Duke and I have been talking about this quite a bit lately and we find it amazing that more people don't hunt from the ground. Him and I grew up basically teaching ourselves the ropes about hunting and I'd say 80% of our time was spent kneeling next to a big oak, tucked away in a deadfall, or randomly sitting next to a bush that "looked good", although we really had no idea what was going on. Now that we're a little older and a little wiser (not much) we hunt from treestands more often, but still hunt from the ground when the need arises. To this day I have never hunted out of a manufactured ground blind and don't have any plans to buy one anytime soon. I like the impromptu "I feel like hunting over there tonight" and go make your own ambush point. So my question is, who hunts from the ground and what sort of success have you had? Do you have any tips for us, or advice for those who have never tried it? Personally, I hunt the ground no differently than I hunt from a tree other than you have to be a lot more attentive as you generally can't see as much or as far. The deer seem to sneak up on you a lot easier than when you're looking down from above. Other than that, I now like finding a good deadfall to get tucked back into and make sure I carry a pair of clippers or hand saw with to help brush me in a little. Make sure you're in full-on camo head to toe, stay still, and have fun! Here's a few deer I've killed from the ground over the years. Me and my dear old dad. His first turkey with a bow and my first buck with a bow from the ground. Back in 99 I think. My biggest buck with a bow to date. Circa 2001 I think. Taken from the ground at about 12 yards while he was working a scrape. My biggest buck period. Taken with a shotgun I believe in 1999. Things are getting fuzzy going back that far. :D And this past December. My first from the ground in a few years, but not the last I'm sure.
I mentioned in GMMAT's thread (HNI) this morning one of my goals is to kill one from the ground with no blind.
My first bowkilled deer was from the ground. Its my avatar on HNI. I had my back to an oak, sitting in deep shade on a pasture edge. Two does walked right up to me. They had the sun in thier eyes and with me in the shade they just didn't see me. One got to within five yards before she turned broadside and gave me a shot. She looked up when I drew but couldn't make me out. Being she was my first deer with a bow and no cover but the shade I'm pretty proud of her.
Great thread Justin... I love hunting from the ground, I find it more exciting to be face to face with a deer. I do hunt out a very well brushed in ground blind, but I find myself creating more and more natural blinds as the years go by. Honestly, I think that more people don't do it more because they're lazy. I know that sounds stupid, because there is so much work that goes into hanging stands and that type of thing... but you have to be on your game completely when you're on the ground. A lot of people don't like that. Your scent is a much bigger issue, movement at eye level is a much bigger issue... etc. I've killed 6 or 7 deer from the ground all does but 1 and I don't have any pictures at all. Although the deer I killed last year, the platform of my stand was at head height... does that count? :d
Good thread Justin! I've hunted from the ground allot and have taken one deer in doing so on the ground. I don't buy into the blinds that you can buy either, I'm more of a person who likes to go find something that is natural looking and make it work. What I've noticed in the past thats worked best for me was always keep your blind on the back side of you and not in front of you. A back drop means allot more then whats in front of you. Example on what I mean- I've tried setting up behind bushes/brush piles waiting for the deer to come out to one side or the other and most of the time I always got picked off because I didn't have no back drop in back of me, It was wide open. I've set up inside/in front of these same places and have had great success in the deer not seeing me. I've passed up allot of doe's doing this, still trying to get that big buck on the ground, no luck yet though. It will happen, I've had some very close calls with bucks as close as 7 and 8 feet from me but I couldn't move because they would see me being they were to close. It is very challenging to say the least.
In my youth you did not have the option of purchasing a tree stand to hunt out of, most hunting was done out of a tree you could squrrel your way into, a ground blind or a pit. I still like hunting from the ground when the right conditions exist. Great pictures Justin.
I have hunted from the ground quite a bit the past few years. You simply cannot beat the excitement. Its a whole different feeling being eye level with them! Last year i took a doe from the ground and videoed Rex shooting this buck. I also shot at a buck last year from the ground, but he jumped the string and arrow just barely caught him. One thing that i take advantage of is cedar trees. They offer great cover and can be hunted underneath or can be used to help build a natural ground blind. I think the most important thing to consider when hunting from the ground is your backdrop. The better the backdrop the less likely you are to get busted!
Justin buddy :d since i know you have no desire to hunt turkeys im going to post these just to nip at your ankles a bit :d My only bow kills from the ground have been turkeys so far. I have never tried it for deer other than with a firearm and was sucessful there to. I actually got my start and tips building ground blinds from Hunsucker a couple of years ago, when he had a thread with a pic of blinds built out of cedar branches and tucked in good and tight in the shawdows with a good thick back drop. With that i give you vermon pics 2007 Indiana bird 2008 Missouri bird 2008 Indiana bird Here is a pic showing tucked back under a cedar tree for backdrop with cedar limbs piled all around the front.
When I 1st started bowhunting, I almost always hunted on the ground....mainly because I had one homeade stand that was a pain to put up. I've arrowed a few deer, mainly spot & stalking. Nowadays, I only hunt on the ground when there is not a good location for a treestand, or if my strategy is to spot and stalk. If i'm able to hang a stand in the location I want, then I just see too many advantages of hanging that treestand rather than sitting on the ground. My favorite tree to find if i'm just sitting on the ground without a blind, is a nice cedar. I can usually cut a couple limbs away, and get tucked back in it. Plus it's a nature cover scent, and often times the best cover around in the fall/winter.
My first deer was from the ground. It was abutton buck. I was in a treestand and got down just about dusk with 1/2 hour to go. As I eased up over a rise I saw a deer 30yds away. I thought it was 40 and the first arrow sailed over his back, he turneed and looked in my direction. There was a drizzle coming down, no wind. I nocked another arrow and hit him in the white patch just to his left. He only went about 60yds. I know, not a good/ethical shot but I didn't know alot back then and I did know people who had taken frontal shots. I never agaim took or would take a shot like that, too much can go wrong, but luckily this time all went right!
I think hunting from a treestand just has a certain level of comfort and security that a lot of people aren't willing to give up. You can see better and farther, you can generally get away with more movement, and you are usually more comfortable sitting down in a nice comfy stand. Most of my hunting off the ground was done either on my knees (keep it clean ladies!) or in a ridiculously uncomfortable and noisey swivel stool. I've even played icefisherman in the woods and sat on a bucket a few times. I'm really anticipating the releases of that new HuntMore stool that Todd from WKP has been working on. That thing is going to definitely help me hunt more effectively on the ground in the future. Sitting still when you're uncomfortable is just about impossible. I have to get out and work on a few stands this weekend, I may just consider beefing up my natural ground blind while I'm at it. I'd love to schwack another buck from the ground. That's good times.
I don't hunt whitetails from the ground... on purpose anyway. I have improptu stalked a couple successfully, but the terrain, flora, etc just give them even more of an advantage that is virtually impossible to overcome consistently enough to make it fun for me. However, I absolutely love spot and stalk hunting in open terrain such as after elk, mule deer or caribou. I really LOVE that type of hunting. Probably just because it is something different and I get to move around, see more, and feel a bit more like a real predator.
I am the exact opposite. When I learned to bowhunt it was from a tree...there was no other way in my Dad's world. So for the longest time I rarely if ever hunted from the ground. A few years ago I started because it was either sneak in on the ground after work or fuss with a stand and be late. So I started and saw how cool it can be. I've taken 2 deer off the ground with a bow, and plan to hunt much more off the ground without feeling handicapped.
I haven't done it a whole lot for whitetails with the bow, but lots with the ML and rifle. I may, and I mean may, try bear hunting from the ground this fall.
I have had a few opportunities to shoot deer from the ground but the buck was too small and I wasn't doe hunting the other few times.
As already mentioned by my good chum ZJ.. I enjoy hunting from the ground.. even til this day. Both he and I did this very frequently together back in "the day". It was how I learned the in's and out's of whitetail and I can think of no better way to learn. I would even call treestand hunting childs play compared to the lessons I was taught by whitetail staring in at me at eye level. Even today I still consider hunting from the ground on any given hunt. I have no pre-conceived notion of what treestand will put me in my best odds.. rather what spot. Although these days I drag around a LW treestand which gives more mobile options.. but there are still those areas I consider better from the ground and weather conditions I'd rather still-hunt by. 2007 was my first year ever I did not take a single animal from the ground.. which is unbelievable for me. I had plenty of opportunity.. but I did not want to take the animal or I missed (1 doe at like 8 or 9 yrds. in the snow.) I will continue to hunt from the ground when I feel it gives me the best odds that day. Despite knees that no longer bend like they once did. Oh.. and I'd place some pics in this post.. but I haven't yet mastered this challenge just yet.. and I'm extremely lazy.
Hunting from the ground can be an advantage, and it can also be a crutch... The same as hunting from a tree. I have always been one to do whatever it takes (ethically of coarse ) to get the big buck Im after. That being said, I greatly prefer hunting out of a tree over hunting on the ground whenever possible. Some of the major disadvantages of ground hunting are: 1) being at the same sight plane as the buck means your more likely to be seen when you move. 2) There is more foliage and other obstacles to shoot around. You also have a harder time getting the deer in a shooting lane when he is at the right angle to be shot. Contrarily, you should have plenty of shot opportunities from above. 3) Scent control is much more difficult. If the deer gets down wind, or catches a wind swirl, its over. From a tree, your scent is likely to blow over him. Some of the advantages of hunting off the ground are: 1) Hunting where the deer are, not where the trees are. You can't kill him from a tree if he is hanging where there are none. 2) I like to hunt close to bedding areas... Hunting from the ground when your in close can keep the buck from seeing you climbing and setting your stand from his bedded position. 3) You have the mobility to quickly move to a new position, or do a stalk if the need arises Here is an article I wrote a couple years ago about a ground hunt... Its starts out as a gun hunt, but turns archery, I promise. The 8:00 Buck By Dan Infalt There was this old man I used to work with named Bill. He lived most of his life in the Wisconsin North woods. He was a joy to work with cause he was an old trapper and hunter who had hundreds of stories to tell. I could trust him with my hunting secrets and he would keep his mouth quiet. I was having a bad year and kept telling Bill how I wasn't seeing the big bucks I had scouted earlier in the year. Bill drove past one of the main farms I hunt every day on his way to work, and started telling me of a large 10 pointer he was seeing every morning in an open area on the back of the farm. He said the buck was crossing the road from south to north and every morning at 8AM there he would be, on one side or the other heading onto "my" farm. It sounded good, in theory, however, I figured he was seeing a smaller buck than he described. There were no trees to setup in where he was seeing this buck anyway. So I just kept hunting the other side of that farm and was seeing nothing but small bucks. I had it in the back of my mind to go over there and check out Bill's suggestion that I whack the eight o'clock buck, but just never made it over there with chasing other leads. Pretty soon early bow season was just about over and gun season was about to start. I told Bill how frustrated I was about not getting onto any nice bucks, and he laid into me. "You're frustrated!" screamed Bill. "I have been telling you to go hunt that dang 10 point all season and you just sit on the other side of the woods! He was out there again this morning and the morning before!!" I gave a sorry excuse about there being no trees over there and he just looked at me over his glasses and said, "You want me to go kill um for ya?" That evening I went over to where the old man had claimed the big buck was crossing the road. I could hardly believe what I was seeing. There where huge tracks everywhere going back and forth. I looked at the landscape and found a spot where there was a dip in the grassy terrain where I could dig a hole in the ground and shoot down the dip without being detected. Now that bow season was over, I let that spot cool down and went to some great opening weekend haunts. Nothing but little bucks were seen and pretty soon the 9 day gun season was coming to a close. I stopped by the shop even though I was on vacation and asked Bill if he still had been seeing the eight o'clock buck. "Yep", he said, "every morning." The last morning of the gun season found me in the hole waiting for my buck. Just as the sun was starting to crest the horizon, here he
How does that tree hunting for deer work?? I've only ever shot one deer out of a tree. It was in a different area then I normally hunt, but the stand would have been lucky to be 10 feet off the ground. All but one bowkill and all rifle kills have been from the ground. I've never gotten into pop ground blinds either. Find a spot and become part of the landscape. We use the 3 legged folding stools, kneel, sit on the ground or stand depending on how high the cover. Having fox, coyotes , skunks, badger and ect... within mere feat keeps it interesting while waiting on the deer. Having and killing deer within yards is intense hunting. I love it. The little bit of tree hunting I have done was fun also and has it's own merits. For you guys that can do either at any time... I envy you. Tim
