[David Petersen]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #29205

T and Alex — I posted that pic and several others on another thread started by Croatoan, a week or so ago. But here it is again. I’ve since removed the aspen sapling blocking the kitty’s view.

[David Petersen]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #28937

Good words,Croatoan. Like you, I don’t care if others use cams for “scouting” or not. I just don’t choose to use them myself, or any other modern tech shortcuts in hunting, because I love the challenge, the mystery, the surprise, that feeling you get when you have a baited line way down in deep dark water that anything is possible. In a word, mystery. So what may seem at first glance as judmentalism on my part, in fact is sympathy that in an activity with such a great depth of possibilities for personal growth and satisfaction, so many folks forego that great bounty of possibilities in favor of shortcuts. Ultimately, so long as it’s legal and ethical, I don’t care what others do unless it directly affects either what I do, or the welfare of the animals we hunt, the protection of their habitat, or the present dignity and future of traditional-values hunting, no matter the chosen weapon. Anyone who has experienced the horrendous ATV problems out there on public land, or understands the politics and threat of allowing x-guns in archery seasons, for two prime examples, knows that my disdain for these things is hardly judgmental or preaching, but simply stating hard cold facts about technologies and personal actions that are directly hurtful to a majority of hunters, to the dignity and future of our sport, to wildlife and the habitat that supports us all. As offensive as I may sound at times (in both senses of the word), I am coming from a purely defensive stance. Other issues, like trail cams and baiting, are certainly fair game for open-minded discussion of different views, but I really don’t care what others do so long as their actions don’t stomp on my boots. Cheers, dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Interesting Waste of Time #28248

Yes please, let’s not let this slip down into a debate on economics and international financial politics. This time of year, with all of us starting to feel the rut just ahead in our own bellies, we have a lot more and better things to talk about. I’ll try my best to follow my own advice too! 😛 dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Elk Season is only 36 days away! #28245

Nice pics, T. I hadn’t seen some of these. It will be nice to see Pop Joe again. He’s even older than me and thus serves as inspiration when I start hurting and thinking I should slow down a bit. No way! That’s the Downing code. For folks here who don’t know T, I can assure you he is lean and mean and one tough act to follow through the woods. Would have made a great recon Marine but I’m glad that didn’t happen. This website sure is getting my elk fever up too! Dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #28239

Thanks, gents. Steve, no I won’t be “sitting on the same stump” as the cam. In fact since the big wildfire of a few years ago, year by year the place becomes less and less huntable due to the forest above the visible bench and all around being removed, and thousands of blowdowns like pick-up sticks that hardly even elk can get through, all of which has changed the breeze and thermal patterns and caused the elk to start coming in mostly from above the bench, which is where I sat for years on the ground. There is absolutely no chance of sitting where the cam is or anywhere near the pool without getting scented. But now even when I’m up the hillside a ways they scent me as they come down the trail and I’ve sat there a whole week, daylight to dark and not had a one come in. So it’s a sweet place for cam work but not so sweet as it used to be for ambush. These days I spend most of my hunting time silently chasing bugling bulls, mostly late in the season. For those of you who are rightly jealous of all the game you’re seeing in these shots, there are thousands and thousands of places just this rich scattered across western public elk habitat. Find an area that’s basically dry with no creek or running water source nearby, and that’s out of sound of any road or stinking ATV trail and thus also unlikely to have other hunters around, examine it carefully for wind patterns all times of day and game trails in and out, and you’re in business. There is of course no salt or bait of any kind invilved here but only rare and remote water in a dry landscape. When it rains and water is standing everywhere, nothing comes near these pools.

On other points, yes I do crop these pics to get rid of the date-time stamps which I rarely even think to glance at anyhow as I’m not interested in trying to pattern anything. Bears predictably come in the heat of the day when it’s hot, and elk come mostly in the evenings, and that’s all I need to know (esp. since I don’t hunt bear, or lions, or coyotes, etc.). Deer rarely come at all but it can be anytime. I also crop out excess surroundings in order to enlarge the images for better viewing. All this is done with copies so that the originals are untouched and still full size. This particular cam, I can’t recall the brand and it’s hanging out there on a tree right now so I can’t check. It was a good one when new, a big box using big batteries fairly fast, but it’s old and max resolution for pics is around 500kb. It was given to me. It uses a flash at night. My other cam will take shots up to 2mb and is a little DLC Covert II that uses infrared at night so the night pics are black and white and not very interesting. I can see no difference in the way elk react to infrared or white flash at night; neither seems to spook them off. But I just don’t like the idea of bright flashes going off out there in the nocturnal woods. That’s what lightning’s for. It’s fun, this off-season cam hunting but I would never bait for it, which is illegal anyhow here in CO at least for bears, and I say good. Cheers, dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #24914

I see you!

[David Petersen]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #24912

Family swim

[David Petersen]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #24910

Moving on

[David Petersen]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #24909

They really like this log to play on

[David Petersen]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #24908

Where’d that turkey go?

[David Petersen]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #24906

Cooling off …

[David Petersen]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #24905

This is what can happen too often when you call one in …

[David Petersen]

in reply to: How much string stretch? #23541

Wildschwein — My experience is that all strings will stop stretching eventually, assuming the bow is kept strung and/or shot regularly. So far as stretchiness I rank them Dacron, B50, and FastFlight in that order. If you keep your bow strung all the time and/or shoot it regularly, even Dacron will quit stretching. But if you leave a bow unstrung for long periods of time, esp. with Dacron, you may encounter another round of stretching. I presume this is because much of the stretching is in fact the thightening of the twisted strands under pressure. When a bow is left unstrung, the strands and twists can loosen. This is the way I’ve always viewed it, anyhow. I for one will never use Dacron again. It’s too fat, and B50 can be used on any bow and is all-around better. And even for primitive folk, how primitive is Dacron? IMHO

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Mid Summer Feeling #23520

trl and jmsmithy — You fellers certainly have a right to your opinions, which in this case are close to that expressed by Ray Borbon recently in another thread. In another situation I would agree. But please allow me to take the discussion a few steps farther. First, trl, I don’t think anyone here “hates” anyone for the hunting tool they choose to use; what I and others I know feel is disgust at a marketplace and media that have led contemporary bowhunting away from its traditional baseline values of woodsmanship and “doing more with less,” toward increased hi-tech replacements for personal effort and skill — and I feel not hate but sympathy for the hunters who have followed that route, as they are going only skin deep and missing the heart of it all. And Smithy, if it were as straightforward a matter as having the open-mindedness to live and let live so far as personal weapons choice goes, I’d not be concerned or upset. But it’s far more complex and troublesome than that. In sum, the popularity and profitability of the compound led the marketplace to take the next step and improve and popularize modern crossbows, which are even easier to use than compounds. Use x-guns in gun season and nobody cares, certainly not me. But the issue here is not simply a matter of personal choice or even ethics. Problem is, increasingly, with the strong backing of NRA, states are allowing x-guns in archery seasons. This is problematic on at least two fronts: first, x-guns are not archery equipment and thus don’t rate the special season considerations given to “primitive” (not my term but the official term in most states, with the bottom line being muscle-powered and held) archery gear. They are simple machines that launch metal bolts with the touch of a trigger. Second and most problematic, at the same time we’re seeing the expansion of hi-tech into archery seasons, we’re seeing more “bow” hunters and higher kill rates. That in turn facilitates the argument from the gun lobby that archery seasons are no longer “primitive” and are having an increasing impact on game management, thus should not have the special benefits associated with them — long early seasons, camo, rut hunts, etc. — and should be shortened so that gun seasons can be repositioned and lengthened. Thus, technology is hurting us. Again, I am not arguing with you, but merely attempting to expand on this complex topic to reveal the background issues. Cheers, dave

[David Petersen]

in reply to: Javelina… Its whats for breakfast. #23500

The best javalina cook I know, a trad bowman down in AZ and retired wildlife bio, sums it up this way: It’s all in the cooking. Slice off a nice steak or chop and fry it in a pan … then throw away the meat and eat the pan. It HAS to be slow-cooked, very slow, in big chunks, then torn apart in sloppy joe style. Done right, pig’s pig. There are also those very nasty stink glands on the back to work around.

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