vipertech

I'm usually bouncing off the walls in anticipation. But this year, I guess I have too much other stuff going on. The rash of kidney stones in Sept might have played a role too. Definitely going out this weekend but not with the same level of excitement of past years. anybody else ever start out a season like that?

The most common type are calcium oxalate. This website does a pretty good job of describing how they form. http://www.urostonecenter.com/anatomy.asp also wiki has some decent info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidney_stone

The Sept 8th one was the worst of all. Had to go to the hosp. and get hooked up with some drugs. Then when I left the hosp. I had another one right away that wasn't quite as bad. Got a third one when I went back to work. Then I had a few small little attacks that I guess you could call "ghost pain" because it would only last about 1/2 hour. Three times I had blockage pain where I simply could not urinate but wanted to really bad. This morning I completed setting a personal record for duration. 8 Percocet, 3 Rapaflo, 21 Ibuprofen and 32 HOURS(!!) later, I passed another stone. The damn thing just would not move. I've already been to a urologist. I did call them during this last attack and they remained on standby for me. I've already begun adjusting my diet. People prone to stones need to google "Low Oxalate Diet" and "Low Oxalate foods". Drink TONS of liquids. Water of course and other low oxalate drinks.

I've successfully taken deer from mine on a couple of occasions via shotgun. I've never let mine sit out and always packed it in. I will definitely agree that some deer seem to get suspicious of them. For the most part though, if I just tuck it in amongst some brush or stack some brush around it, I've had good luck. I've only had two shot opportunities with bow. The first time I blew the shot and the second I was at full draw but the shot never presented itself. That brings up the point that if you plan to hunt with bow from a blind, DEFINITELY practice some before hand. It's a completely different feel trying to shoot from inside a blind with bow. Generally speaking, I just don't like the view from inside of them. I greatly prefer the wide open where I can use peripheral vision, etc. So if I have to hunt from the ground, I tend to prefer to try to create a blind using natural cover.

Looks pretty good! I personally would have made the railing shorter from front to back. Make them more like armrests. The height seems fine but having the railing in front of you and on the corners seems a bit limiting IMO. The angle of the ladder is definitely a bit steep. Reduce that on your next one. For the seat, see if you can locate some kind of cushion to use. It'll make the long sits more comfortable. As for blending in the stand: I would simply zip tie some various branches and so forth to the sides of the stand. Real ones work for awhile until the leaves fall off. Old fake Christmas tree branches work well too and last a long time.

I use mine all the time. I have an older Bushnell. when I get to the stand, I range various trees, rocks, etc around my stand to create a perimeter of known distance. Then when a deer comes in, I know what the range is. As for the ARc technology, I'm not sold on it as of yet. I simply use the range finder from an elevated position and just set my bow to match it. The range finder is also very useful when I'm still hunting or travelling. If a deer happens to approach, I can follow it with the range finder and not have to guess at the distance.

It's getting annoying! I even checked via preview first. >

I'm no stranger to kidney stones. Have had two. My father has averaged one every couple of years since he was in his 30's. The secret to the stones is drinking A LOT of water. You need to keep flushing the kidneys of all the junk that creates the stones. I've also been told that lemonade is pretty good for it since the acidity helps break down the calcium that forms stones. Another trick I was told was that when an attack hits, drink beer. This is because beer makes you pee and at the same time, helps anesthetize the pain. As for the crap you drank: I've had to drink it as well. Tastes like really horrible lemonade mixed with chalk or something. They told me to be sure to just sip it otherwise I would puke it up. I drank it slowly and kept it down. I thought I was macho enough to handle it and refused to puke. That is until the minute the CT scan was over. The second I walked out the CT scan room, I ran straight to the toilet and purged all that nasty drink!

I have a pair of Redhead 1200g rubber boots that work well. But when it gets very cold, I have a pair of Rocky pack boots that have a thick liner in them. They're a bit harder to walk in so I use them only when I'm expecting to sit on stand on a cold day. As for the foot warmers, I like the ones that are shaped like an odor eater rather than just the toe warmers. I find them to last a bit longer and they seem to generate a bit more heat. As long as my feet are warm, I tend to be able to stay out a long time and withstand some cold weather. Once the feet are cold though, it's all over for me. If I have to, I'll get out of the stand and do some still hunting to warm up. Walking around nearly always helps to get my feet warmed back up.

I quit cold turkey in the late 80's. '89 to be exact. It's a tough thing to do. Glad I never had to pay $9-something for a pack of smokes.

I don't make my own either but there are a lot of people who simply enjoy the "do-it-yourself" approach to things. I would also venture a guess that when comparing volume to volume, buying the ingredients and mixing it yourself probably does save some money over time.

BTW.....How are you guys adding pictures to the forum and making them into thumbnail style links?

I just eat an apple on the stand. ;D

I don't like to climb the ladder stand at all to install the top ratchet. The stand always moves under my weight and I can never get the ratchet to swing around the tree easily. Depending on the design, the legs of the seat sometimes get in the way. I've had to get into crazy positions just to get the ratchet around the tree. And then, I might not have a good enough angle on the cam to tighten the ratchet enough. So what I do now is use a seperate reular ladder. It works much better. Just lean the stand into position, then climb the regular ladder to attach the ratchet. No more weird angles, no shifting stand, etc. The only issue is the cumbersome task of hauling in the regular ladder. But that's why I have a 17 yr old son. ;D

I had it work for me once on a drizzly day. I rattled using my rattle bag and shortly there-after, a small 6 point appeared. I let him walk. Since then, I've not had much luck with it at all. I even tried it once when a decent sized buck was in earshot and he ignored it.

That Cabela's one wouldn't be hard at all to make if you have access to a welder. There are places that allow you to rent one. I have a nice Lincoln mig welder. I think a wooden one might be quite heavy in the end depending on how strong you make it.

I hunted with a buddy of mine and he brought a decoy out with him. We never saw a single deer that day. After seeing him struggle with getting the decoy out into the woods and all setup with absolutely no results, I figured that they are yet another unnecessary item. YMMV.

Interesting. A lot more standers than sitters! I should have mentioned that like some of you, I do stand up for 15-30 minutes at a time every now and again to stretch the legs. But as for the actual shot, I've been staying in my seat more often than not within the last few years.

I'll go out on a limb and say that the shot IS doable if the situation is absolutely right. If the deer is quartering towards you rather slightly, then there is enough room to take out the lungs. BUT it is a shot that has risk. Too far forward and you can skip off the shoulder blade. Too far back and you only catch the back end of the one lung and then you're into the guts. Not to mention that the deer is likely looking at you. Obviously, it is best to wait for the broadside or quartering away.

All I use are ladder stands. IMO they are the safest and fastest type of stand. When I say fastest, I mean getting into and settling into for the hunt. Climb up, hook in, hunt. As for them sticking out.....I've never ever had a deer come in and act like the stand bothered them. Just get them installed before the season and deer with not care. They are easy enough to conceal with branches, brush, etc anyways. Also, I always try to install mine against a set of trees. I like a minimum of two adjacent trees so that the platform has the trunk it is against and another truck on one of the front corners. That way, I have something to hide behind.

I wanted to get one but they are expensive compared to other shooting sticks. I ended up getting a bi-pod model that raises and lowers via the "microphone stand" style twist grip . For the amount of times I actually use a shooting stick, it works fine and was probably $20 cheaper than the Trigger Stick. Having said that, I held and used the Trigger Stick in the store and really loved it. Just couldn't justify the $$$.

For many years, I would try to stand as soon as possible the minute I saw a deer approaching. This allows me to easily maneuver around to any shooting position that the deer might present. But for the past few years, I've been staying seated for a couple of reasons. One, it obviously cuts down on the movement thus reducing the chance of being busted. Second, I don't have to think about bending at the waist. That happens automatically. Third, it gets me just a bit lower so the shooting angle is flatter. Lastly, I think it helps me remain in control of nerves and the shivers. For example: if the weather is a bit cold out, and I have to wait out a deer while holding the bow out in front, this becomes harder if I'm standing. The cold might get to me and I'll shake from both that and the nerves of shot anticipation. If I'm sitting, I can slowly lower the bow onto a knee or onto the platform and these effects are mitigated. Of course remaining sitting has the drawback that the deer might work its way behind the stand or something and if I'm sitting down, I might loose a chance at a shot. So I guess one has to either perfect the stand placement or use best judgement as to whether or not to sit or stand.

The only time I have ever seen a buck respond from out of nowhere to rattling was during a light rain. I don't mind hunting in a light rain but heavy rain sucks and I tend to head back to the truck. Hunting is supposed to be fun. Not a test to see how much crappy weather I can endure. As was mentioned earlier, if I hear thunder or see lightning, I'm immediately out of my stand. I'll stay in the truck for awhile and maybe take a nap and hope the storm passes quickly. The time immediately after a storm is a great time to hunt! Deer seem to like to move around at those times. BTW: The same can be said for turkeys. They seem to like to get out in the fields right after a storm.

Happened to me two years ago. The buck just stuttered a little and remained right there. He slowly walked away. I lightly grunted at him and he stopped. Then tried to walk away again. Once again, I lightly grunted and he stopped once more. Then dropped right there. He walked probably 15 yards away from where I shot him.