Core

Shortest hunt ever. Got all ready, brewed a ton of tea, opened garage to 8" snow on the driveway plus middle of a snow storm. I didn't realize it was so bad out. Not realistic for me to drive to hunting grounds in this, so back to the computer. Ugh. Forecast ruined tomorrow morning, too. Freezing rain has to be the very worst conditions. 15 with wind I am fine with, but 36 and rain no thanks

Season is almost over! Got a deer on the first day of bow and have spent 10 weeks trying to get another. I blew it badly last Saturday, but other than some spotty weather tomorrow the weather on Sunday-Tuesday looks good and I am taking two vacation days on Mon/Tues to try and wrap things up. This is in 8F. If anybody wants a tour of the two western parts of the lake shore marsh let me know, as I can show you where all the deer aren't Alternatively, if anybody knows of a nasty, gnarly, awful part of public land that still has deer in it, let me know. One of the more interesting things I've learned this season has to do with my knee. I have a dicey patella tendon and I cannot even walk on a treadmill for 15 minutes without my knee hurting. And yet, after 2+ months of walking through the woods with 50 lbs on my back including up and down hills, it either hurts a tiny amount, or not at all (mostly the latter). I need to get out and hike a bit in the off-season. I bet that would be great for my knee long-term. The "groove" and consistency of the treadmill, with each step precisely the same as the prior, is bad for my knee. Anybody still hitting it, good luck in the next few days.

As mentioned, no surprise about a foot. I'm luckier than my immediate neighbors because the builder actually graded my house properly, so my sump hardly ever runs. Just two houses up the hill a bit a guy's sump ran constantly, entirely due to lazy grading and nothing else. Same for a lot of houses on my street. BTW, get yourself one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Glentronics-Inc-BWD-HWA-Basement-Watchdog/dp/B000JOK11K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1481910641&sr=8-3&keywords=water+alarm I have one installed in my sump pit with the receiver just above where the water line goes. If I ever hear the alarm I know my sump has failed. I could then manually remove water until it's replaced. If I had a sump running more often I would probably get a second sump because even a battery backup won't work if the primary unit fails. My basement is finished so I cannot afford ever any flooding. You can buy those alarms at home depot under a different name. I have one under my dish washer pan and also my washing machine I have sitting in a washing machine tub with one of these in it in case it ever leaks. Heck I have four of these around the house. don't have the fridge on one yet. I bet that's where I'll get jammed up.

This is definitely one piece of hunting gear I cannot sneak into the house. Looks like in the second pic the dog had a go at the deer before it was recovered.

I hope that hair was from their head.

Good job! I had the opposite issue this past week. Snow is good. Snowing is almost as bad as rain. Tracking light blood in a heavy snow storm sucks! Where did you hit and what did the bullet do; go out the other side I assume--how much of a hole?

I actually went out in Marion mid-day yesterday. It was mid teens with some wind but I was okay in the woods. Good proof of ability of my gear. Spooked a dear, so I guess that counted for something. I had thought of going east to the public land but did not want to be caught up on the 104 when the weather went south again (as it was supposed to and did).

Whatever the one Costanza's in Webster goes by But, it isn't cheap!

Sorry, I am being misbehaved Never seen a mountain lion except at a zoo i'm afraid!

I know! Every year or so I'm like "Oh hell I'm just done with this". Basically I am sick of the maintenance stuff I do at work; I only enjoy working on new projects. But then I step back and realize I am legitimately needed. If I join a new company it could take a long time before I really matter. I won't lose my job unless I surf nudey sites at work. Strong company, singularly responsible for several important systems at a not-outrageous pay rate. Very stable, but it does also breed some lethargy as well. Some of y'all may enjoy this: I applied for a job at Paychex recently and HR actually sent me something for a "virtual interview". Basically it involves a warm body at HR who doesn't know what he's looking at when he sees my resume, so to click through on his productivity numbers he refers my name/email to a third party that they work with. This third party then conducts a virtual interview, which consists of me being asked by a computer, remotely, several questions and I then answer them into a webcam. This company then owns video of me (there is no other on the entire internet), and I don't even know if Paychex even has a position--because like I said, just a warm body at HR clicking things. Also, this third party has an algorithm that can apparently rate people without even having to watch the video, thus grading me without even having some bored HR person watch the vid. Anyway I thought it was interesting because it reflects very badly on a very well rated company. I did not take the interview and did not get back to HR @ Paychex and do not intend on applying for another job there, either. I am at a senior level and don't really want to waste my time with shenanigans like that. I would if I was out of work (maybe), but if they think people are going to leave decent jobs to jump through stupid hoops like a dog at a circus they may leave a bad taste in some people's mouths.

Why are you always like this?

Similar age and it really is the only way to predictably increase salary. I've been where I am for a long time because although they only average 1.5% and I'm a little behind the curve now pay wise the rest of the job is pretty darn chill and I'm hesitant to become another cog elsewhere, so I've stayed here for a loooong time.

That I get. I am not sure what they are charging this guy with. It seems like a terrible accident. Was he negligent OTHER than the fact he killed somebody? Was he waving his gun around, shooting at anything dark that moved, etc.?

Well that worked out I guess. 2 minutes into my "still hunt" today I spooked a deer and got to see its pretty fresh tracks. Never did catch up to it, though (ran off into some other property close to houses). Could also tell it was running for quite a way because even a hundred yards later there were specks of dirt scattered in front of the track where it had freaked out.

Yep that deer is moving from bottom right to top left

Is it too late to say I was just wondering if the deer ever plant false prints like the kid in The Shining to throw off hunters? Hmm, now that I watch that I don't see where the kid did that. Could have sworn as a kid when I saw this first that the kid backtracks to throw the guy off.

Like I said easy, but these pictures are particularly easy because the prints are really clear. This is my first year going in the snow! Wasn't sure if deer drag their feet after stepping or something. lols now that I look at that picture of course it's easy but it also answered my question to begin with. I went through too much of my early life afraid to ask what loafers were and I don't care anymore. I'll ask dumb ass questions!

Pretty sure I know the answer but need to double-check! I've seen a ton of deer tracks in the snow. These all have a sharp part where the foot was and then a "scuff" drag section where the foot was dragged. When humans walk in the snow the drag is prior to the foot print and we pick up the foot cleanly as we move forward so that the drag is to our rear. This way it's easy to tell somebody's direction. Do deer follow the same pattern of a shallow part to their rear of the direction they are traveling and if so, is that always the case? So this deer is moving to the north west of the picture.

Don't blow all that money at once but yeah 84 weeks is pretty solid. Good odds she finds a job way, way before then and ends up with a nice "bonus".

Nice job! Great you went out in crap weather, too.\ Oh hell, you've inspired me. I'm going out for a few hours. Like you my gun season (and all of bow except day 1) was a grind. We're in the middle of a storm here but it just literally let up and we should be good for a few hours. Maybe see some fresh tracks.

Never seen one in wayne but I have caught a mountain lion on trailcam a few times.

Either turkey or lasagna, the latter being the only meal I'm capable of cooking that my family doesn't refer to as a "prison dinner".

Yeah I saw that white rifle at gander, it looks nice.

I have the P223 and I want to tell you it is not great for hunting if you plan on moving around at all. When I bought it I researched cap-less turrets (like it has--no caps, and the turrets do not lock in any manner) and some people said don't use them for hunting. I ignored this and got it anyway because sometimes I still have to learn the hard way. I toted around a gun with this scope on it a dozen times during gun season and I was constantly worried about shifting the POI. This wasn't pointless worry: One day I experimented with a sling and as I moved the rifle around for a few hours by the time I finished the day I had twisted the turrets a ton of clicks. Now, to their benefit, since it is a zero reset system I could see how much I had shifted them and could reset them back, but I wasn't confident in that until I got to the range--what if, while snagging it and turning the turrets, I had also had them lift out to "reset" (and guess what--I had, I had to go to the range to re-zero the gun)? I just thought the whole thing was too easy to snag. IMO this scope badly needs a way to lock the turrets once they are zeroed so that they will no longer lift out. Also the very prominent ridges used to turn probably don't need to be so prominent. I know there are many scopes without caps that solve the issue the p223 has. Lastly, although this scope MIGHT be more resilient to the strange recoil of a bolt going forward on an AR-15, I wouldn't worry about BDC as it's pretty useless anyway on this scope. It is set specifically for a polymer tip 55 gr out of a 24" barrel. Chances are your barrel isn't that long and/or you're not shooting the exact ammo anyway, so the BDC points for 200, 300, etc. won't line up. As such the BDC will be different and any of the BDCs would work. You'll have to research yourself though if Nikon has any special protection in the p223 designed to withstand recoil from an AR that other scopes in their line lack (I really don't know). Last couple of hunts I've used a nikon prostaff instead. It has thumb adjustable, zero-reset turrets, but they are capped. They don't have hash marks on the turrets, but you don't need those unless shooting insane distances anyway. I like this scope way more for hunting simply because it's basically the same scope but no chance of snagging a turret. Zeroed for 100 I only have to uncap to adjust for something significantly further and odds are very good I can expend the extra few seconds to uncap it in that scenario. In any case on these nikons I do love the thumb adjust and I am surprised anybody still makes scopes that require a coin or similar to adjust in the field. That seems a massive PITA. People rave about the optics on Nikons. The p223 and prostaff both have multi-coated optics that give 98% light through.

So bright out at 3:45 when I woke you could shoot a deer on a white field (not legally). Next few days look like trash in my parts. I'm almost totally burned out anyway. Hopefully monday/tuesday pan out as they look like they should and I'll finish up.