Leo

My opportunities to go have been pretty limited. Both sides of my face have some paralysis. And the effects of my brain injury two years ago still haunt me. Where I can hunt and when I can hunt depends on help from others. I had help last night, from both God and my best hunting buddy. If I hadn't, this story would have turned out much differently. This was only my forth hunt this year. The season has been open since Aug 15th that's alot of days I couldn't go. I sat the same site I had been skunked on twice earlier this year. The rut is in FULL swing here now. This area covers three funneled travel routes. You have to be quick and pay attention. Well I know am not as quick as I used to be. I had to pray a deer would pause long enough in an open area to get a clean shot. I had that feeling you get when you know God is gonna give you something good. This faith and anticipation made the hunt even more enjoyable. I kept imagining a buck coming through one of the funnels, stopping and allowing me to get a shot. Several of these scenarios played through my mind all afternoon. Then suddenly as the sun was setting it happened for real. Buck, good buck, shooter buck. He was at 120yds. I sent the 180gr Fusion bullet from my 30 06 Tikka on its way. The buck dropped his head and scooted off in a death charge into the thick stuff. From his reaction. I figured he wouldn't be far. Oh no! I couldn't find blood. There was no discernable land mark I could identify to mark where the buck had been standing. A fire break through planted pines offers little terrain variation. I sure didn't feel like I missed. This was starting to grate on me but 30minutes later I finally did find blood. I am certain it was exactly where the deer had been standing when I took the shot. Good sign! Blood sign at the point of impact is an excellent indication the animal was hit solidly. My buddy showed up on his four wheeler to help track. This turned out to be a major ordeal. Aubrey was literally crawling on his hands and knees only finding pinhead drops every 10-15ft. Yes I feel I hit him good. Yes it was a good buck. I called my wife on the cellphone. Pray we find this one honey. He's a good one. Aubrey says have faith. I told him, I did. We pushed on. One hour later. Aubrey says there he is. What a big bodied deer!! And for South Carolina he is. I admit it I hugged him when we found him. He went back to get the four wheeler and left me with the deer. I very soon heard him start up the four wheeler. It had taken one hour to go less than 80yds!!!! Amazingly, the bullet had not passed through. We could only find one hole on the deer. The deer was quartering to me and more than likely it had passed through his chest and lodged in his pelvis. I had punctured one lung and his diaphragm. Very lethal. No exit hole explained the sparseness of the blood trail. God wasn't through looking out for me. We were so late getting out of the woods the processor on the way home was closed. I am so glad we called first. That would have cost me 50miles. Aubrey found another one nearby his house that would wait for us. God smiled again. We dropped him off. I got home, and slept hard. Just a 3x3 but a NICE!!!! 3x3 165lbs. Aubrey is the land manager he believes this deer is 4 or 5yrs old. I agree with him. For sure this is an excellent management deer. Best smile I can muster folks. Facial paralysis is no friend at moments like these. Believe me I am very thankful and happy. Not my biggest deer but certainly my best six point ever. You rarely see a six with a frame big enough to hold four more points. This guy does. The only measurement I got before we dropped him off was the outside spread. 17 1/2 inches.

Add a buck to our pile Got this dude yesterday afternoon. Submitted him this morning. Only hunted four times this year. It's a little harder for me. God has blessed me with for sure my best six ever.

Re: 05-06 RT Forum Deer Contest - ENTRY THREAD

Re: ATTENTION BOWTECH LOVERS............... Most of us know better than to jump to any conclusions based on unverifiable internet Forum "facts". Just because you want to believe something is true doesn't make it so. And just because you don't want to believe it doesn't make it untrue either. Until I read an announcement on Bowtech's webpage that introduces Kevin's replacement I am gonna reserve judgement on this one. If you decide you can't wait. Why not go to the Bowtech Archery Website's FAQ section and ask Techman with an Email whether Kevin Strother (A Vice President and a Founder) was fired or not?

Re: BROADHEAD PROBLEMS First thing I would suspect is the broadheads wobble a bit. Make sure your inserts are square before messing with nock points or rests. Spin test your arrows if the broadheads wobble that's your problem. Field points are way more forgiving of this than even expandables.

Re: Why there wasn\'t looying after Rita pic [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] I know everyone here is getting a kick out of this. I did too. Here is a sobering thought, though. Does anyone really think our mainstream media is gonna give any coverage whatsoever to legal gunowners preventing looting after a hurricane? [/ QUOTE ] Maybe they would or wouldn't, who knows, while it is a funny picture, I am concerned. Is that the way we want ourselves depicted as gun owners and hunters, a bunch of rednecks standing around holding shotguns, rifles and pistols, with beer cans in our hands ready to pop a shot. Thats not the way I want myself depicted, that picture alone could set the gun lobby back a hundred fold while giving more fuel to the anti-gun crowd, that pic is what every anti-gun legislator wants to see and what every UNINFORMED anti-gun citizen already sees us as. Do we really want to depict ourselves the way they see us? Just a thought. [/ QUOTE ] Slugshooter makes an excellent point I think we all should consider.

Re: Why there wasn\'t looying after Rita pic I know everyone here is getting a kick out of this. I did too. Here is a sobering thought, though. Does anyone really think our mainstream media is gonna give any coverage whatsoever to legal gunowners preventing looting after a hurricane?

Re: TEAM 20 Hunting this afternoon I am in SC and there has been alot of activity in the area the landowner is putting me How about the name "Baglimit"?

Re: Digital Camera of choice? Please help!!! You're right about the Image Stabilization Bfletch!!! By default it's always on. It works so good, you just forget about it. I did.

Re: Digital Camera of choice? Please help!!! [ QUOTE ] Im looking for a new digital camera for myself I want a really nice one for using when I go hunting and such, looking for a 5 or 6mp camera with a very high zom on it so I can really get in on the animals. Im thinking I may have to go with a Sony higher end or a Minolta higher end just not sure yet. [/ QUOTE ] I would definately consider Canon. I just got the Canon Powershot S2 IS for my birthday about 2 weeks ago. I am still getting the hang of all it's functionality. This is a very serious camera. 5.3MegaPixels and takes outstanding DVD quality video clips with sound to boot. You can even snap stills while in film mode. You can't do that with SLRs. For super intense photo sessions you can attach the camera to a laptop, control camera settings from the laptop and view the display on your monitor. In this remote mode you can snap pictures directly to your harddrive and it will bypass the flash card entirely. Effectively in this mode the camera can take as many photos as the harddrive on your computer will hold. Wish it could do the same with video. That's a software upgrade I will keep my fingers crossed for. It has an integral 12X optical zoom and this lense is great. You can use up to 4x digital zoom on the camera or turn that option off. That gives you a possible magnification ability of up to 48x right out of the box. Remember though that digital zoom degrades picture quality 2x digital zoom effectively turns a 5mp camera to a 2.5mp. You can buy a 2x telephoto adapter lense for this camera. I might do this later. In addition a wide angle lense adapter and filters are also available. The photo software that comes with the camera is awesome. The stitch software allows you to join several photos seamlessly into one. So three shots with a minimal 35% overlap joined becomes a 10.3 Megapixel photo. The results are impressive. There is a color replace mode built into the camera so if your wife is dreaming of repainting a room a certain color. Take a picture of the color she wants, the color you want to replace and the room you want to paint. The camera will do the color swap. It's not perfect because it will pick up everything that is the same color as the wall in the photo and do the swap but it will sure give you an idea of how the choice will look. Anyhow my wife sure liked that function If you have a direct print capable printer you can connect the camera to the printer and print directly from the camera without even turning on the computer.

Re: Prayer\'s Please Prayer sent

Re: First exotic hunt. Auodads are pretty elusive suckers and as spooky as whitetails. Have fun. Blackbucks see as good as turkeys. Maybe better. They are pretty patternable though and with a rifle you should get one in a couple days. Bowhunting them is very challenging.

Re: 125gr for deer Either are fine for deer at that poundage. Heavier shafts fly better with heavier heads. It depends on how long and heavy your arrow shafts are. Go out to Goldtips website and check your FOC

Re: Extreem Shrink Fletch report I agree they are a cool idea. Did they ever come out with a model for Helical fletching? Or is it still straight fletch only? Perhaps with expandables it won't matter but since I use fixed blade heads I need the helical.

Re: your prayers please .. More sent

Re: MO and KE??? Then read Dr. Ashby Reports.... [ QUOTE ] But try this. Take that 280 fps bow with that 406 g arrow and add about 50 or even 100 grains to the arrow. Shoot it threw a chrono. Obviously your speed with drop some. However what is your KE? Roughtly the same. Dont believe me? Try it. I did and was amazed..... [/ QUOTE ] Yep, I absolutely believe you. I have heard many archers say they are going to a lighter arrow to increase their K.E. It doesn't work that way. Think about it. Going to a lighter arrow creates more energy??? Going to a lighter arrow gets you a faster arrow. But not really much more energy (if any). The only reason the K.E. isn't exactly the same is because the mechanical efficiency of your bow varies with arrow weight. Mechanical efficiency of your bow is the (Kinetic Energy of the arrow)/(Potential energy stored in the bow) If you really want more Kinetic Energy, turn up the draw weight. This increases the potential energy in the bow available to be turned into Kinetic energy when the arrow is released.

Re: 650 fps bow??? From a 70lb bow with a 30" draw (+ 8" brace) it is mathmatically impossible for the bow to store enough energy to propel a 350 gr (IBO weight) arrow 650fps. This bow is either shooting an extremely light arrow, has a significantly higher than 70lb draw weight or it is making use of some sort of pre-stored energy. That the only way I can see this being accomplished. Like to see how they did it... if they did. Are arrows still reusable or one time use only like bullets?

Re: SEASON OPENERS No bow season here in this area of South Carolina. Gun season opens Aug 15th. I am free to use a bow then if I choose.

Re: 125 to 100\'s ????? The effect on FOC is entirely dependant on the arrows you a screwing the lighter broadheads into. On some arrows it will make hardly any difference on the flight on others it could be a disaster. If with 125s you have an FOC close to 8% going to a lighter head is gonna cause problems.

Re: Antelope Hunt Auction for Norm Sauceman [ QUOTE ] I wish I could bid but I cannot...too many drags on the finances. However, Realtree should contact Norm to see if the contribution could be made to Norm's charity/foundation on his behalf. That would make it tax deductible--provided Norm's foundation is a charitable organization. If so, that will help the bidders be able to get their bid up. New [/ QUOTE ] I know you mean well Newarcher. Here is a little more info that I don't think Norm will offer up himself. Norm has been ordered off work by the doctors and has no income right now. A tax deduction is meaningless when there is nothing to deduct from. DHNA has a Paypal account on their website, they are a charitable organization and donations are tax deductible. If some Realtree folks want to contribute to that great. But know that Norm doesn't use those funds for himself. This fundraiser auction is specifically for Norm Sauceman and I would suggest that to best benefit him personally it stay that way. Some members adding to the winning bid just to contribute is an excellent gesture. I applaud everyones participation.

Re: Antelope Hunt Auction for Norm Sauceman The term "back problem" is technically accurate but I fear this fails to adequately describe the seriousness of Norm's condition. For those who don't know I will elaborate a little. This cut and paste from www.DHNA.org [ QUOTE ] My name is Norm Sauceman. I am the President and Founder of the DHNA. I was involved in an industrial accident. After 20 operations and 26 plates, pins and screws along with 6 bone-graphs, and a lot of pain, I soon realized that we with disabilities have a hard time accessing the outdoors. It then became my mission in life to make accessing the outdoors a reality for disabled hunters. [/ QUOTE ] I will tell you Norm's organization has done just that for me. I will also tell you that the number of pins, screws and surgeries listed in the above quote doesn't include his most recent. This man is hurting bad. He absolutely deserves this noble campaign. It's about time he gets a payback for all the good he has done.

Re: New arrow rest. What next? It appears their broadheads have an extra long shank behind the blades. I would assume this is to prevent them being sucked down onto the magnet. Requiring new inserts on every arrow is gonna hurt the appeal of this rest for many people.

Re: Rubber Bands Quite often these "rubber bands" are referred to as "O-Rings" at an auto parts store or hardware store

Re: Little guy\'s needing your prayers More prayers sent he's gonna need them!

Re: Caption time Not recomended for homes with a septic system.