Jmp209

Not a super exciting story but here goes. A buddy of mine got into traditional archery a year or so ago and converted me from my compound. In turn I talked my hunting partner into going traditional also. My dad had an old recurve that he'd picked up years ago on a trade from a guy who owed him some money but he never had a whole lot of interest in it. It's sat around for well over 20 years that I know of. He gladly allowed me to take it and I got it all set up with a new string, silencers and rest. I had some help from some other trad guys getting shafts tuned to the bow and just started shooting every day since June. And I found shooting the recurve was way more enjoyable than shooting my compound. Fast forward to this morning. I normally don't hunt from a tree, I love being on the ground but I've been busted a few times this season while drawing the bow so I opted to hunt out of a pretty low hang on, only about 10' off the ground. I was late getting to my spot because I was running between my basement, garage and truck trying to find all the stuff to tether myself to the tree during my climb and while in the stand. My hunting partner never complained and just told me to take my time to make sure I had what I needed. When we got to the parking spot I realized I forgot a line to haul my bow up with, luckily he had a roll of twine that I stole several feet of. While walking in he said how cool it would be to shoot a bear, which he says every time. I agreed that it would be awesome but knew odds were slim. I've been fortunate enough to take 3 bears before today, one of which was with a compound but it's all just a matter of luck. And really, how much more luck could I have with bears? At about 8:20 I caught movement just up the hill from me and figured probably another squirrel or something. When I looked I couldn't believe I was watching a bear walk off the ridge towards me. He walked right in to within 15-20 yards as I drew and all my practice went right out the window. I have a pretty practiced shot cycle and I'm sure that wasn't it. I watched the arrow, which looked a little far forward disappear and knew it was a far forward hit but wasn't sure how good. I called my partner and told him what happened and to keep an eye out since it ran his direction. The next minutes were so slow. I wanted to track but knew I should wait. Finally I climbed down and found my arrow. The blood trail was easy to spot within the first couple of feet and I was super excited but I didn't want to count my chickens before they hatch so I didn't txt my dad or anyone until I knew for certain it was dead. I still decided to wait a while longer before taking up the trail which was agonizing. I had to force myself to sit down on a stump and wait. The. I heard a limb snap and my phone started to buzz a few moments later. It was my hunting partner, I figured he'd just shot a deer and it had piled up. He said "I think your bear just rolled down the hill towards me." He told me he had been watching some does when he heard a crash on the hill behind him which spooked the does and turned to watch a black ball roll down the hill and pile up about 50 yards behind his stand in some brush. He told me it looked pretty big. Now I'm about jumping out of my skin wanting to run down there. I got on the blood trail and followed to the top of the hill he'd seen it roll down before circling around and coming across the hill instead of straight down. I called him again before I got to him and asked if the bear was still laying there and he said it had rolled behind some brush but he never saw it leave. When I got close enough he guided me by sight right to where she laid. Now I could finally call my dad and tell him all about it which is one of my favorite parts of hunting. I love sharing my hunts with him even if he's not there. She wasn't the biggest bear in the woods, the pictures are slightly decieving. I couldn't get her hung high enough to get the head off the ground with the scale attached to my hanging post but dressed weight is right around 130 pounds so I'm figuring around 150 live weight. No matter the size, I'm super excited for my first traditional kill. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Got him Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Bloodied an arrow from the recurve finally, wish me luck on the recovery Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

It's amazing the number of people I see complaining on social media about election results but don't go out and vote. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

State park is an awesome place to hunt. I don't get over there near as often as I'd like but the hunts are always memorable. It's not the easiest place to kill a big buck but there are plenty of them roaming around there. With about 65000 acres it's pretty hard to get crowded by other people. If anybody who's never hunted in the park ever gets a chance, I'd definitely recommend trying it at least a couple times. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I have a Garmin Oregon series and I love it. I use it before, during and after season and it's been a great tool to have. When scouting I often travel quite a ways off any road or trail and it's always gotten me back to where I needed to be. In hilly terrain it's nice to see the topography because you can plan your route accordingly and go around steep terrain if possible rather than straight over. I also do a lot of still hunting so I use the "tracks" feature a lot to overlay my route onto a topo map so I can see what area I've covered while scouting or hunting. I'd recommend getting online and viewing what features each unit has to offer and making a list of the features you want a GPS to have. Then find a few that meet that criteria and check out all the reviews you can on them. If you do settle on a Garmin, I can almost guarantee that Cabela's will run a sale on it at some point during the year. I'm pretty sure every time I've been in the store or online there is at least one Garmin that is like half of MSRP. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I don't blame the broadhead for lack of blood on the bear, the incision it made was incredible and it didn't travel a great distance after the shot. It did it's job. The deer I shot at 15 yards was odd. When I shot I never saw where the arrow struck before he spun around and bounded just out of range. And I never said it sounded like a great hit, I said it sounded solid. Which to me is no indication of shot placement. He stood for about a minute before snorting and taking off in the direction he came from. I searched all over the place for a couple hours with no indication of a hit at all. But I couldn't find my arrow anywhere past where the deer was standing either. A year later I found the arrow with the shock collar broke and the blades deployed a couple hundred yards from the shot. Not necessarily the fault of the broadhead but I personally will not use them again. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I personally won't ever use them again. I've had mostly bad experiences with rage. I got a pass through on a bear a few years ago with a regular rage 2 blade and it only made it about 125 yards before piling up but it took me hours to trail it that far because of the lack of blood. That's the best experience I had with them. I switched to the chisel tip and shot a buck at 15 yards. It sounded like a solid hit but the deer only went a few yards out of range and stood there looking back for a couple minutes before snorting and taking off. I searched all over for any sign of a hit and scoured the direction he went with no sign of hair, blood or anything. A year later I found my arrow about 200 yards from where I'd shot, in the direction the deer took off. It had to have gotten next to no penetration and just stuck in him for that distance before falling out. I shot a buck again last year with them and ended up being a little far back, in the liver. This shot was from the ground so no extreme angle and through a relatively easy part of the body to get penetration. Arrow barely poked through the other side. With the exact same setup, only shooting a muzzy instead of rage I've never had a deer stop an arrow. That's just my personal experience with them, I'm sure others have nothing but praise for them. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I tend to lean towards keeping things the way they are. Personally I don't see any benefit to full inclusion in the area of the state that I hunt and have been against the use of crossbows in archery season. I have friends that hunt with crossbows but they have yet to convince me of the cause. At this point I will neither fight for or against. I've shot crossbows at targets and for what it's worth, they were kind of boring to me. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Good to know for next time I order strings. Moog told me about your strings, unfortunately it was right after I ordered a couple from 3rivers. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I've been nervous about trying them on my bows. I was told that they can damage the limb tips if the bow wasn't designed for them so I've shyed away. I do have very limited experience with traditional archery though so maybe I'm being overly cautious. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I was just looking at the site and at the bottom of the "about" page it says that the strings are for ff bows only. Just something to think about for anyone who might shoot an older bow like I do. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

It very well may have been a 2011 then. He said it was the first year of the 5.0 which I thought was 10. Admittedly I've always been a gm guy. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I gave one of my other buddies a hard time when he bought a brand new Duramax and put a bed rug in it as soon as he got it. In all honesty it did tickle my fancy a bit. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I know a few people who had the 5.0 one of them was a 2010 and he supposedly had some issues with transmission slipping. Ended up trading it in before 25000 miles for an Eco boost. Another one was a 2013 that my buddy traded in with around 50000 for a 2016 with another 5.0. it doesn't seem like people are keeping trucks for as long as they did in years past though Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Bullet weight plays a much minor role than design and construction. You can have two bullets of the same weight fired at the same velocity act completely different from one another when used on game. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

The 308 would be fine but if you're looking to get another rifle I'd agree with buck master and look at a whelen. From my experience it usually doesn't take much to put down a calm bear. Bears I've seen taken during drives are a different story, they can soak up a lot of very good hits from magnums and go further than someone might think possible. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

It's a pretty long video but here's a link to the documentary I was talking about. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I believe they are currently only doing a recall on the ones with the x mark pro trigger. Last I knew they were still battling in court about the rest of them. There's a documentary that used to be on Netflix called "Remington under fire" that has a good bit of info about the design flaws of the Walker trigger which I believe is in a majority of 700 rifles and is currently not being recalled. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Thanks Steve, I couldn't get that website to work yesterday but it seems fine today for some reason. After a bunch of phone calls and digging around I actually got a hold of a real person. They said Pentax is all sent to them (third party) then they send them overseas to be evaluated. I've seen some stuff online though that people are having a hard time getting them to honor the warranty. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Anyone know their warranty policy? I've got one of their scopes that the whole reticle will twist clockwise and counter clockwise as you adjust the magnification. For example if you turn the magnification ring clockwise, the horizontal and vertical cross hairs will also turn clockwise to a diagonal position. Never see this happen before with any scope. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

They just allowed sunday hunting for the first time this past season. Only in portions of the park though. Also opened up rifle and handguns in some parts of the park. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Might want to be careful with 4f as a main charge. With the smaller granules, the same volume is actually a different charge than 2f or 3f and they don't burn nearly the samr. At least that's the way I remember reading it from a book by Sam fadala. I'll double check when I get home from work this evening though. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I would hunt the same as I do now and always have. I keep several cameras out for most of the year but like many on here, I pretty much just enjoy the pictures I get for the viewing pleasure. In my personal opinion if you don't have good woodsmanship skills, cameras probably will not improve your hunting abilities. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I've seen a few here on the pa/NY border over that last 10-15 years and seem to get at least one on camera every year. We actually just called one in Saturday night while predator hunting. Seems like they're becoming more common around my area each year but still aren't seen very often. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk