Get a shotgun or bow or blackpowder. Rifles are NOT allowed in MA. Sorry
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Deer hunting, help me step by step?
- Thread starter lord1234
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Get a shotgun or bow or blackpowder. Rifles are NOT allowed in MA. Sorry
Go north young man! NH, VT and Maine are all rifle country. If not do as Lord suggests and get a shotgun, bow or blackpowder. If you get a Mass complaint blackpowder (per blackpowder season regs, no break open actions) you can use it both in shotgun season and black powder season giving you the most bang for the buck.
Climbers
Arlow, of course you're right about the climber, and the more expensive/comfortable/lighter the better. But know your audience:
1) He's not fond of heights
2) He doesn't know where to go never mind choose a tree
3) He doesn't know if he'll like hunting
I'm suggesting sit quietly by a tree, 3/4 up a slope over a trail at a pinch point, or maybe a ladder stand.
Arlow, of course you're right about the climber, and the more expensive/comfortable/lighter the better. But know your audience:
1) He's not fond of heights
2) He doesn't know where to go never mind choose a tree
3) He doesn't know if he'll like hunting
I'm suggesting sit quietly by a tree, 3/4 up a slope over a trail at a pinch point, or maybe a ladder stand.
SAV, 20ft would be OK for me, as long as I wasn't planning on jumping off
I was looking around online and based on google maps willowdale state forest looks like a good possibility. I'll go explore there this weekend.
And if I buy a stand, i can always resell it, since they don't seem to lose a lot of value.
I was looking around online and based on google maps willowdale state forest looks like a good possibility. I'll go explore there this weekend.
And if I buy a stand, i can always resell it, since they don't seem to lose a lot of value.
SAV, 20ft would be OK for me, as long as I wasn't planning on jumping off
I was looking around online and based on google maps willowdale state forest looks like a good possibility. I'll go explore there this weekend.
And if I buy a stand, i can always resell it, since they don't seem to lose a lot of value.
Bingo
Bingo
Bingo!!
When you do your scouting and you find and area that has good sign that you want to hunt start looking for a good tree. For a climber you just need a nice straight trunk with few branches up to the height you want to ascend to. Many oaks and Beeches fit this description perfectly. Gerber makes a nice hand saw to cut the few branches in your way on the way up. It cuts like a mother and has a bone saw blade too.
http://www.rei.com/product/730550?c...-521A-DE11-B4E3-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA
as always, thanks to all the knowledgable posters who keep answering the multitude of questions from this lowly noob!
More questions:
Wildlife Cameras? (1)Are they worth the money? Saw some for 40$, digital 2 MP ones at dicks(seems like a great deal based one ebay/online prices). I'm more worried about them being stolen after I leave them on a tree for any length of time. The attachment for the 40$ camera is just some cloth, easily cut with a knife, or if you're have more then an IQ of 10, easily removable by hand. (2) Any suggestions for thief prevention?
More questions:
Wildlife Cameras? (1)Are they worth the money? Saw some for 40$, digital 2 MP ones at dicks(seems like a great deal based one ebay/online prices). I'm more worried about them being stolen after I leave them on a tree for any length of time. The attachment for the 40$ camera is just some cloth, easily cut with a knife, or if you're have more then an IQ of 10, easily removable by hand. (2) Any suggestions for thief prevention?
You get what you pay for. Cheap cameras are often unreliable or have very slow trigger speeds so you miss much of the animals walking by. Google "game camera reviews"
They do get stolen, especially on public lands. Nothing is safe from the dirtbags.
It's been 13 days since my last question, and I was thinking today regarding MA laws and such.
Baiting of deer is strictly forbidden/illegal according to the abstracts? Is there anything we CAN do to get deer to come to us? Is calling deer considered baiting? What about spraying a tree within sight down with some sort of scent?
This might be a question for the legal forum.
Baiting of deer is strictly forbidden/illegal according to the abstracts? Is there anything we CAN do to get deer to come to us? Is calling deer considered baiting? What about spraying a tree within sight down with some sort of scent?
This might be a question for the legal forum.
Baiting
Scents yes, food no. Actually you can feed them now, or plant food for them, just not during hunting season.
Scents can be either attractants(doe in estruous pee, or even apple smells) or cover scents (such as fox pee). All different types.
You can call them with a grunt tube, or I like the "Deer-in-a-can" device (a mechanical call), as I'm not skilled in deer noises. You can not use an electronic call in MA.
Scents yes, food no. Actually you can feed them now, or plant food for them, just not during hunting season.
Scents can be either attractants(doe in estruous pee, or even apple smells) or cover scents (such as fox pee). All different types.
You can call them with a grunt tube, or I like the "Deer-in-a-can" device (a mechanical call), as I'm not skilled in deer noises. You can not use an electronic call in MA.
Baiting is "placing" food. Food is any solid or liquid food item or derivitive of foods. Salts are prohibited or anything containing salts. So you cannot put apples out and turn your local spruce tree into a "pineapple" tree.
However you can plant anything you want and maintain it to attract deer. So you can plant and maintain clover, apple trees, alfalfa, etc....
Sav covered the calls. Get yourself a grunt call and a doe bleat call.
deer calling...
I'm a BIG user of deer calls and attribute most of my success to them. I favor the use of rattling for long range, and does calls for close range. I do not use buck calls. I use both doe bleats and doe grunts, with the doe grunt being by far the most effective call for bucks I have ever seen...without a question.
I never use buck lure, only doe urine, and never purchase off the shelf products. I purchase all my deer lure from out-of-state deer farms.
I'm a BIG user of deer calls and attribute most of my success to them. I favor the use of rattling for long range, and does calls for close range. I do not use buck calls. I use both doe bleats and doe grunts, with the doe grunt being by far the most effective call for bucks I have ever seen...without a question.
I never use buck lure, only doe urine, and never purchase off the shelf products. I purchase all my deer lure from out-of-state deer farms.
Scent
I washed my clothes in special soap. My hair and body too. Kept my boots clean. Sprayed my gear with no-scent stuff. My clean clothes and boots went into plastic bags with green pine boughs in them.
Walked in with pads sprayed with fox urine. When I got to a deer trail headed toward my stand, I used a drag soaked in doe urine, hung out scent pads in the same urine around my stand about 30 feet out and 5 feet off the ground. Used doe calls to effect, but had no luck with a rattling bag.
I won't do the fox pee again as the bottle leaked, stank, and I never knew what to do with the pads when I wasn't using them. I also used a small spray of buck attractant that I sprayed occasionally from my tree to mask my scent.
I think in the urban settings we are in smell may be less important. Elevated stands and playing the wind probably help the most. But for my first time on my own I wanted to do all I could, and it did pay off.
I washed my clothes in special soap. My hair and body too. Kept my boots clean. Sprayed my gear with no-scent stuff. My clean clothes and boots went into plastic bags with green pine boughs in them.
Walked in with pads sprayed with fox urine. When I got to a deer trail headed toward my stand, I used a drag soaked in doe urine, hung out scent pads in the same urine around my stand about 30 feet out and 5 feet off the ground. Used doe calls to effect, but had no luck with a rattling bag.
I won't do the fox pee again as the bottle leaked, stank, and I never knew what to do with the pads when I wasn't using them. I also used a small spray of buck attractant that I sprayed occasionally from my tree to mask my scent.
I think in the urban settings we are in smell may be less important. Elevated stands and playing the wind probably help the most. But for my first time on my own I wanted to do all I could, and it did pay off.
My buddy and I saw a deer in a field last night. Iwas amazed at how red it's summer coat was. At 100 yards it looked like it was wearing a red horse blanket.
My buddy said, "That's a big doe!" I asked how he could tell it was a doe at that distance. He said that it was walking with it's head more forward and down than a buck would, and that as we had pulled over, a buck would have more likely have stared at us.
He said at this time bucks would have antler nubs or dog biscuits depending on what month they were born in.
It's going to be a great season, as there have been numerous deer hits lately.
My buddy said, "That's a big doe!" I asked how he could tell it was a doe at that distance. He said that it was walking with it's head more forward and down than a buck would, and that as we had pulled over, a buck would have more likely have stared at us.
He said at this time bucks would have antler nubs or dog biscuits depending on what month they were born in.
It's going to be a great season, as there have been numerous deer hits lately.
cheap cams will work if you angle then to catch a animal as it walks up the trail. I built two of my own from sony cameras and a control board by snapshotsniper.com still cost over 100$ but the pics are great and the trigger time is just over 1 second.
One of my little tricks:
Get a small clean piece of shag carpet , tie some strings on both ends. tie/wrap it on the back bumper of your truck/vehicle.
When you leave for the woods, douse the carpet pad with your favorite cover scent and then rub the bottom of your boots on it.
This helps you deal with those smelly pads that you would otherwise have to carry around or find somewhere to store where they wont smell everything up.
Another thing I do is make sure my hunting clothes are clean and then store them in a heavy duty trash bag or large rubber container with some moist dirt,leaves,flowers,pine needles bayberries etc. Change out the ingredients every few days to insure maximum scent.
This will really make your clothing smell like your natural surroundings. Sometimes while hunting I will grab a handful of pine needles or bayberries and rub them all over my clothing. Doesn't hurt at any rate.
Some of the spots I hunt are in swamps. Kick up some of that smelly mud around your stand and even rub it on a couple surrounding trees. Sometimes this swamp mud smells really strong. It definitely works as a cover scent
Get a small clean piece of shag carpet , tie some strings on both ends. tie/wrap it on the back bumper of your truck/vehicle.
When you leave for the woods, douse the carpet pad with your favorite cover scent and then rub the bottom of your boots on it.
This helps you deal with those smelly pads that you would otherwise have to carry around or find somewhere to store where they wont smell everything up.
Another thing I do is make sure my hunting clothes are clean and then store them in a heavy duty trash bag or large rubber container with some moist dirt,leaves,flowers,pine needles bayberries etc. Change out the ingredients every few days to insure maximum scent.
This will really make your clothing smell like your natural surroundings. Sometimes while hunting I will grab a handful of pine needles or bayberries and rub them all over my clothing. Doesn't hurt at any rate.
Some of the spots I hunt are in swamps. Kick up some of that smelly mud around your stand and even rub it on a couple surrounding trees. Sometimes this swamp mud smells really strong. It definitely works as a cover scent
Carpet
Good tip.
I thought you were going to say carry a piece of carpet to put under your feet on your treestand for comfort and a little insulation from the cold.
I've built a couple wood ladder stands and was considering carpeting them over tarpaper but figures once they were wet they'd be a sheet of ice. Tarpaper must be smelly too.
Should I keep the platform just bare wood? Carry in a piece of carpet and spray it with scent?
How camo'd do I really have to paint the whole thing? Pic soon.
Good tip.
I thought you were going to say carry a piece of carpet to put under your feet on your treestand for comfort and a little insulation from the cold.
I've built a couple wood ladder stands and was considering carpeting them over tarpaper but figures once they were wet they'd be a sheet of ice. Tarpaper must be smelly too.
Should I keep the platform just bare wood? Carry in a piece of carpet and spray it with scent?
How camo'd do I really have to paint the whole thing? Pic soon.
This has 16 foot 2x4's for legs (they extend 32" above platform), and the platform is 36"x48" which I think is too large. Steps are at 20", which is alot (15" next time). Adding diagonals up from tree to platform, and a seat. Built it all with a friend on the ground and used a rope and pulley to pull it up and lag it into the tree.
Comments?
Comments?
what happened to simple?
you going to pulley up a couch and tv for that thing?
you going to pulley up a couch and tv for that thing?
This has 16 foot 2x4's for legs (they extend 32" above platform), and the platform is 36"x48" which I think is too large. Steps are at 20", which is alot (15" next time). Adding diagonals up from tree to platform, and a seat. Built it all with a friend on the ground and used a rope and pulley to pull it up and lag it into the tree.
Comments?
dixidawg
NES Member
I have a 4pt harness. I was going to build a seat that folded up, but may just screw on a resin patio chair. Haven't fallen out of one yet!
I've considered handrails, but don't want to rely on them. I didn't know new wood stands were so hazardous?
Notice the height? I was surprised to hear someone say 20-25'. I had heard 10-14' at the Bowhunters course. Is more height for wary trophy bucks?
I've considered handrails, but don't want to rely on them. I didn't know new wood stands were so hazardous?
Notice the height? I was surprised to hear someone say 20-25'. I had heard 10-14' at the Bowhunters course. Is more height for wary trophy bucks?
How far in advance do you start "storing your clothes in a trash bag with leaves/berries/etc"? A month? a week? all year long?
I wash them with baking soda, hang outside for a few days,then about a week before the season I put them in the container with all sorts of woodsy stuff. Once a week or so I change or add to it.
If you wanted to deodorize, you could put a layer of baking soda on the bottom of the container, put a single layer of paper on top of it then throw your camo in.
Or you could just hang them off the back deck.![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
If you wanted to deodorize, you could put a layer of baking soda on the bottom of the container, put a single layer of paper on top of it then throw your camo in.
Or you could just hang them off the back deck.
The problem with wonden stands is the rot. Plus on most public lands they are illegal.
As for height, I seldom stand hunt under 20 feet. Getting up higher gets your scent up higher so they are less likely to smell you and they are also much less likely to see you move.
Big problem with your stand is there is no back cover. Nothing for you to blend in with. always try to set up with some type of cover around or behind you On a bare trunk like that (last option for me) I would be up around 25 to 30 feet to offset the lack of cover.
My favorite stand is an oak that grows out of the top of a 25 foot pine tree. The stand is settled right in the top of the pine with branches growing below me, in front of me and the oak behind me. The deer never see me. I have taken 16 deer out of that tree with a bow over the last 10 years. Here is last years kill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn_Rzkg-HWE
Doesnt have to be long. Even if it is a day or two before you hunt as long as they are scent free when you put them in there you will be fine.
