wooly

I used to do them often when I was younger and more dedicated to maximizing my opportunities by spending more time afield, but not so much anymore. Now I prefer to hunt the "prime times" when I know I'll have the opportunity to see multiple deer any given sit, in a short period of time, while also minimizing my impact. I noticed I would get lazy and remain on stand all day even when the conditions changed for the worst. I burned out a lot of really great spots that way letting my scent waft around in the breeze when deer weren't even on their feet yet, therefor seeing fewer and fewer deer each sit. The times I would get up to change locations mid hunt I found myself bumping into, and educating more deer than I hoped, no matter how strategically I planned my movements to my next stand. Now days, I'm happy whenever I can get 3-4 hours in the AM, and the last two hours in the evenings.

I'd say unless you have a history with a particular buck like that, there's really no way of knowing from these pics alone until you tag his azz and have him aged. That deer right there could be 7 or 8 years old for all we know right now. That head and neck will have an entirely different look come November. Helluva Buck Eddie!

October 2014 on the first pic and October 2015 on the second pic. I wonder if it's the same deer or if double throat patch is just a common trait on this piece of property. No doubt sis would love to kill a buck like that. She already saw the video and said "why don't we ever see deer like that when we hunt together",lol . I told her because we don't take it serious enough!

Yup- thick over-grown goldenrod bedding area next to a corn field that bucks use all summer through late season. This is also one of my better shed hunting areas over the years for all those big bucks that disappeared during the regular season. They just love to hide those antlers in this stuff!

Those groups are tighter than some of Pygmy's ex-girlfriends! As a general rule, if you can't fit you whole fist in it you're doing alright....... talking 'bout your groups here,lol Pretty damn good shootin' for an old guy with a bum shoulder!

I thought that was pretty freaking impressive and amazing!

Going up...

Nice close-ups Curmudgeon! I've been meaning to try for some summer carcass shots myself, but most of the open areas I have access to are too overgrown now. You may have just inspired me to clear a spot out.

LOL- I think you have her confused with my taxidermist G/F from Beaverkill NY! There may have been a few others I'm forgetting about,lol I sell and trade them all grampy. I'm gonna have a hard time parting with that boar skull though when it's finally finished. I may never get my hands on another one of those again. The other stuff I'm not really attached to at all.

I got hooked up with a local taxidermist/ hydro-dipper dude (Bare Naked Mounts) through Facebook last week. Traded two of my carved skulls for some blank canvases he had. I got 1fox, 1 bobcat, 2 bear cubs, 1 small buck, 1 wild boar, 12 coyotes, and 60 raw bear claws to do with as I wish. Oh yeah, I got a big fat shed antler to carve some skull work on for him as well in return. Needless to say, I was pretty excited and eager to get to work so I got all the coyotes cleaned up and got the bear claws skinned, sealed, and polished. THAT was no easy task! Then it was time to get some new bits and start grinding away at the new bone pile! The coyote was just a general design to cover some bullet holes so I just kept repeating the pattern. The webbed buck design came from inside my skull,lol

A real beauty this morning! They don't get much better than that. Sweet shot G/F!

Just so no one thinks I'm responsible for popping ya in the schnozz,lol

You're very welcome my friend! So glad you like it and I hope it brings nothing but the best your way!

Why don't you look it up in your list of legal documents Mr Goody Twoshoes hunter,lol

Ahhh, nothing wrong with a little dry rub ........ as long as you don't start "smoking them" before season!

Putting salt ON your deer = Putting salt IN your deer =

Daytime pics seem to be locked in at ISO 100 no matter what the conditions are like. Exposure times vary but don't deviate ANY in regard to how close the critter gets to the lens. All night time shots are locked in at ISO 400. Exposure times between 1/7S and 1/30S depending on flash mode setting. (optimal or boost) Both day and night pics were taken in "average metering mode". I'm assuming that means "center weighted metering" rather than taking a reading from the entire scene. Count on any close-ups being blown out snowballs!

I thought they only charged for additional storage space when you reached the limit. I still have Photobucket but seldom use it anymore since the ads are a nightmare on my computer and their encoding styles SUCK!Whenever it would tell me I was getting close to my limit I would go through and delete my old pics I didn't have much use for so I could upload the new stuff. Now I just pay $23/year for a pbase page and all the headaches are gone. Much easier to keep pictures organized and categorized this way which makes it a far superior photo hosting site IMO and well worth it.

Unfortunately I didn't save any of those, but I know what you're talking about. Very rarely I set cams on field edges so it was never a big concern of mine.

Reminds me of my stop at the post office the other day. Out of the clear blue, the lady at the counter looks at me and shouts "My God Matt you have a HUGE package". I was pretty excited to see what it was but she never brought it out to me,lol!

I had the Force 10 and kept it in "Optimal" flash mode as well. The boost mode just extended the shutter speed to let more light in increasing motion blurr on moving critters. I think it's shutter speed was a dismal 1/7'th second in boost mode. I wasn't crazy about that seeing I never really needed an extended flash range for field set ups or anything like that. I really liked that cam over scrapes and got some pretty nice series from it. My biggest complaint with the Spypoint was the flat day time pics with little contrast and color, but that was just my personal peeve from a picture quality standpoint.. I would counter the poor shutter speeds at night by setting the picture delay to "instant" mode. It would usually record enough pics that I would get a few keepers even if the rest of the bunch were blurry.

It's just a hobby for me. I throw them on Craigslist every now and then but sales haven't taken off yet,lol I'm always open to any offers since I couldn't possibly come up with a price for them on my own and feel fair about it.

Thanks guys and gals! Here you go mowin. Few pics of the rest of my stuff in link below. http://www.pbase.com/wooly/carved

I was just supposed to practice a few simple flower designs on this one, but I got a little carried away as usual..... like almost 50 hours carried away,lol Anyhow, I thought some of you might like it. I have a couple blank Amish built turkey calls I need do some carving on next. I haven't worked on wood yet so we'll see how that goes.