2022 Wolc Journal

[wolc123]

After a couple of slippery, snowy highway hell-rides, to Rochester Thursday, and to Elmsford Friday, to pick up our daughters from college, it was smooth sailing home on Rts 81/17/390 today.  I made it back in time to hunt the last (2) hours, from my Poplar-tree stand.

 This one is identical to the Cherry tree one, over at my parents place.  Only difference is that I have yet to kill any deer out of this one.  Hopefully, one shows up before a half hour past sunset, to try a little wheat/clover mix, from my front plot.  
 

I can see our house from this stand.  Hunting from it, in the sw wind that is blowing right now, will have the lowest impact on tomorrow’s planned morning and evening hunts, from stands further back to the south. 

Edited December 17, 2022 by wolc123

[wolc123]

I stayed up in the stand until 1/2 hour past sunset.  Unlike the old Weaver 1.5X scope on my Ithaca shotgun last weekend, I could still clearly make out the crosshairs on the old 2-7X Redfield on my Omega, right up until the last minute.

 Too bad no deer showed up at closing time tonight.  I’ll give it a try again tomorrow night, then no more deer hunting for me until the December 26 opener of the Holiday ML season.  

[wolc123]

The big day (opener of 22 Holiday ML) has finally arrived. I have been up since 4:30, unable to sleep in anticipation. I took this picture, of my front wheat/clover plot, on January 29 of this year.  The tracks indicated that there was a big herd of deer feeding on it then.  

Our local herd seems even larger now, and I have a new  plot about 50 yards closer to my poplar tree stand.  That’s planted where standing corn is in the picture and the stand is in the tall tree behind it in the center.  
 

 I’m hoping for a few firsts, mostly for a first kill out of that stand.  It will also be my first walk-in with snowshoes.  
 

I believe that sunrise is 7:40 ish , but I will verify before my 200 yard walk back, starting exactly 30 minutes prior.  The old Redfield scope on my Omega is very good in low light situations, so a shot off the snowshoes is a possibility.  

[suburbanfarmer]

GoodLuck..
Its icy and crunchy for sure in 8N

[airedale]

2 hours ago, wolc123 said:

I have been up since 4:30, unable to sleep in anticipation.

Man it was not that long ago I had that same kind of enthusiasm, this was the time of the year Snowshoe Hare hunting got into full swing and I could not wait. Snow, cold temps did not stop me, I was out there every chance I could get trudging on snowshoes and wearing the Woolrich PA Tux throughout the winter, it was a blast. It sucks getting old.

Good luck to you Wolc, the Deer are out there and to kill one you at times have to be out there in crap weather to do it.

Al

 

[wolc123]

I capped my ML and walked back to my front stand with the snowshoes at 7:14 (1/2 hour before sunrise).  I didn’t see any deer on the way, but did cross a few tracks on the front wheat field.  It looked like maybe 3 or 4 deer were feeding there last night.  

The snowshoes worked real good with my old Sorrels, but as expected, my feet started getting numb after about an hour up in the stand.  I didn’t see any deer, and I packed it in after about 1-1/2 hours up there, just before my toes froze  solid.  The temperature was 15 degrees and the wind was from the sw at 14 mph.

I probably would have been better off this morning, hunting that field from my bedroom window.  The shot would have been a little longer to the wheat field, but at least I would have been warm.  
 

I suspect that the larger part of the local deer herd has been feeding from my other fresh wheat/clover plot, way out back.  That one has several advantages over the front one: 1) I seeded it heavier 2) it’s closer to bedding cover 3) it’s more hidden from human observation 4) it’s got an excellent turnip plot right next to it.  
 

The few deer, that were feeding up front last night, were probably just outcasts from the main group.  I’m going to get back there after the big group this afternoon, after I warm up and eat lunch.  
 

I didn’t get a chance to break a trail back there with the snowshoes, because I was worried I’d snap off a frozen toe or two.  I’m going to trim open the rubber bindings of my snowshoes so that they will fit my Mickey Mouse boots.  

I’m also going to bring a warmer orange hat.  I need to do all I can to hold out in my natural blind, on the downwind side of my back foodplots, until 1/2 hour past sunset.  I think that there will be a lot of deer trying to get at those turnips and that wheat before then.  
 

We shall see in a few more hours.  The feeling is finally starting to come back to my toes.  

[wolc123]

I missed one tonight back on the turnip plot.  I’m guessing it was the 1.5 yr old doe that was with the older one that I killed during the early antlerless season.  I’m not sure what went wrong.  The shot didn’t sound quite right.  Maybe some moisture got in there, over the last (2) weeks, since it was loaded. 

I made it to the blind at 3:30 and sunset was 4:45.  At 5:00, she stepped out of the heavy cover and stopped in the middle of the turnip patch, almost exactly where I killed a small spike buck on Thanksgiving morning.  
 

The range was about 75 yards.  I cranked my 2-7x scope up to about 5, rested my elbows on my knees, and settled the crosshairs on her front shoulder.  She was quartering towards me.  
 

At the shot, she lifted her head, spun around, and ran back into the cover with her tail up, showing no signs of a hit.  I followed her tracks into there about 50 yards, finding no blood.  Her reaction and the lack of blood make me about 90% sure that it was a clean miss.  
 

Not happy missing, but carcass recovery would have been difficult with about 3 ft of snow.  My reworked snowshoes worked ok, with the Mickey Mouse boots and my feet stayed warm, but it was still quite a workout getting back there.  I don’t think my tractor could get back thru the deep drifts.  
 

My best option would probably have been to call my neighbor and see if he could come over with his snowmobile.  I seen him dragging his grandkids around on a sled with it, for the first half hour or so,  that I was back there tonight.  

I’ll get my ML cleaned and get a fresh load in it before heading over to my parents tomorrow morning.  Hopefully, they didn’t get quite as much snow over there.  I’ll bring the snowshoes and a sled, just in case they did.  

 

[suburbanfarmer]

5 hours ago, wolc123 said:

I missed one tonight back on the turnip plot.  I’m guessing it was the 1.5 yr old doe that was with the older one that I killed during the early antlerless season.  I’m not sure what went wrong.  The shot didn’t sound quite right.  Maybe some moisture got in there, over the last (2) weeks, since it was loaded. 

I made it to the blind at 3:30 and sunset was 4:45.  At 5:00, she stepped out of the heavy cover and stopped in the middle of the turnip patch, almost exactly where I killed a small spike buck on Thanksgiving morning.  
 

The range was about 75 yards.  I cranked my 2-7x scope up to about 5, rested my elbows on my knees, and settled the crosshairs on her front shoulder.  She was quartering towards me.  
 

At the shot, she lifted her head, spun around, and ran back into the cover with her tail up, showing no signs of a hit.  I followed her tracks into there about 50 yards, finding no blood.  Her reaction and the lack of blood make me about 90% sure that it was a clean miss.  
 

Not happy missing, but carcass recovery would have been difficult with about 3 ft of snow.  My reworked snowshoes worked ok, with the Mickey Mouse boots and my feet stayed warm, but it was still quite a workout getting back there.  I don’t think my tractor could get back thru the deep drifts.  
 

My best option would probably have been to call my neighbor and see if he could come over with his snowmobile.  I seen him dragging his grandkids around on a sled with it, for the first half hour or so,  that I was back there tonight.  

I’ll get my ML cleaned and get a fresh load in it before heading over to my parents tomorrow morning.  Hopefully, they didn’t get quite as much snow over there.  I’ll bring the snowshoes and a sled, just in case they did.  

 

No experience here but I have been reading up and watching a lot of ML videos, apparently this late the fat plugs the up the bullet holes since muzzleloader sabots dont go fast enough.

Deer can go 100+ yards without a drop of blood hitting the ground

[wolc123]

5 hours ago, suburbanfarmer said:

No experience here but I have been reading up and watching a lot of ML videos, apparently this late the fat plugs the up the bullet holes since muzzleloader sabots dont go fast enough.

Deer can go 100+ yards without a drop of blood hitting the ground

That could be.  About 18 years ago, I lost a basket-racked 8-pointer under similar conditions .  Besides the plugging, light fluffy snow is not always the greatest indicator of a hit, because hot blood will burn through it, leaving now trace on top.  
 

I still think last nights was a clean miss, because the shot didn’t sound right and she did not appear to be hit, in addition  to the lack of blood on the snow.  

The only way that I am ever 100 percent sure of a miss, is if I can kill the deer with a follow up shot, and count holes in the carcass.  That’s tough to do with a ML.
 
I’ve changed my plans for today’s hunt, which was going to be over at my parent’s place. Travel between here and there is still not great, even though the travel ban in our town was lifted at 5 pm yesterday.

I’ll hunt the upper deck of my middle two-story blind this morning.  There are a couple thick bedding areas near that, which I have not yet disturbed. I noted lots of tracks towards it on last night’s hunt.  There is no wheat or turnips close to it, but there is some nice clover, that looked like it had been getting some attention.  

Tonight, I’ll go back to my poplar-tree blind.  That’s got good wheat/clover close by, that was definitely getting hit based on the tracks in the snow.  I didn’t see any deer from it yesterday morning, but it might be better in the pm than the am.  
 

Another reason I want to hunt at home today, is because flooding might make it un-huntable later in the week, by the looks of the forecast.  This is about the lowest-lying land in the area, and there will be plenty of melting snow around to put most of it under water.  
 

 

 

 

 

[wolc123]

I am planning my last (5) 2022 and first 2023 Holiday hunts right now, as I sit in the upper deck of my comfortable 2-story blind, over at my parents place.  I don’t expect to see anything tonight, because this is my 4th consecutive hunt, in their 60ish acres of woods over here.  I have been staying out of the center though, working just the edges, so something might still show up in the half hour after the sun sets.

 I have not seen a deer during daylight hours, in the southern zone, since Thanksgiving morning.  Who said that hunting pressure don’t make deer go nocturnal ?    

I thought maybe the week off around Christmas might get some back out in the daylight.  It ain’t happening on the three days that I have been out so far.  

Here is the plan I came up with for my next (6) hunts:

Friday morning: Home front Poplar tree stand.  It’s the closest stand to where my kids saw (3) deer including (1) with antlers, (2) nights ago.  If the sw wind continues, hunting that stand will have the least impact on my other home spots. 
 

Friday evening: My tree hammock chair, set up on buddies land adjacent to my brother and sister in laws place up north of me in wmu 9A.  The deer concentration has always been heavy in that area, where I was kicked out of (by my sister in law) about 15 years ago.  

I’m bringing my buddy a van load of barnwood and he said I could hunt his woods.  There is light rain in the forecast Friday, so I’ll bring my tree umbrella.  I’ll bring that out with me in the morning at home also.  It works real well in my poplar tree stand.  
 

Saturday morning:  My two-story truck cap blind at home.  There is more rain in the forecast Saturday.  I’ll stay upstairs if it stops, and hunt the bottom when/if it rains. 
 

Saturday evening:  My natural blind on the west of my turnip plot and best wheat/clover plot.  That’s where I missed the doe, 15 minutes after sunset on Holiday hunt 2022, day 1.  This spot is probably still my best bet for filling a tag.  As long as the winds stay south or west, my earlier hunts shouldn’t impact it much.  I’ll bring along the tree umbrella for the rain.

Sunday morning “hangover” hunt” (My wife said she’d be the DD for the New Years party, so I anticipate a “slight one” for me that horning): My bedroom window.  I have not hunted that yet this year, but did take a nice button buck from there durning the regular ML season, about 10 years ago.

I’ll bring my uncapped but loaded ML in the house from the barn the night before, without worrying about condensation.  If that saves a deer, then it just wasn’t meant to be.   If no deer shows by sunrise, I’ll fire a shot into a topsoil pile from the window, to help wake up our kids for church (no deer move now when the sun is up anyhow). 
 
Shooting a deer with my ML from that window is legal, because I have good relationships “and shooting permission” from all neighbors with buildings within 500 ft.  

Sunday evening: Trailer park stand at the back of my parents place.  ML will be unloaded and illegal there, so my crossbow is all I got.  Also, I seen more deer sign back there this morning, than any of the other spots where I have hunted this Holiday season.  My Barnett Recruit has a geen/red dot sight that should work well for that full last half-hour after sunset.

I’ll be very thankful, if I can fill just (1) more tag, but I’m still going for (5).  

 

 
 

 

 

[wolc123]

Killing two birds with one stone today:  Deer watch / fire watch:

[wolc123]

Just killing time, back in my truck cap blind, since there’s no deer out to.  On the walk back to the house for lunch, I’ll check out the rubbish pile that I burned yesterday.

 It was still smoldering a bit, when I walked past it 45 minutes before sunrise this morning.  The all-day rain should put it out very well.  I always like to burn before a rain for that reason.  Also, I thought that might smoke some deer out of the front wheat field and sanctuary areas, to the back plots, that I am hunting today.  
 

I’m planning out next years food plots right now.  Most importantly, I need more corn.  Standing corn is the only sure fire way that I know, to hold deer on my ground through December.  The 2 acres that I got in this spring only lasted until October.  
 

I’m going for (6) acres next year.  I have the leftover seed for that right now, but I will need to spring for (6) 50 lb bags of fertilizer next spring.  I cheaped out this spring, and only bought (2), because it was so damn expensive.  
 

I will split that up into (3) 2 acre plots, one in front of this truck cap blind, one on my front field, and one next to this year’s corn, over on the west side.  All of those will be planted on old clover plots, which really minimizes the nitrogen needed to get decent corn yields.
 

 I also have plenty of gly left, to spray the rows of those 6 acres of corn.  If diesel is still way more expensive than gas next year, then I will have a couple of gas-powered tractors, that can do most of the work.  

I try to keep the cost of my boneless venison under a buck a pound, after subtracting all foodplot input costs, but that is probably going to be tough next season. 

 

[fasteddie]

I envy the fact that you were able to get out so many times . I was restricted to only be able to get out once but I got a deer . Hopefully I will be able to get out a bunch of times next season when I will be 82 .