Gator

I saw a ton of deer tonight...at Costanza's! I picked up sausage and tried some of the new things he's making. I've got to tell you, the Romano and Garlic sausage is phenomenal and the Red Pepper and Mozzarella is crazy good. I wish we'd gone that direction rather than straight up Italian. One of the guys there gave me a great tip, too. He said that if you like hot Italian sausage, but your wife likes mild, just order both and mix them up when you vacuum seal them. Leave one kind tied together so you can tell the difference. Brilliant!!

But nowhere during my evening sit.

Nice buck, Matt! And all others who've posted. That stud from Batavia is a beautiful animal. I dropped my head off with a guy who lives over there and he told me it's been a crap year for them. They're covered up in dogs, but can't find deer. They have 200 acres and some nice swamp, too. One other note of interest. He also told me that my buck had been shot previously...in the rack! There's a small dent in one of the antler bases, with a clear "X" from the broadhead around it. I think that somebody was focused on the headgear when they shot.

Are we done now, boys? Because I've been up for three hours now, and I think it's taken my two of those to get through this mess of a thread. It's almost time to go hunting. The well-documented advantages/disadvantages of mechanical versus fixed blades are amplified in an X-bow. I'm hunting with my compound because I'm more comfortable with it in a tree than I am my X-bow, but I shoot Slick Tricks. I killed a few with Rage, then lost a few and moved on. I'll probably stick with these until I lose one, then I'll start looking again. It's all about what you have faith in. I have faith that it's going to be a roller coaster ride in the tree this morning.

That sucks not to recover him. It sounds like he's dead. It's tough to impossible tracking even a great shot in this kind of crappy weather.

I had multiple small bucks and doe this morning, all creeping around quietly. Something, not me, spooked one of the doe nearly out of her skin. My guess is there’s a big guy locked up with a doe nearby. Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Way to go, Bill!

I don't know, I think that the discussion on this thread is reasonable relative to some of the name-calling I've seen. Heck, it even sounds like a "purple" fishing date is in the making. I love arguments that are intended to build consensus or that end in agreeing to disagree. I hate arguments where the loudest person wins. It's one thing to try to convince someone else that your point of view is correct, and it's another entirely to impose your will on them. There's too much of the later in America today. We forget that we're all on the same team.

That deer owes you one now. I hope you get a crack at him! There's nothing worse that seeing a buck you've followed get hit by a car. We lost three of the four monster bucks that I knew of last year to collisions. The fourth was shot on a neighboring property but not recovered until after the season. I guess that's worse...

For those waiting on the name of the processor, I'm not going to throw shade on the guy without clear evidence. As for details of gutting, my method is generally to slice through the trachea and diaphragm, then pull the whole insides out backwards. Then I split the pelvis and carve out the anus. I have a butt-out tool, but generally don't bother since I've never had an issue previously. I honestly don't recall if the bladder had been ruptured (ie, by the broadhead) when I pulled it out, but I'm always careful when splitting the pelvis not to hit it. I've also carved the anus out prior to splitting the pelvis on previous occasions. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. I've gutted lots of deer and I even have a video of my doing it for a buddy on Sunday night, so that he could learn and do his own next time (it was his second deer ever). I live by the banner saying on the processor's wall: you leave the a-hole in, you get the a-hole back. Maybe there was an existing injury; that's not an idea that I'd considered. Regardless, it's done. Time to get back to hunting.

Here's the follow up. I made a call to the processor and voiced my concern. He was very responsive and checked with his employee who'd processed the deer. He conveyed to me that there needed to be a bunch of trimming done because neither the rectum nor the bladder had been removed during field dressing, which resulted in the lowered yield and may have contributed to the "smelly" pieces. I don't see how he'd benefit from not telling the truth, and I'm not arrogant enough to believe that I can't make mistakes, but I'm still somewhat skeptical. The broadhead was broken off in the deer and I was being very careful to get everything out while not cutting myself. I used a bone saw to split the pelvis. Pequod and I even had a conversation about relative merits of different ways to remove the anus. Most importantly, we both agree that the deer didn't smell bad when we dropped it off. However, there was lots of blood from the liver shot. It's possible that I missed something? Maybe the broadhead nicked the bladder while I was removing the intestine? Would that contaminate it so much? I know the stomach and gut were intact. I guess overall I'm unconvinced, since even if the bladder and anus (which I know contained no feces, because I squeezed it all out) were still in the deer, I can't imagine I'd lose twenty pounds of meat. The processor did say that the deer was a giant and his employee was "stunned" that such a poor job had been done in field dressing. As you can likely tell, I'm confused. The bottom line is that the processor provided a plausible explanation, even if I have trouble believing it based on my own experience, and he offered to process the next deer "on him". I feel like that's a stand-up thing to do. In the end though, I don't think that I'm going to be able to take any more deer to him, but I recognize that reaction may be without merit. Nevertheless...

Here's a question for you guys. How much meat would you expect to get from a large buck? I picked my meat up from the processor today to take to Costanza's, and I was less than impressed. The tally was 48 lbs of boneless venison in total: 28 lbs of chunks to make into sausage; loin and tenderloin left whole; and 12 lbs of ground (which includes pork). However, the tenderloin and one of the loins smelled...bad. My buck was not gut-shot (the broadhead macerated the liver). I've got to wonder if there was a mix-up. The head was left intact for a Euro mount. This was easily the largest body buck I've ever shot, and I expected more. I know that processors are going to be less thorough than doing it yourself, and it seems like everybody gripes about getting too little meat back from their deer, but you can look back at the picture from yesterday. 48 lbs of meat, including some pork. Thoughts?

My Dad used to tell me believe none of what you hear and half of what you see and you'll be right half the time. Words to live by.

You guys are way too analytical for me. I just want it to get cold and catch some fish.

She appears to know nothing about the ad in the video, but simply states what's been clearly articulated here, that you can't claim residency in two separate states. I agree that this approach is intended to incite divisiveness. I wouldn't be surprised if it were funded by an external agency with an agenda. Listen to what the candidates say and do, based on their records, not what people tell you to think. I personally will be voting Republican, for the most part, but because I've researched the candidates positions and politics. But I'm not voting down the party line. There's a few candidates from "other" parties that I think will do a better job, period. Just not in places that assure King Andrew unbalanced power...

I'm going to call wishful thinking on this, but even if it's a pipe dream, I'm there with you.

Beautiful!

Beautiful buck! Low impact hunting nets rewards. In my case, so does pure dumb luck . I wish our property was more amenable to "sanctuaries", but even low impact access is mainly unrealistic. And when I bought the property, it was for the sole purpose of having somewhere to take my buddies hunting, so chances are somebody is going to stick a deer sooner rather than later. Regardless of whether success is the result of careful season-long planning or the proverbial blind squirrel finding a nut, I am constantly reminded that this is a beautiful game we play.

So, the last 24 hours are worth a story. It started yesterday evening, as I was hunting with a friend on his property near the Genny in Scottsville. I didn't like the wind in the stand where I first set up, so I decided to relocate. As I approached the field, I saw a big doe feeding in the path. So I got on my belly and used a small knoll to make a sneak. I came up at full draw about 25 yards from her and let fly. Kerthunk. Good hit. After 45 minutes, I went over to where I'd shot her, found blood, and started my track. She went through the field, into the woods, down my buddy's canoe launch, and into the river!! Never stopped, and no recovery possible. It was less than 80 yards to the river, so it wasn't like she made it too far. Just far enough. And so I lost one in a way that I've never lost one before and probably never will again. Onto today. I was hunting with Brian at my place before work, and around 8 am I got out of the stand to start my walk back to the truck. Lo and behold, I see a small four chasing a doe, and it's heading for Brian. So I step into the edge of a thicket and wait to see if he texts me that he'd shot. Well, I guess the doe circled back around, because next thing I know, she's cruising by me at mach 10. And along comes a buck behind her, straight at me! He wasn't a four, he was a shooter, so I came to full draw. At ~15 yards I guess he saw me and canted to the side, giving me a quartering toward shot. I let fly and saw the arrow penetrate mid chest, but only half way. I carefully marked where I'd last seen him and began searching for blood, but only within the first thirty yards. No blood. Except on the broken half of the arrow, which I found. Knowing that I'd be a fool to push him without a blood trail, I went into work and came back to the woods around 1 pm with Pequod to help me. Upon getting back to the woods, we went to where I'd seen him last. Still no blood. So, I used my Navionics app to draw a line from where I'd shot to where I last saw him, then continued in a straight line into the thick stuff. And luckily I found him dead 40 yards in, with a clean liver hit and a chest full of blood. But there was not a drop of blood on the ground until we came upon him. Interestingly, I'd had a similar encounter with this beast last year. He was chasing a doe and stepped into a lane with me on the ground. Except that when he saw me, he stomped, growled, and took two steps toward me. I crapped my pants, let down from full-draw, and started waving my hands at him, shouting and trying to seem big. He was laughing then, but I'm laughing now. The picture from last year was taken by a trail camera 45 minutes and 150 yards from our encounter. The other picture is this afternoon. And that's my story. I need to hunt from the ground more often.

I crashed the party before it got started. Bumped deer walking in an hour before light and it smelled like the big show. Then saw a lone unknown from the stand. This game is giving me a headache.

x2

Finally had some chasing mid-afternoon, followed up by...nothing. It was fun while it lasted.

Yeah, I'm thinking we have one more year until we have to move them, since they just started experiencing canopy loss (in the Brockport area). However, if the trees don't leaf out next year, the stands are outta there. The nice thing about Ash is that it's fairly obvious when it goes, since it looks like somebody shot it with a 4 gauge from all the woodpecker activity.

That's two more deer than I saw. Fog at 11 am. Go figure.

This weather system sucks. I hope that the rain ends overnight so I'm not wasting a day off tomorrow. Saturday is the opener of crossbow and Brian took a day of vacation to hunt with me. At least the rain on Saturday is predicted to be light and mercifully short. This is traditionally my best period for sighting BB (October 28-November 3rd) but not this year. So far. Better news is that I got a video this morning of our Fox Red Lab being born! He'll be ready to come home on December 20th. It will be nice to have a dog to train again. Maybe that will encourage me to hit the swamps instead of the woods during crap weather like this .