My son's proudest moment. His Apprentice Hunter card arrives after he aced the hunter safety course and the firearms course practical and written exams. Probably my proudest moment too.
An experiment. I had mentioned seeing the old golf cart being used to haul an old ground blind in an old hunting show. I camo'd my old golf cart up and it works really good for ground blinds, feeders w/ feed etc. Unless you hunt in VA, I wouldn't recommend it as a game carrier though. I was thinking it might work as a poor man's game carrier but it won't handle 100+ lbs.
Signs of the competition. This became a theme for this years hunt. Wolves and coyotes are taking over my hunting areas.
A couple pics from one of the taller mountains around my primary hunting area. It's a beautiful spot but very treacherous getting there. I got stuck in a swamp on my ATV 7 miles from the road and all alone with no one expected to be there for another week. Later that day I added 55' of chain to the front of the bike so I can reach something solid a little further out than I could before. The area is beautiful but takes 2 hours of kidney busting four wheeling to get there and 2 hours back and it's not a trip I'd want to do in the dark and alone. Plus, during the rifle season it crosses 3 other camps' hunting areas either way I could get there. Where I hunt you don't cross camps. We grudgingly co-exist without hunting or traversing each others' areas. There's some camps in detente right now but the battles are ready to rage again. But bow season is another story altogether though. My buddy (sometimes), my son (sometimes) and I are all alone in the bush for at least 20 miles in any direction.
These pics are from the boat launch down the trail from my camp. Coming back in from hunting for lunch to this was surreal. There wasn't any breeze or current. I had to take a couple of pics. When I got to my camp a few minutes later there wasn't any sound. Even my footsteps were being sucked into a vacuum devoid of sound. Finally after a few minutes, I heard the wind under the wings as a crow was flying about 150 yards away over the island seen here on the right. Even he was awed by the silence as he wasn't even caaing.
Is it still considered a Robin Hood if the second arrow doesn't stick to the first one? This was at 40 yards while blowing the dust off my old compound vbow and sighting in. I did this 3 times that day. Notice the fletching? It wouldn't last. I've had nothing but problems with those new vanes.
The proud bow hunter. First time out bow hunting for deer - as the shooter.
The proud shotgun hunter. First time out hunting deer with a firearm - as the shooter. He could have had any rifle or shotgun he wanted to bring that day but he chose my Dad's old Win 1200 that I passed along to my son last summer. It's his pride and joy and it had to be by his side that day.
A view of the beaver marsh from where we had our GB set up most of the season. I figured that this view was a "dead" spot in the blind unless I had a rifle and I was fast. Sure enough, that's where the 8 pointer jumped, more like dove, into the beaver pond with dogs hot on his trail. Let's just say that was some good excitement for opening day of the rifle season with my rifle in the case back at the camp. Only 2 more years until I can carry while my son carries....
Just a sunrise. The people that know me know I'm not a morning person and don't understand how I have no problem being in the stand an hour before dawn. This was Rememberance Day.
Same spot different angle and a little later on. This is where the bucks normally go into and out of those woods. They normally go in here but stop and give me a show from about 60 - 75 yards away as the season is ticking down to the final minute. I walked into those woods later that day and it absolutely reeked of deer and deer scat. But not one scrape or rub in there when there should have been. That's when I started seeing the coyote sign everywhere. Every deer track had coyote tracks on them. I've since seen deer tracks going one way, then stopping at some coyote scat and then the tracks veer back about 160 degrees and the deer goes back and gets the heck outta Dodge.
Just a sunset.
My most recent batch of arrows. I swapped out the 21 grain inserts and put in 110 grain brass inserts in my old Firebolts. Wrapped (half sized) and fletched with 2" Fusion vanes in 1 degree offset. I won't be using the Fusion vanes ever again. I hate them and hate working with them. I'll stick with the 2" NAP QuikSpin Hunter STs or try the 2" Blazers. I'm also experimenting with the 1 degree offset. I'll see if I like this offset and if I don't then I'll have an excuse to strip the Fusions and refletch. With 125 grain Spitfires they now weigh in at 496 grains and the FOC went from 9% to 14%. I'm very happy about that and I'm really looking forward to punching holes in paper with them on Saturday. These might be going into the quiver for the rest of the season if I'm happy with them.
Thanks for sharing the hunting experience 
Congratulations to your Son!!!
