Spyderco Forums

As most of you probably know by now, I spend a lot of my time off from school on our family ranch in Wyoming. (Homesteaded by my great-great-grandfather.)

The last time I was on the ranch was in January--see "Spydercos in the snow and ice in Wyoming." In January, the temperature reached negative 20 degrees F, and Torrey lake was completely frozen. This time, in March, much of the ice had melted, and the temperature was a comfortable 40 to 50 degrees F. Wildlife was plentiful--big horn sheep, hundreds of mule deer, elk, bald eagles, tundra swans, and hawks were all to be found on or around the ranch.

But now we'll get on to the Spydies and the pics. I am also using this thread to test a new image hosting site.

My brown knives (S35VN PM2, Nilakka, and XHP Native) at "Split Rock," a historic site on the drive up:



The Nilakka was my main EDC knife on this trip. Every time that I spend time on the ranch, I like to test a new knife. (In the past, my main EDC Spydies have been the S30V PM2, Manix 2 Cruwear, and Lil' Lionspy.) The Nilakka is a very interesting knife--lots of positives and negatives. Look for a review in the next few weeks (or whenever I get around to it :rolleyes: ).

Nilakka with a deer bone:


Nilakka on the foot bridge:


Nilakka with Elmax PM2 and orange Dragonfly:


Orange Dragonfly with orange lichen and by Torrey Lake:



Elmax Paramilitary 2 with a deer antler we found and sage brush:


S90V Manix 2 XL on an aspen tree in front of our log cabin:


To be continued...

Great pics as always

Good gosh, those are beautiful pictures. It makes me really want to go out West again. Maybe someday...

I was just saying to my wife how cool it is to see your photography skills grow since you joined the forum. Keep up the good work!

Thanks guys!

Part 2:

Gayle Bradley and Ladybug Hawkbill USN edition on our foot bridge (bridge across the top of Torrey Creek). I think that these two make a great combo--a big, PE blade and a tiny, hawkbill, SE blade:


Here is the USN LBHB perched on some rocks, reflecting in the unusually calm lake:


And another one of the Gayle Bradley on a lichen-covered tree stump on the edge of the lake:


BBS Domino on a juniper and in front of a few cabins:



Cruwear Manix 2 over a deer skull/antlers/bird nest:


My dad forgot a knife for this trip, so he borrowed this Sage 2; shown here reflecting some early morning sunlight on a lichen-covered rock:


And last but not least, the 2013 Forum Native 5 in S110V/green G10 is shown here in front of our cabin:

The orange Dragonfly and orange lichen pic is really good.

You are gonna have a hard time picking out your calendar entry this fall.

Great pictures, especially like the Ladyhawk reflection pic. Such beautiful country there.

You really need to take me out there with you. And teach me a thing or two about photography.

Great photos. What type of camera are you using?

Great shots Eli! The one I like the best is the orange Dfly on the orange lichens and rusty piece of metal. You should definitely submit that one for the next calendar contest! Cheers, Radioactive :)

Thanks guys!

I think that I will try to pick a calendar entry only from the few pictures that have won or gotten runner up in the weekly photo contest. So far, that narrows it down to 3. (2 runners up and 1 win) This way, I know that other people already think that they are good.

Jackthedog: I use a Nikon D5100 with various lenses, including these: 18-55 kit lens, 55-300 telephoto, 28-300 zoom, 300 prime + 2x teleconverter, 50 prime, etc. I shoot mostly in full Manual. Focus is always on auto. I use a tripod (RedGed or ReallyRightStuff with ballheads) about half of the time. The photos have to have perfect focus on the tang stamp ("Spyderco" and steel type or country of origin) for consideration for editing. I edit contrast levels, cropping, saturation, and I delete any hairs or ugly dust specks in PSE. I resize most of my pics to 1500 pixels on the long side. My best pictures I leave at 2000+ pixels (they come from the camera at 16MP).

Thanks for the reply. The photos really are well done.

Do you ever hunt and catch any of the deer or big horn sheep and use the Spydies to field-dress them and make steaks?

A lot of excellent photos here, and knives as well. I especially like the domino, and I really am trying to convince myself that I need one. Thanks for sharing the knives and the beautiful scenery

Great photos GS. Thanks for sharing. :)

Outstanding photos!! Must be very nice up there right now.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks everyone!

SEF: No one has hunted on the ranch for a while, but people have in the past.
Bradley: You definitely need a Domino! It is a really cool knife.

Once again, thanks everyone, and if you can find the place this July without any directions, you can take a look around and snap some photos.

I would love to see someone "catch" a deer. :D

When I was young and we would come home from hunting my mother would ask my father and I, "did you catch one" (confusing hunting and fishing) and I would tell her, "no, they run too fast". :rolleyes:

bearfacedkiller wrote:I would love to see someone "catch" a deer. :D

When I was young and we would come home from hunting my mother would ask my father and I, "did you catch one" (confusing hunting and fishing) and I would tell her, "no, they run too fast". :rolleyes:

My friend from college was a good swimmer and spent most of his school year in a pool. Apparently if you spend that much time in chlorine you lose all semblance of smell, since you've killed all your skin microbes. He had deer in his back yard and said that he was able to get abnormally close to them due to his utter lack of smell. He was never able to actually grab one, though.

When I lived back in the north east we would hunt from tree stands and I have shot a couple deer from close enough that I could have thrown my rifle at them and hit them but catching one would still be a feat. :eek: