ESEE Stripped AR15 Lower Contest

texastonydobbs

texastonydobbs

Joined
May 25, 2007
Messages
15,113
This contest will run 4weeks , A Hunting Skills Contest.Since it is hunting season.
1 entry per Gold member or higher ,up to 10 of your Best pictures of an ESEE Knife Skinning a Animal.
If you can not pass a background check please do not enter contest being the Lower has to go thru a FFL of your choice , all ATF Rules will be followed. CONUS Only ;Please no Chatting ,Entries only !

PRIZE: 1ea. ESEE AR Stripped Lower
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Here's your chance to put some meat in the freezer and win a nice prize.
 
Well I was blessed with a successful opening day and some meat for the freezer. Shot this guy about 9:50 Saturday morning. This was my first year using the 3MIL after many years with my trusty Case Ridgeback. The 3 served me well.

Warning, graphic pics below for those with weak stomachs. Might not be cutting off a caimen head, but it's as close as we get in the Show Me State. :D

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Thanks Jeff and mods for the opportunity. I haven't been in on many contests lately and I sure appreciate all the prize opportunities we have around here. I'm going to compare the 3 to my 4 now and see how it does as a whitetail knife. Oh, one other thing after being completely covered in blood, fat, hair and dirt, the canvas micarta scales cleaned up to like new with a stiff plastic brush and some Dawn soap.

ETA: Not that they are award winning photos, but I do have full size/resolution images that Jeff is more than welcome to if he has a use for any of them. Thought the second field dressing pic turned out alright.
 
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It's Friday the day before opening day of late season White Tail in Colville National Forest. I go out scouting looking for sign that the bucks are starting to go into the pre-rut. I was gone from camp for about 5 hours when I came across an small opening in the underbrush that is just filled with rubs and scraps. These aren't the small signs I have seen up to this point. These signs are everywhere. I'm thinking self, this is either one pissed off old buck or a little forkie with teen angst. Regardless, I make the decision this would be my buck.

Here are just a couple of the signs. This place was literally littered with sign just like this.

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Opening day was Saturday. I was up at 4 AM and in the woods at my spot before the sun broke. The day before I had gone back and forth between carrying my climbing stand or ground hunting. The area is so thick with underbrush I really felt getting up in the air would better my chances. After much consideration though I made the decision to ground hunt. The canopy was just as thick and just as nasty as the underbrush.

The first morning was filled with does and one lone forkie. I knew it! I stayed for about 3 hours and made my way back to camp. When I left later that afternoon I asked my buddy if I could bring his GPS so I could get a distance from camp. 2.7 miles down into a pit. This was going to be fun if I did get this sucker.

Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon all went by without seeing anything other than that lone forkie. I didn't notice much activity in any of the scrapes either. Feeling a little discouraged by now. Monday morning long before the sun came up I'm back ready again for another round of frostbite. As I near the clearing I come up on the first of the 4 rubs and scrapes I originally found. Only this time there is 5. That sucker is taunting me.

It's around 7:45 when my phone vibrates and I get a text message. Weird. It wont work at camp but it works in this hole? Its my buddy asking how I'm doing. As I finish and send my reply, I hear a snap! As I watch in the direction of the noise I see him walking through the thicket behind the clearing. It's roughly 100-120 yards from my position. I watch him skirt the clearing never leaving the thicket. Up ahead he has a choice to make. Step out of the thicket for about 5 yards to enter a new thicket, of turn back into the thicket he is in and go back down hill. As he walks behind a large three between the two of us I grab the rifle. He stops at the edge of the thicket. What's he going to do? As soon as he steps out and the reticle is placed properly, I squeeze the trigger. 4 minutes after I responded to my buddies text.

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(Disclaimer) I didn't know of this contest or I would have taken all the graphic and gory pictures of the Izula getting down and dirty. I just really love my Izula and had worked my a$$ off on a razor sharp convex. I wanted to put this knife to work and see how it held up. I was able to completely gut and skin this animal with noting other than removing the fat from the blade. I have knives of every shape and size and I can tell you without doubt that the Izula is my favorite. I took these pictures to share with the board of what an amazing knife the Izula is

It was a perfect shot right through the lungs so locating the deer took about 30 seconds. Now it was time to get to work. The Izula had no problem at all getting the animal cleaned out. I believe that having the coating removed worked much better while dealing with the fat. I used this same knife last year with the coating and the buildup was more substantial quicker.

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As you can see from the pictures the paracord held up for the job but it is completely rank now which is the next project I am going to address.

Now that the animal was clean I was presented with my second problem. I was almost 3 miles from camp with a buck I really didn't want to quarter up. My buddy and I decided he would meet me where the game trail met the hard packed trail and he would have something there to help me get the deer the rest of the way out. The trail was almost 2 miles from where I was. After a couple of hours of dragging I showed up to find my buddy with a rented UHaul hand truck. Too Funny.

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With the deer back at camp all that was left was to skin and bag this sucker and go get my bear. The Izula went right through it.

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It was a great day up hunting and I loved the results from my Izula. I'm in the market for a nice set of Buckeye Burl scales if anyone has the ability to produce them for me. I would take my Izula anywhere and put it up against any knife when it comes to dressing an animal. Great product. Congratulations ESEE on making a product people can afford to buy that does everything its supposed to. Work.

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I know it's not a deer but it still cooks up well.

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Edit: i just saw that i let my membership lapse, trying to take care of it now.
 
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This year has been too hectic to get out to shoot anything. I was married early last month, and I just got back from a 2 week honeymoon last Sunday. So, for me, this was the first day that I was able to go hunting.

I hunt late muzzleloader deer season, and that doesnt open until just before Christmas, so we went out to shoot some birds.

It just so happens, that I stopped at the PO this morning and found my new Izula II had arrived! What an excellent day it was.


I apologize in advance for the horrible quality of the photos. I lost my camera on day 6 of our honeymoon...along with about 400 photos of the Galapagos. Until Christmas, I am stuck taking pics with my crappy blackberry.


The first place we stopped this afternoon was a no show. Didnt even see a sparrow.

The second place we tried was productive. I shot 2 pheasants, and my cousins German shorthair scared up a nice coyote, so my cousin got him. That should help the rest of the pheasants through the winter.
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We dropped the 'yote off at a friend of ours that is a trapper. Coyotes arent worth much, but he will get a few bucks for him anyway.

We tried one more spot before it got dark, and I was able to get one more. This was the first day that I had ever got my limit (3), and it is rather lucky to do so since the pheasant population is quite low around here, due to the last several horrible winters.

We got back to the house and started cleaning them right as it was getting dark. The only place with a light outside was a machine shed with a light, and the only table we had was an old endloader tire. It worked, I suppose, but it was plenty dark.

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They look pretty gross there, and one was shot up really bad...but they cleaned up pretty nice when I got home.

They will be delicious. I dont get to eat pheasant very often and it is a real treat.


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I know it isnt exactly skinning an animal, but it IS cleaning game, and I was able to give my Izula it's first taste of blood the same day I got it....and it wasn't MY blood for once!


I will be definitely be using the Izula II for some deer duty in a month or so!! What a great little skinner it will be.



Thanks to the whole ESEE crew for this opportunity!
 
I've got one coming if its not too late. Struggling with camera problems and sleep deprivation at the moment. :D

EDIT:
Well dang it. Apparently all I have is a fried camera.
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I got a buck opening day and processed him with my rc-3...no problems...i used to be a butcher so i actually do a lot of buddies deer and hogs with the three as well. of course after quartering i do switch to a boneing and breaker knife to finish up..just used to them.....did not take pics of process because i was fighting 85 degree heat and trying to get the meat on ice at camp....its all good though...i am not gonna enter anyway...i already have a esee lower and wouldnt want to take the chance away from someone who don't have one yet....so...good luck guys...seen a couple of nice deer on here so far
 
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