2022 Wolc Journal

[wolc123]

56 minutes ago, Four Seasons said:

Yeah we could all tell just how easy it must have been for you. You kill one halfway decent rack over all these years on this site and you plaster pic’s of it on about every thread on the site for months.                       What a Joke!

These are the ones that I killed the last (6) seasons, which one are you saying is halfway decent ? 

The third from top (last antlered buck that I killed on our farm in 2019) had a significantly higher scoring rack. The third from the bottom had a crappy rack but made the most meat and had the largest body. 
 

Age wise, from the bottom up, I am going with 2.5, 1.5, 3.5, 3.5, 3.5, 2.5, 3.5.  
 

Taste wise, they were all about the same.  The little one on the dark wood  is the only 1.5 yr (remember the Texas heart shot buck from up your way). An Adirondack (6) counts the same as a southern zone (12) to me.  
 

My meat supply is good now, so I will be holding out for a buck with at least (4) points on a side, or clearly a 3.5 year old, for the rest of the seasons this year.   I will be doing my damnedest to fill my other (4) antlerless tags though.  
 

You will be happy to know that I will also be doing my damnedest to avoid button bucks with those remaining tags this year.  With one of those killed on New Year’s Day, there’s still plenty of that “special occasion” vacuum sealed meat in the freezer.  
 

The main reason I am focusing on mature does this year, is that the deer population is too high in both areas where I hunt (wmu 9F, and 6C).   
 

As far as the bucks being easier, maybe that’s not true for you, but it is for me.  I have killed just (4) mature does over the last  (6) years, and (3) button bucks.
 

 I have averaged (1) of those, every other year from the start, so I am right around (20) on the “baby bucks” right now.  That is simply the result of my using my antlerless tags on the largest “in range” deer at the earliest opportunity.  
 

Any other other practice leads to more unfilled tags.  The DEC prefers that hunters fill those tags.  The new early September antlerless, and Holiday ML seasons have afforded me the luxury of being more selective with my antlerless tags.  
 

Prior to that, filling antlerless tags was tough in my two local spots.  The local farmers hit the antlerless deer hard on their nussance permits, prior to October 1, so that by the time bow season opens,  the antlered to antlerless ratio has been averaging 4:1 over the last 35 years.  

Edited September 18, 2022 by wolc123

[Lawdwaz]

FS is twitching…..lol

[Four Seasons]

17 minutes ago, wolc123 said:

These are the ones that I killed the last (6) seasons, which one are you saying is halfway decent ? 

The third from top (last antlered buck that I killed on our farm in 2019) had a significantly higher scoring rack. The third from the bottom had a crappy rack but made the most meat and had the largest body. 
 

Age wise, from the bottom up, I am going with 2.5, 1.5, 3.5, 3.5, 3.5, 2.5, 3.5.  
 

Taste wise, they were all about the same.  The little one on the dark wood  is the only 1.5 yr (remember the Texas heart shot buck from up your way). An Adirondack (6) counts the same as a southern zone (12) to me.  
 

My meat supply is good now, so I will be holding out for a buck with at least (4) points on a side, or clearly a 3.5 year old, for the rest of the seasons this year.   I will be doing my damnedest to fill my other (4) antlerless tags though.  
 

You will be happy to know that I will also be doing my damnedest to avoid button bucks with those remaining  tags this year.  With one of those killed on New Year’s Day, there’s still plenty of that “special occasion” vacuum sealed meat in the freezer.  
 

The main reason I am focusing on mature does this year is that the deer population is too high in both areas where I hunt (wmu 9F, and 6C).  

First of all there are only 2 in that pic that I myself would have even considered harvesting and that would have been late muzzleloader season if the meat was needed by someone. For someone to make the statement that mature bucks are easier to kill then does and shows this as their success on so called mature bucks says it all. To each their own on harvests but until they have real subject matter to back up their statements they probably should refrain.  

[Four Seasons]

1 minute ago, Lawdwaz said:

FS is twitching…..lol

Yeah. With the facts. Again.   

[wolc123]

50 minutes ago, crappyice said:

That's an awesome looking butcher table! I'm starting to make a full press on my preparations(shooting bow, washed and treated clothes but most critically polishing off last years venison). Got some shanks and possibly a neck roast hanging around that I reserve for cooler temps that hopefully late September will bring.

I have this one annoying doe in the property I hunt as part of a management program. She and her fawn bed right off the hiking trails in the park which is my only entry. My best chance at her is day 1 but other hunters and hikers don't always allow me to hunt unfettered! Maybe this year she slips up


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I know how that goes.  I gave away a lot of what I had left in the freezer to provide added incentive.

That table, and another just like it, was with a bunch of stuff that my sister and brother-in-law stored in one of my old barns, when they moved to their new house.  They decided that they didn’t want any of it back.  I use the other one, back on the range, for my 100 yard shooting bench.  They have heavy iron pedestal bases that are very stable.  
 

The porcelain, east-cleanup top has been gone off the one back on the range, for the last 10 years or so.  The one in the garage is fully intact.    
 

 I should have had another doe yesterday morning, but I picked the wrong gun.  A big doe was briefly broadside at 175 yards.  That shot would have been very doable with my ML or my Marlin 512 slug master, from the shooting sticks,  but was 75 yards too far to try with my smooth bore, open sighted 870. 

I am going to try again tomorrow, over at my parents place, with my Ithaca 16 gauge.  That will be it for me, until the October 15, NZ ML opener.  
 

I am already getting ready for that.  I picked up supplies at Runnings yesterday (scent free soap and deoderant).  Scent control is more important up there, where there are not as many people around for the deer to smell.  
 

I also need to recheck the zero on my ML, since I dropped it while cleaning Tuesday night.  Had I not done that, there likely would be another doe in the deer fridge right now.  
 

Hopefully, I can get that checked, and sight in my two crossbows, next Saturday.  I will check my 30/30 also, but they still didn’t have any ammo for that at Runnings or Walmart, so I need to conserve what I have.  Hopefully, one shot from 5O yards will be good.  

[wolc123]

I didn’t see any deer on my last early antlerless hunt at my parents last night.  I did succeed on my primary mission over there:  Brought them a bushel of fresh picked Silver Queen sweetcorn and help process and freeze it.  
 

I also garbage picked a decent looking 18 speed Asian mountain bike on the way over there.  I aired up the tires and WD/40’d the chain  and shifters and everything seems to work on it.  
 

 

After I get home from the work trip that I am on now, I’ll use that to check my coon traps back in the sweetcorn, give the Durango a break, and get some “free” workouts.  No more deer hunting for me until early NZ ML opens on Saturday October 15.

[wolc123]

On 9/18/2022 at 6:00 AM, crappyice said:

That's an awesome looking butcher table! I'm starting to make a full press on my preparations(shooting bow, washed and treated clothes but most critically polishing off last years venison). Got some shanks and possibly a neck roast hanging around that I reserve for cooler temps that hopefully late September will bring.

I have this one annoying doe in the property I hunt as part of a management program. She and her fawn bed right off the hiking trails in the park which is my only entry. My best chance at her is day 1 but other hunters and hikers don't always allow me to hunt unfettered! Maybe this year she slips up


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I hope you get your target doe crappy.  I know that we have one fella here, who believes that the world revolves around antlers, and doesn’t buy it that mature doe are tougher to kill than bucks.  I am quite certain that he is mistaken.  
 

Our Maker designed the females of all species to be harder to kill than the males.  I see that play out with deer  every season.  Last Saturday’s morning  hunt at my place was a perfect example of that.  That hunt came 4 days after my “Pearl-Harbor” surprise attack kill of the lead doe back there. 
 

On my walk in, while it was still dark, two bucks were upwind in the corn.  They heard me approach, and bolted out of there into some heavy cover, when I was about 50 yards away.  

After I set up in my pop up blind, and maybe 1/2 hour after sunrise, I saw a mature doe way out on the far side of our farm, well over 200 yards away and upwind.  She was extremely skittish, and kept lifting her head and looking my way.  There was no doubt that she recognized danger, and was not going to fall easily.  
 

It was like Midway for the Jap’s and the American carriers then, when it came to my chances of killing her.  She had read my code book.  The closest she got all morning, was about 175 yards, feeding on clover broadside for just a few seconds.  I may have got her with my scoped ML or bolt action slug gun, but wouldn’t have had a prayer with the open-sighted smoothbore I had that day.

Now contrast that with the bucks that I had just scared out of the corn.  Just after that doe went away, I heard antlers ticking directly downwind, on a side where I had the blind window zipped up.  I had an open stick of Evercalm on that side for scent cover.

The larger of those two bucks (most likely one of the two that I had flushed out of the corn earlier) then approached my blind and may even have licked it.  I took that picture of him at 20 yards, after he turned and walked away.  Killing him would have been easier than shooting a duck in a barrel with a skatter gun, and he was at least a 2.4 year old.  You talk about dumb and clueless, that sure was a picture of it.  

There have been a few times,  in late gun or ML season, when I have seen groups of deer containing one or more does, and a mature buck.  The buck has always been last, often far back, and struggling to keep pace with the does.  The does seem to move like lightning in comparison.

Which one do you think the pack of coyotes or wild dogs is going to catch ?  The mature bucks loose strength and speed throughout the rut, while the does continue to get stronger and faster.  This is not a coincidence, and helps prove the existence of an all-knowing divine creator, The Lord our God.  
 

I am very glad that He made deer with one purpose in mind - TO FEED US.   He also ensured that this food supply would last forever, by deliberately making the females harder to kill than the males.  You and I know that, but it appears that we have at least one here who hasn’t a clue.  It’s up to us to keep giving him (and others) an education.  
 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by wolc123

[wolc123]

Pop-up Blind Decision:

The last few years, I have been bringing my pop up blind along with me, on a 9 day mid-October NZ ML week thru gun opening weekend hunt.  There is always significant amount of rain thru that stretch, and the blind has been a good way to get out of it.  
 

Here it is deployed up there in my favorite spot for it- on top of an old ramp that was made of stone, more than a century ago, for loading wagons with barrels of maple sap:

A nice thing about that location, is that it is very close to the house that I stay in up there.   Bad things about it are: The deer don’t start using that area heavily until snow starts sticking around, and that hasn’t happened until well into November the last few year's.  Also, some new neighbors have purchased the adjoining property and deer activity up there is inversely proportional to human activity in an area. 

Because of those new folks moving in, and because I have not seen a deer from it up there in quite some time, I was on the fence about wether or not to bring it up with me this year.  I can’t think of any other good spots to put it up there in October.  
 

My “early antlerless” gun season hunt from that blind at home, one week ago today, has nocked me off of that fence.  Based on that hunt, I truly believe that I have located the perfect location for that blind, so I am not going to move it.  
 

I did not kill a deer on last Saturday’s hunt, but that was only because I had selected the wrong weapon.  Resting that “wrong” gun on my new shooting sticks, I had a brief, steady, standing broadside 175 yard shot opportunity on a big doe.  I didn’t take it because the effective range of the gun is about 100 yards short of that.  
 

15 minutes later, I had a close to perfect 20 yard shot opportunity at a “shooter” buck, which of course I couldn’t take, because they are off limits in the “antlerless only” season.   It was cool watching him and a smaller buck spar for a while that morning, about 50 yards downwind of me.  They had no clue that I was in there.  My open stick of Evercalm, a scent lock jacket, and a pre hunt shower with scent free soap, really neutralized their noses.  
 

Where the blind is now, I can get up to a 200 yard shot from two of the windows, using my ML or rifled shotgun from the shooting sticks.  It is in just the right spot for hunting my best foodplots with an east wind.  I didn’t have that wind until last Saturday, thru the early antlerless season. 
 

Here it is, lightly brushed in, where it will stay until January 1, 2023 (last day of Holiday ML season).  Those “tall tine tubers”  (just sprouted behind the cultipacker when that picture was taken) are now about 2 feet tall.  I don’t expect the corn to last that long, because the deer are really hammering it right now. 

 

I only ever killed one deer from that blind, back in 2018, the year that my wife bought it for me at Aldis for $ 30.  That was a big button buck, on a clover plot with my crossbow, over at my parent’s place.  I think it’s going to see a bit more action this year.

Edited September 24, 2022 by wolc123

[wolc123]

I used the new garbage picked  “trap-checker” for the first time today.  It worked well for that.  There is a good suspension on it.  Side benefits are:  free workout and saves me gas.  I need to rig up a shovel holder and gun rack for it.  

There were no coons in the traps today though.  We picked and froze most of the remaining sweetcorn on Friday.  I will probably move the traps to the 2 acre fieldcorn plot out back on Monday, with the Durango, if it stops raining.  
 

The coons haven’t touched that, but the deer have eaten about a third of it already.  The chief culprit now rests comfortably in my freezer, so hopefully the remaining 2/3 makes it, at least till opening day of gun season.  Keeping the coons trapped out of it will help a lot with that. 

Edited September 25, 2022 by wolc123

[wolc123]

Well doesn’t this suck.  Nothing in the traps in weeks and I was planning on pulling them tonight.  I brought my .22 and raincoat back “just in case” I had to kill and bury a coon.  Now I got to drive back up for a shotgun.  

[wolc123]

Bad to worse:  I hit it with a  1950’s or 60’s Remington Express Kleenbore 16 gauge load to the head, from 10 yards upwind, and it sprayed anyways.  First time that has happened.  I suppose that load may have lost a little of its oomph, after 70 or so years in that paper shell.   

Good thing there was a steady west wind.  I let it blow the plume away for about 20 minutes before I opened the trap and rolled the dead skunk into a pre-dug hole and threw a few shovelfuls of dirt over it.  I’ll wait a few days before I clean out that trap though.  
 

My wife could smell it on me, when I walked into the house.  

[doebuck1234]

Laughing with you,no worries.that sucks!!!

[wolc123]

1 minute ago, doebuck1234 said:

Laughing with you,no worries.that sucks!!!

I’d say that is at least the 6th skunk that got that treatment and the first that got out any spray.  I actually watched it roll over and discharge.  Nasty looking stream went up about 5ft.  It looked clear, like water, maybe 6 - 10 fluid oz.   Good thing for the steady wind.  

[wolc123]

The town finally bush-hogged my creek banks today.  It seems like they push that job back just a little later every year.  When I walked back to check it out, at 6:45 pm, I saw that the 3 buck bachelor group was back together, consisting of a “just shooter” 2.5 yr 8-point, and (2) 1.5 yr olds.  

I was surprised to see that the half-rack 1.5 was back in the group.  They must be playing nice now.  They were in the old mowed clover plot, just to the left of the creek.  They dissapeared into the tall hay, further to the left, before I could get a picture.  They must have wanted to check out the town’s mowing job also.  
 

Hopefully, that 8-point hangs around till crossbow opens for the last two weeks (if I don’t fill that tag up north during early ML first).  The odds are good that he will, because the old boss doe is in my freezer now,  She won’t be giving him the boot.  
 

[wolc123]

After zeroing my ML and 30/30 this afternoon, I drove around back to look for coyotes (that season opened today) and I saw the 1.5 year old “scout” doe that was with the old boss for that I shot a couple weeks ago.  I wondered if she would hang around.  

Hopefully, she stays around till crossbow opens and I can reunite her with her boss/mother in the freezer.  I should have (3) more wmu 9F dmp tags by then.  
 

I doubt I’ll have any corn left by then.  I checked my 2 acre plot out today and it is about 3/4 wiped out.  The adjacent old clover, tall tine tubers, and fresh wheat/clover/alfalfa plots are looking very good though.  

[wolc123]

The reason I took the coyote drive yesterday evening, was that they must be very hungry back there.   They already dug up and ate the skunk that I burried back there the other day.  How hungry does one need to be to eat a skunk ?   Maybe I’ll go back this morning before church, sit in my front stand with my .22, and try for one.  

[wolc123]

I fell asleep and didn’t make it out until sunrise.  I blew a chance at a “target of opportunity” on the walk back, when I practically stepped on a bunny.  It appears that the coyotes have driven off or eaten all the foxes back here which are far more effective rabbit predators.  I don’t remember ever seeing as many rabbits around back here as I have this year.

 

Not a very nice morning to be in the stand with a steady 25-30 mph north wind.  I give the coyotes about another 1/2 hour max.  At least their noses won’t be able to pick me up in this wind.

Edited October 2, 2022 by wolc123

[wolc123]

This afternoon is probably going to be the last time that I can get stuff ready at home for crossbow season.  I have to go out of state for work the rest of this week, then I am going up to the DAX, for 9 days of hunting and fishing.

Most of my blinds and stands are in good shape because I used them during the early September antlerless gun season.  There was two that I have not checked on yet so I took care of them today. 
 

The straps were still in good shape on the  $ 20 double ladder stand that I bought from a former site member and set up last summer, on the front corner of my woods.  That one is good to go.  Maybe the maple tree grew into it a bit because it feels more solid than it did last year.  I don’t like to get up too high, so I didn’t use the bottom section of the ladder when I put it up. 
 

I don’t have any good food plots near that stand but it seems to be a spot where the deer like to hang out.  I seen quite a few deer around it during the early September season, as I was hunting in other spots, or walking to them.

 

This other small tree blind near the back of my woods needed a little work.  One of the leg support concrete blocks had shifted and needed to be coaxed back into position.  Shooting lanes to the ditch out back had to be trimmed.  

 

My white oak barn floor plank, (for crossing that ditch if I drop a deer on the other side) is still in place and leaning against a nearby tree.  I moved that back there, after soaking a foot in freezing weather the last time that I shot a doe across the ditch from that stand, 5 or 6 years ago.   

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by wolc123

[wolc123]

9 minutes ago, blackbeltbill said:

I like that Blind right there. Unique 

 

It is a little cramped and I wish I would have made it a little bigger.   So far, I killed a doe out of it (4 or 5 years ago) and a hen turkey about 3 falls ago.  
 

It replaced a larger stand, that was built in a clump of ash trees, about 10 yards north.  That was my most productive stand, from which I killed over a dozen deer, including my largest antlered buck.  When the emerald ash borers started killing the trees, I had to cut it down.  

I didn’t mind that too much, because it was a maintenance nightmare.  It was attached to three different trees and would always get pulled apart from year to year.

The platform is big enough, but the walls are too tight on the new one.  Rebuilding them wider is on my to-do list before next fall.  I was very limited in what I could do this year, due to the big barn demolition project that I have been working on.

 That’s almost done now, so I should have a lot more time to add and improve stands next year.

Here is all that’s left of the old barn:

[wolc123]

Notice that there are a few of those 200 some year old, 12 ft long white oak planks left from the center section of the “1883” barn.  I probably won’t have time to recover then until next year.  Hopefully, I will be able to save a few more of them then.  
 

I saved most of the “threshing floor” boards from the first of those old barns that I dismantled, to make room for my new pole barn.  White oak holds up pretty good to the weather and it comes in handy for things like the “ditch crossing” plank in the prior post.  

[Four Seasons]

10 hours ago, blackbeltbill said:

To Crap on another Members Journal  Thread is about as Low as one can go..

 But I consider  the Source...

You should consider the source. Because the source always speaks the facts. 

[wolc123]

On 10/11/2022 at 10:43 AM, blackbeltbill said:

To Crap on another Members Journal  Thread is about as Low as one can go..

 But I consider  the Source...

Bill, I am thankful that such an esteemed fountain of deer hunting knowledge and accomplishment, as FSW, would find time to comment on my journal. He even went as far as to say that he might also have harvested at least two of the mature bucks, that I managed to bring down, over the last few years.
 

 It feels very special, for this meat hunter, to earn even that magnitude of acknowledgment,  from such an trophy hunting grand master.   

[wolc123]

Some out of state work took a bit longer than expected this week, and I had some issues at the airport coming home.   I still made it up to my in-laws place just before sunset today.  
 

I am ready for the Northern zone early ML opener tomorrow.  It looks like the only thing that I forgot was my grunt tube.  It is tough packing for a 9 day hunting and fishing trip in 1/2 hour, but that’s what I had to do to get up here before dark.  
 

Tomorrow morning’s weather and wind (8 mph SSE wind 53 deg) looks perfect for the spot where I killed the old doe up here last year, so that’s where I am headed in the morning.  My father in law saw (3) antlerless deer back there earlier this week.  Hopefully, I run into them in the morning.

I can see light though my breech plug, so the touch hole is clear and there is no need to waste a printer cleaning it out.  I’ll drop a couple 50 gr T7 pellets down the bore, and press in a black-sleeved 240 gr XTP bullet in the morning.  My sling will stay in my pack until I kill a deer.  

Sunrise is at 7:20.  I will start a slow, still-hunt back to that spot at 6:50.  Any antlerless deer, over 1.5 yr old, or an antlered buck with (3) or more points on a side will do.  
 

 I just found out that our oldest daughter is moving back home in December, so I can’t be that fussy, until our meat supply is secure.  If I get another antlerless one first, then I will revert back to the (4) or more points on a side for my buck tag.  I am bringing binoculars and will try my best to avoid killing a button buck.  

[Four Seasons]

23 hours ago, wolc123 said:

Bill, I am thankful that such an esteemed fountain of deer hunting knowledge and accomplishment, as FSW, would find time to comment on my journal. He even went as far as to say that he might also have harvested at least two of the mature bucks, that I managed to bring down, over the last few years.
 

 It feels very special, for this meat hunter, to earn even that magnitude of acknowledgment,  from such an trophy hunting grand master.   

Don’t let your head swell to much. What was said is maybe two of them would have been killed if others needed meat. Personally, Not a chance. But some of us like the real challenge of hunting. You know. Find a mature buck and hunt Him until harvest or something bigger and mature strolls along. It’s not for everyone. But that’s hunting at the truest term of the word. 

[wolc123]

2 minutes ago, Four Seasons said:

Don’t let your head swell to much. What was said is maybe two of them would have been killed if others needed meat. Personally, Not a chance. But some of us like the real challenge of hunting. You know. Find a mature buck and hunt Him until harvest or something bigger and mature strolls along. It’s not for everyone. But that’s hunting at the truest term of the word. 

Are you going out tomorrow for the ML opener.  It looks like it will be noisy.  I saw about 20 combat choppers and at least that many trucks parked around the fields on 3A on the drive up this afternoon.  It looks like they are setting up for some type of big practice tomorrow.