Oh, I've also been contemplating a new (to me) bow purchase...either a bowtech carbon knight or a newer bowtech prodigy...if folks have input on either we can chat about them...
I did have my son pretty worked up about black bears from our trip. As I recall most griz probs are AK, ID, MT...maybe a few other surrounding states have populations but I hear less problems. Dustin may have some good inputs on grizzlies, but he's into his busy season.
I'm afraid I don't have any input on those bows. My only experience with Bowtech was short-lived and not good at all.
I think they (mostly) have the exploding limb 'feature' mostly addressed. I'd love to pick up a Hoyt Defiant, but I have a small windfall of Amazon credit and you can't find em on Amazon.
My problem wasn't exploding limbs. Before I bought my Heli-m, I bought a brand new Bowtech Insanity. As it turned out, there was something wrong and it couldn't be tuned to shoot well. It had something to do with the limbs and limb pockets. I sent multiple inquiries to Bowtech asking for help and not once did they reply to me. Finally I made the 2 1/2 hour trip back to the shop where I bought it. They tried and tried to get it to tune with not success, and even they couldn't get any answers from Bowtech, so they let me return it and get the Heli-m. I really liked the bow and if the company would have replied and corrected the issue I would still have it. I needed one that would shoot accurately, though, and I needed a company that would step up when they turned out a flawed unit. That is just my experience, though. There are a lot of Bowtech shooters out there who have never had a problem.
On another note, I'm excited about something else this year. Back in May I traded in my Jayco pop-up camper on a new Jayco Jay Flight 26BH Travel Trailer. I won't be using it in Kentucky because my brother lives 15 minutes from where we hunt, but I'm looking forward to taking it out on it's maiden voyage. If I connect on an early buck in Kentucky I may take it on an early season hunt in Missouri. I already have all of my tags, so why not?
Cool!! I grew up on a lake. My dad's life revolves around fishing! Every vacation I went on as a child revolved around fishing. Even being retired, my dad fishes almost every day. Mostly freshwater, but he does keep a small boat down in Narraganset harbor in RI. You would think that being around the lake my whole life, and catching my fair share of mountable bass/pike I'd be hooked. Oddly enough, Fishing does not really interest me. Saltwater fishing is very fun. following around a school of bluefish catching one on every cast until you reach muscle failure is something everyone should experience. Hooking onto a big tuna 100 miles off the coast is insanely fun. The only type of fishing I truly enjoy is ice fishing. There's nothing like seeing a bright orange flag popping up letting me know there's a fish running over and seeing the spool going out nice and slow and setting the hook feeling a solid tug of the line in my hand. It's like Christmas morning as a kid everytime! Plus we cook and eat all day! venison, Italian suasage, you name it, we cook it! When I was a kid my father and I would go up to the lakes in mountains of VT. Soooo cold!! But so many memories! My fondest memory was a three day trip in late January. There was 23" inches of ice on the lake. We were right on the bottom of two mountains. We played hooky from school/work and drove up early Friday morning. We were fishing by 10 am. We were catching quite a few pike, and an occasional bass. it was very warm for the time of year around 35 degrees. bright blue sky, no wind. I was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans. Around 2PM the fishing was still great. We hadn't noticed a light cloud cover roll in. I did notice what looked like fog on the top of the mountains, slowly rolling down over them. I told my dad about the "fog". His face went from happy fisherman, to "Oh ****" in the matter of a second. I remember him telling me it wasn't fog, but a snow squall coming in. We raced as fast as we could to pick up the tilts (8 per man) by the time we were done picking up, the temperature had dropped to 12 degrees, and we were in whiteout conditions. We threw out gear in our shanty and made our way back to the truck. The next morning we woke up, it was 15 below zero with wind chills to 25 below zero. throughout the day of brutal fishing the temperature kept dropping. by sunday morning it was 26 below zero with windchills 35-40 below zero. We got dressed, went and picked up our gear on the lake and just came home!
I've never been ice fishing but it does sound like it would be a lot of fun. That temp though; 26 below zero? I can't even imagine temperatures that cold. Nah, I'll stick to fishing water that isn't frozen.
Yeah, sometimes it can be to cold to enjoy it! I haven't ice fished as much as I used to due to the cold!
You guys probably saw my question in Bowhunting Talk about what to do with velvet antlers. Like I just posted, I'll be totally on my own this weekend and I'm trying to figure out how I'd get a big buck out of the woods and to the processor/taxidermist by myself without damaging the velvet in the event I do connect. I ordered a large drag sled (a Deer Sleigh'r) and I'm thinking that if I could roll one onto the sled and get it to the wood edge then I could use my quad to get it to the truck. I'll have my small quad trailer with a hinged ramp, so I could just ease him up the ramp using the sled and just transport him in the sled. Then I guess I would need some kind of soft padding to keep the antlers from bouncing on the floor. I guess some old pillows that I have would work. It sure does feel like I'm "counting my chickens before they hatch", but I'm just trying to be prepared to do the right thing if I get lucky.
Well I never ice fished but it's definitely on my bucket list but I enjoy just going to different ponds and catching bass crappie and anything I can get on my line. I've done a handful of fishing this year but September Is gonna be my month going into October gonna be doing a lot of catfishing pretty soon. I don't own a boat any more so it's all just finding the right spot. I know of a few good ponds that have various types of fish in them I just do not enjoy fishing in the heat of the summer I'm more of a spring/fall fisherman. There is a pond on the new 40 acre spot I'm huinting and is full of bass and crappie but I've been staying out of there in an effort to not blow up the spot before season opens. I still need to implement a better food source there because the only thing at this point is just mineral sights and I've only gotten picks of 1 doe there so I figure if I still have time to put a plot in that would help quite a bit with attracting more wildlife. I've still been shooting broadbeads here lately out of the recurve and they are flying well my arrow setup is pretty standard with Goldtip trad 600s 100 gn inserts with 135 to 150 zwickey heads. I've also been broadbeads tuning my compound with Goldtip Velocity 340 insert weight comes in around 41 w 30 gns extra weight added topped of by 125 gn Slicktrick standards and magnums which fly really well. They shatter bone and last year I had all pass thrus. Talking bout some serious kinetic energy out of my Assasin. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Wishing you the best and I hope you figure out a way to get it done if the opportunity presents itself. A velvet buck would be awesome!!!!! Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
I'd say if you wrapped the antlers with bubble wrap and got the head the taxidermist ASAP you would be fine. I've never had much experience with dead deer velvet horns, but there is a deer park in WI Dells that you can pet the deer and the velvet seems pretty durable to me. I wouldn't go dragging it out with a quad or anything though.
Heading out tomorrow morning for some scouting for opening day. Two weeks before the opener I should be seeing plenty of sign from does. It'll be good to see what food sources they are hitting up. White oaks are hopefully dropping or are getting ready to. We did get hammered by gypsy moths earlier this summer, so I'm hoping it didn't damage the acorns. I plan on finding two to three doe killing spots for early season. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I will drag it with the quad, but I would be dragging a Deer Sleigh'r sled with the deer on it with the antlers protected. The bubble wrap idea isn't a bad one at all. I just spent the last hour or so carefully packing loading my Badlands fanny pack. I've always carried a ton of stuff because I like to be prepared for every potential problem. I've always carried everything I needed to field dress a deer with me also. This year I decided to put together a field dressing pack and keep it in the truck. I'm not sure why I always carried that stuff with me. I never field dress a deer where it falls. We always move them to a non-hunting location to do that. This should cut down on weight which I think I'll be happy with. The weather forecast for this weekend has taken a significant turn for the better and I really hope it holds. The rain is supposed to stop on Friday. The low Friday night will now be 53 instead of 65. The high Saturday is forecast to be 77 instead of 86. The low Saturday night is supposed to be 55 degrees with a high of 83. Sunday night and Monday are forecast to be back to normal for there, which is a low of 65 and a high of 87. No worries, though. I won't be there for the high temp Monday afternoon. The wind forecast is WNW Saturday, which couldn't be better for where I'll be starting. If the current forecast holds it will be an awesome weekend. Now if only the deer will cooperate.
Great morning of Scouting so far! Beautiful morning, warming up now little bit. So far I found two great spots, right in some white oak groves, which I'm happy to say are dropping my favorite color green acorns! Going to go look for a third spot just in case, you never know what can happen opening morning! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
