I'm primarily a Southern Zone NY, weekend bowhunter. A buddy and I have recently been granted permission to hunt on some private land in a very rural area in the northern tier of NY. We have always been envious of all of the tent/camping stories and images on this site and are looking for some of your expertise.
We're contemplating 2-3 day camping hunts on the property. We'll be camping throughout the season in either a pop up or tent. It's our understanding from the land owner that deer, bob cat, bear, coyotes, and a mountain lion frequent the property and surrounding area.
So with that said, here's my question, what type of precautions do we need to talk with food stuffs, deer carcass (we should be so lucky!) leftovers, coolers, waste, etc? I'm familiar with car / family camping but not in an area with this type of wildlife. We should have just about every piece of equipment we need sans a smaller heater.
Any and all advise to make this and adventure vs. a catastrophe would be greatly appreciated. We'd also love to see photos of some of your tent/pop up deer camps set ups.
Thx Guys
Sounds like a great place you guys found.
Bears and racoons will find and/or be attracted to any and all foodstuffs you guys bring along. They might not be a problem.....then again!
How far "back in" are you setting up your camp?
It depends. Coons are only a nuisance. Bears can be a bigger problem. The big thing is it usually takes wildlife time to discover the food. Typically in two or three days of camping at a stretch you will not encounter problems. But there is the off chance that a critter will stumble onto your camp and then the fun begins.
For bears it best to hang any food up 10-12 feet off the ground and obviously not near a tree a bear could climb. Coons are easily dealt with using bungee cords etc. Coyotes will not mess with you.
A lot of problems can be avoided by paying attention to how clean you are in camp and what you do with lefotover food, packages etc.... A clean camp attracts less attention.
How are you going to deal with human waste?
How are you going to dispose of dish water?
Pit latrine?
Think about it...
A couple of things spring to mind. If in bear country, a bear bag is in order. I always hang food or anything that can be construed as food in the bag. You need a rope with a pulley on the end and another rope to pull though the pulley. Toss the rope with the pulley over a branch that will allow you to hang the bag 4 ft from the tree and 12 ft off the ground. Tie it off the on the tree. Remember to throw the side without the pulley and then pull the pulley up with the second rope through it. Tie the bag to it and then pull it up. You can get it further from the tree by pulling it away from the tree. Tie it off on another tree. Any food at all should be hung this way and away from the tents.
I have never hunted this way but I have been in Quetico park in Canada. There are bear there and you must be careful.
BTW - tooth paste is a food group. Put that in the bag as well.
Martin
A couple of things spring to mind. If in bear country, a bear bag is in order. I always hang food or anything that can be construed as food in the bag. You need a rope with a pulley on the end and another rope to pull though the pulley. Toss the rope with the pulley over a branch that will allow you to hang the bag 4 ft from the tree and 12 ft off the ground. Tie it off the on the tree. Remember to throw the side without the pulley and then pull the pulley up with the second rope through it. Tie the bag to it and then pull it up. You can get it further from the tree by pulling it away from the tree. Tie it off on another tree. Any food at all should be hung this way and away from the tents.
I have never hunted this way but I have been in Quetico park in Canada. There are bear there and you must be careful.
BTW - tooth paste is a food group. Put that in the bag as well.
Martin
Hear in the Yukon, where we have a lot of bears, black and griz, we do as follow, alway have a cooking area that is deferent then the sleeping area, that is also diferent than where you keep your food.
Imagine a large triangle 300' per side, that each "corner", serve a different purpose, one for food, one for tenting and one for cooking. best to have the cooking and food ones down wind. When we talk food, we are talking of every thing that smell, ie tooth past, candys, deodorent etc...
I like to cary bear sprey( up here we are not alowed hand guns...) or a 12 gauge just for around camp.
Hanging the food stuff is great idea, but I never bother, and in 14 years up here never had a problem!!
Good luck!
QUESTION: What about a deer kill? What do you do with a deer that you have killed? Hang it on a tree? Will that attract bears? Or a Mt. lion?
We had to hang our food cache while backcountry elk hunting. Im not about to pack around a pulley, so we had a couple long lengths of para cord. Find a couple trees about 10' apart. Throw one end of a rope or cord up over a branch on one tree, then do the same with the other end to the other tree. pull tight and secure. Then throw the 2nd rope over the middle, to pll your food up, this way its away fromthe trees and a bears reach.
We left base camp for several days at a time, and nothing ever got to our cache. We hung it 100 ydsfrom camp. Dont cook in your sleeping tent. If you can, set up a 2nd tent away from wehre you sleep for cooking/eating in.
A hungry bear getting into your tent at night is no joke.
Autumn Hunter, You had some great photos of your tent camp on another post can you post again? Would also like to know about your foldible stove
Do you mean you are leaving your stuff there? If so, I wouldn't leave any food in your camp.
If you are just camping for 2-3 days then I personally would not worry much about it unless you see bears around and then I'd do a bear bag.
Butcher your deer far from camp.
Don't dump your leftovers near camp.
Take all your food with you, left overs what not, no coolers (bears get habituated to them), or trash bags of any kind. If you're tent camping take it down and repitch it when you return the next weekend or whatever. If its just a day thing, ie out hunting, put your food in a safe place, either in a tree, or coolers a ways from your tent.
Take everything home you dont want eatin basically..or just flat out destoryed if bears are a serious concern. And dont fool yourself just because there is no food around they wont destory it anyways. Anything, literally anything is fair game! They especially like things that contain petrol products, 4 wheeler seats and anything else that smells human.
I wouldnt get to worried about anything but those bears. Well and the lions but not because they like food, because they are the ultimate predator and you are now prey ;)
I'll close with this. I have a buddy who was written about by an Alaskan author in outdoor life mag years ago now. Myles and his buddy were out fishing rainbows in Gods country. The 'boys' were in the tent I believe it was morning time frame...myles was still out when his buddy woke Myles up. About the time Myles sat up in his sleeping bag, the bear unzipped the tent with a claw, reached in and took his dirty cloths bag that was just seconds before hand under his head. True story! These boys are alaskans and know their way around wilderness camping in bear country. Food and trash was in a tree, they didnt eat around the tent, nothing. The only thing they could attribute it too was their fish smelling dirty cloths. THey kept no fish but had fish slime from handling them. Its either that or that bear just might like the taste of dirty undies for bfast haha!
Have a good heater and some kind of awning to store stuff under and cook under. My big tent with a good heater is way more comfortable than my popup camper in cold weather.
PeteA - sounds like you can drive your car right up to where your going to camp. Just lock your coolers, food and trash in your trunk when camp is unattended. Try to cook/eat (under tarp) at least 100'+ from your sleeping tent. Do not wear clothes with cooking/game oder in sleeping tent. Create a game pole in a shaded area 100'away from sleeping area and elevate animal several feet above ground and away from climbable trees. Do not burn or bury trash, grease or dish water, dispose of at home.
Baby wipes, and lots of them. You will feel cleaner, much longer and surpress human oder longer w/o a shower, with baby wipes. Bury them in the ground when finished.