Let's hear about hunting deer from the ground!

[longcruise]

Those were probably spruce hens, Fred. When they see a gun they throw themselves at your feet and kill themselves :haha:

 

[Spikebuck]

Well, I will tell a tale no one will believe and I suspect it would work less than one in a million times....


Many years ago a video came out filmed in Michigan on "The Sanctuary". That video was "The Bowhunter" and contained footage of a Native wearing a hair on, head/antlers on, buckskin and stalking a deer in an open meadow straight on. Each time the deer would look up, the hunter would freeze and act like a deer feeding. They were mentioning this was a tactic the natives used back when.

Not too long after first watching that video, I had gotten off stand (a ground blind by the way) to get to my wife's stand before it got too dark. She doesn't like sitting in the woods in the dark. As I came out of the woods to the edge of an alfalfa field there was a small yearling 7 pointer feeding about 70 yards out. There was a pretty stiff wind right in my face. I decided I had nothing to lose, so I crouched down in a waddling position and held my recurve at the top of my head and proceeded to low-waddle into the darkening alfalfa field toward the buck. Each time he would look up, I'd freeze. I'm in the wide open now. Well, to make a long story short, at about 18 yards he was starting to get pretty nervous and I was at the last minutes of legal time, so I brought my bow down slowly, still holding it horizontally (aren't traditional bows and instinctive shooting great) and drilled a 2-blade Magnus into him. He only ran a short ways and piled up.

That is definitely one of the hightlights of my hunting "career." I suspect I could never, ever do that again. Good buck to get out of the gene pool! :grin:

I still hunt from trees and on the ground...most of my muzzleloading is from the ground. Movement, or lack thereof, is the key along with playing the wind. You can be dressed like an orange pumpkin...that doesn't matter nearly as much.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Great story.
In the highlands of Scotland which has many sheep, many a deer stalker has draped a sheep fleece over them and 'moved in'.

B.

 

[BigBoreBLR]

They like a bit of cover. If there's a vein of small pines or brush, or even a tall log or rock fence, they like to break their outlines. Hear noise, look for antlers at the edge of a big tree or other cover.

you don't need to go in deep, get in enough in the right spot quietly to do so.

Keep yourself vertical moving arms swaying boides bust you.

Approach any new area of view like your going to shoot a deer. Get you head in view very carefully and slowly. I like the woods to have a minute of peace before I peer over the ridge.

Deer love to bed in south faces. Deer do get nocturnal somewhat. They need need, they get it by moving and eating. when they rest, they enjoy the sun on them.

Want to improve your hunting 1000%, scout in the early winter with snow cover, take notes where brushy spots are, where water is, where spots are tougher or easier to pass, what trees.

Deer like a commanding view. Zig zaging carefully and slowly over a ridge without being too visually busted is ideal.

Test your gun in low light. Maybe temporaily paint the front and rear sights, or just the rear. Polish the front brass sight. A rear sight custom positioned for your eyes is a huge plus. Don't be afraid to relocate the sight. Many old guns have 2 or 3 different rear sight notches adjusted for new owner or moved a little for aging eyes. There's a art to iron sights, learn it. Read "the big lie" It's a military competition shooting book. Still hunter is good too. Salerno brothers makes a good DVD on them too. Kind of a local NY celebrity hunter without the glamour of those fancy hunting ranches.

Layered clothing. A good underlayer warm enough to slow walk on flat ground. Unzip the jacket when climbing hills. And then another layer when you rest. Sweat means your going too fast. I don't like bags, I keep everything in pockets.

I place wooden seats at break points in my hunting spots. I am part of a private 800 acre paper pulp company lease, so I have a brushy forest preserve to myself, literally. The other guys absorb themselves with atv's on the 350 acres in a corner, I get the other 450 or so to my feet. The worst spots for ATV's are the best ones for deer.

Make some natural deer blinds make a frame you have a sturday gun base, them break your outline with branches. Don't scent up one blind too much. Maybe alternate between a couple.

Spot and stalk is what I like. I got my places to rest, but take my time to get there.

Squirrel hunting is excellent practice for deer hunting on the ground.

 

[BigBoreBLR]

A short clothes line piece, a single clothes line pulley, and long piece of clothes line is perfect for deer recovery single handed. Put the pulley on the deer and tie an end to a tree. 1000% easier getting a deer up a hill or out of a messy spot.

I also bought a frame pack and leave it in the car. I have quartered deer and brought them back on my pack before. The lady of the house prefers this method too.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

more methodical and work harder then the average hunter.

I don't know about the "average" hunter I guess, as I'd say a person who successfully hunts with a flinter is above average from the beginning?? I don't hunt with guys with modern guns.

I've not thought about hunting as work, now processing a deer after it's been harvested, that's work, but not the hunting part leading up to that. I like to practice moving slow, walking in mocs and not popping a twig..., if I'm moving. Even if I don't see a deer or get a shot, I've accomplished something. I like to take my time as I find more stuff...see more sign, spot other critters, the sun moves and as the angle changes things appear, like that small tree where a young buck rubbed off his velvet that I didn't spot at dawn but is easier to spot at 8 or 9 a.m.

I don't know why folks say deer "don't look up". I've seen many deer, not during hunting season, and some so young they can't have experienced a hunting season, looking up at stuff above them.

LD

 

[Grumpa]

Lots of good info. Still hunting is without question the most enjoyable way to hunt, if you have the patience and self control. I have spent countless hours doing so. Not so good on the opener, or Saturdays, but mid week, when most of the competition is at work, it is still a good technique.

It works the best in the rain.

I will look for the book.

 

[Grumpa]

You are 100% right on binoculars. I do not go afield anytime, hunting or not, without them.

 

[Grumpa]

More good advice. :thumbsup:

My mental attitude is that with every step, I am coming through the curtain on a stage. Do it "fast", and every deer out in the "audience" sees you. Do it painfully slow, and nothing sees you.

I have seen many deer before they ever saw me.

 

[BrownBear]

All good replies, but I'll add something learned in 60 years of ground hunting, most of it on irregular ground.

Look low, as though you're rabbit hunting. Often. Very often, deer will be in some little fold in the terrain with only their head showing. They'll spot you even moving slow, and they'll be out of there without you seeing so much as a hair.

Even on flat terrain, if there's lots of cover you'll spot the movement of their feet first when you pay attention to that low ground. Even when deer "freeze" it's often their upper body that's frozen, but they'll be shifting their feet to get ready to leave.

 

[nhmoose]

I hate tree stands BORING!!! I have shot many deer some sitting while on a ground stand. But I like shooting deer found when stalking. I have killed bucks lying head down hiding from me when doing that. THAT is the biggest rush of hunting trust me.

 

[PaulN/KS]

I have height "issues", never liked being up in trees even as a kid. I always hunt on the ground.

 

[palonghunter]

I've killed a grand total of 1 deer from a tree. Its not really that I don't like tree stands, they just aren't usually necessary (or practical) in the places I hunt. I'd rather sit on a nice log or stump and wait, or still hunt if conditions allow.

 

[John Neslen]

Back in the old days when I was a kid, I learned from an old timer that he never more than a FEW steps at a time. If you were heard the animal stalked would think you were an animal browsing. He hunted mulies.

 

[hanshi]

I hunted a LOT from sitting on a stool on the ground. I've hunted too many places with no trees big enough to use. All my hunting has been from the ground for a long time, now. So I have shared time at ground level and elevated. I don't go up at all regardless of what kind of elevated contraption I see. If I didn't kill myself climbing my wife would do it when she found out. I like to be comfortable so usually sit in a chair or on a good stool. I've killed deer in big pastures by hiding behind a hay bale; they make good rifle rests, too.

 

[Vaino]

Through the years I've deer hunted many different ways because of changing areas, deer populations, hunter density and legal means. Advocating only one way of deer hunting is neglecting some other ways that might be more successful....afterall, when deer hunting the intention is to kill a deer....right?

Living in northern Minnesota during the "Great Depression" was a lesson in survival and killing deer wasn't easy seeing you were competing w/ many others who were in the same circumstances causing the deer to be quite scarce. So...one not only had to "outfox" the deer but also one's neighbors.

Being resourceful produced "meat on the table" and I guess this depression mentality has never left me. Won't go into the details of how we killed deer in those times, but many of the unconventional "ways" would possibly shock a few readers.

Versatility when hunting yields more meat....Fred

 

[don hepler]

I've been very successful hunting from the ground. I know the deer patterns in my area, and sit and wait. In the morning, just before daylight the deer will move down to the creek and drink, then just minutes before first light, they head back up the ridges and lay on ridge benches, where they can see. In the evenings just before dark they are up and moving back down to the fields. Other hunters will jump deer, and they flee on well worn trails. Knowing the deer, and other hunting pressure, allows you to sit up in the most likely areas. I have stood up against one tree, or sit on a large rock, for the entire day. I use the wind to my favor. The wind on the south facing side of my hunting property, is generally out of the west, so I want to be at the far end of my property, which allows to deer to move about and always have the wind in my favor. Watch, think and learn. My wife's grandfather, gave me a lot of tips, about how to hunt, and he had never seen a tree stand.

I have had friends say they saw six deer or twelve deer, but I don't think like that. I want to see one deer, that I want to harvest. I have no interest in seeing deer with the tails waving in the air.