eagle rider

In Flint and Winchester County VA, where the landowners practice a voluntary QDM, among the rules for gun harvested deer is a 15" inside spread requirement. The rule of thumb is the spread should extend to the outside of the ears. Also, hunters are warmed to not shoot squat faced deer or deer that antlerless and by themselves. This reults in higher doe harvests during the rifle season and less immature bucks being harvested. They also rotate acerage that is non huntable from season to season and fortify food plots accordingly. They've been doing this over the last 20 or so years that I've been going there. I have literally seen the quality of the deer in Northwestern VA improve from season to season. Fines are imposed on non qualifying bucks as high as $500. Its serious business and I seen those who make the mistake of take of a non qualifier twice loose their land owners endorsements to hunt there. Lastly hunters are absolutely encourraged to shoot coyotes, and in fact some land owner pay bounties for them.

Jacket seperation is caused by light construction in swaged (aka locked bullets). Its abig indicator of bullet inefficiency. It influences would channels, tissue damge reduction and rapid loss of energy frequently in a shallower wound. This all adds up to a higher potential for wounded animals instead of dead ones. A heavier bullet of lighter construction may not do it either. If you won't put you butt in a lightly constructed treestand, why would you put lightly constructed in your deer rifle? Both can ruin your hunt. Just something to think about. If you want to shoot locked bullets some are heavier than others and would probably give you better results. The Core Locts are among the better of the lot. I alos agree that the 165 gr loading in 30-06 is superior to the 150 gr. The sectional density is far superior in the heavier round.

A lot of the tissue destruction has to do with bullet construction. A bonded bullet will not expand as radically as a locked jacket will no matter what the velocity is. The result is more controlled expansion with a less dramatic wound. The effect on the game will be the same. A higher ballistic coefficient with a higher sectional density will give you what you need when bridging a varmit caliber into deer hunting. Check out the Nossler website.

see the following from the Univ of Tennessee Agricultural Extension, QDM Guideline for Implementation: Hunters practicing QDM, in essence, become managers by improving the age structure (allowing yearling bucks to survive to maturity) and sex ratio (harvesting adequate numbers of does), managing the habitat and keeping detailed records on deer observed and killed. Among other concepts are safe habitating as a function of carrying capacity management, doe harvests, etc. Some states (or regions there of) include an "earn a buck" buck tag requirement. So there is a lot to it, but protecting immature bucks from early harvest is fundamental to its success. The Tennessee program is just one of many success stories. Tennessee's program has also had a positive impact on the Western North Carolina Herd.

they're inexpensive com[ared to a lot of other commercial ammo. I have had jacket seperation with them in the past. That can be true will all non-bonded bullets.

nice deer.

Part of Virginia use a 15" inside spread, three antler on one side can work too.

I used the Fusions in my deer rifle (my primary gun, bolt action 270 WSM Weatherby), hit a fat doe high at 75 yds both shoulder shattered and three vertebrae looked as though they were liquid. It was devastating. The deer was lights out where she stood.

Thanks Mike and I love the Muzzy 100's for the last 20 years, my fascination with the Rage is all about that huge blood trail and the rapid blood loss. I seem to hear a lot of mixed reviews. The Muzzy blood trail was never that great, but you always saw blood if the deer was hit in the boiler room. This year a buddy hit an 8 in the lungs with a Wasp Jack Hammer, the deer ran 500 yards from where he was hit. There was blood but not a lot of it. The hit was good he just didn't want to lay down and die. I'm also seeing some mixed reviews on the exit wound/pass through problem with the Rage heads. With a 400 gr arrow at 272 FPS I should be up at 66 foot pounds of energy. I can't understand why that wouldn't pass through any deers ribcage?

I like gun hunting, so my opinion (for what its worth, would be no). That being said, I'd like to see a legitimate state-wide QDM program on place for the gun season. This way spikes and buttons have a chance to get bigger and get their genes into the herd before they run the risk of being harvested.

Nope the core lockt functions great in the 750 for me. I might consider staying away from the Federal Fusion ammo, its not pricey but its got very high velocities. I might be a little rough on the 750's action.

Nice I didn't know Bass Pro Redheads were made by Hoyt. I also thought Reflex is out of business.

I just looked at page 22 and it doesn't say that, unless I'm missing something. It shows a picture of a legal mechanical head being a two bade Rage. There is nothing more specific than that. Here's what I found out from my local DEC Officer, the two blade is legal because its a true slip cam system when the blades deploy. The three blade pivots and locks rearward around a pivot point in the ferrule. Its that pivot lock that creates the barb effect making them (the 3 blade Rage) illegal.

G-man thanks, Where was that page in the regs, I couldn't find it when I looked. I was hunting with three other fire fighters last year two of them were using Rage heads and one hit a deer in the collar bone,..... he lost it which makes sense. It all about shot placement. I passed up a nice beefy eight last year because he didn't give me a shot and I was using Muzzy heads at the time. I really wouldn't take a low percent shot and hope for a miracle.

Thanks, this helps a lot.

Hoyts are nice just expensive.

I think there was a time when Bear was using a lot of cheap components and selling through Walmart and Kmart. That's really what I meant to say. BY today's standards with bows costing as much or more than a lot of quality rifles, its nice to get into a great bow like a Bearfor $500 or less new. Whats even better in the case of the one I bought it out shoots the more expensive PSE bow that I have.

Could not agree more!!!!!!!

Lots of states with longer seasons produce monsters including Iowa and South Carolina. I think a legitimate state-wide QDM program would go further to getting a healthier herd than a shorter season would. Look how PA turned around their heard in juts a few years, seasons were not made shorter, just antler restrictions were imposed.

The Dukes of Hazard and shooting out of the General Lee with dynamite taped to an arrow. So ridicolous, but it got me thinking about bow hunting initilally. Then an electrican was doing work in our house like 30 years ago, he was a bow hunter and he stardted talking to me about it a lot. That summer I went to a DEC camp and actually shot a bow for the first time. I was hooked. When I was 18 I bought my first bow and I've been shooting ever since. That bow was a Hoyt Game Getter II, I jumped up to a Hoyt Spectra, than Alpine Rebel, next was a Pearson 440, a Martin Pantera, a Golden Eagle Revolution, a Buck Master 2000, a Martin Cougar Magnum (had that one for eight years), a PSE Bow Madness, and now a Bear Strike. 10 bows in 25 years. No, I don't still have all of them. Just the PSE Bow Madness and the Bear Strike now. So yeah, I drank the bowhunting Koolaide big time.

I've had Martins and PSE for many years, I recently got a Bear Strike and it may be one of the best bows I have ever shot. Quiet, smooth, very acurate and forgiving. It won't break the bank either. These newer Bears are great bows. They're not cheap junk like they used to be. I'm considering get rid of my PSE to buy another Bear.

I shoot at Brookhaven all the time, I won't go to Calverton. Brookhaven is really safe and well ran.

Slow news night I guess..... That one first hit the news a year ago when the Portland Maine SWAT Team has misfire issues with bad triggers (or so it was reported). It led to a lot of bad press for Remington and created suspicion on thir going to the XMark Pro Trigger. The 700's had Walker triggers from 1949. The Walker system had a design flaw in it and MSNBC reports that they could have been corrected by 1951 for the cost of 6 cents per rifle, but Remington made a decision not to spend this money. Now its over $100 per rifle to do the same. Also they report that a bunch of people were killed or injured as a result of the Walker trigger failing. Who knows how much is acurate. Their new trigger is awesome.

crimping keeps the horizonal alignment of the printing closer to 180 degrees. Other than that it doesn't provide much more terminal benefit. If I have a loading that is printing all over the paper, I might print as a way to contol the group and make it tighter. I would also play around with the AOL to reduce the distance of the jump in the chamber.

Not necessarily. Some factory/commercail loads are hotter than you'd expect. For example Remington loads their Bronze Points hotter than Core Locks because the construction of the bullet can withstand the higher pressure. Same is true with Federal Custom and Fusion ammo compared to the blue boxed Premium line.