Hunting on the ground - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

[madmaxthc]

After a month of intense overtime to meet a couple of deadlines, I took a week off and spent it hunting a high-pressure, archery-only public land. A week + 2 weekends = 9 days in the woods! Sure I needed that.
I also decided to hunt on the ground only - a bit overambitious for someone who hasn't put a bowkill under his belt yet , but decided to do it anyway.


The Good

I spent several days hunting a certain buck. It was an amazing experience. He smelled me , he spotted me, he even read my brainwaves and predicted what I was going to do. At the end, I re-examined his movements in the previous few days, and decided where to ambush him so I would be downwind.
He instead approached me from the back till he was very close, then proceeded to blow all around me for five whole minutes, then left. A true King of the Woods.

With a couple of days left, I decided to make my move on different spots where I thought there would be does. I put to use the crash course the buck gave me:  I used the wind, I used the vegetation to my advantage, I made sure I scanned around every time before  scratching my head, shifting my weight or other little movement. Result:  I managed to approach several group of does at 20-30 yards. They never saw me. I am particularly proud of getting at less than 30 yards from a huge doe and her daughters. She stared straight at me, thought nothing of it, and kept feeding.

That buck taught me a lot, I hope he makes sweet love this season. I am surprised of how much I learned in nine days. I also think I am addicted to hunting  on the ground now 


The Ugly

Yep 


The Very Bad

Unfortunately, it was not just a bad shot. I missed three different times.   I trained every other day this week after hunting, and noticed my accuracy was getting worse and worse. I used to shoot poker cards at 20 yards a few years ago, now if I am a bit short on sleep, or work some extra hours (computer work), my archery skills really take a dip. I am not sure it's just my eyesight, I can miss the target by a few feet on either side. If I am at the range it takes a lot of effort to focus back and start shooting straight again.
I think I'm going to hang the bow for a bit, I need to rethink my future as traditional archer at this point.

Thank you for listening
Max

[Howitser]

UGLY?   Looks like a perfect center shot on that pesky sapling.  Even without a blood trail I bet you found it in short order.   

[madmaxthc]

UGLY?   Looks like a perfect center shot on that pesky sapling.  Even without a blood trail I bet you found it in short order.   

 

[Wudstix]

Stay with it, trust me, it gets better.

[madmaxthc]

Stay with it, trust me, it gets better.

Thank you, Wudstix.
I really need to sort out this problem before going out again. We'll see.

[Captain*Kirk]

I've hunted from the ground for about 5 years now. Yep, it's an education!

[Howitser]

I love when they bust ya but don't quite know what ya are....head bobbin, hoof stomping, turning around, just the best show.

[pavan]

I had a big iowa buck a few years back that must have been sitting on a high hill, just watching.  When I would hunt one side of a bottom flat, he would pass on the far edge.  The next day I moved to that side and passed right past my natural blind from the day before. This game went on for two weeks.  One day I tried calling with a grunt tube and a bleat call.  On the opposite side of the field, out off the creek bottom weeds stepped the area not very trail camera shy mountain lion.  Thinking back on it, I should have kept calling.  I never saw that buck there again, he moved to open country private land. 
   Speaking of big kitties. Coming home from  hunting west of Inwood last night, I saw something give eye shine coming out of a half picked cornfield.  Thinking deer i slowed down, they can really mess up your car, and they move around a lot during harvest. As I got closer, too short, maybe coyote or dog, then I guessed big farm dog in a half squat, legs too thick and wrong proportions.  Going about 10 per hour as we got close and the creature was just a couple of yards from the road, I saw the tail and made out the rest of him, mountain lion.  I called it in to a couple of people. I got the same answer from both, "That's nothing, he was straight west of town in broad daylight by the Million Dollar Corner a couple of days ago, lots of people have seen him."  I wish they would have told me, I would have liked to get some daylight photos.  If he leaves scat or a track in that public land, my wife will spot it and lock herself in the car.

[Mark R]

Hunting from the ground on pressured public land is an ultimate hunt with a trad bow IMHO, they get pushed around so much its hard to pattern them, and there even more alert, lots of skill and luck is needed. I've taken a few dear in the past  in good unpressured areas but my first with a trad bow on pressured public land is my proudest moment, and now its what I enjoy most, successfull or not.

[McDave]

If you keep at it, you will eventually be able to know why you missed.  Knowing why I miss has taken a lot of frustration out of my life.  There are two categories of misses you will learn how to figure out: misses that are obvious as soon as the shot is over once you understand the cause, and misses that are not obvious even when you know the cause. 

An example of the second type, for me anyway, is hitting low because I either drop my bow arm or peek.  I swear I never drop my bow arm or peek.  And yet if I hit low and it was not a ranging error or just a general f**kup, I know I must have dropped my bow arm or peeked.  How do I know that?  Because if I specifically concentrate on not dropping my bow arm or peeking on the next shot, I don't hit low!

You'll learn how to identify many other errors in the course of your journey.  For me, it has been one of the most rewarding parts of learning how to shoot the bow.

[ron w]

Your seeing deer, your getting shots, so what’s the problem. So you made a bad shot and tagged a tree. Take a deep breath and move forward. If this was easy everyone would do it. My first kill was a bear, after 50 years I still haven’t killed a deer......   keep at it and enjoy the journey!!!

[hawkeye n pa]

Sounds like you had a wonderful time and enjoyed it.  When your ground hunting on there terms and it comes together, well, just nothing else like it IMHO.  Keep at it.

[madmaxthc]

Thank you all for the support, and for the help with troubleshooting the issue.

I was pretty disappointed the other day, but this morning I was back to the range, shooting from less than 10 yards and  trying to set myself straight.

This truly is an amazing community, I love you guys 

Happy arrows 
Max 

[achigan]

I took my buck from the ground this year. At 68 years old, taking to the trees isn’t that much fun. I ALWAYS hunt the wind. I build my blinds from branches and leaves on hand. ONE SETUP, the successful one this year is in a north/south tree row on the east side of a CRP field. Behind me is mine property that has little to attract deer. 4 yards in front is the singles bat with a scrape right there. Any wind from ssw to nnw blows my scent away from the travel route/ scrape line. Lack of depth to the pic makes to tough to see, but this is it.

[madmaxthc]

That's a nice natural blind 

[achigan]

That's a nice natural blind 

I didn’t have to do a whole lot. I found the site along the scrape line where the branches swept down and just cut two shooting lanes. My eyes, when sitting, are about even with middle of the kill zone.

[Homey88]

Don’t quit Madmaxthc! Stay in there and enjoy the encounters!

[madmaxthc]

Thanks, I'll hang in there 

Back to the range, fixing myself 
I guess this is at the same time the pro and con of trad archery. It needs constant work, at least for me, but working at it is a pleasure of itself.

[Overspined]

All that stress = lack of focus and all. Here’s one thing I like to try to do, especially for evening hunts but I think in the car headlights isn’t a bad idea either. Do some judo shooting on the way to the blind. Or in the headlights. Stop and smell the woods, and get in the mood of nature and hunting. Basically get mentally in the zone. I believe GF ASBELL is an advocate of this, basically slowing yourself down and being a hunter and not rushing to your spot like everything else we do in life.

Ground hunting Trad for pressured deer is one of the hardest endeavors. Be patient. You’ll learn every time, and mess up more sets than you’ll want to. So be prepared. I only ground hunt when I have to, or in tall grass/corn. It’s so hard with pressured deer. I like decoys when I ground hunt.

[UrsusNil]

You did well! I'd have a hard time seeing a buck, or even a doe on the game lands near me. The deer are there, but they are very, very good at staying alive in the never ending thickets on that place. One of the toughest places to hunt, probably ranks up there with wide open spaces.