Stinger-Hunter

I'm officially motivated for 2017! Great job guys.

I had a post on here around 2007 or so where I asked about the loss of deer (inability to find) for archery compared to firearms. The ratio was almost 4:1 archery vs firearms. I would imagine it is due, in part, to a lack of blood trail.

You will learn more about hunting, public/private land, buffalo and general wildlife history from just the one podcast with Rogan and Rinella than anywhere including many books. It's fantastic - I've watched many of them twice.

I'm not sure how many of you guys are into podcasts or video podcasts on Youtube. I work in an office with lots of mundane tasks and analysis, so listening to podcasts including hunting podcasts are always a highlight of the day. Joe Rogan (comedian, UFC commentator) has become a hunter and often has interesting and popular hunters on his podcasts. They last anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours and some of the material is excellent. Here are a few if you aren't familiar. Joe Rogan Experience #879 - Steven Rinella Joe Rogan Experience #715 - Remi Warren Joe Rogan Experience #709 - Steven Rinella Joe Rogan Experience #657 - Corey Knowlton Joe Rogan Experience #576 - Jim Shockey Joe Rogan Experience #567 - Cameron Hanes Joe Rogan Experience #540 - Steven Rinella

After much analysis (10 min). No freakin' clue.

Great pics!

I never open them up until I'm out in the field and I either keep them out there the entire weekend that I'm going to hunt and just refresh them when I get out there... or I keep them in the back of my truck if I must take them back. Regarding the bottles of urine. Unfortunately, I learned that the hard way when I had a bottle in my pocket and threw it in the washing machine. :-) Yep! You guessed it. Good Times!!

I'm definitely looking for a new bow this year. After 2012 hunting season and wasting $1,000 on gasoline alone going back and forth to Indiana I got fed up and literally put my PSE Nova in the dumpster. LOL It needed it anyway, but I haven't shot a bow in 4 years and now I'm back with the bow hunting itch. Besides the Mathews and Hoyt train, I'd like to find a decent brand that will be dependable for 5 years and will be fast and most importantly quiet. I owned a bow, I think a Fred Bear bow I bought from Cabelas or Bass Pro Shop and it was sooo loud there was no way I could shoot at a deer 30 yards away and have it NOT jump the string. Boing!!! Boing!!! ha ha ha. Anyway, I keep looking on Craiglist to get a used one. Winter and Spring are great for buying used bows since people are like me and ticked off they didn't get a deer the year before and decide they've had enough. :-)

That's a great buck!

Nice Job! Hard Work pays off.

1. If you hear a deer, it's probably a squirrel. If you hear a squirrel, it's probably a squirrel. If you don't hear anything, it's because there is nothing there. When you're 100% sure there are no deer, you'll notice a deer 20 yards away looking at you… and then runs off while snorting and alerting every animal in a half mile of your presence. 2. Deer hunters need to "fuel up" by eating two or even three times their normal amount of food before during and after a hunt since sitting on your butt absolutely motionless outside burns a lot of calories. 3. "Is my safety on?" [checks safety] "yeah, my safety is on." Repeat every 2-3 minutes for 10 straight hours. 4. After exhaustive hours and days of scouting, trimming branches, locating trails, rubs and scrapes, identifying food sources, bedding areas and finding the perfect tree to hang your stand; the deer come in on a different route just out of range. 5. You've waited all year for opening day and you're so excited that you can't sleep the night before so you stay awake with friends talking, drinking, watching hunting videos and re-enacting prior years failures and successes… when it's finally time to go hunting on opening morning, all you want to do is go to sleep. 6. You brought out all the gadgets to help bring in a big buck. You bleated, grunted, rattled, growled, waved your rag soaked in doe-in-heat urine, put out a few more tending calls, rattled a bit more, turned over your "original can" call, a few more grunts, three fawn bleats and another tending grunt just before you rattle one more time and then wonder why the deer aren't coming in. 7. You see a deer in your neighborhood while driving to your hunting spot 20 minutes away and then don't see a deer all day. When you get home your wife says, "I saw a deer in the backyard today… did you get anything?" 8. You hunt all weekend and finally during the last hour on Sunday, you start thinking about the big hassle it will be if you actually got a deer NOW since you'll spend half the night dressing it, dragging it, hanging it and then cleaning out the truck…after all you have to be at work in the morning and then silently hope a deer doesn't come out cause you need to sleep from all this hunting… and of course a deer doesn't come out because you're being negative and then shooting light ends and you drive home. 9. When two hunters are hunting the same 100 acre area, but arrive separately; their tree stands will inevitably be within sight of each other. 10. There are two types of deer hunters, those that put the work in and earn their deer and those that rely on others to put the work in and get lucky. It's nice to be the second guy once in a while, but real hunters would rather be the first guy. Hunt Hard Gentlemen.

I was just thinking about this while driving to work... the gray face. It definitely matters. Is it an indication of an exact age? No. But there are no gray faced fawns-4.5 year old deer. That's like saying a huge racked deer means little. Not really, a 14 point wild deer with a 21" spread rarely means that deer is younger than 4.5 years old. So a gray face is an indication of a 5.5 + deer 99% of the time.. That gray face of my buddy's old 8 pointer was aged by DNR Biologist at 6.5 years. Sorry guys, but this has been bugging me. This image might be difficult to see the gray, but you can definitely see around the eyes. I saw this buck in person and it looks straight up old - 6.5 years.

What a great post. Congratulations! Glad to see this happening in Illinois.

Going out on Saturday morning. Can't wait.

Never tried the drop away.

Hunted hard this past weekend. Was a bit disappointed, but there are still a few days I can get out and hunt.

That's fantastic!! I hunted in Jasper Pulaski last weekend. Saw a few small ones, but passed. Glad Indiana is still producing some good bucks.

Whisker Biscuit - I'm a big fan. The less movable parts the better.

Great Buck, Congratulations.

Scent Free I prepare all my clothes and my body for total and complete scent free experience.... which is impossible. But like perfection, it should be aimed for but can never be achieved. I have used more products than I care to admit. None of those products have proved to be effective. The scent free bar soap is the worst and deer smell that stuff for 600 meters or more. I have been busted by deer after showering with that scent free bar soap only 2 hours prior. They smell it like it was bleach. The Best Strategy for Scent Free Living is taking a shower with only water, warm/hot water for about 15 to 20 minutes. Let that water soak your hair, let it get everything off your body, wash your ass - everything. I never eat spicy foods for 2-3 days prior to going hunting (sweat isn't pure!). You ever meet anyone that smells like cilantro? Or around anyone that smells like Garlic - eat at an Italian place like Buca Di Beppo's and smell yourself the next day even after a shower. You'll smell like an Italian Kitchen. Drink lots of water perhaps with lemon and cucumbers to flush out the STANK! I run the washer twice without anything in it - to clean it out from soap and detergent. Then I put my hunting clothes in and wash them with Baking Soda. I do this twice! Spin dry it a couple times (just reset the washer for spin). Then hang dry outside if possible or in your home until dry and then hang outside for 2 days. Get those clothes smelling like the wind, leaves, etc. Play the Wind I can tell you a thousands stories of being on the wrong or right side of the wind and either Glory or Tragedy happened. 3 days prior you should be looking up the weather and wind direction; strategizing which stand to be in. Ok, I'll tell you this one story about failure and success all due to the wind. Last year after being given a specific spot to stand on and was told the deer would funnel through in no time. 3 different deer at different times before sunrise smelled me and began blowing (alerting) 20 - 30 yards behind me. I thought my hunt was ruined, but when it got light, I noticed a HUGE trail that those deer had been traveling on. The wind was going past me and right into their noses. Like I said, scent-free perfection is impossible. So Playing the wind is essential. (I had a buddy that spilled gasoline all over himself on opening morning and still shot 3 deer in the first 30 minutes because he played the wind.) Back to my story..... After I could see clearly that I was on the wrong side of a trail, I moved 30 yards and had a dead deer within an hour. Pretending that you might be the one person on the planet that can have their scent be ignored by a whitetail deer is just silliness. I won't waste your time with the research about a deer's nose, but suffice it to say that it is on par with a hound dog, the greatest tracking dog ever. Skip the stand if the wind is wrong and never violate this golden rule.

Hey brother... welcome to the hunting world. Both guns have a very powerful kick in 12 gauge - so know that. I get that you are on a budget, but you should just expect that. I have owned both guns and currently I own a Mossberg 500 and I love it. I believe the 870 is the most sold shotgun ever. The new 870s to me don't look that great. I'm not making a judgement on the quality of the 870, but it does look too much like plastic, in fact I believe the handguard is plastic but looks like wood. My 500 is beautiful. Both guns shoot the same. I would not make a recommendation on two different guns based on the aesthetics, but for all intents and purposes - both guns do the job just fine. I would do some searching on some gun auctions and the like to get a decent price on a used 870 and 500. I bought my whole setup for $325 used with the scope. You can get both new for $340 (Mossberg) / $330 (Remington)

I spent a lot of time playing with rounds the past couple weeks. I think I'm going to try the Hornady's this weekend. Very unsatisfied with the difference between rounds I have been shooting. I had my 12 gauge Mossberg 500 with Nikon ProStaff scope dialed in with a particular brand and type of round, then for poops and giggles I switched to same brand [B]slightly[/B] different round and it was shooting 3 inches low at 50 yards. I expect 2 different rounds to be different - but not that different.

I think I probably could use baking soda - I'm thinking about it now... I think I may have tried it back in the day, I think it began to clump up a bit and worked more as an exfoliator. I used baking soda in my boots one time and those boots shrank almost 2 sizes in a few months - they were not rubber boots. Had to toss them.

Looks a little grey in the face. I can't imagine a buck over 1 1/2 that doesn't fight. Law of the land.

That's a great price! I'm curious how you got that. Listed at $279.00 today. Let us know how it works for you.