mattys281

I’ve never really been bothered by snakes, but eff that guy! Spooky...

You’re probably better off to try eBay or archery talk. There may be a collector that’s interested. good luck with your sale

What does your arrow weigh and what’s the setup chronograph at? 55# at 24” sounds very low energy, I’d personally be very concerned with penetration. A lot of bulls have fallen to low energy bows before, but I think it requires some extra consideration. I’d be trying to get as close as possible and use a heavy arrow with a fixed blade 2 blade cut on contact head. just my .02, good luck.

2008 diamond black ice I got on sale at Cabelas in 2009. Put arrows in 3 coues deer, a mule deer, a javelina, and a couple eastern whitetails. never killed anything bigger than a rabbit with a rifle. At least not yet

Very cool!!! Congrats to all, lots of good eating in your future.

I think perhaps there’s just a difference in perspectives. I, personally, enjoy to hunt all alone and I also enjoy to hunt with my good friend when our plans can line up. But that’s just a personal preference, I don’t think it’s necessarily better or worse than how others hunt. Historically, hunting has long been a male bonding group effort across many cultures. It’s a tradition that spans millennia for men and the boys who are old enough to ride away from the village and chase wild game in the wilderness. Theres certainly a value to working hard on your own and accepting either success or failure on your own, but there also a significant value to seeing a group effort bare fruit isn’t there? I also think in an age where virtually anything that is the least bit manly is labeled ‘toxic masculinity’ or some other nonsense, it’s vitally important for young lads to be around men doing manly things and to see that it’s a good thing to be manly and they’re not alone in those endeavors. The only thing better for a boy than spending time with a good man is to spend time with several good men. From that perspective , I think there’s a huge value in guys coming together to help a kid on his hunt. Just my .02 congrats to you and your son on that cow hunt

Saw the firefighting jets flying back and forth over my place today. They’re hitting it as hard as they can. Hope they get it locked down pretty quick.

Couldn’t hurt, something left that sign behind. I’d just pick a high enough vantage point where you can glass those areas and lots of other country at the same time.

When you’re glassing don’t look for deer. Try to look at the ground and look at everything, picking apart every rock, look through bushes at the ground behind them, try to touch literally everything in the field if view with your eyes. Glass in a grid pattern and pick apart everything in your field of view before you move your binos. I only move half a FOV at a time so I essentially relook at everything. Coues deer are remarkable at being invisible. Often you won’t see the deer, you’ll see an ear or their nose. I’ve found them literally bedded inside of low growing bushy junipers, I couldn’t see anything then it flicks its ear and gives itself away. I usually will glass pretty fast at first to try to find the “obvious deer” then if you don’t find it go back to the beginning and begin your slow methodical glassing. keep in mind too that a “good spot” doesn’t necessarily have deer in it every day. Desert deer have bigger territories than their woodland cousins do and the herds move around in their range. You may be in a good spot and doing things right, yet there just aren’t deer there today. I’m not a rifle guy, I’ve killed all mine with a bow and arrow sitting ambushes. I’ve had to sit for several boring days in a row before the deer moved back into the area and things got hot again. Sometimes you get there at just the right time and it seems easy. Other days it seems like you’re the only living thing on the planet. That’s normal. If you’ve got some areas that show good sign, glass those spots a few days in a row. They might be there tomorrow if they’re not there today. I think a lot of folks give up on spots too quickly because they get discouraged and invent reasons why the deer have left: it’s too dry, I made too much noise and bumped them out, there’s too many other hunters here, etc etc etc You gotta give a spot time to pay out. Stay positive and be persistent. My first deer took 14 days of hunting, and numerous blown stalks. You just have to keep going, and then when you connect and put your hands on those antlers you’ll think, “Huh! That wasn’t so hard....”

One other thing I’d mention, as dry as it is I’d be looking for water then burn out the soles of your boots walking every ridge close to that water looking for beds and areas where trails intersect, usually in saddles and in benches. Deer don’t necessarily use the same beds every day, but they do come back to them over and over again. Find those bedding areas and high traffic areas and mark them on your OnX app and then glass those areas specifically. Something with horns will eventually turn up.

I was wading in ankle deep acorns last fall in 20a: haven’t seen one this year. Dryer than a popcorn fart out there. to the OP, as others have mentioned get that glass on a tripod, get a nice comfy butt pad and settle in for lots of glassing. You don’t need to find a hundred bucks, you just need one. They could be anywhere, so look at everything.

Happy birthday

That must have been some where in Cali. In most other places ‘cougar’ means something different than a fruity dude in a wig and yoga pants.

I think that’s so cool that a guy could make a call for help and a bunch of you fellas just went out and helped that lad on a moments notice. Real class acts each and every one. Nice work, all.

Wow! That’s some last day magic! Big congrats:)

Congrats to her that’s so cool! cant wait til mine are big enough to go

In for archery javelina, that’s it for me this spring. my spring will be spent taking a sabbatical from working and pulling a travel trailer full kids and dogs across the country for a couple months.

Good stuff! Congrats to all

I’ve blow through muke deer and coues deer with 385 grain lightning bolts before. When I do my job and put it in the rib cage it’s easy. After I made a bad hit and lost a deer it got me thinking to beef things up a little. To each their own...

If your bows draw length is 28.5 and your current arrow is 28.25, probably the easiest thing you could do is cut 0.5-1.0” off the arrow length and switch to heavier inserts or (simpler yet) just screw on heavier heads. Lots of companies are making 150 grain broadheads now and some are making 200+. I’d make that arrow as short as you can and load up the front end, just make sure there’s at least a half inch of arrow shaft in front of the contact point of your rest. They old school wisdom I was taught way back when was that you want at least an inch in front of the rest, but that was back when bows had softer back walls and you could draw an extra half inch just by pulling against the cams. It’s not that big of a deal anymore with the modern solid wall bows that have limb stops and/or cable stops on them. Anyhow, if there’s more than a half inch of shaft in front of you rest at full draw you can shorten it up a bit. I shout 27.5” long shafts off a 29” draw bow. there’s some real advantages to running a little higher FOC, namely if you hit something hard like a shoulder blade or leg bone. An arrow that is front heavy is usually more successful at busting the bone and then pulling the rest of the arrow through, compared to a more balanced arrow where the arrow head just kind of stops and then the back end keeps trying to push, but most of the energy is soaked up in flexing the shaft. however, I think that’s only part of it. I’ve seen some hard hits destroy broadheads and splinter carbon shafts. I think one of the best ways to add FOC is to reinforce the end of the arrow with steel inserts and footers. Steel inserts are not only much heavier than aluminum, but they are also much more rigid and adding them can have the same effect as shortening your arrow. Brass is a little heavier than steel, but steel is much more rigid and strong, so I stick with it. this set up is a 505 grain arrow built with ironwill 50 grain steel inserts and 25 grain footers plus an all steel Broadhead. Foc is 13%, leaves the bow at 265 FPS and makes a boat load of energy and (more importantly slug). I built it for elk, but didn’t get to test it on one, so now some unfortunate whitetail is going to find out how it works. It hits dang hard and is super forgiving and easy to shoot.

Wish I had the time, sounds like fun. Good luck to you and the little man, keep after it!

Does that come in an adult size?

Very cool! Hard to get more BA than that.

Congrats! Probably a couple younger bulls around that are glad to see that surly old SOB take a ride in your truck. Gotta live the ones with character.

Good thinkin can’t be to careful.