[Etter1]

in reply to: Garbaging for Bears #24138

hunt1321 wrote: One thing that is extremely frustrating to me on my private property here in NE Arkansas is the lack of deer on my property when I do not bait. This is particularly true when hard mast is scarce such as this year. I own 130 acres and all of my neighbors bait in the fall during deer season. It is really sad because I’m almost certain that we are recovering from an outbreak of CWD which as most are aware is spread easily in mass concentrations of deer such as at baiting locations. I have noticed a substantial decline in the deer population in the last couple of years. I personally have no desire to harvest a bear but here in Arkansas the bear seasons are quota hunts and 99.9% of these hunts are either in the White River National Refuge which contains thousands of acres of mature bottomland timber where baiting is not allowed, or in the Ozark mountain region where I would say 99.9% of those bears are killed over bait. Much like North Georgia the mountainous forests of the Ozarks would be difficult to spot and stalk. When Frederick Gerstaker came to Arkansas in the 1840s as cited in his book “Wild Sports” he learned to hunt bear from the natives and backwoods frontiersmen who would wait until the bears went into their dens in winter and went in with torch, rifle, and Bowie knife. Of course they also hunted deer at night by building a fire on a dirt packed scaffold near a natural salt lick and sat underneath and awaited their approach. Unethical hunting is nothing new!

We dont hunt bear over bait in N Ga. Its not legal and it is easier to do it by hunting natural food. In the early season we work white oak ridges and stalk them while they are in trees.

Again, I didnt want to get into this as everyone’s values are their own but I just couldn’t stand to leave that essay unanswered.

Moth….. Meet Flame

[Etter1]

in reply to: Garbaging for Bears #22872

dfudala wrote: You may be right? If I was hunting in Quebec on foot for bear, I may not see any in weeks of hunting. And as I said, I do not condemn those who use legal and accepted practices to pursue game. I get very limited time to hunt due to the fact that I travel around the country for work. So baiting appealed to me and as I said, I did it for years. I am very familiar with hauling bait into the woods and I myself shot my one and only bear 4 years ago over bait. I realize that having an education in the field may make you a much more intelligent resource on this subject than I but I would like to think that in lieu of our being successful hunters and contributing to population management, mother nature still knows what shes doing and already has it figured out. We may weep for those creatures that starve during a long hard winter but that has been the way of things long before we got involved. So, are we managing for the well being of the species or for acceptable numbers for all? Beats me, but it’s a fun discussion.

You may be right. Like I said, I’m biased and everyone is different. I just hope that nobody forms an opinion based on an essay like the one above.

[Etter1]

in reply to: Garbaging for Bears #22814

Anyone else think Peterson threw a grenade and ran away? lol

🙂

[Etter1]

in reply to: Garbaging for Bears #22811

dfudala wrote: I have to respectfully disagree here etter. I live in northern arboreal forest as well and I have enough encounters with bears during the course of a season to justify considering hunting them without bait. IMO this boils down to self interpretation of what is fair chase. Baiting for deer is legal in places and if one chooses to hunt over bait, so be it. Baiting for bear is legal in places as well and if one chooses to hunt them that way, again, so be it. But I don’t think one should hide behind the guise of not being successful to justify it? We hunt for many other species on this forum and report a large percentage of those hunts as unsuccessful yet still fulfilling. What is the hunt really about? Is the satisfaction species specific? I don’t know what the success numbers are or the ratios or each states specific laws. What I do know is I’m working every day to become a better outdoorsman and pit my skills against my intended quarry. And for me, hunting without bait, might just make a tag sandwich taste just a little bit better at the end of a well spent season.

Again, this is just my opinion. And it comes from someone who has spent many a day over baits in the past. I don’t condemn them. I have just chosen not to use them anymore. Until I read the article, I myself hadn’t even considered NOT hunting bear without bait. Now, I just might.

I’m glad for you and that may be so for somebody who lives there and enters those woods daily. I don’t know where you live but I doubt you live in central Quebec. I don’t think you would regularly see bears on foot if you did.

My interpretation may be a cop out. I don’t know, and I’m as far from perfect as perfect gets, but I do respect management practices of our natural resources. My degree is in wildlife biology and I suppose that I take a lot of my opinions from my field. I also grew up bear baiting. I killed a bear when I was 12 years old. Did it before I killed a deer too.

I’m sure I am biased but I hate to see hunting attacked by hunters when (I guess what I consider) fair chase is involved. Hounding and baiting are at the forefront of this but there are a lot of others. I guess I would like to see those of us who oppose it do it in person first. Lugging thousands of pounds of “bait” from PA to Central Quebec and doing all of your own baiting for a week is not as easy as it sounds. Neither is training a pack of actual hound dogs and seeing some die at the paws of bears and lions. There are incredible amounts of time, effort, and sacrifice involved in all of these types of hunting and sometimes we forget. I have a very good friend who hunts over corn all the time now in S GA. I have to admit that I don’t approve, but he spends over a grand a year now on his corn and I don’t have to. You know what else, he doesn’t kill any more deer than he used to either.

[Etter1]

in reply to: Lock on Treestands #22792

Sorry but I can’t offer much advice. We place a lot of stands here in the SE and leave them up for the season so I buy whatever the cheapest are. I have about 10 and I think most are from wal mart. As far as climbers, I have a summit bowhunter. It’s very light and quiet and really, pretty comfortable. If you want a climber, that’s my rec.

[Etter1]

in reply to: Garbaging for Bears #22623

grumpy wrote: Based on what I’m seeing in Wall Mart, baiting deer must be legal here. I don’t see why. Fields are full of left over corn, and the hay fields are still green. That’s where I will be tomorrow. Why spend the money at Wall Mart? On the other hand, am I hunting over bait when I sit at a stand where the deer come into the hay field? This isn’t a “natural” food source (neither are the apple orchards). When I got my license I paid the extra $5 for a bear tag, but doubt I will actually go looking for a bear. The one I saw last year ranges over three townships, where he is at any given point in time is anybody’s guess, and he is the only bear in those three townships. I don’t see how anyone could/would actually plan a hunt for a bear without considering a food source, and tend to think the food source is going to be gut piles from deer kills. Too frugal (not cheap frugal) to buy bait when it is all over the place anyway.

Everyone is different in their tactics and it is a slippery slope as far as I see on these issues. I detest the practice of baiting deer in GA. It is completely unnecessary and it makes people even lazier. The next generation will not even know how to hunt anymore. Having said that, if I lived in some sort of ridiculous monoculture like south florida, I don’t know how you could ever see a deer without it. That is the way I feel about bear baiting in the northern states and canada. Without hounds, mountain lions are essentially un-huntable (with any reasonable chance of success). Even if you disagree with the practice, to me, these are necessary means of managing wildlife. Be sure of it, wildlife managers are what we are now. The removal of hounding in states like California and Oregon is a HUGE mistake and a travesty for the generations of people that have hunted that way.

In my wildlife techniques class, we were asked to write an in depth essay on a recent wildlife bio decision and choose a side. I wrote about the removal of Ontario’s spring bear hunt. The implications of that were unreal from both wildlife and socioeconomic perspectives.

Years ago, California protected cougars, now more “nuisance” cougars are killed than ever were during the years when they allowed hounding. Not to mention the amount of money that now goes into dealing with those situations.

Dangit!!! You got me on the tangent I didn’t want to be on! But come on Dave, PETA could have written that article.

Time for a cold beer and some wings. Enjoy your night boys. Didn’t see a deer tonight.

[Etter1]

in reply to: The Hammock Seat #22254

I carried one of these for this first time at bear camp this year. It was awesome. I texted all of my buddies that were coming up that if they came without one they would regret it. Best hunting purchase I’ve made in years.

I do most of my deer hunting from a tree but this thing is going with me to Blackbeard Island this year. Lots of opportunities to hunt from the ground out there.

[Etter1]

in reply to: Garbaging for Bears #22249

I’m not going to get into a whole thing with this but this is a ridiculously one-sided and misleading essay. The idea that feeding bears in a wilderness setting makes them “problem” bears in the future has been disproven entirely. If you don’t believe it, I urge anyone to read both of Ben Kilham’s books on black bears.

He also compares hunting bears by spot and stalk in Colorado to doing the same in Maine. That premise is laughable. Maybe you haven’t seen what a boreal forest looks like but you are not going to do much bear hunting up there without the use of bait or hounds. I spoke to our lion guides in Idaho about baiting and they hated it. They said it was so much easier to just glass and stalk one. That aint happening up in the sever Northeast so if they do want a certain harvest, they are going to have to use one of the two above mentioned tactics.

I’ve hunted bears over bait fifteen times in Canada and have been doing it by spot and stalk and “stand” hunting here in GA for three. I like both of them and will continue to hunt GA every season for them. I’d love to go back to Canada and do it again as well. To be honest, I see A LOT more bears hunting here in GA spot and stalk than I ever did over bait. In all those years, I only killed four

I understand it is not everyone’s cup of tea. Baiting deer is now legal here but I don’t do it. It’s just not for me, but if somebody wants to kill a bear, and experience the eery beauty of the north woods, there is really only one way to do it.

[Etter1]

in reply to: Target Panic #19900

It is my life. Im going to try to get a hold of it after hunting season. Still can shoot fine, especially in a hunting situation but its unbelievably frustrating and Im exhausted with it.

[Etter1]

in reply to: Quiet this recurve…. #17078

Get rid of the cat whiskers and get some yarn puffs. Always been great on my recurves

[Etter1]

in reply to: New Buffalo Bow #12059

Shoots like my PAII huh?

So, every shot is like awakening from your first dream of a loving woman?

[Etter1]

in reply to: Hunting Practice? #12056

Doc Nock wrote: Bruce,

You start the damndest head scratcher threads… since I’ll be AWOL for a while with this move, tonite, I’m anxious to weigh in.

All my life, I spent every bit of time I could where there was a woods. Even growing up in the city, we had 8 square blocks of old cemetary with huge trees across the street…I’d climb the wrought iron fence and go climb a tree and try to call squirrels.

Anytime I could, I spent in the woods or field…just walking and observing. On my grandad’s farm, too young to hunt, I once outwitted a ring neck pheasant and outflanked him and came around on him…he was looking back for me when I pounced and got tail feathers… Love that Memory! Had I caught him, he’s have spurred, pecked and throttled me good! But I counted coup.

One reason I’m moving to TN is that the “outdoors” have dwindled to nothing but manicured parks around here…SE part of PA in Lancaster County. I drive 2.5 hrs to central PA and it’s not much better…development, development, development… wildlife has changed and patchwork of accessible land means you can’t follow critters to learn their ways or by ways.

We have a good bit of public land, but it’s an hour at least. Lots of it butts to the river… you can only go so far till it’s a pretty steep drop off. I know deer hang there, on that steep sidehill, but it’s a long way down to the RR and river and now it’s ILLEGAL to trespass on the RR, so getting something OUT if it went DOWN… well, I leave that to the younger folks to figure out!

I’m no great shot. I like my equipment well tuned. I try to be ethical. My bones / joints don’t go so good anymore. I can’t sit in stands like I did for 12 hrs…or 6…or 4… or walk over hill and dale most of the day sneaking along… and walk back at dark… Arthritis has had a say in that.

I hope moving to TN will allow me more access to just get out and be a PART of the woods. I don’t think you can hone your hunter skills at home… becoming a part of nature, on HER TERMS, in her bedroom, is what I found made me think more like the quarry I sought, learn from them, the land…

Lacking that access, civilization and the erosion of our senses reverts us back to something that is out of synch and place in the woods. Then it’s just dumb luck that puts a deer or any quarry in our path…where our hours of shooting practice take over and then the physical conditioning to help get it OUT!

I have a cart for that! LOL…

Good topic as always… the internet, DVD’s, seminars…can teach you INFORMATION, but “boots on the ground” seems the only way to develop SKILL

Really? No woods left in Lacaster County!?!?

That seems crazy to me. I guess even Enola has changed A LOT but that’s no surprise as it is so close to Harrisburg. Lancaster used to be so rural. That’s a shame to hear.

I sure do miss spending time up there but it’s just so hard to do anymore. Opening day at a PA deer camp is something everyone should experience one time. Really miss going upstate to float Pine Creek every year too.

Sorry to derail the thread. That just shocked and saddened me.

[Etter1]

in reply to: Southwest DIY Javelina Hunts? #11327

I don’t know how they taste but I’ve heard they make good tacos and the like. They are not supposed to be anywhere near as good as feral hog and they’re not actually even close relatives.

Smithy, I checked through the old statistics on the areas we put in for. I think the stats were from 2007-2010. There were extra tags available all of those years and success rates seemed to hover around 30 percent. Assuming that a lot of people probably buy javelina tags and never hunt them (especially so close to a big city), I figure that gives us a pretty good shot at doing some good.

[Etter1]

in reply to: Dream Hunts #10450

tailfeather wrote: [quote=Smithhammer][quote=Etter1]

And Tailfeather – git yer butt out to AZ and join us!

I’d dearly love to. This dumb thing called work is getting in my way. I’ll send you an Etter survival guide to help you on your trip.:D

Thanks Joe. Make sure he brings three times more beer than he “thought” he needed.

[Etter1]

in reply to: First hunting setup #8902

Doc Nock wrote: Good Stuff, Grumpy,

A good mentor from this site, taught me that even carbons show considerable variance in spine, etc, in any given sold dozen. Best to tune each one individually.

I #mine with dots… on the cresting I spray painted on each of them.

I made a hand drawn “table” (no computer wiz) and kept track like you did…

9 of 12 flew the same repeatedly. These were carbon however. of the errant 3, I cut one 1/16 and it behaved perfectly thereafter. The other I cut 1/16 2x or 1/8 and then it behaved repeatedly. Last one, had to cut 1/4″ off it to get it to stop behaving badly.

Never did that before. I’d shoot 3 or so, then cut them all to whatever that group liked…thinking all were the same. NOT!

Best to constantly test one’s beliefs and be open to others’ more diverse experiences.

Wow. I wish my shooting was good enough to notice a difference in my POI due to 1/16″ of an inch being cut off one of my arrows!

[Author]

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