NC4X4 Hunting and Fishing

Do any of you bowhunters use anything other than a compound?
Crossbow for me.

You guys that hunt after work. If you are in an industry where you will smell from a shop atmosphere, what are you doing before you hit the stand? I want to start going otw home from work. Normally i just hunt weekends.
Spray/wipes & keep my hunting clothes in their own bag. Best thing is to hunt the wind/thermals when & where you can.

Are any of y'all planting your own food plots? I'm doing some research for spring. The innernets seems to suggest you can't plant a couple acres of clover and brassicas without a sprayer, spreader, disc harrow, and cultipacker.
Machinery just gives you a better chance of taking root. I've got a spreader & home built roller/sprayer that I use with decent results. I've also rented a drill from the county (each county in NC has one) in the past, but you have to have rear wet lines to raise/lower & you have to schedule the rental & deal with lack of maintenance. None of my food plots turned out this year so they are all bedding areas/cover this year....fingers crossed for next year!

The field I hunt next to cut their beans on Wednesday so I ate tag soup this weekend...then my aunt sent me this pic of a buck she tagged tonight:
IMG_6675v2.jpg
 
You can, people did it for thousands of years. But implements and machinery make it much more enjoyable.
Sure, not debating that. It's more a question about what to plant and how to do it. How can you do it most expeditiously for the least amount of money? I have a tiller that would do the job in lieu of the disc harrow. Spring tine cultivator? Probably less useful. The cultipacker, though... that seems essential if you're going to till first and want to follow up with clover or brassicas. I'd be worried the seed would just get lost w/o it. Might could rig up a 30-50 gallon sprayer or buy one second-hand for cheap.

Oats and clover will take off without actually planting. I’ve started with a fairly bare area and dragged a plugger around behind the mower, lime, fertilizer and seed. Last yr it was great, this year is awful due to the lack of rain down here. Thought all my clover would be toast but I’d say 70% is still alive. One half I actually dragged a pulverizer behind the tractor, Cleaned & prepped that area up nicely.
The field I'm looking at was 4-6ft high on Sunday before bush hogging. Black eyed susan, cone flower, raspberry, and everything in between. Somebody was overly aggressive with a plow at some point, so there are a bunch of big ditches in it, too.
 
We planted a 2 acre food plot in Greenville back in college. Used my 53 Farmall, broke it up with a 2 blade plow, then used a disc to break it all up. Threw out 2 bags of food plot seeds from Tractor supply. Took around 3-4 hrs maybe? We didn't touch it after that and it did really well.
 
i dont think a crossbow really counts as bowhunting...
Agree to an extent. But it's not technically bow season, it's archery season. And it is definitely Archery equipment.
 
i dont think a crossbow really counts as bowhunting...
Man screw that I'mma get me one of them Excalibur double barrels. Give that big buck the double tap.


In all honesty I will probably be getting a crossbow for next year. I don't think I'm going to have the time to shot like I have been. a bow is a diminishing skill
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20231115_193448_Chrome.jpg
    Screenshot_20231115_193448_Chrome.jpg
    61.8 KB · Views: 54
I hope to be healthy enough enough by next year to get in the woods with minimal help.
I have a younger cousin with land and I know he would help me if needed.
But I don't see myself pulling my compound by then.
It's an 20 yr old Point Blank. It was so fast then it's not too far behind now ..... shoots great ..... but I've already backed it off and had trouble with it before Covid.
I'm looking at a recurve ..... I plan on building one before long just for fun. If it makes the minimum I'll be golden.
But I have also seriously thought about getting a crossbow.
I think a 1.25 or 1.5 2 blade that's surgically sharp would be good at reasonable distances from a recurve at 40-45 lbs.
Fred Bear took everything in North America with a similar set-up. Why can't I?
 
So after I got my stuff back from the prick that stole it, I decided to hang that camera behind the house. We see deer, but never hunted it because it's only 2 acres and doesn't set up well. Guess I'll have to make it work. 1009 this morning.

Screenshot_20231116-122315_SPYPOINT.jpg
 
hope this one shows up Saturday.

deer5.jpg
 
Tight setup, but it puts them at 15 yards. Threw out a apple block as well.

20231116_173949.jpg

Screenshot_20231116-175758_onX Hunt.jpg
 
Wanna have fun with bait?
Put out an apple pile. Quarter a few and put them as high as you can reach on sappling limbs …… it will end up tore down and on the ground.
 
Speaking of crossbows...

Barnett Jackal. Got it for a hundo with everything.

20231117_135207.jpg
 
Poor little fella just couldn't find the does bedded in the thicket 60 yards to his right lol. He's passed through twice, might not get a third pass.

20231118_071545.jpg
VideoCapture_20231118-072711.jpg
 
Got back from Kansas Wednesday morning at 12:05 am. 19 hour drive. Didn’t put my tag on 1 there this year. Saw a really big 1 on the last am but was too far away. Saw some decent deer but nothing I wanted to shoot. Hopefully I will draw a tag again next year.
IMG_4407.jpeg

IMG_4436.jpeg

IMG_4437.jpeg
 
Left the truck at 5:05AM, got to the tree at 5:15, halfway up the tree a doe blew at me.....No lights, cover scent on, Tinks 69 out, slow and smooth up the tree with hardly any noise.

Sat till 10AM, nothing except some squirrels. Heard 1 close shot behind me and a few far away but nothing else. I've only morning hunted this property, going to try and sit it tomorrow afternoon in my lock on.
 
Left the truck at 5:05AM, got to the tree at 5:15, halfway up the tree a doe blew at me.....No lights, cover scent on, Tinks 69 out, slow and smooth up the tree with hardly any noise.

Sat till 10AM, nothing except some squirrels. Heard 1 close shot behind me and a few far away but nothing else. I've only morning hunted this property, going to try and sit it tomorrow afternoon in my lock on.
I got busted twice this morning and they kept coming. I killed a pretty good buck two years ago right after getting busted by a doe.
 
Little soggy out this morning.

20231121_070003.jpg
 
What do you do when your boy wants to hunt but it's a school day? You take a field trip to the deer stand to learn about the day/night cycle, patterns in nature, ecosystems, and physics. :smokin: Lol, mom said he still has to do his book work when we get home though :shaking:

He's been on several evening sits, but this is his first morning sit. Lil bugger was sitting in his bed staring at the wall and waiting when I went to wake him up lol.

20231122_065210.jpg
 
Brown it is down morning. Let the work begin.
IMG_1403.jpeg

IMG_1408.jpeg
 
Back
Top