Untwisted Pretzel logic

Just looked at the Wyvern Creations site. He has the Excal micro mag 340 package for a great price $600. You can probably add a crank device and get an adjustment rope device for a few hundred more and you'll be set for a long time. Good luck in whatever you decide

O.K. So your goal is to target shoot a trouble free crossbow. I have both an Excalibur, which as you know from your research is the #1 recurve type of crossbow, and a compound that is a lower end Barnett - the Recruit. I love the Recruit for hunting. Although it was low cost -$200, it is not low value. I have taken 6 deer with it, taking 6 shots. I sighted it in with 8 shots when I got it and shoot it 3 times before each season to make sure it's still on. I then shoot it about 10 times during the season to unload it. So, over the course of six years, I have shot it about 120 times. I don't want to shoot it too much as I want to preserve the string. I would recommend this type of xbow for hunting, not for heavy usage target shooting. My Excalibur Matrix on the other hand is not only great for hunting, I took 4 deer with that bow; but it's even better if you want to practice by shooting a lot. You can easily change or put extra twists in the string to adjust it and you can leave it loaded for hours longer than a compound and even uncock it without shooting it. My Excalibur has a hawk scope with illuminated crosshairs, which also works just fine without the illumination if I need a fast shot at a deer and don't turn it on or in the event the battery runs out (which it never did). You can pm me if you need more information. It seems you are on the right track for what your goal is by looking at the Excalibur. I would recommend Wyvern Creations, an online shop in New Hampshire. You can call there and talk to the owner about various options. His prices are excellent and he will be straightforward with giving you information. He has many of the top compound manufacturer brands as well as the Excalibur line, of which I believe he is now featuring the 380 micro model, to which you can add options to get what you want. Hope this helps you.

Cool. The silver bladed Panther martin with the yellow body and red dots is money. I still have some of the older ones that say made in Italy on the blades. Interesting that guys from Italy were using a lure that was once made in Italy.

This pretty much summarizes the approach to use. Let the problem/road rage driver go by and get on with your own life without getting involved in escalating the problem. To get away from the problem, pull over and let it go by and call 911 if you need to. It's good to take the NYS safe driving course every 3 years, not only to get a good discount on your insurance, but more importantly to be aware of how to handle various situations in order to get you and your passengers to your destination safely.

Thanks for the review. Walmart sells some stuff that is a real good value. I shop there early in the morning - usually before 10 a.m. and always have a good experience. After season clearance items are a great bargain if it's something that is needed; although lately it seems that our local Walmart has not been truly marking items down to a real clearance price.

I have a Recruit also, love it for the tree stand and how light and narrow it is. Super accurate for the distance I shoot in the woods max 20-30 yards. I have an Excalibur Matrix too. Love that one as it's light weight and balances well. Super accurate and rock solid and reliable. It's wider, but I don't use it in tight spaces. Can also unload this one without shooting it. Good luck to everyone during Xbow season.

You can buy a Morrill yellow jacket discharge target for less than $20 at DSG,Bass Pro, or Walmart. These are small and don't weigh much. As stated above, just shoot a field point and be done with it. You may be able to decock it similar to an Excalibur using your cocking rope. Look up how to decock a Excalibur on you tube and you will see many examples. That's all I've got for you. Best of luck.

OK It makes more sense after, I checked your Barnett site link. You have a recurve. Ratio of pullback weight to arrow speed is lower vs. a compound crossbow. Advantage of recurve is less mechanical issues due to bow simplicity. Disadvantage is width and speed. 260FPS is plenty fast enough; you will be fine. I have an Excalibur recurve and a Barnett compound, both work well and never failed to get the job done.

That seems low, however, even if the 260FPS is a valid #, the kinetic energy that your crossbow bolt delivers will be much higher than your vertical bow due to the weight of your crossbow bolt. Your crossbow bolt will zip through a deer out to 30 yards virtually every time. I hunt in the deep woods and all my shots are less than 30 yards and all of the deer I have shot at (9) over the years have had a pass through except one, and that one hit an off shoulder and the deer went 30 yards and dropped. Main difference between crossbow and vertical bow is there is no detectable movement at all to shoot a crossbow - no standing up, no drawing back. That is a huge difference for close range hunting. Anyone that tells you that there is any other major difference is ignorant and/or biased. The main negative to a crossbow is that a fast follow up shot is not available, however, due to the accuracy that should not be an issue. Good luck.

Yes, it was fun times back in the day. Still good I hear. I would always go on a Wed or Thurs morning, never the weekend. Getting back to advice - as stated earlier by Rob, braid is a good option for your mainline as you can get more and stronger line on your spool and cast farther (20# braid is the diameter of say 5# mono). If you use 20# test braid,use a floro leader of less weight, say 12# or 14# because if you need to break off it will be easier. You will need to have the tag end for this set up be the leader side as the split shot will just slide too easy off the braid. If you get hung up,head back upstream in the direction of the hang up to pull loose. Know when to let up on using your rod to pull a snag free to prevent snapping it. Especially with braid, if you need to pull the line to break loose or break off, take a small piece of a wooden dowel to wrap the line around or it will slice right through your skin. Also with braid, be sure to take up the slack next to your reel onto the spool immediately after you cast and flip the bail to eliminate line twist and wind knots. You need to pay more attention when using braid. It was always an adventure. There used to be a lot of snagged up line in some places and sometimes it was a surprise to see a fish jump on the line you got snagged on. That's all I've got, you'll learn a lot by doing it and figure out what works best for you. Have fun.

Trilene comes in a moss green color, clear and maybe blue? I always used the moss green color because I could see it better than the clear and in the moving, turbulent water, it seemed to work well as I caught many fish.

Haven't fished there in many years. Had good luck behind the bowling alley in town (not sure if it's even there any more or if you can access the river from there). Used an 8' ugly stick and a good reel like a diawa bg, spooled with trilene XT in 14# or 17# test in green. As stated earlier, you need to be bouncing near the bottom. I think the regs were 2' between the weight and your hook. I used a #2 salmon egg hook with a piece of pink or orange sponge covering the hook. A pink or orange curly tail grub as mentioned earlier will also work. Here's something that will save you a lot of time and rigs - tie your main line to a good barrel swivel and leave about a 5" tag end or so hanging from your knot. From the other side of your barrel swivel tie your leader that's attached to the hook. Now, remember the 5" tag end - that's where you will crimp your split shot. Get some good size split shot and use enough 1,or2 or even 4 if necessary to get you ticking the bottom. Cast upstream and toward the middle of the river and take up the slack as your rig tumbles toward you in the current. You will get hung up from time to time, however, no big deal as you can either pull free or lose just your split shot. This is a technique that was always successful for me. Hopefully, I explained it ok. Good luck and have fun - there's nothing more exciting than fighting a salmon in the current.

I try not to get confrontational, either here or anywhere else. If I have a disagreement with what someone provides as a fact, I will correct them in a nice way and then anyone can go out on the internet and see if my correction is a correct one. If something is really important and will have a long-term impact on your life and happiness, it's o.k. for one to discuss and ask for advice here or anywhere else, but always, always go out and do more due diligence and research before going ahead and planting a tree or in extreme example - getting a medical treatment (an expert doctor is always better than the hunting forum LOL). Facts can't be argued. Evolving science and opinions on the other hand can; however, I don't like to argue so I don't. What some hunters or fisherman believe, based on what they experience in the outdoors may not square up with anything that I have experienced or read about, and may seem totally outlandish and crazy. That's all o.k., I just laugh, and hope what they think works for them keeps working; but I will not let it bother me and affect my enjoyment of the outdoors at all. Enough about my philosophy. I hope Paula does her research and finds a tree that will make her happy.

There are some diseases that will take out a Mountain Ash, fire blight is one which can also affect apple trees. Our 2 trees are doing well after 20 years and produce a lot of berries that bring in the deer when they start to drop in late fall. I don't think these trees will get more than 30 feet tall and they look good with the dark orange berry clusters on them. I don't think the berries are for human consumption in any way, although we never get to eat any edible fruit off the many other trees that we have since the critters get them first. We have 2 regular ash trees that are deàd, but they are way in the back yard so I will not be messing with them and will just let nature take its course.

EAB does not attack mountain-ash trees, as they are not true ash species, but instead are in the genus Sorbus. You can look this up on the internet to verify. I can tell you that if you are llooking to attract deer and other wildlife, this is a tree that you want to plant.

His initial advice was sound - Summer is the worst time to plant a fruit tree for a variety of reasons. Obviously, to be totally ridiculous you could say the dead of winter is worse, however, no sane person would even begin to consider this, so it's not even part of the conversation. Your link to the Cornell site was a good one, and I learned a lot. Good to see on page 18 that early spring is the best time to plant. I do have the following fruit bearing trees/vines on my small property - 2 peach, 4 pear, 5 crab apple, 2 mountain ash, 4 apple, 2 grape ,2 service berry and 2 cherry. Also 2 figs in large pots. Grape Vines are a good and easy thing to plant on any property for privacy and also good to eat. Also consider service berry trees for a small property.

Yes, summer is not an ideal time to plant a fruit tree. Spring is ideal. Paula, please do a search on the internet if you need more information, as there are some on this forum that will bash good information due to personal differences they have with others over something else. I have a few fig trees and have started several that I have given away, so I know a little about these trees. In very cold temperature zones, fig trees are best moved inside the garage. This is best done by planting them in big containers (think cutting a 50-gallon plastic drum in half) and keeping them on top of a large moving dolly (I use the heavy- duty plastic covered metal ones you can get at harbor freight) so you can move them off the driveway into the garage in the winter). They produce a lot of fruit in late September which is delicious. If you plant them in the ground, you will need to bend them over and cover them up in the winter, which is a lot of work, and I can't give you details about how this is done successfully. Deer will not bother fig trees. They will however absolutely destroy any other small tree that you plant and do not protect with fencing around it. So, if you are in a neighborhood with deer, make sure to protect what you plant.

It's a numbers game - the more you throw your lure in the right places, the higher your odds of hooking up. If you're fishing just outside the weed line in coves/bays, and throwing a flashy spinner type of lure: for example a #3 or #4 Mepps red& white anglia or a blue fox vibrax with a silver blade and bright red barrel, you will find success eventually. Live bait does work, however, it's a more passive approach. Find the pike by chucking your lures and covering water where they are most likely to be. Most often that will be in less than 10 feet of water. Keep at it and you will prevail. Good luck.

Yes, Ishi the last yahi. Watched the documentary DVD which I got from the Penfield library years ago. He only surrendered because the bounty hunters stole his stick bow and arrows and everything dear to him was gone. This was early 1900s and they were still trying to hunt indians for bounty in their last hiding areas in California. From what I recall, Dr. Pope from Pope and Young studied him like a lab rat to learn about his hunting and language. The actual audio recordings of Ishi are haunting. I don't think they ever figured out his language and in the end, Pope was quite ashamed how he used him as an exhibit. Note that my recollection may not be 100%. I recommend the documentary on Ishi. It's a fascinating bit of American history that one would find hard to believe happened if it was not documented.

Please do not rush trying to come back to fast from COVID. Do not exert yourself or overdo it right away. Ease gradually back into your normal routine. Lifting too much or running, moving too fast too early can lead to some bad consequences. It's good that your family is getting better.

Hope you and the family recover quickly. I had whatever version of COVID there was in February 2021. Extreme fatigue for 2 weeks and gradually got better. My wife did not get it although we are always together. Only thing that I can tell you is that no one really knows everything there is to know about COVID. Best bet is to keep in good shape - exercise, good diet, vitamins, etc. and listen to your doctor for advice.

Lots of good suggestions. CharlieNY hit the nail on the head with the key part of any hunting strategy, but especially so for turkey. Be patient. If there are any turkeys in the area and they can hear your call, they will eventually make it to your location. Just make sure that you are camouflaged in with netting, brush or something to cover your movements; and be comfortable, so you don't move so much and can be patient. Good luck and be safe.

Almost positive it is. I will dig it out of where it's being stored in the house to verify. If you are interested I can email you a picture sometime next week. Have a lot going on this weekend, so I will have more time for this early next week.

Have wooden stock pieces for a 12GA 1100. I believe the back end is universal for all gauges. Not sure if the front end of a 12 will fit a 20. Will sell for $60 if you are interested.

Agree with Fast Eddie. ThermaCELL =junk. Battery is the size of a half dollar and generates very little heat. Save your money, there are better options. If you spend most of your time in one treestand, consider Gerbing inserts that are powered by 12 volts. They are meant for motorcycle riders and they are tremendous, bikers do not buy junk ; these really work. I have used them on stand. You just need 12v power. So I put a lawnmower battery in my stand behind my seat to hook up to cables that come out from the top of my boots. Another alternative is to use small heat pads that are powered by a USB battery. You can get these from Amazon or Walmart.com. Someone on this site suggested these and I just tried them. There are 2 pads on each wire harness with the on switch that has 3 settings red -hot, white-medium, and blue-low. Put each pad in a small baggie and put it inside your boot on the top of your foot when you get in your stand. Or put on top of your boot inside a booty blanket and this also does the job. Hope this advice is helpful.