kidso

That would be great to have a job that had you putting your boots on the ground in some sweet and remote hunting spots! My thanks to the BP and the service they provide to our state and country.

Well, shot my bow after a week off and everything was sighted in perfectly from last week. I am good up to 80 yards! Will wait one more week and re-check, and then I will finally apply transparent tape over my sight yardage marks to waterproof and protect them from the elements. Spring archery bear in two weeks!

Just wanted to comment on an interesting experience I have been having while sighting in my bow over the past six weeks to see if anyone else has gone through this. I have excellent agreement between my field points and fixed broadheads from 20-80 yards and have been strictly shooting broadheads now by choice to better prepare myself for field conditions. Anyways, I have never shot more arrows with my bow in my life than I recently have over these past six weeks and I think this has actually been making my form improve and my releases smoother. I think this is the case because I have found myself slightly adjusting the yardage markers on my adjustable slider sight from where I had set them, lets say two or three weeks ago. For example, The last two or three trips out to the range found me spending my shooting time at 70 and 80 yards and dialing in those yardages to extremely tight shooting arrow groups. Yesterday, I went back to 60 yards for the first time in three weeks and was shooting about three inches lower from where I had previously set my 60 yard tape mark. I know that the 60 yard tape mark had not been moved or from its original location, so I feel that this "apparent movement" occurred as a result from my improving form and technique over time. Has anyone else experienced this? I found myself fine tuning my yardage mark at 50 yards as well, but they were not affected at yardages less than 50. Anyways, I hope that is why a few yardage marks had slightly changed. My bow is new and it does have aftermarket strings on it and I have probably put about 600 shots through it. So I hope it is not some string or cable stretch that happened?

Happy Valley is wherever you get lucky enough to tag a bear!

Too bad you can't eat it! A 31 inch fish burger!

Sweet carp! How long and/or heavy are your last two carp in the photos? Up in northern Minnesota, we would catch "sheepshead" beneath a dam on Thief River Falls, if I remember correctly. Those things were like giant carp and weighed 15-20 pounds. We would throw them back, back the Finnish people would keep and eat them.

Sweet. Love that term "portly". What a beautiful bear that must have been! Should have photographed a track for size estimation.

I hope there is a hands-off policy on bear and lion to leave them for the sportsmen, unless a "known" cattle killer is around. Anyone remember the old picture of the lion heads stacked on top of each other from government hunters about 20 years ago from unit 31 or 32?

Thanks Elpepe. But, as a general rule, good quality strings and cables shouldn't stretch, correct? And I had also heard some rumorous talk about 500-1,000 shots to get your bow system "seated" into its specs, which I felt was an old wives tale.

I think that is a new bear with that darker patch on its upper torso. Check out that long scar on its head. What a beast!

I had the same problem when I tried out 350 and 400 spine arrows with my set up. The 400 grouped better, so I got rid of the 350's and sighted in with my 400's. Didn't really tune my bow at all, simply made adjustments with my sight and that took care of everything...until I tried different broadheads, which messed my groups up again. I agree....stick to one arrow and one broadhead and work with it until it performs to your expectations.

I recognize those backdrops! Meet you there Saturday at 6 am!

A half-dozen cattle will parch a 50 gallon water tank in two days. So if cattle are ranging the land, your water will quickly run out.

I shoot a 2013 le Destroyer 350 set at 60# and a draw length of 29 inches. I shoot Easton Axis ST 400 arrows that are 28.5 inches in length with 100 grain tips. I just left the range today and sighted in my HHA single pin slider sight, and my field tips grouped exactly with 100 grain Wac Em broadheads from 20 to 70 yards. Absolutely no adjustments. I wanted to check 80 and 90 yards, but ran out of time. So my question, has anyone experienced similar results with any other fixed broadhead? I am asking because the Wac Ems are barely over 1 inch cutting diameter, and i am hoping for an inch and a quarter diameter for bear and elk. I am thinking about trying the QAD Exodus full broadhead, as it is 1.25 inches in diameter. But, i am still shocked that i had a perfect broadhead to field tip match up to 70 yards with a fixed blade. I thought that was not possible!

Great job! Don't worry about hunting season for a year or two! She will never be that small and fragile again.

That frog is sweet!

Ok. I made it out to 80 yards today and have that dialed in with confidence. However, the distance from 70 to 80 yards on my single pin slider sight took more length than I expected, so I am not sure if I can slide far enough to hit 90 yards now. We shall see next time I go out, but I am extremely satisfied to be able to send arrows accurately and consistently with broadheads out to 80 yards. I never could have imagined that for me even two months ago!

TJ runs the 22N elk hunts, not the 22 south ones. Always seems to be bulls on the north end of the Mazatals.

Elevation....pine and oak... I would say 5,800-6,300 feet. Nice job! I have always fancied the idea of teaching in the Payson Unified School District just so I could take advantage of the "nice" evening walks!

Somebody tagged a sow. Not too worried about getting cams out now!

Just to make sure i was not dreaming, i opened a new pack of Triton Wac Em's and put them on 3 different arrows. I had enough time to shoot 3 arrows at 10 yard increments from 20 to 70 yards and was dead on! These BHs do fly like field tips for me! Still want to push out to 80 and 90 yards next week.

The best thing about spring bear hunting is you don't sweat like you would during a fall hunt!

Grizz material for sure!

I have 3 QAD Exodus fixed full blade 100 grain broadheads. I wanted to see how they flew with my system, but they did not match my field tips. Shot twice into a big block target on Saturday. No misses, just need to be cleaned. $30 for all three. Cost me $40, so you can save $10 for buying used with two shots; not even dulled after that!

Broadhead update: I had already ordered a package of QAD Exodus, since I had read good reviews on them, and tried them out today. They flew 6-8 inches off of my field tips and Triton Wac Em broadheads. I will try the Triton XL next week, just to see if they fly as true as the regular Tritons. If not, it will be the regular Tritons for me!