Well, here in Tennessee this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday we have a so-called "velvet buck archery hunt" as proposed and voted on by our brilliant and outstanding TWRC Fish and Wildlife commission. Maybe I will go just to try out my platform stand (minus the box) that I built back in early spring. Hell, I will not even need camouflage. The swarm of mosquitoes will provide that. Just do not like hot weather hunting.
Box Stands for Deer Hunting
- Thread starter NCVarhtr
- Start date
Same here, too much work trying to save the meat.
There’s only one solution, go elk hunting instead! Lol
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timeout
Silver $$ Contributor
I used to be in the hang 3 days camp. I have found a great help is to cut up the meat and soak in cold water, then thoroughly rinse to get all the blood out. Up until last year I had a walk in cooler. I wasn't using it enough and I needed the room so I sold it. If I shoot a buck early in the season I donate it to the food pantry through the local locker plant. Plenty of time to fill the freezer later. As for mosquitoes, I have great results with a Thermacell unit. I have done reconnaissance with mosquitoes so thick they could carry you away. I get up in a stand and turn on the Thermacell. Takes about 10 minutes and all is well.
Whenever I kill a deer or hog, I place the quartered pieces in a small cooler which stays full of ice for 5-7 days no matter what time of year it's killed. The time and coolness, plus water draining over the meat helps tenderize it. Meat has to be tenderized before processing to make it tender.
I love all your ideas on treestands, too bad I can only hunt out of portable treestands. If I had the land, then i'd build off of some of your ideas.
Good stuff Guys.
I love all your ideas on treestands, too bad I can only hunt out of portable treestands. If I had the land, then i'd build off of some of your ideas.
Good stuff Guys.
Taking a working deep freeze with 8 blocks of ice in the bottom. It takes 48 hrs to make each bucket full. One more and I’m done. I haven’t been to the mountains for a very long time due to a injury, so I’m very excited about this trip!Attachments
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Its been my experience that it tends to split the plastic bucket whenever I froze water like that. I'm guessing that that is a 5 gallon sized bucket.
I'm also guessing that you will be rifle hunting rather than bowhunting for elk. Good luck to you. You seem well prepared. Please keep the pictures coming!
AckleymanII
Gold $$ Contributor
I like soaking Arkansas Blue catfish fillets for a few days also!
I once visited Candem .Arkansas thought I might put a hurting on a diner serving all you could eat catfish , after several baskets of tasty fish and fritters I gave up ,makes me hungry thinking about it
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A new bucket that hasn’t been in the sun helps, but don’t remove it for 2 days until the center freezes or it cracks open and spills water in the freezer. I’m going early bow season so may need some ice. Told the boys I’m not passing on any opportunities this trip.
I think I see a nerf dart in his mouth. Lol
Just found out that my daughter landed that in his mouth only 3 days ago after 15 years of trying to get one in there. She’s so proud of herself! Lol I guess I will leave it for awhile so she can brag.
My clover and turnips got a 2” rain yesterday morning so I can put the water pump away for awhile.
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Got framing done on two more huts. Couple rips a ply, some corrugated for the roof, and a splatter camopaint job, and we'll be ready to roll...
Without the ply, it looks like you are ready for shark week.
nice job
Looks like about a 4x4. Great size for one person with gear
Got framing done on two more huts. Couple rips a ply, some corrugated for the roof, and a splatter camopaint job, and we'll be ready to roll...
At 6x6 I figured I'd have to roll from window to window to shoot if those opportunities presented themselves. I put a 12" shooting shelf under each 64" window. It makes a huge difference. Turning the office chair and sliding open a window. I have home made sand bags made from two jeans pant legs sewed together and around 60" long. Each shooting shelf has one on it. Pretty decent rest.
Nice!
We use flip open plexiglass windows, and open them immediately after climbing in. Unless it's really blowing snow from one side, then I'll keep that one closed! In the 4x4', you hardly hafta move the chair, at all. Just swivel to the window, poke the barrel out & shoot...
We build one little corner shelf inside, and each hut has a sandbag for the window sill & a pair a ear muffs. Not that we use 'em all the time, but at least they're there if ya have time (or, remember) to utilize em!
We use flip open plexiglass windows, and open them immediately after climbing in. Unless it's really blowing snow from one side, then I'll keep that one closed! In the 4x4', you hardly hafta move the chair, at all. Just swivel to the window, poke the barrel out & shoot...
We build one little corner shelf inside, and each hut has a sandbag for the window sill & a pair a ear muffs. Not that we use 'em all the time, but at least they're there if ya have time (or, remember) to utilize em!
Even in rifle season where I do most of my deer hunting in east NC it is always hot in Oct. and to mid Nov during the day. I have learned to get the deer out of the hide and de-bone all the meat and put it in a 48 qrt. cooler and cover it with cool water and add a couple cups of white vinegar and place cooler in the shade or usually in the back of my truck which has a topper on it and open the windows. The vinegar helps draw the blood out of the meat and helps tenderize it as well as keeps spoilage at bay. I usually do most of my hunting in the late evening and put the cooler in the truck over night with the lid open because it cools down quite a bit at night. In the morning I drain the cooler cut the meat into the pieces I want and wash well with cold water and put in zip lock bags. I put all the bagged meat into a big trash bag and place it into my buddies freezer. In 24 hrs it is frozen solid. When I get ready to go home, 300 miles away, all I do is put the bags into coolers just before leaving and when I get home it is still frozen solid. I can get two deer in a 48 qrt. cooler. I just hope I get to hunt this year. Florence's rain may have flooded where I hunt in Halifax Co. NC. It does not take a whole lot of rain to turn this land into a lake. I will be getting in touch with my hunting buddy that lives in the area next week to see if he has gone down to the farm to see what it looks like.
Was a toss up for me using these sliders. Hope I don't regret it. Can always pull the slide frames and install hinged if needed. Very quiet to slide but as you know, there's no quieter more silent time than when a deer is at 50 yards and your trying to slide open a window. I'll also leave one or two half opened unless like you say it's blowing rain or snow. Then sound won't be an issue. Time is gassing fast. Won't be long before it's that time. For me that time is Thanksgiving weekend thru December. All my earlier hunting is in the Upper Peninsula or from and treestand here with archery gear. Either way, it's coming fast
Has any of these elevated box stands ever been built on a WMA (or any other public hunting area)? Or it could be just a platform with a pop-up on top. The WMA that I sometimes hunt specifies that all stands are to be taken off at the end of the hunting season. In that case it would need to be built of extremely light material for that reason. Maybe PVC pipes for legs and some light weight material for floor. Just wondering. You know as the saying goes "If there is a will, there is a way".
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All the National Forest and WMA's I know of has a you bring it in and must take it out when you leave that day policy. Also no nail's etc. used in trees. I have some land leased that buts up against WMA land. There is a old logging road that runs through this property and I carry a ladder stand about 5 yards off my leased land onto WMA land and I must remove it when I leave. I take it just across the WMA property line onto my land and lay it down. Where I hunt on this land to get to the road you have to cross my lease land which is posted NO TRESSPASSING. I left the stand up the first year I hunted the land but a WMA person came by from the other end and saw it and talked to the land owner of the land I lease and told him if the stand was mine he would cut me some slack this time but it MUST BE REMOVED when I leave every day. Kind of picky over 5 yards distance but it is the law.
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