rofl I am glad I did not say that. Bob

My opening day has come and gone this year. I have some "rituals" I go through leading up to the big day.

I mainly hunt out of a tree.....actually a platform built between two pinion pine trees. Around noon the day before, I place my target on the trail which my tree blind overlooks (25 yards) and shoot six practice arrows. If I get five out of six in the inner circle around the bullseye, I'm set. Then I move my target back to 35 yards and shoot six more. The requirement here is three out of six in the circle but none more than 6" from the center of the bullseye. If all goes well there, I'm set.

The day before I've already packed my de-scented camos in the plastic tubs I keep them in.....with the pine flavored scented wafers scattered over them. I check them out to be sure everything is in order.

I get my scent free soap and bodywash out and place them in the shower so they will be there in the morning.

I sharpen my knives once again.....whether they need it or not.

I pack my little belt bag (my wife calls it a "fanny pack".....sounds too girly for me) with jerky, an apple, a couple of granola bars, roll of orange fluorescent tape for marking the bloodtrail, Zip-Loc bags for the coffee I drank before I left the house, toilet paper, rangefinder, and knives.

I go to bed early.....so I can wake up at 1 AM to pee then lay there till 3 then go ahead and get up because I'm too pumped to go back to sleep.

Coffee, the scent-free shower, carefully getting into my pine-scented coveralls, checking out my pistola (mountain lion presence), snapping on my gun belt and little belt bag.....then I'm off.

I treasure the hour or so I'm in the blind before daylight. The sounds I hear echoing across the ridge are magnificent. Some are eerie and it makes me glad my Ruger Blackhawk accompanied me. The sound I like most is rocks rolling around on the side of the mountain as the deer make their way up the trail.

Man, I love that stuff.

I also know that sound. Having hunted out West for many years. I love it also.

Yep my arrow decision is made. This was this evening at 15 yards with my longbow. Feeder is 12 yards from my blind = Bambi in Trouble!

That's some good shootin' Derek! I don't have a longbow and far from competent with my recurve.....so I'm going to have to cheat with my Switchback.

Bring the recurve along. Might be able to give you a pointer or two between hunts.

I hope you have patience...... :beating:

Yes sir I sure do as I taught my kids how to shoot, that tends to develop patiences......;) Biggest thing is to make sure you have your bow setup right. If it isn't then you won't ever get good with it.

Good shootin there!!

Great shooting Derek! Do you give lessons?:)

I just ordered a new recurve last weekend.

Jo I wouldn't call them lessons but I'm willing to give pointers. One thing I've learned over the years is no two traditional shooters do it the exact same way. Now the most important part is getting the bow setup right and getting the right arrows for the bow. That way all you have to do is fix what you are doing wrong and not have to worry about if you have some setup issues.

I thought that was a 1/2 dozen roses when I first saw it. Good shootin Derek. Bob

Bob you are the second person that mention they looked like flowers. Hope I can give one of those flowers to a deer this weekend.....;)

Attachment 2754
Delivers!!

Go get 'em, Derek!

I will be doing my darnest to deliver one or two next week.

Well my camo is all washed, bow and arrows are all tuned and ready. Got an extra string, taking my old longbow just in case as well. Now about all I have to do is worry about getting some food & drinks, packing up the Escape and hitting the road.

I have a dozen arrows to build tonight. I wasn't going to work on any more arrows until after my week hunting, but I just can't say no to a lady in need. Cameron even made up some awesome custom wraps for them on short notice. To beat it all, these are for a compound bow, but then again I can't say now to a lady in need. I'll post up a picture when they are finished, they really are going to be some kewl arrows.