wolc123

I save the synthetic burlap bags that wheat or rye comes in. They hold about a bushel or 50 pounds of seed. A 10 pound onion sack might be a little small. Filled with rags, the bushel bags weigh less than 10 pounds. I have been using the current one for about three years. The synthetic burlap itself is rather impervious to the field tip strikes. A few times a year, I open it up and stir up the rags. It works great with field tips, but I have not tried it with broadheads. They would likely cut up the bag in short order. I use one of them foam blocks with them, but I use that sparingly, only when I try a new brand to verify that they fly the same as my field tips. It is much harder to pull the bolts out of that foam than the DIY rag bag, so I use the rag-bag for the bulk of my practice, and for all of my "after hunting" discharges. I need to make sure to stuff that bag in the toolbox behind my truck for my hunt up in the Northern zone next week. Using a discharge bolt, of different weight than you hunt with, is a waste of a lot of good in-season practice opportunities. I see the need to discharge the crossbow after every hunt as an advantage over a vertical bow, not a disadvantage as most bow-hunters see it.

8 lb carbine semi auto.

My understanding is that the most recent (FBI investigation # 7) of Brett K did prove that at least some of the allegations, which were put forth by lawyers representing Dr Ford, were false. In my opinion, those lawyers should be disbarred and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The media has not reported on this, which should come as no surprise, given their overwhelming leftist leaning. My own information was obtained from Bill Orielly's website. The voting public already has the ability to vote out all those Democrats, currently in positions of power, who "ran with those balls". The chips will start to fall in the upcoming mid-term elections. As far as prosecution of Dr Ford goes, she does not deserve any, but should be comforted and thanked for what she has done to pull all these evil tools of the devil out of hiding so that the world can see their true colors. She cant be blamed for believing her own bad dream. Prosecuting her would send a bad message to women who really do go thru things like she has dreamed. This incident has clearly shown how important it is to report that stuff to authorities ASAP. Finally, that brings us to what the new Judge will do, now that he has earned his spot at the big bench. Senator Graham said it best: he was put thru Hell to get there. With suffering comes strength, and I believe he will use that newfound strength to move quickly to end the massacre of abortions which has been going on in this country since Roe vs Wade (currently around 3000 per day). Now he is in position to do something about that and there is not a damn thing that the democrats can do to stop him.

Where did I say the Supreme Court makes laws ? They have the final say on interpretation. The 5-4 conservative majority is huge. Why do you suppose the Democrats put up so much fuss over this ? Are you happy or sad about his confirmation today ?

Slow down heck no, hammer down I say. Down with Roe vs Wade. Send them liberals packing. Vote them all out in November.

Now that he has been confirmed, two things are bound to happen: First, there will be a big backlash against the Democrats in the mid-term elections, as a direct result of them stirring up a "hornets nest" of Republican support because of their usage of this confused woman in an attempt to further their own agenda. I probably would not have voted had they not, and I know that I am not alone in that respect. Second, Brett K will be so inspired, due to their unjustified attacks on him, that he will work tirelessly to overturn Roe vs Wade. Trump's next two picks, following the retirement of the next two oldest Justices (both Democratic appointees), will likely be even more conservative. That will smooth the rails for Brett K, in achieving his own agenda. For these reasons, I now offer my complete forgiveness and would even like to give a big thank-you to Dr Ford for going public with her "bad-dream". Up to 3000 human fetuses a day might soon be saved in the USA.

After I learned how to handle and cook bass, I would throw walleye back before them. I could never do it though, because my wife still prefers walleye. I can tolerate them early in the season when they are feeding on the bottom. After they start suspending under that zoo-plankton their meat takes on that weedy flavor that I don't particularly care for.

The single biggest advantage is not needing to draw with a deer in close. Shooting at a non-alert deer is similar to shooting at a paper target, The odds of that deer being in the same place when the arrow strikes as when it is released is many times higher when that deer is not alert and expecting trouble. This single factor has the potential of vastly reducing the number of "bad-hits" which result in failure to recover the deer before something else (like coyotes) find it. The second biggest advantage is the ability to fire from a rest. That eliminates the unweildy/front heavy problem many complain about. If you want to see how much more accurate you can shoot from a rest compared to without, get yourself a $ 30 Daisy red-ryder from Wallmart, and go out on the back porch and try it yourself (offhand vs from a rest) on a target about 10 yards away. Measure (5) shot group diameters fired each way. The third biggest advantage is the telescopic site. That is a big deal, especially with older hunters who's vision aint what it used to be. The fourth is that a lot less practice is required to gain and maintain proficiency. That is not a big deal for young single guys, but time starts running short after you get a family and a full time job. When and if I retire, and if full inclusion does not happen, I might consider trying a vertical again. The bottom line is, a crossbow puts more of the variables, that determine wether a not a shot is successful, in the firm control of the hunter. If that hunter was a "born-killer", then he will always prefer the crossbow over the vertical bow, because the crossbow eliminates challenge, and that is what the killer looks for. If he was a "born-fighter", then he may very well hunt just for that challenge. Because there always has been and always will be "born-killers" and "born-fighters", there will always be a place and a demand for vertical bows. How do you know if you are "born-killer" or "born-fighter" ? Easy test : Do you catch and release fish or take them home and eat them?

Do you or your family have any old clothes or rags lying around the house ? If so, fill a smaller feed bag up with them and tie it shut. That will stop the bolts better than an expensive "foam-block", it is easier to pull them out, and it is a lot lighter and less bulky to carry around than a big bag target. I keep a bolt with a field tip on it in my car or at the house and use that to discharge into the rag-bag after every hunt. That daily discharge also makes sure that your accuracy is still there throughout the hunting season. Two years ago, I discharged my crossbow into my rag-bag after a morning hunt at my folks place. After lunch at home, I walked to a stand out back. A decent-sized, fighter 2.5 year old buck (had a few tines busted off) showed up at almost the exact same range where I had discharged a few hours earlier. As far as confidence in making a shot goes, it don't get much better than that.

I imagine that the speed (350 fps) has something to do with your issues. Those extended blades like to "plane" at higher speeds. With my 300 FPS Barnett Recruit, 125 gr 3-fixed blade Muzzy's flew identical to field points out to 40 yards. Wasps of the same configuration also struck very close (within 2" at 40 yards). No such luck with the Allens however. I only tried two shots with those and both missed the mark (wide left and low) by about 6" at 20 yards and 10" at 40 yards. (3) shots at targets with the Muzzys and Wasps were very consistent. I am too cheap to buy new mechanical broadheads this year. I was able to salvage one "gently-used" one and I honed the cutting edges and installed a new o-ring. I will keep that in my quiver just in case a 50 yard shot develops at some point during the season. I will not shoot over that range with my current setup because my penetration was marginal the only time I did (fortunately all the way thru the heart but not much more). Otherwise, one of my two remaining fixed Muzzy's will be on the rail while I am deer hunting. I will keep shots at under 40 yards with those, where I know exactly where they will strike. I have about a half dozen sharp Wasps left for backup. The Allens will go to the trash. The blades protrude more on them than the Muzzys or Wasps, which may contribute to their accuracy problems. Before I toss them, I will check their weight on a postal scale because they struck way low both times. I suspect that the "125 grains" may be just the center section, and might not include the weight of the three blades. That will be easy to verify. I have gone three for three killing bucks with that crossbow and mechanical broadheads. All (3) piled up within 40 yards from where they were struck with the longest shot taken at 59 yards. I am still waiting to see how it does with the fixed-blade broadheads. Hopefully, I will get a chance to find out next Friday up in the Northern zone. There are also bears up there and I think I would be more comfortable with a fixed blade broadhead with them. You are very wise to get your broadhead accuracy issues ironed out on targets before using them on deer. I suspect that the vast majority of deer hunters neglect that important step. YOUR, OTHERS, AND MY OWN EXPERIENCES HAVE DEMONSTRATED JUST HOW IMPORTANT THAT STEP IS. That said, I have a hard time believing that any mechanical broadhead would fly much different than a field tip of the same weight. It looks like I will have to choose carefully when and if I scrape up enough cash and time for some more. About 14 years ago, I purchased (6) of them on clearance from Bass-Pro shops. They were 125 grain o-ring, three-blade models, and I think the brand was "Blackout". I tried the first one on a 30 yard target, where it struck right on the mark but ruined the blades. The other (5) have killed deer (two with my vertical bow in addition to the three with my crossbow). The first with the vertical (a 1.5 year old doe) took one thru both lungs, but she then ran off about 75 yards before expiring. The second one (a 1.5 year 4 point buck) must have been "alerted" by my draw. He reared back and down, when he heard my bow release, and took his 30 yard shot, thru the jugular. He piled up 20 yards away but that was the last shot I took at a deer with a vertical bow. The legalization of the crossbow in 2014 meant that I could put that kind of nonsense behind. All three bucks that I have shot at with that have been exactly where I expected them to be when the bolt struck, thanks in large part by eliminating the need to draw with them in close. Like you are doing, I also made sure that I knew exactly where my bolt was going to hit, before I went after them to begin with.

Standing and non-alert is best, but I will take a slow steady walk over stopped and alert. The problem with the blat or whistle is that it puts them in an alert state. That is no big deal with a gun (supersonic), but is a problem with archery (subsonic) because the alert deer will not be in the same place when the arrow releases as it is when it hits and that motion is not as predictable as a steady walk. A fast walk or a run is a no go for me with archery, but no issue with a gun, especially at close range. If faced with that situation during archery season, I might just try that blat. If it did stop the deer, I would aim for the very bottom of the heart to compensate for for the inevitable string jump. That way you have a dead deer wether it ducks or not. It does make a lot more sense to make a noise like a deer rather than an obviously human whistle.

Send the lower jaw to Four seasons and he will let you know for sure.

3.4

Another thing we should be thanking those rabid Democrats and Dr Ford for, is stirring up the Republican base. I may not have voted at the mid-terms had in not been for their antics at the Senate confirmation hearing, and I KNOW that I am not alone in that respect. It is high time we made them pay by voting them out of office. I will offer a toast to them with my first beer tomorrow night. How cool is that, a Supreme Court justice who likes beer ? Who else is going to vote mostly due to this historic episode ?

I am heading up there next weekend, for one day of crossbow and a day and a half of ML hunting. For most of the 6.5 million acre Adirondack park, antlerless deer are off-limits during ML season. I might venture a little deeper into it, on that one day with my crossbow, because an Adirondack doe is worth more to me (especially now when we are nearly out of grind) than a flat-land 8-point buck. I scouted out some good looking state land, in WMU 6F, on the NW edge this past July. I will stick to WMU 6C, with my ML, on Saturday and Sunday, where does are fair game. It does not look like there will be any snow then. I have yet to kill a buck up there without it, although I have managed to take out a couple of does. Getting an antlered buck up there, during peak fall foliage, would be about as cool as it gets. Hopefully the plan comes together next weekend. I don't know many folks who "luck" into a buck on their first trip up there. The more times you return to the same area, the easier it will be to put the puzzle together. I killed my first deer up there (a big doe), the year after I heard some snorting up on a ridge next to the lake I was fishing on. The following year I was up on that ridge to meet them, on opening day of ML season. I got pretty close to getting a buck with my rifle a few years before that, down around Lewey lake (just south of Indian Lake). It was my second year at a camp there. The first year I walked around a lot, looking for sign with no help from snow. The second year I concentrated on heavy cover adjacent to the only deer sign I located:a few hairs on an old barbed-wire pasture fence. Unfortunately, when I jumped those deer in that cover, I could not put antlers on the two that I got my crosshairs on. I used the wind to my advantage, and got into an easy shooting position on those two antlerless deer. A third, significantly larger deer went off in a different direction and never offered me a shot or a look at his head. I say "his" due to the size and shape of the tracks in the mud compared to the other two. The toughest thing about Adirondack deer hunting, is that after you do put the puzzle pieces together and enjoy a little success up there, it takes a lot of the luster out of hunting anywhere else. As far as places to stay: I have rented a cabin on Lewey lake with full amenities, and stayed in an off-the grid private cabin and a truck camper up in WMU 6C. Now, it is almost as if I have died and gone to heaven up at my in-laws place, since they moved into their fully-appointed retirement home. The only problem there is that my mother in law's cooking is so good that I don't always stay out hunting as long as I should.

You are dreaming the right thing. There is no place in the world where I would rather hunt deer, even if I had access to unlimited funds (which I do not). For me, it is the scenery combined with the lack of hunting pressure that makes the difference. The fewer deer per square mile adds to the challenge, and the satisfaction, when you are finally able to bring it all together. Plan on seeing about six antlerless deer up there for every antlered one. Snow makes a world of difference, adding beauty to the scenery, making it easier to see deer and where they have been.

It sounds like you did the right thing by not shooting. You might get a better shot at him this year. I could see the whole body of the buck that I shot thru the little branches last fall. He was walking at a steady pace, which dropped my estimate of making the shot to about 90 %. That is right at my lower limit. Had better lighting allowed me to see those small branches in the opening, I would not have released the arrow. I have heard folks talk about "stopping" a moving deer with a whistle. That might be ok with a gun, but I would never do it with archery tackle. Moving targets are not such a big deal for me, since I take thousands of practice shots at them every off-season. I don't want that deer to have a clue what hit it, and I want it to be as non-alert as possible when I release the arrow. In my early years of archery hunting, string jump caused me a few bad hits. That deer you passed was close to the range where string jump is of the greatest concern, another good reason for not taking the shot. As bad as a bad hit makes me feel, a "clean miss" is worse yet, as far as I am concerned. That means that I did a poorer job, even though the deer feels better. The non-vital area of a deer is bigger than the vital area, but the area outside is infinite. That is another reason why I will not take an initial shot at a deer, if I am not 90 % sure I can make a recoverable hit. Follow-up shots don't count. I always assume that every shot is a hit. I will let them fly, as long as they are safe, even if I think the odds of a hit are as low as 1 %, if the deer is still on its feet and within range. A little more damaged meat is a lot better than a wounded deer and "tag-soup". I am still a little pissed about a miss on my first and largest Adirondack buck, back in 2014. I still spend a little time looking for the branch that my bullet may have struck, every time I am in the area. I am very thankful that I assumed it was a hit, or I would have never taken the second (also a miss), and the third shot, that put him down in his tracks. I was also very fortunate to find a nice tree to rest my heavy rifle on, and that the noise of my second shot stopped his walk while he was still within range of my 30/06 (just over 300 yards).

What would you estimate your chances of success would have been on those two shots ? The first one does not sound so good. The second one may have been doable, depending on how thick the weeds were and how far behind them he was. I killed a heavy buck last fall, with an arrow, in the late afternoon. The lighting was not so good in the woods at the time. I saw an opening between branches, and my aim was true. The next time I hunted that stand at mid-day, I found my arrow (that had "passed thru" the buck's boiler room) sticking out of the ground. I was surprised to see all the smaller twigs that had not been visible in the low-light conditions. Based on that single "brush-busting" experience, I would say your odds may have been ok. That said, I probably would not have taken that shot, had all those little branches been visible at the time. I am reluctant to take "iffy" shots because there is nothing that bothers me more about hunting than hitting and not being able to recover a deer. I am extremely thankful that it has been almost 15 years since I have gone thru my last such unpleasant experience. That one was with my muzzleloader. It was only due to by my own poor tracking and a couple bad assumptions (that fresh snow would show blood if the shot had hit), that I did not find that "single lunged" buck until after the coyotes had. My shot struck right on the mark, but was up high and there was no exit wound. I no longer trust fresh snow (small drops of hot blood cuts right thru it leaving no trace on top), and I assume every shot is a hit until PROVEN otherwise. Those lessons, learned the hard way, have helped put at least one young buck, and one mature 8-point in our freezer in the years since.

I don't buy the conspiracy theory, however there is no doubt that the misguided effort by the Democrats will inspire Brett K., after his confirmation. Had they gone along peacefully with his confirmation, the current rate of 3000 abortions a day in the US may have continued for years, maybe even increased. Now he will have his sights set on overturning Roe vs Wade ASAP. They made him suffer for sure, but that made him a stronger Christian conservative than he was prior. It is hard to imagine a better candidate for Supreme Court that October 2018's Brett K. We really should be thanking the Democrats and Dr. Ford, for lopping off that branch they had walked out on.

That is true, but I just can't bring myself to grind good roasts if I still have some grind left in the freezer. October 7, 2016 was the last time we ran out of grind (for about a week), and the next deer went all to grind except for the backstraps and tenderloins. This year is shaping up the same way. We go thru grind so fast that I never bother to vacuum seal that from the first deer every fall. Zip-lock bags or freezer wrap is a lot cheaper and faster and you can't tell the difference if you eat it within a couple of months. All the rest are vacuum sealed though, and that maintains flavor up to (4) years in the freezer. Maybe even longer, but that is as long as I have tried it.

100% seems too high. In 35 years of hunting, I can't remember any shot that I was 100 % sure of making. There were two that I was 99.5 % or so. I only hit one of those. My gun failed to fire on the other due to a froze up firing pin. The 90 % rule has served me very well lately. Over the last 14 years, even the 10 % I should have lost have ended up in our freezer. You must either not care much for venison or get a heck of a lot of chances.

If I can't score next weekend, up in the northern zone, I will stop over and maybe trade you for some roasts. There looks to be about a deer and a half of those left in our freezer, plus a few packs of back-strap. The grind is always the first to go here because our kids love tacos. Moose is awesome. My buddy got a 8.5 year old bull a few years ago, and the frozen roasts were a little tough. He thawed them out, cut them up, and canned them in his pressure cooker. I can't remember having better stroganoff than made from that old canned moose.

It sounds like you definitely did the right thing. I will be very surprised if you are not rewarded with a better shot at a better buck sometime before the end of archery season. I know that everyone is different, but I will not take a shot at a deer (with any weapon) unless I am 90 % certain of kill where I can recover the meat (antlers don't do a lot for me). More importantly, whenever I take that shot, I assume that it is a hit until PROVEN otherwise. If that means spending the night in the woods with a lantern I will do it. With a gun: a follow-up shot or two (which connect) is a sure-fire way to prove that the first shot(s) were hits or a misses. Autopsies never lie. If I was you I would be thankful that I could sleep in my bed that night.

My wife left some venison chili in the crock-pot for me. I am eating it now as I type and it tastes great. Now there are just (2) packs of grind left in the freezer. I hope you guy's leave some does out there until crossbow opens.

I have also not had time to clean the chimney yet, or I would have fired mine up the last couple nights. The temperature is supposed to get back to the upper 70's later this week though, so I will probably put it off until next weekend. We will be burning a lot more firewood this winter for sure, because we now have an almost limitless supply. A couple weeks ago, I dragged about a years worth of ash trees (that I had dropped in February) out of a hedgerow. The very next day, the crew chief from our town highway department asked if I wanted the wood they were clearing from a ditch on our property line. He said it would be "a few loads". They dropped (8) dump truck loads of ash logs out behind the barn. In addition to all that, we have about (10) face cords cut, split, under tarps, and ready to burn, from the last couple years.