I was thinking about this and was just curious what others do. I have been bow hunting for 14 years now all with tradition equipment but have yet to take any game other than a few rabbits. I was wondering what some of you do while on stand and game walks by that you have no intention to take. For example if you are sitting on stand and a group of does walk by and you are holding out for a buck. Do you still treat it like that is an animal you are going to pursue and if so do you still draw your bow on it just for the sake of the experience? Or while turkey hunting if a group of hens walk by will you draw your bow on them to see how much you can get away with? Just curious what others do on stand in these situations.
Tim
I was taught not to aim at anything that I wasn't going to kill. I would hate to shoot something out of season and sometimes with instinctive aiming, I drop the string before I know it.
I always have a camera with me that is out and handy when I am in a treestand.
Most of the time I just sit and watch. I personally find it interesting to see how animals act and react. Learn a lot by watching.
At times I may take a picture or two. About 90% of the time I do not think about it until it is too late though.
Sit very quietly and watch. If I expose myself they'll run off and tell their friends - Well it does feel that way sometimes. I just don't want to do anything that might disturb the natural game habits so I try to do nothing at all except listen very close and watch. I have been so intently focused on a doe or squirrel or whatever that I nearly miss the buck sneaking in.
"I was taught not to aim at anything that I wasn't going to kill. I would hate to shoot something out of season and sometimes with instinctive aiming, I drop the string before I know it."
Excellent lesson for a newbie hunter like me. Thanks.
Quinn
I just check em out,up and close with my bino's. I have been entertaining the idea of trying to video tape these sightings to show them to my family and friends, who are interested in seeing them.
JL
That just gave me an idea Gerald, I inherited a set of binocs that have a digital camera in them...I need to take them to the stand with me! I can observe up close and personal and take a pic if I want to...thanks
Tim, pm'd ya.
I also take pics, but occasionaly I "count coup" on them. Practice picking my spot, focus, draw, let down and then mentally say- mmmmmm, you'd have been tasty..... :thumbsup:
WHEN IM HUNTING AND EVERY THING IS QUITE AND NOTHING IS GOING ON I THINK HOW BLESSED I AM THAT GOD HAS ALLOWED ME TO BE ABLE TO WALK IN THE WOODS TO OBSERVE AND ENJOY THE WONDERFULL THINGS HIS HANDS HAVE MADE AND I STOP RIGHT THEN AND THANK HIM.
i have been knowen to fall asleep under a teetree bush in the sun. but i just sit and watch things go by untill the right one gives me a clear shot. i never shoot anything that i would not eat. if i shoot it i eat it end of story
I usually draw on legal animals. It's great practice and keeps you "in tune." Be careful not to educate them though, as they can learn from an experience if spooked. This is especially true w/ jake turkeys. I usually take the first deer of the year and then hold out for a "big-un." Cameras are also a great way to literraly record the hunt. I know my wife likes to see what I've been up to when I stay out late! "See honey, I was bowhunting... Honest, just look at this squirrel picture! I almost had to shoot that tree rat in self defense he was so close!"
Watch and enjoy God's creation. Much of the time, the things/animals I see apart from the game I'm hunting provide more memorable moments than the actual quarry I'm hunting. I only aim at and shoot at what I can eat.
QuoteOriginally posted by HO'NEHE JEFF:
i never shoot anything that i would not eat. if i shoot it i eat it end of story
I totally agree with you Jeff!! :thumbsup:
Thanks for the replys so far. I really like the camera idea as well. Great way to get some great pics.
Well... to be honest I try NOT to take a nap! The hardest time for me to stay awake is the last 15 min. before shooting time, and between 830 and 900 in the morning.
OkKeith
I try to keep from giggling. I get a big smile when I see an animal walking near me and the closer they get and not have a clue that I'm there that smile gets bigger and bigger until its all I can do not to laugh out loud. The closer they get the harder it is to keep the giggles down. But I don't ever remember getting the giggles when one comes by I intend to take a shot on.
Are you guys crazy, or havent you been married for long enough, I sleep and sleep.
I try to pretend I'm just there as an observer and not hunting. Sounds crazy, but seems like I see more animals when doing this.
I usually don't draw. Not because I'm afraid of accidentally releasing (I don't snap shoot), but because I'm too paranoid that what I'm actually hunting for is looking at me from behind a brush pile or something. I also have problem with squirrels and such. I bring a judo tipped arrow with every intention of shootinq squirrels, but when the time comes I am too worried about spooking deer to take the shot.
I have a very hard time with letting legal game pass.
I love big bucks as much as anyone, but with lots of tags available, any adult doe that walks too close is gonna get watched alright. Then concentrated on, and then shot.
Only during those magic days in November do I let legal does walk, and then they better not get broadside for too long.
I alternate between watch, reading my Bible, and reading a book.
I try not to snore. :D Actually I use my ears alot when I hunt. I find that I can use these without having to move my head as much as I do when I use my eyes.
I'll draw on a doe walking by, but I'll look around first to see if anything else is around. Mainly to keep warmed up and to check my calmness at anchor.
I love to watch "everything". The leaves blow, sunrise ect... I will say that any legal deer that gets too close is in trouble if I do things right. Bear hunting I draw and anchor on every bear that I can stalk into killing range. Its great practice and when "it" mattered on a bear I wanted, I was as cool as the other side of the pillow.
John III
I like to enjoy the sights and sounds and relax.
I also keep a notepad handy to write a few notes such as ideas, deer movement, or things to do.
I also carry a camera and a v-cam and take a few pic´s and a short clip of the area, after I get in the stand. I have found this to be very helpful for furture hunts or just looking back. Also having a long lens lets me capture some pretty interesting happenings.
I am with Bonebuster Tim, if a group of does come by me I am drawing alright, I am coming to full anchor, picking a spot and letting er fly ;)
If there are animals around, then I am usually watching them intently. I rarely draw on anything that I don't plan on shooting because I don't like to risk spooking game.
If there are no animals around I am usually busy second-guessing myself as to my stand location. :confused:
Yeah I know what you guys mean. If a doe walks by I am taking the shot if one is presented that is for sure. I guess I was just wondering if drawing or "counting coupe" helps calm you down when the moment of truth does arrive.
QuoteOriginally posted by WidowEater:
Are you guys crazy, or havent you been married for long enough, I sleep and sleep.
Yup with all this snoring it's no wonder I haven't shot anything in a few years. Skippy
I can actually feel my blood pressure drop when I turn off the truck at my parking spot. After turning off the cell phone I grab my arrows and bow and head for a likley looking spot to sit and unwind form the stress of dealing with bosses and a very nasty ex wife. Sometimes I doze off and dream of my ex wife with a set of antlers sticking from her head. Most times I just relax listening to the woods and watching the activities of all the critters around me. On several occasions I've witnessed red tailed hawks snatch squrrels from the trees. Now that is hunting my friends!
Larry
I try to watch all the creatures that the Great Spirit has created for us to enjoy. Sometimes a picture will capture a memory, or mabe just a memory in the mind's eye.
Like Jeff, if I shoot it "Somebody's" gonna eat it!
I've learned a lot, by just sitting still and watching.
Sorry, but I would have to disagree about dropping the string by accident. Even though I do not do it often I will occasionally draw on game I have no intentions on shooting and I do not see how ya could make a mistake an shoot it, newby or not. Sorry, if that is the case ya should not be hunting. I usually just observe and a lot of time I read, ecspecially in stands that i can get away with more movement.
I bring along a small gideons bible and read
Shawn, I respectfully disagree, I know you have killed a lot of critters, but I would venture to guess I have dropped as many if not a few more critters then you have, but that really doesn't make much difference. However, your statement:
"Even though I do not do it often I will occasionally draw on game I have no intentions on shooting and I do not see how ya could make a mistake an shoot it, newby or not. Sorry, if that is the case ya should not be hunting."
Is Bulllarky.
On occasion, like you, I draw on an animal with no intention of shooting just to see if I can, in Mickey's definition, count Coupe without being detected. To say one shouldn't be hunting because the predatory instinct takes over and they legally kill an animal they had no intention of shooting tells me you do not understand what a hunter/predator is. If you shoot it, it wasn't a mistake, it was meant to be.
While I'm out hunting, I'm hunting. I'll shoot anything legal and not think twice. I like to get that first deer in the freezer and don't care if it's a doe or a buck. If I pull back the string the arrow is away. If I see a grouse, rabbit, fox, whatever, it's getting an arrow. The only thing I passed on last year was a Bobcat and I've been kicking myself ever since wondering what it would have tasted like. Won't do that again.
QuoteOriginally posted by backwater:
WHEN IM HUNTING AND EVERY THING IS QUITE AND NOTHING IS GOING ON I THINK HOW BLESSED I AM THAT GOD HAS ALLOWED ME TO BE ABLE TO WALK IN THE WOODS TO OBSERVE AND ENJOY THE WONDERFULL THINGS HIS HANDS HAVE MADE AND I STOP RIGHT THEN AND THANK HIM.
AMEN!!!!!!
Where I hunt, Im only allowed antlered deer. The landowner's definition is something bigger than a spike or a fork horn. I try to keep from being spotted so I never draw on does or bucks I have no intention of hunting.
Usually I am too busy watching squirrels or chipmunks battle over acorns...hawks on the prowl...one time I even had 14 wood ducks "graze" by underneath my stand. I often see coyotes, two bears so far. Turkey are always around. There is way too much for me to watch and enjoy, so I never read. If I get bored in a stand, I get down and still hunt into the wind....there is always something worth seeing over the next ridge.
I mostly hunt from the ground, stalking and still hunting. But, if I were to be in a tree stand for an all day hunt..... I'd be thinking about how much I miss being at work. Wishin' I was still at home taking care of the "honey do list". Should be doing something productive like painting the garage floor!
O.K. Guess I'd be thinkin' 'bout huntin'! :rolleyes:
... mike ...
Walt read what I said. I said ya should not be hunting if you would make that mistake, How could ya draw on an animal and have instinct take over and shoot it by accident. Shawn
I've never stand hunted, but always stalked, and often drawn and alighned without the intention of flying an arrow. I consider the draw an exercise and rehearsal for what is to come. I want to be as loose and limber as possible when and if an opportunity is available. To me it seems the exercise of drawing and letting up during our cold weather works as a limbering effect, on the limbs of the body and the bow.
I guess it depends on the circumstances at the time. When I am in the woods, I'm after whitetails 99% of the time, and when I am doing this I don't take shots at any other game, as it might screw up my deer hunting. I decide if I am going to take a shot at a deer probably within the first 5 to 10 seconds of seeing it. Before the season gets started, I set a standard for myself as far as if I am going to shoot a buck and how big of a buck am I after. If he is smaller than the standard I have set, I simply sit there and let the smaller buck educate me with his behavior and body language.
Same goes for does. If I decide beforehand that I am going to shoot a doe, I will first see if she is dry or if she has fawns that can fend for themselves if momma isn't around. If not, I just watch and learn from what they have to teach me.
Also, while on stand I try to determine why other animals act the way they do. Squirrels seem to be a hunter's advocate in many situations as do various birds.
I guess that if I wanted to hunt other creatures, I will, at another time when it doesn't infringe upon my deer hunting time.
Shawn, PM returned
I have a game I play. As I spend a lot of my hunting spot and stalk; or just slowly walking through areas hunting- I take along a rubber blunt tipped arrow.
I like to 'stump shoot'; that is shoot at flowers or stumps; or whatever is fair target - like a dirt hillside or even a cow chip.
But when hunting; as in the situation you described; I will not move a muscle when a doe or small buck walks by- because there well could be a buck or whatever following it.
If nothing legal comes along; or anything I want to shoot; then I wait until the animal has moved well off; then I shoot at something that it was next to when I thought I had my best shot at it.
What this does; is gets you to see if you could have made the shot- if it was indeed an animal you wanted to shoot.
I was once elk hunting and put a great stalk on a moose. It was a young bull; with one antler drooping down and one in the normal position.
If I had a moose permit I would have shot it. I did not though. I watched that bull; and when it was in a perfect shot position that I could not miss ( in my mind) - I waited.
The bull walked off a ways; and there was an uprooted tree right where that bull had been; and I took out my blunt arrow and shot the stump.
The shot was perfect! If indeed I had one of the coveted tags; I would have filled it; and I felt really good about that.
That's my game. You can do it with any animal; just wait until its safely out of the way; and that your arrow won't get too lost.
You will find that sometimes your distance was off; or there were little branches in the way; or the wind was strong; or that dreaded gravity swell occurs on that spot.
But its fun; and thats what it is supposed to be all about.
By the way; when I was standing there feeling superior in everyway- for having made what would have been a killer shot- on what would have been a small but legal moose..... a huge huge bull walked out to my left at 6 or 7 yards and presented a perfect broadside shot... if I had a tag that day; and had shot the small bull; I would have been quickly humbled....
( as usual ) :rolleyes: :knothead: :banghead:
sit back and just watch them do their thing
I hunt by spot and stalk; and sometimes by ambush too........the still of the woods and undisturbed game is overwhelming, especially when it is all coming together.
And when the hogs aren't cooperating I will sneak on out of season deer and get up close, come to full draw and hold...never even felt the slightest temptation to release on what I am not legitemately hunting.