I wanted to try hunting on the ground this year to give myself more mobility and options while hunting. After reading some great posts about ghillie suits I decided to buy a Shaggy Longcoat and give it a try.
With a wife and 3 little ones, my hunting is pretty limited; I'll typically get out for maybe 5-6 days per year, so I really try to make them count. My family has land up in Kansas, so that is where I usually hunt. We were visiting over Thanksgiving, and my wife gave me the green light to hunt as much as I want.
I was a bit worried about the bow string catching on the material, so I trimmed quite a bit from the chest and bow arm. Since I like to carry binocs on a harness while hunting, I thought I would see how that works, too. I found that the harness worked very well, and it also helped to keep the material away from the string. Checking out the local birds and stuff with the binocs helps me to stay alert while hunting.
I was buzzed several times by little tweety birds, nearly landed on by several. I also had to wave off a fox squirrel that was checking me out from about 3 feet away; he was looking for a place to land when he jumped from a tree that I was near.
I finally had some deer moving on the trail I was set up near, but for some unknown deer reason, they chose to approach from the only possible angle that I didn't have a shot from, as does often do. I had one doe at around 5-7 yards, and another at around 10 yards. They had no clue I was there until I tried to slowly maneuver for a shot. There was so much head bobbing going on that it looked like they were dancing! They finally got a bit freaked out and bounded off about 30 yards or so, and bedded down in a plum thicket nearby. I guess they got tired of the crazy bush moving closer to them.
Even though I didn't get a shot off I had a great time, and with a bit of technique refinement I think that it will be awesome.
Topic: My Ghillie experiences (Read 1159 times)
