Archery Talk

Classic ,LH It was pretty old also . I paid around $699 back in the day when that model was new .

 

I'm a PSE guy and always have been but a guy I work with just bought this bow and loves it. I'm not recommending, I've never shot this bow, just giving you an option.
https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/dia...Jq465uiGqQD30SYENukaAo9jEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

I've hunted public land since 1968. A few things that have helped out in situations like you describe in the parking lot: First, be polite, but tell them nicely but firmly if they ask that it's none of anyone's damn business where you hunt. If they ask you where you're hunting just smile and depart before they do. That's my land if I get there first, and in Texas it don't take much in the way of someone getting their panties in a knot under a hunter in a treestand to get them thrown in jail for hunter harassment. Video on your phone will shut most people down. Even them pissing around your stand in retribution will get them arrested. Next, if you are having conversations with people in the parking lot, well, you just got there too damn late. We start our walks in at least two hours before daylight. And we hunt far back in there, just so we don't see anybody else. My main tree in the Davy Crockett National Forest that I've hunted off and on since 1976. I have only had two hunters walk up on me, ever. The other trees I hunt I've never seen another hunter.

Now, you might want to hunt where there is traffic. When I hunted the 4000 acres between the confluence of the Neches and Angelina rivers my best treestand was at the end of Bee Tree Slough. It had an East/West cypress glade in the middle of it about a mile and a half long and 400 yards across. The foot traffic split and either went north or south there to either side of that slough. The deer also had to come around the end of that slough if they were going north or south too, and the traffic helped drive them around the end of it and into my kill zone if they got hung up. Sometimes on public land traffic can be your friend if you know how to use it tactically. That area around the end of the slough was well known, and it was first come, first serve. I left my boat and walked in at 3:45am to get there first, and ruined several guy's opening morning plans back in the 80's with a simple waive of the flashlight from up in the tree. (Tactically, and blessed with extra time in the early morning darkness sometimes I'd take a shit in the middle of the trail not far from the boat on the way in and hope they'd step in it in the darkness and unknowingly take it to their stand with them.) Anything to your advantage, on public land.

I don't hunt anymore. If I did though, it would be on public land.

From my recliner in my livingroom:



Standoff over a doe across the golf course. That's my shop in the background:



Little 8-point twenty feet out my kitchen window last Saturday when I got up:

 

First and foremost.. where is snuff gully? I’m a Texas native from the area not far off the Neches and Angelina rivers. Palestine specifically

 

Snuff Gully was the CB radio name for Vidor Texas back in the 70's. Now it is more or less a state of mind where we live here deep in the palmettos and water oaks between two creek bottoms surrounded by the Big Thicket National Preserve in southeast Texas. If you are from Palestine you should consider trying to hunt the Forbidden Zone out 287. Not for the timid. Easily the most difficult public land "stealth hunt" in the state of Texas. For the life of me I cannot understand why such a prime massive expanse of climax hardwood riverbottom land that is publicly owned by the taxpayer is off limits to hunting. Probably the best in the state. Gus B. Engling WMA is pretty badass too. I killed my first deer downstream on the Trinity from there.

 

I appreciate the thoughts. Bottom of the line I was there too late in the afternoon, but it makes me wonder if he is one of the people that would get up in a tree anyways right next to where I was if I had been in there earlier. I rarely see other people on public even in the city but whenever I do I try to talk to them and just make sure we are roughly aware of each other’s location so we don’t mess up each other’s hunts and I usually exchange numbers with them. In Mississippi I met a guy I hunt with now just being nice to him and in all honesty I really like having one other person on your team to talk to about public you both hunt so you can brainstorm together and hunt in some areas that it is more effective to have two people (two sides of a bedding area etc.)

 

Ahhhh that makes a lot of sense. Never spent much time down there besides during Harvey. Spent three days down there in a jon boat. Vidor and Rose City. Amazing folks and a beautiful part of the state!

 

Most of the reason I post in here so much is just to have a place to put my thoughts down and get opinions because I have a lot to learn.

 

I like Bear bows, I have an older one. They are cheaper than some depending on which one you get.

 

Knowingly setting a stand anywhere in another hunter's field of fire is cause for arrest in Texas under hunter harassment statutes. Only an asshole would do that, and assholes go to jail in Texas! Now if they do it on national forest land and they have a gun with them when they do it then it can potentially becomes a federal firearm offense, punishable by a five year mandatory firearm sentencing. They don't fuck around anymore. Know though that the game warden is your friend. If he is not, go introduce yourself and get his cell number. I've called mine a few times to help them with poachers. They remember that, and will come to your aid to repay you. For me the best hunting was done alone. I enjoyed being way back in there alone. I absorbed more. I saw more. Yes, especially late season you can get a few guys hopefully to participate and do drives. What we found is that on public land the party is over after Thanksgiving: you've got the woods to yourself after that. It takes the woods a month to calm down, THEN, the last two weeks the deer have let their guard back down due to no pressure, all the leaves are off the trees and you can see much farther through the woods. That's when we could safely get down out of our climbing stands and still hunt through the woods about 40-50 yards abreast. We like exploring new woods this time of year. That's all past tense for me now.
Now, rather than hunt I get my boat and camping snarf in one sock, ready for the spring crappie! Hunting was an addiction that I was glad to shake. That, and I had an encounter with a cougar that got my attention. Know that you are only the top of the food chain if you see him first. And I did not. Chances are you won't either.

And we are a long way from Vidor up here in these woods!

 

Here are a few public land things I've learned the hard way after 35 years of hunting amongst the crowds (I have no idea what I'm doing out there, just merely observations)
1. If you think you've found a great spot, someone else has too. Move on.
2. Look for stuff other people may not notice...that beat down trail that crosses the gravel road? It's being hunted. That secluded stand of white oaks out in a CRP field? Now we're talking.
3. Tons of rubs and scrapes...if you're lucky enough to be the first one in, you're gold...but expect company.
4. Other hunters (in general) will treat you like shit...lie to you, climb a tree 40 yards from you. I treat them the same way. Side note: I wasn't always like that, but years of being shit on has changed my ways.
5. Lie. Never tell anyone what you saw or where you saw it. My standard answer when asked what I saw is "a tiny buck".
6. Hunt with a trusted friend. I have one buddy that I hunt with that I share spots/thoughts with. We've hunted together for years and we just 'click'. Everyone else I lie to.

I sound like a bitter old man but I actually love the challenges of public land. Good luck!

 

So... You been lying to me??

 

Not on TW! Just to people that know where my truck may be!

 

Checked cameras tonight.

 

Day-um! Y'all have REAL deer!

 

Them is nice! That first one is a jolly whopper!

 

That was 12:30 today.

 

Yep I really only tell people who don’t hunt (family) or people who don’t know where I am hunting what I have seen. I used to talk more than I should but have since shut up and I have better luck. I really see the value in having one other guy you can trust and I feel like this has bitten me the past couple years. I have gotten caught up in sharing information with another guy who is never willing to put in the leg work scouting and hunting. That is what really annoys me is when guys ask for spots or for me to take them out and show them how to hunt public. They want to go all during season but come February for scouting after season or august before season they are never available.

Another thing I need to learn to do is commit to a setup without overthinking it and be willing to be aggressive. Not saying adjustments can’t be made if needed but I walked to the base of a tree to sit up against on the ground that would have put me 30 yards from where that buck hung out for 45 minutes today. I then decided that I was too in the open/the back cover wasn’t good enough and retreated another 50 yards to where I could watch the buck graze without being able to do anything.

 

https://youtu.be/NjLj0P7Ox1U

 

That was a truly remarkable pumpkin! Nice shot too!