Well I've been meaning to make this video for a while but have been too busy with life.
Prep started in late July with getting stand up, trees trimmed and getting deer moving through the area. I scouted many weekends and the deer movement was decent. I hunt in all weather conditions no matter what and this day went from fair to less than ideal as the afternoon progressed. The big buck I was after had eluded me most of the season. It was second to last day so it was time to take a shot and get some meat for the freezer. These deer had it down as far as using the lighting to their advantage. The day before I had been in the stand for 8+ hours and the deer popped out into the field 5 minutes before dusk. There was small amount of fog the day before.
The day of......
Cloudy and overcast most of the day...again in stand for over 8 hours. Again these stealthy deer waited until right before dusk. I literally saw zero deer until right before dusk ......then they were everywhere even prancing around. You can see a decent buck pop up on the left of the deer I shot, made its way around then exits field of view and never seen again (around 3 min 43 sec mark.) I was hoping he would come out or even better the really nice buck show himself. It was INCREDIBLY FOGGY, right before dusk, and raining. The Leupold MK4 has fairly good glass and anything of lesser quality would not have yielded footage worth watching most likely. The video truly does not do the actual conditions justice.
Samsung S7 Active review
Filming was done through a Samsung S7 Active with a Phone Skope case and adapters. I have no affiliation with Phone Skope but their products are FANTASTIC. They have a really easy to use website and had options listed specifically for the S7 Active (which has different dimensions than the other S7's), the kilo 2000 and MK4. The S7 Active is a VERY robust device. At the time it was new. At the time some phones were starting to be advertised as water resistant, but S7 Active is IP68 dust/water proof. Samsung actually provided a 1 year manufacturer warranty for ANY water damage. The S7 Active has a built in case and at the time had the biggest battery of any phone out on the market. It has great battery life, decent amount of RAM, a decent amount of internal storage and can take a mini SD card to expand if needed. I have hunted many days of continuous rain (there's no cover or top on my stand) and it was great to not have to worry. The S7 Active also has a robust built in case from the factory and it doesnt have a glass screen that can crack. Its made of a crack proof material (just go find search videos of it being dropped from drones in torture tests) but it does scratch easy so snag a tempered glass protector. I don't mean to rant but I can't say enough great things about the S7 Active. I have a Note 10+ now so the S7 Active is my backup phone that will serve primarily has my filming phone and ballistic calculator with Applied Ballistics (has been spot on for all my shooting across various rifles.)
Spotter Setup:
Manfroto Bipod (unknown model lol)
Manfroto 222 Vertical ball head
Leupold MK4 w/ mildot reticle
Sig kilo 2000
All this equipments performs great and I can count on not having any issues. The glass in the Mk4 is pretty good and when I started carrying the spotter/tripod I was surprised at how functional it was for hunting. When you combine field of view, light capturing capability, magnification and glass clarity it adds up to an awesome package. I was able to leave it setup to my right side and when pointed in the right direction and magnification adjusted properly I could see the entire width of the field. The sig kilo 2000 just works every single time and is weather proof as well so no worries about water damage. The AMR function makes dealing with an angles a breeze (most likely not even needed for 20ft elevation.)
Rifle: (will update later short on time while posting this)
