cas

^ Not fun. I briefly thought I'd had one stolen at the range one day. A rather sickening twenty minutes.

I dunno... that video tells me that if you put something in the woods that doesn't smell right and deer smell it, they won't like it. Shocker.

^ And to clarify, my desire isn't really about increasing my chances, but rather the ability to sped time in the woods with my muzzle loaders when it's warmer and potentially dryer.

Beautiful photos. I've only seen one in the wild once, sitting on a clear cut at sunrise on opening day. I saw this "bird" fly past me, land in a tree, then RUN up the tree! I thought I was losing it! About a half hour later he came back the other way doing the same thing and I realized what it was. The only other one I ever saw was dead in a conibear trap I'd placed inside a family members attic. I never would have imagined we had any around here before that.

It's crazy, I see deer at work, more days than I don't. They're like squirrels, they look up at you, then usually just go back about their business.

I used a game bag one year when the were borderline and there were birds and bugs about. This year birds were landing on it and eating tallow off it while I was skinning it. lol

Decades ago I lamented that there wasn't an early muzzle loading season in the southern zone, every year wishing for a change. That was back when it was round ball shooters only, no optics and "modern" guns where close to unheard of. If it were still like that I'd say... have one every few years like the olympics. So I voted no. Especially now days with our current laws and guns. Wanna make it a primitive flintlock only season once every 4-5 years if deer numbers allow, Mmmmaybe....

Like trying to find deer in a crowded subway car.

Poor quality and highly cropped... The Holiday Inn parking lot this morning in South Setauket. SUNY Stony Brook campus Sept/Oct. It's depressing to see things like this all the time, to actually see deer almost daily, then go north to hunt and see so little. Of course these deer are accustomed to seeing people and not really wild.

I'm curious about the "obviously spooked by them" comment and how you know this? One still photo and one running away? I usually put mine about 9-10 feet up in a tree, more to help prevent theft than anything. I havee an older, crappier, "brighter", noisier one that I put at the base of trees because I don't care if it gets stolen. Even in photos where it's pretty obvious they know the camera is there (day or night), I've never seen anything to lead me to believe the were spooked by it.

I used to love muzzle loading season, I got to hunt how I wanted, where I wanted with no worries, no fears. I still love my muzzleloaders and every few years I hunt with them in the gun season, my caplocks and flintlocks. But I gave up on the muzzle loading season. It's kind of pointless now. The last year I hunted it, between bow season and gun season, I spent 19 days in the woods. I saw 3 other hunters in the woods. Then in the muzzleloading season I hunted 1.5 days.... and ran into 7 other hunters. Good lord. Phooey on that mess.

Is this info still good/up to date? When the temps hit -12 up on the hill Thanksgiving night and the deer turned into stone, I sure would have paid someone to do it instead of me.

Jeesh, 25 years isn't that old. I've shot slugs that were more than twice that old with no worries.

Way back when... friends were going to school at UAA... there was a cow moose that would stick it's head through their kitchen window and they would fead it bread and what not. I would tell them, one of these days that moose is going to decide she wants to come in and it's going to walk right through that wall and bring the window frame with it.

Less than a 1/2? Wish I were joking. :(

On real cold days I know exactly where to find deer. Problem is I can no longer hunt there. Then the only thing worse than not knowing where the deer are, is knowing where the deer are.

His pod casts are enjoyable if you're looking for something to listen to. Mostly about stuff I will never do, but I enjoy it none the less.

Making it the sneakiest mountain lion ever. That's one clever and deceptive kitty!

Not what you'd call "live" from the woods, but I haven't had internet till tonight. Took this young doe Wednesday afternoon, young and dumb... double dumb really, she did two stupid things which allowed me to give her the bad news. Actually it wasn't hard at all. I just walked out, pointed my evil killing machine towards the woods, set it on full semi auto and it just went crazy killing everything in sight. Amazingly, no children were harmed.

I always thought the law was it belonged to whomever shot it last. Heck, just let me get a picture of it and you can have it. I get my trophy photo, know I killed it... no gutting, no dragging or no butchering and I get to keep hunting? Sign me up!

None otter worthy.

My biggest bone head move was staying out too long. Back when we were still shotgun only, I used to like to lay out in the middle of a corn field mornings and evening. One evening I was fighting the cold something awful, really shivering, but just trying to stay out a little longer. "Just 15 more minutes." "Just 10 more minutes." After a bit the shivering stopped and I started to warm up. Time went by, darkness came with no deer showing. When I tried to roll over and sit up, I learned that the reason I'd started to warm up was my body had stopped sending blood to my legs. There I am in the dark, 1/4 mile from camp, in the middle of a field with totally numb legs. Oh.. a bit of panic set in. lol I started to rub and punch my legs trying to get the blood flowing. It worked. Lots of pain and my core temperature crashed. Violent shaking with the start of hypothermia. Wonderful. I managed to eventually get to my feet and stumble down the hill and down the road. Not fun. I was truly scared. I never pushed it after that.

I kind of got stranded. Running low on fuel for heat, I spent about 16 hours trying to get down from the "house" to the road. That's my fear now. My blind that I waste opening weekend in will be flattened under the snow. And will I be able to get anywhere near the house. If I can, will I be able to get back? Not happy at all about the snow. I like a no snow for a while, then a dusting of snow towards the second weekend.

Long time listener, first time caller... The length of the tail has me unsure.