I began hunting in Wisconsin and if you hunted whitetails it was from a tree. I moved to Alaska in the early eighties and fell in love with spot and stalk and still hunting. I hunted black bears out of a stand for sevral seasons, but after getting a taste of spot and stalk, retired the tree stand for good. Even baiting in the spring, I clear a trail that I could stalk in to the bait and shoot them off the ground. I let them pattern me, keeping the bait sparse, and within short order I could about count on them coming in shortly after I would bait at the same time every morning. Id hike out, have a cup of coffee, and stalk back in. It works GREAT!!!
When I go back to Wisconsin and South Dakota for whitetails, I still-hunt the big woods and the corn fields. Corn field hunting is a huge challenge, but it's awesome!
Ground hunting is a numbers game. You will see more deer and have more opportunites from tree stands, but the more time you put in from the ground, the more opportunites you have. I just love to hunt. Having taken enough game so that the drive to kill has waned, the experience is what it's about for me. And there is no greater sense of satisfaction than to hunt with bow and arrow built by my own hand, and meet my quarry face to face in his own living room.
Some of my best remembered stories dont end in a kill. Like the time that 170 class buck blew snot in my face and we both had to check out shorts for sign...