atthewall

Might want to consider the Rage 2 blade or switch to a fixed 2 blade design like the Magnus Stingers or Buzzcuts. As mentioned, you might be a little on the low side in speed for the 3 blade Rage to really punch through after impact? As long as it's working and your keeping your shots in the boiler room, it's all good.

Congratulations and what a great looking buck! I'd put him around low 150s. He has excellent mass on a very heavy frame.

Oh man, I've got the lemons and lime!! Congratulations!

From what you have described, my feeling is he hit the top vertebrae of the spinal column, top half, hence the reason why the arrow didn't punch with a pass-through. It didn't center the spine well enough to sever the nerves, which would have paralyzed this deer. If he shot just a hair back, the void or dead zone as mentioned here, comes into play big time as well, even if the arrow angle was fairly steep. This will be dicey at best and even though we feel it was a good shot, just knowing it was high brings on enough doubt about shot placement into the vitals. A single lung shot deer can cover a tremendous amount of ground, most particularly if the hole can vent the thorax region enough to keep the other lung from collapsing from back pressure inside. I would recommend he sit this one out a long time and hopefully it's cool enough to do so if the deer is in fact down now. Certainly don't want to push this animal if he's not down.

He's low 120s and shy of P&Y. A young deer with excellent genetics....a good one to let walk and watch. Should put him on the "don't shoot" list. 10 pointers with the right doe and her genetics produce quality bucks.

Congratulations Leo!! Excellent eating right there and what a blast to catch!

Congratulations Andy and the pics are priceless!!!

Heck yeah and congratulations!!!

A full blown hunting movie in a format that dovetails like a surf or ski flick. Jamming tunes, single narration of the scenes, challenges, exotic shots bordering art.....the work, blood and sweat involved with pulling off the hunt. Basically a hunting safari that documents everything top down, out takes of the scenes, people, locations and experiences at a "right now" level that puts you there. It hasn't been done but one day it will be. A show that captures and captivates you...the experience beyond the kill. Things that are not filmed now......that breath taking sunrise, a stuck 4x4, an unexpected storm, the close encounters......living and breathing everything centered around the experience. Check out Bruce Brown's stuff from years ago...Endless Summer comes to mind. Off the chain visual and audio..something that absolutely pumps you up and makes you want to tear through the door wearing camo with a care in the world....that's what I want to see.

I hunt a bunch in South Texas and finding a tree for hanging.....there isn't one for literally a hundred miles. So all hunting literally has to be from the ground. A brushed in ground blind helps contain scent and odor. I push the dirt up along the bottom edge sealing all smells within the blind. I will then round up a local and native aromatic plant and place that inside the blind with me. Cover scents also work well inside the blind mixing with your scent before the exhaust. My shooting windows on one side are the only windows open. Any scent leaving the inside of the blind has to exhaust out one of these open windows...covered with shoot through mesh. So knowing I have the scent contained, traveling one way out, I can let some other local smell mix and exhaust. I go through a pretty liberal de-scent routine and place my hunting camos inside a sealed tupperware container mixed with local and highly scented brush or weeds. My camo smells like juniper or mesquite etc.. Hunting from the ground does eliminate getting busted on the draw as well and brushing in a blind basically makes you literally invisible. It takes some getting used to hunting inside a little tent and your field of view is reduced to only a couple of shooting lanes but if and when a target of interest does move into your shooting lane, it's typically very close, personal and extremely deadly. Here's one of my South Texas setups. Dead center in this pic is the blind. I typically cut out the backside of a bush, pop the tent, crawl inside the blind and cut just enough bush on the outer edge to make a clean shooting lane. The brush clippings get piled on top of the blind to cut down the roof line edges. From this setup, I snapped this guys picture at 11 yards. And here's a shot sequence on a late afternoon setup near Sonora Texas. I hunted a pre-staging area that cut down through a dry river draw that fed up to a bordering 75 acre oat field. As it is with whitetail, they stage off the open fields till sundown, so afternoon setups are pretty easy to pre-predict where they will be. Typically bucks in these parts like to keep a very low profile. I find low draws or other low routes that feed up to these field edges. Add water or a barbwire fence intersection (3 or 4 fences converge to a single point) in close proximity and basically the hunting odds are increased two fold as they slither along the low routes inbound to the field edges. Note how still these deer are during my shot. The 11 pointer is standing exactly at 21 yards with the doe just to his left roughly at 19 yards. No one moved till the arrow went THWACK. I've SVL'd the tar out of my Hoyt and she is deadly quiet. Shooting from the insides of a tent blind, the sound is deadened even more so....these pics are an example of this. THWACK & Vaya con Dios!!! Here's another setup in a more traditional hardwoods river bottom in the Texas Hill Country near Lampasas. I basically trimmed out a load of cedar (juniper) from a different area of this setup and built up a huge nest or wall around the outer edge of my tent blind. Added a few more branches to the top to cut the roof line and it's a deadly trail route setup. I had a tree stand here for awhile but I had to deal with a few Rio Grande turkeys and they are pretty vocal when things don't seem right above. So I eliminated that problem and opted to get down and out of sight.

Thank you. Andrea I'm using a well worn Canon D350 and lean on an old 75-300mm Canon lens that essentially is Canon's first generation Image Stabilization lens. Being a first generation lens, the glass quality is pretty good. Canon typically uses good glass on first generation lens offerings, to ensure the picture quality is there with a new release but this lens has horrific auto focus. The auto focus drive motor is too slow to be reliable with wildlife shots afield so I lean hard on manual focus to bring out the best of this lens. I shoot all my shots handheld without a tripod. It's ironic, I shoot old school style (35mm film gear) with newer gear. I've blown way too many opportunities with this lens in auto mode so manual mode it is. Shopping around for glass in the 100-400 focal range now. Not sure if it's going to be Canon L series or Sigma yet. Also leaning hard on a Canon D40 or the new D50.

When I think of the heartland....this is it! Very nice!

Up close and personal - nice shots!

Excellent shot sequences Dave!!!

Thank you all! EKYHunter we release them after the fight to grow and fight another day. Every now and then I will keep a 3 footer for the grill, filet it out quickly, marinade it in Viva Italian dressing and grill it quickly on hot coals. I'm sure the bigger blacktip sharks will steak out nicely and they taste very much like Mako shark. Haven't killed one for the grill....a little too much shark meat for me and keeping it iced is a challenge on extended fishing trips. The entire Texas Gulf of Mexico is wide open for driving and it's not too hard to put together a few days on the sand to chase these guys. We try to put a few shark fishing trips together every summer and it's an open invite. Chasing these guys is a lot like hunting.....a lot of setup strat to close the distance and then after the baits are out, it's a waiting game. There are times we are hooked up for 1-2 hours straight fighting these guys and I use 65lb test PowerPro line as my mainline. It spools up small and allows me to rig my reels up with roughly 1000-1500 yards of line. We typically run 200-400 yard sets leaving a lot of line on the reel for the fight. Once we hook up, there are times we have to run down the beach a half mile or more before we make the land. I've had literally 800 yards or more of line out on big sharks and it's a fight to get them into waist deep water for the land. It's typically a 3 man operation with one on the rod, one wearing gloves grabbing a 20ft long 350lb test steel leader and the third swinging the tail rope (calf roping rope) to tie off the tail for the drag up onto the sand. After we get the shark landed, he fights like mad trying to bite till he runs out of air and gets still. At that point we pull the hook, snap a few pics and pull him back out into the surf to revive him for the release. They slowly swim back out into the Gulf of Mexico no less for wear and tear. It's an absolute blast to catch these guys and talk about brute force fishing....this is it.

Pre-rut is always an excellent time to rattle. Once they break up and start their territorial routine, buck battles and tinking tines get their attention. Way down in South Texas, roughly a week ago, I watched a couple of young 8 pointers trade tine. Their noise brought in a 10,9 and one more 8. These South Texas bucks don't start the rut till mid December but......they are trading pokes now. Up North in your neck of the woods I'm sure they are well primed for rattling now.

Congratulations to your Son and WELL DONE POPS!

Congratulations on a good looking buck!!! I'm guessing around 155 and he has excellent mass carried all the way to the ends.

Well done and congratulations!!!! Enjoyed the write-up!!! Rob

Good luck on sealing the deal! Hopefully during the rut he will slip his guard.

Thank you all! I know what you mean and the whitetail's running in the Texas Hills are genetically smaller than their South Texas Brush country cousins as well as their North Texas Panhandle cousins. A good buck in the Hills weigh roughly 175 lbs live-weight where as bucks in the Brush Country to the South and further up North on the high plains go 200+ lbs. It's a pretty big State and the whitetail here do have different genetics inside the Texas State lines. There are 9 different and very unique ecological regions in Texas. Some of these regions are unique enough to play into the local whitetail genetics due to the habitat. Winters in South Texas rarely ever get below freezing for more than 2 weeks tops during winter where as the region further up North has snow and more days of sub-freezing temps. It's a big place down here and even I have a tough time trying to break out of my region and explore the others here.

Some of the things I do when I'm running with the pixel-generator afield. Low light shots, mornings or evenings, that first or last hour of light are the magical photography moments. In low light, try to pre-expose your shots in the darker areas first, most particularly if your quarry happens to be in the shadows. In bright light, try to keep the sun at your back or in perpendicular to your photography subject. A dark background is typically better than a bright background...especially if your shot subject is glowing in the light. Learn to use manual settings if you shoot with a digital SLR camera. You can get a lot more depth and effect with your shots vs letting the camera do the thinking. Most cameras will balance evenly across the light spectrum but mixing light with dark, the camera will tend to over expose leaning on the light vs the dark values. Not a problem if your subject is in the light but it becomes an issue when the subject finds the shade. Panoramic shots, try to shoot as low as the ISO will allow for the conditions...slow speed. Lean on tripods for shots on long exposures. For wildlife, I have found pre-setting my camara to 400 ISO gives me enough to cover movement without much blur. As the sun dips down, the higher ASA setting will allow the lens to work longer without having to kick things up higher to cover. Night shots, use a tripod and lean on a timed shutter setting. Push the shutter and allow the timer to snap the shot. If you have a camera that supports a remote wireless, buy one and use it for low light or game shots. It saves you trips back and forth to and from the animal and the camera to snap multiple shots. If you're a DSLR shooter, and shoot manual mode, always check your ISO settings right after you pull the camera out of the bag. Take a few moments to make sure your setup is ready for the conditions for that day. I've had many shoot night time shots and forget they had their camera at some super high ISO setting and shoot away thinking they had it only to find out their image was a pure white screen in the LCD. As you move around and work shots, always check your light meter and aperture settings to make sure they are rolling in an acceptable exposure window. I typically check my camera all the time as I roam and as the light conditions change, I'm making changes on the fly to stay in tune with the light. Slightly underexposed shots are way better than over exposed shots. Post processing, via software, can help bring more light to a shot. It's harder to go the other way around when the light is overpowering and the subject is in the darker zone. Learn to pre focus shots if you can before the shot happens. An example of this is capturing birds in flight. Some cameras have awesome acquisition sensors coupled with fast autofocus features of the lens (AI features) but even then some shots may be dicey. So to pre-plan a goose or hawk shot, especially if I'm in an area I know these shots are prime, I will pre-focus a spot on the ground, set my exposures and settings first and then wait for that moment. The hope is my quarry will work into that photo kill zone allowing me a few frames before it clears. The closer the better and keeping your cameras speed up to 400 ISO and your aperture set for the light conditions will typically render desirable results. Experiment with your gear, don't be afraid to try manual mode shots or other settings. You can take auto shots, read the data the camera used to cover the scene and use this same information to baseline a manual setting. There are many times I will shoot a scene or shot, if it allows me to, in multiple settings. I will bracket expose my shots to cover the light spectrum with the hope one of them will be the keeper. Here's a shot made in tough lighting conditions. I knew the sun was working down fast and it's light glowing through the cypress trees over a fairly dark Guadalupe River would require some tweaking. Leaned on the tripod, set things up manually and triggered the shuuter with my wireless remote. Exposure: 1 second (softens the water flow) Aperture: f/22 (sharpens everything in view and star bursts the sun) Focal Length: 40 mm ISO Speed: 100 Tripod & Wireless remote (timer delay will work too)

I fish well above the Canyon Lake dam on the upper North and South forks of the river near the river's source. The water in the upper reaches of the Guadalupe are clear vs the semi green waters below Comfort. They are in there, not in huge numbers, but they are there. These river bass are way tough to fish. The exceptionally clear water and small sized nature of the river in the upper reaches, gives these bass an edge and fishing in stealth mode is the only way I've found to narrow the odds. Daylight conditions, the water is so clear they tend to lock jaw unless you can work well in front of your position. Once the sun goes down, it's another game and I cast blind only using my memory along the drift to work structure. I hold off in the middle and work the banks as quietly as I can casting ahead with no light. When I hook up and make the land, I use a red lens light and only turn it on if I have to.

Thank you. The top bass measured 24 inches in length and 22 inches in girth. I don't travel with a digital scale and the exact weight of this fish is not known but I asked Ron Kelly, Lake Fork Texas taxidermist his guess based on the dimensions I provided him. Ron states this fish should weigh out a little over 11 lbs, how much over, we will never know. It's a double digit bass and the river record is 10.5 lbs. Sure wished I had a scale that night....she's back in the river.

I spend a lot of time recharging on the Guadalupe River near home here in Texas. The river is sourced by a natural artesian spring roughly 25 miles NW of Hunt Texas. Man I love that town's name. In this section of river, the altitude runs 1,500 - 2,000 ft elevation. Rapids typically flow through the hills pooling up in slower sections of deeper water as the river winds through the Edwards Plateau Hills. To fish this river properly, a kayak is a must. Many sections are so rough and shallow, you literally have to wade sections dragging the kayak over rocks to clear off into deeper water. The Guadalupe River is pure clear water and fishing during the daytime is tough for large bass. So I typically fish the last few hours of sunlight, working jigs and Texas rigged plastic worms before shifting over to topwaters. Here's a few Guadalupe River largemouth: October at night; black Jitterbug During the warm days of winter, a shift over and fish day time casting Charty spinner baits. This scene was Febuary 2008 day. March at night; black Jitterbug Every winter the Texas Parks and Wildlife folks stock rainbow trout. These guys are tougher to catch than you think and the sections of water they are released in are very remote. And years ago, Texas Parks and Wildlife introduced small mouth bass. What has been found after the release, and probably a big mistake, the native Guadalupe Bass, only found in Texas Hill country rivers, have crossed with smallies. Oh well, a few hybrids swim the river now. Here's a smallie taken on a motor oil Texas rigged worm. And speaking of Guadalupe Bass, here's a pretty good one taken during Febuary 2008 on a Charty spinner bait. Every now and then I witness something pretty darn cool on the old Lupe. Working down from the Guadalupe River, which flows into the lower Texas Gulf Coast, I frequent the inshore and offshore scenes. I build custom rods and some of my gear is simply made focused for the fishing task at hand. I have 3 old Fenwick glass surf rods, solid blanks, that are old school surf sticks. Fenwick quit making these blanks back in the early 80s. I've fished these blanks since the early 70's and hauled them around with me during a 20 year Coast Guard career fishing everywhere. Padre Island National seashore. This stretch of sand runs 60 miles from the Upper end near Corpus Christi and ending at the Port Mansfield Jetties. It's wild and free, 4x4 country with white sand, dunes and wild game. Out front, the entire Gulf of Mexico and behind the dune line is the Laguna Madre bay connected to literally 1 million acres of prime south Texas hunting.....The King Ranch. The experience along this coastline is as it always has been. No development, no condos, no cell coverage....wild and free. I frequently spot whitetail, coyotes, coons, rattlesnakes and many various birds fishing here. At night the sky is literally full of stars and there isn't a city within a hundred miles in any direction. I use a kayak to run big baits out for sharks. We typically setup a fish camp, tents, cooking grills and ice chests full of block ice to bear through extended stays on the sand. We catch small fish with cast nets or bass style rods only to rig up the shark rods, yak out the bait 200-400 yards offshore for the soak and eventual reel's scream. My youngest son Austin with a few sharks from the sand. The big bad Fenwick on a bend with Austin hanging During the fall, bullreds and rat redfish roam the suds Austin with a ratred And a bull red Blast casting the surf rods for reds Toofies up close and personal. This blacktip shark is roughly 7ft long. Released after the snap. Speckled trout from the surf hammering an all black, with rattles..Mirolure And snook can be found. Here's one after the land sucking on that Mirolure Good times Fishing With good friends! Rob