Doc

What a handsome buck! do you suppose the other deer made fun of him? That almost looks like it could have become an eating problem.

I don't suppose you ever bought some of those Browning Serpentine heads (We used to call them "apple-corers....lol). That was probably the wackiest head I ever saw. I had a few of those Hilbre heads, but was turned off by the plastic body. Never had one break, but I never trusted them. I think I have killed more deer with the Bear Razorheads than any other head. In fact a couple of years back, I dragged out a bunch of them, sharpened them up and took a nice doe. I have quite a collection of broadheads myself stuck away in a box (many of which are no longer made). It's interesting to look back and see what the hot set-up was at various times. I saw a guy at the National Hunting & Fishing days at Avon a few years back that had an amazing collection of broadheads. He had quite a few big glass faced, plywood cases full of rows and rows of everything you could imagine as far as broadheads go. It was pretty impressive to see all those different designs in one display. A pile of money has been spend on broadhead R&D over the years, but some of them survived strictly on marketing techniques.

As an alternative to my milkweed seeds, my wife donated a small spool of her least wanted sewing thread. I tie one end to a small leaf, and tie the other end to any overhanging limb. Actually it works well without the leaf. It's a lot like the feather idea above. Gives me a constant monitor of wind direction at my immediate location. These things are not good for those that are easily discouraged. Almost every time, the wind takes an occasional "back draft" sending scent out all over the trail that I am expecting the deer to be using. I often wonder just how long scent molecules stay stuck to vegetation out there where the deer are coming from. In other words, if your scent blows all over the trail (even if just a brief time) is the stand blown for that particular hunt? I know if I walked down that trail, scent molecules would be sticking to every goldenrod, blade of long grass, and sapling that I might have brushed against and even in my footprints. And I know from personal experience that deer do detect those scent molecules. So I know scent does stick and remain active and detectable by deer for some period of time. The question is does the same thing hold true for scent molecules that get distributed by an occasional "back-blow" of the wind.

If you ever run across a milkweed pod, be sure to stick it in your pack (preferably in a zip-lok bag). Setting one of those seeds from the pod loose at your stand will tell you exactly what the wind is doing .... not only right at your stand, but also a ways from you. You will be amazed at what the wind really does as it gets farther and farther from you. Those milkweed seeds will lay the whole thing out for you where the commercial sprays only give you a result of what is going on within a few feet of you.

Over the years I have read a pile of articles on broadhead design and the one thing that I have not seen discussed here is something that all the broadhead articles of years past always emphasized. That is the angle of the cutting edge relative to the axis of the shaft. I recall reading articles over the years before mechanicals were even thought of that stressed some basic principles that seem to have been ditched along the way. And this idea of having a slicing angle rather than a "chopping" angle used to be one of the big items in broadhead design. I remember a lot of tests that attempted to get at the perfect cutting edge angle. Look at the deployed profile of some of these heads and it is obvious that they are going for the "chop" attack of the blade on the hide meat and bone. That can't be great for penetration. Also today there seems to be an emphasis on cutting width. Some are close to ridiculous in that area. I suspect there is an optimum size for cut width that does adequate tissue and artery damage and yet considers the effect on penetration. Another thing that was always big on broadhead design was the idea of cut-on-contact. Rather than trying to wedge the skin the hide apart to start the cut, it was always understood that slicing the skin was better for penetration. It takes more energy to pry the skin apart than it does to cut your way in. That lost energy relates to penetration. Those basics were of most importance in the pre-mechanicals era. Logically, it seems that those principles are still valid because our intended end result is still the same. And of course the energy lost deploying the blades cannot be ignored either. That is just one more piece of the puzzle. However, there already has been mentioned the importance of striking the hide muscle and tissue with the arrow flying as perfectly co-axial as possible. Every degree or part of a degree that is not straight behind the broadhead is another impedance to penetration. Optimizing this feature involves bow tuning, arrow tuning for as near perfect arrow flight as possible. This is where the mechanicals can give an assist. Given some of the unpredictibility of hunting shots on arrow flight, it is important to get as much forgiveness in your shooting setup as possible. Eliminating the planing surfaces on the broadhead helps to compensate for some of the torqueing, clothing interferences, or just plain stance and drawing form errors that can happen during a heated bowhunting encounter. Let's face it, that is really the primary advantage that mechanical broadheads really have, but it is an valid advantage that might make the difference in point of impact and also co-axial flight both very important features that relate to penetration. So there is some justification for mechanicals. However, the proof is in the pudding, and apparently some of these mechanicals are not abiding by the basics. One thing I have noticed on a lot of our Saturday morning deer hunting programs is more and more deer running away with most of the arrow sticking out of the near side. Somebody is not getting the penetration that we used to take for granted. So, all these heads are not created equal ..... obviously. So there you are. There are pluses and minuses for the mechanicals. I suspect that the future of broadhead design still lies with the mechanicals. However I also believe that the ones that will do the best in the penetration department will be those that do not abandon history's basic design principles. Today the designs are all compromises of those things that the past has shown to be important to penetration. So, we have to sift through all the trade-offs and guess which ones are more important. Your guess is as good as mine as to the relative importance of each feature, but no discussion of broadhead design is complete without considering all these features.

I too am "ground bound". It's not because of safety concerns necessarily. We have the technology to take care of that concern. However, I do have a powerful fear of heights that has driven out of the tree-tops a couple of decades back. As careless as I was about treestand safety, maybe this fear of heights thing was a blessing in disguise .... lol. In my younger years and back before anyone ever even thought about harnesses, I used to climb through the trees like a monkey without even thinking about falling. Then somebody mentioned that I should be tethered to the tree while in the stand. Of course there was very little info about what methods were safe and what weren't. So I pulled an old lap-belt out of a VW Beetle, put it around my waist and fastened it to the tree while I was up in my stand, and thought I was being pretty smart. Little did I know that that arrangement was probably more dangerous than a fall.....lol. However, over the years things have changed to the point where people have actually done some research on the subject. So now we have true body harnesses that won't leave you suspended upside down by your waist when a fall occurs. We have units that will keep you attached from the ground up to your stand and back. We have devices that will lower you to the ground in a controlled fashion. We have all these things and all we have to do is use them. Believe me, if I were hunting in the tree-tops today, I would have every bit of this technology and would use it everytime, with no exceptions.

Regarding this topic I must mention that a treestand fall death touched our family very closely last year, and I am probably in a pretty good position to point out that these kinds of incidents do not simply affect those that are killed or maimed from treestand falls. That lapse in judgement affects all kinds of people that surround our lives. It's not just a single victim incident. So just like anything in hunting (or anything else in life) that involves safety, it's not only our lives that are impacted by those choices when things go bad. I have seen the pain and anguish on the faces of those loved ones who had to carry on after such a tragedy. So for those that may be considering foregoing safety equipment I would just like to say that there are many others to consider besides yourself. No, you cannot insulate yourself from all harm, but there are some things that you can easily apply to hunting safety. It seems unnecessary to take risks that you don't have to. You owe it to your family to use whatever hunter safety equipment that is available.

Yeah, I guess I am kind of curious about that remark also. Was that just something weird thrown into the discussion, based on absolutely nothing for absolutely no reason, or what? ...... pretty strange stuff!

LOL ...... That is a common theme on a lot of my posts lately, and that is not only true for newcomers to the sport. We all encounter some added challenge when the target is a breathing, moving, thinking, thing. But here is something that has helped a lot of bowhunters, and it's not really any kind of new idea. "Pick a spot". I know you have heard that before, but it is amazing how even seasoned hunters will occasionally forget that old basic rule, and get lured into aiming at the whole deer. I suspect it is part of buck fever or something. But restrict your aiming spot as much as possible. Some guys say aim at a specific hair ...... well, I usually am not close enough to see individual hairs, but the general point is well made. So, I am not saying that this was the problem on this particular shot, but just offer it up as a reminder that sometimes this sort of thing happens, and maybe this is an explanation for an occasional mysterious shot that seems to just go haywire for no obvious reason.

I hadn't even looked at the comments until you mentioned it. Pretty shocking stuff! It kind of puts the mentality and values of those animal rights wackos in perspective. They certainly are a twisted bunch.

I have no problem with discussing shot selection, and weather considerations and such. I just think it is poor timing to pick a thread where a guy has just had one of hunting's worst scenarios happen to him, to be making that kind of a point. Such discussions are better left to a separate thread that doesn't wind up feeling like someone piling on to a bad situation in kind of a personal way. I don't know whether I am being clear as to the distinction, but this whole thread has turned into a "well dummy you did everything wrong and I'm here to explain it all to you" kind of a thing. Yeah, I think the guy might get a bit defensive over that kind of reaction. I think I might have started a new thread to discuss errors in shot selection and weather conditions where it might not have been taken as a personal attack on his choices.

30 feet in the air ........ I can't even imagine trying to shoot from that high....lol. Of course in my case, with my fear of heights, I'd have to learn how to shoot my bow with both arms wrapped around the tree ...... lol. But seriously, do you suppose these guys practice their shooting at home from 30 feet in the air just to get familiar with how that kind of a shot has to be compensated for? Anyway, the guy is just lucky he is still alive with a fall from that height. Or who knows, maybe he will not really consider that to be a lucky thing depending on what his final condition turns out to be.

Yeah, I can understand not allowing metal items to be permanently screwed or driven into trees. These things can become forgotten or simply left behind causing quite a hazard to loggers or sawmill operators (I have heard some pretty ugly horror stories). I can also appreciate rules against hacking on trees and doing damage that will eventually lead to health problems of trees. However, it is unfortunate that some common sense can't be applied somewhere along the line. As I said earlier, I have never seen a decent bowhunting spot that didn't need some kind of shooting lane trimming. That just isn't a normal scenario in a normal woods. That also applies whether you are in a tree stand or hunting from the ground. Also as I pointed out earlier, it would be nice if there were some commonality in DEC philosophy between hunting situations and non-hunting situations on public forested land when it comes to modifications to trees and brush. I have seen much worse damage done to trees, vegetation, and the natural state of public lands by the construction of mountain bike trails than anything I have ever seen done by hunters. In fact, the lane clearing that is done by hunters is seldom even detectable by the following spring.

I'll tell you what ..... this whole thread and the replies that have come out of it bother me. I know from personal experience that a wounding loss is a pretty traumatic experience for any serious hunter. It is the kind of thing that in some cases has caused people to quit the sport. I really don't see any reason for anyone on here to feel it is their duty to make that experience even worse by nit-picking the hell out of every little detail. I don't get what people enjoy about doing that.

You guys that run trail cams automatically have a printed record of when the deer are moving in your area. No need to guess or theorize or try to remember the past..... just check your data. I have been amazed at just how regularly deer are showing up in legal hunting hours. And my records show that the split between mornings and afternoons is pretty much equal. Also, I do not have very many pictures that are taken between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm. Of course as rut comes into play, that may change.

Things are already starting to get better. I've seen a huge improvement ever since she mentioned sticking a needle in my eye .... lol. No seriously, most of the vision problems now are from the eye-drops themselves. The redness has almost completely disappeared. The problem is that from the other times that this has happened, I know that they want me to continue the drops quite a few days after the thing looks cleared up.

Think about it.... how tough is it for a deer to see 20 or 30 feet in the air simply by using their peripheral vision. When I'm walking through the woods, I can see way the heck up in the air without even tipping my head. The farther away I am the higher my peripheral vision can pick out items. How high would you actually have to go up to be completely out of sight of a deer at say 30 or 40 yards? Somebody said something about relying more on cover than height. I think they got it right. If your going to pick out a tree that looks like a telephone pole, I doubt you can get high enough to be out of sight. Deer will look up? ....... Darn right they will. I've seen them do it.

I have been a ground-stander for a few decades now. I developed a pretty significant fear of heights that finally kept me out of the trees. That little problem made me develop some effective ground standing techniques that have produced a fair amount of success, and a real appreciation for the super-excitement of being at ground level, eyeball-to-eyeball, with all kinds of deer. I was a little slow to get into the "pop-up" style of ground blind, but starting last year, I have added this item into my groundstand hunting. Most of my hunting is still using natural blinds, but these things have their place. One thing that may not occur to everyone is that these blinds do offer some level of rain protection that can possibly save a hunting day that otherwise might tempt you to stay in the house. Properly brushed in and concealed, these blinds can be a useful addition to anyone's hunting gear.

This is an interesting use of the term "Target Panic. I have never heard it referred to as relating to buck fever, but I suppose the same kinds of physical/mental things are at work with both. Back in the 80's, I developed true "Target panic" while I was tournament shooting, and even today it sometimes briefly rears it's ugly head. My target panic involved severe uncontrollable exaggerated flinching while squeezing the realease trigger. It is truly a maddening situation. Other target panic that I have heard of involves what they call "freezing". That is where the shooter absolutely cannot get the target pin to move onto the bulls-eye. I guess there are other mental maladies that are similar and all travel under the name of target panic. Buck fever however is something that I only experienced once, and it didn't even involve a shot. I had a huge buck that played me for about a half hour. I watched this beast wandering and pacing around at about 30 yards with just enough brush covering him that there was no shot. He got me so worked up that I sincerely doubt that I could have shot if he had actually come to my side of that brush. I have never experienced anything like that before. Usually I don't get that kind of prolonged closeness to a buck of that quality. 1/2 hour and antlers sticking out all over finally took their toll on my nerves......lol. By the way, he never did come through to my side of the brush. He finally just left and it was quitting time, so I left too. But that shaking and light-headedness that is usually associated with "buck fever" is a feeling that I will never forget.

When is the last time you came across the perfect tree that didn't need some trimming of a limb here or a branch there in order to get a shot to the trail? State land or not, I can't remember a single instance where some shooting lane trimming didn't have to be done. So I wonder how many people strictly abide by some of these regs. I have always tried to, and it has cost me more than one deer because of it. Oh and by the way, it appears that all this stuff goes out the window for some non-hunting uses. We have a network of mountain-bike trails that have been hacked throughout the woods in the state land down our way. That includes logs cut, saplings removed, branches snipped, some pick and shovel work hacked into the hillside, and splotches of paint globbed all over the trees. And apparently that was done with DEC assistance and knowledge.

No drops over night, although that would probably make it go away quicker.

Probably not legal, but check with your regional DEC headquarters to be sure. Different categories of state land have different restrictions. Also, being on a non-state right-of-way, I'm not sure if or how that might change things.

Oh, she's just a ball of good news ...... She just couldn't help but mention that some cases of this uveitis that linger for too long are treated with an injection of steroids directly into the eyeball. I made it clear that that was not likely to happen ..... lol. I've actually got another week of eye drops before she wants to see me again. 2 drops a day for pupil dilation and 1 drop of steroids every two hours. Ever since she started talking about eyebal injections, I'm sure I have seen some instant improvements.....lol. Her best guess was another two or three weeks before it's completely fixed. I'm hoping that only part of that will be actually affecting vision to the point where I can't shoot. By the way, ever since this happened, I've been seeing all kinds of new deer (bucks and does) wandering across my yard well within legal shooting hours. I think they have figured out that something is wrong, and they just have to stop by and rub it in.

Well, things are starting to improve ........ slightly. Still can't see a damned thing through the peep-sight, but I can see a little bit of difference from a few days ago. I've got to tell you all that I am just about as ticked off as I can be. I struggled through all the crap weather, the rain, and the near hurricane winds and now that the weather has turned good, I can't even get out there. And then to add insult to injury, yesterday as I was heading out for the eye doctor, a very nice 6-point took off about 30 yards from my back door. I'm not sure, but I thought I heard him laughing as he went....... . You guys have a great season, and I'll be joining you all as soon as I can.

The last time this happened, I got wacked in the eye with a pine limb. Most people would just have a sore eye for a little bit, but with me that sort of thing always seems to turn into some big-deal infection. I suppose I can live with that, but this is the first time it's happened during hunting season. That really is aggravating.....