chowder

Hank, come on back down and set up a little temporary shop in my machine shed for the winter time. We'll keep you busy tinkering & deer hunting!

Be realistic about how much long range predator/deer hunting you are going to do. Consistently being able to make 100+ yd shots comes w/ range time not an expensive rifle. A rifle like a Remington 700 or Winchester 70 (my favorite) with a high quality 4x 12x scope will group till hell wont have it @ 200 in any of the three calibers you mention-if you are willing to put in some serious range time. If I had a nickel for every guy I've seen shoot his overpriced rifle a few times at the 50 yd target and a couple times at the 100 yd target, all using a rest, and then not be able to understand why he missed a deer at 180 yds (pace it off sometime, it doesn't seem that far through a scope) I could buy you a nice setup. At the risk of sounding like a s-head I would encourage you to consider getting an economically priced 270 like a Savage/Stevens bolt action with a decent 3x 9x scope ($150 range) and then put the rest of your hard earned $ into several boxes of reasonably priced 130 grain bullets and spend some some range time before and during the season. I think the 270 is the best choice for a couple reasons; 1. it's popular, making the ammo and the rifle relatively cheap.2. it's got a practical advantage over the 243 in terms of # force in the 100-200 yd range especially if you stick w/ 130 grain, which I would strongly encourage b/c you don't want unexpanded exits on thin skinned animals. I have shot a number of coyotes and countless deer w/ a setup like the one I am describing. In the hands of a shooter capable of consistently making 100 yd free hand shots (no small feat) this kind of setup will rival any other under most hunting conditions. If you become seriously interested in predator hunting you will probably want a 222(my favorite) or 223 at some point, you don't need the # force for these little guy's but after you've called in a few you often need to be able to step out into the 200yd+ range and the 222 and 223 have very flat trajectories.These setups get very expensive fast b/c you will spend more on optics than you do for the gun. Good Luck & happy shopping! (sorry about the typos-think I got the worst of em fixed!)

My wife told me I acted like a horse's ass and that I was lucky I got away with it. I'll agree to the last part.

Gray, I'm available to give your spread a look over and attempt to inventory the overall population w/ respect to topography, feed resources,etc, a few days and a box of shells is all it should take! -Andy

If it's the guy's I think it was all they took was my privacy. The thing is I kind of accept that people come into our farm acreages and kill deer, in fact I can't say it really even bothers me that much anymore but it does bug me that someone would treat my blind w/ such disrespect. They left most of the windows wide open- no mesh up, so for all this time it's probably been spooking the does we're trying to manage so that everybody who hunts the bedding areas around our crop acreage can get some well grown bucks! Oh well...

I take one of my kid's out to one of our blinds deep inside our land and find somebody's candy bar wrappers and a spent shotgun casing inside-yeah I'm pissed right? Next day I'm going off about it while getting coffee at the general store and I guy I don't like very much say's "well if you were stuck hunting public land you'd probably look at it different!" After a brief pissing contest I challenge him to a bet; Give me 2 days and I will come up w/ a buck on State Land, winner gets $100. Day 1, Dead down wind body wash + brush teeth w/ baking soda, all camo in back pack & hike into the wind up to the top of an old inpenetrable blow down. Camo on sit & glass for 3 hours, nothing + stuff I gotta do. I hike back out. Day 2 same program but I got a little snow to work with. 2:30 pm catch something, yup the head & horns of a bedded buck at 200+ yds yds(there is no shot past 60 yds in this mess of upturned trees and massive raspberry patches (a buck refuge paradise). An hour later I watch 2 guys get w/in 100' of this buck & he doesn't even move his head once. At 4:00 he gets up, stands motionless/watching. I rattle 2 times, he moves into some stuff I can't even begin to see thru- but I know enough to very slowly position myself for him to approach down wind. It only takes 10 minutes tops and he appears, like smoke, at 50 yds and I can see most of a shoulder. I haven't seen the $100 yet though!

Nice one- good for you for staying alert, I've taken a number of bedded bucks and does on the way to and from stand.

Naa! Just go get another one!

Great job! Congratulations, you will never forget that buck (and neither will dad).

That's a slammer! NICE GOING. Did you take him right around there?

Anybody w/ experience w/ both setups got anything to say that might help me make a choice?

The only tangle I have had w/ 300'+ copper off the Church boards and the wire dipsy happened when the dipsy tripped from a speed increase and drifted up, then we got a steely on the 300' copper. We did get the fish but we lost a lot of wire. One thing that will help w/ preventing tangles w/ inlines is to run Mag dipsies and set them on 1.5. If I run slide diver spoon rods out on 2.5 or 3 I always put my core and or copper out on the big boards. Either way you can't turn around very quickly that's for sure.

Keep the faith, great news!

That's a pretty rugged looking rig that should handle snotty weather well. Good luck w/ her!

Set your drag on the lighter side w/ the church boards. The board will set the hook and the drag will alert you to a fish. Don't put the copper or the core in the release, if you have problems w/ the release holding you can splice in a section of heavy mono between core/copper and the superbraid backing using albright knots, or use a rubber band around the release. One thing I don't like about the inlines is sometimes a King gets the board under water and things can get dicey when it starts planing around and creating a lot of resistance.

Didn't get a chance to get out during the regular season till yesterday but it worked out ok when I got a crack at this big bodied 9 pt chasing a doe. He would not stop but he turned towards me once giving me a brief opportunity for a shot in front of the shoulder and across & thru the boiler room and I took it. No tracking required!

Landing Zone & Big Easy; What did you guys go w/ for shaft length on the Kickers, and how did you decide on location for the bracket? Thanks-Andy

Nice buck! I took a heavy 8 the last day too, those last day archery bucks are hard won, way to go!

When the average white male applying for an entry level job starts showing a work ethic that resembles the average hispanic's work ethic please don't hesitate to let me know.

Ray,the reason I suggested just adding 2 more rod holders/ side if you all ready have 1 ratchet+ the track is that the rod tree is going to eat up almost as much space as 2 more rod holders. If you are starting from scratch I think I would go w/ the new Traxtech 3 holder tree on a short section of Track (I am assuming your riggers are all ready mounted in a spot you are happy w/) using a healthy size backing plate. If you do this you will truly cleanup the sides of the boat. The further back you go w/ mounting that tree will eliminate some of planer line's tendency to snatch a rod into the drink on turns. I think I would steer away from the "fixed" trees b/c the holders are going to catch a dock piling or something else eventually. Mine are just a piece of track welded to a piece of aluminum w/ a flange on it that fits into the track mounted on the boat. Then I put 3 extra rod holders that came w/ my Islander into the track w/ the foot, this way when they are not in use they all adjust to stay inside the boat. When I adjust them out each one is set at a different angle to keep my planer rods seperate. If you are planning to run a slide diver or shallow dipsy rod in conjunction w/ 3 planer rods in the winter/spring you might want to think about the 4 rod tree, but it looks like $800 for the pair (ouch!)

Sorry no pics. If you have enough track though I would think pretty hard about just adding some more Bert's ratchet holders. At $90/unit x 4 your gonna spend 1/2 what a pair of most of the commercial tree units cost.Look at it this way; In the spring you wont very often want to be running dipsies + 3 flat lines/ side and in the summer you won't often want to to run 2 dipsies/ side + more than 1 copper or core off the boards, either way you look at it if you all ready have 1 Berts ratchet/side and you get 4 more, you really got things pretty well covered.

I think most of the units out there can handle a dipsy rod in the bottom holder (as long as you use a backing plate when you install) but for that kind of $, I'd get the traxtech- it's got a lot more features! I built a set of 3 rod trees for a small fraction of what any of the commercial units cost.

Hello Jim, I also have a 19' Islander, if you have any questions about setting up the boat or techniques this is a great place to get ideas.

Big Easy, do you find that this style bracket puts the kicker in a place that makes netting more difficult? I have seen a few different pictures of some custom brackets like this and they do appear to stick out the back a bit. Do you strap the kicker down in transit or trailering? Thanx! -Andy

I'm leaning pretty hard towards putting a kicker on my I/O Starcraft Islander. Looks like the payback is 3-5 years on the gas (+better/easier speed control + backup security) depending on what I spend. I've talked w/ Hank and have been doing some internet prowling on numerous discussions about kicker installations and I still don't understand a couple things; 1. If I get a kicker w/ power trim can I go w/ some kind of really rugged one piece bracket w/ a "sink" in it to allow the motor to tip forward? It seems like this would be the sturdiest/ least problematic route to go but it's probably a bit tricky to determine the exact location for the plate on the transom (at this point I'm leaning towards the Merc 9.9 pro kicker w/ extra long shaft) 2. I haven't actually seen a bracket like this on the market, almost everything is adjustable and looks like junk except the OMC!- Does anybody have a setup like what I'm talking about or is there some hole in my concept that I can't see? 3. How much of a pain is it going to be to hook up the E-Zee steer rod ( I have an auto pilot) to the main drive? Thanx