Kmartinusa
FNG
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2023
- Messages
- 6
I’ve been signed up here for years, this may be my second account because my internet service provider went out of business years ago, killed all email accounts and I forgot to change some of my accounts over- pretty sure this was one of them. Can’t update an account if you can’t verify your email on file.
I come here for several reasons.
One, you guys are no-nonsense, you tell it like it is and have no patience for those who bring nonsense. (I gave up swearing for my New Year’s resolution so I’m doing my best. Only two slips so far today.)
Two, you know what you’re talking about. I’m a hunter. I’m not a very good hunter. Actually, I probably am but have been plagued with crap. For example, 7yrs ago I leased 1000 ac on the Cimarron River in Oklahoma- an hr or so from the house. That area is known for big deer genetics. My landowner, now good friend who owns more than 50k acres (I quit trying to count) told me that the state record mule deer (at the time) was shot on his place. On my lease, the first year an outfitter moved in two weeks before rifle season right next door on a quarter, mostly in wheat and proceeded to bring out of state hunters in morning and night, they shot about everything with four legs and antlers. Took six years of protein and shooting does and coyotes to get to the point where I had at least two B&C bucks on the place, this season was when it all paid off. Well…last year he had all of the cedars removed which I was thrilled about, allows natural forage to grow, cuts down on water depletion and got rid of an invasive and useless tree. Well, turns out that deer LOVE cedar for cover and guess what? Probably 60% of my deer relocated and I haven’t seen those big guys at all. Pretty sure a neighbor shot one, no idea about the other but my advice is if you’re considering removing cedars…go ahead, but leave enough for cover for your deer if that’s what you’re into. 179” shot by that outfitter on opening day, two more gone the last I checked- or at least I’ve not seen either one.
Landowner/rancher also told me that mule deer are probably gone for two reasons. One, oil/gas guys shot them when they were hot and heavy in the area and second, much more interestingly…we’ve got a lot more big cats than we know about. When a big rancher, a guy who fixes his own fences, drills his own wheat and handles his cattle operation, when a guy who’s out in it every day and has been for his whole life talks…I shut up and listen. Some of his lessors have a cat on camera, I’ve just got bobcats but I don’t doubt him and I’d love to see one.
Third, I can spend a few minutes or an hour here and get a pretty good picture of about anything, any topic/product in about any outdoor pursuit, primarily hunting. It’s like sitting at a campfire with 10k years of combined life experience and institutional memory and ya’ll get to what matters and what’s accurate pretty fast.
I have *no* idea whether Dark Night Outdoors is a sponsor, but I recently bought some relatively inexpensive stuff for my Trijicon ReapIR and he sent it along with a thank you note and his business card- Jamie Hoffman.
I then wanted a battery to mount- either m-loc or rail, I don’t care but I want a small external power source for my night optics so I called him, spoke for maybe 20 minutes. Squared that away and I mentioned I badly want a truck mounted thermal, specifically the Ifiray one. They just cost too much.
Get this…he told me that the manufacturer cut the price in HALF for their vehicle mounted thermal cameras last week. Nobody could sell them for what they were asking so the manufacturer dropped the price to what people are willing to pay. He had 4 coming, two spoken for….he’s now got 3 spoken for, I’ve wanted one since seeing YouTube videos about these awesome devices and now I can just about justify it.
I know a bit about this space, my friend builds and whitelists NV optics for a major manufacturer. You know who they are and they’re very high quality. I know what it costs in parts and to build- most people would be shocked at the markup- and relatively low cost, even manufactured 100% in the United States. So on the truck thermal: marking down that much hurts dollars earned per unit but they’re planning to sell more units and probably make more overall dollars by selling a money selling a LOT of them. I suspect they’re right. Would you rather earn $3000 on 100 units or $1500 on 1000 units? (Who knows the math, just a stupid example)
I just want to thank all of you for your input over the years and going forward. This is one of two or three places I go either for expert advice/opinion or to shop for stuff that I think I can pick up a bit less expensively than when new. If I ever sell my ZCO scope bought new five or so years ago I’ll probalby come here first. I rarely use it and that’s a shame but I WANT to…I just don’t have time nor do I schedule time.
One last thing…there was a forum, maybe it was here where people would occasionally declare a “Meme War” and pages and pages of memes would appear…I’ve got hundreds saved, very few are safe for work. Is that here or somewhere else? One of them got me a permanent ban on Twitter. Somehow I managed back in- NO idea how. I won’t even mention their reason but it’s stupid.
Inappropriate humor is underrated anyway.
Was/is that here? If not, where was it/is it? I got my best, most offensive stuff from those guys.
Thanks again,
-Kevin
I come here for several reasons.
One, you guys are no-nonsense, you tell it like it is and have no patience for those who bring nonsense. (I gave up swearing for my New Year’s resolution so I’m doing my best. Only two slips so far today.)
Two, you know what you’re talking about. I’m a hunter. I’m not a very good hunter. Actually, I probably am but have been plagued with crap. For example, 7yrs ago I leased 1000 ac on the Cimarron River in Oklahoma- an hr or so from the house. That area is known for big deer genetics. My landowner, now good friend who owns more than 50k acres (I quit trying to count) told me that the state record mule deer (at the time) was shot on his place. On my lease, the first year an outfitter moved in two weeks before rifle season right next door on a quarter, mostly in wheat and proceeded to bring out of state hunters in morning and night, they shot about everything with four legs and antlers. Took six years of protein and shooting does and coyotes to get to the point where I had at least two B&C bucks on the place, this season was when it all paid off. Well…last year he had all of the cedars removed which I was thrilled about, allows natural forage to grow, cuts down on water depletion and got rid of an invasive and useless tree. Well, turns out that deer LOVE cedar for cover and guess what? Probably 60% of my deer relocated and I haven’t seen those big guys at all. Pretty sure a neighbor shot one, no idea about the other but my advice is if you’re considering removing cedars…go ahead, but leave enough for cover for your deer if that’s what you’re into. 179” shot by that outfitter on opening day, two more gone the last I checked- or at least I’ve not seen either one.
Landowner/rancher also told me that mule deer are probably gone for two reasons. One, oil/gas guys shot them when they were hot and heavy in the area and second, much more interestingly…we’ve got a lot more big cats than we know about. When a big rancher, a guy who fixes his own fences, drills his own wheat and handles his cattle operation, when a guy who’s out in it every day and has been for his whole life talks…I shut up and listen. Some of his lessors have a cat on camera, I’ve just got bobcats but I don’t doubt him and I’d love to see one.
Third, I can spend a few minutes or an hour here and get a pretty good picture of about anything, any topic/product in about any outdoor pursuit, primarily hunting. It’s like sitting at a campfire with 10k years of combined life experience and institutional memory and ya’ll get to what matters and what’s accurate pretty fast.
I have *no* idea whether Dark Night Outdoors is a sponsor, but I recently bought some relatively inexpensive stuff for my Trijicon ReapIR and he sent it along with a thank you note and his business card- Jamie Hoffman.
I then wanted a battery to mount- either m-loc or rail, I don’t care but I want a small external power source for my night optics so I called him, spoke for maybe 20 minutes. Squared that away and I mentioned I badly want a truck mounted thermal, specifically the Ifiray one. They just cost too much.
Get this…he told me that the manufacturer cut the price in HALF for their vehicle mounted thermal cameras last week. Nobody could sell them for what they were asking so the manufacturer dropped the price to what people are willing to pay. He had 4 coming, two spoken for….he’s now got 3 spoken for, I’ve wanted one since seeing YouTube videos about these awesome devices and now I can just about justify it.
I know a bit about this space, my friend builds and whitelists NV optics for a major manufacturer. You know who they are and they’re very high quality. I know what it costs in parts and to build- most people would be shocked at the markup- and relatively low cost, even manufactured 100% in the United States. So on the truck thermal: marking down that much hurts dollars earned per unit but they’re planning to sell more units and probably make more overall dollars by selling a money selling a LOT of them. I suspect they’re right. Would you rather earn $3000 on 100 units or $1500 on 1000 units? (Who knows the math, just a stupid example)
I just want to thank all of you for your input over the years and going forward. This is one of two or three places I go either for expert advice/opinion or to shop for stuff that I think I can pick up a bit less expensively than when new. If I ever sell my ZCO scope bought new five or so years ago I’ll probalby come here first. I rarely use it and that’s a shame but I WANT to…I just don’t have time nor do I schedule time.
One last thing…there was a forum, maybe it was here where people would occasionally declare a “Meme War” and pages and pages of memes would appear…I’ve got hundreds saved, very few are safe for work. Is that here or somewhere else? One of them got me a permanent ban on Twitter. Somehow I managed back in- NO idea how. I won’t even mention their reason but it’s stupid.
Inappropriate humor is underrated anyway.
Was/is that here? If not, where was it/is it? I got my best, most offensive stuff from those guys.
Thanks again,
-Kevin
