mattys281

Congrats! Funny how quick your luck can turn.

On board 100%. I've always taught my kids that success isn't always about wrapping a tag. I teach them that because its how I was raised by my dad. It goes with the old adage of "A bad day of fishing is still better than a good day of work." I don't give congratulations for failures, either, but I also believe everyone should define their own success. Having said that, I really don't see the need to put that in writing and solidify it when there are much bigger issued the commission could be focusing on. As I matured as a hunter I began to realize that hunts where I failed to tag an animal gave me a greater appreciation hunts where I succeeded in tagging an animal. How can you truly appreciate success if you have not also experienced failure? I have learned to enjoy my hunts whether I tag an animal or not. Success is success and failure is failure, call them what they are. Each is a part of life and a part of learning. One of my all time favorite quotes is from Kevin Cameron, author of the book Sportbike Performance Handbook. He wrote "If an engine builder is head & shoulders above the competition, it's because he's standing on a pile of broken parts." We all need to fall down, get our butts kicked and blow some **** up before we can be any good at anything. Failing is what teaches perseverance, and the dislike of failure it was teaches resourcefulness and inspires creativity. Take failure out of the equation and you get.... well..... millenials.

Now try to fill out that hunter survey First question will be: "What pronoun do you identify as?"

I always thought successful was kind of a pansy term anyway. I never harvested anything. I killed lots of stuff. They can be happy successful hunters with little more than sunshine on their faces and dust on their boots if they want to. I’m a wildlife conqueror. Like Conan, except without the sword and roid-rage.

Hes already on the list but Ill give another thumbs-up for pelapapas. Sold him an item a few weeks ago. Great guy to deal with.

Awesome! Congrats DB

very cool picture!

Looks great! Nice work

Did he do it by himself or use your skill and knowledge to assist? I would assume you helped him get there, find the deer, set up properly and take the shot. I would also assume either you or him spent time behind that scope of that particular rifle working up a load and sighting it in properly. So my point stands. Good hunters(shooters) will be effective at any distance. You are correct, all I did though was call out the range and wind for him, he twisted the cds dial and did everything else.But your correct. It took practice. And I bet you were super proud of him and rightly so. That is a tough shot but the confidence from practice makes it doable. Yes, I was very proud of him. As a matter of fact he was pretty proud too, he kept telling everyone for weeks afterward. I think thats really cool. Good example of teaching/training done right and a young man that kept his head cool when it counted.

Pet names are just the beginning. NExt thing you know there'll be meme's & then GIF's.... followed by the inevitable troutpecker & then finally another gets locked down. This one's circling the drain and we're not even close to 10 pages!

I’m in the same boat but for different reasons. I quit my day job at the end of last year to go full time with my small business and it has blown up into an avalanche of work. I wasn’t going to risk drawing a bull tag when I know I won’t be able to focus on it, so it’s otc hunts for another year

That’s crazy! I knew golden eagles could grab deer size game but I never heard of them snatching wolves. Very cool.

Hold out for something good and you'll be satisfied I know where there’s a couple good ones hangin out that we have trouble getting within bow range of. The hard part will be letting the little one walk by in August. My trigger finger gets itchy....

I just spoke with Eric over at axis works this morning. I’m gonna have him build me a coues sniping rifle just so I can see what it’s all about. Life is all about experiences right? I’ve never killed anything with a rifle, we’ll see how that compares to watching an arrow blow through one at 20 yards.

200 yards or a thousand. Both too far for my bow. I don't think hunters should be overly concerned with the legal methods of other hunters. I do think we should be concerned with being safe, being polite and courteous to others we meet while in the field especially non-hunters, and it should be high priority for us to stand up for other peoples' methods even if they're not our own. We're all under scrutiny from anit's & their propaganda machine, the last thing we need to do is pick each other apart over what is ultimately just personal preference.

I've been laying off myself lately. My pants are fitting loser, but I'm not sure it's worth it. Seems like being fat & happy is better than lean & mean....

Almost everyone thinks they’re like a McDonald’s franchise and the hsus is the mothership of their local humane society adoption center. In the words of el presidente senor trump: WRONG!

nice! Love it!

I’ve got two of them out now. Haven’t reviewed the pics yet they’ve only been there since December. They were kind of a pain in the rear to get set up and had to ‘format’ the memory cards when I first put them in. Compared to the moultrie minis they are much more difficult to get started with, but they are a lot cheaper and have a nice big screen on them so you can review pictures right on the camera. I’ll probab get out next month to check pics then I’ll know more

Awesome video very cool to see. Wife and I were sitting out in our yard a few weekends ago drinking coffee and watching the crows fly around when this giant shadow passed over us. We look up and there’s a bald eagle circling right over our yard! Love those birds of prey!

Is there a local dealer for them? Seems like I was looking for one a couple years ago but couldn’t find one in state. I may be thinking of a different brand though...

I’ve been toying with the idea of their xception. Love the single cam bows and it’s light and fast on top of it. I’m just scared to spend another $1000 on a new bow after the last two. Maybe I’ll find a used on on archery talk

In spite of what the marketing material would have you believe, compound bows are actually very simple mechanical devices and they (the industry in general) literally have it down to a science. You could buy a $300 bear bow from cabelas or a $1600 carbon flagship bow from (Insert whatever brand name you like here), and both can be set up and tuned to where if shot from a shooting machine they would split arrow after arrow after arrow. In my opinion it all comes down to what feels best and what you are most comfortable with. For whatever it’s worth, Ive owned dozens of compound bows over the last 25 years and am currently still shooting a diamond bow I bought on sale at cabelas in 2009. I’ve bought other bows since, from Hoyt and Mathews, they did t suit me as well so I got rid of them and keep going back to old faithful. Don’t discount some of the newer brands that aren’t as trendy. Xpedition archery and new breed archery both make very good bows although they aren’t that popular locally.

It can work. Sometimes it works really well, sometimes it scares them away and sometimes they hear it but are indifferent to it. It's a good thing to have a couple calls with you. Generally, if I see a deer that seems to be heading my way anyhow, I stay quiet and let things unfold. If they appear to be heading past me out of bowrange, that's worth trying to call them in a little closer. Never call to a deer that is already alert or suspicious, you will give them a free education and they will take it and run. Also, if you call to a deer and they look at you, but then continue on at a calm pace, don't get desperate and start calling too much. Often they will circle on you to investigate, and if you get to panicked and call too much you can bump them out of there. Been my experience that if a deer has made up his mind to investigate, you can change it for him. But if he's already decided not to investigate, you usually cannot change that. I don't like to call blind either. I've seen too many run away from my calling, so I don't sit and call to animals I can't see, because I don't want to risk bumping them out before I've even laid eyes on them. You can also mix it up with spot & stalk hunting. The first deer I ever killed was a nice 4x4 muley I glassed up and got to within about 150 yards of. I was almost out of light, so decided now or never. I stayed low to the ground hiding behind brush and started using the grunt call and thrashing brush with my hand and then moved in a little at a time. I moved towards him challenging, he moved towards me to investigate, and then my arrow met him half way with a 50 yard shot. Good luck!

That’s messed up man. Income, ethnicity, religion, cranks size, sexual orientation.... all fair game for talking smack with your friends. But you should NEVER talk down another mans kids or hunting trophies.