What Did You Do Today?

[Eric Krewson]

Ater a month and a half with no rain, we got 2" last night, perfect for burning my brush pile.

I started with this and added the top out of a medium sized elm tree that was mostly dead.



Everything was soaking wet, I used diesel fuel and a leaf blower to get things going.



I decided not to try to burn the green trunk of the elm, I cut it up into manageable pieces that I can load on my tractor and dump in what I call the "Grand Canyon" on one side of my place.

[Eric Krewson]

After three years out of the game with health stuff, I decided to try to bow hunt again. I have a big Millenium ladder stand up in my woods that is permanently in place but needed a stand on the travel path to the other side of my food plot.

I like lock-ons and collected a pile of them over the years, I sold 6 a couple of years ago and still have 5 big, sturdy ones in my basement. I went through them and selected a climbing pole with an extra section to give me 20'.



For a 75-year-old guy this was quite an ordeal getting the stand up, I was up and down to the stand at least ten times, adding more straps, making adjustments and looking for limbs and saplings in front of the stand that I needed to trim to open shooting lanes, I was strapped in two ways during this project, I had a fall restraint rope and a lineman's belt.

I finally got it up;



I put double straps on the climbing pole and the stand itself.



My fall restraint, rope I special order these, they are much heavier than the standard ones you can buy in the store.



Ready to sit, I add a shooting rail to my lock-ons for more comfort and to provide a little extra security while I am in the stand. I have also replaced all of the cables on my loc-ons with chains.



Here is a shot from the food plot, the metal fence posts seen in the back of this picture are 20 yards away from the stand, I am not hunting the plot, only the trails going to it. There are deer on the plot every morning and afternoon, I can see them out of my bedroom window. My new stand is about 35 yards from the deer in the picture.





 

[Pat B]

I hunted tree stands for years from 2x12 wedged in the crotch of a tree to climbers and lock on but a few years ago I was helping a friend put up a lock on and got so shaky I climbed down and haven't been back up. Ladder stands don't seem to bother me.
 That's a nice set up you have there. Good luck with the hunt this year.

[Eric Krewson]

I have a lot of limbs hanging down on my place that block the view of the deer movement, on the field edge the bigger the trees get the lower the limbs hang to the point they slap me in the face when I mow.

I did my trimming with a manual pole saw for 30 years, then I bought a Harbor Freight battery operated pole saw. It was actually very good but quit after a year and a half, Harbor Freight said they couldn't fix it. I bought a Lowe's battery powered pole saw off one of the return pallet sellers, it lasted about an hour. I took a chance on it and lost.

I finally did the right thing and bought a Stihl, I didn't need the commercial version so I got the shorter, lighter version.

I got to play with it today, it would trim limbs as fast as I could walk to them, I should have bought it years ago. I have the woods behind my house looking like a park now.

[PaulN/KS]

Looks good there Eric. Be careful...

[Eric Krewson]

I used all the cut limbs from my woods cleanup to build a ground blind overlooking my plot and the deer trails. The blind is about 50 yards from the plot

I started with a framework; I like to use the existing trees as support, the right tree spacing gives me an entrance.



All brushed in, this will be a flintlock blind with shoot through holes. I sat in the chair and held my flintlock to make sure I had the support poles at the right height to use them as a gun rest. I can't shoot to the right or behind the blind because of the houses 200 to 300 yards away, there is only woods to the front of the blind.



A comfortable chair is a must.



I keep adding brush to the blind, this is what it looks like now.








 

[bjrogg]

Looks like a comfy hunting spot Eric.

Bjrogg

[YosemiteBen]

I love the skills here! California is just too dangerous to hunt in.... more likely to get shot than shoot something. It is also expensive comparitively.  Over taxed and over regulated! Thank you all for your stories. Today I lamented the possible demise of PA....

[osage outlaw]

I helped my stepson get a nice doe today.  It's the last weekend of our gun season.  He put a great shot on it and he watched it go down close to our trail.  Next year maybe his little sister will get one. 

[chamookman]

Way Cool Clint  ! Bob

[bjrogg]

Fantastic Clint.

I’m sure you both will remember that for a long time. And hopefully they get into helping with the processing too. Always good to have a little help in that department

Bjrogg

[osage outlaw]

Fantastic Clint.

I’m sure you both will remember that for a long time. And hopefully they get into helping with the processing too. Always good to have a little help in that department

Bjrogg

He did most of the processing on both of his deer.  I showed him how to do a couple things but he did 90% of the work. 

[Allyn T]

I love processing deer, glad he is doing it. I bet it was super fun bringing in a new hunter

[Eric Krewson]

I hunted for three hours out of this stand a few weeks ago, I found the seat is not made for an old man's bony butt, very uncomfortable.



I decided to get off my wallet and buy a loc-on with comfortable seat so I bought a Millenium monster stand.



I swapped them out yesterday, quite a task for a 75 year old guy, both the old and the new stand are heavy, awkward and a chore to take down and install while hanging suspended on a climbing pole in a combination lineman's belt and tethered safety harness, it took me an hour and half to make the swap. It was a Tylenol night last night because so many of my body parts were aching.

Just a heads up; I have found that adding an extra section of climbing pole up past the stand is an invaluable hand hold and aid for transferring oneself from the pole to the stand. When I was young and flexible with the agility of a monkey, transferring from the pole to the stand wasn't a problem for me like it is now. You can't see it well in the dark picture but there is a lifeline running up the climbing pole and several feet up past the top of the stand that I hook into when I leave the ground.



My shooting rail frame is about 1/2" too thick at the prongs to go behind the stands seat support post, I am going to alter it to fit today.

The deer have stopped coming to my food plot, this is a good thing because it has been growing again after being mowed to the ground by the deer, later in the year when the weather gets really cold and other food sources dry up the deer will come back to it. This plot is in the woods, I had just blown the leaves off of it before I took this picture. The leaves would be as thick as the ones in the foreground if I didn't blow them off weekly.

[bjrogg]

Looks like a really nice stand Eric. I know I can’t sit like I use to either. Even in a comfortable seat I still end up switching between sitting and standing a lot just to keep everything working.

You will be rewarded by your efforts yesterday in your future hunts.

Bjrogg