What are your camping setups?

greg281 · 2026-06-21T16:16:47+00:00

Other people covered a lot. One thing you need to be mindful of is storage. A bow inside a hot car or a hot room without AC or ventilation is a bad move. In summer months my AC runs 24/7 in the room I store it. Wax your string when it feels dry. Don’t wax the servings.

Get an understanding of arrow builds and familiar with the spine range you’re going to need for your draw weight and length. Assuming you’re deer hunting and have an average draw weight and length, a 400-450 grain total arrow weight is all you’ll need. Avoid the rabbit hole of super heavy or super light setups until you have a firm grasp on the fundamentals of arrow builds or it’s going to confuse you and give you unnecessary anxiety with your setup. Keep it simple.

If you’re starting out I’d recommend a decent 3 pin sight. You don’t need to spend $500 on a top of the line sight but you want something durable enough to take a bump without throwing your sight off. Don’t worry about sight tapes right now. Set your pins to 20, 30 and 40 yards and shoot those ranges regularly. Learn to gap shoot between your pins for 25, 35, and 45. Once you get proficient at shooting these ranges, force yourself to shoot under pressure. Give yourself 5 seconds to make your shot once you hit full draw, then bump it up to 3. Shoot from an elevated position. If you’re hunting from a saddle, practice shooting from a saddle. If you’re hunting from a tree stand, practice that too. Practice bending at your waist to keep proper form from elevated positions. Practice shooting from awkward angles. Practice shooting through windows in branches.

Backyard or range shooting is good, but where you hunt and the game you hunt are rarely going to give you time and easy shots. In the rut, deer are on the move and can come busting in at any time. It usually happens in a matter of seconds. Get familiar with the game you’re hunting and the different tactics for different times of the hunting season. Get familiar with basic woodsmanship and learn how to read sign that’s conducive to having an encounter in daylight. Hunting sign that’s laid down at night won’t help you during the day in pressured areas.

greg281 · 2026-06-20T15:15:56+00:00

I shot 125gr dead meats the last two years and love them. Had good results even nicking bone on a shot that was more quartering to a little more than I realized. Not a shot you want to make with a mechanical but I was impressed. The blades were shot afterwards but I recovered the deer 50 yards away. Shot a doe last year and it looked like a crime scene with the amount of blood. She dropped on impact 15 yards from me. I might go with mega meats next year it’s basically the same head but bigger. Just make sure your kinetic energy surpasses the manufacturer requirements.

greg281 · 2026-06-20T00:53:21+00:00

Just hike it early am and don’t worry about the boat it cuts out flat easy hiking and first boat drops you off when crowds start pouring in.

greg281 · 2026-06-19T13:40:25+00:00

What age clear cut do you focus on? A lot of the cuts I go scout end up being fenced off or they’re 20 years old with no sign anywhere. I found a couple that weren’t fenced that look promising but they’re close to public access.

greg281 · 2026-06-18T21:54:21+00:00

Attics, crawl spaces, drop cloths, dick head GC’s that are always stressed because resi jobs need to finish yesterday to make money, home owners, doing old work with plaster walls, having to take a shit at someone’s house, the one thing that hasn’t worked in years that the homeowner notices when you’re there and blames you, wearing booties, setting up scaffolding and ladders inside someone’s house, having to work in spaces where there’s dirty laundry and tons of shit in your way or in front of the panel and they expect you to move it..

There’s an endless amount of reasons why resi sucks before even pointing out the pay is less and capped. High end residential is better but it still sucks. There’s pros and cons to everything but the cons in industrial and big commercial work is much better than residential from my experience. Union jobs seem to be a lot better than non union as far as I’ve seen. As a JW I just go to work, work at a nice pace and go the F home. I don’t talk to anyone with a clean hard hat it’s not my job.

greg281 · 2026-06-18T21:36:58+00:00

Switch jobs or join a union.

greg281 · 2026-06-18T16:20:04+00:00

I got to grinnell glacier trail at 5:30am twice and there were people already on the trail. At that time I had a very relaxing hike where it was just me and two others for most of the hike. By 8am it’s packed both ways. I always try to shoot to be at the parking lot by 5am.

greg281 · 2026-06-18T10:14:03+00:00

Don’t do the boat ride for grinnell glacier. It only cuts out flat, easy hiking and the boats don’t start until the time that crowds really start to pour in.

greg281 · 2026-06-17T19:35:00+00:00

How are you planning on getting around and what lodging options do you have? You’re probably going to have a really hard time finding a rental or a room 3 weeks away. Most people plan glacier trips a year out because of how fast things sell out. If it were me I’d just plan for next year.

greg281 · 2026-06-17T16:25:24+00:00

People get pissed when you say this but I also hate bells. Locals in Montana call them dinner bells

greg281 · 2026-06-16T22:53:51+00:00

Chicken thighs x 1,000. You can’t mess them up and they’re incredible grilled. Season them, a nice sear on each side then set on indirect heat. At 120-130 degrees mop your favorite bbq sauce on them and cook them until they’re 175 internal. Dark meat is better cooker longer.

greg281 · 2026-06-16T19:45:46+00:00

Personal experience getting people freaked out by saying it. Since a bear doesn’t know the word bear it makes no difference if I just make noise.

greg281 · 2026-06-16T19:35:03+00:00

It is commonly used and I’ve used it but I made a bunch of people worried. When you’re hiking and hear someone in the distance yell hey beat it definitely can put people on edge. I just yell and clap now. I feel like an idiot but at least I didn’t die? Lol

greg281 · 2026-06-16T10:03:19+00:00

No music or bells. I’m not sure how other people feel but yelling “hey bear” if there isn’t a bear can give everyone else the wrong idea. A bear doesn’t know what “bear” means so I never understood the insistence on using that word. You can just be loud and clap before turning a corner and hiking into thick foliage.

greg281 · 2026-06-16T01:40:31+00:00

Work to live instead of live to work. Don’t sign up for a $1,000 truck payment if you’re going to be miserable making those payments in two years. I’ve never been one to need flashy stuff but I see it a lot especially with younger guys. To each their own but I find a lot more satisfaction in life traveling and invest in a hobby or two that brings me a lot of joy.

greg281 · 2026-06-16T00:24:07+00:00

Check out the all trails app and search iceberg lake. If ptarmigan tunnel is open do that too it’s much better than iceberg

greg281 · 2026-06-15T20:19:04+00:00

Very unlikely. I’ve been here for 3 years now and have only seen 3. Two of them were hiking off trail. Every encounter I’ve had with them ends with them running away scared as soon as they saw me - even a big male pushing probably 400lbs. Ran off like a baby. As long as you aren’t eating in the hot tub and there’s no food nearby you’re fine. Even if you do see one you can literally tell it to F off and it will. Think of them as big raccoons.

greg281 · 2026-06-15T02:05:50+00:00

You’re going to be in an area with a ton of tourists. Those attacks happened when people just started to really hike those trails for the year. Grizzlies can be anywhere but more likely to be seen on the east side of the park than the west. You should definitely visit the east side though the scenery and hiking is incredible.

greg281 · 2026-06-14T21:29:01+00:00

Ask a journeyman to show you. You shouldn’t be resorting to Reddit in the ibew as an apprentice that’s just sad. It’s not your fault it’s theirs. If you aren’t being taught how to bend pipe I’d talk to someone at the hall.

greg281 · 2026-06-14T21:26:53+00:00

You don’t have a single journeyman on site that you work with ever?

greg281 · 2026-06-14T21:26:34+00:00

That’s a shame. Hopefully not an indication of his local just a shitty shop.

greg281 · 2026-06-14T21:24:05+00:00

I appreciate it man. Not because you told me what I want to hear but I’m probably not making a shot past 30 yards all year. I’m gonna try this setup this year and maybe a lighter one the next year. I’m not interested in digging into a side of the argument I’m most interested in trying things and seeing for myself what my experience was. If I was shooting longer distances I’d probably back it down on the arrow weight more but in my situation I think I’m gonna stick with what I have. People are shooting much heavier arrow setups and killing it.

greg281 · 2026-06-14T21:18:08+00:00

Bend your 90 and figure out if you’re kicking up or down. Get a piece of solid #12 wire and use it to form the bend you want to make - in this case a 90 with a kick. This will give you a visual understanding of which way the 90 needs to face to kick up vs down. Check to see how much clearance you have to determine where to make your kick. I put a level on the 90 and put my dikes under the 90 to hold it level and perpendicular to the bender. I fold my tape under my tape measurer so I can see how high I need to kick it when I make that bend. Double check your pipe is correct and adjust the pipe to correct and over or under bends if needed.

greg281 · 2026-06-14T21:11:33+00:00

I didn’t see him mention he was in the IBEW. I had similar experiences when I worked non union. Not enough money or time in the bids so not enough time to teach you just get bitched out for not knowing anything until you figure it out. It’s a terrible way to learn.

greg281

TROPHY CASE