Fun With The Gun, Coyotes Won

[RednekF350]

Not being one to pass on an opportunity to be in the pines with a gun, I decided to try my skills against the elusive eastern coyote out near Lower Forge.
At 6:00 a.m. I was sitting under a pine in the big woods waiting for first light.
The woods was dead silent and there was not a whisper of wind. I used my rabbit in distress call a few times but it iced up after about 10 squeals. It didn't sound too convincing anyway.
At around 7:00, the ice along the river started groaning and I needed to generate some body heat. I returned to Mannis where I went a few weeks ago and then walked a club line west over to the Batsto and took a photo of a tributary of the Batsto that held some awesome bent cedars and a small waterfall.

http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=281&pos=14

I started along the fringe of a cedar swamp and cut a set of coyote tracks that were slightly glazed. Probably from last night.
Coyotes tracks generally follow a straight line with their rear paws falling into the front paw tracks. Domestic dog tracks meander.
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=281&pos=13

I found an area where he stopped and scratched the ground a little searching for something to eat.
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=281&pos=12

I followed the tracks for a while and they joined up with a set of fox tracks and they went side by side for about 3/4 of a mile. I doubt that they were working as a team. I am sure one set was laid first.

Here is my trusty steed, the F-350 and my shootin' iron the TC Encore.
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=281&pos=22

I went back around 3:30 p.m and hunted until 6:00 p.m. to close out a beautiful day in the pines.
No coyotes seen but I know they are there and that's good enough for me.
Scott

 

[bobpbx]

What's a club line Scott?

Say you get a coyote. What do you do with him?

 

[Teegate]

Nice shots of the cedars, and a very clear photo of you. Were you there alone using your timer?

I also like the thread title

Guy

 

[pinelandpaddler]

C'mon, Scott. I know that you're holding a camera that only looks like a gun, right? Nothing better than being in the Pines and seeing firsthand an animal of such beauty and intelligence as a coyote, eh?

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Awesome shot of the cedars, by the way!

 

[RednekF350]

Nice shots of the cedars, and a very clear photo of you. Were you there alone using your timer?

I also like the thread title

Guy

Yes, I was there by myself using the timer.
I had a tripod with a spotting scope in the truck so I used the tripod.
Scott

 

[RednekF350]

What's a club line Scott?

Say you get a coyote. What do you do with him?

Bob
A club line (local term) is a line cut by a gun club to carve out their drives. They break large expanses of woods into manageable chunks by cutting lines every 1/2 mile or so apart. For instance, Burnt Mill Road through Waterford probably has at least 10 lines cut from the sewer plant to the railroad.
The road where you helped with the cleanup last fall has three lines running east to the railroad.
Most of the lines are only known to the local clubs and are not readily noticed by the casual observer.
They are narrow and their entrances along the main roads are not usually marked. Once you are in about 10 yards from a road on a line, the trees are usually blazed pretty well.
Each fall most of the clubs freshen up the lines.
Lines are also usually cut along the edges of swamps and the standers are palced along those lines because the deer are going to run towards cover.
The line I walked yesterday was cut from Mannis to Lower Forge. At the Lower Forge end you really had to look hard to know it was a line.
Scott

 

[bobpbx]

I never noticed that Scott, as many times as I've probably seen them I most like attributed them to an old survey. Thinking of them, and whether any greehorns ever strayed from the line and got lost reminded me of something.
My neighbor of 25 years moved on, but we had many great conversations about hunting, because it was his passion. He often told the story about his brother becoming lost on a hunting trip to the adirondacks with a dozen other guys. They were at a cabin in November or December and his brother went out alone for a couple hours. 8 hours later he did not return. He was hopelessly lost several mountain tops and valleys over. They all went looking and had to fire their guns many times before they heard his gun far off in the distance; very weak sounding it was so far away. He was fully soaked, cold and wet. Had to go waist deep through a swamp at one point. Alls well that ends well, but it makes you think about living on that thin line.

 

[RednekF350]

I never noticed that Scott, as many times as I've probably seen them I most like attributed them to an old survey. Thinking of them, and whether any greehorns ever strayed from the line and got lost reminded me of something.
My neighbor of 25 years moved on, but we had many great conversations about hunting, because it was his passion. He often told the story about his brother becoming lost on a hunting trip to the adirondacks with a dozen other guys. They were at a cabin in November or December and his brother went out alone for a couple hours. 8 hours later he did not return. He was hopelessly lost several mountain tops and valleys over. They all went looking and had to fire their guns many times before they heard his gun far off in the distance; very weak sounding it was so far away. He was fully soaked, cold and wet. Had to go waist deep through a swamp at one point. Alls well that ends well, but it makes you think about living on that thin line.

There are a few old lines on Sandy Causeway in Waterford that were maintained by a now defunct club I hunted with a few times.
They were hard to follow on a good day and now that they haven't been maintained they are a real challenge.
I walked one a few weeks ago and ended up losing it and turning around.

 

[foofoo]

Bob
A club line (local term) is a line cut by a gun club to carve out their drives.
Scott

its funny that you say carve because in the greenwood wildlife management the idiots in some of those clubs use axes to slash out the bark on the sides of the trees in making there lines through the woods. why cant they get get some flagging tape or toilet paper. slashing the sides of those pine trees cant be too good for them and it looks ugly as hell.

 

[Boyd]

I also like the thread title

Those Coyotes must have been Wiley

 

[Teegate]

Those Coyotes must have been Wiley

Good one! He looks wiley.

Guy

 

[RednekF350]

its funny that you say carve because in the greenwood wildlife management the idiots in some of those clubs use axes to slash out the bark on the sides of the trees in making there lines through the woods. why cant they get get some flagging tape or toilet paper. slashing the sides of those pine trees cant be too good for them and it looks ugly as hell.

Foo Foo,
Every club I know of uses blazes and most are small and not harmful to the tree. In fact, most clubs reblaze the same mark every year or two when they freshen the lines.
The blazes on pines become a bright white mark for about a year from the drying pine sap and makes a great natural marker.
The lines themselves are inconspicuos to begin with and a lot of people don't know they are there at all so I don'thave a problem with blazes.
I dislike marking tape as a trail marker as it leaves a semi-permannent unnatural mark on the woods. Most guys who use it rarely come back to remove it after they stop hunting an area. I remove it for them every time I come across it.
I will use a few cat's eyes on a path to my stands because I usually head in an hour before light but I even pull them at the end of the season.

 

[foofoo]

Foo Foo,
Every club I know of uses blazes and most are small and not harmful to the trees

i never herd the term blazes before so its new to me. it looks like a slash on the side of the tree and looks horrible. the cuts ive seen are more like 3 to5 inches wide on trees that are maybe 14 inches in diameter so its very noticable. the ones ive seen really stand out and are not far off the trails and are easily seen from the road when i drive through. and to mark every tree f 30 feet apart for a mile is mind boggling. i know old traditions die hard but that one should. i mean in the pines there are nothing but checker board fire cuts and roads that criss cross. if you line 50 guys up on a drive do you really need that?

 

[Boyd]

i never herd the term blazes before so its new to me.

I guess I've never heard it in quite the same context either. I thought it refered to paint marks on trees to denote a trail. For example, the Batona trail is marked with pink blazes.

 

[RednekF350]

Blazing a tree is an old method of marking lines or corners that has been around at least forever, if not longer, in surveying.
As I know Guy will attest, the references to a blazed oak or blazed pine in old deeds and maps were extemely common.
Pine knot corners were also common.
The difficulty in reproducing those surveys on the ground is that the tree completely heals over time concealing the blaze or more commonly, the tree is long gone.
A lot of early deeds and surveys did not consider the longevity of the markers.
I have a deed from the 1800's in my office that has as a beginning point, "the corner of the old red barn" and runs with a course and a plus or minus distance to a "blazed oak." Good luck getting started on that one.
Stones were much more practical and obviously stick around for a while.
As I said before, I would rather see blazed trails than trail ribbon.
Now that you mention it Boyd, I think the latest paint markings of the various trails out near Batsto with paint, disks, plastic pylons and signs are atrocious and take away from the natural beauty of the trail and woods.
Any body that needs that much of a visual shouldn't be in the woods.
Scott

 

[Boyd]

Now that you mention it Boyd, I think the latest paint markings of the various trails out near Batsto with paint, disks, plastic pylons and signs are atrocious and take away from the natural beauty of the trail and woods.
Any body that needs that much of a visual shouldn't be in the woods.
Scott

I am in agreement with the principle of not spoiling natural beauty with man-made things. But I wouldn't go as far as you do. I think the marked trails certainly have their place. The state forests and parks belong to everyone, and clearly marked trails provide an incentive for people to get out and understand nature firsthand, where they might be reluctant to do so otherwise.

Saying that people who need these markers "shouldn't be out in the woods" sounds a little harsh IMO. If those people bother you then it's easy to avoid them by staying away from the marked trails.

 

[foofoo]

i can show you trails that are brand new and ones that have been left for years and the trees are still have scars but its a tradition so i guess i can understand not wanting to get lost and. id rather see them use a gps or compass. they seem to just make the trails up from year to year from what i saw.

 

[RednekF350]

If those people bother you then it's easy to avoid them by staying away from the marked trails.

I do exactly that sir.