|
Post by subzero350 on Feb 8, 2019 15:56:31 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Jan 28, 2019 14:59:31 GMT -5
I could see where a trail cam with a conventional (white) strobe flash could spook a deer. But studies show deer can only sense colors toward the violet end of the spectrum, so they can see blues and probably even ultraviolet (UV) light. The same studies say that while deer show a slight sensitivity to yellow, tests indicate that green, orange, and red appear to them as shades of gray. So they shouldn't be able to detect a true infrared flash since it is even lower in the color spectrum than visible red.
The cheaper infrared trail cams give off a very dim red glow that we as humans can perceive, but I doubt a deer would be able to see it. Even if they could, it would probably appear to be a very dim grey light. Honestly I think what impacts the deer more is human activity near the trail cam. I've got several night trail cam photos showing deer "playing" in front of the trail cam. Apparently the infrared flash didn't bother them. (Full disclosure: I only visit these trail cams once every couple of months to read the memory cards.)
That being said, I think the reason why deer go nocturnal once hunting season starts is because of the increased human presence. I don't care what you shower with or what kind of masking scents you bathe in before hitting the woods - deer are going to know something else (besides other deer) have been in there. And the more you visit your stand, the bigger presence you are going to impress upon the deer.
Something else to ponder: there is a nature preserve (no hunting allowed) near one of the lakes I frequently visit and you can spot deer on it day and night, year-round. During hunting season, I usually see MORE deer on it than any other time of the year. It is like they "know" they are safe on that property and won't be hunted.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Dec 3, 2018 13:18:40 GMT -5
Opening morning of firearms was quiet around here. While I didn't hear as many shots as I had in years past, I did see more deer than I've seen a few years.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 21, 2018 10:41:08 GMT -5
...while walking our dog this Thanksgiving eve.
True story. She's walking him down the driveway by the road and she says this thick 6 pointer runs out of the scrub field next to our driveway, passes within 15 ft of her and the dog - runs a little further; then stops right in front of my far tree stand nobody was hunting this morning. He then proceeds to just stand there looking around for a few minutes, until he casually walks off - not seeming to care my wife and dog are frozen in utter shock of what just happened.
Surprisingly my dog never barked or growled the whole time.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 19, 2018 20:03:19 GMT -5
Paying for silly programs when they could have hunters do it for free. Dumb!
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 19, 2018 15:03:17 GMT -5
All of the private properties I hunt - the owners of which, consider coyotes to be a nuisance and a threat to their pets and other wildlife. They have encouraged me to shoot any coyotes I spot on their property. I do have a valid hunting license so I can do this.
But what am I legally obligated to do with a coyote I shoot? If I have to retrieve it per the wanton waste law, what must I do with it to be in compliance with the law?
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 19, 2018 14:50:47 GMT -5
Inspired by your response in the "radios and deer hunting" thread...
You said it is illegal to use an electronic device to aid you in the taking of deer. I want to be clear on what the state views as legal and illegal when it comes to electronic communications devices.
We don't use radios while deer hunting since we have cell service. I communicate with my hunting partner using text messaging, mainly to check up on their well being. But is it illegal to text my hunting partner to tell them I see a deer or for them to text me and tell me if they see one?
Where I hunt, the stands are set up in locations where a person sitting in one has no way of seeing what the person sitting in the other stand can see, and vise-versa. But if a deer happened to run past me going in the direction of where the other person is hunting, and I text that person saying a deer just ran past me in their direction, would that be illegal?
I just want to make sure I am clear on what the law means.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 18, 2018 11:01:37 GMT -5
Thanks! The shot I took was at a considerable downward angle due to the close proximity and elevation of the stand, combined with the downward slope of where the buck was standing relative to my location. Knowing this, I did aim a little high in the vital area on his right side. The 7.62x39 Hornady Z-Max bullet struck a rib upon entry - shattering and sending it into the lungs, which completely decimated them. Upon exit, the bullet shattered a rib on the other side - leaving a 3" hole in the rib cage not evident in the picture I posted earlier. There were some small pieces of lung material found at various points along the blood trail.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 18, 2018 10:23:11 GMT -5
Live (earlier this morning) from the comfort of my warm bed - looking at my outdoor security cam feed: Then, later as I let the dog out to do his business: (buck chasing a doe) Pic of dog:
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 18, 2018 9:59:54 GMT -5
For firearms opener, my dad expressed desire to hunt my land. Since I only have 2 stands up on my land, I decided the wife and I would go up to Steuben Co. and hunt my dad's land. He arrived here at 4:30am - long before we got up and hit the road. We were a little behind schedule getting out of here but the wife and I made the ~30min drive to dad's land and arrived about 30 min before legal hunting time. I drove around back to drop her off so she could hunt the ground blind. As we rounded the bend, there was a 6pt and doe standing right at the edge of the road where my wife had to walk in to get to the blind. They promptly ran off. I dropped the wife off and drove back around and parked so I could walk into the stand I was hunting. Shortly after the light came up, I spotted movement across the road to my left. It was a momma doe closely followed by 2 yearlings. But there was something else... As he cleared the thicket, I could see ONE 4-point antler. The other antler was completely broken off of his head. The 3 does he was following crossed the road and came into the swamp in front of me. The 1/2 8 point buck looked concerned and did an about-face and walked off. He didn't seem to be too interested in the females, he was just "with them". 10 minutes later an 8 pt buck crests the hill with his nose to the ground - tracking the females. He was on a mission. He crossed the road and followed the exact path the 3 does before him walked. As he paused for a moment - looking around about 20 yards below and in front of me, I took the shot. He immediately took off running and I questioned whether I had even hit him. I waited about 30 minutes and then climbed down out of the stand and started tracking him. There was a good blood trail that began right where he was standing when I took the shot that was very easy to follow - especially considering there was blood on every stick and branch along the way he rubbed up against as he retreated. As I tracked him down by the swamp, I heard footsteps in the half frozen water - so I froze (not yet seeing my deer - I thought that might have been him still staggering around in the thick scrub). The steps got closer... Then, I spotted what looked like someone's dog. What is a dog doing deep in a water-filled swamp? It got close enough I could see most of the body thru the thick scrub - it was a COYOTE! He got to within 15 yards of me before a car drove down the road which caused him to turn and walk away. I didn't shoot because I honestly thought it was someone's dog. Anyway, continued my track and found my buck laying at the edge of the swamp. Neighbor came over to check him out, congratulated me, and said what I probably saw just a moment earlier was one of the coyotes they have seen out there. So I guess my hunting isn't over for the year. The question is: what do I do with a coyote? Wife didn't see anything but birds and squirrels but dad had 16 does walk within shooting distance of his stand back at my house (he didn't shoot because he was waiting on the buck that was following them that never arrived).
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 16, 2018 13:54:54 GMT -5
I've got two RAR's - one in .30-06 and one in 7mm-08. Got them both on clearance last year. They are good rifles even at MSRP, but for these clearance/sale prices - they are a great value!
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 15, 2018 14:43:19 GMT -5
Your comments strike a chord with me. A friend was out here Tuesday to sight in his shotgun for gun season. I shared with him a recent experience I had with my compound bow while hunting from a tree stand. After a couple of hours I stood up to shoot a field point just for practice. I couldn't draw the bow. I shoot this bow all year. Sometimes as many as 1,000 times per month. Draw weight is 60 pounds. I also workout using archery specific weight training 5 to 6 times per week. So I was shocked. He said the same thing your wife said regarding cold muscles. Wow is all I could think. Thanks for your comments! I think it is a very serious issue that just doesn't get discussed. I think a lot of people write the injuries off as just something that happens because they bow hunt a lot. There's a reason why pitchers, quarterbacks, kickers, and many other athletes spend a lot of time warming up before practice and games. But we all know that is impossible to do while sitting in a stand waiting on deer.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 15, 2018 14:35:23 GMT -5
All you guys in the forum talking about crossbows continues to peak my curiosity as i haven’t ever shot one before - just compounds. Will have to keep thinking on it as maybe I’ll “need” one someday! As I mentioned, I have a Barnett Quad 400 Extreme crossbow I purchased about 7 years ago. It works great (shoots 22" bolts @ 350 ft/sec) and is accurate to 70 yards (the furthest I've tried target shooting it). At the time, it was one of the cheaper compound crossbows you could buy. I haven't had an issue with it, but the two drawbacks of this crossbow is that it is heavy and loud. Walmart had a clearance sale on Barnett Whitetail Hunter II crossbows last winter and I picked one up for less than $200 for my wife. It is smaller in size and weighs about 1/2 as much as my Quad 400, but performs just as well. Walmart also clearanced out Wicked Ridge G3's last year around the same time (which was in late Decemeber 2017 / January 2018); so you might want to wait until after Christmas this year to see if they clearance out anything like that again. I'll be watching for it and I'll start a thread here if anything goes on clearance sale.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 15, 2018 13:45:27 GMT -5
I’ve found that when my feet start getting cold that I just keep my heels of my feet on the edge of the platform and kinda hang rest of my feet out in the open not touching the platform they will gradually warm up. Granted that’s while sitting down. But the metal of the stand I believe makes your feet get cold quicker so I may try this towel trick works the same with ice fishing! I purposely bought hunting boots one size bigger than I needed so I could stuff hand warmers up in the toe box before putting them on. Keeps my toes toasty as well as the rest of my feet. Since I first started this thread I've now seen 3 different bucks within 1 mile of my house/property. The second one I saw was a 6-pointer just at the end of my road at dusk - no other deer sighted. Then, a few days later, I saw a fork buck standing next to a doe on one side of the road in a field next to my house, and 2 does about 1/4 mile out in another field across the street - and this was just a few days ago.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 15, 2018 13:36:16 GMT -5
My wife is a chiropractor and she's seen quite a few bow-hunting patients with serious shoulder problems. She has told me that one of the biggest issues with bow hunting is the muscles you use to draw back the bow are usually "cold" when you go to use them (because you've been sitting still for a long time and not using those muscles, not necessarily because of weather conditions); and this is what causes most of the damage. Worse yet, the damage can be permanent and lead to a life-long disability in being able to draw back on a bow or use those same muscles for anything else in life.
I have basically been forbidden to bow hunt with anything other than a crossbow because my wife doesn't want me to suffer the long-term injuries she has seen in so many of her other patients. I'm glad Indiana removed the disability restriction from being able to hunt deer with crossbows in this state. After I learned from her how serious the issues were that are caused to the body by bow hunting, the old rules just didn't make any sense.
That being said, Barnett crossbows are decent and I've more than gotten my money's worth out of my Quad 400 Extreme. My dad has the same model, but I think he has worn his out (after 8 years of much more heavy use than I subject mine to); because his is only driving the bolts about half as deep in the target as mine does.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 15, 2018 11:04:01 GMT -5
Marlin 1895 45-70 or 7.62x39 AR, depending on how I feel.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 9, 2018 11:38:36 GMT -5
On my way home last evening and spotted a nice 8-pt buck + a doe standing right on the edge of the road. As I got closer, they turned and ran - together - with do following the buck.
If the rut had already started, wouldn't the doe be trying to get away from the buck (not following him as he ran away)?
ETA: We got our first snow today.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 2, 2018 13:24:41 GMT -5
I ALWAYS wear hearing protection while gun hunting.
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Nov 2, 2018 13:08:36 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Oct 16, 2018 19:45:56 GMT -5
My dad hunted a stand on my property tonight. He saw 3 hens, 4 poults, and 3 does.
|
|