That's hilarious. Hope you can get back there this year and get yourself an antelope. Never realized how jumpy those thing were until I watched your footage, seems like they never sit still.
I’ve had an interesting start to this season. My niece was born a day before bow season so I took bow opener to go see that precious girl. And this weekend we have a CAT 4 hurricane bearing down on us. It will be an eventful weekend, just not from the stand. If I have any pictures from the storm, I’ll make sure I send them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Justin, I told my daughter I would send you these pictures. She raced in our soap box derby this year and she asked if we could put a Bowhunt or Die sticker on the car that we built. How could I say no? She got 4th place in her age bracket. Todd gave us a couple sheets of stickers at the sports show in West Bend.
Very cool! That's a good looking car right there. And stay safe Chris! Stupid hurricane is screwing up your hunting season. That blows. (pun intended)
I saw that they have Carolina Beach and Kure under a mandatory evac now. And that they are expecting it to be a cat 5 when it hits. My house in In Rockfish right off of Ft Bragg. Im not too worried about the house Ive been wanting to sell it anyways lol But I hope you and my family and friends there, start filling bath tubs, or leave for a while because I will get pretty fiesty
That’s exactly how I feel. The power of these storms are amazing but dangerous. Raleigh is far enough inland that we have nothing to worry about other than flooding, down trees and power loss. If people use common sense they’re more than safe in my area from this storm. Now the coast, that’s a different story, CAT 3/4 winds are nothing to take lightly. It seems the forecast is currently showing the storm hitting at a cat 3, 120mph sustained winds. So a little lower than initially expected. Only time will tell what happens. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Heres a live stream from Frying Pan Tower. a B&B that the frying pan restaurants operates. Looks windy
Any of you guys use those Arctic Shield boot covers to keep your feet warm in the stand? I am trying to figure out what size to order. I wear size 11 Alphaburly Pro's which are huge, the sizing chart ask for your shoe size but shoe vs boot is very different.
I just bought some about a month ago. I got the XL and they fit over my Size 10 with a little room( about an inch) to spare.
Well guys - had a very interesting weekend on WI public. It's pretty safe to say all of the public land memes you've ever seen are not only true, but they were based on the exact piece of public we hunted. It was pure, unadulterated insanity. Here's my recap. FRIDAY AFTERNOON Drove up and needed to do a little bit of scouting before Saturday morning opener. Didn't see a person anywhere. Nobody in any parking lots, nobody in the field, etc. Looked promising. Walked about 2 miles in total and took me longer than I wanted to find a spot, but I finally found a nice side hill and a bunch of oaks that were raining acorns. Picked a tree, marked it on the GPS and left. SATURDAY MORNING Get up and going around 4:30. Pull into the parking lot shortly after 5 and there's 1 vehicle already there. Okay, no big deal. Hike a mile into my spot, get set up and wait for sunrise. Anticipation is high and I'm feeling good. Just before light a deer scampers by within bow range but I can't make out what it is. These deer aren't gonna know what hit them. I'm ready to kill. About 10 minutes after sunrise I was relatively sure that World War 3 had started. There was shooting in every conceivable direction. Lots of shotguns, lots of small caliber rifles and lots of high power air rifles. It's as if the World Squirrel Hunting Championships had descended upon us and these guys were competing for millions in prize money. Some of these dudes seriously banged out HUNDREDS of rounds that morning. I'm talking 10 rounds as fast as you can pull the trigger, reload and go again. It was non-stop all morning. I made it about 2.5 hours until I was ready to call it quits and start pulling my set for an afternoon move. As I'm getting down one of the ninja-like squirrel hunters approaches my location and parks himself about 40 yards out. He remains cleverly concealed in the bush wearing blue jeans, an old camo jacket and what can best be described as Elmer Fudd's hat. As he bangs shots out at what I can only assume are delusions of squirrels caused by the mass inhaling of gunpowder residue I quietly packed up and headed out of dodge. Bullets continue whizzing through the trees as I hightail it out of there. We make it out alive and check parking lots - 4 trucks in ours, 9 in the one down the road, and 3-4 in all others. The hunters were out in full force. SATURDAY AFTERNOON After reconvening with the guys and sharing similar tales, including one person in our party having 3 people setup within 100 yards of him and 2 of them blowing on their grunt calls all morning, we decide we need to get further in. 1 mile isn't cutting it. So I load up all of my gear, which is probably 30-35 pounds in total, and hike as far as I can possibly get from the parking lot and set up over a standing soybean/alfalfa field. Keep in mind the temperature is relatively equivalent to the surface of the sun by this time and I'm sweating so bad it looks like it's raining on me. I'm exactly 1.7 miles from the truck and it took me 45 minutes to hike in. I get set up and things are looking promising. No way anyone is finding us back here! Just over an hour before dark I hear something coming along the field edge and catch movement. Here we go, baby! I begin to stand up and prepare for some action only to see a fellow bowhunter scampering along the edge of the woods, clearly in a hurry to get to his favorite opening day spot. Trouble is, I'm already in it. He sees me, waves, nods and continues by - headed right to where I'm hoping the deer will come from. In my mind the sad trombone music plays. Waa Waa Waaaaaaaaa. Darkness falls with zero deer spotted, no water left to drink, approximately 1,000 mosquito bites and a 1.7 mile walk back to the truck with 35 lbs of gear on my back. Again. On a positive note, the beer tasted extra good around the campfire that night. The 4 of us shared some laughs about the days trials and tribulations. If nothing else, it was entertaining. SUNDAY MORNING Having only a single "morning" spot picked out and knowing it's squirrel hunter paradise I opt for a new location that a buddy put me on. He had an "easy" tree picked out that I could get a stand in quickly and easily. So again I pack everything in, set it all up and get ready for daylight. A jake turkey is several hundred yards away gobbling his balls off before sunrise. That kept me entertained for a bit and diverted my mind from the 800% humidity and sweat rolling down my back. Nothing like a crisp 63 degree morning to put you in the mood. 20 minutes after light the Small Caliber Rifle Rapid Fire Championship starts again. This time there's a guy set up 30 yards from my buddy who I was hunting with that morning. He's about 200 yards from me. The squirrel master is perched on a bucket, firing rounds at break-neck speed into the trees and bushes all around him. As he hears bullets whiz overhead through the trees he decides to call it a morning and head in. I stick it out for another hour then decide I too am out of patience and we wave the white flag. LESSONS LEARNED #1 - If we want to be more successful we need to do more scouting and have more locations picked out ahead of time. Having Plans A, B and C isn't enough as you'll quickly be on D, E and F before the end of Day 1. #2 - Weight is important. I need to find a way to cut some pounds out of my gear, which is going to be tough. I'm already packing pretty light. Still, it is worth looking into. #3 - When it's this hot and humid, just stay home. It was miserable hunting conditions. And with these temps and the distance we had to walk there was no way we were shooting does. #4 - Skip opening weekend. I know that may be tough to do, but IMO it's not worth the headaches. Give it a week or two to die down and then get after it. #5 - Weekday trips are your friend. I have to imagine things are relatively "back to normal" during the week. Certainly worth a shot if you can pull it off. #6 - Enjoy every minute of it. We may have seen more hunters than deer but we had a blast. Lots of laughs, some fun memories and an overall great weekend. Now that I have a WI tag in my pocket I'm hell bent to kill a deer of some sort up there so I'm already planning on checking out a few more areas closer to home for some weekday afternoon trips. Time will tell if I can pull it off.
Thank goodness I have private land to hunt. I commend you for sticking it out, I could not even imagine being in the woods this past weekend. I shot my bow in my back yard and the mosquito's were almost unbearable. We have 200 acres of public across the street from our 40 and I rarely step foot on it. There is always a steady stream of squirrel hunters coming through. Pretty unnerving to hear those bullets heading in your direction. Always good to get those cobwebs off and get your gear organized for game time though. Glad you had a good time, hopefully you can connect on a WI deer in the near future. Looking at the forecast I dont think I am going to head out for another couple weeks.
This was my Saturday project. I've been wanting to make a safer area to shoot my bow in my back yard. Settled on a stall mat from a farm supply store as a back stop. The mat is 3/4" solid rubber, weighs a ton, and is awkward as heck to handle. I made it so I can quickly attach and detach from the kids swing set.
Very nice! I need to do something similar at my house. Not so much for me but my 6 year old launches a few every now and then.
Damn glad y’all are safe makes me appreciate my little farm even more. Come on October 1st. Velvet is coming off.
There is a house behind those abbreviates and pines so I needed a back stop. I am not shooting in line with the house and its an elderly woman that lives there that I have never seen in the 10yrs I've lived there but better safe than sorry. I am in the process of getting a sight tape set up for an MBG Acent sight and need to shoot back to 60yrds to find the right tape so it inspired me to get this done. I also have a 7yr old that wants to shoot with me so its for both of us
