Core

I have a hitch on it (2") and I have a harbor freight GC. The only reason I've NOT bought one of those is that when I've had deer in the back I keep a massive tarp in my car, so I can just haul the deer in to the back and cover it with the tarp. I have wanted one of those cages for years, just haven't pulled trigger yet! Meh, I'm gonna try and pick one up at lunch. Thanks for the reminder. $880 is insane. I bought my hitch online and put it on a few years back, mainly for carrying bikes. Put a light kit in it last year but have not even towed anything yet.

My van is a boss ride. I took it on a huge road trip recently with all my hunting gear and slept overnight in it with a sleeping bag. Since it's hunting season now I have the back row down, with the second row still remaining, and I just drive around with all my gear at all times (tree stand, bow, pack, all hunting clothes, etc.). Plus it will still get 26-27 on the highway. Strangely the more I have it the more I respect it for what it is.

I think she wants to be involved

Minivan Thanks all!

Considering hunting always, always goes as planned, I intend on double-lunging it, it runs 100 yards toward my car, temps are 42, and I drive home with the windows open.

I hope you enjoyed the thread title. Situation is I have a daughter who wants to see me field dress a deer (no, she's not a psycho, at least as far as I know--she very well may be, but that would be another thread). Schedule is making it hard to get her out to my hunting land, so as long as I recover a deer quickly I'm thinking I could bring it home and field dress it in the back yard. Normally I field dress immediately, but I can't really see how this is any different than waiting a few hours to recover a deer, so I'm thinking it's fine. Just want to run it by y'all before I do it

Never have been. Dad never got me into it, so I never cared. I couldn't even tell you who won the last whatever the cup is for baseball or football or anything. Just have no interest at all in watching grown men throw around a ball. Athleticism is another topic. I was obsessive with endurance sports for a few years until my knee told me otherwise and have lifted weights on and off since I was a teenager. Sports are important but have an embarrassing stranglehold on many people's attention in this country. Also a huge number of kids are being exposed to permanent brain damage through sports like soccer with the head hitting and contact sports. Hey, you asked!

Also, if you get the Summit, use tape to cinch down the zipper buckles unless you want them incessantly tapping and clicking on things. I personally climb up with a backpack that has a bow/gun holder and I strap the bow/gun to the back. I know the "proper" form is to leave them on the ground and pull them up with a string. I simply have no interest in that. I also bought this for my Viper. Only had a chance to use it once: https://www.sherpahunting.com/summit_model.html Honestly, it's a damn genius idea, and the execution is amazing. I leave it in the car, but it saves having to cart around an entire cart, and I have taken it in field a few times attached to the climber including a backpack on top of that! Only possible because of the Molle straps for proper carrying this huge amount of weight.

My summit viper came with those. First couple trips I was like whatever, this is silly I'm not using it. Then one day on a fairly thin tree while leaning over a little bit the top section spun around the tree a bit with the bottom not moving. That's never fun at 15'. At all. Now I am religious about this. After ascending I strap it on snug and after descending wrap it around the bar a bunch of times so that it's always attached to the tree. The only gotcha I've had is that if it's REALLY snug and my weight is entirely on the top section (which is rare), it can pull the bottom one up a bit more than it should. Last year is first time my climber has fallen out from under me, which also isn't fun. But it's made much less fun without a harness, which I'm glad I had on. I still love my climber and the pic above posted by otiscopaul is the best tree, but really I've been able to climb anything with a good looking trunk, even if some bark is more suited than other. I replaced the BS OEM straps on my viper with MOLLE straps from ebay and it's a MILLION times more comfy to walk with.

Never had any truly impressive shots like heart at 40 in pouring rain. On the contrary I've had some bad shots when they were actually not difficult Best shot ever was around 30 yards xbow and it was good because it was the only deer I've ever hit that actually went down within sight. Normally even when they don't run far they make it into thick brush, but this one last year didn't make it far at all, so I had instantaneous feedback that it was proper and terminal.

You could hunt with it out of the box, but I wouldn't. I strongly recommend ditching the scope, but to be fair any entry crossbow is going to have a scope that should be replaced. If you ditch this and go with a Nikon Bolt XR you'll have way, way better clarity and you'll also know that the scope is going to hold zero. However, that scope is made for a slower arrow, so at least with my setup the top reticle is set for 20, the second is for about 30, but where things fall apart is beyond that, the next ought to be for 40 but in my case is more like 47 yards. You'll want to shoot at various different distances during practice to confirm all this and use a range finder of course. I found the stock bolts/arrows okay but I replaced them with the pretty cheap decimator ones you can buy at dicks/field and stream, 22". The stock arrows I put on an arrow spinner and they are hilariously wobbly. How much that matters in practice I don't know. The thing is very accurate. I'm now down two deer with mine, nice pass through both times with rage 2" broadheads. Currently I'm running rage hypodermic with the black collars and the deer I got at 25 yards a week back the broadhead opened nicely. I found that the G5 fixed broadheads just didn't fly close enough to field tips for my satisfaction. As for speed, my total weight between the decimators, 100 gr Rage broadheads, and lighted nocks are around 435 grains. I had the xbow chronographhed a few weeks back and was pretty consistently getting about 345. Remember, though, these are heavier arrows, so I'm happy with that speed. The trigger is a total piece of crap, its travel is about 3 miles and it grinds and binds the whole way. You just have to take your time on the pull and really hold steady. If you buy this go to ebay and buy new. I see some now for $250 new. I got mine for around $230 last year so that's reasonable. No tax, free shipping, official Crosman store has a bunch available currently. I don't think the Xbow is too good to be true, not if you get a nice ebay price online. Just makes me wonder why the other xbows are so pricey. I assume (not positive) it has one of the worst triggers out there, which some people would certainly baulk at, but it is capable of great accuracy, repeatably, and it runs arrows very fast.

Some people definitely are successful in rain. It just takes all the fight out of me and I want to be drinking coffee and sitting on the couch.

Beautiful gun. That bear isn't bad, either

Truly, I despise sitting in drizzle while hunting. In my limited experience (I avoid rain like the plague) deer don't move in it for me. Now on the other hand a light snow i feel like some bad ass alpha hunter from the dawn of time grinding out my existence and standing atop the weaker species.

I did gut him. In fact, I even had to skin him on account of the butcher not wanting to do it. The stomach was untouched (I think), liver untouched, heart untouched. I couldn't tell with the lungs, but on account of the distance ran and absolutely no blood in the mouth I'm inclined to think lungs untouched also. RealTCI got it--it was actually ocean My brother and I started to carry him back over the rocks, but that wasn't fun, so we put him in a canoe. Arrow entered on the left side. Doesn't look like he was quartering away in this, so I guess not. Maybe turned at last moment, not sure. Still need to hit further forward on these.

This past week I was in Canada. A non-resident permit is not cheap, but it was Xbow season so I brought it along. Only one tag, either sex. I had a nice spot at a relative's property--one that has never been hunted based on the reports of the deer numbers. And I can say it's probably accurate. Teeming with deer. I took one on my fourth sit. My third sit you can see here--this is the first time I've ever had 6 deer under my stand and also the first time I've ever let a deer go past without shooting when it was a reasonable size and I had a tag. Not quite sure why, but I watched one of these deer at 20 yards in front of me eat and peeing. You can see five of them here as they walk off. I was partly hoping to get a larger one than this doe, as the group had a larger buck (still by no means huge). Next morning I was up. Sunrise was just after 7 and by 9 I was starting to regret my decision the earlier night because, with time at this location running short and needing lead time with a butcher, I realized I had to get one soon. However, as luck would have it the buck from the earlier morning came along. Saw him at 50, he went behind some trees and I readied to get him if he'd come out the other side. 25 yards he came out and I had a nice quartering away. With my Xbow at that range, it's a done deal. So when I saw the lighted nock confirm entry into just where it should be and the deer did the weird jump twitch and ran off, I knew I'd be done inside of 50 yards. So you can imagine my surprise when I failed to see blood. 80 yards down where he'd run I found a few specks at the most and realized something awful had happened. Had I badly missed? Had the rage failed? I couldn't find my arrow but with the power of this xbow that must have mean it hit bone and was lodged in. I ended up tracking a mild blood trail through the thickest terrain ever. If you've ever tried to get between young evergreens, you know what that means. literally hands and knees. The path led down to the ocean and I was quite confident I'd never see the deer, as he'd have run off elsewhere and die miles away. To my surprise I look down on the beach and I see him. I'm still not quite sure what killed him. The broadhead opened perfectly, 2" cut on both sides (I found the arrow the next morning up where I'd hit him). No blood in the mouth, little around the wounds, heart was fine. He made it about 200 yards. Hard to age him, as the antlers were not huge, either 1.5 or 2.5 years I guess. As for the shot I think I was maybe 2" back on the entire thing. Had I hit very slightly forward it would have double lunged him no question at all.

I can’t find any, I have tried and am willing to pay good money Wayne county is tough on the west of it Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Big arse deer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

BTW I put sawyer on dry clothes on Sunday and it was damp out but they were under covered porch. By yesterday afternoon I still smelled it!!

Yes, most times I don't forget to tether. I always use harness. But of course I never tether myself to the upper stand, so it occurs to me that it's entirely possible for the bottom and top to slip down together leaving me in the tree. I always have paracord in my pack (on my back) which I could use to descend to the ground (in theory).

Made it out. Utterly useless. Weather was supposed to rain but then i saw a huge break according to forecast. That didn't stop it starting to drizzle at 6:00. So overcast that with the thick canopy it was very dark under the trees. Took my daughter and she got cold and we saw nothing, which was very surprising to me given the land I'm on. Oh well, I sweetened the deal with a big bunch of junk food on the way home and she said she'd go out again when the weather doesn't suck.

Ugh, this rain means I can't get out tonight which means I'm done until mid Oct due to travel.

My bow came with a three string but I didn't care for it because unless I could get an oval shaped housing, it's impossible to center in housing properly. I like a peep tube. Perhaps one day it will break on me on a deer but I get hundreds of arrows between shots. Also use a biscuit. Frankly most people are far too short on practice to ever notice any slight advantage of a fall away over a biscuit anyway, IMO.

The youth are too busy getting degrees in gender studies to help you with that.

25. I practice regularly to 40-50 and am very accurate at that distance on the range, but in the field anything over 20 starts getting a concerning. First xbow deer was at 30.