More Noob Hunter Questions

[Athelney878]

Also, is this frowned upon now, I’m guessing?

 

[Athelney878]

Yes they have scented trash bags. Only seen it with kitchen size though.

I bought some vanilla-scented contractor-sized trash bags a few years ago and they smelled so disgusting I couldn’t keep them in my vehicle.

 

[wilcam47]

Yes they have scented trash bags. Only seen it with kitchen size though.

I have some contractor bag that are scented

 

[Slackdaddy]

I've never seen commercial trash bags with odorant in them. Hmm...

It's a new thing and pisses me off,,
Somehow my wife has weaseled her way into product development in trashbag companies.
She is the queen of "Chemical scents"

 

[Slackdaddy]

Hi everybody, I’ve been looking through other threads but still have some deer hunting questions I’m hoping you can help me with.

This will be my first year hunting deer. I took the hunter safety course, put in some extra range time with the rifle I’ll be using, bought a portable blind, scent control stuff, field dressing gloves, a deer pull, an orange hat and vest, orange squares for the blind, a bipod, camo clothes and backback, and scouted out the woods to find a few potential spots to set up. I already have a buck knife. I’ve been reading the Maryland regs and the safety course materials again, and watching videos on field dressing. I’m a member of BCC- IWLA and will be hunting on that property.

My questions:

1) When my dog and I scouted out the woods a few weeks ago, I ended up pulling several ticks off of him afterwards. Do you still use Deep Woods Off or other bug spray even with the scent control spray/detergent/deodorant?

0.5% permethrin, buy 10% permethrin at TSC and mix 20-1 with water, soak clothes.

2) I don’t have a truck, I just have an SUV. If I do harvest a deer, am I going to seriously stink up the SUV by putting it in there or is that no big deal? Will some plastic sheeting be enough to protect the vehicle?

Don't put 5 gut shot deer in your wife's SUV on a warm day,, dont ask.

3) I’ll be hunting with a lever gun. When do I chamber a round? At the beginning of the day or not until I see a deer I want to target?

Chamber a round as soon as you are settled in and ready to hunt, Or in the AM that is typ about 15 min before legal light.

4) How far away should I stay from other hunters for my own safety (and theirs)?

As far as you can,, make SURE you have a light when going in in the AM,, if someone "flashes" a light at you, back out and find your #2, #3, or #4 spot. If you see a light coming in after your are seated, flash them.

5) Do you bring your rifle with you when you track and field dress a deer you’ve shot, or lock it back up in the car?

Bring it with you,, many times deer have run up on me while gutting,, or you may need to put yours down.

6) BCC-IWLA prohibits leaving blinds up overnight, so I’ll need to set it up the day I hunt. Is it realistic to do so before dawn, maybe a half an our before, or will I scare all the deer away with my flashlight in the dark and the noise?

7) My blind says it has “shoot through” mesh, but is that a bad idea when using JSP straight walled ammo?

Thanks!

 

[lazarus]

On heavy duty commercial trash bags - try to find ones with no aroma, as it actully spoils meat.

I found what works best is a big section of roofing paper. The synthetic stuff, not asphalt paper. It is vaguely like Tyvek. Tyvek might also work.

Anyway, I cut a big piece from leftovers. It is thinner than a tarp, but a lot stronger than a trash bag. Even heavy duty ones. And the blood generally rinses off it pretty well. Basically toss it in my Mazda 3 as a trunk liner and then left ye'olde deer in there. I did get a security guard giving me a real hairy eyeball at work one day when I forgot to wash the blood off my bumper and I was getting out of my car as he walked by. We did the look at each other, look at the car, look at each other, "Oh, I forgot to wash that off my bumper...it is from a deer".

The cops didn't show up at work, so I am guessing he didn't think I was full of crap.

To OP for blind setup, stand, or in general getting into the woods, the earlier the better. I try (but rarely succeed) to be parking an hour before first legal light. In most cases I am traveling 15-20 minutes in, figure 10-20 minutes to setup. That gives me maybe 20-30 minutes to cool down, start putting layers back on or zipping things up and settling down before legal shooting light and lets the woods quiet down again.

Plenty of times I've finished setup right at legal light. Sometimes you just can't haul your butt out of bed at 4:30am.

 

[outrider58]

It's a new thing and pisses me off,,
Somehow my wife has weaseled her way into product development in trashbag companies.
She is the queen of "Chemical scents"

Ugh...

 

[Doco Overboard]

When you finally get around to downing some deer.
Eventually tracking them is going to prove tough at one time or another for a variety of reasons especially when its dark.
Instead of crawling around or spending to much time identifying a small blood trail that's difficult to locate in the litter. Or some times in a water borne area even.
Get out in front of where you suspect the deer to have wound up and walk back to the direction it ran off with a strong light doing a sweep in a wide arc as you close in to the area you suspect it fell.
Often you'll see it's eye shine and you can locate it much easier than crawling along the floor of the woods following drop by drop of blood expending a lot of time and energy proddling along.

 

[delaware_export]

… acid flash back, but related. excuse the tangent

Yeah… on practical knowledge. Wait until your in stand before you load… especially if walking in before light. Hard to see trip hazards in the dark. But

loaded the mag, but empty chamber when walking in the dark.

set a friend unfamiliar with the farm in his spot, 200y round trip. Then out to my spot. Morning sit, didn’t see nothing

started sliding through the woods. Hit the top of a rise and a flock of pigs were in the bottom. Sighted on one…

click!!!!

forgot to chamber earlier that morning!!! I still got two… but it freaked me out .

A pic from later that morning. RIP brothers.

 

[Athelney878]

Thanks again. I appreciate the help.

 

[remrug]

When you finally get around to downing some deer.
Eventually tracking them is going to prove tough at one time or another for a variety of reasons especially when its dark.
Instead of crawling around or spending to much time identifying a small blood trail that's difficult to locate in the litter. Or some times in a water borne area even.
Get out in front of where you suspect the deer to have wound up and walk back to the direction it ran off with a strong light doing a sweep in a wide arc as you close in to the area you suspect it fell.
Often you'll see it's eye shine and you can locate it much easier than crawling along the floor of the woods following drop by drop of blood expending a lot of time and energy proddling along.

Want to add to this good advice. Get a good flashlight and keep it with you. One that can adjust to a wide beam and a narrow beam works best for me. Get one that takes batteries....I have had terrible results with rechargeables. That was a long time ago and maybe that has changed since then....I dont know. When the last minutes of light are fading, its hard to pick up a blood trail without a flashlight.
I lost most of a doe to varmints because of a shitty flashlight.I went back and found her within 2 mins of searching the next morning. She was running down a deer trail in a thicket and right before she died she took a hard left into the briars about 10 yards in.I didnt see that with with the flashlight I was using at the time but would have with the one I have now.

 

[Archeryrob]

Do you have a hitch on your SUV? I would really recommend the flip up hitch rack over a deer in the back. If putting it in the back, a lot of time all the blood does not drain from the cavity. My truck bed is normally bloody on the trip back. Make sure you check for a pool of blood in the cavity.

I load my gun at the truck with lights. Fill the magazine, either in the lever or 30.06 and then chamber a round in the tree stand, or blind.

Like outrider said shoot through is for bows and I imagine a mechanical could partially open going through one and a gun shot from the inside would burn the crap out of it.

Like said, a good flash light can't be beat. I use the Led Lenser H14 head lamp. I use it hunting, kayak hunting and predator hunting with a red cap over the lens. I can wide angle it and dial the lumen back walking on and dial it up for brightness tracking. It also has a zoom for a beam and I can light up a field for 200 - 300 yards, if needed.

What kind of rounds are you using? Soft point, red tips? I quite using the latter and if you are make sure you shoot in the ribs and not the front shoulder. Those red tips promote "dramatic expansion" and they do that. The butcher will throw all the meat away anywhere near where that bullet went through. Soft point bullets don't destroy as much meat and still kill good. I've seen that clearly self butchering.

 

[GutPile]

Used wife’s old honda pilot as the war wagon for years before i got a proper hunting truck. Put a tarp in back and you are g2g. It will smell like a dead hooker for a few days afterwards though.

 

[Athelney878]

Good luck and if life is fair, you won't get a deer until your 5th or more trip

Well, I’m 0 for 2 so far, ha!

 

[RobSky]

Old Coleman fuel lantern for blood tracking after dark.

 

[lazarus]

When you finally get around to downing some deer.
Eventually tracking them is going to prove tough at one time or another for a variety of reasons especially when its dark.
Instead of crawling around or spending to much time identifying a small blood trail that's difficult to locate in the litter. Or some times in a water borne area even.
Get out in front of where you suspect the deer to have wound up and walk back to the direction it ran off with a strong light doing a sweep in a wide arc as you close in to the area you suspect it fell.
Often you'll see it's eye shine and you can locate it much easier than crawling along the floor of the woods following drop by drop of blood expending a lot of time and energy proddling along.

Excellent advice. I'd just add, mark where you have found blood last, or hit it, before doing that.

If I have a good blood trail, I'll just follow it till I find the deer. When I have a bad blood trail, so long as I am confident I waited long enough for it to be dead and not just laying down, I'll follow the blood trail till it gets less good, shove a good sized stick in the ground, and then go in the direction I think it was doing. Night time does make that easier in a lot of ways because of the eye shine and IMHO, blood shoves up on leaves better in flashlight than with the naked eye in most cases (unless dried, then it isn't much different).

 

[lazarus]

Want to add to this good advice. Get a good flashlight and keep it with you. One that can adjust to a wide beam and a narrow beam works best for me. Get one that takes batteries....I have had terrible results with rechargeables. That was a long time ago and maybe that has changed since then....I dont know. When the last minutes of light are fading, its hard to pick up a blood trail without a flashlight.
I lost most of a doe to varmints because of a shitty flashlight.I went back and found her within 2 mins of searching the next morning. She was running down a deer trail in a thicket and right before she died she took a hard left into the briars about 10 yards in.I didnt see that with with the flashlight I was using at the time but would have with the one I have now.

Also a good head lamp. I carry a really good headlamp in my pack, that also has a very strong red light (and can do weak red light). Plus I keep an Olight COB swivel light in my pack. Only 200lm as a flashlight, but that isn't bad. However, it can be a 400lm flood light too. And unlike some of Olights products, doesn't dim after a few minutes. So you have 5hrs actually on high.

If you are field dressing in the dark, it is really, really nice to have an area light you can put on a tree and a headlight for the actual work. Plus, two is one, one is none. I've head a dead headlamp before, as well as one that was DEAD/broken. But I had the backup area light I could use a flashlight to get into my stand in the dark.

 

[outrider58]

A little tidbit on blood tracking light selection. There are lights on the market specifically made for this purpose.

Most LED's are above 6000K, so they are in the blue spectrum. Green, red and blue wavelengths are the worst for seeing the contrast that makes blood "glow". Yellow wavelengths are best. That's why halogen and lantern light (3000-4000K ballpark) make blood pop off the natural surroundings.

 

[AlBeight]

I've been back hunting for a few years now and I agree that you learn something new every time you go out. Some lessons are hard. I wouldn't worry too much about the noise putting up the blind, just be sure that you practice getting it up quickly and without a TON of noise. Clomping in you'll probably drive out anything there anyway. Once you're in, that's the time for absolute quiet. I've taken deer from a ground blind, a climbing stand, and a ladder stand. Each has its place. This time of year it's hard with a ground blind. Leaves are super crunchy.

Don't load your rifle until it's legal to shoot so 30 minutes before official dawn. Don't load your rifle until you are settled into wherever you're going to be. Unload your rifle before you climb down from a tree. Keep the safety on or the hammer down until you see a critter. It's too easy to make a mistake, drop something, catch on something, or fall asleep. Bad things happen. I've only had one instance where I fired a bolt into the air when attempting to turn the crossbow on a deer. Very embarrassing but not fatal and I deserved to lose that venison. Lit bolt so I found it. Lesson learned.

A friend and senior hunter showed me that its best to field dress on a little incline with a front and back leg tied up to a tree so the deer is spread out and everything rolls/flows down and out. Minimal blood left in the animal but still some from the neck and head. Works great. Remember to leave the sex organs in place in case DNR stops through.

I've sprayed my clothes with scent killer and then put permethrin on after it dried, hanging in the garage. Got a deer but I wouldn't say that's evidence. It just worked that time. I think we're approaching the end of tick season at any rate.

No DNR regs about leaving the sex organs. MD rules are antlered or antler-less, period. Nothing to do with male or female, legally anyway.

 

[akalma]

A little tidbit on blood tracking light selection. There are lights on the market specifically made for this purpose.

Good point! But there are cases when yellow wavelength lights do not work. For example, in case of red-green color blindness, wink, wink!