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What are you doing today to get ready for 2026?

MattMan81

MattMan81

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2020
Messages
6,783
Location
The Mitten
We need some more hunting talk.

What are you guys up to this weekend to get ready for the up coming season?

I'm finishing my coffee here and taking my boys to my parents house. Gonna try to get a little food plot in and I got some brackets to rebuild the hunting blind i made a while ago.
Hope to be able and get some better hunts with my boys back there this fall during the week.
 
I went out and prepped another tree on the little club this morning. If I had been in this tree last October I would have killed a doe, so it is now set for this October. The tree covers a lane leading up out of a marsh and bedding area into a narrow hardwood flat that then transitions into pine plantation with good low cover. Last fall when the oaks produced the deer filtered up that lane and into the woods about 10 am. The tree is now set and all I have to do is climb and hunt. It was miserably hot however. In the woods it was a sauna, in the sun it was an air fryer. I came a little too close to getting to hot for comfort this morning.
 
Too hot to practice climb right now. Going to experiment around with DSRT. SRT works for me, but with a couple of nagging issues I'm not fully comfortable with. So, DSRT is the next experiment.

But, for today though......time for some TLC on the XBOW. Replace string (maybe), wax string, add silencers back into the string, replace the missing ones on the bow and set it up so it's ready for the range and sighting in. Lastly, fiddle around with a pre-set installation kit....got the new pieces last week, just haven't put it all together, much less tested it out.
 
Hernia surgery this past Wednesday. All went well. The REAL BOSS is watching me like a hawk...she follows me down to my basement workshop every time I get up from my chair in the living room (which she always protests when I do!)

So, I'm sharpening some broadheads. I received her approval for this activity after she watched me for a while. ;)

Thankfully, my best hunting buddy came over to visit me on Tuesday, & we spent a couple hours shooting my own little 3d course that I have set up in our little woods, so I got a "fix" in before the surgery.

The Doc wasn't too happy when I told him what I did on Tuesday, but I told him, "You can take the boy out of the country, but..."

Oh, and that's the same buddy who talked me into a Spring '27 Black Bear hunt in Saskatchewan...he's a devious fellow, so he talked my son into going first, then played the "Dad card," & sprung it on me.

He's crafty...but there's no one I'd rather "ride the river" with.

Heck, I never even wanted to shoot a Black Bear, but I guess I'm going...I've never been there before, and the outfitter will let me hunt on the ground (an absolute MUST for me,) so adventure awaits! They evidently grow a bit bigger up there...
 
TradBowGuy said:
Hernia surgery this past Wednesday. All went well. The REAL BOSS is watching me like a hawk...she follows me down to my basement workshop every time I get up from my chair in the living room (which she always protests when I do!)

So, I'm sharpening some broadheads. I received her approval for this activity after she watched me for a while. ;)

Thankfully, my best hunting buddy came over to visit me on Tuesday, & we spent a couple hours shooting my own little 3d course that I have set up in our little woods, so I got a "fix" in before the surgery.

The Doc wasn't too happy when I told him what I did on Tuesday, but I told him, "You can take the boy out of the country, but..."

Oh, and that's the same buddy who talked me into a Spring '27 Black Bear hunt in Saskatchewan...he's a devious fellow, so he talked my son into going first, then played the "Dad card," & sprung it on me.

He's crafty...but there's no one I'd rather "ride the river" with.

Heck, I never even wanted to shoot a Black Bear, but I guess I'm going...I've never been there before, and the outfitter will let me hunt on the ground (an absolute MUST for me,) so adventure awaits! They evidently grow a bit bigger up there...
Click to expand...
Hope you have a speedy recovery!
 
Horn said:
Seen a new idea for a receivable anchor I'm going to try right now, lol.

Got some new arrows started last night. Got the bow out and turned up to see how my shoulder feels before I tune the new stuff in.
Click to expand...
Which one is it? Has it got a name?
 
I need to get my you know what In gear!!!! Always seems like there is plenty of time until there isn’t.

I have been riding my pedal bike a lot doing a lot of uphill riding. Need to start climbing though.
 
Flinging some Broadheads. Lightest and fastest arrow I’ve shot. Nervous about having to broadhead tune. I never have before. So far looking good. Another totally different broadhead ordered and hoping to have good results with it.
 
Spent the morning paper tuning new arrows for my recurve. Got really close before I had to get ready for a family get together but I went ahead and cut the full dozen to fletch for ETAR. Still have a slight weak tear at 5 feet but shoots bucket holes at 10 yards. I’ll fine tune them a little before September.
 
movehuntir said:
The ships going thru the straits have been using their foghorns.
Click to expand...

GCTerpfan said:
I was wondering how bad it was in your area. It was pretty smokey here in MD yesterday. I’m sure it’s much worse up there.
Click to expand...
Mackinac Bridge cam pictures from Thursday at about 1:30 in the afternoon. There was actually less visibility on Friday, you couldn't even make out any of the structure.

1784426927055.png
 
Bowtie747 said:
Flinging some Broadheads. Lightest and fastest arrow I’ve shot. Nervous about having to broadhead tune. I never have before. So far looking good. Another totally different broadhead ordered and hoping to have good results with it.
Click to expand...
"Nervous about having to broadhead tune". Oh, yeah, been there done that.....over multiple years. It's a rite of passage if all of that is mystery. And, FYI, no "different broadhead ordered" is ever going to solve that fear. You need to learn why this will never work, it won't,...or ask yourself why it'll never work. Let me guess....we're considering folding/mechanical broadheads highly as a fail safe (I did). Because they fly "like field points". If you've reached this stage, you are not asking the right questions...you're NOT focusing on the right problem, hence the reason you've arrived here. Your broadhead isn't the problem. It's other things, which may or may not include you.

Why do I say that? Well I've been there done that. But...today, I manufacture, every 4th or 5th year, 6ish hunting arrows. Just 6. I'm intolerant of any imperfections within those 6 during assembly (4 in quiver, 1-2 in spare). I spend a couple of days to build those 6, and do not tolerate much. In the end 5 work out, eventually, on the rare occasion....all 6 do. And they fly like field points..they are ALL fixed bladed. Now this assumes the bow is properly tuned up front. Even in the past a properly tuned bow would NOT shoot fixed broadhead tipped arrows acceptably, hence the comment. Yet these will with the proper attention.

Here is what I found out. Your $0.75 insert, or $0.60 nock, or a combination thereof are killing arrow performance with a fixed broadhead 80-90% of the time. Yes, I was shocked to finally find that out after 10-15 years......the stuff that cost's the least was giving you the greatest headache. I found out the hard way. Not your fault, and yes..there is an added10% that is an equal headache, but comparitively, easily solved. Bad nocks, bad inserts are NOT. They're intolerant.

Here is the good news. If you don't have any form deficiencies, your bow is tuned...you're good. If you can shoot a 1" group at 20yds..you are good. Doing it at 30yds is even better. But if you cant get fixed bladed broadheads to perform similarly at 20-30 yards....it's not you, it's not the bow..it's something else. It's no afterthought to say broadheads are wings at the front..it's true, but it's how they perform overall. Here your insert and nock play their greatest, most extreme, role. In short, a $0.75 component may be defeating your $15 arrow. Yes, much of the time it just that simple.
 
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