Five Seasons

posting a large wooded parcel with a tax map is no easy task. especially if your boundaries are not roads/creeks. ours ends in the middle of the woods on the north and east side. the west is easy because it's an old stone wall. but there's no way to know where you are on the other... especially considering it's not straight.

you will succeed if you spend money on all the gadgets and latest greatest most expensive camo and watch the outdoor channel. there's really not much more to it welcome

deer camp with father and uncles and cousins is important to me, but it's always been a "guys" environment. My cousin is a girl who fits right in, but it can still be awkward. Hunting in the stand is always solitary to me. Never desired someone else to be there with me. But i understand those that do. Archery has always been solitary, gun has always been "a party" haha.

exactly. I love the guy who comes into a thread about hunting on a hunting forum to bitch about it.

that's me too. bought a gopro. just too much extra work and gear for quality that i wasn't happy with.

so curious question #2. Why limit yourself with a pistol? just to switch it up? i've always believed every firearm has it's purpose so i never understood the pistol hunting from a stand. again, just curious.

i always wondered about the guys who hunt in numerous states. You harvest like 5 or 6 old nasty mature bucks. The meat isn't any good, and you're running out of room in your barn for the heads. When it becomes a business it's sad.

same here. she got the full dose of hunting season for many years before we tied the knot. knew what she was getting into and likes venison. It, however is always a struggle with time. Hunting the right way takes time. With a young family you need to know when to compromise. Don't abuse the leash they give and do your part with chores and paying the bills and spend as much time as you can doing family stuff in the offseason and you should be fine She likes to track and is happy when i have success. She's thought about hunting, but i tend not to push it. Hunting is my sacred alone time. I love my wife, but i'm not sure i want her in the blind with me. She's shot her fair share of squirrels so i know she can do it. Maybe i'll get into duck hunting some day. i use this line all the time. Would you rather me out gambling and drinking? Or going to bed at 9:30 on a friday night so i can be up at 4:30? haha.

this thread needs pictures for me to get all hot and bothered over

i enjoy the few shows that talk about prep, scouting, tactics and lessons learned. Huting public land, hunting high pressure etc. Too many shows are just the hunt and you have no idea the conditions. You just see the guy touting the outfitter/ranch and shooting a trophy buck. Gets boring and in no way HELPS ME. If anything it hurts the new hunter's expectation when they expect the same results and go out and get blanked or just see a door or yearling. We should list the shows that are helpful here. I like D&DH but they have been spending a lot of time on food plots lately. I will admit that i watch buck commander for the entertainment, not for the hunting.

my father and i did the same. it was not cheap. but it was worth it. we actually found out we owned a place we wanted to put a stand and previously thought we didn't own.

there is no debate that private property should be posted and posted correctly. This is just simple preventative maintenance to help keep the riff raff out and the accidental trespasser. We've all been there while scouting, and the posted signs help keep us on the right track. Someone knowingly trespassing is going to do so whether it's posted or not. When having a convo with a LEO, it will help your case, and hurt his if you can show he walked right past a posted sign. THAT SAID. Unposted land does not give someone the right to hunt, hike, ride, fish etc. I suppose in the SPIRIT, not the letter of the law that if an old farmer has not enforced his property for years than it would be tough to fine anyone for trespassing if they'd been doing so for years. We had someone come in from the inside of our line that wasn't posted, just had posted the road side. He actually cut lanes and did all sorts of damage and he knew what he was doing. dragged out all the brush. spray painted the fresh cut limb marks. A phone call to him was enough to get him out.

I've never had to freshen a scrape more than once. Usually early just to get it going and then they get left alone. and that's probably what i'm going to do, if anything i might just scratch it up a little. It's some public land so i'm really going in dark. see my first response. As far as cams go, I'm a once a month checker, not once a week. Helps reduce the scent and they're place in areas not too far from the approach trail and only checked with full scent control/during hunting. but it's a fair point.

curious. do you plan to stalk or shoot from a stand?

I get the odn. Thanks though.

I do both. Usually clip branches from last season and zip tie them above a scrape I want to keep active. Some are at cams and others are at lanes on runs where I can get them to stop for a shot. I have a new place I'm hunting this year I want to set some up for the reasons I mentioned above.

No. It's no different than someone hanging out on your front yard, and few people post their front yard. Trespassing is trespassing.

in mississippi, you are allowed to bait, but the bait must be over 100 yards away and not within site when shooting (so you can attract them, but can't hunt over it). Doesn't apply to most public land, but kind of an interesting take on it. Useful for cams and what not i guess.

If you make mock scrapes or freshen up old ones, when do you usually start?

i'd rather we not shoot the 1.5's :popcorn

i don't see how it's "no different". a food plot is the same as hunting some farm, a creek bottom or a bedding area. One is natural and alive, the other is not.

sometimes we talk like the DEC is walking through the woods on a daily basis haha. I guess if you're concerned you could unload the gun. Would be no different than walking out of the woods in the dark like most of us do.

for what it's worth, it's still trespassing even without signs. It may hurt your case if you don't have the propery posted when trying to enforce it. So i can't see why you'd need to put anything other than your name and number so someone can contact you.

Fair enough. Some animals like yotes and bears essentially require a bait or lure for success. Deer not so much. Can we not agree that the guy who stalks with a recurve has a little more "hunter" in him than the 8 year old boy in a tree fort and rifle on a bipod shooting over a feeder?