724wd

well, got the ol' heave ho tonight. 5 years in, they say i don't fit anymore. such is life! on to bigger and better things! heath

dang, man! what a piece of luck! good thing is things always have a way of getting better!

might i ask why silver solder is not an option?

i'd say he was about 150# on the hoof. not a monster, but a couple years old. i will admit to being nervous when he rolled within 15 feet... but the raspy breathing and lack of movement was reasurring (though not as reassuring as when he STOPPED breathing!)

I've shot a couple of bears, but this is my first "black" bear. the others have all been color phase brown/blonde. not a monster, but pretty good for the area. shot him at less than 15 yards running at me.

ok, well i shot it, but she's quite the lucky charm! we went out to find my arrow from my deer. took my 1928 model 12 16 gauge just in case we ran in to some turkeys as it's turkey season. we parked at my coworker's place and walked down the driveway to her parents place. they're in hawaii, so no one has been shooing the turkeys off with a broom. there were no turkeys in the yard, so we headed behind the barn. sure enough, there they were! i told anya to stay in the yard and stepped another 20 feet or so and popped one of the hens. our fall season is beardless only. anya didn't seem to mind the shotgun blast, but she didn't want to get too close to the bird. so, with the turkey sorted, we headed back up the driveway to find my arrow. 30 yards off the driveway it was laying in plain site on top of the grass. didn't even have to search. what a day!

it's hard to add length back on to a barrel. start at 22" and pack it around. see how it feels. YMMV

awesome! i can't wait to get a crack at one of those babies!

my first archery deer season has officially ended for me. saturday night this guy came in and presented me with a broadside shot at 20 yards. as you can see in the first pic, i hit him WAY too far back. i dont know if he took a step or i just blew the shot, but the result was a solid gut thwack and i watched him run 200 yards off. being it was working on getting dark and i knew i made a bad shot, i walked out after finding just a bit of blood. i played the shot over and over all night. sunday morning i started back on the blood, following the trail for about 150 yards. Barret, the landowner's son came out to help and together we found a spot where the deer had laid down under a tree and bled for some time, but when he departed, he had clotted or plugged up, as there was no more blood. we circled and searched for 2 hours, and even dogs couldn't find the trail. it was time to call this one lost. i sat down, disgusted with my poor performance and tried to think like a wounded deer. i'd head downhill, maybe to water. and i'd lay down in some nasty thick brush and die. barret and i wandered down the trail very slowly, looking for anything that looked out of place. another 150 yards down the road, barret found a puddle that looked a bit like blood, a bit like urine, and smelled like gut! INTERESTING! we fanned out again and kept looking. barret shouted "OH! here it is." the buck was laying five feet of the 4-wheeler trail, behind a log the same color as his hide. he almost put his foot on it before noticing what it was! so, that ended the mystery. i'll lose a bit of meat due to spoilage around the entry/exit holes, but thanks to the low temperatures, everything else looks good! overall, this deer traveled around 500 yards and had almost circled back to where i shot him. must do better next time! my first bow kill! oh, and he's a 6x3 (broken). 2 brow tines on the right and 4 points, and it looks like he got caught up in something during his horn development, then broke the forward portion off while rubbing.

SWEET!

happy birthday, old friend. he sure brought a lot of excitement to the board, didn't he? and, boy, he didn't like pigs much, huh?

all the best to you and your pals! come home safe! heath

http://www.blanklooks.com/ http://www.cookwoods.com/ http://www.gilmerwood.com/index.html

GAG offers manlicher stocks. have you checked their prices?

went out opening day. saw some does and fawns (and a handful of 140-150 class bucks in the alfalfa). got rained on. frank's barn was blown over by a cyclone wind (i thought it was a tree!) and had a great time! wasn't able to get out last night or this, but 4:30 will find me out there again. i guess deeann's brother saw a nice little 4x4 and some fawnless does behind the house. might give that a shot. dont worry too much about it... 11 days is nothing! =)

they both fire 7.62x51? nothing interchanges. FAL's are a gas blowback where CETME's are recoil.

but you guys are allowed the CHICOM M-14's. there is no justice in the world!

we're not allowed mechanical broadheads in washington. so i'm tossing G5 Montecs. it's just the one that flies funny, so i swapped it out late last night and am trying different shafts. at the moment, i can shoot the broadheads with some accuracy, but my field points are way off, so practicing is tough. i'm using DOC on archerytalk's method to get them impacting at the same spot moving the rest, then adjusting the sights to match. that should give you the best result when switching from FP to BH. Because the broadhead point of impact didn't change as much as the field point, i'm going to tryh going back the other way and getting the FP's to impact where the broadheads impact, instead of the other way around.

attempted to broadhead tune today... should be a slam dunk, right? HA! i had given myself an hour, as we had to head to costco for a dinner tomorrow with my dad and step mom. I had done my research. work the broadheads and field points to impact together using the rest. then adjust the sights. broadheads are impacting left and low. so i moved the rest 1/16th" right. broadheads are close to center, but field points are 5 inches right! UGH! and of course my mediocre shooting complicates matters... dang it! 4 days and counting...

these damn windmills will be the death of hunting and shooting! around Tri-Cities, WA, they say they have the largest wind farm west of the Mississippi. access is closed to the whole area. you cant even drive near them. they say it will take something like 20 years before they pay for themselves. what a waste and a crock! heath

looks to me like you're RIGHT THERE as far as the bolt closing. remove VERY LITTLE material from the shroud and try it over and over... heath

As I turned from the pavement to the gravel road leading to my destination, I couldn't help but be awestruck at the sheer number of whitetails in the alfalfa field. Between 100-120 bucks, does and fawns milled about the 20 acres. Directly behind the NO HUNTING signs. Sigh. This is my first year as a bow hunter, and I've been chasing whitetails on 60 acres with a trail camera for a little over a month now. The Human Resources Manager where I work has kindly offered to let me stumble around through the woodlots and pastures on her familial compound in a secret location north of Spokane. I turkey hunted there a couple of years ago and found that while there were birds present, they were especially call-shy and nervous. I've yet to bag a NE WA turkey. I blame their wariness, but in truth, it's probably as much my ineptitude at calling and sitting still that has kept my shotgun clean. But now I'm on the trail of deer, and there is no shortage of them in the area. The alfalfa field I mentioned is less than 300 yards away. Every time I'm in the area, I see deer. I even managed to catch a 4 point and a spike on the trail camera I set up, along with numerous does and fawns. So the density of deer will not be cause if I fail to connect with a whitetail this year. But I seem to be putting myself at a disadvantage with every step I take, at least to most modern archery hunters. I will be hunting from the ground. Nothing against those that utilize tree stands, but I honestly don't think I can sit that long. I've been a gun hunter for so many years, I find the prospect of watching a deer leave the area just outside of range and not being able to try for an ambush maddening! So, for this season at least, I'll be on the ground. With whitetails. With their excellent vision. Sigh. Now this should get a chuckle from a few of you reading this: I shoot aluminum arrows. Some fletched with feathers! "Buy yourself some carbons," you say. I have a dozen Beeman ICS Hunters. Never liked them. Not sure why, but perhaps it's my urge to be "different," or the inexpensiveness of XX75's that has pushed me away from carbons. I also like the flexibility in choosing an arrow that exactly matches my bow ("A Martin?! Get'cha a real bow, sonny!") you get with Easton's extensive array of aluminum tubes. Have you seen their list of arrows lately? There's a shaft for every weight and every style! Plus, they work. Cheap, matched to my bow, and they work. What's not to like? So, I've been shooting my Martin with 2215's all summer. I can USUALLY hold 6-8 inches at 60 yards. 30 yards is my nemesis. Let's just say I need to keep practicing at that range as much as possible before Sept. 1st. I plan to keep a journal of sorts, to share with you, fine reader, as I attempt to take my first bow-killed whitetail. From the ground. With a Martin. And aluminum arrows. With feathers. Sigh.

it's not a matching numbers gun, is it? i hear BNZ's command a premium price if original. otherwise, go for it!

happy birthday!

sweet! hope it get up and running.