The adventures of a couple of newb\'s

[mtnmutt]

Lark,
You may already know this. You are also required by CO to carry your ID. Plus you must carry hunters safety card if your license does not have a V on it. You probably have a license with a V. Not sure what an ID is for your son to carry. I am always worried that I will leave my ID at camp. It\'s a slim chance a game warden will see you in the field while packing out, however, it is the law.

The first 3 years of hunting were the most expensive for me. I started out with cheap stuff and cotton clothing. I had to wait a few years before I could upgrade stuff.

I have some 100 grain BH Montec CS and Practice Montecs. You may have them if you want them. The Montec CS may need sharpening. I may have other things you can use.

After the season, I will start a Pay It Forward thread under Classified or somewhere. I will start cleaning out stuff in October. This summer I was too busy to do it.

Good Luck! You 2 will have a blast.

 

[Lark Bunting]

Lark,
You may already know this. You are also required by CO to carry your ID. Plus you must carry hunters safety card if your license does not have a V on it. You probably have a license with a V. Not sure what an ID is for your son to carry. I am always worried that I will leave my ID at camp. It\'s a slim chance a game warden will see you in the field while packing out, however, it is the law.

The first 3 years of hunting were the most expensive for me. I started out with cheap stuff and cotton clothing. I had to wait a few years before I could upgrade stuff.

I have some 100 grain BH Montec CS and Practice Montecs. You may have them if you want them. The Montec CS may need sharpening. I may have other things you can use.

After the season, I will start a Pay It Forward thread under Classified or somewhere. I will start cleaning out stuff in October. This summer I was too busy to do it.

Good Luck! You 2 will have a blast.

I would be happy to pay shipping for those Montecs! Much appreciated! I killed my deer with NAP Thunderheads and was NOT happy with the blood trail. I\'ve heard better results from the Montecs and they fly really well for me. I also became a master at sharpening those things.

I will have to update my journal one of these days... I have a lot of notes from the field.

 

[mtnmutt]

Thank you for the feedback on the Thunderheads. Now, I feel really good about my clean miss on a 4x4 5 years ago. I was sporting a light arrow with 85 grain Thunderheads when I launched that arrow. Later, I had guys at the pro shop say they used Montecs with success. Last year, the traditional gear guys said buzzcuts would be better for my low momentum. Therefore, I need to get rid of the Montecs.

PM me your address and I will get them out on Saturday. No need to send any money. It is local and cheap. Need to clean stuff out.

These are CS, so they will rust if left wet. Someone recommended putting olive oil on them to prevent the rust. It only happened to me once on a wet rainy morning where I put the arrow back in my quiver and forgot to wipe it dry.

Congratulations on your deer and your sharpening skills. I had to go with a KME sharpener since I stink at using bench stones for sharpening.

 

[bowhunter]

I have killed several deer with Thunderheads. I have had some break a leg bone and still pass through. I have had some get bent blades going through leg bones or shoulder blades but in my opinion they never failed. I shot a deer last year through the shoulder blade and had a pass through with a Montec. Both of my elk were killed with Montecs. I have switched to Montecs for the ease to resharpen on a diamond stone. They both work well if placed in the right spot on an animal.

 

[Lark Bunting]

I have killed several deer with Thunderheads. I have had some break a leg bone and still pass through. I have had some get bent blades going through leg bones or shoulder blades but in my opinion they never failed. I shot a deer last year through the shoulder blade and had a pass through with a Montec. Both of my elk were killed with Montecs. I have switched to Montecs for the ease to resharpen on a diamond stone. They both work well if placed in the right spot on an animal.

I have no doubt the Thunderhead did its job but I put that arrow just above the leg on my deer, low, and it came out high on the far side (uphill shot). The exit wound was identical to the entry would and was not a mm bigger than the broadhead. There just wasn\'t a good blood trail. I\'ve seen the videos and pictures of the shooters using Montecs and Slick Tricks and the blood trail was significantly better than what I witnessed on my deer. And, I saw worse shot placements on animals using other broad heads but they too had better blood.

I\'m not here to bash the Thunderheads on anything other than my own accounts from what I witnessed. As a first time success I\'d have preferred a better blood trail to track. It was a great, and invaluable lesson for us to track a difficult trail but I\'d rather not have to do that again if it can be controlled.

Bottom line...I lost confidence in the Thunderheads. I will use the Montecs as will my son next year.

 

[elky McElkerson]

wow!! if i shot my bow on my sidewalk, i would get arrested!! hahahha...love it.

 

[Lark Bunting]

First Update, 2015:
Hmmm, I sit here at my desk on yet another bleak Monday morning. I hate my job. It doesn\'t matter if it\'s a Monday or a Friday, they all suck. Why is this particular more bleak than the rest? I lost my hunting partner. My son and I got into this hinting thing together a few years ago but I took the fun out of it in a sense and he chose to not hunt anymore this season. There is a guilty part of me that is okay with his decision but as a father I always encouraged my kids to complete a mission even when the going gets tough.

This years journey started off on the wrong foot. I did the research, I did the practicing, I worked out the details...he played lacrosse. No biggie, I am used to it and he has a busy schedule with the sport he plays...which means I have a busy schedule with the sport he plays.

We scouted this summer and I finally figured out a spot Afrith showed me last year. I have studied this place and sure enough...we found elk while scouting!!! This was at the beginning of August.

We had planned a trip close to home to try to fill his deer tag. We camped with some friends that had OTC tags for this area. He seemed easily distracted in the field worrying about the other hunters and how their day was going. We saw five bucks and a doe but with his short effective range (25 yards) we never got close enough.

The next weekend we took off to hunt the elk unit, Labor Day weekend! Woohoo! Wait, I-70 traffic sucks so bad! It took us 4 hours to get to our spot that should take 2 hours. We didn\'t hunt that Friday evening.

We were up at 5:00 am that Saturday and we drove the 2 miles up the road to our parking spot. Nobody else was parked there despite driving past some HUGE hunting camps! We hiked the first hill from hell which puts up on a big ridge line and up we went. Just as we were able to turn off the headlamps my son started blowing his nose, stupid summer colds! As he was over there trying to shake the shoelace looking boogers from his face I see a bull elk crossing the bare side of the mountain above us! AND...he\'s heading right to the bench we scouted! SWEET! Unfortunately, as I was trying to get my son\'s attention to stop making so much damn noise the bull crossed the mountain. It took us 20 minutes to cross this steep bitch of a hill whereas it took the elk about 20 seconds. That\'s a pretty good head start.
There\'s an elk in there...

In my head I had it all figured out. We would arrive at the bench just as the sun was shining on that side of the mountain. The thermals would be switching to a more upslope direction so we could approach from above and work our way down to the bench. Just as I thought, the indicator powder was moving uphill when we got there so we took the higher approach. We separated and did some light cow calling. We\'d move a few hundred feet and do more...that\'s when I heard the response...a hoochie mama was calling back! Amazing! We moved back to the entrance of this bench, right on the edge and tried some more cow calls but the hunter was following us. That\'s when I decided to call him up to the top of the mountain, 11,000\' and see what happened. He followed us right up...so we side hilled and went below quite a ways. We didn\'t see anything for the rest of the day other than some fresh poop, fresh rubs, fresh elk tracks, etc.

Around 5:30 we decided to sit above a wallow to see if anything would come in and put together a plan for the next morning. This was our view:

This was where I was talking to my son and I realized he wasn\'t responding much...he was on Instagram, on his phone. At that point I\'d lost my sh!t. We death marched back to camp, had dinner and left Sunday morning for home.

I have a trip planned beginning this Friday that will end around the 27th...unless I get something sooner and depending if I have anyone with me that I can help on their hunt. I\'ll drop my kids off at school Friday, finish the packing in my truck and I am heading back up to one of three spots. I may hit two of the three spots actually and Atfrith should be joining me for a few of those days. The rest I\'ll be alone...and in the woods. I am hoping to have a clear head before my long adventure but I really need some time away. We\'ll see how it goes!

 

[mtnmutt]

Sorry you lost your hunting partner. He is young and may come back around to hunting again. His attention span may not be the best at the moment.

Thanks for sharing your hunting adventures.

Good luck with your final week. The rut will be in full swing.

 

[cohunter14]

Lark, sorry to hear that the trip didn\'t go well. It\'s tough to put in that much time and effort on your own and not see others do the same, but just remember that it\'s supposed to be fun. I have had times where it was all about filling my tag and if I didn\'t fill it, the trip wasn\'t successful. I will tell you that with a mentality like that, the hunt isn\'t a whole lot of fun.

Sometimes you can\'t control things like having to blow your nose. And sitting in one location for an extended time can be boring, especially for a kid. Do your best to try to keep it fun for him. Maybe see if he wants to come back out again and let him run the show. If he wants to go to spot A, go to spot A. If he immediately wants to leave and go to another spot, then do it. By him being in charge, maybe he will focus more and enjoy his time more. Just a thought coming from some of my past experiences and having hunted since I was a kid.

Good luck! :upthumb:

 

[Lark Bunting]

Lark, sorry to hear that the trip didn\'t go well. It\'s tough to put in that much time and effort on your own and not see others do the same, but just remember that it\'s supposed to be fun. I have had times where it was all about filling my tag and if I didn\'t fill it, the trip wasn\'t successful. I will tell you that with a mentality like that, the hunt isn\'t a whole lot of fun.

Sometimes you can\'t control things like having to blow your nose. And sitting in one location for an extended time can be boring, especially for a kid. Do your best to try to keep it fun for him. Maybe see if he wants to come back out again and let him run the show. If he wants to go to spot A, go to spot A. If he immediately wants to leave and go to another spot, then do it. By him being in charge, maybe he will focus more and enjoy his time more. Just a thought coming from some of my past experiences and having hunted since I was a kid.

Good luck! :upthumb:

Funny you mentioned this, My number one goal for this season was to have a GOOD HUNT. I didn\'t want to \"luck\" into an animal like last year. I wanted to have an area pretty well figured out, scout, and find the animals where I figured they\'d be. For the most part I was successful even for only hunting the area once before and scouting once this year. I guess that\'s what kind of bothered me was that I was, in a simple way, celebrating the success of seeing the animal heading right where I\'d have guessed. I figured planning the next day would have been icing on the cake if we had a close encounter...and even better if we\'d have been packing out on elk.

When I tell the story of my deer from last year (first and only big game animal ever) I always refer to it as \"our\" deer. It was never \"My\" deer. He just lost the passion and motivation for hunting this year and I am pretty dang frustrated by it. I think in today\'s world there is a big sense of instant satisfaction...don\'t know the answer to a question? Google it. Want instant entertainment? Reach for your phone.

I won\'t give up on him, I never will, but I sure wish he would have finished out the season with me.

 

[iccyman001]

I\'m sorry to hear that Lark.
I have a feeling that he knows he made you upset, so don\'t be surprised if he comes and apologizes here soon and it never happens again.

One thing that I look forward to at hunting camp and shutting the phones off.... maybe it should be a new camp rule.
You can\'t appreciate anything when your nose is buried in a phone.