Live From The Woods 2022 - 2023 Edition!

[GreeneHunter]

2 hours ago, bugsNbows said:

How about a .30-.30 lever gun?

Has my Vote !

[DoubleDose]

Appreciate felt recoil is more than just the cartridge itself.  As posted above, gun weight plays a role, but so does stock design, and recoil pad versus butt plate.  This presumes proper shouldering technique.  A Winchester 94 .30-30 can hurt to shoot due to it's straight stock and thin hard butt plate.  A Marlin 336 .30-30 has less perceived recoil due to the different stock design and wider butt plate.

[wolc123]

27 minutes ago, DoubleDose said:

Appreciate felt recoil is more than just the cartridge itself.  As posted above, gun weight plays a role, but so does stock design, and recoil pad versus butt plate.  This presumes proper shouldering technique.  A Winchester 94 .30-30 can hurt to shoot due to it's straight stock and thin hard butt plate.  A Marlin 336 .30-30 has less perceived recoil due to the different stock design and wider butt plate.

I think that the heavier weight of the Marlin 336, compared the Winchester 94, is the primary factor in its lower felt recoil.  

[Red]

After shooting my 3030 lever this summer and hunting season my 13yr old son doesn't even want to touch his own rifles.

He fell in love with how easy it was on his shoulder.

[Five Seasons]

Had a good hunt last night after 2 hunts in a row with no sightings. Had 4 doe and a bb come flying out of the woods behind me. Was one of those "surrounded by 360" kind of moments. Knowing how spooky they are this time of year I figured what would happen next did. As I turned to get an angle on the bigger 2 doe behind me, they spooked and so did the bb in front of me. They hung around for a bit but never giving me a shot I felt comfortable with. 

Now with this storm rolling in I'm not sure when I'll be out next but hopefully with some fresh snow to end the season. 

[New York Hillbilly]

Sick or not, I'm out there in the morning with the MZ. :  )

[New York Hillbilly]

In stand in pine tree.  Snowy snowy snowy! Like being a little kid on a snow day! Playing outside! 

[Five Seasons]

2 hours ago, New York Hillbilly said:

In stand in pine tree.  Snowy snowy snowy! Like being a little kid on a snow day! Playing outside! 

I plan to sit tomorrow morning for maybe my last morning sit of the year and I feel myself coming down with a cold... ugh. good luck!

[First-light]

I'll hunt tomorrow and Sunday. The guys behind me come up and push everything including a grocery cart! 

[New York Hillbilly]

7 hours ago, Five Seasons said:

I plan to sit tomorrow morning for maybe my last morning sit of the year and I feel myself coming down with a cold... ugh. good luck!

Sorry to hear about the cold. Me and the wife got knocked on our rear ends by severe cold/flu symptoms  that settled into our lungs. Good grief, here we go again this season. This time I'm sure I know where it came from. We attended my grandson's first Tae Kwon Do tournament last weekend and there were 400 plus competitors there, of all ages. You just know someone in that crowd would be contagious! lol 

It was worth missing the last regular season weekend though to be there for him. Just a week shy of 6 years old, and he won first place medals in both his events, speed kicking and board breaking. Good to see he's got strong little legs. He's gonna need them when I start having him drag deer for me. hahaha

I sat for about 2 hours this morning then got down to sneak about the woodlot. I figured out quickly that  they were not going to move much in such deep snow trying to conserve energy. I very slowly did about a 300 yard circle and never cut one track. After making my way back to my wheeler I pulled a camera card that is over my bone pile, then back to the house. On the way down I cut tracks in two places where they crossed the fields and were pawing at the ground eating. 

In a few minutes I'm headed back up the hill. This time with a pop up blind and seat. I'll stick it in the brush facing where they were foraging earlier, and see if I can catch one during the evening watch. 

Edited December 16, 2022 by New York Hillbilly
Grammar

[DG3N]

Biggest 4pt I've ever seen. Might of had 1 small kicker. 

3S while I was working.

He was tending a doe when she left he was right behind her. Definitely 2nd rut in Westchester. 

[First-light]

13 minutes ago, DG3N said:

Biggest 4pt I've ever seen. Might of had 1 small kicker. 

3S while I was working.

He was tending a doe when she left he was right behind her. Definitely 2nd rut in Westchester. 

Nice deer!

 

[First-light]

Got a wsw wind. I'm sitting my ass on the east side of my corn field. Tons of tracks in there. Wish me luck!!

 

[New York Hillbilly]

24 minutes ago, First-light said:

Got a wsw wind. I'm sitting my ass on the east side of my corn field. Tons of tracks in there. Wish me luck!!

 

Good luck! We will watch for pictures!

I stayed in this morning, because with my lung infection, yesterday hunting in the deep, wet snow whipped my a$$! Headed out now though. Very few tracks here, but I just can't let that get to me.

 

[New York Hillbilly]

All settled in. Trying something new.  See if I can catch them crossing  my tractor roadway between bedding area and the brushy travel corridor.  

[First-light]

It was a bust! My setup but not one deer showed for pictures!

[New York Hillbilly]

19 hours ago, First-light said:

It was a bust! My setup but not one deer showed for pictures!

Looks like a great place to be sitting. Mind blowing to me that no deer showed up in such a location. 

My sit last night was also a bust. What looked like was going to be an exciting year, turned out to be one with the fewest sightings  or opportunities since I've owned my property. I'll go out for the last couple of hours today and then I think it's a wrap for me.

[New York Hillbilly]

In and sitting. Oh geez….news flash…. It’s windy! 

[First-light]

5 hours ago, New York Hillbilly said:

Looks like a great place to be sitting. Mind blowing to me that no deer showed up in such a location. 

My sit last night was also a bust. What looked like was going to be an exciting year, turned out to be one with the fewest sightings  or opportunities since I've owned my property. I'll go out for the last couple of hours today and then I think it's a wrap for me.

I'm getting the feeling that there is way too much food left out there for them. Just a few times we caught them in the fields before dark.  I don't know?

 

[WNYBuckHunter]

On 12/14/2022 at 1:55 PM, Five Seasons said:

yeah my son will be 11 next season and I'm already starting to think about his christmas gift for a gun that winter. I'm leaning towards a .270

I have a Rem 7400 308 for my son. It was my Dad’s rifle, so it’s special to him. My Dad didn’t take great care of it, it has maybe 10 rounds through it and is pitted everywhere because he left it in his attic. We are tearing it down and sending it out for Cerakote soon. I’ll get some reduced recoil loads and an adjustable stock to fit it to him correctly. 

[Just Lucky]

Today I Green scored the 8 point I got opening day of muzzleloader.  I got the horns from the taxidermist yesterday. I was conservative with measurements. I came up with 140 5/8. With differences from left to right I got 132 2/8. The circumference of his bases are both over 4 inches. 

[CharlieNY]

3 hours ago, WNYBuckHunter said:

I have a Rem 7400 308 for my son. It was my Dad’s rifle, so it’s special to him. My Dad didn’t take great care of it, it has maybe 10 rounds through it and is pitted everywhere because he left it in his attic. We are tearing it down and sending it out for Cerakote soon. I’ll get some reduced recoil loads and an adjustable stock to fit it to him correctly. 

I think it's great that he will be getting his grandfather's rifle. I gave my son my dad's shotgun. Just be aware that the rifle may not cycle with reduced recoil loads as they were not designed to be used in semi rifles. The cerakote process will make the gun look new and will prevent future pitting. Best of luck to him.        valoroutdoors.com

[Five Seasons]

Sharing a story that most wouldn't because writing it is therapeutic for me and there's always a lesson that can help others.

I don't really plan to hunt the holiday week which meant 1 or 2 more sits for me. I wanted to hunt Sunday morning and even set the alarm but it was midnight when the Bills game was over and it just wasn't worth it for me despite getting some decent bucks lately on camera.

Son had basketball practice from 2 to 3 (I coach) and I thought why not just slip out for the last hour or so in the blind. Low pressure hunt, redzone on and 1 earbud in. Neighbor is buzzing up and down on his UTV a few times. I actually watched on my cell cam as he bumped a doe group that was headed his way back to me. I also heard a shot around 4:30 that sounded like a rifle but then it was quiet. I didn't have high hopes but it beats sitting on the couch. 

I'm shooting my old CVA Optima. It's been good to me and killed 3 or so deer in the 10 or so years I've hunted with it. Last time I shot it at a deer was in Mississippi and last time I checked the zero was a few years ago. Shooting 100 grains (pellets) and TC shockwaves (sabots). 

Anyhow legal light ends a little after 5 and right about 5 a doe comes limping out at 50 yards and I mean hard limping. The kind where you know some guy took a pop at her and she will live but will have a tough winter. If I'm honest I'm taking a shot at her anyhow, but the limp made me not even second guess it.

I have mesh up in the blind and I'm all black inside, regardless as I turn with my shooting sticks she freezes. Thankfully she puts her head back down. Takes a few steps and turns some giving me a slight quartering towards shot with her right shoulder and vitals exposed, although the exit will be tough, I like this shot. I squeeze the trigger. There's a puff of smoke and as it clears I see her running off (tail up, not great). It's now about legal light and I don't want to wait long in the dark. I'm at the shot scene in about 5 minutes. I see decent blood, but it always looks like that in the snow. As I track I find more decent blood but the gush I wanted to see never comes. As I enter the woods where she dipped back in I hear crash crash up ahead. Dammit.

I decide I'm going to test my luck and keep on the track hoping it was her last push and even if I have to put her down, I'll be able to end it. I track another 5 minute or so and maybe 75 yards and hear crashing again. I back out. Now she is no 130 class buck, but I hate this shit. Waiting overnight for a deer I only shot for the meat is never great. Even if I get to her with the cold temps there's a chance she's yote food. I haven't lost a deer in over 4 years and the last doe I wounded during archery was a brisket non-fatal shot. This might be my first bad wound track job since I was a teen.

I can't get into the woods due to work obligations till 11 today. I proceed to track her for 3.5 hours and 2.5 miles. Losing and finding the track as it's just small drabs of blood and then every so often a decent blast (again maybe accentuated by the snow). This whole thing would have been impossible without the snow though.

Anyhow I finally end in the neighbors cut corn field and no body and just no more blood or energy to follow a track to see if it starts again as the tracks all intersect out there and what is her and what is another deer is no easy task. On the way out I find what I later realize was a part of her track that I missed (at one point I was tracking her backwards and later realize it was her doing a loop). I know the field is her last stop based on hoof direction but I follow this backwards anyhow to find some pretty good sprays and even 2 bed downs I had not seen before. This made me sick. I had some hope maybe I hit her in the leg too, but now I'm not sure.

I don't know how they do it, but they are freaking tough critters. I feel horrible that this doe has been shot twice now and is either dead or likely won't make it through the winter. I don't know if there's a lesson here or not as where I found those beds was nowhere near where I bumped her. So sure I should have probably waited and then probably backed out sooner, but IDK. I measured out what was at least 0.8 miles that she went plus the extra I didn't get to and some of the best blood was well past where I bumped her.

Tested my mz this afternoon as well and she's on. Hunting sucks sometimes.

sorry for the novel. 

[suburbanfarmer]

10 minutes ago, Five Seasons said:

Sharing a story that most wouldn't because writing it is therapeutic for me and there's always a lesson that can help others.

I don't really plan to hunt the holiday week which meant 1 or 2 more sits for me. I wanted to hunt Sunday morning and even set the alarm but it was midnight when the Bills game was over and it just wasn't worth it for me despite getting some decent bucks lately on camera.

Son had basketball practice from 2 to 3 (I coach) and I thought why not just slip out for the last hour or so in the blind. Low pressure hunt, redzone on and 1 earbud in. Neighbor is buzzing up and down on his UTV a few times. I actually watched on my cell cam as he bumped a doe group that was headed his way back to me. I also heard a shot around 4:30 that sounded like a rifle but then it was quiet. I didn't have high hopes but it beats sitting on the couch. 

I'm shooting my old CVA Optima. It's been good to me and killed 3 or so deer in the 10 or so years I've hunted with it. Last time I shot it at a deer was in Mississippi and last time I checked the zero was a few years ago. Shooting 100 grains (pellets) and TC shockwaves (sabots). 

Anyhow legal light ends a little after 5 and right about 5 a doe comes limping out at 50 yards and I mean hard limping. The kind where you know some guy took a pop at her and she will live but will have a tough winter. If I'm honest I'm taking a shot at her anyhow, but the limp made me not even second guess it.

I have mesh up in the blind and I'm all black inside, regardless as I turn with my shooting sticks she freezes. Thankfully she puts her head back down. Takes a few steps and turns some giving me a slight quartering towards shot with her right shoulder and vitals exposed, although the exit will be tough, I like this shot. I squeeze the trigger. There's a puff of smoke and as it clears I see her running off (tail up, not great). It's now about legal light and I don't want to wait long in the dark. I'm at the shot scene in about 5 minutes. I see decent blood, but it always looks like that in the snow. As I track I find more decent blood but the gush I wanted to see never comes. As I enter the woods where she dipped back in I hear crash crash up ahead. Dammit.

I decide I'm going to test my luck and keep on the track hoping it was her last push and even if I have to put her down, I'll be able to end it. I track another 5 minute or so and maybe 75 yards and hear crashing again. I back out. Now she is no 130 class buck, but I hate this shit. Waiting overnight for a deer I only shot for the meat is never great. Even if I get to her with the cold temps there's a chance she's yote food. I haven't lost a deer in over 4 years and the last doe I wounded during archery was a brisket non-fatal shot. This might be my first bad wound track job since I was a teen.

I can't get into the woods due to work obligations till 11 today. I proceed to track her for 3.5 hours and 2.5 miles. Losing and finding the track as it's just small drabs of blood and then every so often a decent blast (again maybe accentuated by the snow). This whole thing would have been impossible without the snow though.

Anyhow I finally end in the neighbors cut corn field and no body and just no more blood or energy to follow a track to see if it starts again as the tracks all intersect out there and what is her and what is another deer is no easy task. On the way out I find what I later realize was a part of her track that I missed (at one point I was tracking her backwards and later realize it was her doing a loop). I know the field is her last stop based on hoof direction but I follow this backwards anyhow to find some pretty good sprays and even 2 bed downs I had not seen before. This made me sick. I had some hope maybe I hit her in the leg too, but now I'm not sure.

I don't know how they do it, but they are freaking tough critters. I feel horrible that this doe has been shot twice now and is either dead or likely won't make it through the winter. I don't know if there's a lesson here or not as where I found those beds was nowhere near where I bumped her. So sure I should have probably waited and then probably backed out sooner, but IDK. I measured out what was at least 0.8 miles that she went plus the extra I didn't get to and some of the best blood was well past where I bumped her.

Tested my mz this afternoon as well and she's on. Hunting sucks sometimes.

sorry for the novel. 

Coyotes got to eat as well. Sometimes it happens and nature takes it toll.

[Lawdwaz]

1 hour ago, Five Seasons said:

Sharing a story that most wouldn't because writing it is therapeutic for me and there's always a lesson that can help others.

I don't really plan to hunt the holiday week which meant 1 or 2 more sits for me. I wanted to hunt Sunday morning and even set the alarm but it was midnight when the Bills game was over and it just wasn't worth it for me despite getting some decent bucks lately on camera.

Son had basketball practice from 2 to 3 (I coach) and I thought why not just slip out for the last hour or so in the blind. Low pressure hunt, redzone on and 1 earbud in. Neighbor is buzzing up and down on his UTV a few times. I actually watched on my cell cam as he bumped a doe group that was headed his way back to me. I also heard a shot around 4:30 that sounded like a rifle but then it was quiet. I didn't have high hopes but it beats sitting on the couch. 

I'm shooting my old CVA Optima. It's been good to me and killed 3 or so deer in the 10 or so years I've hunted with it. Last time I shot it at a deer was in Mississippi and last time I checked the zero was a few years ago. Shooting 100 grains (pellets) and TC shockwaves (sabots). 

Anyhow legal light ends a little after 5 and right about 5 a doe comes limping out at 50 yards and I mean hard limping. The kind where you know some guy took a pop at her and she will live but will have a tough winter. If I'm honest I'm taking a shot at her anyhow, but the limp made me not even second guess it.

I have mesh up in the blind and I'm all black inside, regardless as I turn with my shooting sticks she freezes. Thankfully she puts her head back down. Takes a few steps and turns some giving me a slight quartering towards shot with her right shoulder and vitals exposed, although the exit will be tough, I like this shot. I squeeze the trigger. There's a puff of smoke and as it clears I see her running off (tail up, not great). It's now about legal light and I don't want to wait long in the dark. I'm at the shot scene in about 5 minutes. I see decent blood, but it always looks like that in the snow. As I track I find more decent blood but the gush I wanted to see never comes. As I enter the woods where she dipped back in I hear crash crash up ahead. Dammit.

I decide I'm going to test my luck and keep on the track hoping it was her last push and even if I have to put her down, I'll be able to end it. I track another 5 minute or so and maybe 75 yards and hear crashing again. I back out. Now she is no 130 class buck, but I hate this shit. Waiting overnight for a deer I only shot for the meat is never great. Even if I get to her with the cold temps there's a chance she's yote food. I haven't lost a deer in over 4 years and the last doe I wounded during archery was a brisket non-fatal shot. This might be my first bad wound track job since I was a teen.

I can't get into the woods due to work obligations till 11 today. I proceed to track her for 3.5 hours and 2.5 miles. Losing and finding the track as it's just small drabs of blood and then every so often a decent blast (again maybe accentuated by the snow). This whole thing would have been impossible without the snow though.

Anyhow I finally end in the neighbors cut corn field and no body and just no more blood or energy to follow a track to see if it starts again as the tracks all intersect out there and what is her and what is another deer is no easy task. On the way out I find what I later realize was a part of her track that I missed (at one point I was tracking her backwards and later realize it was her doing a loop). I know the field is her last stop based on hoof direction but I follow this backwards anyhow to find some pretty good sprays and even 2 bed downs I had not seen before. This made me sick. I had some hope maybe I hit her in the leg too, but now I'm not sure.

I don't know how they do it, but they are freaking tough critters. I feel horrible that this doe has been shot twice now and is either dead or likely won't make it through the winter. I don't know if there's a lesson here or not as where I found those beds was nowhere near where I bumped her. So sure I should have probably waited and then probably backed out sooner, but IDK. I measured out what was at least 0.8 miles that she went plus the extra I didn't get to and some of the best blood was well past where I bumped her.

Tested my mz this afternoon as well and she's on. Hunting sucks sometimes.

sorry for the novel. 

Brisket, low chest or that dreaded “no man’s land”??

It happens and it’ll make you a better Hunter.