Prep For Hunting Season

Hunting season is just around the corner!  While summer is a great time to fish and swim in pools, it's also a great time to get outdoors in the woods and prepare.  Here's a list of things that you can do to prep for the final weeks till the season:

• Backyard bow practice!  Start drilling on your form, aim, release, and follow-through.  Backyard bowhunts are another fun thing.  You put out a target (a 3D makes it a WHOLE lot funner!) and you start from one side of your yard, and creep up on the target, and make a shot.  You practice your skills for a stalk or still hunt.  You can also do this on a treestand.  Go up, sit like normal, then act like the target you set up, say, a deer, walks into view.  Slowly stand up and draw, aim, release, and follow-through.
• Scout!  Look for tracks, trails, browsed plants.  Food sources, bedding areas, you name it!  If you can locate a trail that is close to bedding and food sources for around the year, your set!  For example, one place that I'm looking at putting a stand is close to a trail that passes oaks, a greenbriar patch (which deer like to eat), and bedding.  And when it rains, a small ditch actually makes a temporary pond.  Perfect spot for a stand! Which leads me to my next point...
• Hang Stands!  Looks for spots like what I mentioned above.  Not only that, but bedding near creeks, trails, food sources, near corn fields, and so on.  
• Sight in your gun!  If you don't sight in your rifle, you won't hit anything.  Not only that, but practice with it, let it become almost a part of you since your so good at handling it.
• Put out trail cams!  (I'm repeating myself) Near trails, bedding, food sources, mineral licks, so on.

Other things that I'll leave out of the "big" list is establishing mineral licks and food plots.  Now, food plots are meant to complement natural food sources, not replace them.  You might could just seed a place with naturally occurring seeds, or let the plants come up by themselves.  Sometime food plots can be a pear tree, or an oak stand.  They don't have to be a lawn of clover.  And they are not necessarily necessary to have a great hunt!  I just do a little bit of it because I enjoy doing it.

Stay safe, get your licence, and get ready to hunt!  Until next time!

Trials and Tribulations of a Treestand

Hello from Snow Camp Outdoors!!  It's been a while, I know, things have been slow and I have some posts drafted, so be ready for some updates in the following weeks (even days!).  Besides that, I recently put up a treestand in my front yard!!  75 yards away from my house with a small food plot in front of it.  Not bad right?  It is a two person stand by Ameristep.

Behind the stand

Next to it, looking up

Looking at it from my plot

The stand is not that high, only 8 feet.  It is really only 20 to 25 yards from my stand to the plot.  It took me and the help of two 9 year old boys to put it up.  But we did it.  

  Once it was up, I tried to tighten the "installation" straps.  Did it, then went to the ratchet straps.  I couldn't figure it out, but eventually I did.  Then, I found the installation straps needed more tightening!  I took maybe an hour, but I was really proud once I put it up, my first stand.

  So, what is the plot?  Well, it's clover and chicory, but it's just coming up.

The feeder is out there mainly to get deer coming into the area.  So when the plot comes up, they'll eat it.  By the way,  I'll post some of my recent pictures soon.  

Until next time!! 

Tree Stand Saftey

I know that I have written a little about tree stand safety before, but it doesn't hurt to go over being safe in a tree stand again.

• Always wear a full body safety harness.  Also known as a fall arrest system, these harnesses have saved hundreds of lives.  A safety strap should be attached to you and to the tree.  This should keep you from falling more than 12 inches (if you fall)
• There is a rule that is called the 3 point rule.  The rule is to always keep three points of contact (2 arms, one leg or one arm two legs) on the ladder.  But at least keep 2 points of contact, although the 3 point rule is safer.
• Carry emergency contact devices with you.  Cellphones are one type of these.
• Use a haul line to get your gear into the stand.
• Use a climbing belt when you are climbing up to and down from the tree stand.
• Wear boots with non-skid soles.  This will prevent you slipping on slippery wet rungs.

Have a safe hunting season!

All About Tree Stands

A tree stand is a good way to get above the level of the game your after.  Deer, coyote, bear can be hunted successfully with a tree stand.  They've become very popular in the last few years because bow and firearm hunters can use them.  They have some very clear advantages, but they also have some drawbacks too.

Advantages

•  You can spot game sooner than you would on the ground
• A good back stop for arrows and bullets that miss due to shooting downward
• It positions the hunter above the animal's normal field  of vision
• Makes the hunters scent less detectable and movement less noticeable

Those are just a few of the advantages.  Now no one should look at just the advantages and not look at the drawbacks so now look at the drawbacks.

Drawbacks

• Risk of injury resulting from falling
• Difficult to carry, especially large portable stands
• No protection from cold or wind 
• Little room for movement
• Not being able to move towards game while hunting

But if you still want one there are 3 types of tree stands.  Hang-on stands, climbing stands and ladder stands.

Hang-On stands 
These are stands that you use if you want to keep a stand up in a tree for a while.  It uses climbing steps or segmented ladders.  It can still be moved but you would have to take it down and set it up all over again.  They can be cheaper than most ladder stands when you combine the stand and climbing steps cost together.

Climbing Stands
If you want to go one place to another with a stand a climbing stand is what I'd recommend. You can take it up and down a tree with relative ease.   You climb the tree by pulling the top part of the stand (the part you sit on) with your hands and the bottom part (where you put your feet) with your feet.  It is recommended that you don't use this stand on crooked trees or trees that have ice or snow on them.

Ladder Stands
If you want a permanent stand somewhere, I recommend the ladder stand.  This kind of stand can be bought for 1 person or for 2 people if you have someone with you.


Tree stand safety
If you get in a tree stand, always wear a full body harness to protect you if you fall.  Good brands of those would be Tree Spider and Hunter Safety System.  If you should fall with a harness on :

•  Don't panic, your harness will hold you
• Signal for help
• Get back into you stand as soon as possible
• Take action to avoid suspension trauma (covered later) if you need to be rescued

Suspension Trauma is when the leg straps of the harness constrict blood  flow and if the blood keeps getting blocked it can lead to death.  To avoid it, if you have a suspension relief on your harness step into it and stand up.  If you don't have one move your legs continuously by pushing off the tree or raise your knees and pump you legs often to keep blood flowing till help arrives.
Haul your equipment up to you with a haul line.  Never climb holding you equipment.  And never haul up equipment that is loaded or has a knocked arrow.  When you haul up a firearm, keep the muzzle or the barrel of the gun pointed down, and have the stock pointed at you.
It is important to always be safe when hunting, No matter what.