[johnny2]

in reply to: Coming out of the hunting closet #44690

One more thing Steve J, and I say this as an admitted romantic, it may not apply to everyone. It is easy to become intimidated by the “mystique”, if you will, of hunting big game and in my case turkeys. It’s actually the same thing I’m going through right now with my switch to trad equipment.

I remember starting out as a teenager thinking it would be impossible for me to close the distance to 20 yards on a deer or call a big gobbler in to range because prior encounters with the critters ended when they busted me a long ways off or hunting many moons without seeing anything. I thought the guys consistently killing em had some Indian secret or voodoo charms or something, but like everything else in life I figured out it just comes down to putting in your time and being willing to learn. You will screw up. Most of the time there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to animals. Anything can and does happen, that’s what makes it so much dang fun.

Oh yeah, baking soda and scentless soap. I wash my clothes and myself in a combo of both and mix baking soda with water in a spray bottle for in the field use. I still watch the wind religously and I don’t think anything can beat their nose but I think it helps. Helps my confidence anyway.

[johnny2]

in reply to: Upgrade to Ashby setup needs advice #44556

I think we need a Steve Sr forum. I bet what he’s told us all so far is just the tip of the iceberg. Don’t hold back on any of it Steve, most of us are sponges trying to soak up every drop of info.

[johnny2]

in reply to: Upgrade to Ashby setup needs advice #44524

So Steve your saying I’m over spined now? So do you think I’ll be close to good with the additional weight and extra inch and a half draw length? I went up in spine this summer and they fly better than the 35 series arrows. I’ve asked other folks about this and been told my relatively long draw length is what makes these arrows acceptable.

Patrick, I am aware of the Ashby heads but man, I don’t know if my wife would cotton much(southern slang there) to a second mortgage for broadheads, yikes. After reading on this site about your problems with the Brown Bears I’ve crossed them off the list as well. Really leaning towards Grizzlys or Eclipse.

So much to learn. And in complete contrast to all the stuff I’ve learned over the years about tuning and shooting compounds.

Keep the advice coming, when it comes to this stuff I am “green as June tomato”(more southern slang).

[johnny2]

in reply to: The Pull of the Dark Side #43734

No need to apoligize GTA, what I’m saying is that you were right. A positive attitude goes a long way.

[johnny2]

in reply to: Coming out of the hunting closet #43717

3D suit is a great idea, be sure and cover your hands and face(here’s a chance for a plug Carbomask). I would get my butt up off the ground as I don’t shoot well sitting in the ground, an earthtone colored bucket will do fine. Position yourself if possible so the critter is past you when the shot presents itself. Animals pay more attention to where they are going as opposed to where they’ve been, I guess they think there is no danger where they came from cause they’re still alive, I don’t know that just seems to be the case. Use some background cover to break your silouhette. BE PATIENT. I’ve seen some posts that said to move if you see nothing in an hour. I’m sorry, that is terrible advice if you’re stand hunting. Animals don’t have a schedule. A deer may use the same trail 3 days in a row within a 15 minute time frame and the 4th day be 2 hours late. ABOVE ALL….. PAY ATTENTION TO THE WIND! The 2 animals you will be hunting have bar none the best noses on the planet and won’t stick around if they get a whiff of you.

Good luck.

[johnny2]

in reply to: The Pull of the Dark Side #43665

Well, I haven’t been able to hunt for a few days cause of work schedules and heavy rain(I think I’m gonna have to grow gills if this dang rain don’t stop). I did shoot my Navajo longbow today and man I love it! Everything Hiram said about stick bows is true and I love the romance of the traditional bows. Just seeing it leaned up against the oak in my yard while I’m pulling arrows with all the autumn leaves on the ground makes me want to hunt with it. When I’m shooting it feels like an extension of me, which actually makes me feel more like a natural predator as opposed to the “terminator” feel with the compound, rangefinder, release, and all the other “necessary equipment”. Sorry if all that sounds a little hokey, I said I was a romantic.

Nope, I’m sticking with the longbow. I know the learning curve may be steep, but it was with the compound too. And it took me longer than 2 weeks in with the compound to kill my fisrt deer. I guess I’m ahead of the curve. It IS all in how you look at things GTA.

Really, thanks everyone. I’m the only trad shooter in my bunch of running buddies so I put this post out there I guess cause I was looking for someone to talk me into hanging in there. My resolve was failing. Thanks again for the encouragment.

[johnny2]

in reply to: The Pull of the Dark Side #42561

GTA, my oldest daughter and my wife will hunt some. I’m pretty sure one of them will get a deer. It’s not just the meat. For lack of a better description I just love being a predator. It’s not blood lust, just an itch I can’t scratch without killing. It’s what I’ve done my whole life. It’s not even a pride thing and goin to the compound is as much as I’ll compromise. I just thought that after all these years it wouldn’t itch so much. I even tell people “oh the killing is just the cherry on top, I just like to listen to the hoot owls and squirrels,blah, blah, blah” and I do, I love it all. I just love it so much more when I hear the hoot owls while I’m following a blood trail.

You guys have pretty much convinced me to stick with the stick….ha ha (didn’t really mean to do that).

Thanks for the intervention and tough love.

May the force be with you.

[johnny2]

in reply to: Coming out of the hunting closet #42410

Steve, there is no shame in what you’ve said, heck we were all green at some point, I’m still green when it comes to the trad equipment. I will say though that you must have some grande huevos(or huevos grande, I don’t speak Spanish) and have earned my respect by postin your “greenness” on this site, bravo.

I must warn you that you are starting down a path that will change the way you look at everything. I for instance take notice of the wind direction every single time I step outside and wish I had a better sense of smell, so I could, you know, add a dimension to my deer and turkey hunting.LOL:D

I say take what you feel most comfortable with, as you can tell by my posts, sometimes I’m not sure either.

Good luck and enjoy your hunting.

[johnny2]

in reply to: The Pull of the Dark Side #42212

That is hilarious Patrick, I didn’t know if anyone would get my title but you look like a fellow generation Xer.:D

I’ve just got the one doe under my traditional belt a couple weeks ago. “Deer all over me” has not translated to inside 20 yards, broadside, unaware except for twice in about 12 hunts (and those are the criteria I’ve given myself for the green light to shoot).

It’s funny but it really does feel like withdrawls(what I imagine it would feel like anyway). For the last 15 years by this time I have two or three deer in the cooler(doe tags on the lease). We need four deer a year to get by and I know there is plenty of time, but man, that urge to draw blood is stronger than I thought it would be. Old habits die hard.

I can hear a bunch of you now ” He’s griping about two shots in twelve outings, is he nuts?”. No, I’m spoiled.

I told myself this year I would be a more “mature” hunter but as the rut approaches my wife says I’m gettin that crazed look in my eye and my neck is starting to swell! LOL:D

[johnny2]

in reply to: Tree Stand and Harness Advise #40138

GTA, you should ALWAYS wear a safety harness! Falls from tree stands are the #1 cause of injury and death in hunting. Anything can happen no matter what kind of stand you use. Got a buddy that dang near died after a fall last autumn. This was his first fall after more than 40 years of hunting. Another guy I know broke his ankle yesterday after falling fom a ladder stand. Don’t risk it!

Yeah the harnesses are a little high but as I said before I’ve had mine for at least 7 years with little sign of wear. No telling how many seasons I’ll get out of it. Even 7 years aint bad for a $70 investment.

Kinda ironic, but I just got back from hanging a stand which made me aware of a few more things regarding tree stands. When you’re hanging them you need a linemans belt which allows you to use both hands to hang the stand. And get a limb saw preferably with extensions.

Consequently the perfect tree I put my stand in was crookd as a dog leg, no way a climber would’ve worked.

[johnny2]

in reply to: Tree Stand and Harness Advise #39887

Seems like I’m always opposite Patrick but I use screw in steps because it broadens your tree choice. I’ve had problems with climbing sticks on trees that are crooked or have low branches. I have never seen a dead tree due to step use. However, I always have a light weight stand and sticks in my truck for a one day stand in remote areas. Sometimes it limits my tree choices but the ease and speed of stand placement make them the choice in that situation.

Again opposite Patrick I prefer a hang on to a climber because I could never use a climber as quietly as I wanted. By comparison, hunting from a hang on placed weeks before the hunt proved to be an advantage when deer appeared shortly after I climbed into the stand. I prefer stealth to convenience, but thats just me.

[johnny2]

in reply to: Help for a rookie!?!?! #39245

When you get past the basics of knowing what your weapon can do, watching the wind and such I think successful hunting comes down to one thing, knowing the land you hunt. If you never set foot on it before learn to read a topo map and then lay some boot leather. No offense to anyone, but if you know how animals use the land you won’t need any sign. The biggest deer I killed didn’t have sign within 100 yards of where I killed him. That being said, when you can identify travel patterns by the lay of the land the sign will be close, maybe not where you need to be to get a shot but close. I find the travel pattern and the sign is incidental, if it’s where I sit or put my stand great , if it’s 200 yards on down so what. You need to find where they bed, where they feed, and the routes they use to get from point A to point B. I’ve found smokin hot sign in places that deer don’t visit during daylight. Find where they’re sleepin and cut em off at the pass. Use the sign as confirmation after you studied the terrain.

Find a funnel. In hill country it could be a saddle, bottomlands a creek crossing, or farm country a brushy fence row. Find a place that because of terrain or obstacles creates a preferred travel route. Animals will take the path of least resistance if unpressured, they will take the path with good cover if they are pressured.

Think like an animal, the path you would choose traveling through an area is often the same path an animal would use for the same reasons.

The greatest strides I made as a hunter came when a mentor took pity on me and taught me the secrets of the topo map. It was like the lights came on about why I always saw deer here or why those turkeys always were on this point in the afternoons. You can pretty much tell where you should put deer crossing signs on the road by reading the topographical maps.

If you can master this, and anyone willing to put in the effort can, you can hunt anything anywhere.

[johnny2]

in reply to: Dedicated or Obsessed? Deciding when to hunt? #35953

I woke up at 4:45 this morning with all intentions of being in the woods by 6:30. When I stepped onto the porch to pee(yeah, I’ll walk past the bathroom to pee off the porch, thank God I’m a country boy) first thing I noticed was the whipping wind. I no longer have the desire to sit in the woods in very windy conditions. I have even taken to placing some of my treestands to appreciate the views instead of primarily killing a deer. Come Halloween through November I get a little more serious but I still take an afternoon just to enjoy autumn with my family or kill a few squirrels with my daughters.

Some guys approach hunting as a mission, I did myself for a while, almost cost me my marriage one turkey season, but that’s a story for another day(I don’t think she was serious, but she contends to this day it was).:roll: Did the same thing with 3-D tournaments till one day it seemed like a second job instead of a fun hobby. Now I consider my outdoor pursuits as way more than hobbies, they are my families lifestyle. But there are so many ways to enjoy this lifestyle that sometimes get lost in the need to succeed. I now look at all my outdoor activities as an escape from the competetive, results oriented rat race of life.

Your quote about not hurrying through the day is something I’ve tried to live by since my Dad passed away a few years ago.

Just do your thing, I know that I enjoy time in the woods or on the water now more than ever. The day will come for your friend as well.

[johnny2]

in reply to: skeletons in your closet #34861

Ok, some of you have said there is no void but no on can explain the shots. Steve came closest in a PM, said that the lungs did not extend to the back of the rib cage. I can buy that. Maybe a shot under the spine and behind the lungs but in front of the diaphragm. That still makes a void, it just changes the geography.. I have dressed lots of deer, but as I mentioned before I havn’t bothered to look at organs inside the rib cage in a while. But wouldn’t the lungs sit different in deer inverted or laying on the ground as opposed to a standing deer?

Someone explain the scenarios I asked about. If you can’t explain them I don’t think you can say with certainty that there is no void.

You can be certain if I see this again I’ll be postin some pictures.

David, I reread one of you posts about the location of backstraps and tenderloins and you mentioned a “void” are you saying there is one?

I know we may never know the answer to this and every one may have their opinion but ain’t it interesting how a thread has evolved into a complex discussion about a few square inches of deer.:)

[johnny2]

in reply to: skeletons in your closet #34196

David, I didn’t take it as a scolding but more of a…well as you said a call to get to “the meat of the matter”(sorry, I just couldn’t say it any better). Looking at my first post from the distance of a day or two, asking for folks to put a number on wounded animals seems a little goofy. And you should know by reading my other posts that if I disagree with your opinion I’ll tell ya, no matter who you are.:twisted:

I think the best thing to come out of this will be some pics by Steve. We could all use an anatomy lesson. I am still dumbfounded as to what is happening on these hits. As I’ve said, I saw with my own eyes what I took to be wounds in this void. That being said I told Steve in a PM that I haven’t bothered to look at vital organs in an intact rib cage in a long time. Shame on me.

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