stubborn1VT

Thanks for checking in Stone. Great to see the pics. Looks like you made the best of the summer with your family.

Congrats to the member and that looks like excellent work! Stellar pics.

I have had less than impressive results with Hornady XTPs. My feeling is that they are a great bullet, but not made for the velocities out of my ML. I am leaning towards a Barnes bullet. For you guys with lots more black powder experience: What bullet and weight would you recommend? I am shooting a CVA with two pellets of Triple 7 and I plan to shoot 100 yards max. Seems to me like copper is the way to go, no?

I saw terrible germination at times this year due to lack of moisture. I have found good prices online by shopping around. I have used Whitetail Institute, Deer Creek Seed, Hancock Seed and Nature's Seed. I have even purchased seed on Amazon with free shipping. A local ag supply store is probably better. You might try contacting Cornell's extension offices. They have offices all over the state that provide agriculture related info and services. Good luck.

I have an O3 unit that was made to pair with the Heater Body Suit. It is small, runs on a few AAA batteries and cost me about $30. It has a set run time, so I just turn it on for a cycle and put it on top of my clothes inside a tote. Not sure if it helps, but I doubt it hurts.

Sounds like you figured it out. Good deal. As long as you have your scope dialed for your BHs you should be good to go. Good luck!

Both. I'm in Vermont so I was using a crossbow. I shot him offhand. Probably more a high shot.

8 pointer here in Vermont. First deer taken at my house instead of on our family farm. It's a 12 acre piece and I put in some food and did some work in the woods. 35 yards. I made a terrible shot and got lucky. Cut the artery under the spine and got the top of one lung. He ran 300 yards and I found ZERO blood. It rained overnight and I was pretty upset. Got up this morning and went walking in my rain gear. After almost 2 hours of crisscrossing a field of tall grass and goldenrod I came across him. I'm very thankful it worked out for me, instead of coyotes. 159 pounds. My father-in-law will hunt here now that I'm done and I will go hunt does around the family farm. Oh, I forgot to mention that I shot him from the ground with a leafy jacket on. #Fromtheground

Funny. I also shoot a Sniper 370 and Piledrivers. I found that one batch of bolts didn't shoot quite the same as the other. I just shot them and picked out the top performers for my quiver. I shoot Wasp Jakhammer broadheads. Being a mechanical, they shoot the same as a field point. Not sure if this helps, but you could nock tune them as well.

Hunted at the farm opening day. I bumped one under my stand in the dark on the way in. Saw nothing. Hunted an overgrown pasture in the afternoon. Nothing. I hunted at my house last PM. Deer have been coming out behind a strip of corn I planted. I gave it a shot #Fromtheground. Ended up seeing a doe with twins and another "adult-ish" doe. I probably should have shot the second doe, but I was happy to watch them eat clover. Earlier in the day I saw 9 turkeys and I couldn't tell the hen from the poults. All in all, a very good day. Congrats to all the successful hunters, especially RobHuntandFish. I will be back out there Thursday. Waiting on a north/west wind to get in a stand closer to bedding..

I knew you hadn't got a deer in awhile. Don't add bad juju to the mix too!

While I appreciate your dad's sentiment, I would avoid a gun that grandpa didn't kill a deer with. That's just bad juju. Good luck either way!

Only cover I ever had leaked. No go for me. Open bed AND a cap. The simple fix for me is to just have two trucks!

Tractor with a bucket 100%.

I had only seen 3 poults until a few weeks ago. Once we got some rain they started getting out in the hay fields (like on a normal year) around here. I would say they were on the small side, but at least I am seeing some. I have been driving 1+ hour to our family farm in Central VT and there are plenty of poults there. I counted 2 hens with 19 poults in one field. My brother says there are at least 3 flocks like that on the farm.

IMO people don't think about broadheads enough. There are tons of variables. Some questions to ask: Is it sharp out of the package? Will it hold together when it contacts bone/ribs? Will it be sharp after hitting hide/meat/bone? Will it give me a pass-through? Will the blades deploy correctly when shooting at an angle? Will it fly like my field points? Will it require a bunch of tuning to make it fly? The only way to be confident in a broadhead is to use it and get good results. That's just trial and error, unless you have done some research ahead of time. I think it is a gross oversimplification to just screw on any old broadhead and expect it to do what you want.

I imagine either one would work. They should both hold scent. I put mine up with gloves on. Good luck with them. I'm hoping to put up one or two more in the next week or so.

I have been using grape vine for at least 5 years with good success. I checked one vine that has been in place for 4 or 5 years. I haven't had to replace it. I put up two vines and 3 cameras yesterday. I cut a piece as big around as my finger and 3-4 feet long and attach it to a limb with a couple zipties. I hang them so they are around waist height or a little higher. I'm always impressed with the bucks that check them in the late season. I would post pics, but I don't have any on this laptop.

Very few apples here. Might be a late frost, but we've had drought conditions for months too. Bad combination. I will have to check some trees on the farm when I go this weekend.

Location makes sense. I do think that a smaller, more tender plant makes some difference. Nature is funny though and it's cool to see new things. Sounds like you guys adjusted and took advantage.

I think it's a pretty safe bet that a heavy arrow with a stout cut-on-contact gets through the shoulder well enough to do the job. Just my opinion.

I think you are on the right track with your thinking. Stats collected from deer search around the country show a higher recovery rate for fixed blades over mechanicals and much higher recovery for pass-throughs vs one hole. Everything works on a great shot and Rage can be devastating. I really agree with the idea that with better penetration you would have recovered some of those deer. Many of us bow hunters have learned lessons the hard way. Sounds like you are trying to learn from your experiences. Good luck making improvements. I keep coming back to deer I hit in the shoulder blade with mechanicals that I shouldn't have lost. A well built cut on contact, like a Magnus would have done the job. These were shots under 30 yards with heavy aluminum arrows. Now I know better.

Interesting, but hard to compare. Annuals like radish are very good at growing in a hurry. What Phade saw was probably a case of smaller plants being more pallatable. What you saw was perennials that are slow to establish. I agree that September 30th is pretty late. It really does depend on what you plant though. Lots of farms plant cover crops after harvesting beans and corn. The potato farmer across from my mother's planted winter wheat or rye in October. It had a bunch of deer on it until the snow got deep and then again when it greened up in the spring.

Got some of my tilling done. We got enough rain so it isn't dusty, but the 30 year old sod could use some time to rot down before I till again. I will plant turnips and radish next time there is rain in the forecast. Pretty excited that I will be doubling my plots from half to nearly a full acre. It is all planted in strips. Two strips of clover, a strip of field corn, a strip of turnips and two strips of oats/winter peas. Oh, and a strip of goldenrod and green ash saplings left for cover, as well as 8 small apple trees that I planted. I don't hunt here much at all, but I'm hoping it will give me a place to watch deer before work. Also, it would give my father-in-law a place to go when his other spots get over-run with people. He's a good guy and if he gets a deer he gives us 90% of the venison. I checked a couple cameras in the woods. Just a couple does, fawns, a spike horn and a half-rack with just a fork on one side. Looking forward to that first week in November when the bucks start cruising here.