Whitetail tend to feed on "the good stuff" like farmers fields and orchards where as mule deer tend to feed on browse
which is higher in strong scented oils such as sage brush.

I got a whitetail years ago that was hanging out in the alfalfa & corn fields and apple orchards in eastern Washington
and I can still remember that tender and tasty meat.

Where we hunt Elk in Colorado they feed almost totaly on grass. We apply for 2015 Elk tags in one month.

Hope you get your tags. Is it sort of a lottery system?

Yes, but we play the system some what by incluiding my grandson in our group, and Colorado DoW leans toward
making sure the young hunters get to hunt and tend to incluide the group with him. Works for me.

If my grandson does not fillout his tag he can hunt the later seasons until he does. He must have his dad
along with him as a " supervisor" and responsable person. A very cool idea!

Sounds like a winner to have some one else claim an early kill for him, as long as he desires to remain in hunting mode.

I almost went out there back in '89. Had my dollars saved up after hearing about my work buddies trip out there. Even had the time off put in, but I decided to buy a fishing boat instead.

...and it's F'n snowing again...

The early February 'Storm of the Century' crap is still on the ground... now 12" thick of ice and snow... 4" more for today....

WTF...

Snowing here as well. This winter does not want to quit. It's just been spitting stuff for the last week or so - just enough to make me brush off my car every day.

Yesterday I had a 103 deg. (39.4) temperature. Bah.

I only had 3" of snow. The great lakes are frozen! So the lake effect snows can't happen. heat wave @ 30F.

How do you remove snow?

It is above my crotch and at times lower rib cage when I walk in the woods with no snow shoes. Took them off when following deer trails for the heck of it. Put them back on after the experiment. There is another 12" or so below my non- snowshoed boots. Tested with my snowshoe stick/ uprighting pole.

This pic is a few years old and taken from inside my cabin looking out to the deck and baitfish pond.
Shows two different styles of snowshoe, Michigan on the left and Alaskan. I'm too heavy for bear paws anymore.

Here is a pic from today of the same view.

Mudwasp;

While we're on the subject of Venison and hunts, I thought you might like to see how I used to do it up here in the Ontario bush. I havn't used my smoke pole in a number of years now but looking at the pics again I'm getting the urge!

Mudwasp;

While we're on the subject of Venison and hunts, I thought you might like to see how I used to do it up here in the Ontario bush. I havn't used my smoke pole in a number of years now but looking at the pics again I'm getting the urge!

Skin that one pilgrim and I'll bring you another!

Robert the Red !
I use a 54 hawken TC, round balls.

Great Pics!

Killing and gutting is the easy part!
Getting to the cabin for butchering is the hard part....drop them close to an easy way home

Love them birch trees in the pic.

I always like the part where Jeremeiaha acquires his hawken.

Del Gue: Ain't that Hatchet Jack's rifle?

Jeremiah Johnson: Yep. Found him froze to a tree.

Del Gue: Damn! He was a wild one, old Hatchet Jack. He was livin' two year in a cave up on the Musselshell with a female panther. She never did get used to him.

My dad got a moose permit one year. The hardest part was dropping him near the road so you could get the winch hooked up... oh, and finding enough people to eat him all. We ended up with like 400 pounds of meat!

I just love moose more than venison but it's one hell of a lot of work after the kill. If only there were dwarf moose

My smoke pole is a 50 cal flint in the Penn long rifle style.
Most of my hunting these days is with 30-06 Browning bolt
I've been lucky to be able to hunt 550 acres of bush adjoining crown land so there are no stranger wandering into the hunting grounds.

We have been hunting Elk with black powder for years. My grandson got a cow on opening day with a neck spine shot two years ago at just turning 15. He and his Dad feet never touched the ground during the walk back to camp. I gave him my hunting knife I made out of a power hacksaw blade just before the hunt. We all had a toast of wine that evening in camp -- but his
Mom know's nothing about this "male bonding event".

Some of you "smoke pole" hunters need to look up Thor bullets, all copper ( so no loss of meat to lead schrapnel ) and tack driving accuracy.

Each year the hills get higher, but with my PT program I still look forward to hunting in the Colorado high country on USFS land.

Beaver's gonna shine a'gin!