phade

These are good kids - hate to say kids, but comparably, they are. I hope they take over the "pro" hunting world, the sport needs a new leader of the pack.

Nikon bread and butter is in their high end optics. Their rifle scopes are not within that category. Pure business decision to focus on their core. The company also leans heavily to the left. It's possible they still end up white label them for a while to offset materials and/or assets.

Archery will be up over the next few years short of an environmental issue (hard later winter kill), because of crossbow. The market/attachment rate isn't full yet and more and more people are getting into xbow. I expect you'll see take #s up in archery/xbow.

I haven't enjoyed too many TV/Internet shows since HB and MW were in their infancy, and even they got watered down after a few seasons. THP has been refreshing - I binge watch them when I fly for work and that fits the bill perfectly. I really like Zach, go-getter yet very patient and willing to try unusual approaches. My understanding is that they were already gone before first video release, or close to.

See my prior post. You likely had a 3G nationwide model that was marketed as 4G. Hence why you didn't have service on the cam vs the phone.

Selling my Exodus Render was one of the best decisions I've made. People are having all kinds of problems - one of my clients has 15 of their cams and is beyond livid at them and the owners. His cam has been a hot mess since day one. FW issues, battery issues, you name it. My Lift II and Treks are going soon - they very clearly have sensing issues and more people are noticing it. I do like the Lift II processor. The screen can burn through images super fast to review.

My hunting partner killed a 130+ this season due to a cell cam. We flipped coins for the stand on the way in and I lost (in more ways than one, ha). I'd be lying if I said my confidence was anything less than a George Foreman guarantee that we killed that buck that day. Deer was dead by 8:30AM on the first day of rutcation. Would we have went there without the cell cam? Possibly. The conditions were right, but there were other options to consider, too. This made it clear as daylight.

Dragging a friend's buck out on Nov 2, I unfortunately hurt my back right at the start of rutcation (L4-L5 and L5-S1); presently dealing with a battery of tests and alot of challenges I'll have to deal with over the next few weeks. Stupid amount of pain, too. Surgery likely looming. I was dumb enough to push it probably too far; managed to get out with the help of a friend 9 days out of the originally planned 12 off. The other three I couldn't get out of bed due to pain/soreness. The sets were close to the truck and as expected, just outside the bulk of the action. A few close encounters with target bucks but physically it just didn't work out well, including one miss due to unfamiliarity with a borrowed xbow. Sometimes I could carry the bow and sometimes my friend had to walk me out. My wife is proud. Really, she is. I promise. She's still yelling at me, and I can hear her. I'm at work now 35 miles away. The evening of our snowstorm, I hunted the PM and on the walk out of the woods, picked up on where a target buck was bedded in some swale on a hedge row based on tracks and being able to glass him in the dark against a farm flood light. The next PM I drug myself with a Lone Wolf to the spot I thought I could get him and sat it out a whopping 6 inches off the ground. No usable trees to get higher and I couldn't carry a blind or sit in a folding chair comfortably. I couldn't climb either, let's just be real about it. At 3:30, three does come across an open field with the last being this one. I had to take the opportunity and did. 30 minutes later the target buck stepped out of the bedding and skirted me at 80 yards not knowing I was there; he picked up the trail of the does that came in with this one and followed the way they ran after the shot. He was shot the next morning by the neighbor. I was too sore to make the morning hunt and I got images of him on three cells cams that AM. That left me high and dry with no strong confidence moves to make on the last day of rutcation. Ah well. Still had as much fun as I could.

Spypoint is playing the pricepoint game - You'll find alot more people who have problems with them than who don't. Their CS has been a huge failure; they cannot service customers. Apparently they're hiring more people to respond. Cams send and then don't randomly. Have to update firmware or visit cam to reset card. They need to focus on refinement. I had to stop selling them because in the 6 mos. I sold them, I had more client issues with their cams than I had with all of my other brands combined for FOUR YEARS. Spypoint also pulled a fast one on some of the Nationwide Micro models - marketed as 4G - someone opened one up and inside are 3G modems. Spypoint admitted to it on social media a few weeks back. They say they'll take care of customers affected. People still like them though - same reason why WGI sells the most cams....cheap is good. Moultrie is expensive from a monthly plan POV. The cams themselves are OK - pic quality ranges from solid to poor. I can't figure out why. Some pics are awesome. Others look like you have beer goggles on when reviewing them. I question their modem and antenna parts - I suspect they're using cheaper internals. Their app is lacking IMO. Stealth has the most annoying cam set-up and connection to network in field takes foooorever (insert Sandlot version here). That said...they've been rock solid. Brutally honest I wanted to hate them, but they work and work and work and work. Some limitations but they've been reliable for me. I have 10 in the field, with one that is now 12 mos. old. Browning - I was fortunate to be provided an opportunity to have an early model Browning - cams 5 through 12 in their production line. So far the cams are a pic taking machine. It doesn't miss a thing and it takes alot of pics if you don't hold it back some on delay and pic per trigger. App is in its infancy IMO. It's brand new and apps usually get much much better after a few weeks and months of revisions and updates. Plan costs are high, but you can have confidence you won't miss a thing with this cam. Offers red IR and blackflash in one cam. Video sent is good. Real good. Spartan - Still the class of the field with the Ghost model. Expensive to buy and expensive to run if not added to a current data plan on Verizon. I have multiples of these out, and I can tell you I haven't had to visit one of them except to put in new lithium in September. Browning slightly better on trigger speed/sensing zone combo, but not by enough to sway. Spartan sent pic quality is still the best; Browning has good nightime image quality on red IR flash. Black flash is better on the Spartan by a considerable amount IMO. You can really control the cam well remotely. Battery life has been excellent - best I've ever seen on internals. Has a true GPS feature and with the internal battery - guess what, if it's boosted, you get coordinates you can track. Cuddelink - Good platform; not the best one to get into cell cams for the first time. UX is horrible if not familiar with Cuddeback. Takes trial and error to get it dialed in. Once it's done though, it works extremely well. Power needs to be addressed from the get-go. I tell clients to buy Cuddelink no later than July 4. That gives them a month to learn how to use it, and a month to perfect it for their ground. From there they can run it through the season with no issues. Great option for people willing to learn the curve and not get frustrated. Cannot communicate to cams remotely though. That is the biggest opportunity for them to improve. Overall, this system is solid. You can even have a whiteflash model for color night images. Probably the best option for people with a large parcel that they plan to set-up and let run year-round.

No. That camera was 2G. Att and Verizon killed off 2G many years ago.

C'mon rutcation.

Off-season post. Go hunt.

The openings are almost irrelevant. Deer are transition creatures. They relate to it and live by it. You want to focus on sections where the deer are willing to walk parallel to the walls and set-up accordingly given wind/thermals/time of day and location specific details. The openings themselves will not present a high probability of shooting scenarios as you'll have traffic moving to/from different lines of travel and do so at a risk of being busted. The parallel travel routes can be targeted to specific conditions that will allow you a way to take advantage of a behavior/action without being busted. It's alot like creekbottom hunting.

Sitka. Sitka. Sitka. That stuff is expensive, but it is fully and 100% worth it. Sometimes the fit can be challenging to deal with, to find the right sizing, but still, 100% worth it. I have equinox, downpour, stratus, fanatic series, plus many of the vest/accessories/mid layers. I'll jump through hoops for it no problem.

As noted, he isn't the only buck there. He's postured.

https://browningtrailcameras.com/products/defender-wireless-trail-camera

Browning has the ATT version of their cell cam in stock and my first order is en route. They list at $300, please PM if you are interested.

OK is one of the better kept secrets IMO. That's a heck of a deer.

The ground is managed quite well from most all accounts. Several people involved in that hunting group and the neighbors have publicly noted how that buck was one of several deer in book category using that ground and the general field where that buck was shot. One person gave specifics and noted there were a half dozen bucks between 130-150" plus this guy using that field. Another publication published the road the ground is on, too. Quite crazy to go into that detail IMO. Nice buck. A few years back another teen shot a similarly large buck early season in that same area.

Don't know much about this guy but I know a few people who have hunted that bow zone and they all say it's a very special place unlike anything we experience here. They also all said the conditions are so extreme that nearly everyone who "works" in that area as a guide/outfitter have stringent rules/guidance for success. Stuff just doesn't work as well in that climate as it does here. I can relate in that I've climbed ladderstands in dead cold and silence only to hear the pop that didn't exist all season up until that point. They use ATVs way more than I'd expect.

Some hunters are going to be real bummed. Wouldn't be surprised to see cam pics come out soon.

Current broadheads are sharper than scalpels used on humans for surgery. At a certain point, we're past the point of positive ROI.

I bought a 2019 4Runner Off-Road Premium w/KDSS a short while ago. Have to say that the 4Runner is way more capable than I could imagine. Still have a truck should I need it but the 4Runner can do alot of what I need.

Assuming he is a clean 10 (hard to tell), I'd be thinking 118-122" gross. I find most people overestimate 8s and underestimate 10s. It's odd but it does happen pretty regularly when you look at these field scoring posts and there is a B & A.

This is a trend that hopefully is slowly getting back to normal. Many of these disruptor camo companies were fitted for an athletic fit and not necessarily standard. Sitka is the same way although their 2019 cuts moved into more of a standard than athletic - at least in the whitetail and waterfowl selections.