How vital is scent control?

Does the rut end by shotgun season in MA?

I smile at that one. The rut ends with the temperatures and the weather as well as the hornyness of the big guys. When their antlers and necks are exhausted and their testosterone is low, the rut will end.

A good point made by Fixxah stay put around lunch time bring a sandwich for the stand I have killed deer because guys bumped them heading out late morning noon for lunch.

Always eat an apple as desert for lunch. :)


Please kind sir, PM a location for that balanced rock. I collect those spots and do not pass them around.
 
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They're selective cutting, though it does look like some spots are clear cut.

That will still let light get to the ground. It depends on how "selective" they are. It will help. Not this year, not next, but 3 years from now it should thicken up and they'll be in there. Green briar and scrub grow like a weed.
 
I ride up to them on my snowmobile all the time (much more with my 4 stroke which is very quiet). If I stop and get off they will panic and run. I'm not even close to an expert on this topic, this is just an observation I have made.

My guess is that the deer see me as a large "bumble bee" that cruises the woods. When I get off I am a become a 2 legged hunter and its go time.

Then why can I ride up to them - certainly within 20-30 yards - on a noisy mountain bike while smelling like an absolute beast?
 
Good luck to you....seriously.

Manage your expectations though. Don't be too surprised if you show up opening day and there are a few hunters that already busted your spot. It happens all the time. My advice is opening day of shotgun get in there WAY before sunup.
Yeah I am not setting up high hopes for my first time. I’m enthusiastic but expect to be surprised one way or another. I am planning on a very early entrance on each and every day I go in for a morning or full day sit. For evenings it’ll be by 2-3pm.
 
I ride up to them on my snowmobile all the time (much more with my 4 stroke which is very quiet). If I stop and get off they will panic and run. I'm not even close to an expert on this topic, this is just an observation I have made.

My guess is that the deer see me as a large "bumble bee" that cruises the woods. When I get off I am a become a 2 legged hunter and its go time.

Well, on the sled you're just a hrududu and only when off of it become elil. OTOH, I'm embleer. [laugh]

(Okay, so that's (fictional) rabbitspeak, not deer. Same-same.)
 
Yeah I am not setting up high hopes for my first time. I’m enthusiastic but expect to be surprised one way or another. I am planning on a very early entrance on each and every day I go in for a morning or full day sit. For evenings it’ll be by 2-3pm.

By shotgun season the deer are doing very different things. If your getting pics on the cam now and think its a good spot for shotgun... it likely wont be. Or it could be great if not pressured.

What deer are doing in public land varies greatly from October to December depending on food availability and pressure. Best odds are Archery to set up on something. Once the guns get in the woods a good spot can go totally nocturnal quick, or deer just leave. This year with acorns falling out of every oak tree, deer wont have to move far. They will find a safe spot and ride it out
 
By shotgun season the deer are doing very different things. If your getting pics on the cam now and think its a good spot for shotgun... it likely wont be. Or it could be great if not pressured.

What deer are doing in public land varies greatly from October to December depending on food availability and pressure. Best odds are Archery to set up on something. Once the guns get in the woods a good spot can go totally nocturnal quick, or deer just leave. This year with acorns falling out of every oak tree, deer wont have to move far. They will find a safe spot and ride it out
I’m with you. I fully know that camera shots now are not reliable for the future. With the noise of guns the deer will move out quickly. Some probably have an innate sense of the exact timing, who knows......

The benefit of the public lands I’ve been frequenting is all DCR East of 190 which only opened for the first time last year. I do not expect that those lands will be inundated with hunters. They will be eventually. Most hunters probably are not even aware that this is the case. West of 190 WMA’s and DCR? Different story I’m sure. Private land is best of course but I’ve yet to find some good spots. We’ll see how it all plays out. I’m happy just to get out into the woods!
 
Is that Quinlan?

Bob
Yep - they've been logging with base of operations just in from the Clinton Road parking area, at where the fire road comes down from Rimmon. Logging is now extending up the hill onto what is the orange trail, and south to that little brook by the (steep) fire road branch back down to the main fire road by Beaver Brook (just before it's no longer a fire road but a gnarly, rocky trail).

Map-Quillinan Reservoir 12-31-15_CORRECTED.jpg

I believe I shot that logging sign photo just below (west of) the infamous "four-way purple" intersection.
 
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I’m with you. I fully know that camera shots now are not reliable for the future. With the noise of guns the deer will move out quickly. Some probably have an innate sense of the exact timing, who knows......

The benefit of the public lands I’ve been frequenting is all DCR East of 190 which only opened for the first time last year. I do not expect that those lands will be inundated with hunters. They will be eventually. Most hunters probably are not even aware that this is the case. West of 190 WMA’s and DCR? Different story I’m sure. Private land is best of course but I’ve yet to find some good spots. We’ll see how it all plays out. I’m happy just to get out into the woods!

Don't count on it.

The people who hunted it last year told their buddies who told their buddies.

Then there are people like me who look at the yearly acquisitions list.

Then there are people who will read your post and look for those properties.

I hunted a little known piece of property that was open to hunting in zone 8 for several years and it was good hunting.
Somebody pissed off somebody else and it was posted on a hunting forum. The following Saturday it was mobbed. I mean mobbed. The two or three car parking lot was packed and there were 8 or 10 cars jammed in the street. That one post destroyed that hunting spot.

Bob
 
Yep - they've been logging with base of operations just in from the Clinton Road parking area, at where the fire road comes down from Rimmon. Logging is now extending up the hill onto what is the orange trail, and south to that little brook by the (steep) fire road branch back down to the main fire road by Beaver Brook (just before it's no longer a fire road but a gnarly, rocky trail).

View attachment 307924

I believe I shot that logging sign photo just below the infamous "four-way purple" intersection.

That’s one thing Connecticut does to try to rejuvenate their properties.That place was loaded with turkeys when they first opened it up to archery hunting the first year. The second year it opened to gun hunting and that place got pounded.

It is amazing how fast the ground cover grows back in once the deer population gets knocked down.

Bob
 
Who really knows? Gramps used to smoke a pack in the tree stand and still tagged out every year with the bow and shotgun
 
Don't count on it.

The people who hunted it last year told their buddies who told their buddies.

Then there are people like me who look at the yearly acquisitions list.

Then there are people who will read your post and look for those properties.

I hunted a little known piece of property that was open to hunting in zone 8 for several years and it was good hunting.
Somebody pissed off somebody else and it was posted on a hunting forum. The following Saturday it was mobbed. I mean mobbed. The two or three car parking lot was packed and there were 8 or 10 cars jammed in the street. That one post destroyed that hunting spot.

Bob
Let’s hope you’re wrong for this season. Bummer about your Zone 8 spot. How many hunters are e-illiterate will determine the business of those spots.
 
When I get home, if I remember, I'll upload the pictures with myself entering and exiting and then the deer.

As proof I used scent killer its literally in my hand. Someone had told me you could hang orange tape in a tree for a wind indicator on trail cams, I however was too uncomfortable with how close it needed to be in order to be picked up in the image and thus took it down.


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As proof I used scent killer its literally in my hand. Someone had told me you could hang orange tape in a tree for a wind indicator on trail cams, I however was too uncomfortable with how close it needed to be in order to be picked up in the image and thus took it down.


View attachment 307939 View attachment 307938


View attachment 307941
Same thing for me. Does were caught following the scent of a mushroom forager as well as the corn feed I put down. They barely touched the corn feed and now I have to remove it. They were wary of it on several vids stooping low to sniff it with some backing off. Killed the apples though. You know what’s even stranger? I’ve checked that camera at least 5 times now walking around it, fidgeting with it, breaking dead hemlock branches, and sticks in and out. The does still bed down right underneath the stinking camera!
 
And if all goes well and you have a little luck your gutting out a doe and dragging her out of the woods. I hate this part!!!

:):):)

Lol

I had a doe dead to rights last year, first thing to my mind was "if you do this, you have to gut it, again".

I'd already gutted two that week I just didn't have another one in me.
 
Same thing for me. Does were caught following the scent of a mushroom forager as well as the corn feed I put down. They barely touched the corn feed and now I have to remove it. They were wary of it on several vids stooping low to sniff it with some backing off. Killed the apples though. You know what’s even stranger? I’ve checked that camera at least 5 times now walking around it, fidgeting with it, breaking dead hemlock branches, and sticks in and out. The does still bed down right underneath the stinking camera!

Just be aware of the baiting regulations in their entirety. Especially the 2nd paragraph:

Bait means any natural or artificial substance, including but not restricted to, shucked or unshucked corn, wheat or other grains, hay, silage, apples or other fruits or vegetables, and salt or other chemical compounds of a like nature which may be fed upon, ingested by or which otherwise constitute a nutritive attraction or enticement to deer.

Baited Area means any area where baiting has taken place and such area shall remain a baited area for the period from ten days prior to the opening of the exclusive archery season as provided in 321 CMR 3.02(4)(b)2. to 12:00 P.M. on the day following the close of the exclusive primitive firearms season as provided in 321 CMR 3.02(4)(b)4.

321 CMR 3.00: Hunting

And no pineapples.

Bob
 
And if all goes well and you have a little luck your gutting out a doe and dragging her out of the woods. I hate this part!!!

:):):)

Lol

I had a doe dead to rights last year, first thing to my mind was "if you do this, you have to gut it, again".

I'd already gutted two that week I just didn't have another one in me.

I am definitely bringing a deer sled along if I get one on several spots but if on one certain spot I am in for a world of hurt.
 
I am definitely bringing a deer sled along if I get one on several spots but if on one certain spot I am in for a world of hurt.

Go to the Dollar store and buy some chem lights. You can usually get them 2 for a $1.00. If you shoot a deer and have to go out to the truck to get your sled you can mark the spot with a chem light. It makes it much easier to find it in the dark when you go back to retrieve it.

Bob
 
Lol

I had a doe dead to rights last year, first thing to my mind was "if you do this, you have to gut it, again".

I'd already gutted two that week I just didn't have another one in me.

IDK what's I like less, the gut job, or the drag... My folding filet knife I use to cut out the anal cavity broke too. It won't lock open now. I couldn't locate my arrow either. There goes like 20 bucks. :( But I'll be having tenderloin for dinner tomorrow.
 
IDK what's I like less, the gut job, or the drag... My folding filet knife I use to cut out the anal cavity broke too. It won't lock open now. I couldn't locate my arrow either. There goes like 20 bucks. :( But I'll be having tenderloin for dinner tomorrow.


Maybe it's because I'm not yet over the hill, but drag is easy. Take a piece of rope, tie the front legs over the head, tie a second piece around the front somewhere and tie it to your tree safety harness loop and drag that thing like a cave man on his wedding night.

A1G2TS0JzPL._SY679_.jpg
 
I hear ya, but it ain't easy man. Especially when alone and through thick cover.
It’s enough to find your way through the thick stuff just by yourself let alone carrying a dead beast! I have a nightmare scenario whereby if I make a kill shot the deer scrambles down a deep cliff with no way out but back up.
 
It’s enough to find your way through the thick stuff just by yourself let alone carrying a dead beast! I have a nightmare scenario whereby if I make a kill shot the deer scrambles down a deep cliff with no way out but back up.

Been there done that. That’s why I built a collapsible, portable, tree mounted winch.

95300-E53-6-CE5-49-FB-92-A9-50-CA88-F7-A4-B3.jpg


I’m never reliving that nightmare again.


Bob
 
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