Core

wth, woke open like a gun went off at 3:20 AM, now onto second coffee. At least I won't be late leaving today (I say that anyway). Weather looks superb. I am brewing up a liter of hot tea so that I can stay in the stand for many hours if necessary, but really I doubt it will be.

I make no claims whatsoever to my hunting capabilities, being a pretty young hunter, but for all the stuff I have read about scent I increasingly find it hard to reconcile with what I see in the field. The number of deer I've seen walk down wind of me clearly 100% oblivious to my existence, within bow-range--and I do very little for scent control--continues to surprise me. I do wash my hunting clothes (not enough) with scent-free wash. Frankly I don't do much else.

Sounds nice--do you have pics?

Pretty close. Will be there at sunrise!

Whatever the complete antithesis of today is. 35, no wind, snow the night before sounds good. Alternatively 50, sunny, light breeze because it's pleasant being out in that.

Have you alternatively considered an electric ATV?

My wife just said "sweet, we get an extra hour sleep", to which I pointed out that now sunrise is an hour earlier and I have to leave the house at 5:00 !

And some chain smokers live to 100. Statistically significant conclusions rely on a critical mass of data points at which stage a trend can be ascertained; life is, generally speaking, harder on kids without a father.

Do you use a range finder? First day ever bowhunting I created my avatar pic of the arrow in the tree. Went out that night and bought one. since, I’ve never misjudged range/shot too high or low since I got one (too far back is another issue unfortunately). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good heavens, is any land next to yours for sale?

The vast majority of mass shooters come from fatherless homes. I'm not going to blame a political party for this, but the contemporary lack of shame related to single parent households may need to be revisited. Sometimes a single parent household is best, or it's all that is available, but the statistics are clear and huge that lack of nuclear family is extremely injurious to kids. Most of these young guys shooting up places with an AR have no father in sight, they are just not grounded properly.

After losing a shot this past week because my laptop got in the way, I will not condemn you for watching TV in the stand.

I've played TONS of violent video games in my life. I say that not because I believe a single data point is at all meaningful; I'm not going to say "I played them and I'm not violent" because it doesn't mean anything. I say it to give context to my statement: I agree with you to an extent. I do believe, and I think studies have backed this up, that exposure to violence does increase one's tolerance to it. Although most people exposed to violent games and movies can separate them, some can't. I think some high-risk individuals are encouraged by exposure to fictional violence in ways that, absent that violence, may result in a different outcome. It's a bit like hollywood most actors saying they hate guns but more than happy to make huge money playing with them in movies. I see a big hypocrisy in it. There are reasons why mass shootings have increased in recent history (btw gun violence itself has dropped precipitously in recent decades), and it's not because there are more guns around or guns easier to get. It's partly copy cat effect, could be exposure to violence in high-risk people, etc. I think copy cat effect is a really huge part of it. It's now "the thing" to do if you're an antisocial nutter. Instead of just taking your life, you take it out on strangers first.

I shop at F&S because I love the atmosphere in the store and the prices are often good. And it's the only place like it locally. Gander is shut down. I'd love to have cabelas close by but it's an hour + into buffalo. They were supposed to open a bass pro in victor but who knows how that's going. I do have an AR. I don't feel guilty about owning it one little bit because I'm positive it will never be involved in a crime. Gun crime is a large topic overall; the majority of gun deaths continue to be via handguns (mostly illegal) in the hands of idiots/gang members/criminals.

Since you asked, I will give you an honest answer. Every day I wake up and hit the coffee within 5 min of being awake. Generally I'm into the toilet shortly thereafter. On hunting days I tend to leave the house not long after waking, so what am I to do? It hits me like a ton of bricks during the car ride. Absent TP it would be a medical emergency. Double income no kids?

I've said it before my most valuable, crucial piece of hunting equipment is the roll of toilet paper I keep in my hunting bag. And I mean it. Good luck all I expect a deer-down picture by Xbow within 60 minutes.

This piqued my interest again in another thread. Since I don't know reaction time of deer I'm using 100 ms, but if that is a reasonable assumption, this calculator: https://keisan.casio.com/exec/system/1224835316 indicates that from an arrow shooting an average speed over the distance of 330 fps (reasonable for modern crossbows), the deer could not drop more than 2" at 30 yards. Out to 40 yards the drop could be as much as 6", so it certainly becomes an issue to think about at that range.

I've yet to see a deer duck my string, but it could be because of what wolc123 mentions re. alert deer. I've never stopped one. However, shooting at a walking deer at 25 yards (I've done a couple with vertical at low 20's) is risky itself. Sorry to hear about experience OP. I had a pretty crap situation a few weeks ago and I'm very strongly considering not going hunting with my vertical next year until I get a camera on it. Just something happened I still am at a loss to explain, and as anybody who's seen my posts can vouch for glossing over facts and details is not in my nature, so it was weird Anyway, as for ducking at 25 yards the sound of the bow got to the deer in 66 ms. I don't know what their reaction time is, let's give an extremely fast 100 ms to recognize something is amiss and the muscles start firing accordingly to drop the deer, so 166 ms after firing the deer started to drop. Let's say your arrow is going at 240fps average, 312 ms travel time total. This means the deer was able to drop for 146 ms. Using this calculator https://keisan.casio.com/exec/system/1224835316 it turns out an object released can fall 4" in 146 ms. I'm not sure how that impacts your analysis of the event. The only unknown in the above calculation is the true reaction time of a deer. I'm probably going to tape my phone to my crossbow today/tomorrow and set it to slow-motion mode before I shoot. Combined with the lighted nocks I hunt with, I'll be able to replay in detail anything that happens.

Because the whole area is a deer sanctuary!

Make sure to install them so that the blades are held in by the petals on the collar. When they open they shoot the petals right off.

A property owner could have a lot of fun with posted signs. Make them custom including hash marks and a label next to them indicating how many people have had the police called on them and been arrested. Just make up some hash marks--that would scare most people away.

http://www.bestcrossbowsource.com/crossbow-arrow-ballistics-calculator My vertical drops about 2X as much from 20-40 as the crossbow. Note, though, that penetration doesn't drop that meaningfully at distance. Even out to 50 yards your kinetic energy drops by less than 15%.

I don't want to sound too cocky but...I will be posting pics of the deer I get with xbow by Sunday evening at the latest. Half dozen trips so far with my vertical and nothing to show for it. Had it at the range at lunch and dead nuts at ranges I plan on shooting. Too many deer within lethal xbow range to count during this period.

I'm setting a limit at 41 yards, which is my third reticle on my xbow. I practice with xbow and vertical well past ranges I would shoot deer at. I practice at 40/50 yards with vertical all the time, and am a good shot, but man even out in the woods a deer at 30 yards without magnification just seems like a really small target to me, so I start getting worried even at 25. 30 yards with my xbow is pretty comfortable, even if at the range I am accurate much further. things can happen like string jumping or whatever.

I wouldn't have someone arrested for that the first time. Unless they said "I know, so what?" in which case then I would show them so-what.