Top Priority (Summer)

[greenhorndave]

https://youtu.be/2XENrKh72YU
Watching that video every day to motivate myself never to let it happen again. Learned a lot from that one though I went home empty handed.

Shooting my bow, but this year I'm shooting a lot more at further yardages than I normally do to prep for my first western elk trip in September.

Practicing and fine tuning how I hang my stand. I want to have my system dialed in by the start of season. Also still need to put fresh hockey tape on all the contact points unless I bite the bullet and order stealth strips this year.

I went without trail cams last year and just hunted fresh sign found in-season. It worked out really well but I think this year I'm going to put them out in some of my spots I dont get to very often to see what's there.

Need to scout my out of state area. Did my first trip there last year and it was good enough I wont mention the state. Gonna do a road trip there the first week in July to help my mom do some home improvement stuff and will also do a little scouting and put a few cameras out till I go back in November.

I wanna do more camping and get some backpacking in

Need to experiment with broadheads. Shooting slick trick standards in the 1" 125gr, would like to increase cutting diameter a little. Probably try a different model of slicks. Also thinking about switching to a different arrow.

What happened in the video? I saw the deer, but couldn’t tell what happened with the shot. (a problem I have with most hunting videos, and I don’t think it’s my eyes because I can always find the puck in an NHL game...)

[funderburk]

Scouting and venturing out of the know public areas I have hunted in the past

Getting my hangon stand and climbing sticks modified to make them quieter, lighter, and more efficient

Trying to get a few shots with my bow everyday

Very similar to what I’m focusing in on this year. New spots, stealth, and shooting.

[DaveT1963]

I stay busy pretty much all year. In June/July I m running cameras over mineral licks, setting up scrapes, I clear access routes, do any final late preset lane trimming, etc.

[Trout]

What happened in the video? I saw the deer, but couldn’t tell what happened with the shot. (a problem I have with most hunting videos, and I don’t think it’s my eyes because I can always find the puck in an NHL game...)

The short story us I had the biggest buck of my life come in, bigger than anything I had even seen shining. I had to face the tree and squat to get into the right shooting lane, as I was doing that, I didnt notice he was veering further away from me and the runway he was coming in on which I had ranged at 25yds. I didnt grunt to stop him. Lost the arrow in flight and not sure where it hit but am pretty sure it was either low in the front third of the chest cavity. He bled good at first, crashed at 40yds, big pool of crash blood, went another 20yds where I had to really search for blood, bedded again with a very small pool of blood, and then a few more specks the next 15yds before I lost blood. Didnt push him, waited 4 hours to start the trail, went back the next day and walked a grid 1500yds in every direction and never found him. Just made a bad shot and he stopped bleeding. Hope he made it.