Hazmore all day IMO. I was a summit user for the past 9 years. The hazmore puts you up higher, (10 inches) making standing easier, especially if you have a footrest. the stock seat weighs 1 pound, the hazmore a few ounces. The hazmore allows you to utilize the entire foot platform for standing because it slides back effortlessly. I do miss my summit at times, especially when could use a nap waiting on legal shooting light, or on all-day sits. We should make and sticky a summit viper mod thread with all the upgrades people should get!
Good luck with him Brett. I think I'm finished hunting until I head for public land early next week. I have no big bucks on camera here and I need to leave the does alone for later in the season. The wife and I made a drive to where I'll be going, primarily to make sure there were no trees down that would block me taking the travel trailer in. I didn't do very much walking at all, but I saw some very promising sign. I predict late next week is going to be great here. Temps are going to drop to near freezing, the rut is kicking off and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are the new moon days with Thursday being the peak. My wife keeps telling me to be patient and that it will happen. I'm just sitting here thinking:
You can't kill them from the recliner... Just sayin ' (and catching up from 13 hrs of posts). Congrats Jim!
Think I'll do something similar. I think it is a few days early for the boys to be cruising the top 1/3 of the ridges so I'll stick to a scape line near bedding.
they're up and on their feets in daylight, boys and gals. Obviously several here today saw/killed some, and my buddy here in northern IL saw a monster on the golf course by his house yesterday at like 2pm and then today he saw another monster across the bean field from his stand and then ended up killing a decent 9 point. The golf course buck is almost 190, last year he was probably over. Regressed a bit on spread this year.
When's the last time you hunted the spot you killed your last buck? Sometimes what worked the first time works again, doesn't always have to be reinventing the wheel and new spots. You seen deer your first sit this year, hit that spot again a week from today or thereabouts.
Last year we lost a really good friend of ours. He was much older than my brother and I, but he was my brother's best friend and a regular at our family camp, which is where I'm headed next week. His name was Tom Foster. He was the first person I heard use the phrase "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts we'd all have a merry Christmas". My nephew now hunts what will always be known as "Tom's stand". Thanks for reminding me.
I sat from 11:15 till 6pm. Nothing to report but 2 turkeys and lots of squirrels. I was in the summit viper. Could have never sat that long in any other stand that I know of. Try again tomorrow.
I haven't hunted the butt shot buck spot this year. I walked through it a few times to get to the area where I saw the deer the one and only time this season. We have a N, NE wind for tomorrow which isn't good for the spot where I shot the buck from. (doable, but iffy) That is also a run that bucks use traditionally during the rut. I've seen them use it from afar, shot a buck off of it, and my dad shot "the one" from it back in 85. However, it is not a heavily used run. meaning, you could sit on it 5 days straight during the rut, and maybe see 1 deer. Just gotta be lucky on it. The spot where I saw deer this year is a transition area and you gotta hope your there the day the deer decide to use it. I'm pretty sure the doe are on a 3-5 day rotation on going through spots. I was also thinking of going to the spot where I saw a big buck last year, that does promote movement/pinchpoint/funnel. I hunted it on Monday, saw zero sign but know that it is a travel route during the rut and there won't be sign there.
