Just discovered this thread tonight. After sitting in the snowy woods for 5 hours this afternoon way up on a big hill in the Finger Lakes region. What a coincidence. Didn't see any deer but it's normally a great area, and my buddy shot a small buck up there last Saturday, ( He too, saw nothing today). Still enjoyed myself up there with the peace & quiet & solitude. Was also the first time I've had the Mosin Nagant out hunting. Over the summer it got a no gunsmithing mount for a scout scope I wasn't using and I worked up a nice handload that propels a .311" 150 gr. Privi SP to an average 2738 FPS. Was looking for a deer to test it out on as its already proven accurate and that 2.5x scout scope sure helps accuracy vs. irons. Wanted a picture of it with a freshly harvested deer in the snow but settled for this one of it leaning against the tree I was sitting at all afternoon. It was also my first time hunting in the snow since last season.....View attachment 960080.Last Saturday, pre-snow, the woods looked like this with the .30-30..View attachment 960082.. ( Sorry; no deer pix yet ).
View attachment 960096 Gotta bundle up when you head out in the Jeep for snow hunting.
we had a Bobcat run across an old logging road in front of us a few weeks ago
Lofts I just gotback from PA hunt. I am 5 miles from Dottie Lous.Been hunting in Lawton for 20 years.
Cheese factory will be missed. Honey store is still open and Dotti-lous has the best hamhocks and kielbasa.I like the woods down around Lawton, Stevensville, Laraysville.
I use to buy cheese at the Laraysville Cheese Factory. To bad they went out of business.
My ex-brother inlaws use to live close by Dottie lou's Meats. I use to hunt New York and Pa. We killed a bunch of deer in both states.
Interesting pictures from that snow storm. We missed the worst of it by being too far north, as the major snow was all south & east of here. I'm west of Rochester up along lake Ontario and we only got a few inches. Gun season's over for me but open for muzzle loaders until 12/22, except I don't own one, (yet). The deer around here all seem to still be mostly in nocturnal mode according to the trail cam pix I'm getting. Was out on my friends property this afternoon swapping SD cards on a couple trail cams. Pop-up blind View attachment 963456 and one of the "silent sentinels" View attachment 963457 Pretty easy winter so far.
Big cow in late season taken in Western Colorado.
View attachment 963487
Do you have a crossbow? That’s legal during ML as well.Interesting pictures from that snow storm. We missed the worst of it by being too far north, as the major snow was all south & east of here. I'm west of Rochester up along lake Ontario and we only got a few inches. Gun season's over for me but open for muzzle loaders until 12/22, except I don't own one, (yet). The deer around here all seem to still be mostly in nocturnal mode according to the trail cam pix I'm getting. Was out on my friends property this afternoon swapping SD cards on a couple trail cams. Pop-up blind View attachment 963456 and one of the "silent sentinels" View attachment 963457 Pretty easy winter so far.
Indubitably.....
-29 F we rode before dawn and caught 5 decently fat Cow Caribou today, hunting with the daughters boyfriend Sky and 2 hours of day light.
We needed the trap bait, meats and a few skins, so were stoked.
View attachment 962166
That is a hefty cow. At first glance, thought you had shot a horse. !!!
Indubitably.....
-29 F we rode before dawn and caught 5 decently fat Cow Caribou today, hunting with the daughters boyfriend Sky and 2 hours of day light.
We needed the trap bait, meats and a few skins, so were stoked.
View attachment 962166
We get about 130 average for Cows, ones with no calf can be 150 and VERY fat.....160-200 for Bulls in Winter, who tend to be pretty skinny after rut and sorta stay skinny all winter.At -29 if you wait to long it makes taking the hide off a lot harder when it starts to get froze.
What is the average hanging weight on the caribou?
Back in New York the whitetails average 120 pounds hanging weight. I have shot a few close to 200 pounds hanging weight
When I seen the picture of that cow I also thought it was a horse.
Heck of a big walk-in-freezer. Or would it be a walk-out freezer? Must need a diesel to run the compressor, to keep it at -29. Just saying. What did you shoot them Caribou with?
At the first snow of the year, virtually nothing moves. Birds, deer, rabbits. Nothing on the first day.I've walked up on deer that were bedded in snow a couple of times. They were covered with snow and allowed me to walk to within 5 feet of them. I