Doc

One scary thing is that some guys never find out the effects of heavy clothing on their shooting until they have a deer in front of them. Over the last couple of days I got to work out a few things. Our little mini-coldsnap allowed me to check out a few things in that regard.

Good to hear you are leaving the land better than you found it. With the rapid maturation of old farm lands, a lot of NYS is reverting back to tall overstory. It's not much of an issue for whatever time I've got left to hunt, but looking toward the future, and the generations that follow us, it is important that people try to improve habitat where they can. I doubt that we can reverse the massive passing of open lands, but an occasional sanctuary as some are working toward will help future hunters (for as long as we have future hunters .... lol)

The problem is just exactly how do you reverse an entire cultural evolution.

Come on now squatsinbushes ...... Your letting that medication slip again. You know what the doctor told you about that. They'll be shoving you back in that institution again.

Ok, I guess I misjudged the size of the trees in that photo. It didn't look like there were any that were actual lumber sized trees. Sorry .... it was a dumb question.

Every year it is a struggle. I find that I tend to get tightened up by heavy layers of clothing. There is plenty of looseness in the size of the clothing, but it feels like going from skinny to the Michelin man.....lol. It's harder to draw back and get the same relaxation at full draw that I get all summer when I am shooting in just a shirt. I never feel that I am getting the proper back tension and the draw always feels a bit crunched up and constricted. Elbows don't hinge as easily with extra bulk around them. The relaxation into a full draw is not as fluid. Sometimes I get interferences with my sleeve which is easy to fix through extra arm rotation, but I also have to wrestle with string interference with the additional bulk in the chest area which then forces me to open up my stance a bit. These are all little adjustments that have to be made that do not necessarily correspond to the summer's form when all I had to worry about was a t-shirt. Every little adjustment and change effects point of impact and adjustments have to be made. It's just something that I have to work around, and these couple of days of cold weather are just what is needed to locate and fix these problems. I have to mention that I am not talking about just throwing on some extra jacket. I am talking about foundation wear, an extra shirt, a sweater, a lined vest and finally a heavy insulated set of camo coveralls. Kind of a rig that sets me up for a day's worth of low 20s or 30s with high wind chill effects. Nothing on me bends or twists anywhere near the same as anything that I've been wearing all summer long. And yes, that does have an effect on my form and the arrows point of impact. And yes, I do have to make compensation for all that. Frankly, I am surprised that others don't encounter some of these same problems when they pile on the heavy clothes.

I guess one of the considerations that has always had me hanging my deer by the hind legs was the fact that I don't want the blood all settling in those tasty roasts and steaks of the rump. That was something that I was told years ago, and may very well be based on nothing. But I figured if I had to make a 50-50 choice, why not go with something that kind of made some sense. So most of the time my deer wind up head down. Besides, like I said earlier, I find it easier for butchering if they are hanging head down. But in reality, I have hung deer both ways and never found any difference in flavor of the venison. So it probably all depends on which end you grab first ...... lol.

How much is this whole operation going to cost you? It looks like a lot of work that you will be having done there.

Let's try this one: http://www.prairiest..._over_the_hill/ Good article! loved the discussion at the end. I don't want to hijack this thread, but it sure would make an interesting separate topic for discussion.

Interesting problem with the link. It came up with a "print" form on top of the article and would not let me scroll down past the first page. It's too bad because it looked like a good start to an interesting commentary.

Last year, one of my gun stands was crushed flat by a fallen 24" diameter dead tree just a few days into the season. Glad I wasn't in that stand. Funny thing is that I was in that stand one of the days before when we had some pretty heavy winds. I guess I'm just lucky.

Well, today was the first of the colder-than-crap days and I did get a chance to wear the heavy bulky stuff. I have a few issues that will need more work. Groups at 20 yards moved about 3" right at 20 yards....... super consistantly. Not good. It all felt very uncomfortable and strange. I can't have a situation where I have to have different pin windages depending on what clothes I wearing, so something is going to have to be done about that.

Nice looking doe. The season is officially kicked off!

One thing I noticed is that this year we don't have a lot of acorns compared to last year. That situation or the exact reverse can change deer sightings. They are critters whose patterns revolve around food. Any changes in food sources can instantly change what trails get used and what ones don't.

Well, it's not for everybody, and I do understand that some like to take a break at some point. Particularly if you are part of a group. I also will say that for most of the season, action is so light that I resort to a lot of still-hunting that eventually leads back to the house and a nice warm meal. No need to pack a pile of food on those days. But on opening day, I go out like I am setting up camp ...... lol.

What a great description of what hunting is for most of us. It's the kind of thing that as many non hunters as possible should read. Maybe it would give them a good insight as to what makes us tick. I really appreciate you putting all that into words.

Are all your pictures coming out white or is it only specific times of day that they come out washed out. If it is only specific times of day (such as sunset), moving the camera so that the lighting is changed might help. If you are getting that effect throughout the day and into the night, then there is a serious problem. What are your nightime pictures looking like? I mean those pictures that you know are in total darkness. They're not washed out are they?

Yeah, that all makes a lot of sense. I thought it was funny that just a few days after I got my first "white-out" picture that SMcCray would post a message about getting the same thing. The only thing is that I got the impression that his problem is a bit more prevalent than my one and only. It would be interesting to know whether his "white-out" pictures occur at a variety of times or only around that sun-down lighting situation.

Ha-ha, there's an interesting thought ....... neighborhood food plot wars.

Here's the deal for me, and these comments are aimed at the heavy parts of gun season. I know that guys will be getting up out of their stands anywhere between 10:00 and 1:00. They will begin a massive drive as they move toward the roads to go out and eat. I want to be there when that happens as there is a secondary burst of deer movement. Having a pile of food and drinks to get me through the hours when most hunters allow hunger and boredom to drive them from the woods allows me to be one of the standers while they all serve as drivers. No food, and I become one of the drivers. Not good....for me.

Is this what you are talking about? As you can see your brand of camera is not the only one. This is a Bushnell Trophy. This is the only picture that I have ever had that has turned out this way. And I have taken a lot of pictures since that have been perfectly ok. So I have no explanation for it. By the way, I just noticed that the time on my picture is coincidentally 7:16 PM. By the way this picture is facing south with a little bit of west if sun direction has anything to do with it.

You're absolutely right. It is so easy to get lured into a pissing contest when every opinion that is stated that is contrary to crossbows is met with a full-out combative stance and aggressive insult mode. I find that outside of the internet, I would normally not even associate with people that conduct themselves that way with that kind of personality, and I can't understand why I have been lured into doing so here. So, I guess the thing to do to spare other members from having to put up with this kind of nonsense is to simply stay out of commenting on anything to do with crossbows as others before me have decided to do. I know that it is not normally my nature to engage conversation with someone of that kind of combative personality, and I refuse to do it anymore. Unlike some, that's not the reason I participate in internet forums and I don't see any need to change now.

Not yet. I've got more bow things to work out and I still have to figure out where all my deer have gone so any free time will be spent scouting. I'm running way behind this year. Once the regular deer season is over i'll be heading out after them.

Everybody loves chicken. I had racoons, mink and weasels all figure out ways past the chicken wire. Some of them were pretty darn clever about it too. I had a mink find an empty knot hole in the wall of the coop way down at floor lever. I went out one morning and saw one of the chickens snugged up against the wall. When I pulled her away, I saw that she had no head. The tracks in the snow outside told the story. He apparently went through the knot hole, killed the chicken and then spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out how to get a chicken to fit through a knot hole.When he finally figured out it wasn't going to happen, he ate off the head and left the rest behind.

Ok guys.... According to our weatherman here in Western NY, we are supposed to have a significant cold snap where temperatures will not be getting out of the 40's. There is even some talk about wet snow flurries (no significant accumlation) in the higher elevations. So, we will all be getting a chance to put on some of that bulky winter clothing and see just what kinds of interferences and form difficulties we might be encountering with all that junk on. That's always an exciting bunch of experimentation for me each year. Sometimes it's no problem and other times it becomes a nightmare. Lol ... anybody can shoot well in a short sleeved shirt. Sometimes those insulated coveralls can change anchors, follow-throughs, back tension, string/sleeve clearances, and all kinds of more mysterious problems. We'll soon be getting a chance to find out.