Random Thought Thread

Nathan the Machinist said:
I have a glass set on my nightstand and a bottle of water where I will sometimes have some water at night. I will put a little bit of sodium bicarbonate in it if I have indigestion.

Last night, when I was getting ready for bed, I noticed a tiny spider had made a little web in the glass and was living in there.

I realized, had it been in the middle of the night, I would have just poured some water in there and drunk the spider and never known it

Which makes me wonder. I wonder how many times that has happened?
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Nathan the Machinist said:
It may or may not be urban legend, but I now have first hand experience that illustrates the reality of the possibility
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If you get the sudden urge to buy a loom and begin weaving...you may have swallowed a spider.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I have a glass set on my nightstand and a bottle of water where I will sometimes have some water at night. I will put a little bit of sodium bicarbonate in it if I have indigestion.

Last night, when I was getting ready for bed, I noticed a tiny spider had made a little web in the glass and was living in there.

I realized, had it been in the middle of the night, I would have just poured some water in there and drunk the spider and never known it

Which makes me wonder. I wonder how many times that has happened?
Click to expand...
I've read that no one ever is more than 6 feet away from a spider.

I dont know how accurate that is but it's very intimidating.

Should the spiders rise up and inform each other of our weakness I'd be able to finally go number two after eating McDonald's at 11 this morning.

(first time I've watched the menu go from breakfast to lunch. it's one of those things you dont realize is not very cool until you think it will be and are dissapointed)
 
Mendoman said:
I’ve got several grey foxes around that bust me hunting and make a horrible screaming noise alerting every animal around that I’m lurking around in the woods.
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I stopped using soap or deodorant that had scent (I have been unscented for decades now) and bought some laundry detergent that was unscented and I keep my hunting clothes away from anything with scent sealed in a plastic bag. I bought special scent reducing soap and shampoo for immediately before the hunt and when I walk into the woods I'm dressed from head to toe in camo and am as unscented as humanly possible.

I found that, with my scent effectively scrubbed off of me, I could sit out in the woods and birds and squirrels wouldn't even notice my presence.

These tend to be productive hunts.

I once (slowly and quietly) walked upon a deer standing in the trail and it looked right at me. I stood there frozen until it put it's head down and I very slowly raised my rifle and shot it. I probably wasn't 50 yards away and I was just standing in the open and it was looking right at me and it didn't see. They trust their nose and if there is nothing to smell they assume there is nothing to fear.

If you're quiet, wearing good camo, and are scent free, I don't think the foxes would notice you and alert. The squirrels never do. I've had birds land near me and never notice me.
 
90


"I just never really saw Delta 3V coming."
 
Around here, a big part of being successful at hunting is simply being still, being quiet, paying attention, and doing your prep. When I started tending my scent, I started bagging a lot of deer.

Sometimes, if the ground is wet, a deer can move without making a lot of sound and I have noticed that you seldom see an entire deer, you just see a dear part. And they're darker in the woods than your brain realizes. Learning to spot a deer was an important skill for me to develop. I think, when I was younger, I probably had had many opportunities walk right past me and I never knew it.
 
I think that deer are pretty dumb. It's easy to overestimate their intelligence. But they have evolved with human hunting pressures from before white people were walking around in these woods. They're very adept at avoiding hunters. Their ability to move through the woods making less sound than a mouse is impressive
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I stopped using soap or deodorant that had scent (I have been unscented for decades now) and bought some laundry detergent that was unscented and I keep my hunting clothes away from anything with scent sealed in a plastic bag. I bought special scent reducing soap and shampoo for immediately before the hunt and when I walk into the woods I'm dressed from head to toe in camo and am as unscented as humanly possible.

I found that, with my scent effectively scrubbed off of me, I could sit out in the woods and birds and squirrels wouldn't even notice my presence.

These tend to be productive hunts.

I once (slowly and quietly) walked upon a deer standing in the trail and it looked right at me. I stood there frozen until it put it's head down and I very slowly raised my rifle and shot it. I probably wasn't 50 yards away and I was just standing in the open and it was looking right at me and it didn't see. They trust their nose and if there is nothing to smell they assume there is nothing to fear.

If you're quiet, wearing good camo, and are scent free, I don't think the foxes would notice you and alert. The squirrels never do. I've had birds land near me and never notice me.
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^^^ This 110%. I have been sat up against a tree turkey hunting in full camo and had deer and squirrels feed up to me within 12 to 15 feet from me and not notice me. Deer hunting ... well any type of hunting ... if you can be quiet, still, and scent free you will see a whole other side to wildlife ... and fill your freezer. Even if a deer or other game see you they don't usually know what you are or if you're a threat if they can't smell you.

To piggyback off Nathan's other post. That's how I was taught to hunt deer ... you look for "parts" an ear or tail ... a piece of a rack that's a bit lighter than the rest of the woods. I like to stalk hunt a lot more than sit in a stand and moving slowly and stopping and listening and catching any movement and checking what that movement is before you take another step has gotten me several animals.
 
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I have harvested many deer with a bow from the ground (closest was a mule deer at 5 yards in Idaho) and agree with Nathan about scent and movement. It always makes me laugh when I see guys fueling rigs wearing hunting clothes. We get used to smells that really stand out in the woods. Animals are just like hunters- much easier to notice movement than a stationary critter.
 
I probably have my dog’s stink all over me too which is probably even worse. I’ll have to try being more scent conscious. I haven’t gotten a deer for the last two years, after getting them every attempted year previously. I mostly attribute it to less time doing recon and less time in the woods though.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Often there is more than one deer. If you shoot one deer and go sit back down for a minute, the other deer will often swing around to check out what happened. You can often bag two at a time this way.
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Read a funny story (can't confirm the veracity).

Guy was deer hunting and sees a deer pop up where he knows there's a drainage ditch. Only visible part is the head, so he decides to try for a headshot.

BANG! Deer disappears from sight. He thinks, "Nailed it!". Deer's head pops up again and he goes, "Crap". Aims carefully, takes another shot.

BANG! Deer disappears from sight again. OK, got it. A few seconds later, it pops up again, looking around like, "WTF is going on?". Guy goes, "What the heck? Did I miss this thing TWICE? Curious/brave SOB to not run off". Lines up yet again.

BANG! Again, the deer disappears briefly. Then in ~30 seconds, he sees it pop up AGAIN. Now the hunter is wondering if his scope is off, if he might've banged the rifle or something. Tries yet again. Same result. He tries a few more times before, finally, he doesn't see the deer again.

As he walks down towards the drainage ditch, he's thinking, "How the heck did I miss so many times? It probably finally got smart and ran off". Gets to the ditch, looks down, and sees a bunch of dead deer, all neatly headshot, and he thinks, "Oh shit...". Had a fun time explaining it to the game warden. 😯
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I stopped using soap or deodorant that had scent (I have been unscented for decades now) and bought some laundry detergent that was unscented and I keep my hunting clothes away from anything with scent sealed in a plastic bag. I bought special scent reducing soap and shampoo for immediately before the hunt and when I walk into the woods I'm dressed from head to toe in camo and am as unscented as humanly possible.
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what soap, shampoo, and detergent do you use?
 
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