Late Season Muzzleloader Hunt In Steuben County

(The lease ran out in December of 2008 on this particular location as show above, however contact Jeff concerning future hunting opportunities in Steuben County)
My son-in-law, Jared and I shared accomodations with a Francis Kirby from Plattsburg, NY the last four days of NYS ML season last week. We spent the last 4 days with wildlifeoutdoorenterprises.com in the Canisteo area about 35 miles from Horseheads, NY. The outfitter is Jeff Causer, and he can be reached at 607-562-7414. His mailing address is Wildlife Outdoors, POB 418, Big Flats, NY 14814. Jeff currently has leases on three properties in close proximity to each other which total around 500 acres plus of prime Steuben County deer hunting property. Jeff's e-mail is wildlifeoutdoors@aol.com. Jeff has been managing hunting properties full time for the last ten years, however this year, he also took a job working on Blackhawk helicopters locally.

I am attaching some photos of the lodge we stayed in which is an older farm house which sleeps seven comfortably and has a new furnace, thermostatically controlled heat in addition to a woodstove. There is a kitchen, washer/dryer, refrigerator, living room with a TV and DVD/VCR player. The house is very comfortable and part of the hunting lease is directly behind the house and across the road. Rates at the time of this post are apprx $100 a day during the late ML season with a 4 day minimum. Regular gun season and bow season are apprx the same daily rate and are based on a week long stay. The accomodations are comfortable & Jeff is knowledgeable about the properties and the best places to hunt and fill your tag on those locations. He normally has guest doe tags available for hunters who are interested and the deer are there. This particular lease may or may not be available next year in 2009, however if not, Jeff will have other properties on which to hunt. In addition to the hunting leases, Jeff has properties for lease all year round, in various parts of NYS. These can be used for camping, hunting, fishing, snowmobiling etc. depending on location.

Both Jared and I had hopes of taking one of those monster bucks that Steuben county is famous for. Steuben county is at or near the top of the list of counties in NYS for deer density and bucks per square mile and has been since records were kept starting in 1941. The best chance of taking one of the bruiser bucks is during the initial rut which falls in the regular gun season, or during the earlier bow season when the deer are less disturbed. This does NOT mean that you cannot take a big buck during ML. I think one has to pay more attention to food sources than sexual urges during ML season as the 2nd rut also is either over or much less agressive than the first rut. In reading several wildlife manager reports and the writings of deer biologists, anywhere from 80-90% of the does are bred during the first rut which is over with by ML season.

Jared and I both took deer during our 4 days hunting on Jeff's property. Jared took a nice doe and I took a button horn buck which I thought was a doe in the rainy fading light of the last day. I had taken a running shot the day prior when 7 does came running full tilt about 45 yards past my stand. I swung on the second to the last doe, followed her in the Mueller red dot scope and CLEANLY missed. Jared and I both saw a total of over 30 deer during out 4 day stay. From what we could tell, all were does except for the button horn buck I shot on the last day of hunting. We had our deer processed at Madigan's meat processing in Addison, NY which is about 1/2 hour drive from our hunting property. He showed us photos of several very nice bucks taken in the area during regular bow and gun season. On particular 14 point buck was exceptional.

When on a 3 or even 4 day hunt for the first time in new hunting territory it takes a while to learn exactly where to be during the morning and afternoon hunts to connect on a deer. God willing and the creek don't rise, Jared and I will likely book the same week during next year's ML season.

By the way, both Thomson Center muzzleloaders and their repsective loads performed admirably with one shot kills and no tracking job on either deer. Jared was shooting my thumbhole stocked Omega with 110 grain of loose Pyrodex RS powder behind a 250 grain Hornady SST sabot and took his doe at about 60 yards. I was using my TC Encore with two 50 grain Pyrodex pellets behind a TC 250 grain yellow tipped shockwave sabot. I shot the deer at around 70 yards in the near shoulder on a quartering shot.

If you are looking for a change of pace next year or you are simply not seeing the number of deer at home due to change of habitat etc. then give Jeff a call or e-mail him about a hunt in Steuben County.

Lastly I want to mention that this was my first opportunity to use the new BUTT OUT tool for field dressing a whitetail. This tool works like magic and makes short labor out of what was formerly a messy job. I find most guys have a hard time doing the "apple core" cutting out of the anal alimentary canal with just a knife. The Butt Out tool makes this job fast, easy and you end up looking like a professional.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Dan