dbHunterNY

I don't follow what you're getting at. a bullet doesn't have "lift" either. it travels much farther because it's going way over 100 times faster. trajectory is just the path of travel for an object in motion. an airplane has lift with it's wings and doesn't fall out of the sky like a bullet or arrow.

yea always start with limb bolts bottomed out and in your case don't go more than 12 full turns out. hunting at range out to probably 30 yards you'll be fine without the speed. question is would you rather get hit in the face with a heavier baseball or a pingpong ball? people get KE as it relates to penetration confused. think of KE as potential for penetration and arrow weight as momentum or actual penetration.

an arrow in a sense doesn't have lift because it's always in rotation and symmetrical vanes and blades cancel anything out. also lift and the plane of an arrow in a direction from being pushed through the air crooked is different.

I don't have much experience with either but I think the Viper sight has 2nd and 3rd axis adjustments. the axion I'm not so sure. if the axion doesn't have this I'd go with the viper. that'll help keep your shots where they should shooting up and down hill, ridges, or from a treestand. same fiber design so as long as the pins are the same diameter they should be close to the same brightness.

yea I've seen antler junk happen on a 2.5 year old but usually really starts happening at 4.5 from mostly what I've seen.

jaw spreaders are pretty simple even to make out of smooth round metal rod stock and with a pair of pruning shears you can remove the whole jaw on a buck. tad bit of hide stretch but nothing that a taxidermist can't work with. we were even just down the road from the co-op check station with two of them but it was already hung in place in the garage. I'm sure you can find a pattern for it one online. .....different kinds out there but this type works the best for spreading the jaws and/or separating the hide from the jaw bones in a way not to get your digits all in there. http://alabamahuntingandfishingtrail.com/images/alabamadeerinformation2.jpg

I've used different higher end ones and right now I've got a Muddy Safeguard. best I've used to date. I will say I use it with a rope and prussic knot style tree "strap" which is important to me versus fixed length seat belt junk.

Honestly where I hunt in 4C (not effected) versus 4J (effected and bow only) is way easier to recover a doe. due to anniversary vacation I just got back into country and hunted this past weekend. still primarily hunting doe to fill the freezer now despite being in an area I can take a buck. I've stayed out of buck areas in both units too. haven't seen a good enough daylight pattern and rut hasn't turned things upside down enough yet to warrant screwing it all up.

Sunday night I was aging a youth harvested 8 pointer that weighed 160lbs dressed. didn't want to pull the jaw in fear it'd screw up mounting it. took three of us. youth holding head up, my uncle holding a flashlight, and me using both index fingers to get back in there. barely any dentine width, lingual cests sharp as knives, and crest of last cusp on last molar was still very pointed. not concaved at all. hell of a time just to find out it was 2.5 yrs old. had a decent body and thick rutted neck though. plus they asked me to look.

I have a couple stones but honestly the $5 carbine and ceramic fixed 20 degree or so "v" sharpeners is all I use for everything. many times I "touch up" the blade on the ceramic side in soapy water.

both... some stands aren't good for both. so I hunt a different stand past 1pm. evenings are easier but you should do what you must to get on deer. right now I like easy to get to ridge/point stands looking down into a bottom with cover off to each side. I don't shoot doe there and don't walk down in for any reason. shots further away around 30+ yards. many times this early you can still find deer wondering between cover. morning thermals pull your scent up away for them and the bedding/cover. I don't hunt close to food sources in the mornings unless it's a paralleling travel corridor with acorns.

I haven't killed a 5.5 yr old or older buck yet. doe is a different story. I've killed a lot 5.5+ years old. one last year was probably somewhere definitely over 8.5 and under 15. didn't send teeth off to a lab to nail down an exact age. a lot of 3.5 and 4.5 around here seem to dress out around 175ish. 5.5 - 7.5 around here that get shot seem to be 190-230ish.

I feel like picture 1 and 2 are different deer. a) 5.5 (second picture is maybe 3.5) 2.5 c) first thought 4.5 but now think 3.5

not under 30" but they've got the new impulse 31. it's a screamer that should thwack a nanny doe or big buck pretty hard with a heavy arrow.

that could happen.... or in late season when the deer are all flocking to the nearest good food source my neighbor is banging away shooting doe, while I'm not. the big buck giving hunters the slip all season long can then eat in piece on my quiet food source with calm other deer..... until he gets in range. if for some reason I don't fill the freezer this week it probably won't happen until later. I usually prefer earlier than now. assuming we're not in a doe only area as the buck straying right now wouldn't be a worry.

another really good reason I fully believe in.

I haven't been out yet this year as I was out of the country on vacation. this weekend i'll be out and I won't be focusing on bucks. I intend to shoot doe. I do it in easily accessible areas not where I've patterned a buck. way more doe than bucks around here. if I wait to take a doe that's been chased or even worse bred it's wasting effort and energy from bucks. also later one when the action does get heavy I can hone in on the first signs of a hot doe in an area that I know is holding a nice buck. I can then sit back, watch, and hunt low impact rather than trampling throughout the area to recover a doe. also fewer doe mean as you said more concentrated buck activity. as the season carries on I can focus all my attention to buck harvest and not stress as I've gotten meat for the freezer all ready. another good thing is the processor I go to doesn't do venison until January as he does livestock right now. as soon as you bring him something you're put on a list. then when Jan comes he starts at the first guy on the list and works down. last year I was 3rd being successful the first Saturday of the season. I worked during the week while others hunted. those are just some of my reasons.

places with very limited access or reduced to bow only. more deer live longer and get bigger.

still thinking about getting some. haven't pulled the trigger yet. maybe some day.

great buck. congrats to your neighbor. good luck with the other big ones in the area.

yea I didn't think was going to be all on one form until I got it. also noticed on the front it has a much smaller more editable place for more rarely sighted things like yotes, bear, bobcat, etc.

if there's a better food source they'll go to that first. acorns and ag crops with miles will get preference. apples really just provide high sugar content. that's only when they're really ripe and fall off the limb from their own weight. until then they only pick and move on.

you're supposed to leave proof of sex but nobody does that i know of. usually it's dragging out the whole and gutted deer, so that's proof of sex. you've got to check as some public lands might not permit you to leave the deer carcass. you might have to check on that.

i have a smaller platform Open Shot model. no accessories on it. keeping it light. i've consider the sherpa conversion to turn it into a game cart though. help for public land hunts. last buck i took was a few miles in. four of us pulled on a length of rope along it's length and it still kicked our butt!

have a view off both decks of it. partly cloudy so it's not bad and we can clearly see it. very beginning of it right now.