LIVE From The Woods 2019 - Lets hear stories and see some pictures!

[Hock3y24]

I woke up, and a snow band was making its way through 7s and still is. Went back to sleep. We’ve got a few inches now.

[MPHunter]

11 hours ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

 

Great hunt. Great Story. Great buck! Congratulations!

[Chef]

Trapping baskets, traps, skinning birds, dart boards, racks on walls, meat hanging, and unique tasting vittles, coors light....is that place heaven...no it’s Dinorocks place!!!
Looks good...I’m really thinking about it!!!!


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Worth it


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[Robhuntandfish]

Got Thursday and Fri off for a hail mary on the bow season!  Maybe out this afternoon for a short sit- still unsure.    But thurs the wind is gonna be perfect for two of my best stands and planning on am in one pm in another.  This would be the first in many seasons i havent filled an archery tag at all.......

[mlammerhirt]

Got Thursday and Fri off for a hail mary on the bow season!  Maybe out this afternoon for a short sit- still unsure.    But thurs the wind is gonna be perfect for two of my best stands and planning on am in one pm in another.  This would be the first in many seasons i havent filled an archery tag at all.......

It ain't over......till.......!

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[Jeremy K]

12 hours ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

Today started at 3am this morning. It snowed all day yesterday and we had 4-5”s of perfect tracking snow last night when I went to bed. Checking the weather last night showed cold and windy- the absolute dream conditions for a tracker. My plan for the day was drive about 15 miles around to a mountain I’ve been wanting to hunt but haven’t made it to yet.

On the drive out I cut a track on the dirt road. I figured the track couldn’t be more than a few hours old. The track wasn’t huge but the buck had a pretty wide stagger, a very long stride and was dragging his toes. I’ve always called a buck track that really drags his toes as a cross county skier. His feet were long but the lacked the width I usually am looking for. I don’t know why but the track intrigued me and it was heading toward a mountain I’ve never hunted. I waited in the truck for a little over an hour waiting for some light then started on his track at about 530am by mostly moonlight but I wanted to get started because I knew I had some ground to make up . This was by far the hardest track I’ve had. At 11oclock I stopped for the first time. Got a baggy of water from a stream had 2 little candy bars and pulled out my gps to see where in the hell I was. At that time I felt I was farther from him than I was when I started on his track. We had went 9.9 miles over some very rugged terrain, over 2 mountains 2 rivers one of them twice. He showed no signs of slowing down so I knew I was going to have to kick it in high gear if I was going to catch him today. I could tell he was making a big loop but what I couldn’t understand was he cut 10-15 doe tracks and would follow them for 10-30yds then he would leave them and head off on his own direction. One thing I kept noticing was that he wouldn’t go between any trees that didn’t have at least a 30” gap, this usually means he has a wide rack.

This buck kept doing something I’ve never seen one do before in my life he would do little tear drop shaped loops “10ft-20yds” then cross his own track and head off in a different direction “usually 90degrees”. He did make one big loop “about a mile” and he cut back over his own track. I studied those tracks for a couple minutes and was almost positive it was the same buck but I really hate leaving a track so I kept going at a good hustle and only wasted 15-20 minutes confirming my beliefs that it was his track.



At about 12:30 he went down into a spruce swamp, my most dreaded place for a buck to head. If I think I’m close to a buck ill leave the track and do a loop around to see if he came out but I still knew I was far enough behind him that I figured even if he had bedded in there he wouldn’t still be in his bed. I am glad I just barged through there because I found his bed with tracks walking out that were noticeably fresher but still a long ways from fresh “I figured a couple hours.”


After another mile or so he was following a ridge around a small mountain. He did one of his funny little loops and headed in another direction straight up hill. Usually a direction change is a good sign that he’s going to bed down but by this time he had done it 20 or 25 times which was totally throwing me off. I don’t know why but something was different about this turn, it just didn’t make any sense why he would do it when he was following a nice open ridge unless he was going to bed down. I knew I was still a ways behind him but I slowed down at this point, not to a crawl but much slower than my mall walker pace I’d been doing since 6am. I got up almost to the top and slowed to a crawl. Taking 1 step every 3-4 minutes as I crested the peak. His track kept going the same direction heading into the saddle between the two peaks. I stood there for probably 10 minutes I’m not sure why but something kept telling me to hold still. Finally just when I was about to start heading into the saddle I saw him stand up out of his bed about 100yds away 3/4’s the way up the hill, he was completely in the open except for his ears up. I knew it was the buck I was after but I wasn’t going to shoot until I saw his rack, we had a stair off for what felt like forever but probably no more than 5 minutes it felt way longer holding the bead on his white patch just waiting to see antlers. The wind was blowing directly at him so I don’t think he saw me he stood up when he couldn’t see what he smelled. He finally turned and started walking at a good clip broadside but it was too thick for a shot. Finally I had what looked like a basketball sized hole that he walked into and I shot. He buckled and I sent 3 more his way as he was running quartering away hard. I knew he was hit so I put in a fresh magazine in and slowly made my way over to where he was when I fired my first shot, my basketball hole I thought I was shooting through had about a 4” branch that was cut in half in the middle of it from my first shot, But I could see where he stumbled so I knew the 35 caliber 200ish grain customized Barnes bullet made it to him. I started getting more blood that confirmed I hit him as he was running. After a 50ish yard tracking job I saw him get up at about 25yds broadside and put one behind his shoulder. He went down after 2 bounds.


I gave him a few minutes to make sure he was dead and made my way up to him, I knew he had a decent rack and I confirmed my suspension that he wasn’t a big bodied deer.

I hadn’t looked at my compass or GPS since my 11 o’clock water break so I pulled out my gps and realized I was only just under 2 miles from a road. But I also realized I was 6.5 miles as a crow flies from my truck. After a few pictures I gutted him and started dragging. The drag wasn’t terrible just had to go through a swamp over a stream and over a mountain and a big hill then up a very steep hill that was littered with blow downs to where the road was. I got him to the road by 4 o’clock but knew I had a long long walk by road back to the truck. I got to the truck at a little before 6pm. Pretty easy loading job because he didn’t weigh much and. Was able to back into the ditch making the tailgate about a foot off the ground.

Back to camp around 6:45 and put him on the scale, he weighs 173 I was guessing 160 so I was a little surprised he is as heavy as he is.

He’s a main frame 10 but both of his brow tines are broke off ones about 2”s the other I don’t think is an inch, he also has a broken G4 that looks like it happened in velvet. I don’t know if he’s technically a 8 or a 9 but I don’t care, he’ll look good on the wall with the other Adirondack bucks.

Grand total of 23 miles of walking on the gps, I forgot to check when I killed him but I’m guessing it was around an 11 or 12 mile track. I sure am glad I took this track this morning he’s not my biggest buck but he was by far one of the hardest I’ve killed, he sure did make me earn him.

I’m really looking forward to butchering him and hoping to find a bullet still in him. The bullets I’m shooting are 225gn Barnes tsx that I drilled the hollow point out to make them expand at the slower 35rem velocities. The bullets performed very well in my testing but I’m very curious how the perform on an animal.


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Would you be willing to share the GPS track with us ? Obviously you can black out the coordinates, I really just wanna see the topography map and see the route the buck took .

[BizCT]

He did. We didn’t want any personally identifiable info with this buck, at least not for the internet. We’ve got our hands full already with poachers and people trying to get onto our spots


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That sounds horrible


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[HFBPA889]

I passed on the morning hunt...15 degrees this morning.  Gonna hit the stand around 1pm for the evening.  Hopefully they’ll be on the move.

[Steuben Jerry]

12 hours ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

Today started at 3am this morning. It snowed all day yesterday and we had 4-5”s of perfect tracking snow last night when I went to bed. Checking the weather last night showed cold and windy- the absolute dream conditions for a tracker. My plan for the day was drive about 15 miles around to a mountain I’ve been wanting to hunt but haven’t made it to yet.

On the drive out I cut a track on the dirt road. I figured the track couldn’t be more than a few hours old. The track wasn’t huge but the buck had a pretty wide stagger, a very long stride and was dragging his toes. I’ve always called a buck track that really drags his toes as a cross county skier. His feet were long but the lacked the width I usually am looking for. I don’t know why but the track intrigued me and it was heading toward a mountain I’ve never hunted. I waited in the truck for a little over an hour waiting for some light then started on his track at about 530am by mostly moonlight but I wanted to get started because I knew I had some ground to make up . This was by far the hardest track I’ve had. At 11oclock I stopped for the first time. Got a baggy of water from a stream had 2 little candy bars and pulled out my gps to see where in the hell I was. At that time I felt I was farther from him than I was when I started on his track. We had went 9.9 miles over some very rugged terrain, over 2 mountains 2 rivers one of them twice. He showed no signs of slowing down so I knew I was going to have to kick it in high gear if I was going to catch him today. I could tell he was making a big loop but what I couldn’t understand was he cut 10-15 doe tracks and would follow them for 10-30yds then he would leave them and head off on his own direction. One thing I kept noticing was that he wouldn’t go between any trees that didn’t have at least a 30” gap, this usually means he has a wide rack.

This buck kept doing something I’ve never seen one do before in my life he would do little tear drop shaped loops “10ft-20yds” then cross his own track and head off in a different direction “usually 90degrees”. He did make one big loop “about a mile” and he cut back over his own track. I studied those tracks for a couple minutes and was almost positive it was the same buck but I really hate leaving a track so I kept going at a good hustle and only wasted 15-20 minutes confirming my beliefs that it was his track.



At about 12:30 he went down into a spruce swamp, my most dreaded place for a buck to head. If I think I’m close to a buck ill leave the track and do a loop around to see if he came out but I still knew I was far enough behind him that I figured even if he had bedded in there he wouldn’t still be in his bed. I am glad I just barged through there because I found his bed with tracks walking out that were noticeably fresher but still a long ways from fresh “I figured a couple hours.”


After another mile or so he was following a ridge around a small mountain. He did one of his funny little loops and headed in another direction straight up hill. Usually a direction change is a good sign that he’s going to bed down but by this time he had done it 20 or 25 times which was totally throwing me off. I don’t know why but something was different about this turn, it just didn’t make any sense why he would do it when he was following a nice open ridge unless he was going to bed down. I knew I was still a ways behind him but I slowed down at this point, not to a crawl but much slower than my mall walker pace I’d been doing since 6am. I got up almost to the top and slowed to a crawl. Taking 1 step every 3-4 minutes as I crested the peak. His track kept going the same direction heading into the saddle between the two peaks. I stood there for probably 10 minutes I’m not sure why but something kept telling me to hold still. Finally just when I was about to start heading into the saddle I saw him stand up out of his bed about 100yds away 3/4’s the way up the hill, he was completely in the open except for his ears up. I knew it was the buck I was after but I wasn’t going to shoot until I saw his rack, we had a stair off for what felt like forever but probably no more than 5 minutes it felt way longer holding the bead on his white patch just waiting to see antlers. The wind was blowing directly at him so I don’t think he saw me he stood up when he couldn’t see what he smelled. He finally turned and started walking at a good clip broadside but it was too thick for a shot. Finally I had what looked like a basketball sized hole that he walked into and I shot. He buckled and I sent 3 more his way as he was running quartering away hard. I knew he was hit so I put in a fresh magazine in and slowly made my way over to where he was when I fired my first shot, my basketball hole I thought I was shooting through had about a 4” branch that was cut in half in the middle of it from my first shot, But I could see where he stumbled so I knew the 35 caliber 200ish grain customized Barnes bullet made it to him. I started getting more blood that confirmed I hit him as he was running. After a 50ish yard tracking job I saw him get up at about 25yds broadside and put one behind his shoulder. He went down after 2 bounds.


I gave him a few minutes to make sure he was dead and made my way up to him, I knew he had a decent rack and I confirmed my suspension that he wasn’t a big bodied deer.

I hadn’t looked at my compass or GPS since my 11 o’clock water break so I pulled out my gps and realized I was only just under 2 miles from a road. But I also realized I was 6.5 miles as a crow flies from my truck. After a few pictures I gutted him and started dragging. The drag wasn’t terrible just had to go through a swamp over a stream and over a mountain and a big hill then up a very steep hill that was littered with blow downs to where the road was. I got him to the road by 4 o’clock but knew I had a long long walk by road back to the truck. I got to the truck at a little before 6pm. Pretty easy loading job because he didn’t weigh much and. Was able to back into the ditch making the tailgate about a foot off the ground.

Back to camp around 6:45 and put him on the scale, he weighs 173 I was guessing 160 so I was a little surprised he is as heavy as he is.

He’s a main frame 10 but both of his brow tines are broke off ones about 2”s the other I don’t think is an inch, he also has a broken G4 that looks like it happened in velvet. I don’t know if he’s technically a 8 or a 9 but I don’t care, he’ll look good on the wall with the other Adirondack bucks.

Grand total of 23 miles of walking on the gps, I forgot to check when I killed him but I’m guessing it was around an 11 or 12 mile track. I sure am glad I took this track this morning he’s not my biggest buck but he was by far one of the hardest I’ve killed, he sure did make me earn him.

I’m really looking forward to butchering him and hoping to find a bullet still in him. The bullets I’m shooting are 225gn Barnes tsx that I drilled the hollow point out to make them expand at the slower 35rem velocities. The bullets performed very well in my testing but I’m very curious how the perform on an animal.


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What an amazing post! Congratulations! I'm all tired out just from reading your post!

[Steuben Jerry]

@dinorocks @wolc123

Would you target this buck for a different reason than the rack? The ballz on this guy!

[moog5050]

11 minutes ago, Steuben Jerry said:

What an amazing post! Congratulations! I'm all tired out just from reading your post!

23 miles in 10.5 hours up and down a mountain including dragging is a pretty good clip.  Buckmaster would be dragging me out with the buck.  lol

[ApexerER]

Live from the office. Just have to get through this DEC inspection today and then I am in the woods the next 4 days. Wish I could fast forward the clock.....

[Buckmaster7600]

23 miles in 10.5 hours up and down a mountain including dragging is a pretty good clip.  Buckmaster would be dragging me out with the buck.  lol

It’s not near as bad as it sounds, over 10 of that was on roads back to my truck.


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[UpStateRedNeck]

1 minute ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

It’s not near as bad as it sounds, over 10 of that was on roads back to my truck.


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Oh, well, man, nevermind.  What took you so long?!?

[moog5050]

25 minutes ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

It’s not near as bad as it sounds, over 10 of that was on roads back to my truck.


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Still sounds bad but congrats on a tough and successful hunt!  I complain when I have to walk to the far stand about 400yds away.  lol

[moog5050]

2 hours ago, Robhuntandfish said:

Got Thursday and Fri off for a hail mary on the bow season!  Maybe out this afternoon for a short sit- still unsure.    But thurs the wind is gonna be perfect for two of my best stands and planning on am in one pm in another.  This would be the first in many seasons i havent filled an archery tag at all.......

PREDICTION - Rob kills one the last two days of the archery season.  Bank it!

[Bolt action]

Buckmaster that was a hell of a story and a hell of an ADK deer! congrats man. You live the life that I wish I had the time and energy for.

It takes a special kind of person to eat balls. I like to think I have an adventurous pallet, but can't bring myself to try eating testicles.

I've been replaying my scenario over and over in my head. I was using a fixed blade broadhead. I'm sure the deer died, so they did their job. But I've got to think that a mechanical with a bigger wound channel would have accomplished 2 things (all other things remaining the same): More blood means easier track; and more blood means shorter track because the deer would have bled out sooner. When I got my buck last week, I used a mechanical similar to a grim reaper and that deer only went about 50 yards. This doe that got away was shot with a fixed. I think I'm going to pick up a pack of NAP spitfire double cross. Anyone try them? I'll give it one last try on Friday before the gun opener.

[Robhuntandfish]

34 minutes ago, moog5050 said:

PREDICTION - Rob kills one the last two days of the archery season.  Bank it!

Im going in confident as ever tomorrow for sure!!!!!   Thanks Moog!!!

Edited November 13, 2019 by Robhuntandfish

[The_Real_TCIII]

9 minutes ago, Bolt action said:

Buckmaster that was a hell of a story and a hell of an ADK deer! congrats man. You live the life that I wish I had the time and energy for.

It takes a special kind of person to eat balls. I like to think I have an adventurous pallet, but can't bring myself to try eating testicles.

I've been replaying my scenario over and over in my head. I was using a fixed blade broadhead. I'm sure the deer died, so they did their job. But I've got to think that a mechanical with a bigger wound channel would have accomplished 2 things (all other things remaining the same): More blood means easier track; and more blood means shorter track because the deer would have bled out sooner. When I got my buck last week, I used a mechanical similar to a grim reaper and that deer only went about 50 yards. This doe that got away was shot with a fixed. I think I'm going to pick up a pack of NAP spitfire double cross. Anyone try them? I'll give it one last try on Friday before the gun opener.

I shot Rage this year and got a massive entry and no exit, about zero blood trail. Give me a smaller entry and a pass through every day of the week and twice on Sunday

[Robhuntandfish]

43 minutes ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

It’s not near as bad as it sounds, over 10 of that was on roads back to my truck.


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i prob wouldve ate the damn thing there where it dropped at that point!   

Thats impresssive .  Its like walking all the way around Oneida lake and dragging a Moog Atlas stone behind you for half of it.  

[BowmanMike]

1 hour ago, moog5050 said:

23 miles in 10.5 hours up and down a mountain including dragging is a pretty good clip.  Buckmaster would be dragging me out with the buck.  lol

moog,you would be packed out. No one would drag you out.

[squirrelwhisperer]

Probably just me but I feel there is something inherently wrong with eating ballz. Love to eat all kinds of things but gotta draw the line here

[BizCT]

1 hour ago, moog5050 said:

PREDICTION - Rob kills one the last two days of the archery season.  Bank it!

You stole my prediction of his 41st sit!

[Al Bundy]

1 hour ago, Bolt action said:

 

I've been replaying my scenario over and over in my head. I was using a fixed blade broadhead. I'm sure the deer died, so they did their job. But I've got to think that a mechanical with a bigger wound channel would have accomplished 2 things (all other things remaining the same): More blood means easier track; and more blood means shorter track because the deer would have bled out sooner. When I got my buck last week, I used a mechanical similar to a grim reaper and that deer only went about 50 yards. This doe that got away was shot with a fixed. I think I'm going to pick up a pack of NAP spitfire double cross. Anyone try them? I'll give it one last try on Friday before the gun opener.

Why not use grim reapers? Only thing I have used since getting xbow and they work well.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Al Bundy

[BizCT]

1 hour ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

It’s not near as bad as it sounds, over 10 of that was on roads back to my truck.


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1 hour ago, moog5050 said:

23 miles in 10.5 hours up and down a mountain including dragging is a pretty good clip.  Buckmaster would be dragging me out with the buck.  lol

Was some of the mileage back & forth when dragging? When I drag 1/2 mile here in NY alone, I usually go 50 yards with my stuff (jacket, weapon, bookbag) and put it down. Then go back and get buck and drag it. I keep repeating this process, so my mileage ends up double or triple when dragging