and increased rate of habitat loss due to more homes being built. we all like to see deer while on stand, how many we should see will vary from hunter to hunter, whats best for the habitat will vary from hunter to hunter, I do know that I wouldn't want to be the deer biologist for PA. because you will never please all the hunters.

i see info from a person with axe to grind against the pgc. his closing statement of our whitetail deer population has been slaughtered to allow trillium flowers to grow speaks volumes. there is lots of info out there on this guy, http://www.outdoornews.com/January-2011/PA-Eveland-his-critical-report-create-buzz/