Ground Hunting Tips. What do you do?

[DJT]

Trying to spend more time on the ground this year both in natural blinds as well as stalking and i seem to be getting busted a lot.  
What are your best tips for hunting from the ground?

Thanks
don

[Marblesonac]

Get used to being busted....it is MUCH harder than stand hunting


Make sure you have cover behind you, it's more important than in front of you.

Keep yourself as scent free as possible.

Keep movement to a minimum...move your eyes, not your whole head if you a drawn to a sound.  If you must move, move slow and steady.

Draw when the deers head is behind a tree or looking away if possible.

[GingivitisKahn]

Marblesonac is dead on.  When you move - move sloooooooowly.  

Keeping scent free is all well and good, but keep the wind in your face as well - that's even more important, IMO.  If you tie a bit of waxed dental floss (2 or 3 inches is good) to your string (below the upper nock somewhere) - then fray the end of the floss, you  get a super (and super cheap) wind indicator to help with this.

[Bjorn]

A bit of down feather makes a cool wind indicator too.........I echo all of the above and moving slow cannot be emphasized enough. Like a half hour to cover 200 yards of good territory. I have literally stood on top of a pig's bed in a stump and waited for him to come out.

[44charlie]

if you see one deer there's probably more! try not to move til you figure out how many eyesand ears are out there.
when they ghet in close i squint my eyes or close one eye and try not to look straight at them.
i always hold my bow cause if you get caught with it hanging or on your lap you'll be lucky to get it up in time to shoot. i get in shooting postion as soon as possible and try to "track" the deer with my arrow tip.
don't be dicouraged at getting busted and stay in the woods cause anything can and will happen if you're out there with bow in hand. i pretent that there's always a deer with in sight of me.
be a predator!

HAVE FUN!!!!

[mcgroundstalker]

Still Hunting and Trad Archery go together like white on rice. Just keep at it and it all will come together for you. Slow, slow, sloooooo. Try to get hold of an old video called "Eye Level Bucks", a Stony Wolf production with Mike (Lapinski).

Oh Yea...... Don't still hunt with Joe Skipp. He moves too fast.  

... mike ...

[J-dog]

Been doin the busted thing myself-love the ground though so I say getting busted is what makes it fun. everyone has chimed in but I will say use shadows!! avoid sunlight beams like the plague.

if your setup is in the sun forget it that is the good thing about the ground you can move! Just keep tryin

J

[Archie]

I took a pair of old leather chukka shoes, cut the stitching between the sole and the rest of the shoe, and removed the sole.  Then I laced on some leather to cover the bottom.  Then I went to BassPro and bought a pair of knee-high waterproof Sealskinz socks.  I wear wool socks, the Sealskinz, and the leather "moccasins", and can sneak through the woods all day.  Much quieter than my boots.  And... like the other guys say, you gotta move very slow...

[GingivitisKahn]

Bloody heck - I got busted tonight, still hunting.  :-D

My son had been shotgunning for squirrels (he got one) so the woods were far from quiet.  Anyway, we were moving pretty slowly up a ridge when we both felt something in the area.  

In spite of my advice from earlier, I had failed to pay adequate attention to the wind, but we squatted down and I called once with a doe blat.

Either my call was poorly done or the deer caught our scent, but whatever it was - we saw butt hair.

Who cares - what a great and fun evening.  Next time, I gotta watch that wind and move even slower.

[draco]

Look more than walk. Cover face and hands. Know your route before hand,so you can traverse it silently,without bending over. I like to walk on cattle trails,if a cow can get thru I usually can get thru quietly with out moving my hands or arms. Glass ahead as much as you can even if it`s thick. Stay standing upright,no bending. Wear a hat not a cap,a hat is a cylinder,not changing as you turn your head. My dad was an excellent walking hunter and these are just some of the things he told me.

[vermonster13]

Are you still hunting or ground hunting? Wind, clothes that break up your outline and good back cover. You'll be surprised at how minimal front cover needs to be. Also, cover your face.

[SuperK]

Yes, ground hunting is a NEW BALL GAME!  But, it can be done!  I got one last week on the ground.  Boy oh boy, will that get ya' pumped up!  Have the wind in your face, camo from head to toes, move super slow, and back into a brushpile or treelap to break-up your outline, and I use an Apache Pyramid blind (in front) to cover movement when I draw.  I would also recommend getting Mr. Asbell book on still-hunting.  Good stuff in it.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I've been hunting from a ground (brush pile around a Tree) natural blind. So far I have one deer from the ground, that was from just walking in to the woods. I sit in front of a big tree with the brush in front of me...Still waiting to get a deer from there.

[John 4]

Play the wind.
I hunt bedding areas more than any where else.
Once I know I'm in a hot area I only move about 5-10 feet at a time,and I study every tree,bush,gap in the under growth ect ect.
I spend as much time listening as I do looking.
I try to hunt just after or during wet weather as it keeps my noise down a bit more than when things are dry.
On average I get a shot opertunity about once in every 6-7 encounters,and close the deal 1 in 3 of those.I don't call blowing a deer out of it's bed at 100 mph "an encounter" that's a stuff up, an I get plenty of those too.
Where I hunt,one deer in three days is good going,,,for me.

[shawnee]

If you are still hunting, one thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is the type of clothes you wear.  If every branch and bunch of grass you brush against scrapes down your pants leg, you aren't going to see many deer.  You have to wear clothes that are soft and quiet.