1.) Swamp Fox - 07/12/2013

Okay, let's see if this generates more activity than a naked woman in a pool does...Sheesh...:re:...A lot of you are asleep at the switch out there...:tap:

What new gear or tactics or places or approach to hunting are you going to try this year? Simple answers like "Whisker Biscuit!" with no further explanation will be frowned upon...:wink...

Please answer in such a way that we get some insight into your personality, how your brain works, or at least have a shot at an interesting discussion.

:beer:

2.) luv2bowhunt - 07/12/2013

My goal this year is to do a better job of in-season scouting, to keep up with any sudden changes in deer movement, in whatever area I settle upon once the season gets here.

Last year I was hunting a vast area of timber in a State Forest, and getting lots of decent bucks on film. So many in one area, that I convinced myself I'd struck the mother load. This made me settle in way too firm in my stand locations. The area was so promising I refused to move. It was a strip of timber between a fairly open clearcut and the top of the steep laurel covered hill. Perfect pinch point that I just knew bucks would use when they were out checking for does. Early season sign was good, videos of bucks in late Sept., rubs, a few scrapes, and best of all white oak acorns. Everything looked perfect, had the area all to myself.

Never saw a deer in Oct. from the treestands, but I was still getting nightime pics so I was convinced it was just a matter or time until they were on their feet in the daylight. Gradually, the sign and pics started to dwindle. Now it was the second week of Nov. and I finally moved my stands farther down the hill on the edge of the thick laurel where I saw several fresh scrapes. Finally saw rutting activity but only 1 1/2 yr old bucks.

The season finally ended and now I was thinking of where I would setup in my normal half-hearted attempt at the rifle season. When I went to scout and setup a new stand, I parked along the paved road at the bottom of the mountain and hiked up from there. Decided I'd try the broad patchy laurel flat below the steep part of the mountain I had been hunting above in bow season.

Instantly I knew I had blown it. From the time I left the road until I finally decided to hang a stand on the flat, there were scrapes everywhere. Fresh tracks, droppings, rubs, sign everywhere. This flat also was filled with white oak acorns and had obviously been ground zero for the majority of the rutting activity.

I had totally missed it, because I was too stubborn to stay where I had seen all the activity in Sept. and early Oct. If I had just been willing to spend a couple of hours scouting during the season, who knows what could have happened.

My new strategy is to remember to keep my finger on the pulse of what is happening in the current moment, and let the deer sign tell me where to be hunting.

Actually it's not a new strategy at all, just a reminder to do what I've learned before, and should have been doing all along.



........believe me, with this semi-coherent and well thought out post, you still have no idea how my brain works.

3.) Swamp Fox - 07/12/2013

LOL...

I had not quite the same experience last year, but "behind the deer" is a good way for me to put it. A few stands I hunted a little longer than I should have, but it was more a matter of me zigging while the deer were zagging. Classic example: Late rutting activity after Thanksgiving---I'll have to check my notes for exact date---and I "had to" leave and then couldn't get back before it was over. Am gonna try to save some of my powder this year so I can camp out on the deer during prime time instead of so much constant effort throughout the season.

That's "Shift in Tactics" Number One.

More to follow....

4.) DParker - 07/12/2013

[QUOTE=Swamp Fox;7962]Okay, let's see if this generates more activity than a naked woman in a pool does...Sheesh...:re:...A lot of you are asleep at the switch out there...:tap:

What new gear or tactics or places or approach to hunting are you going to try this year?[/quote]

I'm planning an antelope hunting trip to the new state of North Colorodo: [url]http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/northern-colorado-wants-secede-colorado-174432609.html[/url]

[QUOTE=Swamp Fox;7962]Please answer in such a way that we get some insight into your personality, how your brain works...[/QUOTE]

Trust me when I tell you that you really don't want to know.

Seriously though...

I'm bound and determined to bag something (and I really don't care what it is, so long as it's legal) with my Mosin this season. Ditto my Montec-armed Gold Tips that I got last year but never saw any blood.

On the "where" front I'm finally getting bored with the area around Cooper Lake that I've been hunting for the past 7 years. It's the closest archery-only area where I've reliably seen deer each season and I/we (my boy and I) can usually get in with little or no competition from other hunters, which is why I've stuck with it for so long. But I think it's time to expand my wee-hours-of-the-AM driving range and find someplace new for a change. To that end I'm looking into the several thousand acres of TPWD/ACE-managed land on the TX side of Lake Texoma. Or maybe the area around Pay Mayse lake (a couple hours NNE of Dallas). It just means I'll need to fall out of bed at 4:00am instead of my usual leisurely sleeping in until 4:30am.

On the other hand, maybe we could pool our collective pennies and relieve Costner of some of land around Deadwood, SD that he's looking to unload, then set ourselves up a nice little hunting preserve:

[url]http://news.yahoo.com/kevin-costner-selling-land-south-142432676.html[/url]

I've also finally talked my son into entering the state-run alligator hunt drawing with me this year...though the odds on that one are pretty slim.

5.) bluecat - 07/12/2013

Been battling shoulder issues for sometime now. Had a bad right wing years ago and brought it back from the dead through lots of rehab. Then two years ago my left one crapped out. Just got the news this week (X-Ray, MRI) that the rotator is good and solid but impingement syndrom is causing the pain (just like the right one). Start rehab today. I have 6 weeks to turn it around otherwise I'm going in for surgery so they can smooth the bone out a little.

I don't really have any special tactics this year except after a full season of moving around (6 different stand locations on one field) I've got it narrowed down to two spots. One produces bucks the other mostly does.

I will start to tinker with a recurve/longbow hybrid when the bow maker is finished. Have no plans to hunt with it so soon. Just have fun with it for now.

6.) Swamp Fox - 07/12/2013

Hope you can hold it together, Bluecat! What, you're not Gumby anymore?

DP's first link just reinforces my thinking that I was smart to open my secession flag business when I did. Not only does it even out the slow periods for the spray-on tan business, but it seems like it will be a growth industry.

I liked this part of the story especially:

Feeling disenfranchised, one could argue, is part of being American. [COLOR="#FF0000"]I'd like to see them dare to make the same statement when the subject is professional grievance group complaints, or in a story about proposed voter ID laws, say...LOL. Oh, please, please do it! [/COLOR]Residents from more than 30 states, including Colorado and Texas, filed petitions to secede in the wake of President Barack Obama's reelection in November. But citizens in Austin, Texas, filed a counter petition to allow the city to "peacefully" secede from Texas and remain a part of the United States. [COLOR="#FF0000"]And I'll bet a lot of Texans said "Hell, yeah! Don't let the saloon door hit you in the backside on the way out!"[/COLOR]

7.) DParker - 07/12/2013

[QUOTE=Swamp Fox;7967]Residents from more than 30 states, including Colorado and Texas, filed petitions to secede in the wake of President Barack Obama's reelection in November. But citizens in Austin, Texas, filed a counter petition to allow the city to "peacefully" secede from Texas and remain a part of the United States. [COLOR="#FF0000"]And I'll bet a lot of Texans said "Hell, yeah! Don't let the saloon door hit you in the backside on the way out!"[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

8.) crookedeye - 07/19/2013

a crossbow for me, i frigure its legal..why not..going to be doing alot of ground hunting this year.

9.) Swamp Fox - 07/24/2013

Not much new in the way of gear for me this year...Mostly I'm keying in on cleaning out my packs and travel gear and figuring out what gets used and what doesn't. Combing through the Bronco and moving some things around:wink...Setting up some lifelines for guests, which I have always thought a little too much of a PITA for my own purposes...Will be ditching the full-body tree harness in most some sets in favor of a seat harness, which is a move back toward the way I used to set up. Enough was enough with the full harness back strap always in my way, plus some other issues...

10.) Ventilator - 07/24/2013

Ok Swampy, let me be the first to say ill miss you.....this is when the waist harness sucks the life out of you when you slip and are left hangin upside down. Just because you decided the full body harness was a pita and your life isnt worth as much as it was the last few years!

BTW, i switched to easton Injexion Deep Six arrows with Ramcat 100gr heads. Just gotem all fletched and ready to rock. I am waiting on the new field points that i forgot about to get here. Then its game on. :tu:

11.) Swamp Fox - 07/24/2013

LOL...Seat harness, not waist harness or waist belt. I still have my old waist belts but am a LITTLE smarter about using them than maybe I used to be. :-)

12.) luv2bowhunt - 07/24/2013

I'm going to try and hunt more evenings in the early season this year and less mornings. I luv mornings later in the season but they don't seem that productive in early season.

Maybe sleep in a Sat. or two this Oct., but I doubt it.

13.) Swamp Fox - 07/24/2013

I think it depends on your set how productive early season mornings are. You need to hunt a particular kind of place for AMs to be worth it. Otherwise, I see a lot of deer on their feet around 11 AM.

It's a LOOONG day to hunt both AM and PM in the early season.

14.) luv2bowhunt - 07/24/2013

I find the big timber much harder for evening hunts. No fields, no real edges, the only thing working for you is feeding areas, especially in years with a poor acorn crop.

Not an easy thing to pull off, but I will try and hunt a few more than years past. Most of my sets, you'd be better off hunting all day I think, but wife frowns on that.

She actually wants me around on Saturdays. :re:

15.) Swamp Fox - 07/24/2013

You'd think she'd have had quite enough of you by now...

16.) luv2bowhunt - 07/24/2013

Not to hijack but did you see a group in PA sued the PA Game Comm. for not allowing Sunday hunting? It will be worth monitoring to see what comes of it.

17.) Swamp Fox - 07/24/2013

:tu:...

Some Pa. and Virginia press coverage here...Nothing on other states, yet.

[url]http://www.sundayhunting.org/news/[/url]

18.) Pa bowhunter - 07/25/2013

sending them a check tomorrow, they are taking donations to help with the cost of legal fee's.

19.) Triton Rich - 07/25/2013

[B]Speaking of Harnesses. I might change out my older HSS vest harness for one of the newer models. It works fine but is a bit clunky and bulky. Oh, then there's the part where it is apparently designed to catch you by the scrotum if you fall! :td: The new models look quite a bit slimmer and the leg straps go more around the legs like they should. We are also making Dad start wearing a harness this year. We'll set all his stands up with a climbing rope and a prusik hitch to make it as easy as possible on him. As far as shootin' stuff, I went back to my lighter faster arrows since I'm not elk hunting this year and I'll probably be experimenting some with the Rage hypodermic, I think the all steel design with the shock collar should pretty much fix the flaws in the early models. I'll still be using a fixed blade (Trufire T1) to try and kill a big old buck, I'll just switch it out if I see a doe coming. [/B]