mattys281

Awesome buck! Congrats, gents!

Good luck to all & safe travels! I'm leaving next Friday for a 10 day hunt in Nebraska. Whitetail rut, here we come!

Outstanding job guys! Congrats to them.

I've been using a Smith's diamond lap I bought from Cabelas for rough sharpening and then finish it off with a white fine grit stone, don't know the brand of that. Sharpening by hand & eye-balling the angle, I can put a shaving edge on my Gerbers & Buck knives in a couple minutes. They don't do bad on the wife's kitchen knives either, but she sure dings the heck out of those things. I swear she must be samurai fighting ninjas with those things while I'm at work or something.

Again it depends on your comfort level and personal preference. I am by far more successful on solo hunts, but there is a big advantage to having a spotter if you’re trying your hand at stalking. We will have the spotter sit and watch and keep up a visual signal either orange backpack rain cover or the yellow side of a sleeping pad, etc that tells the stalker they are good to go. If the marker is gone, the stalker knows so are the deer. Some people use radios and or cell phones/txt messages to communicate between stalker and spotter. I’m not sure if that’s legal or not, but I’ve seen people doing it. When ambush hunting I always sit alone, but sometimes share a camp with my hunting partner and/or my daughter. I don’t like sitting with other people because it is twice the noise, scent, movement and there’s a tendency to be chatty sometimes. If you don’t have any other plans by then get in touch with me before the December hunt starts and we’ll take you out to scare some mule deer away. We’ll be out trying to fill my daughters tag a couple weekends.

Happy birthday!

I think it depends on the drive and/or hiking distance, and of course personal preference. I usually backpack in to my winter areas and stay for a few days at a time. Summertime spots are close enough that I hike in and out each day. To me it really depends on how easy it is to get in without stirring things up. When I bivy out I stay within a pretty close distance of my hunting spot. I haven’t found that it bothers things, in fact I’ve had curious deer wander in to camp to check me out a couple times. I think the camp fire smoke makes them curious.

Congrats to them! Too cool.

Wow! Big ole kitty.... Congrats to him.

Happy birthday! Hope it's a great day with family and/or friends.

I've yet to buy a rifle off of Eric/Axis Works, but I've been doing business with his machine shop for about 8 months now since I met him through this site. He's probably done 5 or 6 different jobs for me in that time. I've worked in aerospace machining for almost 25 years now, I know a ton of people in the trade, and I can tell you Eric is one of the best. He's not just a good rifle builder, he's a top notch machinist, programmer & manufacturing engineer.

Thanks OneShot. I've been doing my homework on learning the habits of the deer and I plan to get out and glass, I guess you call it, to look for deer activity. I figure if I can spend enough time out there now it'll save me the time in looking around. I don't expect to get the biggest buck, if any at all, but I do plan to enjoy the experience and being out there in nature. I look forward to the spot and stalk and hopefully enjoy the experience of a harvest. One thing I do enjoy is learning new skills. I go to the range about everyday and shoot. I'm fairly lethal at 40 yards with aluminum arrows, but I plan on getting some carbon arrows soon. I do want too much expensive gear, I just want what I need to get the job done. Like Oneshot, I've also pretty much converted exclusively to ambush hunting. I'll still spot in stalk mulies i the late season sometimes, but use treestands in the early season and sit ground blinds or just good brushy/rocky hiding spots during the late season. If you're just looking for a legal deer, coues deer are pretty easy to kill sitting ambushes. Take the same critter and try to stalk him and you've just taken on what may be the hardest bowhunt there is. That having been said, it is certainly not impossible and some guys are very good at it and consistently successful. Based on my experience though, the last two spot & stalk deer I got took 14 days & 9 days respectively. I've never had to sit an ambush more than two days without having an opportunity to shoot a buck. This last early season I let two walk by on the first morning, missed one on the 2nd day and filled my tag on the 4th day. Either method you choose, patience & persistence will be your most dangerous weapons.

Good luck Oneshot. Can't wait to see the pic!

Wow what a beast! Congrats to you guys.

Lots of deer in 33, good area to get your feet wet. As for gear and what not, if I had to start all over again I think clothing would be the number one place to invest. If you can’t stay warm and dry, then you end up going home and it’s hard to kill one from your couch. Staying in the field and not freezing to death should be the top priority to me. Number two for me would be a range finder. When i was a kid and first getting into it I couldn’t afford one and I was terrible at visually judging ranges. Probably shot over half a dozen deer before ever connecting on anything. Now I think it’s the best money I ever spent as far as hunting goes. Used ones can be picked up pretty reasonably on eBay and archerytalk. At the end of the day, you can kill a deer with just about any bow and arrow combo, so as long as you can shoot broadheads well out to 30 or 40 yards you’re fit to go. I wouldn’t spend a ton of money on that stuff until you’ve hunted a season or two and are sure you’re into it for good. Good luck to you and welcome to the site.

Fantastic buck congrats!

Raising those kids right! Good job parents and congrats to the boys!

Congrats! He is a very cute buck! lol... gotta love a kid's perspective.

Some awesome bulls! Thanks for sharing.

Awesome bucks! good luck this year.

Happy birthday! Hope it is a good one for you.

Another one for Axis works. Eric does great work, can't go wrong dealing with him.

Wow! She is a big ole gal, isn't she? Congrats, awesome trophy!

You can’t kill nothin without your special Cameron hanes signature series undies. Ain’t you got no smarts???

lmao I searched "hunting" on craigslist Man I hope that was some kind of an ‘inside joke’. I don’t have much faith in people as it is, I can hardly stand to think there’s a tool of that magnitude running around the woods.