Can anybody tell me if sumac berry’s gathered this time of year would be good for the dye pot or do they have to be gathered at a different time of the year?

The bark is what I always use.

I like to harvest them when they are bright red in the early fall.

What Green Bay said.
You could still pick up old walnut hulls from last fall.

They may still work they just might not be as potent this time of year. You might need more. I also use this method in early fall and I like it.

Late summer/early fall is optimum for gathering the seed heads for making sumac tea you can actually drink, or trap dye. The fall rains wash the powder out of the seed heads. Use the bark like Dfabs said, or use Willow bark. Willow bark will give a nice dark brown color.

Red oak bark works also. Chop it up small and it makes them black as night when brought to a boil, let set till the water cools, then bring back to a boil and remove traps.
What I switched to this year. Squirrels ate all my walnuts.

I use the bark, does a nice dark blue/black dye job

I use tag alder here.The twigs and leaves chopped.

You don't even need to chop the bark, just grab some leaves. I gathered up leaves from a oak right in my yard, they worked great. Dyed the traps as black as coal.

I use maple for what I have around the yard. Watch the Sumac some is poison the ones with the shine leave . I know I found that out many years ago. As for willow the sap will give some a skin problem for some time also.

Thanks for all the informative responses fellas.

Stag Horn Sumac berries is what you want, not Poison sumac .

I live within 20 miles of Jacksonville, I have lots of Staghorn Sumac on my place. If you need some send me a PM.

Being poor I could not afford log wood crystals, so I used sumac. It worked well and produced a nice scent which I think helped in trapping coon and fox as it was more natural.

Used it as a kid along with Maple Bark. worked then and will work now.

I was skeptical of using dead oak leaves but they worked as well as any store-bought dye.

if ya want black walnuts, just pay for shipping and I'll send a box of your choosing.

If your going to use sumac for a dye put the heads in some type of cloth bag when boiling. Otherwise your going to have a real mess.

Yep...I go buy one of those cheap pillow cases from wal mart