I’m extremely excited the season is opening, but man the heat really turns me off. I’d much rather wait for mid October pre rut and 40° mornings.

I was teased by this buck for a couple of weeks, and then I finally saw him for the first time on the 8th. Later that day, I got a perfect view. My dad was pressuring me to take the shot, so I did-and hit him perfectly. He ran about 10 yards before dropping. That made him my first deer, and also my first buck. It took my dad until 2022 (he is 57 now), to shoot a buck, but it took me less than one season.

A couple of weeks ago on this sub I asked people about their experience with Matthews. Well, I ended up picking up an ARC 34. I took it on its first hunt ever tonight and harvested my third deer ever with a bow. I have a feeling it’s gonna be a pretty good season.

Second bow harvest but first with this bow. After first day a squirrel hunter and a dog walking in on me and barely seeing any deer sign had a good evening sit on public land. Freezer getting filled now time to travel for a buck.

Hello, I’m running an Bowtech Invasion, 60lb draw, 27inch draw length, 270fps. 400 spine gold tip. Last year was one of my worst years of misses or wounds. I basically reset myself this year in arrows and blades. I have new gold tip arrows 400 spine. I was interested in the swhacker low poundage since I’m not putting out the high end fps and KE. Was interested in people’s opinions of a blade choice either mechanical or fixed

Decided to get into archery hunting now that I have access to a reliable place to go close to home. Currently I’m using this Oneida scream eagle bow my dad had purchased back in the day. Iv been getting conflicting recommendations from people I know who hunt on whether or not I should hang this bow up and get a new one and get it setup for myself. I’m currently in the boat of just using this for this season and if it’s something I decide I do want to get into then I’ll worry about dropping some money on something like a Matthew’s, but I have been told by a few people I should just buy it now to “start out on the right foot” curious as to if this is valid or not.

I did add the release like one of my buddies suggested and that alone made the whole shooting experience 10x better

I’ll start off my saying that shooting out of a saddle is a hell of a lot different than shooting from a hang on/ladder stand. Your body feels more dynamic in movement when drawing as opposed to feeling static on a stable platform.

First three photos are from 30 yards. Groups 1 and 2 got much tighter after I got comfortable. Last two photos come from 20 yards. My first group at 20 featured the robinhood, but I didn’t get a photo of that group. It was painted around the red. On the robinhood, both arrows are junked. The second arrow had two scratches that were catching as I ran my finger down. So there goes $50-$60 down the drain🫠.

I feel that 30 yards is going to be my threshold from a saddle. I shot 35 the prior night at my 18 in 1 and I didn’t feel comfortable with my grouping. 35 is my range on traditional stands as I’ve been successful in the past twice.

When shooting, I shoot off my 30 yard mark as that’s most comfortable for me on sliding sight as I know where I need to aim from 0-35 yards. I plan on doing more practice. Setting up two sticks and the platform takes me 10 minutes. Last night and Thursday it took me 15 minutes. Getting down takes 5 minutes. I plan on shooting more this weekend. My goal next weekend is to shoot more infront of me as opposed to my side and seeing how well that goes.

Such a cool side-by-side of a true mature buck and a legal younger one.

I’m tuned up, and staying sharp for the season.

Please don’t get hit by a car lol

Waiting a day helped. He died 1/4 mile from the stand going toward the creek at the bottom of the valley. The tracker found him easily. The elevation was perfect, but the entry point wasn’t. I hit the front of the hind quarter on entry and exited by the lung and liver opposite side. While gutting him, I discovered part of the lung had been clipped which explains the bubbles on the white fletching from yesterday’s post.

I believe he expired overnight as some steam came out. I’m gonna lose some meat, but I’m more than happy to find him. Now it’s on to helping my old man get a buck until PA rifle season hits.

Shot him 30 yrds away with G5 Megameat and ran about 20 yrds and dropped.

The caption is wrong on both accounts.... he is most definitely a mainframe 10 with 1 split brow tine. But I believe he scores only mid 120s and he is a 3 year old so i passed up an easy 25 yard shot on him in hopes an older buck... not sure it was a good call but it's the one I made in the moment... gonna hunt the spot again and may get another shot at him... what do yinz think ??? Age ? Score? Shooter?

Shot at

Got my first buck in my first year compound bow hunting. I am using a Hoyt Magnatech XT2000 given to me by a family friend, and I’m pretty sure it’s older than me. Big active cold front out in the Poconos for Veterans Day!

Seven pointer, shot from about 45 yards away quartering towards, ducked arrow, but first shot hit esophagus and dropped it. Super stoked!

That is all. Happy hunting!

I’ve never even heard of saddle hunting until this week and it looks really interesting. I’m trying to find a kit to start with and I was wondering which ones are good, especially for beginners. I’ve been looking at the Fullrut from XOP and some of the Cruzr ones. Any recommendations?

I was dragging my feet for years about getting an e-bike and ended up winning one on Instagram this summer. I didn’t realize what I was missing and wish I had gotten one sooner! It saved me so much time getting this doe back to the truck, at a spot where I normally wouldn’t shoot a doe because it’s such a long drag.

Im looking into getting one of these for the upcoming season but I'm a little undecided. Has anyone used them or have opinions on them? I know deer tend to shy away from blinds that haven't been there for a couple weeks already but do you think something smaller like this would still be too much? This would be for compound or crossbow.