mallard_drake85

Though I may shoot multiple times per day, I will not shoot more than 15-20 arrows during a session. I feel that shooting more than this during each session, your muscles become fatigued and you begin to develop bad habits (particularly with your form and follow through) that may inadvertently overtake your normal shooting rhythm. Just my 2 cents mallard_drake85

sorry bout that, i meant to put not before legal hours...thank you for pointing that out! mallard_drake85

If I'm walking to my stand (before legal shooting hours) or out of my stand after sunset, I always have an arrow nocked.

Lmao...that first one was good!

He's not real intelligent, but I'm pretty sure that he is not that ignorant to ban fishing, because even if he does, it wont stop people from enjoyin this AMERICAN passtime! mallard_drake85

lol.

I knew prices would increase, but when I seen that I'd be paying over $40 for firearm deer tags I was surprised! And now the state stamp has increased to the same price as the federal waterfowl stamp...this is just going to increase the amount of poachers out there and thats a crying shame! Very true. My brother and I consistantly take around 10 deer (mostly does) total during a season (and total with all hunters on the farm nearly 30 deer a year on several thousand acres)...and with prices as extreme as they are, we will have to cut back on these harvest numbers. And that's a shame because we're just now starting to see a balance in our buck:doe ratio on the farms we manage. As a hardcore hunter and outdoorsman, these prices will not prevent me from heading to the field, but you can bet I'll be more conscious about what I harvest!

I just ordered my firearm deer tags and decided to look into the current cost of the rest of the tags and licenses I'll need for the season: hunting license, fishing license, trapping license, fur buyers license, all the stamps, archery tags, firearm tags, archery turkey tag, etc....this is going to run me over $200 dollars this year! What a crock! We've had crooks for governors and too many things to list in a public forum...I knew prices would increase, but this much? Any of yall's states raised prices this year on tags and licenses? mallard_drake85

best of luck to ya...we've had 2 shoulder opperations each (we're twins and do everything in pairs. lol) and for the longest time were unable to draw even 40#'s. but the doc said that the injury was much less traumatic than it could have been given that our muscles were built up from all the shooting!!! you'll get back to it, it just takes some time...more often than not, alot longer than you would like! lol

Yuppers Brother and I each treated ourselves to a graduation gift of a new PSE Bow Madness XS for graduating with our Master of Science degrees with our sanity! Have only shot the things a few times since we bought em, but absolutly love them. Our old PSE Nova's were 10+ years old and we've harvested numerous deer with em and literally have fireed thousands of arrows so we decided it was time for an upgrade and to convert our Nova's into bowfishing rigs!!!:gunsmilie: Bro with his Me with mine The 10, 20, and 30 yd pins are dead on...havn't had a chance to take it out to 40 or 50 yards yet! mallard_drake85

Thank you! Here is a pic of both of em side by side on one of our beaver pelts here is a better pic of the cocobola riser on the hedge body. we even twisted the string. Here they are against the wall of my bros room so you could see the entire length of the bamboo. we couldn't fine a 6' piece of hedge straight enough so mine is 3 pieces spliced together, and bo's is 2 pieces. tightbond was used to laminate everything together. mallard_drake85

we do.. My twin brother and I make our own reflex/deflex bows...these were backed with bamboo and had cocobola for the tips and risers. Mine is pulling 67# at 26" and my brothers is 56# at 26" (we had to scrape his down a bit more after he broke his back in a 25' fall). We also knap our own flint arrowheads and at 25 yards can hold about a 2.5" group. He even killed a doe two seasons ago with one of his. Not the prettiest arrowheads in the world, but they're ours and thats more than most could say!! mallard_drake85

We are currently having problems with Stealthcam too...we bought 2 of the sniper series over the summer, one works most of the time, the other has had problems since the very beginning. my Brother sent it back to stealthcam once and they sent him a new unit...same problem so he sent it back again before thanksgiving and they said they would send him a replacement, but he still has not recieved one...i believe we are going to spend our money towards a higher quality product in the near future. We are very displeased with Stealthcam, and were mislead by something with Jim Shockey's endorsement!

Love the pics, especially that of the matched set!!!

from the pictures, all those bucks are yearlings or 1 1/2 year old bucks...you should be proud to see that many bucks on your property because that means that the antler restrictions are working and keeping young bucks alive which is the key to harvesting bigger bucks. you'll never know unless you let them grow! seeing 1 1/2 year old spikes and fork horns is a good thing, and the AR's are installed to protect these bucks from being hunted and that means that they are working! for example, last night while hunting, I had a 1 1/2 year old 8 point standing broadside at 30 yards. we do not have antler restrictions here in Illinois. though he met 2 of our personal goals of 4 points on one side and 16" inside spread (the 3rd goal is must be 3 1/2 years of age), i knew that he was only a year and half...so I let him walk. was the decision tough? no not at all because i know that doing so gives him the chance to grow up into a nice Pope and Young buck...state record? probably not, but he'll be a dandy because i chose not to release an arrow! any type of restriction or restraints will work, but you have to give them ample time to...you cannot expect AR's to work in a year or even two...but they do work. just my 3 cents

Both bucks look like 3.5 year olds. I would try my best to let them walk. however with that said, both look like high 130's low 140's class whitetails, and the excitement might get to me in the stand. but as stated previously, you'll never know unless you let them grow! and this falls back on several variables, one of which is if you practice QDM? if so, what are you long-term goals? the ultimate decision is yours, but IMO they are both already trophies! mallard_drake85

you have some nice work there then!!

nice deer!!

What a shame

Thanks yall!

wow nice buck!

Thank you

On Friday, November 20th, I passed up a very young 9 point buck a little after 6am that was 9 feet behind my tree so I grabbed my camera and got over a minute of video of him. He even looked right up at me then walked calmly away. At 6:58 I seen 2 does being chased by a buck but I didn't know just how big he was, but just by his size and the length of his G2's, I knew he was a shooter. I grabbed my rattling rack and smacked them together hard and started a clanking routine which got his attention and made him stop some 145 yards out. He started blowing and grunting so I used soft grunts and my can to get him to step into a shooting lane which he did at 150 yards. He seen me reach for my rifle and turned to a sharp quartering away angle. At 7am I settled the crosshairs on my Leupold and let my Thompson Center Encore 50 cal bark and that buck jumped and ran 40 yards into the adjacent field. I got down and waded across the creek which was about 3 feet deep and began my walk across the field. When I got up to my buck he was a 130" 8pt. Upon further examination I realized that he was a 2 1/2 year old buck. I was thrilled! Got him back to the house, quartered up and then took him to the taxidermist...he's a lil behind now, 10 months to be exact, but he is one of the best! The shot hit a lil far back and bounced off his opposite side ribs and came out his neck. I was surprised but thats what happened. I've been hunting for a decade and have taken several does but have never harvested a buck. Its not that I never had the chance, rather I let several young bucks with potential walk, like that young 9pt I passed on earlier on Friday. I am glad that my first buck is a 130 class deer. here is the video of the lil buck I passed on What I seen when I walked up on him! On Sunday my twin took a nice 10 point buck with his Encore, off one of the other farms we manage...he scored right at 140". He broke his g3 on his left side off, so the taxidermist is going to graft it back on. And my brother posing with his buck Thanks for looking, mallard_drake85

thats a nice buck

nice deer!