My observations and experiences have been that
1) Pop up fully enclosed blinds have not worked when setting up the same day of the hunt. Rarely see deer let alone get into shooting range.
2)Using 3d cover cloth and burlap stapled to wooden posts set up same day of the hunt see deer but they skirt away and avoid shooting ranges.
3) Just using natural ground blinds and good camo. With this I saw the most deer other than treestand and harvested deer and had many shooting opportunities
From looking at my hunting journal option 3 was the most productive but least used because from years of marketing I think I need that other stuff. I think natural blinds and a Shaggie will be my goto this year!
Anyone have any different experiences?
My conclusions as well. I have found that it does not take a lot of cover to be effective and that cover behind you is as effective as cover in front. I have a spot where I have had deer within 12-15 yards every year for the last three years and I have NO concealment in front of me at all, but a bunch of stuff behind that breaks up my outline. I have never understood the concept of buying commercial blinds then brushing them in so the deer can't make them out--just use the brush for a natural blind that you don't have to bother taking in and out--or somebody stealing.
i agree with both posts 100%...... i had 2 different bucks within 5 yards last year.... no cover in front of me , but a huge rootball at my back. Of more importance is wind in the face...if the wind is wrong, they will probably wind you before getting close enough to shoot....another issue is drawing when they are at 5 yds with out getting busted............Im still learning, but patience is key....Remember! if they are that close ..they have no idea youre there ! Take your time and dont rush your shot...There is no better rush than ground pounding.
A Shaggie Long Coat, face and hand camo, some natural cover (make sure you have brush behind you as well as in front). Play the wind, don't move, and there you go!!
And one more thing, you CAN get to close!!
I keep a ball of hemp gardening twine in my pack so I can quickly lash extra branches were I neeed them in making a ground blind.....and if I dont make it back to that particular spot the twine rots away.....
I'm going to try a Ghillie this year it sounds like it's going to be Fun,
Kurt
I have shot a bunch of deer with just a strap on tree seat and no camo, my wife just sits on a stool against a cluster of two or more trees. Her trick is to stare at her shoes until it is time to shoot and not look at the deer. A couple of deer back, she shot one that walked five feet behind her while she was sitting exposed on a dead fall trunk. Nothing beats a stool sitting between a triangle of small cedars, that is what we try to use most of the time.
Terry put up a drawing of 2 trees pulled over with a rope and tent spike to make an awesome ground blind.I am going to try that this year.If you search ground blinds you may find the thread.
Tim, did You mean this pic..
(http://www.tradgang.com/upload/terry/blind.JPG)
I am going to do more hunting off the ground with natural blinds this season too. It's getting harder to lug in a stand not to mention the sweating . Its hot down south. Im just going to carry my DB chair and my shears and some twine if needed and a fanny pack with water and such. One advantage is that I can get futher away from some of the other hunters by going light on the equipment.
Being my first year trying just a Shaggie.
How much movement do you feel you can get away with in a Shaggie with some natural cover around. I am not looking to impress wild life with my dance moves but looking through the binoculars level of movement? If you cant do that maybe the binos stay in the SUV.
I had used basicaly ground forts my 8 year old son likes to build with me almost split rail style from deadfalls. Looking to go more minimalist this year with the shaggie.
I hunt from the ground and some times I'm pretty wide open. Shot a deer from this set up right after taking the pic. The deer came in from the left side of the picture.
(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f196/jjeffer/stillwaiting.jpg)
Just put some ground blinds in with some friends last weekend. It's 5 or six weeks till the season opens so they should be all ready to go. One has 4 shooting lanes out to 22 yards. The other you can shoot just about 360 degrees out to 25 yards in a couple of spots. Runways near on both blinds just hope the wind is good. In the big woods it changes constantly. May have a crack at turkey and bear also!
Natural cover is my favorite but its not always easy to find. I'm thinking about bringing a tent stake and some rope, maybe even some burlap with me this year.
With public land, you can't always hunt in the same spot.
I have full confidence in my ghillie suit; I have had deer less than 12 STEPS away from me and never knew I was there; quit hunting from tree stands several years ago; love going in with just a backpack and my hunting stool and hunt; I am in the process of learning to still hunt more and more; killed 2 deer still hunting last year and what a feeling it was; what was funny, while using my ghillie suit on public land, ran into 2 different hunters who never saw me; both walked by me and never knew anyone else was around them; I knew then that the ghille suit trully works...... :campfire:
You can always put out a few straw bales and jam sticks into them until it gives good enough cover. The straw bales are comfortable to sit on as well!
Sal thats the one.Was it Terry or you that put it up on the other thread.
Have to agree with "Irish" "There is such a thing as too close". Be ready to take the first available good shot.
I use natural ground blinds all the time. I know this saturday I my plan is to sit in a brush blind that I have had a bunch of bucks feeding by it. I have had same day success with the ground blinds if I use a quick "ground nest" with good back ground or just set up in cover that is already there,deadfall,thick stands of trees,ect... I don't like to make big brush blinds if I plan on same day hunts,most I still try to build blinds in advanced. I have seen plenty of big old mulies/elk that will advoid anything that is new in the area. Most of the time I do as Jerry did in the pic above.
my best experience is to camo/cover my legs and my face more than my torso and arms. I personally feel that the standup silhouette of our legs, along with movement is the dead giveaway to a deer's eyesight. I've hunted with shaggie pants, a face mask, and a simple plaid shirt and had excellent results.
QuoteOriginally posted by lpcjon2:
Sal thats the one.Was it Terry or you that put it up on the other thread.
That was from Terry Green
you mean there is another way??? I hunt probably 90% public land, so the most efficient way to hunt is from the ground. I really need to take a picture of what I hunt with, I think a lot of you guys would be surprised how . . . "primitive" my clothing is, it ain't plaid but it might as well be. I use "natural cover" but none of it resembles a blind, maybe a large tree as a backstop never on top of a hill, and when I say hill I mean rugged mountains, so there is always a tree and solid wall of earth basically behind me. Another good reason treestands just don't fit, for critters looking up the mountains everything in a tree will be noticeable, looking downhill it would be perfect, but the majority of my deer come from downhill.
It's usually hot where I hunt (TX and S.CAL) I like a stool with good back cover also. Been thinking about a leafy suit, good for heat and bugs. Has anyone had luck with one of these? I 'm sure that the gilli's are better for concealment but not an option in the hot. Also camo on the hands and face is a must.
The best tree stand I have ever had was a small pellet that someone tried to tie in a tree and it must not have worked. In Iowa wooded hills there lots of little gullies. The deer quite often funnel around these. I wedged that pallet, I spelled it different, at the head of one those little gullies and put stool on it. It worked great until some jerk put a tree stand above my stool. Around here tree stands are about the same as no trespassing signs when they are put on public woods. I tried hunting out of one last year, but it was stolen, now I am going to stay on the ground and hunt anywhere I feel like. Using natural blinds allows us to always play the wind. If it is nothing more than a strap on tree seat with my back against a large tree, so be it. It is just more fun when I feel free and portable.
i hunt 100% on the ground. i have had success with pop ups and natural blinds. although i prefer just making a natural blind. and i really love hunting standing corn, talk about being able to ambush!
I hunt the ground mostly so I use natural or mostly natural blinds and try to disturb the area as little as possible. For example one of my blinds I built this year is back under a canopy of old vines and tree branches. I'm back in the dark and just needed a small piece of camo netting(about 3 ft long) to completely hide me. In most of mine I use no man made materials.
I am exclusively ground pounding this yr - due to having my Lab accompany me on my hunts.
Also though I think back to when I began bowhunting and I was almost exclusively a ground pounder, though it was out of being broke and no other equipment, no idea what I was doing - in my early teens. I saw alot of deer hunting like that. Also I like to move a bit to different locals. spending a couple hours at each.
J
The ground blinds are like a tree stand, some places work great and some don't. I have some spots I hunt every year where I can put up my ground blind and hunt it that day. My favorite has 2 large oaks in front I slide it up against and it is thick brush behind me. I can hunt this spot first day and let the deer get used to the other blinds that are not so well hidden. I just open 1 window and have found they really help with scent. I have had deer cross at 5 yards down wind and not smell me numerous times. I think you several methods to be effective.
In the early 80's I hunted near Lysite, Wyoming. I built ground blinds out of sagebrush along the edge of irrigated alfalfa fields. Killed lots of mulies and one antelope doing this. It worked great. Of course there weren't any pop-up blinds then.
I use pop-ups for turkey for convenience and because they work extremely well for these birds. It blows me away that such a wary bird completely ignores (most of the time) ground blinds that brushed in at all. I have only hunted in a pop-up for white-tails once and that was a long-established rig in Texas.
My buddy brushed in a blind for his granddaughter. When no one was in that blind I watched deer walk by it and look very warily at it even though it had been there for weeks.
I'm planning to try to take a white-tail from a pop-up this year although I'll be in the trees most of the time. I'll use the pop-up instead of natural cover because 1) I have them. 2)I have fall turkeys in mind more than deer when I'm doing this.
Ground is more fun plain and simple,. It requires more thought and is more rewarding when game is spotted. Plus its hard to fall far when you fall asleep.
Just another thought.....someone mentioned about not disturbing too much of the area around you... i hunted a ridge full of scrub oaks one fall in michigan......I moved along the ridge to find a nice ambush site to sit... i stopped and looked back behind me and noticed some smaller brushy oaks i could sit in and have good back cover...About an hour later a nice buck ambled down the ridge directly towards me...i was expecting a 10 yd broadside shot... Unfortunately, he picked up my scent from where i originally stopped to pick out a spot to sit.....long story short.....Do not leave any scent outside of your comfortable shooting range....this buck hung up at about 25yds...sniffed the bushes where i stood ...looked right thru me , turned and walked the opposite way.
I get ASAT camo material and make myself a poncho. I try and find a big tree to sit against. One year I had an eight point whitetail bed down 10 feet from me. What a treat that was. Couldn't pull off the shot but it was still hunting and it proved to me that I can get as close as I need to on the ground.