Skillet

Where the hell did that come from? I said good kill. I'm not judging anyone, so that shows my "true colors"? Which I'm assuming to mean I support illegal activity? What he did or didn't do wrong, I don't know. I don't have the exact time he punched the release, as far as I know, no one does. * removed language

Don't sweat it jmg. Good kill.

Too late. Wtf.

Thanks everyone! I'm out of likes, but I appreciate all the comments! Still so stoked about it!

Nice buck, congrats!

Here we go....

Sold.

This is my son's first season of bow hunting. He's been tagging along with me for years. We've been doing a lot of small game hunting, & spent all turkey season trying to get him a bird. He had 2 misses, but he hung in there like a diehard. We've been looking forward to this season. He practiced all summer, and helped me do all the stand work. It's been a tough season for us. Not many deer at our place this year (Naples, 8N). Not much sign, and not much activity on the cameras. We had to pass up a little buck during doe - only. The wind switched at the worst possible moment a few times. He got busted moving once. The last couple of weeks have been especially slow. Only 3 deer seen. Finally, last night, this guy came in to a stand we have by our pond, with a couple apple trees by it. Hunter handled it awesomely. He made a great 20yd double lung shot. The deer ran 60yds & crashed. It's a good thing we were strapped to the tree, because we were jumping around like little girls at a Justin Bieber concert. It was a trying season for me, & sometimes I felt like I was trying to teach a brick wall, but it turns out he WAS listening to me! If you'd told me a few years ago, that my best season would be spent trying to get someone else a deer, I would have laughed at you. I could hang it up today, without firing a shot, & this year will never even come close to being matched. You couldn't wipe the stupid grins off our faces all the way home. Ironically, this was the buck we had to pass up during doe - only. I feel very blessed to have shared this with him, been given such a nice animal. He texted me at 10:30 last night, & said "I can still hear that deer walking in the leaves". That about sums it up! Congratulations, Hunter!

Hawken .50

Numbers are up? Really?

That, as well as other factors.

$10

I use 777 ffg. You do have to run a patch after a few shots, but so what, that's muzzleloading. It's consistent, & I don't have any trouble cleaning it up. No complaints about it here.

Go traditional. You can order a Traditions Deerhunter 50cal percussion, for $324. I love mine.

A Mossberg is a workhorse. The AK-47 of the shotgun world. Beat it up, don't clean it, get dirt in the action, it doesn't care, it will still shoot.

Being in a stand, or failing to bend at the waist, will both contribute to shooting high.

I bought these for my crossbow, but they didn't group well out of it. It was a 5 pack. 4 are still in the package, & 1 has been used for practice. I got them for $35. Asking $15.

So more nesting hens, producing more poults, won't result in a higher mortality survival? Percentage - wise that doesn't make any sense.

I'd trade having a lonely tom to hunt, for a few seasons with a lot of poults being born.

I don't think there's such a thing as having too many hens.

Numbers are down around our place, too. Sounds like you happen to have a couple large fall flocks in the area. Seems like a lot of birds, but it's probably just the condensed population of a pretty large surrounding area. I'm with Grow. No reason to be shooting hens, even in the fall.

If you wanted to keep the meat, it would be significantly more expensive than keeping only the head / hide. Even the head / hide option, would be out of my reach. I was just lucky to have a friend nice enough to give me this opportunity.

I'm on my feet with bow in hand for first / last hour of shooting light, with my release attached. After that, if I'm on my feet, I'll hang the bow up. If I sit down, the bow is always in my lap with release attached. Too much movement required to stand, grab bow, & clip the release on. This year though, my bow hasn't come off the hanger very often. My kid is the designated shooter, so my hands are in my pockets.

I'm shooting the Diablo 18".

Yeah, I can't wait to hang the skull. I'm going to send it to a guy she uses for europeans. He's got the beetles to clean it.