Futuretrash

Bad. Ass. You are one courageous dude. Hats off.

+1

Going tomorrow for my permit and then bowhunting Opening day and Thursday, super amped. I've hiked there a bunch but never hunted. Huge place, and closer than Catskills for me (NYC), just an hour drive. Rock and roll!

I backpack Harriman all the time, and surrounding areas. Bears are no joke. A hiker was just killed in New Jersey by a black bear 2 weeks ago. I'll tell you a story about my experience up at Balsam Lake bowhunting for bear in the early season ... I got there at about 11pm Friday evening, got my pack with my sleep gear and water and my bow and hiked out to where I usually sleep. I ducked under some brush to enter one of the designated camp spots and shined my light up into the clearing and it was swarming with bears, maybe 3 cubs all into this guys food and one trying to get into his hammock. The Sow was up in a tree and dropped out of the tree and cracked the tree dropping out with a huge crash. The guy had his food hung about head high and I'm assuming was cooking all night there. Not smart. I killed the light and walked back and slept in my vehicle. I'm not confronting a Sow and her cubs in the dark, no thank you. When it comes to food, my recommendation is this, and I've never had a late night raid like that one ever... Cook your food and eat before dark if possible. Wash your cook kit FAR away from your sleep spot. At least 50 yards, 100 is better. Brush your teeth where you cooked. Bears love mint. Walk a bit away from where you cooked, the scent will be all over the trees as with the water you washed with. Once you have all your smelly stuff in a bag, take a nice length of paracord and tie it around a rock on one end. Throw the rock and cord over a high branch, I shoot for 15+ feet or more, just don't smack yourself with it in the head when it comes back down. Try to get it out far on a branch away from the trunk of the tree. Then untie the rock, tie the bag to that end, and then drag the bag up into the air, hanging well under the branch, and well off the ground. Black bears can go right up a tree. You want to make it very hard for them. If you keep the food hung away from where you cooked they will likely not even know it's there. Never eat food in our around your tent, or worse in your sleeping bag. And I use descenting soap on all my gear as well so I have a scent free campsite. For me they don't scare me too much, but I get a crazy rush of adrenaline when I come across them at night and then find it impossible to get to sleep after that ... This is just what I do, but I'm by myself a lot, and I have kids so I don't like to take chances. If you can, wash after you cook as well in a stream or a lake. That's best, you can use descenting soap and then you'll be in a sleep spot with no critters knocking at your door while you sleep soundly. Even mice getting into your gear is a drag, I have a great ultralight bag from REI that's shredded from mice trying to get at something, maybe a tube of lip stuff or something. They even got in my car as well. As far as the dog goes, I'm new to hunting as well, but I'll tell ya man, dogs aint quiet and they stink, I think a bear for sure and likely deer wll want to avoid that smell, so I don't think there's a benefit to having a dog with you while you're hunting. I have a boxer and love him in the woods with me when I'm camping but I never leave him alone (especially tied up) and haven't considered bringing him hunting with me. Hope this is helpful, just be safe when it comes to bears at night, they're hungry this time of year, the berries are going away and there's pressure to fatten up before hibernation time.

Can I ask you guys, I'm hunting public land, my question is this: How far off of human made trails should I push myself out into the forest? I'm assuming the deer and bears will be well off of the trafficed trails, but how far should I consider going? 1/4 mile? A full mile? I had some killer spots with a ton of bear and deer scat about a 1/4 mile from the trail up at Balsam Lake Wild Forest, scented with bear attractant I made, not a thing over 3 days. But again, heavy fresh scat. Are they only coming close to people-ish areas at night and then going deeper in the forest and peaks daytime? Would love some tips on strategies. I'm on the ground, full camo but no stands. I'm planning on spot and stalk until I get my first deer / bear and then moving to a tree stand after that perhaps. Thanks in advance!

What does "AR" mean?

I love Rinella, but man on the Rogan podcast he talks about his whole Trichinosis ordeal, WTF! It's right out of a science fiction movie. "Real Problems" as Cameron Haines says.

Cool, thanks for sharing. Totally respect your discretion.

Montec G5's, but been hearing great things about the slick tricks and their accuracy. The G5's are nice because they're so easy to sharpen, so I can shoot with them on the range all day then go home and sharpen them to hunt ready in a few minutes. But I don't have a ton of hunting experience, this is my first year, and they just seemed to be so low maintenance it's one less thing I need to worry about failing. I think once I have a few animals under my belt I'll consider switching up to something else. For you guys using slick tricks, how do you sharpen them after using them on the range?

@steve863 I agree. I think it's about each individual finding where they can shoot reliably. Some cool guys at the range yesterday, one was taking accurate shots at 80 yards with broadheads. He clearly knew what he was doing. His suggestion was while hunting, consider your max range to be 1/2 of what you can shoot at the range reliably. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Link? I need some value arrows for my 55# Grizzly. Right now I'm using Beman centershots and they're pricey!

Thanks for the tips @mmkay! Just upgraded to a heavier arrow (Full Metal Jackets), will be heading up this weekend for a second attempt.

@gunner1 Did you find out where?

Hopefully I'll have advice for you on this topic, heading back up to the Catskills 20/21 for the last 2 days of early bear.

@nyantler Hairy moment dude! Check pants for escapees!

I shoot with field tips out to 80 yards. I'd say I'm reliably accurate at 70, I can hit dart balloons out that far. But broadheads are a different animal. My G5's are pretty fuzzy in the air and the smallest little twitch or error in my right hand's lock up and I'm off. I do agree though with @Sogaard, in order to set up my HHA Optimizer single pin sight, you NEED to be able to shoot reliably at 60, it's part of the setup process to get the sight set up properly. Also, once I got used to shooting at 60/70/80 and the nervousness I feel and seriousness I feel about movement, moving back in to 50 / 40 / 30 / 20 makes all those other ranges feel very very easy. And under the pressure of hunting I'd like to think that that helps stay calm and also will help at closer more ethical ranges. Would I take a 70 yard shot at a deer? Probably not, I don't shoot that far with my broadheads ... But I was in the woods last weekend in the Catskills for early bear, and I created a scent pile with some logs across a meadow and it was a 45 yard shot. Would I take that? Hell yes, closer than that to a bear on the ground feels pretty face to face. Overall though, pushing one's limits be that physical or range distance I think will make me a better sportsman. That's my process, we can all do what feels right for us. Also, +1 for the Staten Island range. Wonderful spot with some cool people willing to share tips if you're nice and courteous, just pick up your garbage / balloons if you shoot there, it's getting messy!

I was at the range yesterday and a guy said his brother got a bear. He said he was at the edge of a swamp and saw a small one, let them go and then took out the larger one. To me, I would draw the conclusion that they're either cubs from the same litter or a cub and a sow. I didn't want to start giving him a hard time but from what I understand bears rarely hang together unless they're part of a family unit. I hear they get very territorial, I probably would have passed on that shot. The picture looked like quite a small bear. Not judging but ...

@Biz, did you get the story behind the event? Tree stand? Spot and Stalk?

This next weekend for early bear I'm going to push myself to go higher into the peaks. A guy that's been hunting there for years told me the deer follow the ridgelines, it makes sense ... the highest point gives you the greatest distance form people and the advantage in a chase or confrontation. Thanks for the inspiration ...

I was out this weekend in the Catskills spot and stalk with my bow. Scat everywhere. No sightings. Camped in a tent in the forest. A little hairy but an amazing time. My brain was on full alert. Logged some great cover spots on my GPS app, going back in 2 weeks. They're out there! Go deep, they hang where we don't go daytime.

I'll bet walking into that cornfield following the blood trail was edgy!

Hey guys, I went up to the Catskills and bowhunted out of my tent solo for the weekend. It was wicked. Scat everywhere. My first bear hunt. I'm a spot and stalk guy, I love to be moving and exploring, it makes me a little scared at times but phyically it's demanding and also the psychological component is amazing. No luck though. It's pretty clear they know what's going on. I logged some perfect set ups with my Trimble app, one in a marsh where I scented a small beaver hut with hiding all around depending on wind direction, and another on a set of cliffs that overlook a bedding area where I found not only scat but items that had been stolen from campers with HUGE teeth marks in them, coffee cans, juice bottle, chip bags. I made scents out of extracts of caramel / vanilla / anise and they were potent. I could smell my scented spots from 40 yards away in hiding. I started at 6:30 am, I was a little too freaked out to kick into the forest at dark with how much activity there was and I think that would have increased my chances. Early am gearing up I bumped into a really cool cat, I wish I had gotten his info because he clearly knew his business, he's been hunting that area for 20+ years and has beena round the world on various trips. He was a total badass, military cut, former corrections officer, I was kicking myself that I didn't at least get his email. He showed me his trail cam pics that he had just retrieved and there were some beasts up there, at least 400 lbs. One pic was just ears as the bear was sniffing the camera. That got me so amped. For everyone asking about guns, it is a gun and bow early season, so bowhunter, be careful with going full camo, I came across some 13 year olds, great kids but they were clearly a little wet behind the ears and I swapped my camo hat for a blaze orange one after that. Once I was in hiding I swapped it off. They're out there. I could have gone deeper but with the temperature, to eat that critter I would have had to skin and butcher in the field, and running that kind of weight in a pack bugged me a out a bit, so I kept it within a couple miles from my tent, which was about 1/2 mile from my car. Damn straight I decented before going to sleep, and kept a dead clean campsite. I'm going back up in 2 weeks for the 19th - 21st and I think if I can build up the courage I'll go deeper up to the peaks. There's so many of those rocky outcroppings and the forest gets thick. I'll tell you, I came across a pile of teeth marked juice bottles and scat and was surrounded by terrain they could easily be bedded or hiding in, I don't care who you are it gets a little hairy. I heard a grunt at one point, I'm not sure if it was another hunter making a call but I was standing right over a fresh patch of scat with ferns crushed all around me. my heart started pounding so hard I couldn't hear well. Took a deep breath and hunkered down for an hour or so then got antsy and moved out. Saw some turkeys that I spooked, and no deer. Not sure why but I think the bears spook the deer, curious what you guys who are more experienced think. I'll tell you one thing, they're out there for sure, en masse. Big ones too. Trail cams and scat piles don't lie.

Hello there. I'm a lifelong archer, living in NYC, and my mom got me into hunting last year. We were shooting at a 3D range and her hunting buddies couldn't believe the shots I was making at 60 yards, I had no idea I was any good, it's just something I've done for fun for a long time and I guess I got pretty good. So I started doing some reading about conservation and I love to cook and I also love backpacking, so I just put those things together and got myself a proper hunting setup and got myself licenced this year. This last weekend I just went up to the Catskills for the early bear season. I hunted out of my tent solo in the forest and holy cow I'm hooked. It's bananas in the bush. I'm so used to being on trails there's a whole other world when you're off the trails. It was physically demanding (I'm in pretty good shape but I feel broken right now), and I feel an incredibly amazing positive energy coming from this experience. Confronting my lifelong fears of bears (I've been solo backpacking for a long time with maybe my dog but usually alone) ... I went into the woods with my pack, some water, my PSE Xforce (it's a beast), Montec G5 broadheads sharpened to a surgical edge and some scents I made following the NYS rule of 1.5 oz. I bought some small glass 2oz bottles and mixed extracts of anise, caramel and vanilla. Damn it's a strong smell. I know the area I was hunting quite well so I went straight to where I knew the bears were moving. Scat everywhere. I've been doing my research and following Cameron Haines, reading his books and it all fell into place. I'll try and keep this brief here and recount my experience under the bear threads where they may help other. No luck but using the Trimble app I logged at least 3 absolutely perfect hiding spots with 10 - 40 yard shots, perfectly hidden with tons of scat and water sources nearby. Exhilarating!