SheepDreams

Nice video. That's my current philosophy. Small changes every week add up to big results in the long run. Keep it up brother!

Been away from the forum for quite some time. Not Monday, but here's my story. Made the horrible decision to get into powerlifting about a year ago. Was making some decent strength gains and then decided I needed to gain weight to help my lifting. Long story short, I got up to 250# and my total wasn't getting as impressive as I had hoped. I was talking with my wife about my bucket list, and Barbary sheep in New Mexico is tops on my list. So I applied. Probably won't get drawn, but the OTC option is always a good back-up. Decided last week that I need to ramp up the cardio and dial back on the upper body lifts. Here's the program I am currently on: Sunday- 20 rep squat program (It's ridiculous), triceps, shoulders Monday- Walk/run (Currently doing run for 5 minutes, walk for 10) Tuesday- deadlift (medium weight, medium reps), biceps, core work Wednesday- 45 minute hill workout on the treadmill with a 45# weight vest Thursday- Giant set leg day. 4 exercises with no break for 4 sets. Basically weightlifter cardio Friday- Brisk walk (14-15 minute mile) in the hills Saturday-Rest Haven't weighed in 2 weeks. Also cut way back on the calories and the beer. lol. Hopefully I'll be back where I need to be by fall.

WOW!!!

Nice bucks. Congrats!

The holidays set me back. Finally got back to weigh on Thursday. Only down 1.2 pounds in a 2 month period. May be plateauing. That's 51 down officially, with about 25 more to go until the chart says I'm not overweight. Just in a holding pattern for now. Too cold outside to run, and stuck at work for the next 7 days with no way to do anything exercise-wise except lift. With flu season here, not even sure if I'll be lifting this week. The baby was sick my whole time home and now I have a fever and cough. I guess it's a better thing to be slack and sick this time of year than in September.

Haven't weighed in a couple weeks. The elk hunt was awesome and I am officially hooked. Saw over 30 bulls including 5 monsters and over 70 cows in just 3 hours of hunting. Ended up taking a fat calf for the freezer. After the pack out, my helpers were really glad I shot a calf and not a big cow. The conditioning definitely helped. I covered about 6-7 miles in some rough terrain and only saw elk when I got to the middle of my unit. That would have been a whole lot harder if I had tried it 6 months and 50 pounds ago. Now just trying to drop the last 10-15 pounds over the course of the next 9 months to get ready for next elk season. Congrats to everyone on their progress!

This question has probably been asked hundreds of times, but here it goes again. I am looking for the best all around rifle. I want something that will handle everything from Coues' deer to elk or maybe even moose. It needs to be light as I hope to someday be able to hunt sheep or high country muleys. Being that it will be light, recoil will be magnified. I never feel the kick when I shoot at an animal, but I like to shoot paper too, and rocks, dirt clods, basically anything that I see to practice. If you were to buy just one all-around rifle, what would it be? Not just caliber, I mean brand, model, barrel length, stock, finish, etc. And what is the budget version of your dream rifle?

Changed my mind in the last few days. Thinking of getting a Savage in 30-06 and rebarrelling it to 338-06. A little big for deer, way too much for coyotes, but should be good for medium to large game and overkill for deer isn't a horrible thing. Any thoughts?

Between being gone for 7 days at work then laying tile for my folks on days off, I haven't had much time to keep up with the program. Weighed in at 215, that's 49 down. Feeling good, eating good, trying to squeeze in work-outs when I can. 17 days until my Once-In-A-Lifetime elk hunt, and I think I'm ready. Hopefully I'll have a picture to add to my Monday morning check in in a couple weeks.

I am in penny-pincher mode right now, so I have been looking at a T/C Venture in either 280 or 300 Win Mag. I have had other rifles in both calibers and liked them both. Wanting it to be light weight, I am leaning more toward the 280. I had a light 300 and it wasn't much fun to shoot. Scope will be a Vortex Viper 3-9X40. I don't know anyone who has a Venture, so I don't know if they are as good as they feel. As far as dream mountain rifle, mine would be a 700 action, .280 AI with a #3 24" bbl.

I am at 219.6 The wife says I need to quit losing at this point. I am resisting her evil temptation and still trying for more. Eating clean and healthy still. Haven't worked out as hard for the last 2 weeks and I can tell it. I have 35 days until my elk hunt. I honestly don't care if I lose any more weight, but I still have muscle and cardio work to do.

Oklahoma youth deer gun season was last weekend. It was the first time for my 13 year old to get to hunt. After seeing nothing but muley does on opening morning (OK doesn't allow harvesting of MD does with a rifle), we found this buck that evening. After a great stalk, she misses her first shot, but comes through on the second. He only made it about 30 yards. She finished off the weekend by popping an old whitetail doe at 314 yards in the last 10 minutes of season. Here is her buck.

My week consisted of walking at the zoo with my 7 year old on her field trip, walking 10 miles with a pack on with my 13 year old, 3 days of hunting with the 13 year old, dragging a 5X5 muley out of a canyon for her, 4 more 1/2 mile stalks till she got her doe on the last night of youth season, and an all-around great week. Weighed in at 222 last Thursday, which is 42 down since July 4th, about 17 more to go to hit my goal.

I'm a few days late I guess. I am at 224 now, that's 40 down from July 4th. Got about 20 to go. Threw on my pack and walked to the bow shop yesterday, 11.56 miles. Did it in 3 hours, 1 minute. Pretty spent, but when the wife and kids wanted to go out for a walk after church last night, I said why not? Made another 3.19 but at a much slower pace. Feeling better than I have in years and don't want to stop. The wife's vacation ideas have changed from going somewhere to relax and eat to now she's researching hiking trails that we can do as a family. She's down 30 and my 7 year old is down almost 15 since we started this 3 months ago. Hard to believe we had let ourselves go that much, but it's a lesson we don't want to relearn.

I'm gonna guess 186.

Happy to report that the knee is doing better and I am back to walking or jogging 30 minutes a day, plus about 30 minutes of weights a day. Plan to be upping my cardio time to an hour a day over the next few days. Been stuck on location since the 19th, but we should TD tonight or tomorrow morning and get to go home for a week. Diet is still going great, though I did have a craving for pizza the other day. Fought through it with a huge salad and some brussel sprouts and stayed the course.

I'm getting 168-169. May be more though.

Looks great to me!

Still resting the knee. I've been getting in about 30 minutes a day of upper body and core work. Still eating 1400-1600 calories a day.

So, I drew a once-in-a-lifetime elk tag here in OK. When I drew, I knew it was time to get serious about getting back in shape. I am 6'1" and weighed 264# when I drew on July 9th. I have been tracking every bite I put in my mouth on an app, and using another app to track all of my workouts. As of Sept. 18th, I am down to 233# and now off of my BP meds. About 6 weeks ago, I had to take 10 days off from training due to serious shin splints. I got back to going and everything was going great. I should mention that I love to work out. I have been putting in 90-120 minutes a day, 7 days a week for the last 5 weeks. Usually 45-75 minutes of cardio, i.e. walking, jogging, hiking with a pack, etc. and 20-45 minutes of weight training a day. Yesterday, my wife and I were out for our morning hike, her pushing our 8 month old in the stroller, me with a 40 pound pack on. About 3.5 miles into a 4.5 mile walk, I get this stabbing pain in my right kneecap. A quick trip to the doc and it is just inflammation under the kneecap, luckily. I am supposed to take a week or so off from walking/hiking/running and no lifting weights with my legs. I am a mud engineer, and will be stuck on location for the next 12 days, so no access to a pool or bike. Anyone have any suggestions to keep my cardio up while I'm out here that won't put a lot of stress on the knee? Or, should I just completely rest it and try to gain back what I lose next week? My job duties have me walking about 1.5-2 miles a day, and climbing about 120 stairs, though not all at once. If you have any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate them. Thanks, Mitch

I'll check it out. Thanks!

I took time off for the shin splints and they haven't bothered me since, but thanks for the heads up. I think I caused them by trying to go too hard. I was walking a half mile, then sprinting to exhaustion, and repeating until I got to 3.5 to 4 miles in the hills on uneven dirt roads. If they start to return, I will keep your post in mind. Thanks.

Until my knee started hurting yesterday, I would try to get 45+ minutes of cardio every day. Some days a 3 mile walk, some a 7 mile weighted pack walk, intervals, just jogging, 30 minutes on the elliptical on the highest tension setting, just something that pushed me. My weight training is: Monday and Thursday, back and biceps, 3 sets each for max reps with a set of 20 lunges between every set. Tuesday and Friday, chest and triceps, 3 sets each for max reps with a set of 10 one-leg squats on each leg between every set, followed by 3 sets of calf raises till exhaustion. Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, dumbbell complexes (in Western Hunter) 6 sets of 4 reps. Diet is, tracking every bite on MyFitnessPal, keeping net calories in the 900-1500 range. No beef, no pork, no caffeine, no alcohol, no cheese, only whole grain carbs, no sugar, nothing fried, basically if it tastes good, spit it out. My wife calls it excessive or something like that, but I know from the past that I either go all out, or I don't go at all. It's pulled 29# off me in 10 weeks and I am feeling better than I have in years. If I can pull another 28 pounds off, I will be where I would like to stay. As far as time goes, I am pretty lucky there. I am a mud engineer and on my weeks on, if things are going good, I only actually work about 3 hours a day (probably what got me so out of shape in the first place). On my week off, my wife and I train together. She is a stay-at-home mother, so when we get the oldest 3 off to school, we have 7 hours to train with just the baby, and she is usually in the stroller or playing in the floor watching us (she gets a kick out of seeing us sweat I think).

I put one target towards the top of a hill (still with a backstop) and another towards the bottom. In some of my nastier canyons, I can gain and lose 30-40 feet of elevation in a 30-40 yard shot. Shoot 3 arrows from the top, climb down, shoot up to the top target, climb up, repeat until you can't go anymore. Really gets the heart rate going and makes you focus on calming your breathing to shoot accurately.

Thanks for the input. My doc said to rest a week, then start at 1 mile, no pack for a few days and see how it feels. If everything feels good after 3 or 4 days, start slowly adding distance. No pack for about a month. It just stinks to work so hard and get to the point where I feel horrible if I can't work out and then hit 2 snags in 6 weeks. I am still doing upper body and abs (I got a free Kindle book called 30 Day abs Challenge that is kicking my butt in 6-10 minutes a day) and planning to rest up a while. I am taking Ibuprofen 3 times a day and icing every hour or two depending on how work is going. Maybe it'll get better quick. I really don't want to push too hard and end up having surgery before the hunt in December. Everybody I know that has hunted there says the mountains are just as steep as the Rockies, but you can breathe. Elevation is about 2300' tops. My long term goal is to be in sheep shape. Even if the only sheep I ever hunt is Barbs in NM or TX.