posted
I have full confidence in my ghillie suit; I have had deer less than 12 STEPS away from me and never knew I was there; quit hunting from tree stands several years ago; love going in with just a backpack and my hunting stool and hunt; I am in the process of learning to still hunt more and more; killed 2 deer still hunting last year and what a feeling it was; what was funny, while using my ghillie suit on public land, ran into 2 different hunters who never saw me; both walked by me and never knew anyone else was around them; I knew then that the ghille suit trully works......
-------------------- May the sun always shine bright on your path and the wind be in your face Posts: 190 | From: Arkansas | Registered: May 2009
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You can always put out a few straw bales and jam sticks into them until it gives good enough cover. The straw bales are comfortable to sit on as well!
Posts: 2917 | From: Galion, Ohio | Registered: Aug 2006
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Sal thats the one.Was it Terry or you that put it up on the other thread.
-------------------- Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but the Marines don’t have that problem. —President Ronald Reagan Posts: 7953 | From: NJ to GA back to NJ =Lost ;) | Registered: Sep 2009
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Have to agree with "Irish" "There is such a thing as too close". Be ready to take the first available good shot.
Posts: 3061 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2004
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I use natural ground blinds all the time. I know this saturday I my plan is to sit in a brush blind that I have had a bunch of bucks feeding by it. I have had same day success with the ground blinds if I use a quick "ground nest" with good back ground or just set up in cover that is already there,deadfall,thick stands of trees,ect... I don't like to make big brush blinds if I plan on same day hunts,most I still try to build blinds in advanced. I have seen plenty of big old mulies/elk that will advoid anything that is new in the area. Most of the time I do as Jerry did in the pic above.
Posts: 2107 | From: utah | Registered: Feb 2009
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my best experience is to camo/cover my legs and my face more than my torso and arms. I personally feel that the standup silhouette of our legs, along with movement is the dead giveaway to a deer's eyesight. I've hunted with shaggie pants, a face mask, and a simple plaid shirt and had excellent results.
Posts: 132 | From: NY | Registered: Dec 2008
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mysticguido
***unregistered***
posted
quote:Originally posted by lpcjon2: Sal thats the one.Was it Terry or you that put it up on the other thread.
posted
you mean there is another way??? I hunt probably 90% public land, so the most efficient way to hunt is from the ground. I really need to take a picture of what I hunt with, I think a lot of you guys would be surprised how . . . "primitive" my clothing is, it ain't plaid but it might as well be. I use "natural cover" but none of it resembles a blind, maybe a large tree as a backstop never on top of a hill, and when I say hill I mean rugged mountains, so there is always a tree and solid wall of earth basically behind me. Another good reason treestands just don't fit, for critters looking up the mountains everything in a tree will be noticeable, looking downhill it would be perfect, but the majority of my deer come from downhill.
-------------------- ~Chris Shelton "By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail"~Ben Franklin Posts: 969 | From: Maryland | Registered: May 2009
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It's usually hot where I hunt (TX and S.CAL) I like a stool with good back cover also. Been thinking about a leafy suit, good for heat and bugs. Has anyone had luck with one of these? I 'm sure that the gilli's are better for concealment but not an option in the hot. Also camo on the hands and face is a must.
-------------------- "Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do." Posts: 403 | From: Henderson,Tx / Escondido,Ca | Registered: Oct 2006
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The best tree stand I have ever had was a small pellet that someone tried to tie in a tree and it must not have worked. In Iowa wooded hills there lots of little gullies. The deer quite often funnel around these. I wedged that pallet, I spelled it different, at the head of one those little gullies and put stool on it. It worked great until some jerk put a tree stand above my stool. Around here tree stands are about the same as no trespassing signs when they are put on public woods. I tried hunting out of one last year, but it was stolen, now I am going to stay on the ground and hunt anywhere I feel like. Using natural blinds allows us to always play the wind. If it is nothing more than a strap on tree seat with my back against a large tree, so be it. It is just more fun when I feel free and portable.
Posts: 2559 | From: Iowa | Registered: Oct 2009
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posted
i hunt 100% on the ground. i have had success with pop ups and natural blinds. although i prefer just making a natural blind. and i really love hunting standing corn, talk about being able to ambush!
Posts: 595 | From: Alabama | Registered: Dec 2008
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I hunt the ground mostly so I use natural or mostly natural blinds and try to disturb the area as little as possible. For example one of my blinds I built this year is back under a canopy of old vines and tree branches. I'm back in the dark and just needed a small piece of camo netting(about 3 ft long) to completely hide me. In most of mine I use no man made materials.
posted
I am exclusively ground pounding this yr - due to having my Lab accompany me on my hunts.
Also though I think back to when I began bowhunting and I was almost exclusively a ground pounder, though it was out of being broke and no other equipment, no idea what I was doing - in my early teens. I saw alot of deer hunting like that. Also I like to move a bit to different locals. spending a couple hours at each.
J
-------------------- Always be stubborn.
Captain hindsight to the rescue! Posts: 1568 | From: North Carolina | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
The ground blinds are like a tree stand, some places work great and some don't. I have some spots I hunt every year where I can put up my ground blind and hunt it that day. My favorite has 2 large oaks in front I slide it up against and it is thick brush behind me. I can hunt this spot first day and let the deer get used to the other blinds that are not so well hidden. I just open 1 window and have found they really help with scent. I have had deer cross at 5 yards down wind and not smell me numerous times. I think you several methods to be effective.
Posts: 106 | From: Longview, Texas | Registered: Aug 2010
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In the early 80's I hunted near Lysite, Wyoming. I built ground blinds out of sagebrush along the edge of irrigated alfalfa fields. Killed lots of mulies and one antelope doing this. It worked great. Of course there weren't any pop-up blinds then.
I use pop-ups for turkey for convenience and because they work extremely well for these birds. It blows me away that such a wary bird completely ignores (most of the time) ground blinds that brushed in at all. I have only hunted in a pop-up for white-tails once and that was a long-established rig in Texas.
My buddy brushed in a blind for his granddaughter. When no one was in that blind I watched deer walk by it and look very warily at it even though it had been there for weeks.
I'm planning to try to take a white-tail from a pop-up this year although I'll be in the trees most of the time. I'll use the pop-up instead of natural cover because 1) I have them. 2)I have fall turkeys in mind more than deer when I'm doing this.
-------------------- If the mind wanders, so too will the arrow.
Member of various archery organizations. Posts: 3855 | From: Kentucky | Registered: Jan 2004
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