I don’t hunt in the woods. Pdog shooter, so weight is a lesser concern.
I ruined a shot at a coyote once as I crept under a LONE TREE out in the middle of a pasture towards it. Ran face-first into the huge web, and shook it off no problems. I could hear the snapping of each strand of that web in my ear as i kept moving forward...mostly because it was literally covering my ear.
It was about 30 seconds later when I was setting up my sticks that the ~40% moon (I was facing towards it) highlighted this huge grizzly bear of a spider dangling from my ball cap lid about 3" in front of my left eyeball.
I did not scream...but my movement combination of Bruce Lee in "Enter the Dragon", and John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever" definitely gave me away. As such, I lost the chance at that coyote, but I spent the next 60 seconds not really caring about that too much as I danced and swiped.
I now do a combination of circular swings, ups-and-downs, and general spell-casting with my sticks each time I go through any wooded area.
I shot at the first line of Starlink satellites I saw
I mostly use the Primos Trigger Stick Tripod as the majority of hunts these days seem to be short stalks and woods. But when needed I’ve been using a Kopfjager Reaper Grip on a Slick tripod for a few years now. It has worked out fine. And not too too heavy to tote if needed. For short treks to reposition I sometimes leave the rifle clamped in and ride the rig on my shoulder. I’ve had one of the Bog Deathgrips but did not like it and gave it away.
Yes. There is. I stepped on a snake once, I am not sure of species, but I am thinking it was an Anaconda/Cobra/Rattlesnake/Mamba type reptile. I don't know what came out of my mouth when I opened it, but I wish for that moment back on at least a yearly basis. My buddy thought a dolphin was being murdered somewhere amidst a pecan bottom in South Texas, he said he had never heard such a high pitched scream. I am not a real big fan of creepy crawlies, and my mind went to a real dark place as soon as it recognized the substance under my foot was alive and of substantial girth.
I have a friend who is ridiculously paranoid and couldn't get out of his head that thermal hunting at night for yotes is 100% legal where we live and even encouraged. We were getting all our gear ready at 2 am to head out on a set and a pair of headlights came down the old county road we were on. He was scrambling around trying to put all his shit away and I told him to relax. I explained not only what we were doing is legal, odds are the person in the vehicle was probably out doing something they shouldn't be doing. Sure as shit, the truck pulls up and the dude in it was at least 27 beers into a 30 pack of Busch Light. He was taking "the back way home" and was lost as hell. We gave him directions to an out of the way trailhead and told him a nice nap would be in order.
