How do you hunt?

General General Discussion
1

Just wondering how folks hunt. I had kind of an eye-opener hunting a new area yesterday… seems most everyone out here “truck hunts.” that is, they drive around BLM roads till they see something, blast it from the truck, throw it in the back of the truck and haul ass off.

Call me old school, but that’s not how i’ve hunted for 12+ years, and I’m starting to think there should be no wonder why this unit never has good BLM game reporting. it’s not only over-hunted, it’s over-poached. I actually watched a guy do it yesterday- I had a great commanding view from my little tree-stump on the side of a mountain, wet, cold, holding in my farts all day, when i watched a dude blast a deer from his truck about a half mile away. watching other hunters throughout the day, i could tell that’s probably the main way of hunting out here… i saw probably 30 trucks on different roads throughout the day, and not a single person ever got out of his truck. they’d just drive around, stop and glass an area, and keep driving. never saw anyone on foot at any point, nor any parked trucks without people in them the whole time i was scouting before the hunt.

back at my old spot, it was a combination of still/truck hunting… most guys would drive around, stop with a clear-cut just ahead, get out and walk up (usually in plain sight from the clearcut) and stand there glassing with a rifle slung or in the crook of their arms. saw a few guys hunting from tree stands out there…

about 80% of my hunting is “stand” hunting in the form of prone postion on a shrubbed ridge or parking against a tree-stump on the side of a mountain, fully cammo’d out, and about 20% still hunting, when i find areas where such a thing can be done. I used to look for good trees to climb, preferably in the middle of a clearcut, but its a lot of work and didn’t ever seem like it paid out any better than just hanging out on a good ridge somewhere.

i’ll usually get into position at my spot about an hour to an hour and half before dawn and wait for first light. as soon as i can see well enough to use binos, i’ll start with a quick scan of the treeline and field for moving buck, then, if i don’t see anything, start a detailed scan of the clearcut, looking for bedded deer. this usually takes a few hours, stopping to scan the treeline from time to time, till i’m reasonably sure there’s nothing to see… about 11-1200 i’ll go ahead and get up and head back to the truck if it’s close, or pull lunch from my pack. if there’s anywhere to still hunt, this is the best time… so i’ll generaly still hunt for a couple hours, and if i still haven’t seen anything, head back to my spot or a different spot if i already have one picked out, and stand-hunt the evening cycle.

for blacktail, this is really the best method, in my opinion… blacktail, as far as deer go, are smart little fuckers. either by social or genetic evolution, they’ve learned to stick to the woods or keep their heads down during daylight hours. its never that they’re not there (unless the areas been hunted out or you picked a dumb spot)- it’s just a matter of putting in the effort to find them. first of all, understanding that a blacktail generally won’t stray outside a mile of where it was born, already know that if they’re there, they aren’t going anywhere- so stay put, and watch their food/water sources. secondly, understanding that they’re forest animals- they don’t do a whole lot of grazing in open clearcuts. so big treelines are good, big clearcuts are not necessarily good. thirdly, keepinrg in mind that blacktail don’t migrate… you gotta go pretty deep to find the old fuckers with the big racks, and if an area has seen a lot of recent hunter activity, it’s not gonna be any good for at least another two seasons.

or drive around, covering as much ground as you can, till you stumble into one… like all the hillbilly assholes seem to do out here.

what are your hunting methods, and how successful are you at them? i’m not just interested in blacktail- we’ve got muleys in the Cascades (that i used to love to hunt, back when i could take a week or two off and go make a big deal out of it), and even whitetails out east, that i fully intend to hunt next year. i’ve never hunted plains before, or white-tail, and would love to hear about that.

2

I don’t hunt, but I believe shooting from a vehicle is illegal in Utah.

Chad

PS: I am not opposed to hunting. Just that my dad was not a hunter so I did not grow up and learn it from him and have not yet taken the time as an adult to go learn and do it though I would like to so I can bring my boy up doing it.

3

I like to spot and stalk. Backpack hunting in the mountains.

4

I like stalking or flushing in party-hunts. I’m not much for sitting still, so tree-stands are out for me. I’ll do some of the latter, depending on the land, game, method, but it’s not a preference.

5

Depends where I go, local, it’s required that you are at least 15" up in a stand for rifle. Where I go a bit west of here in Va. there is no stand requirement. The stalking is hard in the late season because it’s dry and the leaves are LOUD! Dang squirels sound like elephants!

Doing a bow trip soon and I will mix the stand and stalk.

I know one thing that I’ve seen so far in one spot–the f’ing CPO(game Warden) needs to wake up and rid that area of the dumbass rednecks shooting across the road, from trucks while they smoke and drink coffee and let the dogs chase deer around and leave them mutts running loose all night while they hit the Wild Turkey.

6

I hunt whitetail in the wooded hills by slowly wandering around near deer trails until something pops up. (30-30)

I hunt pheasant and chukar by walking corn rows or river draws with friends. (Benelli Nova or Winchester 1300)

I hunt squirrels by stalking through, and sitting in, oak bottoms. (Winchester 9422 or Ruger 10/22)

I hunt pronghorn the slow, old-fashioned way, crawling slowly clear across Wyoming on my knees and elbows. (Remington 700 in .243)

7

Depends on the game…I will only shoot whitetail from a vehicle if it’s a monster / rat cull or a single doe (w/out a fawn) at only then at extreme distance.

You can shoot anything except migratory birds from a vehicle in TX. We hunt a 7k acre place and usually have between 50-80 does to kill every year depending on the survery / biologist numbers. I do not like shooting does w/ fawns from a vehicle as it teaches a whole generation that vehicles are evil and dangerous. You can tell which are affected as they will bolt at the site of your truck at over 1000 yards or you can drive right up on them. Only a couple of us agree on this method so not sure I’m getting anywhere.

Anyway, off the soap box…all other critters are game. I prefer to hunt brush blinds / tri-pods and home made hoops, but box blinds are the nuts when it’s cold!!

Rattling in deer is the most exciting and always a must during the rut!! Season starts in about 3 weeks!!

8

rifle hunters can’t hunt the rut in oregon. the season usually ends just as th rut is starting. the guys that make the rules must be avid bow-hunters- bow gets the end of summer when the little fuckers are out in the open munching on blackberries and then again in nov during the rut. rifle deer is usually the end of sempter through most of october, though the seasons starting and ending later this year. still misses the rut though. damn bow hunters.

if I didt mention it, truck hunting is illegal here- might even be a felony. the wardens have got to be alseep at the wheel or clueless- I see them out here all the time, pulling ME over, even (seatbelt), but I never see them in the hills. and obviously theres no fear of them. I talked to a buddy of mine who’s from the area about it tonight, and he said “yea… that’s how everyone hunts around here.” great. guess im driving all the way out to saddle mountain again to finish the season.

im wishing more and more that id called the one guy in. especially since I didn’t get anything anyway… hah.

9

I just got back two days ago from bow-hunting up in Vermont, I hate being up in a stand. I’ve almost busted my ass too many times to like to risk it.

Spot and stalk or still-hunting mostly though this is exceedingly rare in Western PA. I’ll occasionally take a blind or just sit concealed by a nice tree-line near and opening but I much prefer being on the ground. Hunting from a vehicle here is strictly verboten. God help you if you run into Jack Lambert.

My outside ethical range with a bow is 40 yards.

Bow hunters get the rut because it is exponentially harder to hunt deer with a bow (especially on the ground) so we need a few advantages…like a reckless horny buck unwilling to leave a doe.

10

I hunt in Mississippi on private land my family leases. Its about 500 acres that backs right up to Camp Shelby(machine gun fire clearly audible). We have two big fields that have shooting lanes that cut though the middle and on the left and right. In the lanes we plant. We hunt out of box stands on the fields but we also have a leaner on a small trail deep in the woods(hoping to get the big one) and a Tripod stand on the edge of another small field.

We are really excited this year because the woman that owns the land just paid someone to come clear some dead and fallen trees from Katrina and while he was there we asked the guy to clear out some trees along a creek that runs through the property. When he was finished we scouted the area and saw evidence of heavy tracking. There were so many prints it looked like they had a parade back there.

Anyway, yeah we get out there about an hour before sunlight and as soon as we can see we scan the tree lines. Most of the time its the little yearlings that come out then. A lot of times Ill be looking to my left, nothing, look to my right, nothing, look back to the left and there they are out of nowhere. We usually pack it in around 10:30am, eat, then get back out until sunset. This year though I think I am going to just pack a lunch and stay out all day.

11

Wow…our bow season is the month of Oct??? This far south, the Rut starts around Thanksgiving and runs through New years. I call it a trickle rut with the peak during the Christmas window.

I love bowhunting, but how can anyone sit in 90-100 heat in s. tx to sweat your nuts off when you can sit in the shade shooting doves right now??

I love living in TX…I’ll never forget the first time I took a customer / buddy from DeWALT out to the ranch and had all the guns sticking out the front of the jeep. I also made him take off the 100% blaze orange. He was like a kid at Disneyland.

Coming from the state of “Merryland” he was blown away we could have loaded guns in the truck, much less kill with them.

12

i actually enjoy the fact that these lazy asses dont get out of their truck. their too lazy to. its more unmolested land for me to hunt on. i like to pack light.

i have 2 different techniques.

  1. make my way out to my “sniper spot” before sunrise. glass preferred areas. on some occasions, just the twitch of a deers ear with give up their bedding area. from there ill take my shot if its at a reasonable distance. if not, ill work my way to them undetected, then take my shot.

  2. my brother and i like to hunt the “fingers” of the mountains. we will decide which “fingers” to walk and meet at a specific location. ive jumped quite a few bucks this way. we like to use radios with ear pieces to stategize and to keep the noise level down.

when its hot, deer will stay bedded down all day (they dont like the heat either). they wont get up until your right up on them. by then, its too late for mr. dear.

my favorite time to hunt is when its sprinkling. they just come out of the wood works to get that last meal or water so they dont have to be miserable at night. if its raining in hunting season, everyone knows where ill be.

what really pisses me off is when you get these 4 wheeler and motorcycle riders with their metal mulisha gear raising hell and scaring all the dear. they usually spend half the rest of their day changing their truck tires. its rough country out there!!!

13

Reminds me of a story when I was a teenager first season hunting deer 3am something in the morning me and my uncle where driving to the hunting spot still dark out side me half awake we were fallowing another truck trying to make our way to the hunting spot. Truck in front of us slows way down then I see a shotgun hanging out of the passenger side window BANG looked over to were he shot sure enough he just popped a deer he doesn’t stop but he throws out a safety orange glove [marking his spot] my uncle pulls up to the glove I jump out picked it up the other truck sees this they turn around and throw out anther orange glove we turn back around and stopped to pick it up to. By this time I guess they got scared fig we called the authorities and took off. Funny has shit when it happened sorry for the interruption.

When I do hunt its either stalking or from a tree stand.

14

I’ve never hunted from a tree stand and have no intentions to. I deer hunt in the north GA national forest lands by slipping along the ridgelines and draws and hiding along trails to sit and watch for hours. A little still hunting from one hide to another. About a 90/10 split. I can sit in a firing postion for hours on end and in my experience that is sure what it takes in these big woods where the ranges are short. If you’re moving, your odds of seeing the whitetail before it sees/hears you are not good. If you jump one, the odds of getting a clean shot in this cover before it’s vanished are not good.

I don’t use any scent cover etc but have to use the wind or forget it.

And no vehicles past the roads so the drags out are enough to pop your heart.

I hunt with an AR carbine and Marlin .30-30 about 50/50.

15

Stalker.

Don’t care for truck hunters AT ALL.

16

I occasionally hunt from a tree stand, but normally I stay on the ground, sitting with my back against a tree with a bit of brush in front of me to break up my outline.

Pretty sure it’s illegal to hunt from a vehicle in Va.

17

I patrol and ambush. A couple of years ago up in north central WA I went hunting on a farmer’s land. Lot’s of alfalfa and zero vehicles since it was private property. I got a nice fat mulie buck.

18

Vehicle hunting is illegal in PA and NJ where I hunt. I scout on foot and pick a tree acourdingly for achery or gun. I rarely stalk.

19

As high as I can get for bow and muzzleloader (usually around 20’ or more, lower if the terrain dictates) then on the ground when we turn the dogs loose. I like to climb, it lets me stay mobile with little effort. Our rut usually kicks in during muzzleloader season. They’re starting to get a little antsy now, the scrapes and rubs are starting to show up. The cool weather is also great, can’t remember the last time I shivered in a bow stand.

20

A little of everything here (Central PA). Tree stand on private ground when I know where eveyone else will be. Walk, glass and stalk on some days. Sit/prone on the ground some days.

I will confess to popping ground hogs out the truck window on the farm in the summer (again private ground).

People do jump deer from trucks here from time to time. Everyone hates that and they usually get reported/caught. It is a big no-no.