fly

Went to KY last week. We have about a dozen stands up on 110 acres. Most wooded with about 5 acres in food plots. Put beans in this past spring along with an electric fence to keep the deer from eating them before they grow. It worked great - have 5 ft bean plants. We took down the fence and got the stands all ready to go. Here in IL I keep one camera out and will check it sometime this week. Will also make some minor adjustments to a coupe stands I have up. I shot today for the first time. 20 shots at 20 yards: 100% in deer kill zone. 20 shots at 30 yards: 85% in kill zone and at 40 yards only 30%. I have some work to do if I want to expand my range to 40 yards.

Agreed - the photos that appear close were with a high zoom lens with the exception of a few I took from inside the car.

Agreed - the photos that appear close were with a high zoom lens with the exception of a few I took from inside the car.

Thanks everyone. I prefer the adventurous vacations to the relaxing ones. Glacier kicked my butt for sure. We hiked over 40 miles with a lot of it being 10+ miles, very steep, with 1-3 thousand feet of elevation gain (then loss). And these were classified as the "moderate" hikes. Lol

I've dressed over 50 deer now and finally found the perfect knife a few years ago - the Buck Alaskan guide cross lock. Light, strong, keeps an edge well and has a saw that actually works. It's 100 dollar knife and worth it.

Some of the better pictures I took while visiting the park. We saw about 8 grizzly bears and a few black bears (I didn't get any good pics of the black bears). One large male color phase black bear surprised me as it was eating berries not more than 40 yards from the back of my car. It spotted me and started walking right towards me. Wearing only shorts and flip flops I backed up slowly and headed for our cabin. The bear stopped at the car. I went inside and got my bear spray and camera. When I walked back outside he was gone. Overall it was a super trip.

The humidity is terrible around the IL side of the Mississippi. Headed to Glacier National park this Tuesday with my kids for a couple weeks. Will be good to be in the mountains. When I get back hunting season is right around the corner! We put beans in two plots. The one with an electric deer fence is doing great - the other one the deer ate before it had a chance to grow. I am a believer in the electric deer fences.

It's where they start. They won't stop until all hunting is made illegal.

I'd say Tenpoint makes the best compound while Excalibur makes the best recurve style. Barnett, Parker, Wicked ridge, PSE are all reputable manufacturers. Some thins to consider when buying: 300fps is plenty of speed. Faster is fine, but not needed to kill a deer. The string poundage is generally tough to pull when over 160 so getting a cocking aide is helpful. Having a thumb move up the forearm while shooting can be painful. A crossbow with a safety guard to prevent thumb migration is good to have. Crossbows are heavier than bows, get a sling to carry on and out of the field.

I prefer a cut on contact tip. I started with fixed, went to mechanical, then back to fixed. This year I'm trying A hybrid, Bloodsport - gravediggers. Cut on contact tip, 1 inch diameter fixed with 13/4 mechanical. I'm hoping they give me the penetration of a fixed with the blood trail and accuracy of a mechanical.

Fantastic! Love the variety of species on such a short time in the same area

I've never seen a new crossbow worth hunting with for under 300.00. You would be better off looking for a used crossbow on Craigslist or at a pawn shop if you can't spend 300.00+ dollars.

Sounds like you had a wonderful time making memories with your friends and family Al. Nice work getting the animals you were after.

Name: Frank Screen Name: fly Age: 45 States to be hunted: IL and KY Dates: September 3rd - January 15

Yet again I'm trying something new. I am sold on a cut on contact tip after using the 1 inch diameter Steelforce Phat heads. The problem has always been a marginal blood trail. I don't want a cut on contact tip larger than 1 inch like the Magnus stinger because I'm not as accurate. This year I'm going with Bloodsport's cut on contact Gravedigger hybrid broadhead. It has a 1 inch cut on contact tip and 1 3/4 mechanical blades that apparently are "no fail" to open once inside the target animal. We will see... Anyone else trying something new?

Pence

Well this is the leading contender so far. I'm calling him StaRBrighT (Split Right Brow Tine.) I know it's hard to know this early but he sure looks like a 150+ kinda deer to me. What do you all think? The last one is just a cool girl fight pic.

I'm in.

The divisions in the country continue to worsen.

Sounds like a great time Al. I've never considered hunting Africa, from what I hear the animal variety often means the taxidermy bill can be more than the trip!

Welcome back smack - forums are slow but I find myself checking in every week or so. I've had some good luck in the deer woods the past couple years harvesting a 153 inch 12 point and a couple 8 points around the 125 mark. My son got his first buck at the end of 2013 at 11 years old. I also had a run in with a whitetail I had been after back in 1989-1992. Been dating for a year now.

Yea, I thought that TV I bought might have been marked incorrectly as well William. The guy in the TV area plugged it for me to make sure it worked and on the display it said 4K. Then it was taken to customer service. It was scanned and came up a much higher price. The service counter person said clearance items do that and she had to do an over-ride. It didn't feel dishonest - however, buying the tiller at the marked price after the worker realized the error would have.

Just heard this for the first time a few days ago. I love it! There are 4 of them and this one is the one most related to hunting. They are all crazy awesome!

A better picture.

I'm in Bethalto IL - about 20 minutes east of St. Louis. If you are ever in the area let me know.