Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Wall tent hunting camp

I’m not going to be doing my Adirondack wall tent deer hunting trip this year, at least not like I have done the past couple years. I have joined a hunting club, actually 2 adjoining clubs, in the Cranberry Lake region of the Adirondacks. The motivating reasons are this area has been logged and the forest managed over its history resulting in higher deer numbers than I am accustomed to in the “forever wild” region in the high peaks. The other reason for the change is the opportunity to build our own camp on timber company land. The camp didn’t materialize this year, but that’s where the wall tent comes in.
I would like to set up camp for the duration of hunting season, early October- late November. My biggest concern is a bear trashing the tent. There are more bears in this region that I encountered in the high peaks, and a canvas tent saturated with cooking smells left unattended could be asking for trouble. Any suggestions on what to do to keep bears away? I’m thinking about trying a solar powered electric fence around the perimeter. Maybe cayenne pepper sprinkled around?

I’m not a bear expert, but small ears usually indicate a big bear. This photo was taken 1/4 mile from my camp site.

There is also a very healthy moose population in the region. 40 years ago moose were non existent in the Adirondacks, now they are nearly commonplace.

Set up an electric fence to run off a solar charger/deep cycle battery. May not be foolproof, but for the price/effort I can't imagine it wouldn't be good peace of mind. Some polytape, step in posts, and a go at it.

Moth balls and sulfur spread around the tents perimeter? Supposedly works for rattlesnakes.

The guy who puts bee hives on our property, every year, uses portable solar powered electric fences.

I finished setting up camp last week but still haven’t spent the night there. Talking with others in the area, even though there’s bears in the area, they tend to shy away from camps. So I’m taking my chances, no moth balls or electric fences. I am keeping everything clean, and not leaving any food there.
It’s been warm the past few days with a cold front coming In Saturday. I’m heading up Saturday afternoon until Monday evening. Veterans Day week I’ll be there for the whole week. I’m getting a few buck pics, and there’s lots of scrapes. It’s looking promising. Some areas have more moose sign than deer. That’s amazing considering 30 years ago moose were basically non existent in the Adirondacks.

Great pictures! Good luck with the hunt!

The guys with a camp 1/2 mile down the road from me have trail cam pics of several different bucks also, including two slammers, one long tined 10, and a draft horse sized one with it looks like palmated antlers. Also pics of two different bull moose. Actually, one of the bulls wrestled with the cable gate on their access road, the bull won.

Allways enjoy your posts Miguel keep them coming.mb

Me too. I can’t wait to see how it pans out for you. I spent Monday and Tuesday in the Moose River Plains area. Kicked 3 deer, saw 1 tail for 9.5 miles of walking. Pretty sparse down there, but all they have to eat is moss, ferns and mushrooms. Some logging would be so beneficial for all wildlife up there but good old NYS will never allow it.

Electric fence is cheap insurance.

I too greatly enjoy your Upstate my posts!

Miguel,

I too really enjoy your posts! I spent many a year (I was stationed at Ft. Drum for 10 years) hunting the Tug Hill / High-market areas and you are doing exactly what I wanted to do while I was there and never did. Enjoy your hunt and keep the posts coming!

The OP says he's not interested in an electric fence but this is for anyone who is interested.
I use a portable electric fence for my pack llamas when I camp near the truck. The fence is too heavy and bulky to pack in.

I just grabbed some photos from the web. You can find anything here at a local farm store except possibly the charger or energizer. The 1st time you set this up, it'll take a while. Once you get it right, it'll be much faster next time. Here's a good article put out by the state of Montana on bear fences. They're a lot more elaborate than most guys need but it'll give you some ideas. BEAR FENCES

I set up a 50x50 fence. It takes me about 30 min to set the whole thing up. I use 3 wires for the llamas. For bears, I'd suggest 4 or 5. You can buy bear fence kits but they're mostly for backpacking and are barely big enough to go around a pup tent. This one is MUCH larger.
Plastic step-in posts are pretty cheap, like $5 to $6 each for 4'ers. For a 50x50, I use 9 posts. 1 for each corner and 1 intermediate on each side, plus 1 more for a gate. I guy out the corners with ropes and 2 stakes. The intermediates don't need guy ropes. I suggest wire tape at least 1" wide to be very visible. With these posts, just clip the tape into the hooks.
With the llamas, all 3 wires are hot as their feet will give a good ground. A bear's feet are wide and less likely to make a good ground. I suggest 5 wires for a bear fence - 3 hot and 3 ground. Make the top, center, and bottom hot and the other 2 grounds to increase the chances of the bear hitting both a hot and a ground at the same time. If the ground is damp, all hots will work as the bear will be grounded.
You'll need a good ground for the charger. If the ground is damp, any steel or copper rod pounded a foot or more in the ground will work. Here, it's usually quite dry that time of year. I use 2 rods hooked together with heavy wire. I dig a shallow hole about 6" deep and a foot across for each rod about 2' apart. I drive 1 rod in each hole then fill them with water to soak up the ground. Adding more water after it soaks in will make a better ground.

I use this battery charger from Kencove, called a Strip Grazer. it uses either 8 D-cells (total of 12V) or it can be hooked to any 12v battery. A charger uses almost no power unless an animal hits it. 8 D cells will last a month. Using a larger 12v battery will last for many months as long as the battery will hold a charge on it's own. A solar charger isn't needed for just a fall hunting camp. STRIP GRAZER This one will put out about 1/3 joule. Bigger ones will put out a lot more juice which would be better for bears. You want to get their full attention.
Some guys smear peanut button the on the hot wires to lure the bear into licking it. Once he's been shocked a couple times, he usually won't try again. There are exceptions.

Camp is lookin' deer ready, Miguel.

Hope you score on one of those bruiser Adirondack bucks.

I made it to camp Saturday early afternoon. It was quite warm, and sunny, but a cold front was coming in that night. I wanted to get a ladder stand set up along a good travel corridor that has an abundance of scrapes. Im not much of a stand hunter when woods hunting, but the abundance of sign and the close proximity to camp made it look somewhat appealing.

I covered a lot of country over the weekend, all of this land is new to me and it takes a while to get your bearings. Most of the club property has been heavily logged in the past, lots of berry briers, Beech slash, and dense spruce thickets. Lots different from the mature hardwoods of the high peaks I am accustomed to hunting. The middle picture shows a dead tree in the center of the shot. This is the largest tree I have ever seen in the Adirondacks. Where the top is broken off, has to be 100 feet in the air at least, and 4’ in diameter. I’ll have to check out the base of it the next time I’m by there.

I was told about a fighter jet that had crashed back in the 50’s and to keep an eye out for the wreck. I found it on rainy Sunday morning. Apparently there were mechanical problems and the pilot ejected, dying from injuries. The plane crashed into the top of this little mountain. Really an eerie sight. The first thing I thought, all of those stupid movies where most of the passengers survive a plane crash with minor injuries are such fiction! That was thick aluminum that was cut and twisted like paper.

Got the camp looking good, it’s so much easier than going into the back country. But I’m over 3 miles from the nearest paved road, and I have never seen anyone drive past. About a quarter mile down the road the beavers have flooded the road out, so essentially I’m at the end of a dead end road.