chowder

Happy Birthday and have great day Bob! -Andy

Good going Mark! Sounds like an interesting place to fish -Andy

Good things come to those who wait,

I tell everybody getting into archery the same thing; once you let that arrow go, anything and everything can happen and eventually will so make peace with it, this is a live and let die deal with no apologies offered or accepted...

Pete, speaking of stories, I'm expecting some real good ones from you and Grey after next weekend. -Andy

With my archery/mzzl ldr tags filled I was able to watch a classic rut scene yesterday w/ out needing to kill anything. Ok, Im on stand (got my dmps w/ me); in comes a young doe w/ a 1.5 6pt. They are in front of me for about 2 hrs and he is just being a real gentleman while she is truly overheated w/ no clue as to how this goes. Suddenly out of the brush charges a massive 2.5 9pt. He's closing to 25 yards w/ his head down when the 6 steps in front of the doe and lowers his head at an angle. The 9 stops and just puffs up his chest. The 6 checks to see if the doe is still behind him and lowers his little rack and paws the ground twice(I'm really starting to like this guy!) The 9 does the stiff legged walk about 90 degrees and tries to close the distance to the doe again. The 6 quarters around checks on the doe and lowers his head again. The 9 moves off and back, nibbles something as a face saving gesture and moves off... In addition to the sympathetic glow I felt when the little guy held onto his girl, I thought this whole scene showed something else interesting as well. Once bucks get to be 2.5 and better I think they are very economical about their breeding efforts when a fair number of does are in heat. In seconds after finding the source of the estrous trail he was following the 9pt 'knew' several things; 1. This doe has most likely been bred at least once, 2. She's been bred by this other mean spirited little s.o.b., that's gonna require some real effort to get out of the way. He quickly 'added' up this equation and concluded that w/ many other does in heat, his time was better served finding a situation w/ a better looking outcome. Pretty cool!

Nice going,& must have been a good day to be out on the water. -Andy

gotta love 2cd chances! -Andy

Does anybody know what's going on w/ the production/supply of Raymarine X-5 sport pilots? They were supposed to be 'back' in stock in Oct & now the distributors who list inventory info say this unit will be 'back' in stock in Jan. Thanks, -Andy

WTG! Nice work Vince.

Mark, thanks for bringing this up, I guess it's back up to L.P. or down & around to Treman. It's no difference time wise for me but sure glad I didn't have to go to Lansing 1st to find out. -Andy

Wow, that last buck is over the top!

Duane was the first guy I met in person from this forum. He was just an outstanding individual who gave a lot to others. I'm sitting here stunned and thinking to myself "life is so damm fragile"...

Pete, that's quite the story! If I were you though you I'd want to make sure Ray doesn't misread the post title and head down your way for the opening of 'bare' season. -Andy

Hey Bob are you going to stand in on the 'Brown Trout Rap'?

I gotta admit that the first thought that came to my mind after I read this post was"if this guy is worried about being able to make a 10 yard shot he should be practicing instead of hunting".After I thought about it for a minute though I realized that when we hunt or fish most of us are not really looking for a testosterone edged competition event pitting man against beast but rather a time in which we relax and try to look at the world from a different perspective. After I started to look at it that way it was obvious to me that this fellow, in not taking the shot, did just what he should have because it appealed to his own set of ethical standards and enabled him to enjoy his time hunting.Thank you Lee for the post and for helping me keep my own priorities in line. -Andy

I hear that copper stuff is the way to go! -Andy

Nice work guys

Alas Ray, most of my nocturnal observations of deer have come from the cab of a tractor w/ a bank of halogens illuminating acres of windrowed hay w/ a thunderstorm only hours away! -Andy

Jack is probably a 'non-breeder' buck and is very unlikely to respond to aggressive tactics.I've encountered a number of these bucks over the years & most but not all have some kind of handicap. They typically spend very little time interacting w/ other deer and are almost totally nocturnal, especially when other bucks are behaving aggressively.-Andy

I don't even remove my riggers from the trax on my Islander. The boat is stored in an open front machinery shed. I just put a heavy cover over the boat & leave all the tackle & rods that I don't use for winter fishing right in the boat. I do remove my displays (and my stash of pretzels & bottled water).

Here at our high altitude location I saw a mature doe that was in heat being courted by a 2 1/2 yr old 8 or 9pt yesterday.

Get down & stalk him IF you see him again. He is a 'roaming' buck & not likely to stick around inside your doe unit (they are great in rifle season but heartbreakers in bow season). Just my 2 cents!

Hey Clarke, happy belated berfday wishes! -Andy

One of our landlords is getting into bow hunting and I had him out yesterday. We set up my favorite style of stand (wally world climbing stick & 1 or 2 hang ons) down wind of a wooded corridor that bucks use to troll across lanes leading into a large meadow. We didn't have to wait long for a hefty 4 point to come thru. It was all I could do to keep my guy to keep from loosing an arrow at the young buck til he gave us a decent,though slightly quartered towards 19yd shot thru a wide open window between trees (this was going to be the only shot I felt my guy was going to have that he could make b/c the quartering away shot was gonna push 28-30yds). Well, he was high and forward of the sweet spot but against all odds the buck literally never took another step. The ST mag blasted right thru the shoulder blade and punctured the lung, causing massive hemorrhaging and totally immobilized the deer. The arrow was mostly exposed, passing only a short distance behind the shoulder blade into the lungs. The buck was done and basically immobile but still alive. I did finish the deer with a heart shot b/c the landord was shaking so hard we agreed that was the best course of action. My best guess is that most relatively short range shoulder shots w/ this broad head will result in an immobile deer. Vitals damage would depend on exactly where in the shoulder the arrow will penetrate and ,of course, the angle of the shot. -Andy