Genesis 9:2-4 Ministries

At Last! Some meat for the freezer

2009-11-20T11:51:00.002-05:00

When I look back on this season, I've had a several opportunities at bucks and countless opportunities on doe. The main reason I haven't had anything on the meat pole is that I was hoping to see a big rack come in. Last night, I finally decided enough was enough. At sundown +15 min or so some doe came out into the south plot at Midway. The big one turned broadside at 174 yards. I had the Win Mod 70 in 30-06. It took a couple of minutes for the other deer to clear away . Here's the result:

What's special about this doe is the weight:

I remember last year getting ribbed for suggesting that I'd taken 170 lb doe on this property. This one went 176 live weight. It ended up being a hard night, By the time I got her hoisted in into the freezer, I was spent. The dang viscera weighed over 60 lbs. After schlepping that mother out, both SuperCore and I took the day off.

30-06 with 165 grain Hornady Interlock did the trick-- knocked her over and the legs went up in the air and she didn't so much as twitch. It was a double lung shot and took off the top of the heart as well. This old girl had a lot of miles on her.

Report from Deer Camp III

2009-11-16T05:01:00.000-05:00

Angus and I went out to Midway-- the new mega-blind for the evening. At last light a buck and a herd of doe came out, but it was too dark and too far away to chance a shot. The rack on this boy was pretty small. I think I saw them all earlier in the day. SuperCore walked in with a zilch.

While we were all sitting round the fire out back, we saw a flashlight dancing around one of the pastures. I went to investigate. A nice husband/wife couple had gotten lost on one of the neighboring leases-- like about 5 miles lost. They'd been wandering in the dark for about 90 minutes and saw our light. We all sat around and chatted for a while, and then we took them to their car over on the next ridge. We then hit Roosters for dinner-- want to throw out a big howdy to y'all that stopped by the D&DH table.

The general talk: so far nothing but small 8 pointers and less. A lot of people have gotten tired of waiting and taken a doe. The big guys are still being elusive. We're seeing a lot of chasing going on, but it feels like the rut still hasn't peaked around these parts.

Report from Deer Camp II

2009-11-14T14:00:00.002-05:00

Well, that was a ride!

I had near constant deer activity from legal hunting +30 minutes to quitting at 1100. It was mostly all doe, with a couple of small bucks scattered here and there. One was a forker, the other an immature 8 pointer. If I had been looking for doe, I'd have filled a tag many times over. One even came and stood broadside to me and ate weeds at 10 yards.

Along about 1000, it was getting hot. I undid my bibs and jacket and tried to cool off. Just then a lone buck, out on the prowl came through, following the track left by a pair of feeding doe earlier in the morning. I got my Savage 99 ready and decided that this might be the best one I'd see all day. Frankly, I could have left him grow another year, but something inside of me decided to commit.

That is when things began to go wrong. I couldn't get the Savage situated on my shoulder. As I'd unzipped everything, all that fabric and Thinsulate had balled up on either side of my chest. He was going behind me. I grunted. He stopped about 30 yards behind the buddy stand. I thumbed the safety off, and was still trying to get a proper sight picture.

BLAM!

As best as I can tell, the shot went low. The buck stood there for a bit, and I got another racked in. Now I was all twisted around. The buck moved.

BLAM!

. . . The buck trotted off, got behind some cedars and tried to figure out what was going on. I kept angling for another shot. By this time, I'd had to come around the other side of the tree. Two years ago, with the stand situated 90 degrees counter clockwise around the tree, this would have been an easy shot, but now I was doing everything I could to get my eye on the scope. Eventually the buck decided enough was enough and cranked himself up and left the property.

I got my gear down and took off down the hill to investigate. I found tracks, but no blood. About 20 minutes later, as I was checking where he had crossed the neighbor's fence, I heard a shot from the direction the buck had gone. I hope the bloke had better luck than I did.

On the way to the pick-up point, I had two more encounters. A doe busted me and ran off, and then a whole herd of deer, spooked by my buddy's truck, came barreling down the valley 50 yards inside the treeline on the other side of the pasture.

My buddy? SuperCore made it to 0930 and came out. He'd had a couple of gear malfunctions that left him with freezing feet and hands. He didn't have as much as a hint of deer the whole time. He said he was going to drop home and refit. The boots he was wearing leaked and the HotHands he had were a couple of years old and useless. He's also brought some ski bibs that he hadn't checked before leaving home-- either they'd shrunk or he'd grown. Oh well, now that he's got an idea of what he's up against, he says he can grab some new gear and be back in 4 hours.

This was easily the most active Opener I've ever encountered-- over 2 shots/minute in the first hour and better than 1/minute in the second hour. However, all but a handful were distant. The word from the scanner is everyone is complaining they didn't see a thing. For all the shooting, the Orange Army was overall quite well behaved. I didn't hear any shots before legal hunting started. Nobody emptied any 20 round magazines. There were a lot fewer ATV's out this year too.

I'm switching rigs for the afternoon. I'm bringing out the Win Mod 70 in 30-06 that is better suited for working the food plots. Angus and I are going to Midway to see what comes out.

Report from Deer Camp I

2009-11-14T13:55:00.002-05:00

The past few years, I've been putting out a sort-of diary from turkey camp and deer camp on this forum or that. I figured this would be as good a place as any.

I arrived yesterday afternoon and filled the fridge and freezer out in the shed. That's a donation from Cousin Tim, he was moving back home and didn't have room for the fridge in the new place. I then took on a bunch of last minute projects like re-mounting the mail box and putting out the jagende gewehrständer

Mooseboy made it in shop for my Christmas present a couple of years ago.

At 1700 I retired to the Thoughtful Spot overlooking Pooh Corner and glassed the ridges, looking for deer. Just after sundown a nice young buck came out at 200 yards and started grazing. The dogs barked, but he didn't pay us any mind. Later, a herd came up through Skunk Hollow. I saw one set of antlers-- I think he was chasing some doe, but it was all just at the edge of what I could see. For those of you following the thread about getting a new guy started in deer hunting, the ground blind I pictured, the one at Faulty Towers overlooks Skunk Hollow.

Dinner was ribs from Corky's in Memphis . Krogers is now carrying frozen slabs.

This morning, I was back out at the Thoughtful Spot. It was colder than I expected-- about 31F. I went in to find another hat and when I got back, there were 3 doe out in the field. One was about 150 yards from where I was sitting. The dogs finally saw her and after some preliminary barking sent her and her buddies scurrying towards Skunk Hollow. I'm thawing some venison round steak. I'm going to grind it up this morning and then set to cooking some chili-- it'll be awesome by tomorrow Noon.

Maysville Walmart

2009-11-09T07:17:00.000-05:00

I just want to put out a big howdy to all you guys that are planning on hitting the Walmart in Maysville Kentucky at 2130 EST this next Friday night. From what I understand from my correspondents, there are a bunch of you that are making this pilgrimage, to the point where there are now some dedicated deer hunting locals that are turning this into a spectator event.

The lines for licenses are supposedly long, despite being able to buy them online for years. The various gizmos are flying off the pegs-- Cough Silencer and the Butt-Out were big sellers last year. There is even a bustling demand for firearms. This latter item is now causing jeering by the spectators, because they can't figure out how y'all could be sighting in a deer rifle with less than 12 hours to go before the opening of season. Please, one of you guys needs to set them straight. There is a way, right?

I'm bringing this all up, because I didn't know if you all knew you were now being watched, and that they are now spreading stories about you on the Internet. I was tempted to come watch myself, but Maysville is a sizable drive and I'm usually already at camp and had dinner and in the rack by 2130 LIMA. In fact, I'm not really sure why anyone, having a choice in the matter, would want to be at Walmart at 2130 LIMA on the Eve of the Opener-- even if there were shimmy-shimmy girls and elephants and free candy for the kids.

But to each his own, right?

Crossbow Update-

2009-11-08T12:50:00.002-05:00

I promised myself that I'd not shoot anything with the crossbow unless it was special. I've been watching does and such go buy since early October. Last weekend I nearly pushed the safety off when a nice little 8-pointer came by. I held up . Today was much different.

I had serious action from first light on. Deer were moving through while I was still trying to get my gear hoisted up. At 15 minutes before legal hunting I had a buck grunting in the dark. I had deer coming from every possible angle. Still, the safety staid on.

Right at 0800, a big set of hooves came crashing up on my 3 O'Clock. He got to about 1 O'Clock before I realized this was a shooter-- not the absolute biggest I'd seen, but it was a wickedly nice rack of probably 10 points or better-- would have at least made B&C. He was now coming into a shooting lane at 11 O'Clock.

I grunted. He stopped. I had a clear shot on his chest. The safety came off and THWANG! I vaguely remember some sprinkles or something falling through the sight picture of the scope. The deer walked off, stood for a bit and then slowly made his way all the way around to the 8 O'Clock position and stood there watching his back trail. After several minutes he wandered off. I did not see him favoring a leg. I saw no wound on his side. It must have been a miss.

I had a heck of a time finding out what happened-- no arrow, no blood, a few hoof prints. The one problem I had was figuring out exactly where I'd shot. An old dead limb about 10 yards out kept keeping me from seeing the shooting rail of the stand. . . Hey! Wait a minute! Sure enough, there was a fresh hunk of rot blasted out from the bottom of the branch.

Sigh!

Oh well. I may hang this crossbow up for the year. I was originally thinking that I would take a few days next week and hunt with it, but . . .
1) The weather is warm-- It'll hit 70 today.
2) Something has kept the bucks from moving on with the rut. Somebody forgot to tell them that they should be chasing by now. Bucks are still just ambling about-- not even seriously seeking.
3) I got what I needed-- some time up in the stand before the Rifle Opener. By next year, I'll have this crossbow figured out a lot better.

My guess is that the rifle season will be prime next weekend. There are certainly enough deer around for sure. There were a dozen out in the field last night. KYHillChick stayed back at the house and heard bucks fighting just a couple of hundred yards off.

Update on Midway-- the new shooting house.

Last night I decided to stay out of the stand, because we were still catching 35 MPH gusts when I was set to leave at 1500. Instead, I went out to Midway, the new shooting house and stayed there until dark. It was quite pleasant. Sundown was at 1730, and the temperature was still about 70F when the deer started pouring into the adjoining food plot.

First it was 3-- the same trio Angus had for Yute Season-- a mother and twins. It was getting dark enough that I thought I might be able to slip out on them when a large dominant doe showed up and chased the three over to the other side of the plot. Then a pair, then a single, then. . .
. . . Holy cow! The plot was filling up now and the deer were all moving towards me. There I was, with the big Meade astronomical binos in the window with deer less than 20 yards away. So much for camo-- I was in a white T-Shirt, with red suspenders on my jeans. So much for scent control-- I was 12 hours gone from a shower, and even I could tell. Plus, I was hunting on carpet that had recently come out of my folk's family room. These deer just didn't care. I could have had any of about 3-4 doe, but the crossbow staid propped in the corner.

Now I was facing a situation: How do I get out? I checked out the back: nothing. I still had to close up shop. I finally decided that bringing down the shutter would probably not honk the deer off that much. I went for it-- I heard a few deer run a few yards, but when I finally got everything buttoned up, they were all still in the field a few yards further out. I walked out quietly and lit the flashlight when I was about 100 yards away.

One last piece of data for the flashlight/no flashlight argument: I was heading back . It was now 45 minutes after sundown. I had my cheap little 2AA cell flashlight pointed out ahead of my feet. I was walking down the 2-track, headed for the pasture that leads to the house and-

Mrrrrrrt! Trundle trundle! Gallumph Gallumph!

A doe had broken cover just ten feet from me as I was walking in. She'd been trying to cross the fence line to my right and must have had a clear shot of me and the flashlight.

To All You Hunters. . .

2009-11-04T12:12:00.002-05:00

I don't think I need to explain this one. Let me know if there are any questions.

I'm still trying to find out out the source. Somebody sent this to me. If you are the author, I'd love to hear from you.

Donate your deer carcass to Wolfrun.org!

2009-11-04T11:43:00.001-05:00

Here's a plea from Wolf Run Wildlife Refuge in Nicholasville, KY:

Donate your deer carcass to Wolfrun.org!

Hey guys I think since we are all conservationist in a sense I though you all might be interested. Feed something other than your local coyote's.

We cannot use the organs but all the rest! Thanks so much. You wouldn't believe how this helps us. Not only financially but the deer is so good for the big cats and the wolves love to play and chew on the bones! Its a win, win situation for everyone out here! Let me know if you need me to answer anything other questions. We are open from 12-5 each Saturday if the weather permits. Blessings, Mare

Wolf Run Wildlife Refuge
Mary Kindred CEO

Call a day ahead to meet with Mary to donate your deer.859-881-3449 or email wrwrhope@gmail.com

Happy Saint Hubert's Day

2009-11-03T09:03:00.000-05:00

Over on 24hourcampfire.com we all got together back in 2005 and decide that Christmas on Dec 25 was just not cutting it for us hunters and that we'd all move our serious gift giving to The Feast of Saint Hubert on 11/3. It really bites if you're getting a rifle or a shotgun and you have to wait almost a whole year to use it. Moving the gift giving to November 3 cleans that all up nicely.

I just got back from the pagent. KYHillChick, Angus, and I just finished parading up and down the driveway. I was in my lederhosen, 'HillChick was in her peasant dress, and Lil Angus played the Duddlesack (German bagpipe). I had my boar spear decorated with a garland of flowers.

All the other hunters and I are now going to swill beer until we can't stand, and then go out to have a traditional Black Forest Schutzenfest-- on second thought. . .

Since I'm out of work, we kept the gift giving to a minimum this year. I loaded twenty rounds of 30-06 for all the people on my list. KYHillChick gave me a fresh pile of hunting socks all washed and ready for hunting. KYHillChick says she'll buy me a new deer rifle if I land a job that pays more than the last one.

Happy Saint Hubert's Day Y'all.

EVEN MORE!!! -on the DST and DEER

2009-11-03T07:58:00.001-05:00

Check this out on 24hourcampfire.com

Daylight Saving and the effect on White tail!!

swoosh23
New Member

This weekend I was informed by a fellow hunt club member that we would be at a real big advantage on todays (sunday) hunt because the deer would be off thier normal pattern by a hour due to day light savings change. He also stated that it would take them a few days to get use to it. I about fell out of my chair with laughter, but held it together. Out of respect I just sat quietly and laughed inside, and could not wait to get on here and post. I guess deer around here must wear watches and have a set schedule to go to the food plots... that dang day light savings time!!

The Shaman Presents the Anti-DST Clock for Deer

2009-11-02T06:43:00.002-05:00

NOW!
The shaman presents!

The Shamanic Camo Clock! Just $48.95

Place this revolutionary clock in front of your stand and set it to daylight savings time to reassure the deer that nothing is wrong. Scientific studies show that this clock, when used in conjunction with a proven scent control plan ( included absolutely free), will dramatically improve your deer hunting success.

Read what they're saying:
[quote]
Shaman noted D&DH Stumpsitter says:
People just don't understand the stress it puts on these animals. The deer get confused and start getting up in the middle of the night and it throws off the rut and the bucks keel over out of all the frustration, 'cause the doe is staying in her bed and they're always late getting out into the field in the evening and it makes them get thin, missing meals and all.

[/quote]

[quote]Howhill, another noted D&DH expert:
I've always felt that the shortening days i.e. photoperiod have an effect on deer activity.thas pretty much known to be fact. that the amount of light recieved into the pituatary gland of a doe is what triggers estrous. . . ..as far as the time factor itself id say the day we set our clocks back . . . [and] . . the deer cant set theirs back cause they have no thumbs. [/quote]

Place at 20 yards for bowhunting. Place at 50 yards for shotgun and rifle. Fill the handy reservoir with your favorite scent. Scent drips out after sunrise and sunset, further enhancing the effect.

Go to our website and look for valuable accessories now on sale:

1) Shamanic UV-Radioactive Hunting Suit -- The future of deer hunting
2) Shamanic Scented Gum -- Now!!! Update -- important new info
3) Shamanic ant-telepathy hat. $14.99 -- Coming Fall 2009 -- Pre-orders accepted

From the mind of the shaman direct to your stand!
Free samples of the Shamanic Gum with every order.
Free shipping on orders over $500.

Visit our booth at DEERORAMA 2010 -- Test the telepathy hat on live deer!

Watch for our products on Deer City, USA!

More on DST and Deer

2009-11-03T07:15:00.002-05:00

Woods Walker said:

What....no scent-loc version???

And that green camo.....now THAT'S a joke! By the time the clock change occurs, most of the green is out of the woods in most areas. You need to have one in Realbush "Last Week Of October" pattern, so that it "blends" with the woods.

Our scientific studies showed that deer did not mind the Woodland pattern. The whole point here is that the deer are comforted by showing them the old time. It wouldn't help if they couldn't see the clock at all, right?

As to the Scent-lok feature: we'd thought about that, but then you'd have a conflict between the built-in scent-dripper and the Scent-lok. Of course, if you want your clock to be scent-invisible to the deer, I suppose you could fill the reservoir of the scent dripper with Sport Wash and spray everything liberally with UV-Killer. We used the Wooland camo, because it contains no UV-brightened pigments, but. . . well, you can't be too sure.

As you can see from this picture taken at our secret testing facility, the woodland camo clock is there, you can make it out, but it does not stand out.

BTW: That's Angus, one of our shamanic pro-staff. He was doing some last-minute calibrations of the framulator prior to our full-up test that we conducted over last weekend-- very complicated stuff. Very scientific you know.

Dang! That was sweet!

2009-11-03T07:11:00.001-05:00

It's kind of goofy and strange that here I go all the way to KY every weekend to hunt, and yet I take a turn out to the local shopping mall to get the best look at a buck in situ all season.

Tonight KYHillChick went out looking for a new washing machine-- the old one died tonight at the ripe old age of 13 years, 6 months, filling the basement with water as it went. We drove out to Tri-County Mall on the north side of Cincy to go shopping and what should we see but a sweet 10 pointer chasing doe less than a 1/4 mile from the mall, in a fallow part of the cemetery on RT 747. I pulled off and watched him. He was a magnificent specimen. He was taking turns chasing 4 doe in the last rays of sunlight. He probably went about 130 -140, and he was in full rut. He was lip curling, and chasing , but mostly he was just turning broadside to the doe and displaying his rack for the ladies-- and me. He was only 40 yards from the road.

Wow! What a sight he was! Across the street was a TGI Fridays and a strip mall with Kinkos. Most people were just driving on, and couldn't understand what I was doing. Traffic started backing up, and somebody started honking, and I had to finally break off and keep going.

MMmmmmmMMMmmmm! Some nights the Good Lord gives you a peak at what it is all about. This was one of them.

Soaking the Non-Residents in Kentucky

2009-10-31T11:02:00.002-04:00

This is in response to:

Higher Priced Non-Resident License, a thread over on KentuckyHunting.net

I am a resident of Ohio, and hunt exclusively in Zone 1. Kentucky affords me a much better opportunity to hunt deer and turkey. My family owns 200 acres in Bracken County. I've written several times here about how much I appreciate the opportunity to come across the river to hunt.

I've been watching this thread develop, and I cannot figure out why there is such animosity here to non-resident hunters. Yes, I am from out of state. Yes, we own property here. No, I am not one of the last-minute Johnnies at the Walmart. Yes, since my shoulder went bad, I've been gun-only, but I had 25 years in as a bow hunter before I gave up. I have a medical waiver to hunt with a crossbow. I am somewhat of an outdoor writer, and I frequently write to promote NKY and the Ohio Valley as a hunting destination. My family puts a large amount of money into the local economy in the way of taxes, gas, food, and license fees, but we think it's worth it.

The reality of it is, that in Zone 1 there are simply not enough hunters to hunt all the deer. I've seen huge increases in our herd since 2001. EHD was just a blip for us. The deer and turkey both are thriving. More hunters are needed in this zone, and yet nobody seems to like the idea of us carpetbaggers shooting your deer.

When there is unlimited taking of antlerless deer available in a zone, you know there is a problem. The problem is NOT that the non-residents aren't being soaked enough. The problem is NOT that the non-residents aren't being kept out. The problem is NOT crossbows. The problem is NOT rifle season during the rut. The problem is that you have too few hunters taking too few deer. Here in Bracken County, the deer probably outnumber the permanent residents.

I will be blunt. I was fairly willing when we first moved out here to give written permission to hunt. However, each and every time I gave out that permission, I ended up getting screwed. I caught one neighbor on his deck in his underwear, shooting at deer on my property. He didn't hit anything, but he was shooting at 300 yards with his 30-30 and just emptying the magazine at them. He'd go back in the trailer, reload and come back out. The deer didn't seem to mind, but I thought that was an awful amount of lead going into the woods indiscriminately.

I gave permission for a fellow to ride his ATV through the property to the land-locked parcel that adjoins me and later I found him and his buddies hunting everywhere on my property--and giving me grief to boot. I caught another fellow in the chain over the driveway-- he'd gotten his ATV's handlebars stuck sneeking in. His answer "I didn't think you were home."

I've been in contact with the CO every year to help take care of the poachers, but they keep coming. My neighbors came and tore down my posted signs. I have to patrol constantly for new tree stands and ground blinds on my property-- people from as far away as the TN line. If y'all had just been nice, I would have been nice. Nobody likes to have what's theirs to give taken without permission.

I am down to 2 active letters this year: 1 for a 79 year old local grouse hunter that is a true gentleman and one for my retired bosses, a KY resident, who wants to come fill his freezer with doe. Between us, my sons and my old boss we should be able to knock over enough deer to do what's needed on this plot.

Let me give you all some suggestions:

1) Keep KY a good non-resident bargain. You might want to make some WMA's resident only, but I would not go screwing with much else.

2) Encourage non-residents into Zone 1. You already give them a great chance to come across the river and shoot rifles during the rut. However, you should incentivize antlerless deer. Maybe offer a special $75 non-resident antlerless license/tag for the December rut or something. Let crossbows in on private land in Zone 1 regardless of medical condition. Leverage the out-of-staters to help handle the herd.

3) Put reefer trucks out on the major roads and set up stations for donating whole deer carcasses, and feed the hungry. Anyone can drop off a deer on their way home from the field.

4) Police your own, and be nice. Buckeyes are notorious in SE Indiana and N KY for coming over the state line and being slobs. However, my problem has been with my own neighbors. It does not take much to get private land posted and the landowner permanently peeved. You don't want more WMA's, do you? Really? You don't want more chances to hunt in a crowd. You want to be left alone when you hunt. Taxing non-residents and buying WMA land is not the way to that; honoring your own laws and being nice to landowners is.

5) Encourage local business to make the Rifle Opener a celebration. Roll out the red carpet. Have a Fall Festival. Sell soup, chili, spaghetti, fried chicken in the main square. Bake sales, car shows, craft shows, folk art-- get the out of staters in here and soak 'em. You personally won't see any benefit to additional non-resident fees, but you can walk home with cash in your pockets if you roll out the welcome. Give the wives something to do while the hunters are hunting, and the hunters won't be as quick to roll back across the line when they're done hunting. Telecheck probably put a damper on this, but you all can make up for it. Make the Opener your best money-making weekend of the year. If you don't believe it can happen, go look at what they do in MacArthur OH, for their Turkey Festival in the Spring.

6) Non-resident ownership of KY land is a great thing, not a bad one. Here are all these fallow farms throughout the state. The per-acre price is depressed due to the supply. The more you encourage non-residents, the more that price goes up. All of a sudden what was unused acreage is some out-of-stater's dream come true. Later, when you want to buy it back, you can let the property values fall back down. This is what Americans did to the Japanese and the Germans back in the 80's-- sold them real estate at inflated prices and then let the bottom fall out of the market.

That's just my ideas-- one old fart Buckeye who loves coming over the bridge every weekend. YMMV

How is the change from DST going to affect the deer?

2009-10-31T09:23:00.004-04:00

Dang! I'm missing all those threads about "How is the change from DST going to affect the deer?" I always howl when I find one of them.

Occasionally I get the devil in me and start posting stuff about how the deer get confused and start getting up in the middle of the night and it throws off the rut and the bucks keel over out of all the frustration, 'cause the doe is staying in her bed and they're always late getting out into the field in the evening and it makes them get thin, missing meals and all-- you'd be surprised how many guys bite.

. . . but then I've got folks riled up over "Disney on Ice." I think it's terrible that they cart Walt's frozen carcass around to cities and then make people pay to see it. Folks tell me it's an ice pagent-- like Holiday on Ice, but that makes it even worse-- something so gruesome mixed in with what's supposed to be such wholesome family entertainment.

Marketing to Hunters

2009-10-28T07:34:00.002-04:00

It all depends on the product, and the price, and the claims.

Mathews: seems like a good bow, but there are bows out there that will kill a deer for a lot less.

Scent-lok: I've always been leery of this technology, the price is prohibitive, and a liberal dose of sodium bicarb works more reliably for me. I have a mismatched set of bibs and quad parka, both from Remington, both purchased in 2003, both from Walmart that have never seen a washing machine, and I can still have a doe 5 yards downwind and I'm invisible to her. They cost me less than $100, they are water repellent. They are insulated. There is no scent-reduction technology involved, just baking soda.

You're right that it's all right for these things to exist in the market, and it's our choice not to buy it, but when somebody goes and buys gobs of time and saturates the channel and you can't listen to a show without the host claiming that his whole hunting career hinges on the performance of this wonderful product. . . yeah, right. That's where the derision sets in. That's when I stop listening. The next time I hear some couch potato wannabe tell me that when he finally gets out off his butt and hunts one of these years he's going to own it, I'm sorry. Something inside me, my evil side, takes over. After the room clears, whoever I'm with has to make excuses for me and say something happened to me in the Jungle back in 67 and they carry me off. Nevermind the fact that I was 8 in 1967, they buy it.

One you did not mention is Thompson Center. It's a good product, but way too many TV hunters hunt with it, and you know it has nothing to do with it being a superior system. The Encore is just a @#$@# single shot rifle, and a sort of homely one at that. I don't appreciate it being rammed down my throat. TC is WAAAAY over-saturated to my liking. KYHillChick has started giving me my drinks in plastic cups, because they don't break the picture tube.

I've been home with the DVR a lot this Fall, and I have recorded a bunch of shows. The FF key is great, but what is surprising is how utterly empty some of these shows are. In one case, I had FF'd all the way to the :18 minute mark before anything remotely resembling content showed up. It ended up with :30 of show all wrapped around 0:00:20 of kill footage and the rest was either commerical or intro/outro.

. . . but this isn't any different than any other product category. P&G hit paydirt 50 years ago by putting blue inclusions in their laundry detergent. Product testing found that housewives were dead sure the wash was cleaner even though the little bits of blue were just harmless food coloring. The product came out as Oxydol. On the other hand.The last company I worked for had a flux-coated welding wire that women welder's loved, and the only difference between it and our cheaper brand was we kept a closer tolerance on the blue dye on the coating. It made the new batch the same color as the old batch. If they got hold of a mismatched stick, they'd think it had gone "stale." If you can capture the hearts and minds of the consumer by finding a need (or creating a need) and then filling it successfully, you've got a market.

I would like to think I'm well beyond that, but then I probably buy Hornady bullets, because I like the little red boxes. The world thinks I'm well beyond this too. I've recently fallen out of the prime demographic for marketing, and now I'm in the old fuds demo, 51 to . . . to. . . well let's call it "DEAD" It's funny, but a whole bunch of things stopped appealing to me. There's nothing in the shopping malls, nothing on TV, and nothing in the catalogs that even remotely attracts me. All of a sudden, I'm immune to marketing and it's sort of a relief. Then again, I kind of feel lonely now, because when the telemarketers call and they find out I'm 51, they always hang up quickly. And here I sit on my mountain of . . .stuff trying to figure out what to do with an unused bottle of Tinks 69, the String Tracker, and the Super Sling that I found stashed behind all those little red boxes I've been saving all these years.

Progress Report on the Crossbow

2009-10-26T07:20:00.001-04:00

I've finally done some serious hunting with the crossbow. I had it out a few times over the weekend in between hunting for turkey with Angus. Nothing really went wrong with any of it. It just wasn't as much fun as my bow and certainly not like a rifle.

For the most part a bow is flat. It can have a stabilizer or a cable guard sticking out, but the everything is fairly flat and easy to carry. Rifles are fairly stick-like. There's not a whole-lot going on there either. Crossbows stick out in all three dimensions in one way or the other, and it's just a lot harder to do everything with them. Wearing them on a sling is a problem, getting in and out of trees is more of a problem. It just wasn't as much fun.

There is no polite way to load, reload or unload a crossbow. Loading is best done on the ground. Reloading is not going to happen any time soon, so you'd best forget about taking a second shot. Unloading? It's a bit like muzzleloading. At some point, you're going to have to fire the weapon to get it unloaded.

The one NICE thing I can say about a crossbow is that it is great to prop over a shooting rail. Vertical bows have to be held or put on an overhead hook or something. Rifles are always a bit of a problem in the blind. They always want to fall over or slip or roll, so you just have to hold on to them constantly. I had the crossbow up in the buddy stand with me, and this is the one place it shown. I propped it up on the corner of the shooting rail and it remained at the ready the whole time. It acted like it wanted to hunt.

There is one other really nice thing about a crossbow. I unloaded it by putting a field point on and firing into the ground before I got down from the stand. At 20 yards there was absolutely no doubt where that bolt is going. I picked out a nice oak leaf out in front of the stand and the bolt went right where I aimed. JPH or somebody will gnash their teeth and tell me that this is unfair. Frankly I'm done with being fair. I've been 3 years off my compound bow now, and I've gotten to like hunting at compound bow distances with a 30-06. Same idea-- it takes the worry out of it.

I've been watching D&DH a lot on the DVR, and they always go and pick apart some guy's shot on a deer. It's always a guy with a bow they're critiquing isn't it? Hmmmm. I wonder if I sent in video of nailing a nice buck at 15 yards with an M1 Garand if they'd spend the time on it? Why is that? Oh well.

I had one deer come in Sunday morning, and it was moving fast and it was too far out. I've still not had anything to shoot at, but we'll see.

More on (MORON) UV Suppression

2009-10-24T14:57:00.003-04:00

Last year I did a bunch of posts on my testing of UV-suppression in relation to deer hunting. You're welcome to go look. Use the search function and look for on keywords like "UV-Killer" "elephant repellent" "useless" and so on. I had several posts last Fall , all the way into December. Let me know if the links to the pictures are not working-- I took a lot during the tests. I'm posting this, because I've had a bunch of questions regarding the issue again, and I don't want to re-hash the whole mess.

As to the whole idea of this being a washing ritual, my answer is yes. Sure, go ahead. Have a ball! As the guy who runs around with an antler headdress and a rattle, who am I to poke fun? I just think you can get the practical side of it done with baking soda and some common sense. UV-suppression on its face is goofy.

. . .

ooops. Gotta go. OT just came up the road and wants to chat.
. . .

OT showed up to chat. I thought we were going to lose OT over the summer. His lungs are going, and he's just not getting around like he used to. He turned 79 a few weeks ago. I hadn't seen him in a while. He missed turkey season this year-- most of the time he was in the hospital. However, I'm glad to see him doing as well as he's ever been.

If you're around reading my stuff, you'll know I write a lot about OT, the old turkey hunter that runs the mower shop as well as OD, the old deer hunter that lives up the road. They're all part of the same clan somehow, and I know they're all vaguely related to my wife, KYHillChick, but then most of Kentucky is in one way or another.

OT was showing up for his letter of permission to hunt grouse.

What was I saying? Oh yeah, this UV-suppression hooey. Look, I've been walking around during deer season for decades in an alleged UV-Radioactive poncho and hat. Out of all those tests that Atsko had me do, one thing is sure: if you put my hunter orange poncho under a black light, it's bright enough to read a book off of. On the other hand, I've had big bucks come in that were completely oblivious to me. If they can't see a 4X6 piece of eye-sore bright hunter orange they're not going to worry about a little bit of alleged glow or a little streak of zinc-oxide in your Mossy Oak pattern. As to the general glow induced by detergents, all I can say is that at the normal times we see deer, dusk and dawn there is no UV bouncing around to reflect. When UV IS around, midday and thereabouts, the deer are normally holed up. Furthermore, let's say you're down on the ground and wearing your alleged UV- infested camo and you're stalking deer-- the worse case scenario. What makes your glow any different from a bit of dappled sunlight if these deer can see UV so much better?

Let's just say we take some of y'all's idea that it it's just safe to go ahead and do it. What if I started buying booths at outdoor shows and started telling you that deer could sense your telepathic thoughts and that you needed an aluminum foil coated baseball cap to shield your thoughts from scaring the deer. Would you pay $14.99 just to be safe? What if I paid for advertising and endorsements on TV? At what point would you buy the hat? This isn't something you can necessarily prove. All anyone has shown is that deer might have sensitivity to the UV range-- not that it particularly affects hunting. Remember too that the dyes and all that are fluorescing in the VISIBLE range, not the UV range, otherwise you wouldn't be seeing the dang glow. Some things are like that: you hit them with one wavelength and they fluoresce in another. This right there might be a hint that something is up. All the pictures, all the tests all the marketing is supposed to show glowing, but it's glowing YOU can see.

When somebody comes back with REAL experimental data that shows that UV-inhibition actually improves hunting success, I'll be the first to repent. So far it's all been supposition, and extrapolation, and . . . and . . . elephant repellent. In the meanwhile, I'll be in my day-glo orange clown suit . You'll know where to find me: look for the orange glow on the horizon.

UV Killers

2008-09-22T07:12:00.001-04:00

It is absolutely ludicrous to believe that deer are sensitive to UV. The mammalian eye simply is not built to resolve visible light AND UV light-- not to the extent purported. Deer do not have magic eyes. They see a lot like we do, except they see less red and more blue and green.

This is the classic case of somebody creating a need and then attempting to fill it.

I have a couple of books on deer hunting that devote whole chapters to this anti-UV craze. I'm sure the authors themselves were just reporting what was available at the time. If you go back and look at it, this craze was typical of hunting gadgetry. Somebody comes out with a product that promises no-UV brighteners added to their clothes. Then somebody comes out with a product that will kill UV brighteners already on your clothes. Then . . .

The fact of the matter is that UV-brighteners exist, but they're put on clothes to make them whiter than white and brighter-than-bright-- not something you'd do to the average camo material. At the time UV brighteners became the big bugaboo for hunters, women's fashion was big on white stockings. UV sensitive dies were put on the fabric to keep them from looking dull in office lighting. As a result, when they got out in the sunlight they'd fluoresce to the point of annoyance. I've been in the woods now for 26 seasons. I've never seen anyone's hunting clothes with that kind of day-glo.

That is with one exception. Why is it we go to such lengths to kill UV on all our other clothes and then don fluorescent hunter orange hats and vests? Has anyone ever stopped to think how silly this all gets? I can see an orange hat at a distance of a mile or more when it gets into the sun. I'm sure the deer can too. They just don't pay any attention to it. To them, it's just a BRIGHT gray (?). What is bright gray?

So now I spray UV Killer on it-- somehow this magic potion dulls one dye (the UV brightener) without touching any other color. Hmmmm. Selective bleaching. There's a trick! It kills the UV dye on my camo clothes, but does not touch the florescence of my orange vest. How do it know? How do it know?

Back in the 20's the canned tuna industry was a tight race-- nobody had clear leadership in the field. All tuna was pink. Then Bumble Bee Tuna accidentally came up with a way to bleach tuna and turn it white. They didn't mean to. It just happened that way. Stuck with bleached tuna, somebody in the marketing department came up with an idea. Their ad campaign: "Bumble Bee Tuna-- Guaranteed not to turn pink!" Bumble Bee got on top and stayed there for years. I'll leave you to ponder that one.

More on UV-Killers-- The plot continues

2008-10-28T14:45:00.004-04:00

Here is a series of comments that amounts to a conversation between myself and Dan Gutting at Atsko, the makers of UV Killers. As you can see, Dan is a bit peeved at the less than glowing comments I made of his product:

Blogger Dan said...

Dear Shaman,
If you believe your readers would be interested in a two sided discussion of U-V-Killer and the science of deer vision, I will try to engage in a conversation.
In any case it would be only fair to direct them to Atsko.com where the dvd and book and hundreds of references in juried periodicals are all available at no cost.
Sincerely,
Dan Gutting, Atsko Inc.

Mon Sep 22, 03:48:00 PM 2008
Delete
Blogger shaman said...

Dan:

I'd love to have that discussion. I've already been on Atsko.com I did what your demo video suggested and took a bunch of my camo and put it under a UV light. Zip. Nada.

Some of this stuff is 20 years old. Some is fairly recent. None of it fluoresced the way the camo your video suggested. What am I doing wrong?

I also tried a bunch of my other clothing, and only a small number of white and light blue shirts had the glow under my UV light.

Normally, I only use Sodium Bicarbonate to wash my hunting clothes. Could that have something to do with it?

Write soon. Write often.

Mon Sep 22, 04:07:00 PM 2008
Delete
Blogger Dan of Atsko said...

Dear Shaman,
Thanks for the invitation.
So you're not seeing much glow on your camo. Maybe that's a good thing.
How about your blacklight. Is it a screw in bulb like a std 60 watt incandescent bulb? If so, it makes very little UV light and a lot of short blue light. It will light those psychodelic posters from the 70s , but only a small percentage of the 200 compounds used in cloth, paper, and laundry products.
If you have a dark purple fluorescent tube that is marked 350BLB or an LED from Atsko you may have a lot of good camo reguardless of the pattern.
I check back,
Dan of Atsko

Tue Sep 23, 01:38:00 PM 2008
Delete
Blogger shaman said...

Dan,

I've got the 60 watt incandescent bulb. I've had it for years over the laundry, because I read an article years ago. The detergent the wife uses glows like all get out, but not the hunting clothes. Never has.

None of my camo, old or new glows. What's up with that?

Could it be the way I wash the clothes?

Tue Sep 23, 07:10:00 PM 2008
Delete
Anonymous Dan at Atsko said...

Dear Shaman,
Nothing is conclusive because you are using an incondescent bulb.If nothing glows at all you may have "selected" clothing over the years that you were successful with. I would suggest that the reason why you were successful with these pieces may be that they don't glow. If you have any interest in evaluating your need for U-V-Killer or the effectiveness of it you will need to get a 350BLB flourescent light.
Sincerely, Dan

Tue Oct 28, 12:27:00 PM 2008
Delete
Blogger shaman said...

Dan, it just so happens that I've been hitting Hancock fabrics for 20 years, picking up swatches of this and that when their camo remnants go on sale. Some are name brand camo patterns , some are no-name stuff. I just found it handy to have camo fabric around for making blinds,etc. My collection goes back to Crumley's earliest Tre-Bark in 1986.

I tried everything. Not only the fabric, but all my clothes. I mean EVERYTHING, and could not get a glow. On the other hand, the white bed sheets glow, the laundry detergent glows. Some of my wife's clothes glow.

If you want to send me your 350BLB light, some UV Killer, and whatever else you want, I'll be happy to review it for my weblog, and I will also submit the review for publication in all the venues where I am currently being published.

I'm also perfectly happy to let this whole thing drop. You can color me an unrepentant skeptic-- live and let live. For my part, I just wrote a review of Dave Samuel and Roger Zaiglin's book, White tail Advantage and politely left out any comment on their glowing endorsements of your product line.(pun intended)

On the other hand, you can send me a day-glow UV-radioactive clown suit, and a big day-glo UV painted sign that says "DANGER: HUNTER" and I'll wear the suit and sit in my treestand under the sign all during season as long as you agree to publish all my kill photos in full page ads wherever you are currently advertising. Frankly, I do not think the clown suit or the sign will make much difference to my success as long as I can treat them with a little baking soda to get the stink off.

I'm not the Myth Busters. In fact, I am a practicing shaman; we live for myths and rituals. This all looks like a hunter doing some arcane cleansing ritual to get rid of the unseen evil spirits to me. I dig that. I would not want to see UV Killer go away anymore than I would like to hunt under a sky devoid of Orion.

Write soon. Write often.

Tue Oct 28, 02:35:00 PM 2008
Delete

The last bunch of UV-Killer Tests

2008-12-15T09:43:00.003-05:00

UPDATED TESTS

The purpose of this report is to document additional tests I made on the UV-Killer product samples sent to me by Dan Gutting of Atsko, Inc. Let me repeat at the outset that I was on the record as highly skeptical of not only the claims of Atsko regarding this product. In fact the reason for this test grew out of a weblog entry I made on 9/22/2008 on Genesis 9:2-4 Ministries. Dan took umbrage with my assertions, and a conversation ensued. If you follow the link, and click on the comments, you can see what has transpired. Eventually Dan offered to send me a sample of UV-Killer to test. After the first set of tests,UV-Killer Test 081106 , Dan reviewed the results and decided to send me additional material, specifically three light sources:

A compact fluorescent bulb

An LED bulb

A small key-fob LED flashlight that would be suitable for testing samples in a store or in the field.

All three seem to produce a heightened effect of UV fluorescence compared to the 75 Watt incandescent bulb I had used in the earlier tests. It definitely gave me reason to go back to the lab. Please refer back to the 11/6 tests for all the setup information. The compact fluorescent bulb made for the best illumination for photography. I therefore used that for the follow-on tests. I honestly expected to be eating crow by the time this was over.

Through all of this, this was just me in the basement with a light bulb and a camera. No deer were killed in the course of this test.

Here are the details: UV-Killer Tests 081211

My conclusions:

	After all this testing , do I believe the UV-Killer can darken the UV fluorescence of your clothing? Yes.
	Do I believe there are UV-Brighteners in detergent? Yes.
	Does UV-Killer do anything to them? I couldn't get the glow of washed clothes to read on my camera in the first place. Therefore, I was unable to test it. The one positive test was a glob of Ultra-Gain that had been left to dry on a patch of cloth for over a month. That is hardly a valid test on which to base an opinion.
	Do name-brand manufacturers produce camo that has UV-Brighteners. Yes.
	Does UV-Killer reduce their fluorescence? Yes.
	Does it amount to an appreciable amount? No. It does on copier paper, but I did not see a level of attenuation that I would consider substantial on the fabric. On camo fabric, that is already pretty dark. The attenuation is there but it only muddies the pattern. After the fabric if left to dry, I do not see appreciable darkening of UV fluorescence.
	After all this testing, and after 26 seasons of hunting do I think UV-Killer really does anything to enhance my chances of bagging a deer? I am wholly unconvinced it does. If a deer is scrutinizing me enough to see the difference, I am all ready busted. Either that or he's already on a one-way trip to my freezer.
	What would convince me? A double-blind test that shows conclusively that deer will run from a hunter wearing clothing that is not protected with the UV-Killer product versus a control. I would think a 20% difference would be reasonable to expect. I doubt you will see that study ever done.
	Do I have any suggestions: Yes, If you have a concern about this sort of thing, stick with dull camo patterns without a whole lot of contrast. Those bright white highlights are bright for a reason. Wash your clothes in sodium bicarbonate, and stay away from laundry detergents. What? You want brighter hunting clothes? Duh! A little dull and dingy goes a long way. Remember that almost my entire collection of camo clothes and camo fabric, collected since 1982 had a very small percentage of samples that would glow under the bulbs supplied by Atsko-- even a lot of the hunter orange stuff appeared dark under UV.

Yute Season Eve

2009-10-09T19:35:00.001-04:00

I held Angus out of school this morning. He was all worked up over the LCROSS Mission, and frankly so was I. We got up early to watch on the Nasa stream. It turned out to be a major boregasm (sigh!) They don't make moon shots the way they used to. I'd never thought I hear myself saying I missed Walter Cronkite. Frankly, the guys they had for commentators seemed a little fey.

We headed down to camp. I had a couple phone interviews (I'm still out of work), but after that was over, we went scouting a bit. It was raining, but nothing serious. Angus likes walking in the rain. We went out to Midway ( the new shooting house) and on the way we bumped a deer. When we got there, there was a nice fat buck standing in the field. He sauntered off. I dropped off a can of spray paint and put camo covers on the pair of sand bags we'd left last weekend. As we were locking up, Angus heard doe bleats in the woods nearby. I came out and heard them too. I bleated a couple times myself, and got an answer.

On the way back to camp, a head-hunter called. We spent the last 10 minutes of the trip with me explaining my resume from 1992 to 1998. Even I get confused a little with those years. We concluded the call with a promise to have something for me by Tuesday. Yeah, I've been hearing that for over a year.

After a change into dry clothes, I caught a weather report-- rain until 6 AM and a low of 45F. I can dig that. We got the gear ready and then I retired to the front porch to watch the rain. Along about 1900 EDT, a couple of doe came out. I brought Angus out on the porch and we watched them together with binos. They eventually left, and I went around back to watch a spot where I thought I might catch them on the other side of Hootin Holler.

Not only did the pair of doe show up, but also a nice doe/buck combination. They all seemed intent of getting as much of something-- some long-stemmed forb-- crammed in their mouths before it got dark. Dang! Whatever it was, it was manna to these deer. The buck was only a 4-pointer, but the rack was dark and rich. I told Angus that would make an ideal first buck.

Back on the front porch, the rain let up just a little and all of a sudden we started hearing shots from every quarter. Every father had every young son out trying to get the last practice shot in before it got dark. It was quite a fusillade there until darkness finally got the better of them. It's now settled down again. The rain has come back. We're inside for the night. From the number of shots, it is quite clear that a large number of young men and their fathers will go to bed praying for an end of the rain over night and a flash of antler in the morning.

And that's the way it is, Friday, October Ninth. Goodnight from South West Bracken County Kentucky.

More On the Crossbow Experiment

2009-10-07T13:58:00.000-04:00

(Or is that Moron ?) I got to keep saying to myself "CFAB!" "CFAB!"

You'd think, starting way back in July, I'd be all ready for my first season with the crossbow. I am, but just barely. Honestly I missed my target of hunting with it last weekend for the first time, but I got things working Sunday morning, and I'm ready to hunt now. Of course this weekend I'm taking Angus out for Yute Season and then there's Early Muzzleloader and I probably won't actually hunt with it until the end of the month.

My ultimate goal is to have something ready for those two weeks before rifle season, which is the also the peak of the rut. However, I do not want to waste a tag on just any old deer to say I 'd waxed one with a crossbow. It is going to be something very special before I flick off that safety.

Kentucky's seasons are such that it's hard to be a bowhunter. The season starts early enough, but it's way to hot. You have the whole month of September and one week in October and then there's two firearms-related weekends back -to-back. Then there's 2-3 weekends (one of which is Fall Turkey Season) and then then there's 3 weeks of rifle season.

Just to fill you in, I decided to break down and buy a used crossbow over the summer. I had been nursing a bad shoulder for a few years , and decided to go to the doc and get my medical waiver. If a doc writes you one, you can hunt all of Kentucky's archery seasons with a crossbow. Otherwise a lot of the choice dates, especially just before the rut, are closed to crossbow. The one I found was a Horton Yukon with a 4X scope. I got a good deal on it through Craig's List. For a 25 year compound bow hunter, this looked like a cakewalk. It wasn't. Here's what I found out.

It did not actually take 3 months to get the system working. Yes, I started in July, but frankly I lost heart after my first experiments with the crossbow. Every few shots I was sending one over the top of the target and losing bolts. I tried a bunch of things that didn't work. Bolts are $35/6-- not something you want to waste willy-nilly. It took a few tries to figure out what was wrong.

This crossbow, and I will assume all of them, are extremely finicky when it comes to bolt weight, head weight, etc. I finally got some new bolts, mounted 100 grain field points and started getting consistent groups. The bad groups and 3foot high fliers were the result of a minor variation in bolts that came with the used crossbow in the deal. I don't fault anyone. The guy I bought it from-- it was his father's-- hadn't a clue. Some of the bolts were old and were losing vanes on the way to the target-- that didn't help anything either. I think some of the field points that came with it weren't the same weight, and my original choice of 145 grain were just not suited for the system at all. Once I redid everything with new Horton aluminum bolts, 100 grain heads, etc. it all fell into place. The problem stems from the draw weight. When you think about it, things aren't all THAT bad with a compound bow. A 15 grain difference throws off your aim a little. If you broadhead planes a little you're going to have to adjust your point of aim a little. With crossbows, everything is magnified. If there's a slight difference, your bolt is going into the next county or going to try and find its way to China. Be ready for some embarrassment if you try to repeat what I did at a public archery range.

I tried to get the guys at Bass-Pro to give me some help. The said it was going to take a complete recable and re-string job to get the crossbow shooting properly. I took a chance they were wrong, and I'm glad I was right. I ordered Horton arrows, 100 grain field points and used some Bass-Pro 100 grain broadheads I had laying around, and I was within 6 inches at 20 yards switching between the field points and the broadheads. Both are shooting really good groups. Yes, it's tighter than a beginner with a compound, but once you get past keeping them all on a pie plate at 20 yards, there's really no arguing any more. It will take a deer. By the time I declared Victory on Sunday my bolts were holding to the same hole at 20 yards. At $35/dozen, I'm not going to try a Robin Hood trick.

It is hard to get the old habits to die. I feel like taking a marker and writing on my boot: CFAB-- "Cock First (then) Apply Bolt." If you're used to a regular bow, you always want to grab for the next arrow after you shoot. No. That's not the way it goes. Besides, if you did manage to do it that way, think where you boot is going to be when you pull back the string. No shaman. Put the bolt down, shaman. Cock it first, shaman.

The cocking is all done with a cocking aid. The total exertion is minimal, even though it's a 150 lb bow. The cocking aid was an extra 25 bucks, but it was worth the money. Forget follow-up shots. Fumbling your cocking aid out of your pocket will leave the deer laughing at you.

I am hear to dispel several evil rumors about crossbows:

1) They shoot like a rifle. Absolute bunk. Mine shoots about like a compound bow as far as range. To pull one back without the cocking aid is worse than trying to pull a recurve that's too stiff. Mine is ungainly to handle. They are a chore to load-- as bad as a muzzle loader. Crossbows are probably the worst of all possible worlds instead of the best. I would put them on a par or slightly below a single-shot shotgun --smooth bore and punkin balls. 20 yards? No problem. Past 40? You're praying. I'm not talking Foster Slugs, I'm talking the old stuff that used to corkscrew to the target, and was so slow you could watch it going.
2) They offer no challenge. No. I gotta say, that if I shoot a deer with this Horton Yukon, I will have accomplished something. I'm sorry. I'm not buying the purists' lines any more. My limit is going to be about 30 yards. If I can get a nice buck in that close that is challenge enough. 0-30 yards works off the same crosshair on the scope.
3) They offer an unfair advantage. I'm the first to agree that this is not an elegant hunting method. Ugly? Yes, but "unfair advantage???" Yow! Once the bolt is off the rail, it's just like any other bow shot. The smallest leaf is going to deflect it. You take a deer with this system and you can hold your head up as high as anyone.
4) Only a couch potato or black-hat wannabe would want to shoot one. My shoulder is bad. My eyes are bad. I'm 51. I'm neither a couch potato or a black-hat wannabe. I tried crossbow. I'm going to keep it. I will hunt with it. I will probably kill with it. The idea that this system is going to get folks to put down the remote and fill all the WMA's is bunk. Most people can't stand the cold, the privation, and being away from the refrigerator that long. You can be a real deer hunter with a crossbow-- make no mistake.
5) They are inherently unsafe. Once I got the concept of CFAB down, things got safe in a hurry. You need to be vigilant. I would not want to go stalking with one of these puppies, but out of a treestand or ground blind, they are as safe as any bow or firearm system I would chose to hunt with. Just remember to keep a bolt with a field point handy. There is no elegant way to uncock a crossbow. You need to be able to fire a bolt into the ground to make them ready to carry.

One last word: If you follow my stuff regarding firearms, I'm the kind of guy who likes to find a $150 deer rifle and make it shoot as well as a $1000 deer rifle. This ended up being different. I got a working system for total expenditure of under $300, using a used bow to start with. I'm out of work and on a very tight budget, but I also wanted to see how low you could go and still have something that functioned. My recommendation is to spend more money on your first crossbow if you can. One guy on here said he was shooting good groups the first time out. I'm sure I could have too with a $600 system put together for me by a guy who knew something about what he was selling. It took some fumbling, but I got there trying to go the cheap route. There is value in a better bow and paying for someone to do the original set-up for you. This is a technology that seems to lend itself to "you get what you pay for."

Why I Keep Deer Hunting

2009-10-01T08:12:00.001-04:00

I was thinking again yesterday about what keeps me in deer hunting. Part of it is certainly just habit, but then you would have to have a serious habit to go through all the trouble I go through every year. Part of it is now probably that worship us old farts have for ourselves as we were in our youthful prime. However, I don't think either would get me off the couch.

I think I got a peek into what really keeps me going in this thing last weekend. Angus and I were going out to Newstand to place the camo skirt around the shooting rail. The way to Newstand is a somewhat convoluted march down the side of the ridge. It overlooks a grove of white and pin oaks that sit on a shelf just above Willow Creek. From Newstand, you can just barely make out the creek bottom. As we made our way over the barbed wire, I became genuinely irked and I had a hard time figuring out why. I found myself grousing over the sameness of it all. Here we were taking the same trek down the same hill we'd been making for years. Here I was with yet another son, getting a stand ready for season. Why had deer hunting become such a stinking rut?

I then realized I had become at the same time become irked over everything being changed from last year and the year before. Hurricane Ike had brought down a bunch of cedars, and it was now harder to get to the stand. In fact it was hardly recognizeable from last year . It was. . .

Hey, wait a minute shaman! What the. . . How can you be irked about it all being the same and all being different at the same time? How can. . . oh, drat! Now it's starting to rain.

All this was rolling around in my head. All this was making me thoroughly miserable. I was also hot and sweaty from the humidity, but I was starting to get chilled from the rain. I was stuck in all this turmoil and frankly I don't remember climbing the ladder or belting in. What I do remember was the single deer snort that woke me up as I was taking electrical ties and fixing the camo skirt over the foam pipe insulation over the shooting rail of the buddy stand. All of a sudden I got yanked back to reality. All of a sudden, I knew exactly why I was there and what I was doing.

I think that is what deer hunting is all about for me. I often say that a day in the field leaves me knowing myself better than a month of doing any other thing. I sat back and took a little bit of time to find the neighboring tree where Moose and I had first left my climbing stand 8 seasons ago, the week before the Rifle Opener. It was hard to find the tree, but it was still there, now grown too big to be to be suitable for the API Grand Slam Super Magnum. My eye then traced the path I had followed over from Heartbreak Ridge, looking for a new stand location after my first stand at Heartbreak had gone stale from overuse. I then looked down and saw a kid not unlike Moose had been, staring up at me, wondering when his inscruitable Dad was going to come down.

So much the same, so much different. I unbelted and came down the ladder. Eight seasons ago, a doe had busted us on the way out. Now we just had drizzle. We started our march back up the hill.

What is a "Rain Gun?"

2009-09-28T11:55:00.001-04:00

I've been talking about a rain gun here. I've been getting email from folks wanting to know what I mean, and asking if this gun or that qualifies as a rain gun. Let me explain.

For a lot of people, there is no such thing. They take a rifle, take it out in whatever, and when they're done, they clean it up and take it home. Rain, snow, whatever.

My situation is a little different. I have several nice pieces that have wood stocks. If they get out in rain the wood is probably going to warp enough to change the point of aim. When I see rain in the forecast, they are probably going to stay home. I have others with synthetic stocks or stocks with detached forearms that don't have this problem. I finally decided to designate my Rem 7600 in 35 Whelen as my "rain gun."

What makes the 7600 so special? For me, it was changing out the leather sling for a nylon one, and putting a coat of Turtle wax on it before season. That's all. Why did I pick the 7600?

1) Being a pump, the forearm is detached. I don't have to worry about warpage.
2) I find that getting into the working of the rifle and getting them clean and dry is easy, and I don't have to worry about changing the point of aim while I'm doing it.
3) It a rifle in my deer battery that really did not have a good reason for being there. I have a rifle set up for close-in treestand work, and another for longer ranges. I realized it wasn't going to be my #1 pick for anything during deer season.
4) I had previously hunted with this rifle in some of the most extreme weather of my career-- snow, cold, rain, you name it.
5) It has a wood stock but the previous owner boogered it a little. If anything DID happen to it, I'd probably spring for a Tupperware replacement. No big deal.

That's my reason for picking a rifle and calling it my "rain gun."
The thing with this "rain gun" idea is it's probably not going to work for everyone. More and more guys are shooting all-weather deer rifles with synthetic stocks. However, I hate the idea of taking my Savage 99 or my Winchester Mod 70 out in the elements. The Rem 7600 doesn't seem to mind, and neither do I.

I think it's the last issue that's most important. Part of this is practical-- you don't want a wet leather sling going back into the case with your rifle. You don't want a wood stock warping or an old oil finish ruined. A stainless action and barrel ? A synthetic stock? Yes, this all works toward making a good rain gun However, most of all you ask yourself: Is this really a rifle I want out in the rain?

I used to think my M1 Garand made the ideal rain gun. Heck! Mine had been through WWII, one more trip in the rain wasn't going to hurt it. Then I spent a winter going over the stock and turned it into a show piece. All of a sudden I didn't want it out in the rain again. It also is probably the most expensive piece in my collection now, so that right there is a good reason to only bring it out when the sun is shining.

My Mosin Nagant M44 will eventually be a good rain gun. I lopped off an inch of stock so Angus could shoot it. I have another stock to put on it, so I could bring it back to as-issued condition. On the other hand, I can glue that stump back on and then spray bedliner on the wood and make an ultimate who-care's banging-around rain gun.

The other part of this is pure laziness. Over the course of the season, I probably hunt with 4-5 rifles, and the kids account for another 3-4 between them. If I've got to keep going over every rifle with the Works, it's a lot of work. On the other hand, if all I have to do is worry about 1 rifle that's going to get the brunt of the weather and all the others get babied, it makes it a LOT easier. If I have a lever action or a semi-auto that I know is going to cost me a half-hour to an hour to tear down every time it sees a little weather, that is the rifle I'm probably leaving home.