due to both family (mother, wife AND dogs) i need to be home in the mornings and can not hit the mountain untill around 8am. i like to be in my stands around 5:30 am in the dark but can not do this for now. my question is how do i go about slipping in to my stands and is it worth trying to hunt these stands as they require lots of walking and they are in a bedding area. by the time i get there and set up it would be around 9am. was thinking about just setting up lower and hope for the best, any ideas?

if they are in the bedding are and that is You stand area, set-up just off it.. Remember They need food and water thu out the day..

try and keep the wind in your face, go slow if You must hunt that area You already have picked out... Stay in the shadows...

Id onever venture further than the tree line behind that Apple tree at your trailhead. Definitely a productive stand all day long. Seemed there were a lot of beech a hundred yards uphill from it as well. Good luck with your kin, I wish you all the best of health. As for your dog issues ,next dogpop get yourself a pitbull. Rarely have health issues, come cheap, purely affectionate and loyal. They will also get rid of the evidence for you when SIS's cat get hurt. Good luck this year pal, I really hope this is your year.

the problem is the premiere bedding area is on the very top of the mountain and unless ya get there in the dark there is no setting up at the edge or around it as you have to be on the top, kind of like a shelf.  just off the bedding would be in STEEP ledges, might have to pick the best trail and give it a shot.

thanks Izzy. the place i think i will be setting up is where you like to sit as that is as close to the bedding as i think i can sneak and there is food there as well. just up over that shelf is the bedding. as for dogs, there are dogs and then there are Newf's!!!! short life and brake your heart but will change you as a person.

As Sal mentioned, stay out of the bedding area, but you can set up near it. Stalk your way into a spot once you start getting close because that time of day you will be running into deer still moving in the area. The closer to rut you get, the less time of day matters. You might find it exciting being forced to hunt a little differently. Heck, a little ground spot near by might prove to be more fun then you expect.

don't get me wrong i am VERY excited to just be on vacation and have the oportunity to hunt. if it was the rut i would have no problems as there are areas i would set up that i could get in to at that time of the morning. right now the top and the bedding are the best spots to hunt. you guys pretty much reinforced my idea of getting as close to bedding as possible. yes i am EXCITED to try a different apporach but i am a dyed in the wool believer of being set up WAAAAAY before first light.

SLOW DOWN,Brother!!!!!!!!!!    

Last Sunday, When Chris and I were picking our way up the mountain... Chris commented that he was suprized how quietly we were moving. Then he said... "I think Kenny takes this mountain too fast"

I tried to explain to him that it was the way you were taught to hunt... It was good old Adirondack "Mountain Hunting" LOL However... With the exception of when you were 16...    :rolleyes:   Did you ever notice that the "Old Timers" shot most of the big bucks??? Now don't get me wrong Brother... I've hunted the same way for many years!!! When you've got a big mountain to hunt,ya have to hunt the whole mountain!!!!!

When we hunted my uncle's mountain over in the Catskills,it took me 2 hours to get to my stand on the top/back side of the mountain. We never left my uncles house before daylight,and it was just a slow,steady still-hunt up the mountain. Many times I never made it all the way up... I shot a deer and had to drag him back down the mountain to my uncles house!!!!!

SLOW DOWN My Brother!!! Hunt your way up... Hunt your way down...    

Good Luck My Brother, Keep me posted...

when i am still hunting (not often at all) i hunt very, very slow. when i want to get to my stands before light i make a bee line rather quickly. %95 of my hunting is stand hunting and i want to be there well before light. when hunting with a group or leading people to stands i move very quickly. don't ya woory brother when ya come up you can hunt up the whole mountain and i'll be on top waiting for ya!!!

You may also look into the "moon times" or solunar table idea.

I know some people believe in them religiously.  I look at them when I think of it, but have not seen as much evidence personally.  BUT...

The best use they have for me is to keep ME in the woods... and that's where the hunting happens!

If I see a major game movement time is predicted for 9:45 AM (or 8:30-10:30, whatever) I tend to stay on stay on stand and on alert through that time period if life allows me to be there.

I know, too, that there are folks here who believe their very best hunting times are mid-day (maybe between 10:30 and 1:00), especially during the rut.

My #1 hunting thought is that you can't shoot anything inside, so I get out there whenever I can.

You may lose your favorite 5:30 AM routine this year, but you may learn some things that will be of great benefit EVERY year!

QuoteOriginally posted by adkmountainken:
thanks Izzy. the place i think i will be setting up is where you like to sit as that is as close to the bedding as i think i can sneak and there is food there as well. just up over that shelf is the bedding. as for dogs, there are dogs and then there are Newf's!!!! short life and brake your heart but will change you as a person.

IZZY'S PLAYGROUND  

You take the high road, and I'll take the slow road.....

See ya on top!!!!!  

Water

pick a stream, many right now, lots to drink but good thought!

Ken ,just go.......if you spook "one" of the "two" deer that are there...so what. They will filter back into the area if there is something for them to eat! I have seen more deer between 9 and noon than any other time. If that's when you can hunt....so be it!

One Kenny to another Kenny, I started to stalk and hunt from the ground only three years ago, although I haven't shot anything yet doesn't mean it wasn't fruitful, I have gotten to within a couple of yards from them and they didn't even know I was there, one almost trampled me. I am not a meat hunter or I would have had my first from the ground already.

Walk like a deer, sound like a deer, and make sure you have the wind and it's brezzy, go when the wind blows stop when it stops, move slow and glass a lot, you'll see them before they see you if your patient, oh, and I wear 3-d leafy mesh over my wool.

Ken

The older I get the more I like hunting in the thick stuff.  Maybe a good spot off the bedding area would be a thick spot wtih good mast.  Security + Food = deer?

I kill most of my deer from 9-11 in the mornings.RC