Ground hunting pressured whitetails

[fwafwow]

I switched to a saddle this year

How do you like it, and what’s your climbing method?

 

[ResearchinStuff]

How do you like it, and what’s your climbing method?

It's effective. Sort of comfy, sort of light weight, definitely low bulk. I have a 1 stick and double jrb cinch rope climbing system. It's safe, but very slow and harder than it seems like. I did a half dozen or so practice climbs, had my first hunt yesterday, and filled my buck tag with a nice one. Since I also got an elk, I was informed when I got home that my hunting season is now over. At this pace, it's gonna take years to make a real opinion on the saddle.

 

[fwafwow]

It's effective. Sort of comfy, sort of light weight, definitely low bulk. I have a 1 stick and double jrb cinch rope climbing system. It's safe, but very slow and harder than it seems like. I did a half dozen or so practice climbs, had my first hunt yesterday, and filled my buck tag with a nice one. Since I also got an elk, I was informed when I got home that my hunting season is now over. At this pace, it's gonna take years to make a real opinion on the saddle.

Nice! I got the Dryad and use it currently only instead of a "normal" safety harness. I had gone pretty far down the JRB system path, including buying all of the gear and practicing the knots, but I never went any further - so my climbing method remains on the shelf.

I've not killed anything yet, and I'm starting to get the side eye about my hunting season....

 

[KyleR1985]

20+ deer with bow from ground on public land.

There’s no secret sauce.


General rule that applies to stalking - if you think you’re moving slow, move slower. You have to stop and scan often. Trick is to see deer before they see you.

Tweak this slightly, because of my next piece of advice. The tweak is burn rubber in areas where there aren’t deer. How do you know areas that don’t have deer? Next piece of advice:

don’t get in trees unless you have a near certainty deer you want to shoot will be under you. Only way to do that is to walk so much you rule out all the places deer WONT be under your tree. And in doing so, you’ll learn the relative value of places that hold deer(you see them) and places that don’t.

And you’ll get better and stalking, drawing, anticipation etc, because you’ll have a ton of practice.


I didn’t do any of this on purpose. I just hate sitting in trees staring at squirrels it’s dumb. So I walk until I find sign I can’t pass up, or deer.


In the process of that I have had lots of chances to kill deer with my bow, when I wasn’t exactly “trying”.

 

[Dos Perros]

Headed out for my first poke this weekend. Bringing the boy to hold the Heads Up Decoy for me. Usually this time of the season isn't very good because the deer are moving too much.

 

[markanderson12]

I've hunted with from the ground a decent amount the last few years with some success. I killed my first two deer with a bow from the ground on field edges just being tucked in thick cover. Once i bought a ghille it was a game changer. I've killed a few deer and a bear in a ghillie suit with a compound and a recurve. Its all about good back cover and knowing when and when not to make your move to shoot. Personally with a compound I think it is pretty easy, with the trad bow is is tougher but it can be done. I killed a bear at 9 yards last year with the recurve. If i had my compound I would have for sure killed him at 20 but it sure was a rush letting him get as close as he did. I had a bear at 4 yards from me earlier in the hunt and it did not have clue I was there. Killed one deer with the recurve at 14 yards while I was tucked under a pine tree, she had no clue she was even hit. Thick woods and thick fence lines are your friend when it comes to ground, I have tried it in marshes trying to hunt deer but still haven't had a deer worth shooting come close enough for as shot.

Make sure you practice enough because sometimes you will get caught up in goofy angle that you will need to have your body to shoot. Also I trimmed down most of the material off my bow arm and a little off the chest so my string doesn't catch it when I shoot.

 

[Dos Perros]

Headed out for my first poke this weekend. Bringing the boy to hold the Heads Up Decoy for me. Usually this time of the season isn't very good because the deer are moving too much.

@ResearchinStuff it has been my experience that out west, in the big open, the only strategy with any chance of success is spot and stalk. And you can't stalk something that doesn't sit still. In the last 6 years I have had a few opportunities at deer moving on their feet, like in an ambush type situation, but they are few and far between, and very low odds of success. The gentle terrain doesn't have obvious and concentrated travel corridors. You have better odds chasing up a deer from behind than getting in front of one. Still very difficult. My best odds are with an exhausted rutted out buck that stays bedded in the same spot for a long time. Second best are with a buck in lockdown with one doe. Everything else after that is a long shot.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

That's completely different from where I hunt.

 

[iwearshorts]

Stay still and make sure you have enough cover to draw without being seen, or draw and hold in anticipation as the deer approaches. You might only get a small window of opportunity and it might be easier to draw and hold rather than draw as you have deer in your sight lines. Hunting from the ground is much easier in the early season when you have tons of available vegetation to use as cover. Late season when everything is dead it becomes a bit more difficult. Positioning yourself in the shadows, having the sun at your back, and locating dense enough brush/laydowns etc has helped me get in front of many deer but getting the shot off is still a challenge.

 

[ikesnipecity]

I killed one a couple nights ago on halloween, sitting in a camping chair on the ground in a bush.

 

[Dos Perros]

I know this is a whitetail thread, but I've posted a few times about hunting western KS where we hunt both species as if they were the same. It's all glass 'em up, and spot and stalk on the public. I took my 6 year old with me this weekend. That's a long drive for a 6 year old, let alone all the walking and driving around, but she did great! She ended up being my good luck charm as I killed this buck on her first stalk. We had to crawl on our hands and knees for about 100 yards to get within range. Towards the end we'd only crawl if the wind blew or a jet flew overhead. I'd have shot nearly any deer with her and was pretty lucky to kill this old swollen neck brute.