NO trees for me!!

[Gray Buffalo]

Hey Mudd

Nice to hear your still kicking. I hunt from the ground because my wife said I had to. I had the heart valve replacement in 95 and the doctor said a bad fall could do me in. I have been on the ground since. I use the pop-up’s and the stool type stands and have really enjoyed it.

[Flesner]

I've never really been much of a tree hugger. Done it some, too restless to stay perched long.

The Gille helps a lot. I've had good success without it, but it does a real good job fooling deer into giving you a second chance sometimes.

In my neck of the woods you can't really still hunt in it. There's just way too much multi- flora rose to snag it on. I have to carry it to the site of the ambush and put it on there.

The news this morning had a story about a guy who hit some Amiish in a buggy yesterday.(North east Missouri). Killed two and injured some others. He was yakkin' on a cell phone, not paying attention. Glad your OK.

[Tom Leemans]

Hey Mudd!

We were just putting up stands and stuff on Saturday. (My brother, my daughter Emily, and me)

My brother put up 2 portables. Emily and I made a nice ground blind.

[geno]

Hey Mudd,
How them hounds running? Ready to trade them in on some bunny chasers yet. Nice running weather last few days. Glad your still around after all that.
Geno

[jeff / sc]

Last year I only hunted twice from a tree stand, this year I don't plan to even take it out of the garage.  I hunt using natural cover plus either my ghillie suit or ASAT leafy suit.  Maybe I'm just getting old and lazy but hunting from the ground has taken alot of the work out of hunting and replaced it with the enjoyment of hunting....plus I get to hunt all the places the tree stand guys don't even look at.

[bunyan]

I'm 30 years old and have never owned a tree stand.  I've hunted out of them a time or two and figure I've got enough to worry about without falling out of a stand, I'm too cheap to blow the money on one, and too lazy to lug one clanking through the woods.  Especially if I've got a deer and bow to lug out!  I also enjoy the thrill of being eye level with the critters!  I had two does within 15 yards of me last thrusday.  Unfortunately, the season didn't open till saturday!  I'm gonna start making a guillie suit for the cooler weather later on in the season, but for now I enjoy using a small folding stool with a sling on it.  Its one of the ones with a storage bag underneath so I can carry everything I need conveniently.  Many reccomend making sure you have a backdrop to blend into, which is good advice.  I prefer making sure I have a decent sized tree to sit behind and conceal my draw.  If its one that forks about three feet up even better to spy from.  Practice shooting from your seat or kneeling and thats my basics.  G Fred Asbell's book is good reading on the subject.  Go get em!

[J-dog]

Flesner hit the nail on the head for me, I can hunt out of one but I am always wanting to be on the move. Got to see what is out there so I hunt my way through it. Just to darn restless.

It is a good way to hunt and I keep one hang on and one climber, will use them in my go to areas for kills but I dont like to over hunt an area so I jump from spot to spot and I refuse to carry a climber around. I have a lone wolf that is the lightest easiest to use climber I have ever owned but still it gets lut somewhere and stays there for weeks. I dont like to go in and try to set up a stand to hunt out of the same day.

Long post sorry,

J

[Ia Hawkeye]

My balance gets worse every year.(I'm 68) I finally started hunting 100% on the ground.)Only use natural blinds and cover.

[John Nail]

Well, I bought a Baker stand in the late 60s, and a couple years of falling out of that noisy bastard broke me of climbing!
I have a Lone Wolf sit and climb that I will use, if I havn't killed a deer when all the ground cover is gone. It is my least favorite way to hunt.

[Mudd]

Great responses...keep them coming. I may pick up enough pointers to improve my odds. Thanks for all the kind words. I do like being around.
I started a project and I believe its gonna work. I have cut some concrete wire into panels 18 inches wide and tie wrapped them together. They fold and unfold neatly even with camo cloth tied to it. I've cut the bottom so as to leave wire spikes. I started with 3 panels and am expanding it to 5. The weight is not much and folded its easy to carry. I made a strap to pack it with. As soon as thsi heat wave passes I'll let you know how well it works.
God bless,Mudd

[buckeye_hunter]

I'm hunting on the ground this year too.  One spot near a funnel deep in the woods, I'm not interested in taking a climber in with me.  The other is just off a service/utility road with high weeds on either side.  I saw huge buck tracks this weekend thet follow the road and there are no trees close.  

I'll be hiding in the weeds and waiting for the deer that made the biggest tracks I have ever seen. And I mmean huge tracks!!  I'll sleep there if I have to and you can't sleep safely in a tree stand.

-Charlie

[SuperK]

I purchased an apache pyramid blind this year to hunt some from the ground.  Its so light and sets up so quick that I have used it already more than my "standard" climbing stand.  It is a different ballgame though.  Hunting from the ground has its own set of "rules".  I seems to me that you have to pay even more attention to the "details" than you do from the trees.  If you think a deer can't spot movement with the best of'em, get on the ground and find out!  It sure is more comforable and safer too.

[portugeejn]

Ground for me.  Nothing at all like what happened to Mudd, but I fell out of the back of a truck (stationary) once and got six stitches in my head-heights and I don't mix.
RonP

[Mudd]

My light weight, very portable ground blind worked great. Unfortunately Missouri has a large portion of the state un a 4 point on one side rule. I had a illegal dear at about 16 yds. I was able to get up get around on him without a problem. Wll the while knowing I couldn't take the shot. I wonder if it would have made any difference if he had been legal...lol
God bless,Mudd

[schnitz]

shot alot of deer off the ground just get behind a big oak and make sure you kick the leave out all the way around the tree so you can slip around the tree if you have to and shoot straight good  luck

[**DONOTDELETE**]

been hunting more off the ground... I have 2 new ground spots.. Going to use one of them in the morning on Saturday.

[kctreeman]

Being a retired tree worker I just like to be 20' up a tree, IMO.  Seems like when I'm on the ground I'm always trying to get to someplace else.  Keep the safety belt on and you have nothing to fear.

[Brent Rudolph]

Mudd,

I mix and match my hunting styles, sometimes depending on conditions and enjoy it all. I guess I have been more successful in a treestand, but really enjoy the rush of ground hunting. A spot and stalk on wild game while using trad gear is the ultimate IMO. Like the guys here have said, keep the wind in your face as best you can, walk a little, look a lot, and dont forget to occationally check your backtrail. And I ride a Harley, with all the phoneaddicts out there driving, I feel safer in a tree!

Brent

[bunyan]

Just to reafirm why I enjoy hunting from the ground-Yesterday afternoon I'm sitting against a forked tree with a log leaning diagonally in the crotch of the tree.  A red fox comes trotting along, comes right up to the tree and sticks his nose under the log before he realizes I was there!  He was three feet away and I could have rapped him on the nose with my broadhead.  Suffice it to say he took off out of there in a hurry!  I saw more deer while driving home than I did all afternoon, but it was still a fantastic hunt!

[Talondale]

I'm becoming more of a ground hunter.  Partly because since I moved to the mountains I don't like hauling a stand on my back as much as I did.  Also my screw-in steps are old and I haven't found a suitable, quiet, light replacement for them yet (LW sticks are on my list) and I HATE climbers.  I have taken deer and turkey with a bow while stalking on the ground and it's a blast.  I picked up a ghillie suit this year and I may just be hunting the ground more and more.  Seems simpler and more fun.