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.

 

[JustABritCrazy]

I hunt big public tracts of northern PA. Don’t climb trees and hunt exclusively from the ground. For bow season I find root balls and blowdowns on the corners of clearcuts to stand beside or in. Also have some large rocks size Of living rooms to small houses I’ll climb up and sit on. Have shot 3 decent bucks so far from the ground using archery gear. Over 80 using a rifle.

 

[KyleR1985]

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.

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I may sell anything I own to climb a tree. If I can take my soon to be two year old daughter on a stalk to within bow range of a hammer like that one time, I’d give up every second in a tree the rest of my life!

Nice buck congrats to both of you.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

I hunt big public tracts of northern PA. Don’t climb trees and hunt exclusively from the ground. For bow season I find root balls and blowdowns on the corners of clearcuts to stand beside or in. Also have some large rocks size Of living rooms to small houses I’ll climb up and sit on. Have shot 3 decent bucks so far from the ground using archery gear. Over 80 using a rifle.

You've shot over 80 bucks in pa huh?

 

[tuffcrk14]

I shot my best whitetail at 5 yards from an impromptu ground blind and he never knew he was shot. Didn’t even jump at the sound of my bow going off. Blew my mind. I think part of what made that spot so successful for me to draw my bow unnoticed was that I was in the shade of a big diamond willow bush. The next bit of advice I can give is about drawing your bow unnoticed. The way I do it is to have your bow up and held out in front of you and ready in the drawing position with tension on the string from your release to pull your string back to your anchor point with zero movement of the bow itself. I see how people raise their bow up and then down as they draw and it is cringeworthy to me. You can do everything right up to that last point and then blow it. On another ground blind setup I shot a nice buck in, I utilized cottonwood saplings and nipped branches from live trees to build up my blind a bit in my exposed spots where I knew the deer would potentially be able to see me from their direction of travel. My shooting lane was between two cottonwood trees in front of me at 25 yards. When his head went behind the first tree, I drew and made a “meh” sound to stop him when he was in my shooting window. It worked out like I had hoped, which doesn’t always happen. Take a hand saw and pruners to make it more efficient to build a blind with and also a little three legged stool to sit on is a really nice touch.

Chuck Adams said in an interview once that when he is in a hunting situation, he will evaluate his setup and ask himself what about this will go wrong for me and ruin my opportunity on this animal. I think of that saying often in situations like ground blind hunting because there is a lot that can go wrong. Good luck out there!


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[Neilbob]

This is a cool thread. I’ve killed a few white tails in East Texas with a bow, but all on private land in a stand with a pile of corn and such. This is my first year hunting public land where you cannot bait. Area I’m hunting is kinda scrubby, so not much opportunity for a tree stand. Been hunting on the ground, and have a lot to learn. Got busted by a spike (I don’t discriminate) trying to draw and my chair squeaked. He stared straight at me and I went ahead and shot and he ducked the arrow at 30 yards. Tried a ground blind, but deer knew something was off, and skirted 50 yards or so around me. I’ll try to brush it in better and see what happens. Some good advice about how to draw. I probably have my bow set too high.

 

[JustABritCrazy]

You've shot over 80 bucks in pa huh?

Coulda, woulda shoulda, if I could shot straight, paid better attention, and not do stupid stuff. I’ve had an opportunity almost every year on at least one legal buck in both archery and rifle. My tally is roughly 30 bucks and 50 does. Been at this for 50 years.