After a long dry spell I got the monkey off my back yesterday. First time ever to get it done on opener. Had a client call me Friday about 1:30 to come out and look at land he bought. He splits time between three states and told me treat it like it's mine. I hung around Friday evening and saw a lot of deer around 6:30. Go back about noon Saturday and cut a few limbs and lanes, left for a bite to eat and me and the climber ascended about 2:30. About 4:50 deer showed up and I ranged them at 113 yds. I stood and got the bow ready and they slowly came in. Then they hung up at 61 yds forever. This Mamma doe trotted by herself and stopped at 43 yds. HTR 61# @ 28" with a Rage tipped 371.3g arrow zipped thru her. She was down 30 yds from where she was hit and I watched her fall. Felt good after a LONG dry spell on some crappy land.
Not much tracking to do there! That rage did its job. Nice work Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Congrats! All a great feeling once that monkey is walking the long road home by himself! Sent from my SM-G935R4 using Tapatalk
You can see in the first pic that the field had been mowed but not finished. I climbed in my climber about 2:30 and the neighboring property guy come over bush hogging about 3-3:30 and hit something and tore his tractor up and limped it home without finishing. I was sitting there thinking, "You see me in this tree and waved and you know why I'm up here" I thought this was gonna be another crappy luck year. Very surprised the deer came back out as early as they did.
Well done! I got my first deer on opening day afew years back. Never been that lucky since. Congrats to you on a job well done. Hope you enjoy some nice steaks in the next few days
I bought these Rage last season and never saw a deer on the hoof. I'd never shot a mechanical before. I still BH tune with Montecs and Thunderheads to make sure the bow is tuned perfect but gave these a try and like them. I was a bit concerned because since last season I had a heart attack this past May and had to turn down from 70 to 61. Looks like as long as I do my part on making a good shot mechs are good to go with my setup.
I still can't bring myself to mechanicals, well complete. I shot the 3 blade blood runner and loved them. They are hard to find now Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Thanks guys! I got burned on a bad piece of property a few years back and my luck finally turned literally hours before opening day with this piece of property. I resorted to public land last year but made the decision the day of opener for muzzle loader. I'd scouted it a bit this season and saw deer but didn't know how they'd react when half the population started trouncing thru the woods. We have a TREMENDOUS doe population where I live but private land is HARD to get. I bought 51 acres 2 counties over and they are a different unit for a reason. It's dead there.
I'm liking them. I don't use them as a crutch for an untuned bow. I still tune with fixed heads and then shot these Rage. My next set will probably be a mech NAP, just because I like that company. I had a PERFECT wind for where I set up and where I thought they'd come out but it was a slight crosswind for the shot. At 43 yds a fixed head might have caught a bit more wind than the mech. Maybe not but it gave me the warm and fuzzies shooting that practice head for the mechs in horrible winds and them hitting with my FTs in the wind. Also I few years ago since I couldn't see a live deer I got real heavy into 3D and indoor league and some of those 3D courses set up some tricky shots. All of those 3Ds and all of the year round practice and sometimes shooting for money took all the nerves and pressure away. I definitely think 3D made me a better hunting shot. Especially all the practice time I've put in 52 weeks a year.
Nice to have client's like that. Deer in agriculture areas are not bothered by normal farm operations. Fresh backstrap! NICE
