The corn is turning, setup is dialed. I won’t be posting any trail cam pics until 09/09. I’m checking them once a month. This morning was in the low 50’s. Wish I would have taken today off to go slay some squirrels at my parents.
Last November, I decided I wanted to compete. I got some advise on form, shot a local indoor 3d league, and then started punching paper. I’d never shot a Vegas round in my life, but once I started, I was hooked on trying to get better. If you’re only shooting a little here and there, or hitting a couple 3d shoots for the hell of it, this release isn’t for you. So, I listen to a bunch of podcasts, one of many being John Dudley’s nock on podcast. I can tell you, everything he says about the release is true. It will show every flaw you have, but it’s up to you to figure it out and that can be frustrating. I knew going in it was going to be a long slow climb. The amount of shots I double clutched and arrows lost the first week was pretty humbling. I went from shooting (counting x’s as 11’s) 316 16x Vegas round and 2nd in the local indoor 3d shoot, to sending arrows into outer space. It was apparent I was commanding my shot. After 3 months, I’m shooting it really well, that’s a 60 yard group in the pic above with a Magnus black hornet, a rage practice head, and a field point. BUT....it constantly lets you know if form is off or anything is different. I won a 3d shoot 3 weeks ago and then spent two weeks after trying to figure out why my shot went to **** the next day. Wasnt opening up enough, wasnt flattening my hand out enough. These problems popped up all of the sudden because I became complacent with my shot and won the 3d shoot by shooting 10s all day. Go back to a Vegas face and even at just 20 yards, it made me see I became inconsistant and sloppy. Its a long slow grind at this point. So back to your question, I love it. It keeps me in line. I probably won’t hunt with it, because I don’t feel comfortable with the 2 fingers, aluminum, and slippery gloves. As soon as hunting season is over, I’ll go right back though.
Just realized that I am 2 months away from what I consider the magic date where I hunt, Oct. 24th. Hoping it goes by quickly and the temps start to really drop. Twiddling my thumbs until then.. well punching a lot of paper too..
Well I had a sad afternoon yesterday in the field. I went to one of my farms to run a few cameras that have been soaking for 6 weeks and I was going to try and hang a set before dark. After running a couple of cams I headed to the back of the farm to run the last one. About 75 yards from the camera I heard a bellow. At first I thought it was a cow that had gotten loose or something and ventured into the neighbors corn field. As I got closer I heard it again and realized it was a deer. A few steps later a coyote darted out of the corner of the bean field and ran away. From my vantage in the little strip of woods I could see the beans matted down in the corner of the field. I walked out there and found this beautiful young buck still alive but unable to get up. The coyote had been eating at his hams. Of course I had to abandon my plans for the rest of the afternoon. I hiked back to my truck to get my pistol and came back and put him out of his misery. I could see no obvious signs of foul play. From the front of his hams to the tip of his nose he was in beautiful condition and didn’t have a scratch on him. I looked in his mouth and his tongue looked normal. When I flipped him over I did find what looked like a day or two old puncture wound at the crease of his ham and abdomen. The hide was open but it was not bloody and there was no obvious trauma. I suspect that he somehow punctured his paunch on a cedar limb or something like that while running or jumping through the woods and just went septic. He was too far from a road to have been shot and come to there to bed down and it just didn’t look like an entrance or exit wound from a bullet. Needless to say that was an afternoon ruining experience but I’m grateful at least that I was there to end his suffering.
I’m still going through the 12,000+ pictures that were on the cameras. I’ll post up some pics later on.
Ohh my word! That's awful! I can't imagine being eaten alive. Glad you were there to end his suffering
Man that’s rough. You did the right thing. I was just talking with someone I work with about trapping some coyotes after I kill a buck.
Got a few shooters and a few that I’m not sure what they are. I’d say these first 2 deer could use another year but they won’t get cut any slack in the area they are living in. They have to go on the hit list. Might be a different story if they were on a farm with less hunting pressure around. All 9 deer in that photo are bucks. Split 2s, one split 3 and one split 4. Oh if he could just see 5 yrs of age. Pics from a month ago. Deer should be a stud given another month worth of growth. He looks 4.5 to me.
Not sure what this is. The big belly and antler showing on both sides of the tree looks pretty good though.
This deer never came up by the camera but those are tines that you see there by the fence post. He’s got to be crazy tall.
This deer looks older to me and has pretty good mass. He’s not a scoring deer but I’d probably shoot him.
Anytime you want to talk trapping let me know. As soon as I tag out the steel hits the dirt. Last year I got 12 Bobcats and somewhere north of twenty coyotes. I love building sets.
Nice deer! I checked a few cams but nothing much to show :-\ I did turn some of one of my plots and put in a fall plot. The green in b/t the turned areas has soybeans (mixed w/ weeds) Sent from my XT1710-02 using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
It would appear that the acorn mast this year is a bumper crop in Oklahoma. Instead of seeing little sets of 2 and 4 they are large clumps of 6 and 8. I had a fire go through half of the 70 acres about nine years ago so a lot of the post oak is maybe 10 feet tall and thick as you could imagine. I haven't seen my shooters in about a week and a half so they are either eating the acorns they can reach or the neighbor to the south has started making his annual corn pile that you can see from space. Either way I am holding most of the does so they will be back around.
