mattys281

Another thing to keep in mind about garage storage is that the glue used on your arrows is heat sensitive, especially the shrink wrap fletching systems. The nap ones I had a while back said right on the package to not store them any where warm. If you have trouble with fletchings coming off, could be your arrows are getting baked and the glue is getting brittle.

Some of these boys do pretty good on desert mulies down there and if you like small game hunting, I'm not sure you could find a better cottontail area. When my older brother was at the Yuma air station over there, we were going down on weekends to visit and we'd take the kids to the river to swim and stuff. Seemed like those rabbits were everywhere..... at least during the "cooler" (ha-ha, it is Yuma!) parts of the day.

Welcome to the site! Glad to have you here and thanks for your service. I'm curious if you have any difficulty adjusting to the civi life after so long in the Corp? I have two brothers that are lifers, both got out after their first four years and ended up going down and signing back up before the end of their terminal leave. I heard the phrase, "civilian life sucks! It's boring!"

Way to go man, you just made me laugh so hard I spit beer all over my windshield.....

Those javelina are obviously union workers.

Ive acquired a half dozen or so items from them since 2007. One piece at a time. I think its the best stuff on the market. All my sitka stuff is in tact and still in use, no matter what thick, thorny nasty heck holes I crawl through. I had to do a patch job to the crotch of oneof my pairs of pants after ggetting snagged trying to cross over a barbed wire fence one time, but considering what could have gotten snagged, I just thank sweet baby jesus th as t it was very cold that day and I only had to stitch my britches. 10 degress warmer and I might not have lived to type these words. Any how, pants and everything else are still good and in service, and these days I crawl under the dang fences.

I haven't used one of those, but my buddy I hunt with in Nebraska swears by using a thermacell without the insect repellant cartridge in it. He pops that in his hand muff and says it has his hands sweating all day. I borrowed his Sitka Gear hand muff when I was out there this fall and that thing is friggin awesome! It kept my hands so warm I'd have to pull them out from time to time to let them cool off. I had the wife get me one for Christmas this year.

A couple things you can do for that, I found some -40° artic socks on amazon for I think $12 for two pairs. Their so heavy and thick I can't even fit them into my regular boots. They also sell insulated boot sole pads and of course they make insulated rubber boots. One of the biggest problems with cold feet when ambush hunting is either a.) having your feet right on the ground in a blind or b.) on the metal grating in a treestand. If you carry a carpet scrap with you, you can put that under your feet as a barrier between you and the ground. The ground is worse than the treestand, but both the cold earth and the cold metal will suck the warmth out of your feet in a hurry. One of my buddies I hunt with carrys a welcom mat to put his feet on for this reason, plus it helps keep your feet quiet if you have to stand up or shift position.

Awesome pics! The good ole days! But I have to ask, why only deer pics? Was it just as hard to draw a rifle bull or goat tag back then???

Nice pics. Thanks for sharing!

So to get an animal listed as endangered requires no scientific evidence at all, just a bunch of crying and political pressure? Sounds legit to me.

That is an awesome buck! Congrats!

must not have many points!!!! Jealousy is an ugly thing....

I'll give you a high five, folllowed by a borat "very nice! I like!" Does that count?

Nice! Good for him!

You suppose one of them broads would make you a sandwich before she left if you threw and extra fiver down for it? I think they'd get a lot more business if they included that as an option in their ads.

Congrats to you guys! Looks like you've done a real good job passing the torch.

What a great hobby! Id love to see something like that one of these days. Beautiful birds!

I've had several spots over the years that I'd swear were getting beat up by deer on a daily basis, but than when I'd sit, I'd see nothing or just a doe or two. Eventually I went back through several months worth of trail cam photos and logged all the deer visits on a blank calendar to see what was really happening. Basically, what I found on my "hot spots" was that they would in deed be very hot for a few days at a time, netting you hundreds of pictures, but then the deer would go away for any where from 2-7 days. When they came back around you'd again get hundreds of pictures over just a couple days. When they move into an area, they tend to hit the salt over & over & over again all day long, but when they're gone you get no action at all until they come back around. it's just a waiting game. All day sits for at least 3 days consecutive. 5 consecutive days would be better if you have the time. Also, bucks tend to hit it hard while they're growing antlers, but will taper off big time once they get hardhorned. And you'll see a lot of smaller bucks coming in and out with the does in the spring, but in the summer when they drop their fawns those smaller bucks have wandered off and either joined up with bachelor groups or are floating around on their own. Just keep at it and spend some time to analyse your data from your camera instead of focusing only on the gross total number of pictures. When you get pictures is more important than how many you get.

If youre planning on following behind trophy hunter, you better move 1) epipen, 2) full course of penicillin, 3) iv fluids 4) signal flares to the top of your packing list. It'll be a hunt to remember that's for certain.

Usually in the bedroom closet, but with the cooler weather they've been down in the garage lately. As mentioned it makes it easier to sneak out.

The one thing I've gleaned from this thread is that theres at least 4 or 5 members here that will squabble over anything like a bunch of teenage girls whos periods are all in sync so they're best friends 3 weeks at a time and then all hate each other for 4 to 7 days. Why dont you ladies head over to costco together, pick up a 5 gallon bucket of midol and a pallet of tampons, then grab an iced coffee and talk about your feelings and how all your pants mysteriously shrunk all of a sudden.

Try to keep the sweat/b.o. stink down, thats a lot different than urine. There's lots of critters peeing all over all the time, it doesnt seem like the go "human pee!" And then hightail it out of there. Even on early hunts I wear long sleeves and light weight base layers with everything tucked in to keep the scent rafts (chunks of dead skin, which are what tracking dogs deer and other critters pick up on) to a minimum. Long sleeves, shirt zipped up to the neck, gloves and every thing tucked in. Also, if you get sweaty hiking In then pack your hunting clothes in on your back and babywipe yourself clean and change clothes before getting in the stand. Nothing is 100% but ive had deer meandering around down wind from me many times and not bolt. But ive also had them come in, look right up at me and bolt when I hadnt moved a muscle. Guess thats the fun of it, you never know what any given encounter will produce.

I shot a mule deer in 2013 that was sniffing my pee from the day before. When I go up, I don't come down til sunset and I'm not to interested in carrying around a bottle of my own pee, so I just let it fly over the side. They're curious and they'll stop to have a sniff to see who is hanging around.

Did you try Archery Talk? I bet somebody would snag it in a minute for that price. These guys are all over ebay for $800 or more + shipping. This is a smoking deal you're throwing out there.