So my question is on public land how much do you clear for shooting lanes? I will cut off maybe a branch or two. Nothing too big. They call them shooting lanes not shooting areas for a reason. Also should you hunt this spot that this guy obviously claimed? Its on a WMA out by me.
You are dead on point with the comment that they are shooting lanes, not shooting areas! This is absolutely a case of "less is more." I've often found that optimal (not "close enough" or "good") stand placement can significantly reduce the amount of clearing you need to do.
State land is always tricky on the do I or don't I hunt here question. Personally, I don't want to hunt where someone else has obviously set up shop, first and foremost because I have no idea about their hunting acumen; do they only hunt in the right wind? do they practice rigorous scent control? do they over-call? do they overuse scents?
There's a host of things another hunter can do that complete ruin a good area; why take the chance when we only have so many days afield? Find your own spot (and the longer it takes you to hike into one the greater the odds are you'll have it to yourself) and make you the only variable you need to account for.
Of course there's the ethical consideration too and that can sometimes get a bit complicated on state land. I say I wouldn't hunt where it's apparent someone else is simply because that's my hunting ethos; though we can offer opinions on the subject as it's public land it boils down to the individual hunters ethics.
Normally I don’t do any cutting at all, but THAT is just Beyond Stupid.
You don’t have the first freaking CLUE what “type” I am.
I have plenty of respect for any honest hunter; if I were headed to a spot I had picked out on public land and another guy was there ahead of me, then I’m cool with that. His for the day.
But if you think I don’t deserve to expect the same from the other guy, you can stick it.
Leaving a stand in place as a Keep Out sign is bull. PUBLIC land, savvy?
It’s no different from a good spot on a trout stream; if somebody else is already there, you move on or wait him out, and if you notice someone waiting on you, the polite thing to do is to give that spot a good effort and move on in a reasonable amount of time. Deer hunting tends to be an all-day deal, so you just move on. If you’re the guy who’s already in place, you’ve got to realize that you’re probably not the only guy in the state who has figured it out, so you pretty much have to expect that other folks will be coming through, whether they’re on their way to that spot, some other spot farther along, or just hunting their way through the area from the ground.
Public land in this part of the world gets crowded, but we’re all on the same team, aren’t we? Gotta put up with each other sometimes.
No sense being an arse about it....
I've come across stands in the woods and have avoided those spots, no matter how good the area looks. What good does it do to have your hunt busted up by some other hunter walking past your stand at prime time, even if there are deer in the area?
"impale himself" - or someone else. I've seen so much of that on 3D courses and marvel that someone would leave a hazard like that.
If I have to take up to a two inch diameter tree out, I do so at a point as high as I can reach, then I drag the top off to a point where I want the deer to move around it, on my side. From above, the trunks/stalks are usually not an obstruction problem. Low cuts should be as low as possible and smudged with fresh dirt to hide the whiteness of a fresh cut. Of course, I would not cut like that on public land, where light trimming could be needed.
Said the (relatively new) guy who just posted a 3 or 4 point assault on another poster’s character.
Funny thing....
About 20 years ago, I likened Archery seasons to a low-key, BYOB gathering of home-brewers that got crashed by a bunch of Fraternity Boys who showed up with some Bud Light, polished off all of the good stuff and then started carping about how there was no good beer, the music wasn’t loud enough and - once ALL of the beer was gone - how it was too damn crowded anyway. So they left, leaving the place littered with empty Bud Light cans and broken glass bottles that the home-brewers had planned on being able to re-use.
The difference being that the Compounders just refuse to leave... And now the DEEP has decided to hold a “Beer Festival”, they’ve invited crossbows to the party, and they’re offering your choice of Bud Lime, Miller Clear or Zima.
I traded off my Compound for a longbow I didn’t need because another guy had to quit Trad because of an injury, and now that bow I didn’t need is pretty much my go-to. I’m WAY deadlier with that than I was with wheels... Different strokes, you know?
Just kinda chaps me when the Johnny-Come-Latelies accuse the Old Guard of being the turd in the punchbowl when everybody was getting along well enough before “Johnny” showed up....
You’ve posted the same thing 4 times now. Seems to me you're taking to the wrong end o’ that mule...
I have a simple approach now: scout a lot and create a huge library of spaces to hunt (I'm 100% public in CT and only have one private spot I hunt in MA, everything else here is public or functionally public (so long as the town here does not have a written permission rule, non posted land is 100% legal here)). My second approach is to stay really flexible. If I go to a few spots and it looks like guys are in them, I may well just totally try out a new spot.
Brings me back to a belief that would stink as I get older (45 now) I suspect... On public ground, treestands/blinds have to come and go every hunt. It would reduce that sense of "I put up my fixed stand so it's my spot" ownership some guys get.
I suppose in some respects it’s primarily a symbolic gesture, but look at it this way…
You plan your hunt, you show up in the morning, and you put up your stand (assuming there’s nobody else already set up and sitting in his tree right there).
If some other guy shows up with the intention of hunting from a tree stand that he has left there illegally, the law-abiding Hunter is under no obligation whatsoever to have chosen a different location or to clear out when the Scoff-law shows up.
And on the list of PO’s priorities, an illegally parked tree stand is one thing. An illegal Stand-Parker who behaves in a threatening/hostile manner towards a law-abiding type is quite another...
