Holiday season

[Four Seasons]

56 minutes ago, wolc123 said:

I saw a few. I finally killed that one, the third time that I saw him.  I didn’t see him at all during the September early antlerless gun season or the regular SZ gun season.  I stopped hunting the early part of the SZ archery season, back in 2014, when they legalized crossbows for the last two weeks.  
 

I’m sure I could get a modified crossbow permit, and hunt the early part with that if I wanted to, but I have not pursued that option because of the access I have to the NZ.  I hunted the whole early ML week thru opening weekend of gun up there (maybe 50 miles from your place) but was unable to close the deal on my two target bucks up there.  I did cast eyes on one of them, but that was about 5 minutes past legal shooting time.  
 

Back home for opening day of crossbow season, I passed a scrawny 3 pointer in the morning at 15 yards.  I’d have shot him then, if he looked 10 pounds heavier (as you know, I am a pure meat hunter), or if I didn’t need to be at my nephews wedding in 2 hours.  
 

I had my first encounter with my “baseball” 8-pointer, 5 minutes after the 3 pointer departed.  He cruised thru the hayfield beyond the wheat/awp plot that the 3-pointer had been feeding in, at about a 75 yards range.  
 

Clearly, he was a shooter.  Now that I’ve got his scull skinned, I can tell he’s 3-1/2 by comparison with other heads of known origin.  He had his head up high as he crossed, and my grunt call did not even get his attention, nor did it slow him down. 

I didn’t take any vacation time for crossbow.   Our second encounter was the following Sunday morning.  I tried to squeeze in a quick hunt before church (big mistake) from my new popup blind ($49 from TSC in Govenour) that was anchored in a patch of seeetcorn in my front field.  
 

This time my grunt call stopped him and brought him into 30 yards, when I loosed a bolt thru the mesh window.  Apparently, I had not trimmed enough of that corn from my shooting lane, and a corn stalk or the mesh window must have deflected the shot.  
 

He bolted off a ways at the shot, with his tail straight out, then turned 90 degrees and stopped just short of the back hedgerow.  He hung up there, about 75 yards away, for a few seconds as I reloaded, then walked slowly out of view with his tail up at about a 45 deg angle.  
 

I spent about an hour looking for my bolt, blood or hair or any signs of a hit, finding nothing.  I was not 100 percent sure of a miss, until I killed him last Tuesday.  I call him the “baseball 8” because he was out on my third sighting.  He only had two extra holes in him (where my 240 gr XTP entered and exited).

Will I or will I not regret passing that little 3 pointer on opening day of SZ crossbow is the main question here.  I’ll let you know on January 2, 2025.  One things for sure: There’s not much nurishment for this pure meat guy in that paper tag.  I could give a crap less about antlers.   

Yeah. We can tell.  That’s why when after years you finally shoot one you do nothing but post pics of it on about every post of yours on different sites. And if you think for a second that anyone believes you let a baby 3pt walk because of 10lbs…which is a bunch of crap..only to target another baby of 60lbs your crazy. The fact that you try and call yourself a meat hunter and target the smallest and dumbest of the species and you still can’t get that done after 4 months in the woods says it all.  But I’m sure one more week of sitting in the same exact stands that have failed for 4 months will save your season. Amazing. 

[wolc123]

7 hours ago, Four Seasons said:

Yeah. We can tell.  That’s why when after years you finally shoot one you do nothing but post pics of it on about every post of yours on different sites. And if you think for a second that anyone believes you let a baby 3pt walk because of 10lbs…which is a bunch of crap..only to target another baby of 60lbs your crazy. The fact that you try and call yourself a meat hunter and target the smallest and dumbest of the species and you still can’t get that done after 4 months in the woods says it all.  But I’m sure one more week of sitting in the same exact stands that have failed for 4 months will save your season. Amazing. 

I hadn’t been carry my binoculars thru the late ML season at home, because I was pretty much in full brown-down mode, with (2) buck tags and (4) doe tags at my disposal.  Now that I’m down to my last buck tag, I’ll start toting them again.  

It sounds like my neighbor wants to do some drives on January 1, so I’d like to save my last buck tag until then.  I’ll need to be in the lookout for little, hidden spikes. The binoculars work great for checking those out.   
 

My buddy’s place is only about 15 miles from the SE corner of Letchworth.  You don’t have to worry about me shooting any buck less than 2.6 years old down there.  Hopefully, we are able to take out plenty of does down there.  
 

 

[Four Seasons]

7 hours ago, wolc123 said:

I hadn’t been carry my binoculars thru the late ML season at home, because I was pretty much in full brown-down mode, with (2) buck tags and (4) doe tags at my disposal.  Now that I’m down to my last buck tag, I’ll start toting them again.  

It sounds like my neighbor wants to do some drives on January 1, so I’d like to save my last buck tag until then.  I’ll need to be in the lookout for little, hidden spikes. The binoculars work great for checking those out.   
 

My buddy’s place is only about 15 miles from the SE corner of Letchworth.  You don’t have to worry about me shooting any buck less than 2.6 years old down there.  Hopefully, we are able to take out plenty of does down there.  
 

 

Right. You will shoot a buck that’s dropped its antlers because in your hunting uneducated mind they are weak for some reason but you will search out little spikes on a 100lbs yearling while you target a 60lbs button buck. Have you ever read your posts and seen how you have lied and twisted crap so many times that even you have no clue what your writing. 

[wolc123]

6 hours ago, Four Seasons said:

Right. You will shoot a buck that’s dropped its antlers because in your hunting uneducated mind they are weak for some reason but you will search out little spikes on a 100lbs yearling while you target a 60lbs button buck. Have you ever read your posts and seen how you have lied and twisted crap so many times that even you have no clue what your writing. 

You seem kind of snippy. Are you feeling poorly on this wonderful Christmas Day about that shed 1-1/2 year old buck you killed ?  Cheer up, they are renewable resource and one buck can service many does.  
 

Did that one look healthy, other than the missing antlers  ?  I read an article by Kip Adam’s, that claimed that early drop was usually caused be injury.  
 

I’ve only got one antlerless tag that I can use at my buddys place down near Letchworth this weekend.  I will also use my binoculars, to try and identify a dropped buck and not target that, in order to up your odds a bit down there in future years.  

I’m not going to hold off on the dropped ones at home though, nor will I hold off on the buttons.  We average about 4 antlered sightings per each antlerless around my two spots in wmu 9F, after October 1 every year, so we could certainly use a higher buck harvest during all of the legal hunting seasons.

As you are well aware, I did mistake a tiny (dmp legal) spike for a doe a couple years ago, so I can understand how you feel about your recent mishap.  I really was thankful for your kind words of consolation for me back then.  
 

That remains one of the worst times of my life, when I was stranded out in southern CA for the only one ever of what had long been my favorite day of the year in WNY (opening day of gun season), because of the first Buffalo blizzard of 22.  

I very nearly also got stranded out there for the second one.  It was only by the brave action and volunteering of a coworker, that I avoided that trial (being stranded out there again for Christmas and my birthday by the second Buffalo blizzard of 22), that I am still here today.  

Do you usually check does out with your binoculars before shooting ?  Our old eyes aren’t what they were in our 20’s $ 40’s. 
 

I had a pretty good run on avoiding killing 1-1/2 year old bucks.  My last one, prior to that 2-3/4” spike in 2022, was this infamous (8 or 10 page on this site) Texas heart shot Adirondack 6-point back on Thanksgiving weekend back in 2016.  

 

Who can forget that one ? That was the only bullet, that I know of, that I ever perfectly placed.  This years 3.6 year old 8-pointer was pretty close, passing thru about about 1/4” below the shoulder blade that I intended to hit:

 

Edited 16 hours ago by wolc123