Late July at Long Ridge

It is the last day of July as I write, and feel the pressure begin to build relative to things undone for upcoming camps... I threw in a camp moon picture from last year, a view of my Lab Sidney from the Tall Stand, and the wood stacked for deer camp (last year's). Now you know how much there is to get done!
Bow season begins in exactly six weeks, and I have not yet pulled back my string. Last week I picked up my bow from the archery shop. He did a complete teardown, replacing cam pins and such, new peep tube, and bumped pull weight from 58 to 60 lbs. (this is what happens when you have factory strings, they DO stretch. Always replace them after two years with good aftermarket stuff) With that done I will begin dry pulling this week, and shooting next week. My method is to start out with three arrows at each range (10, 20, 30, and 40 yards. Begin with light practice for a week or two, build to a creschendo of shooting for two weeks after that, then shoot lightly perhaps five to ten shots a day, estimating ranges for the last week or so before season starts. The day before season, I take my sharpened Montec G5's off my six hunting shafts, and replace them with the dulled Montec practice heads. I shoot my hunting shafts just to make sure they are true and in good shape. Once that is done I screw back on the sharp Montecs and am ready to go. I carry a bow attached quiver with six arrows in it, so I practice with it loaded this way.

Because of the incessant rain for the last three months we are behind on our food plots. They are ready to lime, fertilize and plant, but I just can't get on them without making mud. Instead I have concentrated on clearing trees and unwanted branches from our various stands, so that there are good shooting lanes where we want them. I did dismantle a permanent ten year old stand called the Wide Stand. No deer has ever been taken from it, and it goes mostly unused. I dragged the ladder a half mile west and raised the twenty footer up at the new food plot in the Western area. Instead of mounting the permanent stand I put up a hanger there, because we may want to move it slightly, to find the best spot. But I can tell you, it will be a producer...

Other summer camp news is that my wife and I bought two new ATV's. Ours were 22 years old. They still run like a top, but I did need a bigger one for the work I require it to do. We bought Honda Rubicons, 500's. As usual I researched for two years before settling on the Hondas. Even without the research I'd have chosen them. Our old ones are Honda Fourtrax Foremans, one a 350 and the other a 300 with countless hours and miles on them. The 350 is mine and I once pulled a 685 lb. moose over a mile through woods with it. I had it in low gear, full throttle, all four wheels spinning the entire distance. I had two hunters on the front rack, one on the rear, and myself. Thats 600 lbs. plus the moose. Those machines in twenty years took a starter each, a couple of new plugs somewhere along the way, and a couple of batteries. If you knew the work we have made them do, from harrowing to hauling logs, you simply would not believe how they to this day start instantly and run flawlessly. I'm gonna miss them when they sell. Honda makes the only gear driven (as opposed to belts) driven ATV I know of. The two new Hondas will likely be the last ATV's we'll ever need to buy.

The last week of August I will unseal all my hunting clothes that are Scent-Loc and silver, and re-activate them in the dryer. I'll spray down my release, bow and boots and anything I wear for a hat with Scent Killer. It really does make a difference. Tell me what you all are doing these days to get ready! Jack

Late June

Ok, here it is, late June, and so much to do to get deer camp ready! First, we have to continually monitor the game cam to see what's out there. This determines whether we shoot any bucks, or just mature bucks the coming season. Does are fair game, anytime they are legal.
I must admit we are far behind this year due to family (what is more important?) considerations. I should have pulled all the straps from the tree stands, and released or replaced them but I won't do that til this coming weekend. May is the best month because the trees have just started to grow.
Next, we need to keep mowing the food plots so that the weeds do not overtake them. Even the 1-2 acre clover plots need to be sprayed and mowed against weeds and grass if they are to last. This spring has been so wet and miserable that spraying has been out of the question!. So now, a lot of catch-up!
In addition I have added another food plot that must be limed and fertilized before I seed it. Seeding for fall in this Northern clime should happen around August 1st if you want deer coming to them by mid September. Lots of work ahead.
As I work on each plot I will return with a load of wood which I'll drop at deer camp to be stacked as time permits. I like to have about two cords ready for camp, as hunters love a huge and roaring fire day and night.
Next job in June is to get my bow in for a check-up. It doesn't need much, but the peep tube broke and should be replaced. I'll have the tech guy check the string and other vitals, and then start practicing late in the month. That means buying a dozen or two mulch hay bales for a backdrop for my life sized deer target that I practice on with G5 broadhead practice blades which shoot to the same point of impact as the sharpened hunting points. That is why I use the G5s. They allow practice with the same head, and they drop deer faster than any broadhead I have ever used (or seen used). Also this is a good time to start reminding hunting buddies that a group practice session is in the works. That tends to get us all out and practicing so that we are fully prepared for fall.
Next post will be on the interior of deer camp, improvements in the making, and making ready for the cold weather, the heavy boots and the demanding hunters arriving!

We start the month of May at Long Ridge Camp

Last blog had us complaining about the fickleness of April - a blizzard one day, fifty degrees the next. Well we just hit May and we are off and running. There is virtually no snow in the woods right now, and the fields are greening up nicely. The Whitetail clover plot in the far field already has mustard weed a foot tall, so I mowed it down Saturday, and will spray it with Slay and Arrest on the next windless day (that I have off from work). Can't believe how all the fields greened up so soon this year! Nancy and I watched a pair of foxes hunting mice in the rear fields today. I think it's neat - she worries about her chickens.

In any case May is the month to start clearing (or refurbishing existing) food plots. I have already ATVed up to the Far Ridge plot to clear all the trees I cut after last Decembers destructive ice storms. The Secret Spot I planted is all dead, and by July I will spray the weeds, ferns and vines that will cover the ground. Two weeks later, I'll harrow it, fertilize and spread some lime, turn it over again, and seed by August 1st. Ditto on the East side plot, from which one of our hunters has been hanging out with a couple of youngsters after their first turkey. Last weekend the eleven year old got his first, a double bearded fellow, not huge but respectable. In in that youngsters eyes, the stars shone!. He's a lifer. Today they didn't luck out though they heard the gobblers everywhere. It's the nine year old's turn, and by next weekend he'll probably score. In any case they spotted a bear, and this kid will never let a year pass again without procuring his license! The future of the sport.

Meanwhile on the Western side I have been working on a new plot, and this looks to be the best one yet. This area was logged two years ago, with specific instructions to take the Pine and Hemlock, but leave the Oaks. There are both White and Red Oaks here, big massive trees thirty inches through at breast height. Good mast producers they are and this has always been a good deer spot. I cleared the skidder road into it and once there I have begun to pile and bank the two feet deep tangle of hemlock and pine waste. This will take me two or three more weekends, and then I'll rake it by hand, and begin liming. It will take at least a month or so for the lime to have any effect, because I cannot get a tractor in there to turn the soil. Around August 1st I'll plant No-Plow, and hope for the best! By next year at this time, this will be a first class plot. Not big, but I know the deer will love it.

May also is the month to get out and loosen any permanent stands either bolted or strapped to trees. The trees will grow fast between now and fall, and need to be freed up. In mid August we'll go back out and retighten straps and fasteners. That's pretty much it for the month of May for deer camp stuff. The folks are too busy hunting the big birds to get any more tied up with real 'work'! My game camera is out by the Far Stand, where there is a crossroad of trails. The pictures aove are from last week.

April at Long Ridge Deer Camp

April is my least favorite month, always has been. March, hey, that month is honest. 40 degrees one day, 5 below the next. Roaring streams and melting snowpack this week, a 20 inch blizzard and freezing temperatures the next. You expect it. But April, you know, 'April showers bring Mayflowers' is supposed to be a bit genteel. Sun, and spring, and Easter, and all the joys those things bring ought to make April a great month. But April lies. Sixty degrees today, and tomorrow and the next, and then POW! Six inches of snow. Ice. Two feet of mud on our dirt road. This afternoon I took Sid, our Lab for a good walk across fields and woods. At the top of the fields is a sliver of snow left - we've had rain and warmth. But this evening - freezing,28 degrees, our walk was windy and cold out of the Northwest. The brooks and rivers are at crest from the melting snowpack, and snowdrops have bloomed. And now snow expected tonight. Once snowmobile season is over, I am done with snow. May is welcome to come.
On the other hand, the deer are back in the fields, and have browsed the maples I dropped during the winter months. Their tracks are in the mud, and yesterday morning on my way to work I stopped to let a herd of eight or so cross our road..they looked reasonably healthy after this harsh winter. If most of them twin out, we'll have a banner season once again.
Getting ready for May chores...I have sent away for some Slay and Arrest to kill the grass and broadleaf in my plots and will spray at the earliest good conditions. We'll have some good frosts still to come so I'll frost seed with clover where needed, and spread a little 0-20-20. The deep woods plots I will not touch until mid/late summer when I will spray them, turn them a bit and re-seed with Secret Spot. The camera will go up soon. I only have one, so I have to move it around on our land. Next, before full summer growth I will have to loosen the bolts of our permanent tree stands, and move them a bit up or down, adjust ladders, and do rough work. I love it. Also this month is the time of year when so many in the country go shed hunting. I shed hunt every year and rarely find anything at all. But there are so many miles of woods here, that you could never find them all. A treasure I do have is a huge moose shed that I hit one March while snowmobiling. It was so fresh that it was still bloody at the base. It sits in deer camp now.

Hunting Seasons at Long Ridge Camp

The pictures are taken by a gamecam at one of our honey spots, located up on a far ridge about a mile from camp. It is possible to take turkey, deer and bear from this area, from the same stands. The stand in this spot is a twenty footer, just to the left and behind the camera. The picture of a cub (there are two cubs and a Mom,) was taken and seconds later the camera with attacked by Mom. She didn't totally destroy it, but it was out of service for a few days.

Here in New Hampshire, we have, compared the rest of the country, few deer per square mile..The Eastern more suburban part of the state has about 19 to 30 per square mile. In our county in the West it is estimated that there are 8 to 12 per square mile. That comports with my experience in our woods. This means that many hunters never do see a deer. You do it right, or you'll likely spend a lot more on beef throughout the year. Our season for deer lasts about 90 days, and starts on September 15th with an archery season going through December 15th. You may take one either sex deer with bow, but if you buy an extra tag for 16 dollars you may take a second. With 90 days to bowhunt, I cannot imagine not getting a couple, but there are hunters that don't. October 31st sees muzzle loader season open for nine days. The first three are either sex, then buck only until November 10th.
November 11th opens regular firearms season with three either sex days, and then buck only until Dec 6th. Back to bow til the 15th of December. So, at best, you may harvest three deer per season. Two with bow, and one with either rifle or muzzle loader. A lot of us tag out with bow and muzzleoader. I haven't shot a deer with my 30-06 for 5 years.
In addition, while you are bow hunting you may take a turkey, and a bear. Our bear season varies throughout the state, but ours is from September 1st through September 21st. We cannot hunt with hounds in our unit, but we may bait. Bear may be taken by bow or firearm, including larger pistol calibers.
If this isn't enough, we may hunt moose by lottery. It is seldom that you get a tag more than once every few years, but it's great to put in for one. I've gone twice and I'll post those hunts another time.
Our deer are decently sized, as Northern animals generally are. Our does dress out around 130 lbs average, and our bucks about 170. The biggest buck I ever got weighed 310 lbs on the hoof and dressed out at 240. A big dude, I couldn't get him into my F-150 without help. As far as antlers go, we can't touch the scorecards of Kansas, and Illinoise, Texas or the other Southern States. We have 8-18 pointers, but their mass does not lend to many Pope and Young or other record books. Mostly big bodied to survive our winters.
So, how do we handle our seasons relative to camp? I used to hold a three day camp for muzzleloader, then two firearms camps. Couldn't get enough interest in muzzle loading, so I switched to three rifle camps. As I have developed the property for deer, I am moving closer to quality deer management standards. This year I am going to hold two rifle camps only. Another big change is that I will not allow our camp members to hunt on the property other than camp weekends. I may make an exception for the bow hunters, but I find that hunters tag out in between camps, and then there is less interest. In additon, in between camp hunting puts the deer on high alert come weekends. This may bring howls from some camp members, but they'll get used to it...also I am contemplating restricting the taking of immature bucks. Not sure on this one though. I do encourage the taking of mature does.

Guns in Camp

I love this time of March. It is sunny today, and as I took my Lab for a walk into the far fields it was 10 degrees. That allows us to walk on top of the crust without snowshoes until at least 1 PM, when the snows begin to soften. There are bare spots all over the Southern slopes now, but still about twenty inches of hardpack in our woods and North facing fields. It's gonna go fast now, because though it may be way below zero in the morning, it can reach 50 degrees by 2 PM. . Nice walking in the woods, no sticks, branches or blowdown to walk over. They are still covered. Sidney puts his head flat against the snow, and his front legs strait out behind. He pushes himself along like an otter, with his hind legs. He loves the coolness of the snow, and except for the occasional yelp when he engages a tree trunk, it is funny to watch.
So, about Camp and guns...You've seen our pups, you've been told about our hunters, what about the guns we use to hunt deer? This is a question I often fielded when writing a column for an outdoor publication. Well, like the diverse hunters we have, they show up with diverse weapons and calibers. Never minding the occasional visitors, here are the calibers used by the seventeen regulars:

30-06 eight hunters, mine a Winchester model 70 Featherweight, the rest are Remington 700, Savages, a Wetherby, and a Remington 7400

308 four hunters, A Remington 700, two Ruger compacts, a 14 pound Remington Sniper rifle ( I know, I know!)

30-30 one hunter, Winchester Model 94

7mm08 one hunter, Remington 700 I believe

270 one hunter, Winchester model 70

32 Win Splc one hunter, his Grandfather's lever action..

12 Gauge one hunter, a Remington 870 pump

There you have it. We have a camp rule that no loaded rifles are allowed inside camp. Loaded pistols/revolvers are. Since some of these folks are cops, police calibers predominate - 357 Sig, 9MM, 10mm in Glocks, Kahr, Kel-Tec, Dan Wesson etc.

We have had our discussions on the relative merits of various calibers. All the above will take deer cleanly at reasonable ranges if the shooter does his or her job. Why the preponderance of 30-06? Well, at the very least, most of these hunters take other game with these rifles, including moose, bear, coyote, and hogs. History is clear. There is no better all around North American game cartridge. Period. Don’t argue. Research, read, talk to the best, talk to guides in every state that guide for every type of game there is. People argue all the time about various calibers, and their relative effectiveness. But no one ever makes fun of a 30-06. Especially if you can afford only one rifle. So there you have it from Long Ridge. What do you folks hunt with?

Dogs and Deer Camp

There is no question that if everyone showing up at Deer Camp unloads a dog or two, it would become uncontrollable in no time. But as host of a deer camp, I have always brought a pup or two along. Sidney, our Black lab, loves camp and can't wait to greet all the hunters, congratulate them on their cooking skills, and poison test every meal for us. Plenty of the hunters have dogs or hunt over dogs and love to see the black flash around camp. Sidney generally sleeps next to my cot, but if it is exceptionally cool in camp, he'll sneak up into one of those fat easy chairs we warm for him every evening. If he cannot get one of those, he'll pop up onto the foot of my cot and sleep there. No, I don't mind. When we hunt during the day, he'll randomly choose someone's sleeping bag or bunk, and snuggle into their tangle. He knows not to follow any of the guys out into the woods or fields, and is smart enough to hang at camp as long as some laggard is always there (they are).
Sid is a good pup, but I do not hunt him. He was abandoned on our road late at night, and the next morning we took him in. He was about a year and a half, way underweight, and a bare raw scar around his neck from a rope. He was pretty nasty but eventually I caught and fed him. I turned him over to the humane society thinking that was the end of that. Not so! A week later I called to find out about him and they told me they were euthanizing him. Incorrigible, and a mean biter I was told. Untrainable. Riiighhhhhhhhhhhht...I've owned and trained Chesepeake Bay Retreivers, and labs, and this guy didn't look too bad to me. Hold him I said, I'll be right down, and he became ours. Within a month or two, it was clear he could never be hunted, but also as clear that he was as friendly and loving a dog as they come. So he just kind of lives rent free, and we love him for who he is. And part of who he is, is being at deer camp very year. He is whitefaced and old now, and the dreaded time is coming. Oh my, fellow hunters, is there any worse time? I can barely stand the memories of the loss of past pups. Here are the 1989 Oct entries in my hunting log at the time. They are of Callie, a Chesepeake born in California. Because I got her at two years I never trained her to water marking and hunting, but used her for upland only, and she was a sweet. In the summer of 1989 she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Here we are in October, 1989, my Hunting log at the time -

"13 Oct 80 - Bird dog (her nickname) is sick - weeks to go...an angry tumor"

"17 Oct - Callie on pills but she is fading - wants to be close & be loved - such spirit- we're going on our last bird hunt this weekend.."

"21 Oct - Callie and I, my Birddog - we went on our last bird hunt, up behind Merricon. She loved it, one grouse she handed me, and did so well, and, when done I had to back the F-150 against a bank so she could get in. ... she was too embarrassed and proud to be lifted."

"Saturday I took callie for her last swim. Three throws of her dummy and she was beat, and done, but jubilant."

"Fri, 27 Oct 80 - Callie died at home - I was only gone an hour. Such class, she went this way to spare us. There'll never be a better or classier Chessie.
We buried her up back with her toys, a bone for chewing, a dummy, a snack, and grass seed for her tummy. She was buried cosy, wrapped in her beloved blankets from the Jeep"

Let me ask you, hunters. Do we ever weep for the loss of anyone or thing as we do for a beloved pup? I don't think so. What do you think?

Inside Camp, and Such

There are 17 hunters on our deer camp list but we cannot accommodate them all at once. This is a good thing because seldom do more than 8 or 9 show up intending to stay over for the whole weekend. There are 7 bunk beds, very comfortable, and some set up cots if we need them. Because I have all my hunting equipment, guns, and gunsmithing stuff at camp, I have a semi-separate room with a cot in it. Because it is near home and I visit it nearly every day, winter access and security is not an issue here. It is walking distance for me.

It is heated by propane, a wall heater donated by a hunter when he renovated his home. The stove is propane, and I got that from my Mom's summer camp after she passed away. The fridge was donated by an upgrading cop, an inveterate hunter. The walls are covered with trophies and of course each has a story. There is a huge 4X10 foot table for eating that seats about ten. After dinner some of the hunters retire to the overstuffed chairs to converse and sip their favorite drink, others sit around the big table. The rest stand around the huge roaring fire that I light
Friday noon, in a huge stone fireplace right out front. This fire burns day and night until the weekend is over. The three weekend camps burn about two cords of wood that I gather over the summer.

When hunters start to arrive on Friday, they grab any bunk handy and stow their gear. Most gear up and get ready to hunt right away, hoping to tag and hang a deer early in the weekend. Others arrive and spend hours unpacking, organizing, parking ATV's, feeding the fire, or just letting the previous 11 months go.

There is a log book on the table. Any time a hunter heads out they are required by protocol to fill in blanks about where they will be, which stand, when they'll be back etc. Also there is a tab to fill in for any deer seen. This way we keep a talley from year to year on where the best spots are. I'll post a sample..

We organize meals before hand, deciding who will bring what. Mostly we eat wild game, mule deer, elk, moose, bear, whitetail, goose breast are fairly common. Three of ther rugular hunters are gourmet cooks, that is to say, they have taken courses from excellent restaurants and local chefs on how to cook, and make sauces. I grew up in Boston, and quite often was dined in first water 4/5 star restaurants. But I can tell you, some of the meals we have had rival the best 100 dollar a plate meals I have ever had. Word gets out. We've had the President of the New Hampshire Senate stop by for an evening, and once, the Attorney General of NH. Hunters neither, but good taste in wine and vittles they did have...

Not much for cards and games in this camp...we see each other seldom enough, that it takes several evenings of chat just to catch up on careers, family and personal stuff. It's all so cool.

Lunch and breakfast, on your own.

The Land

As I said before, the land is heavily forested Northern New England hardwood/softwood mix. One hundred foot White Pines and Red Oaks along with Sugar Maple predominate the landscape. Hemlock stands provide ample winter cover for the deer. Our camp sits in the saddle of a (long, you guessed it) high ridge at about a thousand feet above sea level. The saddle is pronouced enough that migrating Canada Geese pass through it. On certain stands, you are actually eye to eye level with them, and can hear the clicking of their feathers as they stroke through. Once it was foggy and I was in the Tall Stand when a flock of about forty winged through. I thought they were going to run right into me, but didn't. Our land is 130 acres, but is surrounded by about 5000 undeveloped and fairly safe acres that has little hunting pressure. We habitually hunt about a third of the entire area, with most success within 3/4 mile of camp. Many deer have been taken within sight (several hundred yards) of camp porch. A walking/ATV trail winds roughly around the borders of our land, and there are several interior trails for still hunting. We used to ban ATV's from the trails except for retrieval of deer, but eventually learned that ATVing to areas to hunt disturbed the deer less than walking there. I have a favorite stand way up on the Far Ridge about a mile from camp and I routinely ride my ATV up within a 100 yards of that stand. I have arrowed some fine deer there. Most of the hunters here walk/still hunt to their stands anyway, and in a way that is more fair chase I suppose. In any case, when we do get one, we seldom have to drag a deer more than a hundred yards before we can sled it out behind a machine. Below is an entry and a typical one, taken from my 2004 journal I keep on the seasons.

"Nov. 17th, a big ground scrape is found at the Far Ridge . We hunt the area, no luck...only animal seen is a whitish coyote 100 yards from camp..on the 20th, I am returning to camp at midday on an ATV and pass a small Christmas tree plantation seventy-five yards from deer camp porch. I find a fresh tree rub that was not there the day before... the tree is big, and so is he. The damage is heavy and we are fired by the discovery that a large buck visits camp at night. Teasing us. November 21st, two deer jumped at Walker's field - no shot. Sunday at noon and most hunters head out for home, three remain at camp. One elects to go to Walker's fields - jumps two deer, but unknown sex and no shot taken. I take the Far Stand for a late afternoon sit. The last hunter in camp, a Long Ridge veteran decides to hike out the West side trail. It's four P.M. and I am feeling good, a buck is nearby...the occasional honk of a passing goose, a low guttural call of a bird high in the trees that I have never been able to identify in fifty years, and life is good. It is calm. 4:01 PM, terrific view of the Far Field, no wind, and I have THAT feeling. POW! - the shot comes from the Southwest, about a quarter mile to my left. I know immediately who it is, and where the hunter is. I reach for my radio, and flick it on... "Yeah, Jack, that was me, I got a hit, might as well sit tight until I check it out." Right. I am as a brother to this fellow SWAT Team member, and I know his skills. I heard his shot, and it is as good as done for me. "10-4" I answer, but I am already unsnapping my safety harness twenty-five feet above the ground. I have my rifle slung, my waist pack on and poised in ten seconds. Down I go, and as I hit the ground, I hear the radio crackle - "Jack, better get one of the ATV's up here, he's down, I'll leave my hat in the trail where I head West". I am already half way to camp, and my radio crackles from our third hunter, who has monitored and is on his way to help. Back at camp, start an ATV, load rope, extra knives, a towel, camera, and head out the West trail. At the moment I see the orange cap in the middle of the trail I glance west and see bright orange in the thickening gloom. Forty yards from the trail, this buck was heading south, parallel to the trail, when he was spotted, and shot. With a shattered heart, broken leg, and smashed ribs, this nine point beauty above managed to streak forty yards before piling up. Dead before his first leap, this buck had such a will to live, that he galloped without consciousness.
We took time to admire his coat, and his swollen neck, and his rack . Silently I said the ancient German prayer .. ‘…and we thank thee for thy beauty, speed and grace...’ By the time he was weighed, and photographed hanging in camp, on the weigh scale, next to hunters, it was late, and way past dark. Several toasts and promises later, I stood alone at deer camp. Pitch black I step off the porch to the fireplace. The fire just red embers, and all hunters gone until the last weekend of the season. The high of the hunt - the loneliness of it's end....there is NOTHING that can match either."

Back to Deer Camping...

I spoke in my earlier post about starting a Deer Camp, and making it work..so now you may have questions about our camp and it's hunters. There are 17 hunters on the camp roster. Not all attend every year or every hunting weekend - I'd say about ten are hard core. Eight of us are police officers, several retired. Also on the list is a doctor, an accountant, a builder, a construction manager, an electrical company owner, a machinist, a custodian, and an insulation foreman. The cops rank from Captain to Patrolman. 32 to 67 is the age range. Our different backgrounds and occupations make for a broad array of evening discussion topics from all walks of life. A deer camp is one place where diversity really does work. Most of the hunters reside here in New Hampshire, one travels from Pennsylvania, one lives in Texas. We keep in touch all year by an email group address list.
Five of us are hard core bow hunters...six of us also hunt with muzzle loaders. All of the group are rifle hunters.
We have lost several hunters off the list over the years and we do not invite others in until we have a spot. Seventeen is about max for a camp this size.
Occasionally we have an April dinner or breakfast meeting with our families just to touch base. Beginning in July we bow hunters start getting together to practice and compare equipment.
We believe in good hunter ethics, and frown upon taking poor shots, hunting with untested equipment or unsighted in (annually) firearms. Chasing wounded deer does nothing for us. As a management practice I encourage the taking of does and usually take one for the freezer myself. We are not specifically a 'trophy hunting' camp. Small antlered bucks are sometimes taken, and proudly hung on the game pole. We hunt as individuals, rarely doing drives. Some of the hunters prefer to still hunt, while others use climbers or nestle into some favorite spot. I have seven strategically placed 20 foot high tree stands on my 130 acres,and the rest and those not afraid of heights use those. Except for a few ladder stands most of my stands are the Wedge stands which I install 22 feet up, and build a twenty foot ladder to access them. They are excellent, and last years and years. Most of the stands are either in acorn areas, or placed to try to catch deer moving toward our fields or food plots. We have a log inside the camp that you must sign in and mark which stand you are going to be in. That way, later arrivals won't bother you or approach that particular stand to use it. If we take a deer in the afternoon, we sit until shooting light is over so as to not disturb other hunters. I have a trail system that allows for ATV access to most areas of the property, so drags are generally short. Deer shot beyond my boundaries however have created some monstrous drags, not to be forgotten. We carry radios and cell phones so getting help when needed is no problem. But overall, the emphasis is on hunting as individuals. In fact, I preface every annual deer camp letter with the following:

"This will be the twelfth anniversary that deer hunting camps have been held at Long Ridge. For any that have not attended, these are three-day weekend camps for serious hunters and serious friends. No pressure, no demands, no work. Hunt in your own fashion, in your own way, on your own schedule. Come when you can, and leave when you will…if you cannot stay over, hunt for the day. If you cannot hunt for the day, join us here for a drink around the fire in the evening. Come for one, two, or all three camps …but remember this first…hunt in your own fashion…"