[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: My first Traditional Deer Harvest video #22940

Thank you everyone it was a very busy day yesterday but it feels great!!

Doc,

I will give you some more details on what happened before the shot since my camera is pretty crappy and pixely. Once the 4 ladies made their presents I had already picked out the last deer. She was the biggest and also the most cautious out of the group. I was getting ready as the first 3 walked past and all 3 of them stopped and looked right at me but did not seem to be alarmed. Once the 4th one started to walk again thats when I was bring the bow up to ready the shot. After watching the video I must have hit another branch or something cause I do here the a crack of somesort. She then stopped and looked right at me as I was drawing the bow back and that was the end of her. When tracking her I was pretty worried thou since I could not find a single drop of blood, but after taking my time and really looking for any trace I was able to find a good portion 30 minutes later. Then roughly another 20-30 minutes of following the blood ever so slowly I found her. All in all a good day!!!

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: deer bedding area #22433

Well folks it happened….I got my very first Traditional Harvest today at 7:45AM. I have it all on video which I will be loading onto the interwebs here shortly. It was by far the best morning I have ever had hunting and not just because I shot a deer but the amount of action that I saw today!!! I got into my blind roughly at 5:30AM and as I was getting my gear situated I went to pull my bow back to make sure I had enough clearance around me and felt the top limb his a twig. I reached up and snapped the twig and a deer took off roughly 20-30 yards away. I had no clue that it was there mostly because it has pitch black out. At first light I then watched a small 4 pointer walk 40 yards away from me and then walked into the woods just opposite of me…no biggy he was not of legal size for me to shoot anyways.

At 7:45 I had 4 doe walk from behind me and to my right. I got to pick which one I wanted to take and hope that they would walk in my shooting lane. Sure enough they walked roughly 17 yards away from me and it was at my max distance that I feel comfortable shooting. The big girl stopped right in my window and I let my arrow fly. I did hit her pretty high. I ended up waiting about an hour and a half before I started to track her. For the first 30-40 yards there was no blood then a drop here and a drop there….I new I hit her high and was not to surprised by the lack of blood. I found my broken arrow about 50 yards from where I shot her and got roughly 10 inches of penetration. After about a 45 minute and having 2 more deer walk in on me as I was tracking her, I found her laying peaceful next to a fallen tree right around the 100 yard mark. I was not very pleased by my shot but in the long run the deer did not suffer to much and her cavity was filled with blood.

I will add the link once I am able to. Thank you to everyone for the tips and tricks!!!

OH and one more thing….I did not use any scent masks minus baking soda which I washed my clothes in the night before and tossed them into a vaccum bag and changed into them once I parked my car. I literally walked right over the patch which the deer came on and not one caught my scent!!!

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: Rabbit fur string silencers #18502

Smithhammer wrote: [quote=tkohlhorst]any suggestions on how to make them more waterproof?

I was out last weekend in the rain and I have fox fur and they got completely soaked.

Hmmm….maybe someone has more experience with this, but I’m not sure that there is a good way to effectively waterproof fur, at least not for this application. That’s why most fur silencers are otter, beaver, etc, which contain naturally-occurring oils that help repel water.

I do have some beaver fur that I may have to switch over to. I was told after I had the fox fun on it about the whole getting wet thing that I overlooked. I left them on all last season and I actually did not get rained on once so I was not able to test out the fox fur.

I was just curious if there is anything that I could do. I was thinking maybe using that white powder that I waterproof my fletching would work.

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: deer bedding area #17676

Thats my plan hopefully I will be able to stick it out that long. Sitting on a tripod seat for 7-8 hours might get alittle hard to handle

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: Rabbit fur string silencers #17552

any suggestions on how to make them more waterproof?

I was out last weekend in the rain and I have fox fur and they got completely soaked.

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: deer bedding area #17511

jasonsamko wrote: Sounds to me like you have a great plan!

The one rule with deer is there are no rules. They always surpise me and do something i didnt expect or plan for.

The key is to have confiendce is your game plan, but be readt to adapt if needed.

the benifit from the failures is more valuable that the successes. Look at what you have learned already from this situation. So keep that in mind when you get stumped again. The lessons are worth everything.

Most important have fun!

Im looking forward to hearing how it all goes for you this weekend! be safe, hunt hard, and have fun!

Much appreciated!! I could not agree with you more, last year was my first year hunting and I had an absolute blast last year and never even took an animal. I had some rough times with other hunters but that was due to me opening my mouth so lesson learned there 😀

I have been thinking about this ever since Sunday night and am so excited to get out there this weekend. I will have my video camera out there and maybe, just MAYBE I will be able to record some action.

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: deer bedding area #17415

This is all very good information. I am picking apart what people have said in this forum and going to try to explain a little more too about this situation.

After the first night of kicking up the deer that was roughly 2 hours prior to sunset. I understand that this could be considered getting into the woods late since it does not give much time for the woods to quiet down. I understand that part, this was the first time hunting a new blind and walking out to this new blind is when I discovered this bedding area which was not there 3-5 months ago. This is a new in season discovery that I found and I am just worried that if I am walking to this blind once or twice a week that I will end up spooking the deer away from me.

I am also going to try this weekend to hunt this spot in the morning hours and be in my blind a couple of hours before sunrise and hope that the deer are still partying it up out in the fields before they come home to sleep off the night 🙂

The first time hunting a morning blind I always try to stay as long as I can in hope to see if the deer are bedding down later in the morning. I have not had much luck with this but got to keep trying until something works.

I think I have a good game plan set up in my head for this weekend. I appreciate all the feedback that everyone is giving lots of good information on this thread. I am pretty darn excited to get back out there Saturday morning and if all goes well I will be showing off picture of my first harvest….and if I am really lucky I will also get it on video!!!

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: deer bedding area #16540

That is the EXACT smell that I am thinking of too! I have looked at several different rubber boots and they all smell the same way….least I am not the only one that has that concern about them.

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: deer bedding area #16523

I did have luck with my method last year I did have several deer walk within 10 feet of me but was only able to pull back once. I did have 1 buck that did bust me but only jumped back 10 yards or so then proceeded to walk out of my shooting window but still within 20 yards of me. Another small buck which I would have taken the shot but it was not a legal deer for me to shoot that was I kid you not 5 feet away from me.

I do the whole shower routine every time as well, but I have always laughed cause I don’t know what to do about my “death breath”. Typically I just brush my teeth with no toothpaste or I will use baking soda which is not very enjoyable.

Also regarding your rubber boots what do you recommend using to get the nasty smell of rubber out of them? I want to get a pair but have no clue on how to get that smell out.

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: deer bedding area #16505

I do have a couple of blinds set up, this blind that I went to this past weekend was the blind that I set up earlier this year and wanted to see what sort of action I would see. Basically what I have learned is this blind will be my morning blind and I also know another blind I have has had luck only evening time and nothing really comes around in the morning.

It does make sense that deer try to figure out who is in the woods with them during the night and try to stay away from that area, at the same time I hope that I do not smell as bad as the other public land hunters that I share the woods with. I do go to the extreme on trying to prevent laying any sent down. I do not use scent lock clothing or use the spray because I feel that is more of a modern hunters mind set. To me it sounds silly to spray on a bunch of foreign chemicals to not smell. I wash my clothes in baking soda then once they are dry I toss them in a vacuum sealed bag which I have a dirt leaves small branches from the woods I hunt in to try to get as close to smelling like the woods as possible. I keep it all sealed up all the way until I get to the woods then I change my clothes and get prepared once I arrive.

I wish I could take a different route to this blind but in order to do that I would either have to walk thru the woods and make more noise plus it would be mostly uphill and I really do not want to get to warm while walking out to it. I think I will just have to try this blind out in the AM this weekend and see what happens.

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: deer bedding area #16382

I understand all that and where I thought that my blind was located between the feeding and bedding area. Now I have found out that the bedding area is much closer to the feeding area. I am just curious if they will move the bedding area somewhere new now that I have kicked them up 2 days in a row?

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: attaching glue on broadheads #58041

I successfully attached them and got them glued on and it was much easier than I thought. I took them to my back yard and shot them and wowzers they shoot great. I have them sharpened and are in my quiver ready for next Saturday to get here!!!

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: bare shaft tunning wood arrows #51429

I feel your pain. I could never get my woodies to fly straight when bareshaft tuning. I tossed my hands up in the air after 3rd dozen of arrows that I bought and 2 months later or cutting the arrow reglueing, cutting somemore, oh now the arrow is to short heavier points, lighter points, different shafts and repeat this process…GGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRR…. I said this is silly I am hitting the target just fine and is getting a great grouping. My arrows seem to fly straight when I am shooting them with fletching and I had to ask myself what is it that I am looking for with the bareshaft? I get it to have perfect arrow flight and sure there is more energy behind the perfect flying arrow, so me though it was not worth the headache. I gave up on it and must say shooting archery is no longer a headache and is 100 times more enjoyable again.

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: 23 days! #50352

19 more days! Got out this past weekend and got the final touches on the new ground blind. I feel pretty darn good about the location, I am kicking myself for not bringing out the burlap that I have the first time I set up the blind cause man that stuff has quite the oder to it. I have my fingers cross that it does not scare off any of the deer and that the smell will go away by the time I am ready to hunt there. My next step it to wash my clothes then toss them in a bag with some of the ground floor of the area that I will be hunting into a bag and seal it off until I am ready to hunt! I am pumped!

[ChumpMcgee]

in reply to: attaching glue on broadheads #43514

Awesome I will look into this! Does sharpening the blades throw it out of whack or anything?

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