wolc123

I spooked a few, including the last one that I killed with my vertical, in 2012. I was in a hang-on stand in a hedgerow, and the buck approached from the field behind me. I drew my bow as he passed thru the hedgerow, about 10 yards from my stand. He must have caught a glimpse because he stopped abruptly about 15 yards out, standing at a quartering away angle. When I released, he reared back and down, taking the arrow thru the center of his neck. He bolted off and I thought I heard a crash, then considerable thrashing around in the bush, over the next 5 minutes or so. I waited 1/2 hour before climbing down, finding him 40 yards away and completely bled out. I suppose the wide mechanical broadhead cut his jugular and/or aorta. Not all crossbows are "heavier and less maneuverable". My new Centerpoint Sniper certainly falls into those categories, but my old Barnett Recruit, not so much. The Recruit is several pounds lighter, considerably more compact, and handles just like my Ruger 10/22 carbine. I will probably continue using the Recruit from a few hang on stands which lack rests. Speaking of rests, that is the second major advantage the crossbow has over the vertical - The ability to shoot from a rest. Certainly anyone who has shot targets with a BB gun recognizes how much more accuracy can be attained using a rest. I had good rests with (4) of the (5) bucks that I have killed with the Recruit since 2014, so I wont feel all that handicapped with the wider, heavier Sniper. As far as that 2019 buck in the photo, I had no option of waiting for him to get behind a tree, because he was across an open field and saw me before I saw him. He never looked away, although he did lower his head and started closing the range after a very long stare-down. Even Fred Bear would have struggled with a vertical in that situation. As you can see by the shot placement in the photo, there was no problem with the crossbow.

Not the same for getting off a shot at a deer though, because you still need to make that quick draw motion with a compound, no matter how much let-off it has. Quick motions put deer into high-alert mode, making them prime candidates for clean misses or bad hits due to "string jump". With a crossbow, the deer usually have no clue what hit them. This buck, that I killed last year with my crossbow, was a perfect example of the strength of that weapon compared to the vertical bow. There is no way that I could have taken him with a vertical. He had locked eye contact with me, from about 70 yards away. My head and shoulders were completely exposed. Had I tried to draw a bow, I would have been busted instantly. With the crossbow, all I had to do was move my head down into shooting position. I did that in "super-slow" motion. After what seemed like forever with the long stare-down at 70 yards, he began to cautiously move closer. Even my trigger squeeze was slow, after he finally got into range and his vitals aligned with the "green-dot". I am certain that he had no clue what caused the sudden pain in his chest.

I am headed out to light our's up right now. First of the season. The Alexa and a couple tiki-torches are in place. I recently made a new fire-pit out of an old air compressor tank that my father in law gave me. A Kolsch tasted pretty good out on the lake today, a few more should be good by the fire.

I bought a pair of Red-ball waders about 35 years ago. I used them in the spring, for spear-fishing at night for spring suckers, for about 10 years. After that, the DEC made that sport illegal in our local creeks. They never leaked. I got wet feet in them a time or two, but only when I stepped into a deep hole and took some over the top. There was a nice pocket in the top that would hold a few beers (we took a lot of beer breaks while spear-fishing). Since I no longer had a use for the waders, I cut the upper part off a couple years ago. Now I use those boots when I need non-insulated water-proof boots, like right now for late spring turkey hunting. They are very comfortable, and fit just right. My toes got pretty cold in them last weekend, but they were great this morning (too bad the turkeys did not cooperate). They had been hanging on a nail out in the barn for about 20 years. I had wore out my last pair of rubber boots and rather than buying a new pair, I took a sharp knife to those waders. The upper part, that I cut off, still looked pretty good. I suppose they would have held water if I still had a use for them.

The night crawlers were running good tonight. I ended up with 2-dozen in 15 minutes. Hopefully we can convert a few of them into walleyes tomorrow afternoon on Silver lake.

I am ready to go for the turkey tomorrow morning with the Sniper 370. I picked up a $ 9.00 standing-hen decoy from Walmart last night. My plan is to set that up 20 yards from my two-story ground blind, which I made from an old construction-style truck cap. I will hunt from inside the lower level and only open up the window on the side facing the decoy. I will place the decoy in the same spot where that nice 8-point (top euro in photo) stood when I bolted him with my Barnett Recruit last fall. I was up on the upper deck (built on the ladder-rack) of that blind for the shot, but the turkey's eyes will be way too sharp for that. I also was able to locate my "secret-weapon", which helped out with the recovery of that buck, and I hope to find some way to deploy it on the turkey. It is the little red pocket-sized New Testament that is visible on the top shelf of the gun-rack in the photo. I had misplaced it in February, but I just found it in my Ice-fishing pack.

I would have never learned the secret ingredient for nuts without that show - LOTS OF PEPPER:

I finally got the Sniper sighted in this afternoon. The first bolt, from 20 yards, struck right on left/right, but about a foot low on my "rag-bag" target, using the top crosshair. I turned the vertical dial up 1/4 turn, and that only raised it about an inch. Another half turn brought the 3rd bolt up another couple of inches. One full turn up of the dial after that, put the fourth bolt right on the mark. Next, I moved the target out to 30 yards and put another bolt right on the mark using the second crosshair from the top. I figured I was done at that, but my daughter came out on the deck and wanted to try it. I set the target back out at 20 yards and she put one right on the mark. That bolt penetrated deep into my target bag and tore a couple of the fletchings loose. I will have to glue those back down before using that one again. Now I am ready to try it on a turkey this weekend. I will go with my 2" diameter, 100 grain NAP broadheads which ought to do a decent job on those. I like the factory scope. I don't think I would try a shot on a turkey much beyond 30 yards with it because their "kill-zone" is pretty small. I am guessing the other two lower crosshairs would be good for 40 and 50 yards. I will verify that before deer season. This thing definitely packs an energy punch, compared to my Barnett Recruit, based on how deep it burried those bolts into my target bag. Certainly it ought to have an effective range for deer to 50 yards at least. I like the trigger. It seemed quite forgiving. My last two shots struck within 1/4" of my point of aim (as did my daughter's). I also like the adjustable stock which made it very easy to share with my daughter. She did get "scoped" a bit on her shot. A fair amount of pain, but it did not cut her or leave a mark.

More prayers for her are on the way. Medical miracles happen every day and nothing is too big for God. I know a thing or two about that, having been on the receiving end a couple of times.

I never was much into turkey hunting, but I am hitting it harder than usual this year, due to the Covid-19 issue. Usually, most of my spare time is spent fishing at this time of year. My boat is not big enough for 6 ft "social distance", which rules out my fishing buddies, and my wife and girls are "fair-weather" anglers. The only turkey that I ever killed was a young hen, in the fall of 2018. I can count the times that I went after turkeys in the spring on one hand, and include the fall if I use both. Up until today, I had heard a few gobbles, but was never certain if they were in answer to my calls. That happened today for the first time. I heard what sounded like (3) different gobblers, starting about 6:00 am, all a few hundred yards away. One was to the south, one to the east, and one to the west. I was in an elevated truck-cap blind, about 5 ft above ground level, on the west side of our farm. I tried my small wooden, push-button caller first, making a few soft "clucks" out of the windows on each side where I heard birds. There was no responses then, but that call is not very loud. I waited 15 minutes (an "expert" from work recommended that trick), before calling again. At the time, I made a series of calls, trying to sound like a love-sick hen, using a very loud plastic mouth call. I aimed those "yelps" out the window to the west, because that was where I had heard the loudest gobble early, so I thought that one must have been the closest. Right after those yelps, there was a loud gobble from that direction, which came from the woods that were about 150 yards away. There was a new hay field in between, that was just plowed, worked-up and seeded last fall. I put down the call and picked up my shotgun, aiming it out of the window on that side. Another 15 minutes expired and nothing showed, so I put down the gun. At the instant the gun stock hit the floor, I heard an "eruption" behind me. Turning around, I got a quick look at a turkey in flight thru the open rear truck cap door, that faced the east. It was at eye level. and about 15 yards away. I did not notice a beard, but it was a very big bird with a red head. I assume it was a tom that heard those yelps and snuck in silently from the opposite direction that I expected. He must have caught my motion, which put him up in the air. My next hunt will be next Saturday morning. I don't expect to fool him from that blind again, so I will go to my other truck-cap blind, over on the east side. I am also going to use my new crossbow (if I have time to get it sighted in during the week). The weather is supposed to be much warmer, but my wife and girls are not early risers, so I will have an hour or two to kill (hopefully literally) prior to our first fishing trip of the season. It would be cool to break my new crossbow in on my first spring turkey.

As soon as my toes thaw out, from this morning's turkey hunt, I am going to put on my insulated work boots and finish cutting and splitting up a trailer load of firewood. The third cut of the lawn will be tomorrow's "post-hunt" project. Usually, it needs cutting every 4 or 5 days this time of year but the cold slows it down a bit and I can get away with 7 days. We have a 15 foot above-ground pool that I put up every summer for about 3 months. The rest of the year, there is a 15 foot trampoline on that spot next to the deck (each is accessible from the deck without going on the lawn and tracking up grass). The mat was starting to wear out on the trampoline from UV exposure, but my wife ordered a new one for it last night. The repaired trampoline, and the cool weather will probably delay our pool opening until mid-June or so.

I stuck it out until my toes started getting numb from the cold about 7:00 am. The wind started picking up about then also. I got to my blind, on the east edge of our place, about 5:30 am. It was calm earlier and I heard the first gobble (sounded like it was about 300 yards away, in the overgrown jungle farther to the east) at 6:25 am. I tried a series of clucks, with my push button call, but got no response. About 20 minutes later, I heard another faint gobble, farther away from the same direction. Apparently that tom was moving away. I am going to try again tomorrow. I will definitely wear the mickey mouse boots then, in which my feet have never gotten cold, even when the temps are well below zero. The fields have dried up quite a bit since last week, so there will be no need for the higher, but un-insulated rubber boots in which my feet got cold this morning. I did remember the muff and handwarmer today so my hands were good, otherwise I never would have been able to make it until 7:00. A week ago, I heard a gobble about 100 yards away, right behind the house at 7:30 am, but it was not worth the frost-bit toes to stick it out that long this morning. We still have one store-bought turkey in the freezer. I will be ready tomorrow though. This past Wednesday, my wife saw the nieghbor to the east's nephews (dressed in cammo and carrying shotguns) walking up our lane at 11 am. They were carrying a big rack from a "deadhead" deer. From her description, it was very tall but not real wide, and sounded just like the one we saw (just to the west of our place) on an odd-acting buck, right next to the road, in late December. It looked like he had the wits knocked out of him by a car or something. I imagine the coyotes ran him down in that jungle next door, and that is where those guy's found the carcass.

If it were not for Huntin and Fishin, I might not be a believer. Fortunately, the good Lord uses those activities to prove His existence to me every time that I participate. After listening to the words and watching the video, from the link you posted, it is pretty clear that is also the case for Luke Bryan. Moog and his wife can use all of our prayers, and God hears all of them. Time for breakfast now, before I grab my shotgun and Bible and head back to the turkey blind, and send a few more up.

Repeater ? That is so last year. Full auto is where it is at:

Sending up a few more prayers for her from WNY.

Nice walleyes, what did you catch them on ? I am going to try for some on Silver lake out in here WNY, the weekend after next, when hopefully it warms up a bit. I don't mind the cold, but my wife and kids don't like it. Usually, I fish for Northern pike there at this time of year, but those are a no-go with her on board. The walleyes are a lot fewer and farther between there as the pike usually are at this time of year. I am setting my boat up for some "backtrolling" along the emerging weed-lines, using my old 1956 Evinrude 5-1/2 hp "kicker". That thing idles down real nice so that you can almost see the prop turn. We will probably go mostly with bucktail jig & minnows for bait and maybe some of my brown, crawfish-pattern bucktail jigs. One thing I like about walleyes, is that they don't seem to mind the below the waterline gas-outboard exhaust noise, unlike bass or pike. I am always stuck using the electric motor and lots of juice for those. Gas is cheap now, so may as well put some to use catching fish.

The Centerpoint Sniper finally arrived yesterday and I got it assembled. I am not thrilled with the extra weight (about 2 more pounds than my Barnett Recruit and a lot more "front-heavy"). It does not handle as easy as my Ruger 10/22, like the Recruit does. It will be ok from my blinds that have shooting rails, but not so hot out of a couple of my hang-on stands which lack those, or shooting off-hand from the ground I have not shot it yet, so I can't comment on the supposidly marginal trigger, but the OEM scope seems pretty good. Maybe that has been upgraded a bit, since the prior year model, but it is no longer illuminated and they also no longer include the sling in the $ 239 Walmart package. I was a bit surprised to see that it was "made in Taiwan", but the fit and finish seems pretty good. Due to the handling issue, it looks like I will be buying a new string and cables for the Recruit anyhow, but maybe not until next season. Hopefully, the Recruit will be good enough to use this season, from those two stands, after making the switch from 125 to 100 grain heads. I will know for sure after sighing it in with those, along with the new Sniper, over the next few weeks. The Recruit might also be better in low-light conditions, with it's OEM red/green dot sight. I always liked the trigger on the Recruit and that will be another interesting comparison on the target range over the next few weeks.

Welcome, Are you from Norway ?

RIP Mr. Shula. Every time the Bills played the Dolphins my dad's good friend from Florida would call our house. He always said he was Don Shula. He was about Don's same age, and he also passed away a couple years ago. We miss those calls.

This is exactly why I watch CNN. While I can not do much about what they say. I can affect the company's which purchase advertising time there by not giving them any of my hard-earned dough. As far as Biden goes, the only hope for him is if this Covid-19 thing prevents head-to-head debates. I think that even most Democrats feel that Trump would eat him for breakfast if such and event were to occur. A real measure Biden's weakness as a leader will be if he picks a woman of color as his running mate, in a lame-brained attempt to gather support of those two important demographics. He might pull some of the less intelligent folks but the smarter ones realize that the Republican party has always had their interests covered the best, starting with Lincoln.

Stow the interior seats on the passenger side and stack them inside. Use a bungie cord on the hatch if necessary. The canoe can go up top, all by itself.

I often visit the CNN website, and flip across their TV channel, to check out their coverage. There is a lot of truth to the old "God-father" saying "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" . I learn a lot from these visits: Mostly, where to shop and spend my money (not at places or for products that buy advertisement on that network), and how deep that their hatred is of Trump and his supporters. There is no doubt that Trump is justified in his frequent counterattacks of those folks. Last week, I read an article on the CNN web-site that was highly critical of Trump's son-in-law Jared K. Every so often, the anti-semitism that runs deep thru CNN, is on display for all to see, and it certainly was in that article. Not since Harry Truman, have the Jewish people had a greater supporter in the White house than Donald Trump, and his acceptance of his son-in-law's wise council is the second biggest proof of that. His support of the US embassy move, and his recognition of The "true" capital (Jerusalem), was the biggest proof. Acceptance and love of those of the Jewish faith is a mark of a true Christian, and there is no doubt that Trump has shown that. His words and tweets are not always impressive, but his actions have spoken volumes. History will remember Trump as one of this nation's greatest Presidents thanks to the job he has done, and continues to do. The single most impressive thing I have seen from him is his pick of and retention of Mike Pence as VP. How many Presidents have picked a VP who is more capable than themselves ? The second and third most impressive things were the selections of his (2) Supreme Court justices. His ability to work effectively with state governors of both parties, during the current Covid-19 crisis, illustrates his ability to break the Washington deadlock and get things done to save lives. I am very thankful that we have such a leader in Washington at this time and he will certainly keep getting my prayers for support.

I feel the same way. I was out before sunrise yesterday, and I did not see or hear any signs of turkey. Maybe they are more active around here in the late morning. I have never been much into spring turkey hunting (sort of consider them a "dodo-bird" because they are such a dumb, clumsy-looking bird). I do have tags and my wife and kids enjoy the meat. The last few years, a couple of guys have worked the "jungle" adjacent to our farm pretty hard for spring turkeys. I don't know if they ever got any, and I never heard any shots. There were a few times when I saw big, fanned-out toms out in field fields, later in the morning while I was working ground on a tractor, long after those hunters left for the day. I did hear one shot yesterday, about 15 minutes after sunrise, that sounded like it was about a mile away. I am going out around 11:00 today, right after the TV church service that we have been catching the last few weeks. I will see how that pre-lunch hour works out. It is way too wet to do any "real" work out in the fields.

I finally made it over to my folks place (maintaining 6 ft social distance), to get a photo of this one today. It certainly appears to be from the big 8 that I saw over there last fall and it does look like he was 3.5 (The base diameter and antler mass is nearly identical to the 3.5 that I killed over there in 2018). I spent a half hour or so looking for the other side but no signs of it.