So I went and shot four boxes of sabots today. Federal barnes expanders, federal fusions, lightfield comanders, and brenneke Ko sabots. At fifty yards they were all good with tight patterns. At 100 they were all very differant, the brenneke were very poor @100, the lightfield came in third and the best group went to the federal fusion. Im not sure what the diifferance is between the fusions and the barnes but the fusions @100 were amazing(4 inch group) that was very impressive to me. So for this gun that is what ill be shooting for awhile, thanks to everyone for there ideas, im very glad I took your advice to try a few differant brands before deciding. Honestly in the past I would have gone and bought the most expensive shells and ran with them, in this case the fusions were very cheap @ Fleet Farm for 10.99.

Just curious because we can bait in WI. but what is the ethical differance between throwing corn on the ground or planting a 1/2 acre food plot.To me they seem to serve the same purpose, now that never excuses people for doing it illegaly but I see alot of faces when people talk about baiting, and I wonder if these are the same people planting food plots and using every advantage that is made legal.I am not dissing that point, if I can shoot deer easier and cleaner with the next new invention I will. All I am saying is if you are planting “crops” in an area less than 1 acre, than you are baiting, and ethicly and moraly you are the same as the molases guy, only legally are you differant.

Totallt true about shot placement. The info i used to determine the head did not fully deploy is the blood/tissue on the blades and arrow and the rubberband was only moved a 1/4 inch down the shaft, im pretty sure it should have rolled further than that. As far as blaming the broadhead , why not , it didnt do its job IMO even on a neck shot. I do however believe you should use what you feel confident with and if that happens to be broadheads that dont open so be it. Just messin with all you rage lovers, I know they are great and work well.

Most of the time I use my grunt call younger bucks come in to a certain point , but I also use a decoy while grunting and rattleing, and the younger bucks usually arnt to comfy around a decoy. Not all the time but most for me the decoy scares him not the grunting. Deer are very curious when they hear diff. sounds in the woods. As for the type of call to use, they are all fine if you can use it properly. Cup your hand over the end and play around with it, youll find a sound that you know is the right one.

i draw back..

drain the lizzard..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uOQceiWZws

it should work, but i have this video on my software and it looks better in slo mo.

If you have a head on shot I would wait 100% of the time for a better shot. I have seen in hunting movies people taking an animal head on with success, but the margin for error is very small and chances are you may follow a wounded deer for along time with only heartbreak. Along time ago I shot one of the biggest bucks I have eer seen head on, I tried to slip the arrow in front of the shoulder and what came next was a hundred yards of pretty heavy blood followed by clotting and close to a thousand yards of blood getting less and less. The good news was a neighbor took the animal during gun season so all wasnt lost.Quartering away slightly is a very good shot to take(maybe my favorite, even more than broadside) . Qaurtering in is a differant story and I would suggest waiting for a better oportunity. If nothing else holding on a deer waiting for him to turn will teach you self discipline and patience.

Two years ago my brother in law shot his best buck with very high winds. He picked a stand where three valleys meet which we call the bowl. I had to leave my stand early because of the high winds and an hour later he shot a really nice 11 pt.

Team 2 10 pt. shot on Oct. 4 in the p.m.

I thought I would update a little, Field dressed he weighed 202lb. and the taxidermist measured his neck at 23 in.

I have a couple decoys I use, the first is a full 3d decoy with removeable antlers , the second is a Renzo decoy, which is a 2d decoy with photo on both sides. I like them both but here are some pros and cons of both.

3D Pros:
*close to actual deer size
*can be used as doe or buck
*probably more life like
3D cons
*pain in the rear to haul
*color faded after 2 seasons

Renzo Pros
*easy to carry along
*picture very realistic
*dont seem to fade
Renzo cons
*smaller than actual deer
*placement is a little more tricky
*I have had small bucks get spooked when they circle it and it dissapears

Either way no matter what you use your most likely going to experience good and bad luck, but its fun trying new stuff isnt it!

Awesome pic , thanks for sharing!

I actually use the roar and after writing that story I thought that to.A buddy of mine has two pics of a black bear no more than a mile from my land but I have yet to see one in this area.

I bought my son a mattews genesis a few years back and he has moved on since, but i highly recomond it . You dont have to adjust the draw length and the weight goes between 20-30 lbs I think.

I am pretty much the same as you brad, I am willing to use any call (deer are very curious) only I do not use scents very often. Ive seen more failure than success. And I understand maybe I was using bad quality scents or something, but I dont use them for fear of ruining my hunt. Maybe this year who knows?

CONGRATS!! It has been awhile since my first buck with a bow but it is burned deep in my memory. Mine was a very similar deer to yours, but talk about stress. I shot the buck with a slight quartering away shot at 30 yards and I watched him run down the hill about 75 yards and bed down. As I watched his body language he didnt seem very stressed,so seeing as it was getting dark anyway I decided to sneek out and get him in the morning. Try to sleep after that! I brought my Bro inlaw and my father with to recover him, when we reached the area he was bedded down he was nowhere to be seen, panic mode set in, there wasnt even much blood so I started doing circles from the area and geuss what, no blood. My brother inlaw and I were about 25 yards from his bed and my father started looking in the timber about fifteen yards away when I heard him yell “we got him”, I was so stoked that I set down my new Hoyt and ran over to see for myself, sure enough he was in the thickest [censored] around. After getting him out and snapping some pics I realized I didnt have my bow. Needless to say it took longer to recover my bow than the bloodless buck. But back to your first kill, treasure all the fealings you have out there, good, bad, happy and sad. You will never forget them and believe it or not you will learn from them(even the stress). Something I do when stress peaks its ugly head out is say a prayer or two, I know that isnt for everyone but for me thats the answer.

Pinnacle studios has some good software for a decent price. My wife bought me Pinnacle video creator platinum at Best buy for around 100 I think. It also comes with the Dazzle which is a device that can transfer any video tapes to your computer. You can hook up a hi-8 camera to it or your vcr or which my son has been doing his xbox 360. Pretty much anything with video cables.

Good software at a decent price, fun to play with if your in it for a good time and not trying to make a blockbuster.

I really appreciate all of the nice comments you guys leave. Gabe has been reading the thread and I can tell it makes him even prouder. Thanks everyone, good luck to all!

Here is the picture of Gabes first deer. Its kinda small but were proud of him. Gramps and grama and his uncles came over to celebrate his first kill.

I never used to wear a harness but now that my boy is coming out we will both be strapped in. Looking back I cant believe some of the trees I sat in wothout one.

It is funny , no matter how old you get you still feel like a little kid waiting for santa. Hopefully we all get what we asked for!

I wear a thin neck gator and pull it up over my nose and ears and a cap.

Prayers go out Blue.

I right left handed, shoot right handed and can throw a football with either hand. I do all my shooting with both eyes open , and my suggestion would be to teach her to shoot lefty. It will take some time but I think it is easier than re-training an eye. Also I wonder if re-training an eye might cause some problems , it seems like a lot of straining .

My first sit this year will be my most anticipated so far, that is because it is my son’s first year hunting. We will be set up in a small finger of woods that connects to woods together, with an open field in front of us that produces alot of traffic. We usually dont see any monsters there but it is high traffic and has produced good video footage in the past.
I told my son he can take whatever he wants his first year but he has to go bigger every year after that, he said he will be passing up anything real little and waiting for something respectable. He’s twelve and already is showing more discipline than me. I’ll keep everyone posted on his success.

IM SO PUMPED!!!

count me in!

Sorry I wish I could have been there. You will have to give me a call and tell me a little bit more about the “rush”.

That is kinda what i was looking for but the one I previously used was pretty much excusively for hunting. It gave moon phase, best feeding times and predicted best hunting times. But thanks for your help , I really appreciate everyone on this site pulling together to beat the odds!

I am planning on doing a plot for next season(to busy this year) anyway I hunt in western WI in an area with plenty of corn, beans you name it. My question is what would be best to plant, I have a little more than half an acre to work with and want to make the most of it. My goal is something for early season. Any help would be great, thanks guys!