Five Seasons

when you mention old farmers I have to wonder if they were hunting some nice farms and also gun hunters. The tricky part comes with archery, with gun I pay a lot less attention to my scent. And of course the right land really hel

yeah i'm seeing the same although i'm out of town next week anyhow. Going to check my spot that I sprayed a week ago today and maybe till it this weekend. Might need I have to spray again, but will be less work to do a light till prior to planting.

interesting stuff. I never tried a no till, but did some very small plots years ago with hand tools. I would wonder if one of the limiting factors isn't the tilling but the soil itself. With how important soil tests are with traditional plots, are they not equally important for no till? I would wonder too if no till plots are even more likely to be guys not investing in sampling and fert.

I'm undecided but given the 3 or so years I've tried to kill a bear in NY, I might book a canadian or maine trip some day to scratch the itch. If i'm honest though, my bear trips were more about an excuse to head north with the family and something to do. The idea of having a bear rug at the cabin that my great grandkids could look at someday though falls right into that romantic side of hunting we day dream about in the woods. I think like you said, most bear are killed by opportunistic deer hunters. Funny enough I've seen 2 deer in the daks during my bear hunts. 1 was a solid 8 for the area but these were early bear before deer were legal.

I think there are levels to this. Billy Bob and his 870 - doesn't give a flying flock of geese about his odor. Eats and smokes what he likes, has a few go to ladder stands that have been there for 20+ years but he plays the wind. You will find Billy fueling up his f150 in his full blaze orange jump suit with his hunting boots on. Billy's truck interior is littered with cig butts and old McDonald's wrappers and his back seat is covered in dog hair (it's a shitzu btw). Billy has been hunting for 40 years and has 2 nice bucks on the wall which he uses as examples that he's a good hunter and scent control doesn't matter, but really Billy plays the wind and during gun season anything can happen. Billy is super excited about this new crossbow thing. Basic - uses scent free soap and detergent, careful about not getting pet odor, smoke or gas like odors on their gear, but dresses in his full gear in the morning and drives to his hunting land. Advanced - using scent free soaps and detergents, spraying down occasionally, stores clothes carefully but isn't obsessive about it, still drinks his morning coffee and has a snack he likes in the stand. Tries to keep his outer layers in a bag or tote and puts these on after he parks. Probably has at least one layer of scent control clothing. Hardcore - advanced plus uses scent free storage, being careful with food and drink in stand. His outer layers don't get washed much (to keep that outdoor scent) and they stay in scent free storage in the truck or home, often they're hung outside and only put on and off in the field. He pays attention to odor that might be on his watch and washes it with scent free or baking soda. Sprays everything down, all the time. Goes 3 or 4 hunts before he washes all base and mid layers. May use ozone for storage. Has at least 1 layer of scent control clothing, but likely 2. Most likely a facemask with scent control. Extreme - hardcore plus ozone for sure and probably even in the field, dresses even his mid layers outside, changes his diet and is not drinking coffee. Pees in a bottle in the stand. Washes his bed sheets and bath towel in scent free soap. Cleans out his truck and even sprays down the interior and seats. Once bought scent free toothpaste and mouthwash. Has scent free chapstick in his bag. Other than maybe some merino wool, all his gear has some level of scent control "marketing" attached to it, even his socks. PS if it isn't obvious, I'm having some fun here. Hunt how you want. Nobody here should care what another hunter washes his ass crack with.

it's also well documented that they would change their diet during hunting season, rub themselves down with mud and much of their hunting "clothing" was made of natural elements like skins and leaves. It is unlikely these guys were smoking their peace pipes during the hunt or using soaps and detergents with labels such as dove, tide and head and shoulders. Do they play the wind? Of course. Did they add foreign odors like our soaps of today for no reason that would hurt them? No. Were they hunting in packs and a very different animal then that of the ones we hunt today? Of course.

I'm a big scent control guy. I wont name names, but a few that I see responding here are gun only hunters so take their opinions with a grain of salt. I'll summarize this tired argument and debate with this. If the wind is right can you smell like a donkey and kill a nice buck? yes. Are bigger bucks harder to kill if you smell like a donkey? yes. And if you smell like a donkey how many bucks did you never even see that you didn't know were there? It's a tired argument by the cig smoking irish spring guys of the bunch. Good enough land and you'll get your deer. It's generally believed that there is no scent elimination trick out there, but that good scent control can make scent appear to a deer as if it was once there and has left. Sort of like an old odor. Scent control can also decrease the size and range of your scent cone. If you have great scent control and a deer comes in downwind you can still be easily busted, and i've had it where I wasn't busted. So many variables like thermals, hunting pressure etc affect this. And scent free soap, scent free (and non-uv detergent) and scent eliminating spray is cheap. Maybe $20 a season and you're showering anyhow right? The companies that advertise odor reducing gear that cost more than army surplus often also make good comfortable gear that I want anyhow. Every hunter of course should use what they can afford. At the end of the day Mark Kenyon put it best. If good scent control increases my odds even 3% I'm doing it. I will take literally any advantage I can get. PS the allergy free, scent free laundry stuff works just as good as the stuff with a big buck on the bottle.

you're absolutely correct. I've tried honey pots (you can google them, basically you're burning honey so it's a lure not food). They're a legal gray area but it never brought me a bear in anyhow lol.

my kids don't play travel, just house but some of the kids on that team were on my son's house team.

I've had a few cameras up in the daks (near raquette) where we've seen bears and of course know they exist. I've had some up all year round on runs and near camps where they come in to dig through garbage and never even got one on camera. So when I hunt a few times a year it's like, hey I could be here all year 24/7 and still wouldn't have seen a bear lol.

some of the land i hunt is like that. Still good to walk the area now and then to see if big storms have downed trees and altered the travel patterns. Look for trespassers and other changes. We had a stand that always paid off for years and then went quiet one year. A big tree was blocking the ridge crossing so the deer were going way up or way down to cross instead.

absolutely. I always try and drag my kids along. Wife can't complain that way haha.

I'm not discounting it completely. Just that bang for your buck there are other things I'd be doing. For example, now is about the time most of the growth will stop and you can cut approach trails, hang a stand in a spot you found last season, trim shooting lanes and food plot work if that's in the cards. Heck with all of my life responsibilities I'm struggling to find the time to do even some of that. If you have corn and soy nearby those travel patterns will hold strong though.

you aren't hurting a dang thing in July other than potentially becoming dehydrated. What you could be doing though is identifying very common summer food and travel patterns that aren't worth a squat in the fall. The best time to scout is right after the season. Most deer are still using their fall routes and it's nice and cool, easier to see tracks in the snow and a lot less foliage and thick shit to work through. Just be careful with what looks like a great run now, as it might alter completely in November.

those look like rasberries. is wineberry just another name or is it really a different berry?

my guess is that was his rope to lower the stand. At least it looks like the ropes I use to hike the stand up from the ground while i'm hanging up there in my linemans belt haha.

we double strap our hang ons. The factory one below the seat and one on the base. Ratchet straps are cheap and not only does it secure the stand much better but it's another point for a fail safe. For our real old trees, they grow very little and no adjustments needed really. For smaller growing trees I try and loosen and retighten every few seasons to adjust for tree growth. Same would apply to ladder sticks. The nice thing with screw ins is that the tree just grows into them, however we have some that are so old there's only a small tip of the step sticking out. $20 for 4 stands is money well spent. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06WVJ2DY8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Is there a difference between a kill plot and a murder plot?

are you nervous with the lack of rain?

yeah same here. The raised beds didn't matter, they had their own subway system. I found rat traps and have-a-heart helped some too.

BTM! Black Tomato's Matter!

We have a few threads going on but thought maybe one fall plots chit chat kinda thread would be nice. We can keep it running with updates as we all progress. I'll be honest I'm nervous as heck about the next few weeks as it's already super dry and nothing looks like rain for the near future. Pair that with some vacations and work this year could be dicey. I sprayed last week on a 1 acre plot that I intend to do half beets and greens and half winter greens. What are you planting for the fall and when do you typically target getting seed in the ground? My goal is before 8/20 and believe it or not that's just 3 weeks away!

Well currently only the 1 booster is approved for people under 60 I think? The 2nd is only above 60 and the approval to lower it is with the FDA. I'm sure there's some news stories about it out there somewhere.

if it's 1900's montana then I don't call bs... but it looks like color or sepia or something?

yeah i heard they're not going to recommend the 2nd booster anymore because it does nothing against the new variants. Both my parents just got covid and they're doing ok but it kicked their asses. Both boosted.