[Croatoan]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #28288

Thanks Dave.

Trail Cams for me are kinda like catch and release fishing. I set ’em where my spring scouting says I should get good shots. There are a couple mineral licks I cover with a camera but they are not hunting holes. Honestly they make a great testing media. My sons as I teach them to read sign and understand the woods, they are making decisions based on that, this years cam locations were picked by my eldest. Turns out the cams verified his thoughts on where the best spots would be.

I take my cameras down in late August because if I don’t they’ll get stolen, even here on private property. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Minnesota is weird on baiting. It’s legal for bear but not deer, however if it’s a liquid that is ok, BUT, they have no problem with feeding deer. Strange lot.

I never stop tramping around my backwoods, I’m out there year round. Between Bushcraft and Camping and getting the kids out there is no downtime for me. Having the cams up just heightens the experience, seeing what sometimes is never seen.

I don’t have an opinion regarding hunting over them for other people. Life’s too short to go through it making judgments on others, figure I got enough to worry about without concerning myself with others. I’ve mellowed as I’ve aged, I used to spit fire and brimstone on such things. Years come and go as do people, in the end we have what we did and that’s probably enough for all of us to be concerned with.

[Croatoan]

in reply to: More wildlife pics #27230

Great pics!

Which camera are you using?

[Croatoan]

in reply to: Nice Buck & then some fawns. #12556

Video really doesn’t do him justice, here are some stills.

[Croatoan]

in reply to: Little Bears of the North Woods #12444

Wow David! Man O Man what it must be like to walk around where the griz does. We’ve got lions here too but I’ve not been able to capture any on film.

We do have the larges wolf population in the lower 48, they’re playing hell on our moose population though. We need to engage a management plan but get thwarted by people who don’t even live here every time we try to get something going.

[Croatoan]

in reply to: More moose activity #11125

Strait-Aero wrote: Some more nice footage,Jim….congrats…I’ve gotta try the lemon and eucalyptus 😉

I spend as much time outside as work, the law, and the wife will allow, there’s been a couple years where I think the skeeters stopped biting me because I was a walking welt. No fresh surface left from which to draw blood.

Deet just never was compatible with me. I hate the stuff.

So this year I tried the Repel stuff based on a recommendation from a friend in South America. Smell isn’t unpleasant and while I still get them hanging out about a foot and a half from me they don’t stay long and they don’t light to bite.

My kids spend a lot of time outside with me, my youngest daughter refused to use Deet, but she doesn’t mind the Lemon-Eucalyptus so that’s a relief.

It was nearly $8 a bottle at Amazon but Wally world had it for $4.88 so I stocked up on it.

The active ingredient is p-Menthane-3,8-diol, here’s a link to a fact sheet on the stuff.

p-Menthane-3,8-diol

Hope it works for you as well.

[Croatoan]

in reply to: A Day in the North Woods #9091

Strait-Aero wrote: Very interesting……Say,did you ever get to the beaver lodge?
Wayne:?

Heh, yeah, though admittedly I got distracted by the moose.

This is the only picture that shows it.
Just right of center image.

It’s still active and the sign was pretty heavy on the SE corner though it looked like they were expanding north as there was some fresh sign there as well.

[Croatoan]

in reply to: Little Bears of the North Woods #9040

The spot is a big mineral lick I’ve been cultivating over the years, it gets a lot of activity from small critters, porcupines, deer and bear, even moose a few times now. I don’t actually bait it, just keep the lick treated.

The camera is a Primos Truth Cam 46. I have it set to take a 5 pic burst then a 10 second cool down. I used Windows Live movie maker to put the shots together in a stream and then trimmed the duration to .35 seconds display so they look like a fair stream.

Those guys are skinny indeed, believe they are all the cubs that the sows kicked to the curb this year and are really just now finding their way I guess. Our winter was rough and spring wasn’t much better. Still had a foot of snow on the ground through April. Been cool and rainy so far, bout the hottest day this year for us was about 77 to 79 degrees.

Here’s a couple fat bears for ya!

[Croatoan]

in reply to: Some Field Time… #38974

Pothunter wrote: Croatoan, country I can only dream of, may you enjoy it for a long time.

Charlie P, can you tell me who makes the wool shirt you are wearing in the picture.

Thanks

[Croatoan]

in reply to: Some Field Time… #36412

Killdeer wrote: From your pictures, I can see how well you love the land you walk. Makes me feel good just knowing that the land has one like you to walk it.

I wish I had land, but it is almost as good knowing that there is a place that is loved as honestly as you love yours.

Killdeer

Thank you

These are old Ojibwe lands, and still Ojibwe walk them.

[Croatoan]

in reply to: Some Field Time… #36410

Wildschwein wrote: Awesome pics!!! How close did you get to that yearling?

With the wind chill it was about 18 below zero and they were stacked up in those pines out of the wind. It’s a south facing slope and the sun has done some work on the snow so they have been laying up in there on bad days. The wind was nearly straight out of the North that day and into my face.

I do ok slipping amongst the brush, between the mukluks and the wind I was able to get pretty close. Most of the pics were taken from between 18 to 35 yards. I do have a 18mm zoom on that point and shoot digital camera so that helped too.

[Croatoan]

in reply to: I saw him before he saw me… #27507

Thanks guys.
The wife got me a camera a few years ago, she was tired of my stories and wanted to see some of what I was seeing. I’m a rank amateur really. The camera is a 10.1 mega pixels, Exilim from Casio. I have to say I am enjoying capturing pictures dang near as much as I enjoy watching arrows fly!

[Croatoan]

in reply to: CO last day elk hunt: a story of success #27258

Outstanding!

[Croatoan]

in reply to: Pre-Rut Hunt, Pointers #26404

I was born in Virginia and grew up hunting there and some other southern states. No matter private or public land I hunted acorns and travel corridors. There wasn’t a ton of unbroken deep woods there, lot of farms and Oaks were very plentiful.

I have the opposite problem now. I live and hunt within a MASSIVE unbroken piece of ground that stretches nearly 100 miles behind me into Canada.

There are no oaks and no farms, it is a Boreal forest, Evergreens, Birch, Maple, Butternuts etc. I’ve been able to hunt 2 full days and 5 partial days since the opener. I’ve seen 8 deer total, a moose, two timber wolves and a porcupine.

Unable to get shots on the deer. But movement is way down from what I have seen in the past. Seeing more deer near the roads than I am in the backwoods.

We’ve had three frosts so far and this last one was a good one. Gardens gone now, most of the foliage should drop and I anticipate them moving more. Till now they could pretty much turn in circles and eat their fill. Been one of the most difficult early seasons I have seen. I sure do miss Oak trees!

[Croatoan]

in reply to: Share a Tip #26352

I used to use milkweed seeds but I found a better solution.

Still very visible but not so messy.

Cattails, I just cut a bit off the top, not much. Pick it a bit and the pieces will begin to float out. It’s easy to do, also they tend to hold their shape real well. I carry mine in my pocket, pull it out when I want to check the wind/thermals. You can watch them float for a long long way. I once watched them float on thermals as the sun was setting for 10 maybe 15 minutes. In the first picture below you can see them slightly to the left floating down that old logging road.

[Croatoan]

in reply to: Glenn St Charles has left us 9/19/2010 #19683

Wind in your face Glenn.
Condolences to the family.

[Author]

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