rutjr
Well-Known Member
I never cut a path to my set, never cut shooting lanes but sometimes there's a branch in the way that I'll trim when I'm climbing.
I haven't carried a saw or pruners...ever... on public land. Y'all make me feel like I'm missing out on the secret to life or something. Do folks hunting public land really clip their path to their set? Trim a pile of branches in a tree? Or is this conversation geared more towards private land folks?
There are all different densities of MFR. Some areas you would literally need a brush hog. Other areas it may just be a few prunes that need done.Saw is more versatile.
It is techinally illegal to trim anything on public I hunt but I may or may not prune a branch once in awhile just to get set up in a tree. I never trim shooting lanes on the ground.
I can't imagine pruning multiflora rose or anything on my way in. Absurd. It would take 3 hours to get where I am going. Just wear brush pants and be smart about where I walk.
There are all different densities of MFR. Some areas you would literally need a brush hog. Other areas it may just be a few prunes that need done.
Just wear brush pants and plow thru? Risking the noise factor of briars on clothes? Now THAT'S absurd.
Be "smart about where you walk"? Not very practical. Zig zagging here and there, or taking routes that risk being busted just because you won't carry pruners? That's absurd.
Brushing against stuff and leaving behind residual human odor because you can't cut something because you won't carry prunners? Not smart hunting.
Side story...
There is an area in Ohio that I hunt that is loaded with MFR...in some spots, its 10 foot high. It can be negotiated, but is is often like a maze. Sometimes I may be only 10 yards from the wide open field, but there is a wall of separation of rose that no way could it be penetrated without pruners...not that I PLAN to get out to the field in those spots, but I've often realized a scenario... its late in the day and getting dark...do I cut my way thru 10 yards of dense MFR and be out in the open, or do I try to retrace my path through a 200 yard maze of MFR?? Without pruners, I could spend a long night trying to find my way out. If I were to get wet and temps dropped, it could actually become a dangerous hypotheria situation.
Not carry pruners?? Absurd notion.
In my case, strictly private land.I haven't carried a saw or pruners...ever... on public land. Y'all make me feel like I'm missing out on the secret to life or something. Do folks hunting public land really clip their path to their set? Trim a pile of branches in a tree? Or is this conversation geared more towards private land folks?
I can't comment on Southern hunting...never done it.I'm with yinzer on this one. I've carried pruners in years past, and use them for presets and prep work.
I've hunted in cattails, phragmites, green briar, blackberries, palmettos, yaupon, blow-downs, etc. Trailed pigs through stuff so thick it gave me anxiety crawling through it. Switched to a saddle mainly because my climber got caught on brush.
I'm definitely absurd, but I am comfortable with how I hunt. I'll keep squirming my way through the swamp for now.
But if @Allegheny Tom wants to ride on down and prune some stuff for me, I'll be sure to cook him a big ole southern breakfast so he can keep his strength up. Maybe he'll also show me how he keeps the ticks off of his property.
I understand. That's not an option for me. I only have small properties to hunt and I have to keep all disturbances to a minimum. I guess I don't HAVE to minimize disturbance but doing so sure preserves the quality of my properties.@Allegheny Tom, same here. Never hunted your neck of the woods. All I can go by is personal experience. That's what's cool about the site, lots of different viewpoints to help expand the old thought-thinker.
A "small" parcel of land for me is 100 acres. The WMA out my back door is 90,000. It touches 4 different counties, and runs 30+ miles one way as the crow flies. I am admittedly "fast and loose" with my hunting. I do zig-zag and ramble a lot. Maybe it costs me some deer. But I've always got fresh areas I can go screw up.
It just doesn't make sense for me to carry clippers when theres about an 80% chance I wont be returning to the area again that season. Hunt it fresh, make the most of it, and leave is my SOP.
Scentlok gloves of course. But don't forget you got to wear scent proof gloves to take those out of the dryer that only washes scent free clothing. But what I've never figured out is how to completely never touch something with my hands, and eventually touch something else with that item, that's going to touch what is supposed to be sent free. It is a rabbit hole of which would blow Lewis Carroll's mind. Hell I just confused myself thinking about it.How are you able to not leave scent when you cut the stuff, then move it with your hands?
I'll snip a wayward twig here and there. Maybe an impeding branch while climbing and setting up.I haven't carried a saw or pruners...ever... on public land. Y'all make me feel like I'm missing out on the secret to life or something. Do folks hunting public land really clip their path to their set? Trim a pile of branches in a tree? Or is this conversation geared more towards private land folks?
I don't think folks are cutting in roads, or trimming out piles of branches. I'm pretty sure it's way more conservative than that.I haven't carried a saw or pruners...ever... on public land. Y'all make me feel like I'm missing out on the secret to life or something. Do folks hunting public land really clip their path to their set? Trim a pile of branches in a tree? Or is this conversation geared more towards private land folks?
I'd leave my bow home before I'd leave my grunt tube , or my lunch.lol.But if, for some unlikely reason I could only carry only one, it would be pruners. But it shouldnt be an "either-or" situation.
If its a matter of space in the pack, I would leave something else behind. Grunt tube, rattle bag or piece of lunch.
I feel naked when I'm in the woods without 2 things...binoculars and pruners.
Try to trim off the last foot or so of a quarter inch branch with a saw. Can't do it. Yeah, you can remove the entire branch and cut it flush with the tree trunk, or even back where the branch is large enough to give enough resistance to be cut with a saw, but you just can't do low impact, surgical pruning with a saw.Saw because it will cut big and little stuff. Pruners only cut what they can get around
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