Monday, September 26, 2011

Where in the World Is....

This was supposed to be the season I started hunting early and pushed hard through the season to down a big old hog of a buck.  Well the season opened 9 days ago here in MN and I have yet to hit the woods with my bow.  What the heck happened?  It has been a combo platter of things, some I could have done differently and some that were beyond my control or knowledge base.  The thing I could have changed on my own was how late I got the stand up on our metro property.  Our northern MN property is a 1.5 hour drive so that isn't happening during the work week but most of our prep time and efforts have been on that property.  The metro stand wasn't even hung until last Friday, and it still isn't completely finished.

I went out last Friday to throw the stand in the tree and see if I could get the brush and shooting lanes cleared.  The stand is a 12 foot ladder stand and not easy to handle by one person.  I got it up in the tree and situated where I wanted it before realizing I couldn't secure it fully myself.  The tree is leaning into the direction the stand is facing, so in order to get the stand level and strapped in I needed someone to hold the ladder steady while I pushed off the tree and settled the seat in.  I was by myself, so this didn't happen.  On top of all that, I had a show at work opening weekend that had me on the clock for 12 hour days all week.  After getting done with the show on Sunday, we got up early Monday morning and took off for a visit to the manufacturers plant in Indiana.  We spent 2 days down there before a whirlwind couple of weeks found me back at home exhausted.

In spite of all that, I was pumped to finally get out in the stand and get my season underway.  I have been practicing with my new Easton ST Axis arrows and field tips, while doing research on which broadheads I wanted to shoot.  I settled on and ordered the Rocket Stealhead from Eagle Archery.  In all honesty, I took the advice of Bill Winke from MidwestWhitetail.com.  On returning from my trip I started prepping the rest of my gear for the first time and realized the Rockets did not fit in to my arrows.   I am really new to bow hunting, so a lot of what I do is based on the recommendation of others.

My arrow choice was a direct recommendation from my local archery shop.  I have yet to buy anything from them in this adventure but I felt it was important to start a relationship with a shop that was only a few blocks from my house.  I walked in and told the guy working my situation, that I was new to bow hunting and needed  my first set of arrows.  He got me set up with the right length and weight of Easton ST Axis carbon arrows fitted with field tips and blazers.  They shot beautifully right off the bat with no sight adjustments needed on my part.  The part they left out at the archery shop is apparently the arrows need a broadhead adapter ring in order for some broadheads to fit on them.  So when I went to install my new Rocket's, I was out of luck.

I finally found the time to get into the shop again yesterday to get this sorted out and as fate would have it, they didn't have any of the adapters in stock.  At this point I am fully frustrated with the whole situation and have not spent a minute in the stand so far this season.  I understand this is just the beginning of the learning curve for me and it could get worse before it gets better.  At the same time, being in the stand would automatically make me feel better about all of this.  The shop should have my adapters in a couple of days and I will hopefully make it out this week still.  With a full slate of fall projects to complete around the house and at our camper, time could be at a premium in the next few weeks.

This is definitely not the dream start to the season that I expected, on the other hand, it can't get a whole lot worse can it?    

No comments:

Post a Comment