Marking your deer spot?

[FishingWebGuy]

Webguy...I should also mention. If your boy isn't worried about getting lost, take him on a 'coon hunt' after dark and start pretending you don't know the way back to the truck after you've made a a few twists and turns. Let him panic for an hour or so and then whip out the compass. My Uncle gave me 'the cure' when I was 14 and getting a little too big for my britches. You can bet I still have a compass in every hunting coat and vest I own.

That is a great idea! I always ask him when we are heading out, "got your whistle, got your compass?" To both he shakes his head smiling and says, "no". I remember being invincible at that age also.

His biggest problem is thinking that he can find the road and then he'll be alright. Finding the road is one thing. Knowing to walk left or right once you get there is another. Walk the wrong way for an hour and at what point do you decide to turn back or keep thinking "it's just ahead here..."

A compass isn't the best solution in that situation if you don't have a reference point and a map but I'd rather have it than nothing.

I have a

Garmin Forerunner GPS

Lowrance H20C

A GPS in my phone

and a little golfing GPS deal

That would be great to have 1 that I new would pick up satellites all the time.

[Big Buck Buster]

If you send your kids into the woods on their own unprepared to get back out without ribbons, it's you that's not very smart. What happens when the kid tracks a deer? What if he gets turned around in the dark on the way in? Modern GPS's work no matter the tree cover (mine works in my basement at home). A compass and a map defintely do tell you where you are, you just have to know how to use them. If you want to mark a trail on your way in, and pick it up on the way out I don't have a problem. By a 100 close pins, spray paint them blaze orange, and put them up and take them down as you go. Just don't think leaving your flagging up claims a spot on public ground for you, and don't litter the woods with plastic that won't break down in your lifetime.

I wouldn't send my kids out in the woods by them selves until they can show me that they know how to use a map,compass, and are old enough, and can show me that they are responsible enough to go by them selves. The trail markers are helpful, but not a guarantee. As far as tracking a deer, I will mark the trail while I track a deer. This way, if I don't find it right away, I can come back to that same spot, and start the tracking again. I do take the markers back down after finding the deer, and coming out of the woods after the hunt is done. I was not implying that marking a trail was making that spot "mine". I hunt on state land, and see people come through the woods all the time, and don't mind it one bit. I just sit back and watch them go by. Many times, I have gotten my deer shortly after they go through. The deer follows them, and they don't even know it. That is FUN!

[GottaGo]

I dont mind if people mark a trail with ribbon, but it definitely wouldn't slow me down from going into an area. I've been bow and grouse hunting enough times when I am positive nobody else is in the woods and see ribbons hanging all over the place. If I assumed everyone of those led to a person's "private" hunting area and just turned around right away, my hunts would probably always last less than 15 mins and usually end in a dissapointment.

[MUSKY18]

Everyone in my hunting party uses ribbons to mark their trails into their stand sites. Lot of us have walks 1/2 mile to mile back into the stands, and going through the thick brush it makes it easier to get to them and back out in the dark. Are we "claiming" these sites, not by any means. It is public land and as such, belongs to the public. As much as people on here complain about people from the Cities coming up to hunt, what irks me is the locals who think that because they live in the area, they have more right to hunt the area than the folks from the Cities. We were out scouting one day and ran into a few locals who were out building permanent stands on public lands. They politely informed us that they lived in the area and we shouldn't be out here hunting snce they had a large party of hunters. I wanted to cut their stand down and use it for firewood.

The land is fo EVERYONE to use, and that is how it should be. I wouldn't ever pull down someones makring tape, since they have it there for a reason. If you want to follow it and use their stand, that is your right and they can't complain about it.

[Big Buck Buster]

Musky18,

If I were in that same situation, I would have called the local forestry service. They would have come out and taken care of that stand without blinking an eye.

I was stopped by one of the local DNR officers last year while hunting along the north shore of Winnie. I asked him what my relatives were to do with the stands already made from many years prior to this new law coming into affect. He stated that even if they were in the woods prior to the new law, they could not hunt out of them, and can not fix them at all. I asked who was checking out these stands, and if anyone was using them. He stated that the forestry service is the department that will be handing out the fines, and not the DNR. The DNR can notify them of the violation, and the forestry service would give them a fine. Since then, my hunting party uses climbers, and ladder stands. No sense in getting a fine over something like that. We leave the old stands in place, and use them for markers of the spots we have taken some nice deer from. The stands that didn't produce anything, we ripped down. Nice to have some "remember whens" in the woods from the good old days. I am sure that when they come in again to log, they will be all gone.

[JeffB]

I have one spot on public land that I must admit I am protective of. Its an old growth of cedars along a swamp that I shot my firt deer at 26 yrs ago and have hunted there ever since. I'm not a local, but its where my dad first took me as a kid. A few years ago I shot a decent buck in the spot and a fellow came walking in as was gutting the deer. The next year opening day as the sun came up I realized I had company. Instead of getting mad I chuckled and thought I wonder how long it will take me to get rid of this guy. I climbed down from the stand and went over to chat with him. The first thing he said was I got here first and smiled. I asked really how many years have you been hunting here and smiled. His reply was no I got here ten minutes before you. I just replied no problem this is state land anyone can hunt here after which he smiled. As I walked off I wished him good luck, took a leak, went back to my stand and spent some time cutting shooting lanes by my stand. I finished by taking a [PoorWordUsage] and generally spreading as much human scent in the area as I could. The next day I hunted another spot till I got cold then walked back to my old spot to have a coke ask the guy if he if he had any luck and chit chat about the vikes and the weather. We were both friendly as can be each day, when I stopped by for the last time to say see you next year he chuckled and said if you want to see me next year you'll have to stop by the green hunting shack down the road for a beer. I did.