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@Brisketexan sorry you lost your hunting spot. A good lease dynamic with a good group of guys is hard to find and a great thing.

@NotActuallyALonghorn do you smoke the rawhide after the brain tan and what wood do you use to smoke it? What do you make with the leather? I’ve always been interested in this. I also have always wondered how people thought, “you know, I’m going to rub some brains on this rawhide and maybe that will soften it up”. It would have never occurred to me.

Counterpoint: the new thread every season allows me to move on from all of my mistakes, regrets, and missed opportunities from last season and start fresh. Very liberating.

All of what you said, plus: serial violators (who GWs should and do spend a good amount of their time tracking) aren’t going to use digital licenses or tags. So directing wardens to police generally law abiding hunters via digital tags takes the wardens away from what is a better use of their time: catching people completely disregarding the law by not using tags/licenses at all, taking game out of season, trespassing, etc., etc.

@crimsonlonghorn Holy shit that is fucking irritating if TPWD was passing digital license info to wardens to go snoop on people.

Digital license seems convenient for upland birds and general fishing, but you still have to buy a physical federal duck stamp and still have to put some kind of physical tag on big game animals, plus have pictures and then I really lost interest when you have to create a harvest report online (or offline and then remember to upload it later). Nope.

I got buck fever bad after I my elk tag went through, couldn’t keep my finger off the trigger; will try to do better next year

Maybe the most succinct and 100% accurate advice on bowhunting ever written. It is nice to have a setup that works for the prevailing wind direction and a setup for a North wind. I have a really high tree stand which helps take the wind out of the equation but it’s tough to make shots from due to the down angle. You have to bend at the waist for steep down angling shots.

This digiscoping adapter looks really nice, more expensive than a phoneskope, but better. https://ollin.co/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-LSK99DTgAMVKSrUAR2WNg5KEAAYASAAEgJXkPD_BwE

Moulting/summer coat/shedding

That’s a hell of a happy accident! Do you have a tripod for it? Phoneskopes are great too.

What is the soil type where your tree stands are? Point being: if it is rocky/hard pan: an aluminum broadhead will probably not survive more than one shot. They bend and then don’t shoot straight. Not something that people talk about a lot with broadhead selection, but at $15 a piece, it’s irritating. Slick Trick has some steel heads (blades are a little thin and don’t always survive), along with G5 montec (not my favorite geometry but it has a record of success), and if you really want to go down the rabbit hole, you can read Dr. Ashby’s data and look at Grizzly Stik and IronWill broadheads. Heavy steel heads are really tempting, but it will really knock your speed down and shots over 20 yards will be dicey with the amount of ducking the deer might do. Mechanicals can do amazing damage when everything goes right, but they are frequently a one shot deal (even if the shaft survives, the blades usually all bend), and you can loose confidence in them if you see the blades popping out of the retention device while your arrow is nocked (catching on tree limbs, etc) Texas white tails are a very challenging archery quarry. Archery hunting is a roller coaster - awesome highs and despondent lows. I missed a short archery shot on a 140” deer years ago and didn’t get over it for a year. But when it all comes together it’s the best.

@Storm the Field If you can get some basic equipment in your east Texas lease you could probably have some good success food plotting if there are are any openings in the trees. Do any of the lease members plot anything? Is it allowed per the lease rules?

What bow setup are you shooting? Are you going to hunt tree stands or pop-ups? Scent control /wind direction really matters.

Last year our biggest rut activity was early December, it was surprising. Chalking it up to changing weather patterns, etc. It was very dry at our place last fall (a little Sept rain but very dry Oct and Nov), and it has been extremely dry the last 6 months. If we don’t get fairly good rain starting in September I’m thinking it will delay things again, but who knows.

Time to start looking at the calendar and getting some dates reserved. Ordered my OTC Elk tag for Colorado today. Third rifle season, Nov 11-17. Also looking at: Central Zone Dove opener Sept 1-2 Teal hunt Sept. 16 Whitetail rifle opener Nov 4-5 (probably try to get the kids on does) Probably do some hunting thanksgiving week and try to hit the rut around early December. May try to tack on a crane hunt, big duck hunt, or nilgai in the spring (if I don’t get an elk and have freezer space). Was driving on 77 yesterday north of Raymondville and saw a big nilgai bull over the fence, I really want to make that hunt happen soon. Got out to the range over the weekend to function test my phoneskope and spotter, it worked well. My shooting was bad at first, but after the rust was knocked of it improved to not great/not terrible. Something to build off of and stretch out to 500+ with the help of real-time feedback of the spotter and spotting scope with video. Second group was sub MOA. Room for improvement.

What lifts are you doing in the 5x5? Are you doing machines or freeweights? Some Thoughts: I’m sure you’re doing this but start out light and work up slowly. Machines can be great IMO when you’re starting up/training muscles that have atrophied, or for specific weak points. E.g. my back hates sit-ups but I can do ab machines no-prob with acceptable results. Go slow with the movements - lighter weight with more “time under tension” is probably a good idea. I.e. let the weight down slowly during the rep, like 2-3 seconds. Build up the coordination / muscle memory with the movements before you load up the weight. Stretching/yoga might also be a really good use of time.

I’ve been following over time and just got up to date on this thread. Congrats to you and your wife and amazing work! What is a “normal” gym workout for you at this point?

Reporting that Girkin is to be detained until (at least?.?) September 18. He deserves to rot in jail but I am honestly going to miss his doom posting/ calling the decision makers in Moscow “pink ponies”, etc. His takes on the Russian’s shit show did add to the bouquet.

Older F250/350 looking good pulling a M777 around. Appears the UA had the good taste to paint over the former owner’s plumbing/whatever business logo:

American crew in Ukraine. Russian mortars making for a long day at the office. Made my Monday look a little easier.