Hunting

[PAT303]

What is the most common form of hunting do you do in the states agaist deer.I've read some articles about blind shooting and tree stands,is that just sitting around waiting for a deer to walk past and shooting them?.Doe's anyone stalk on foot.I know this is a bit of open subject but in one mag the guy used a 300win mag to shoot a white tail,about the size of our fallow deer with a lupy 6.5x20?? scope at 70 yards from a blind.It seems know one shoots normal calibres anymore. Pat

[Bigscot]

Sometimes I hunt out of tree stands or some type of elevated stand and sometimes from the ground. In either case it is a matter of waiting on the deer to pass by. Other times I hunt down east and we run dogs. Even then I prefer to be in a position to catch deer sneaking out and use a rifle as opposed to being in a place where the dogs are pushing the deer and deer moving pretty quick and close requiring the use of a shotgun and buckshot. I use buckshot only where the situation, safety or law demands it.
I much prefer a rifle or handgun shot. Down east I like them 100 yds or better for the challenge. I have gotten to the point where if the shot is likely a 100 yds or better I use my '06. If shorter and woodsy it may be a .243, .30-.30, 44mag revolver or rifle or my new .35 Rem. After shooting deer out to 350 yds with the '06, anything less than 100 is not as much fun.
Don't get me wrong and think I am slinging lead. I have lost only one deer and that was under 100yds and because I ran out of daylight and batteries. I shoot my rifles alot and know where they hit. I also use a set of Varmit Al's shooting sticks. (Very handy and easy to carry. I highly recommend them). The guys I hunt with using dogs usually put me where I can use the rifle. They rarely shoot their rifles and they are usually loaded with mixed brands and loads. The shotgun is their 1st choice

[piwo]

In Missouri on the 80 acre farm I hunt on, it is stand hunting. Yes, I may take a walk during the late morning but the farm does not present itself to that type of hunting. Do your homework, find the crossing points, and wait in ambush.

In Wyoming, it depends on the terrain. If I'm hunting the "boonies", it's walk, glass for a long, long time, then walk some more. In the timber, I "still hunt" or stalk as you say exclusively. It is a thrilling way to hunt if you have the acre's to do so. On public grounds back east, you are asking someone to shoot you if you do.....

[6pt-sika]

I hunt on family property here in Virginia . But it is only about 67 acres total including where the house sits .

So typically I will put up 3 -5 trestands at variouse spots on the property .
I also hunt the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia some . And the places I hunt there without a treestand normally you won't see a deer until you step on him it is so thick . But if you go up about 20 feet you can see maybe 40-50 yards .

[MT Gianni]

What is the most common form of hunting do you do in the states agaist deer.I've read some articles about blind shooting and tree stands,is that just sitting around waiting for a deer to walk past and shooting them?.Doe's anyone stalk on foot.I know this is a bit of open subject but in one mag the guy used a 300win mag to shoot a white tail,about the size of our fallow deer with a lupy 6.5x20?? scope at 70 yards from a blind.It seems know one shoots normal calibres anymore. Pat

The magazine probably accepted ads for L-pold scopes and 300 short mags too. In MT few people tree stand unless you are archery hunting on the river bank. 30-06, 270, 243, 223, 300 win, 338 win, are not uncommon to see. Most is still hunting or stalking as well as getting to the ridge saddle early and watching what crosses it. Gianni.

[waksupi]

Still hunting for me. I move maybe a hundred yards in an hour, and see lots of game. For elk, I cruise fairly fast, comparatively, and when I hit fresh sign, I then slow down to a still hunt pace again, zig zagging on ridges, checking on both sides. Works well, in this area. It seems most hunters are road hunters, and never un-ass thier trucks, so when I get off the road a few hundred yards, I seldom see another hunter. For antelope, I glass for them, then after spotting them, the crawl begins. It is amazing the parts of your anatomy, that you can get prickly pear cactus spines imbedded in. For bighorn sheep, I've always spotted, and then got above them, from where you can get in pretty close.

[Ivantherussian03]

I mostly sit and watch, but walked alot as a teenager. For whitetails I have been succesfull walking. In Alaska I am more comfortable watching, calling, and waiting. One season in Ak I ran into three bears during the hunting season; I think about that when hunting.

[fatnhappy]

On public grounds back east, you are asking someone to shoot you if you do.....



Uh, sorry my friend but I must say BS. There are many places here in the east where you can walk in a single direction and die before you see anyone else.

i hunt from treestands, push deer in drives, still hunt and stalk occasionally. It depends more on my mood and the weather more than anything else.
As for calibers, last time I heard from the exalted typists, the 06 and .270 are still prevalent, press releases and ads not withstanding.

[Junior1942]

The "normal" caliber around north Louisiana has become magnums. I bet 75% of the hunters here use either a 7mag or a 300mag. Probably 90% of the hunters use what I call "penthouse stands." They spend all morning waiting for a deer to come to their corn feeder or cross their shooting lanes.

Me, I hunt like waksupi. I'm in the thickets with the deer. I might hunt all morning and move 1/4 mile. Most shots are 50 yards or less with 100 yards being a long shot. I killed two bucks this past season--one at ~5 yards and one at ~20 yards. For woods stalking/hunting I use a peep sighted Win 94 in 30-30 or a peep sighted Rossi M92 in 357 mag.

I do have one ground stand on a pipeline where I can shoot to 250 yards. For that stand, I use a sporterized scoped 8x57 Turk Mauser zeroed at 175 yards.

I usually make a ground stand by simply sitting in a briar patch. If there's no briar patch, I'll inflate my Thermarest pad and sit on it at the base of a tree. I then poke limbs and branches into the ground around me. Anything to break up my silhouette. I then sit there and wait. If I turn my head, I do it slowly. All hand movements, such as to take a drink of water, are done slowly.

One morning it occured to me that checking the time required four separate hand movements: (1) move my right hand over to my left shirt sleeve; (2) pull up the sleeve to look at my wristwatch; (3) pull down the sleeve; and (4) move my right hand back to its original position.

I bought a watch called a "digital dangler" and eliminated all those movements. When I sit, I hang or lay the digital dangler where I can read it at a glance. The only thing that moves is my eyes. The dangler also contains a thermometer. The dangler is a dandy at only $9.95.

Another movement eliminator is what I call a "skeeter stick." If the skeeters are bad, I find a thin stick about 12" to 18" long. I keep it in my hand and if a skeeter lands on my nose, for example, one slight movement of my hand and the stick moves the skeeter.

[Junior1942]

Here's more hints on getting in the thickets with deer. You must eliminate body odors of both kinds, i.e., perfume and stink.

1. Wash your hunting clothes in unscented detergent. I use Tide unscented available at Wal-Mart.

2. Buy unscented shampoo.

3. Smell all the bath soaps in the store, and buy the least perfumed brand.

4. Brush your teeth before leaving home/camp.

5. Change your underwear and socks and wash your crotch--even if you took a long hot shower before going to bed.

6. If you can find it, buy unscented skeeter repellant. Some of it is heavily perfumed. The "OFF!" in the hunter orange can is so perfumed it is probably used as underarm deodorant by French streetwalkers.

[waksupi]

Junior, I don't worry about scent at all. Maybe our animals are dumb, or just accustomed to people. I just watch the wind, and hunt along with it. I believe that no matter how clean you may be, you will not fool a deer or elk nose. If they get a big nose full of you, they will be gone. The cover scents that are sold, are a real sucker play, and many fall for that one every year.

[fatnhappy]

I don't worry about the scent at all either, and I get in the really thick stuff after them too. One of my favorite tactics is to get into the rasberry patches and such after the deer have been pressured, find two crossing deer trails and sit maybe 15 yards downwind. I carry a pocket sized pair of clippers and I cut a couple quick shooting lanes across the trails. I also lay down most the time. Normally you can see under the brush better than you can see through it.

[Moose]

Around this place you get a pick handle and go hunker behind a manzanita, and just make a sound like a berry. 10, maybe 20 minutes, you got your deer. Blacktails, mostly. Farther up the hill we get nice mulies from Nevada. I use an old 30 US (30-40 Krag) when I go out for venison, but don't go much any more. Hmmm...

[454PB]

I was still hunting years ago, and after an hour or so, I lite my pipe. Some would say that's a definite no-no while hunting, but a few minutes latter I heard a noise to my side. A cow Elk and her calf walked up within 25 feet. I think the smell of pipe smoke actually attracted her curiosity.

[dnepr]

I do a lot of still hunting for whitetails here in Northwestern Ontario. I have hunted from blinds but usually seem to get my deer walking to the blind . We also do some drives but with usually being by myself or with one other friend these aren't used to much . I have gotten more deer pushing than sitting in ambush. I will be trying archery season for the first year this year so my tactics may have to change . I usually get close so Idon't need a magnum . Last year I had my longest shot ever on A deer . About 150 yards ( paced out not lasered). Good thing I had a really flat shooter with me :roll: My ever reliable .444 marlin.:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[waksupi]

454PB, I hadn't really thought about it, but I commonly smoke a pipe or cigar when hunting. I recall Howard Hill also did, when bow hunting.

[piwo]

Back when I smoked, I had plenty of deer walk up on me whilst I was smoking or standing and taking a piss, or both. It's a joke between my buddy and me: if things are slow, I call him on the cell phone and ask him if he wants to have a piss and smoke break... We make the call almost every year at some point.LOL

There’s an old timer here in Missouri who makes sure he covers himself in aftershave before going out deer hunting and gets a deer every year. I don't know if he's got any Boone and crockets, but he gets meat! With whitetail deer, you just never know....... I saw two antelope walk across a pasture in Wyoming oblivious to me and my partner lying in the ravine. As soon as they got parallel with us, both of their necks snapped in our direction like a cannon had gone off. They froze, stared for while then began walking as they were. Then one stopped, turned around, and walked right towards us, sniffing in the wind the whole way. Stopped 75 yards away, not seeing us, but knowing something was amiss. You just never know what game will do…….

But the precautions listed above are good to follow: since you don't KNOW how they will react, why not remove the choice from them as much as possible. Invisible and no scent cannot be bad!

[DLCTEX]

We use all the methods here, depending on which property we are on. On the river breaks we still hunt the draws, oak and plum thickets, and sand hills. On some of the crop fields we hunt from improvised ground blinds and wait for deer to come to the crops. Then we sometimes hunt on a friend's ranch for antlerless from elevated penthouse blinds with heaters, windows, chairs, and padded gun rests. I personally don't care to shoot from the penthous blinds, but enjoy watching beginner hunters experience the thrill of picking out a deer and scoring their first harvest. Dale:Fire:

[dk17hmr]

Depends on the season and the weather. With bow hunting I could be 15 feet up in a tree stand or stalking the corn and soy bean fields bare foot, dont laugh I have killed whitetails bare foot with an arrow.

Rifle season we hunt on state land in the middle of nowhere with lots of area to walk without seeing anyone else. I go from stand hunting when the weather is really bad, to walking and stalking when it is nice, or just hiking all day ussally dont need any meat in the freezer by the time rifle season gets here, ussally get at least 1 in bow season, so I dont really care about getting a buck so I dont try very hard, I let my dad and brother hunt my best stand while I walk or sleep in. Rifle hunting is more or less spending time with my dad and brother for me.

Muzzleloader season I am ussally only after a doe, but if a buck comes along...well you know. But I hunt the fields or my treestand and take a tasty looking little one, not this years fawn but not a big deer, if I want more meat for the dorm room.

On the note about scent, I know alot of my friends are big into that scent masking/ scent blocker bull roar, they think it helps. Myself, most of the time I take a shower in the morning when I get up, normal soap/shampoo nothing special. I walk out to my stand about 30 yards from it I spary some "doe piss" on my boots and walk to my mock scrape in front of my tree stand, frenshin the scrape then walk to my tree stand. Killed 2 bucks with my bow this year one on the scrape at 10 yards the second on his way to the scrape at 7 yards, I dont know about scent elimination but I know if you can distracted them with something they like they come in close and ussally leave my stand with an arrow punched through them.

I also know they dont mind the scent of Wintergreen or Apple Skoal, the fawns will come right into were I spit and smell it, right under my treestand.

[versifier]

Tree stands around here are mostly used by bowhunters. Some like to keep moving, some like to sit, some like a bit of both. Easily accessible spots around here can get dangerous, but you have to plan on that and sit where the deer will move to when the "thrashers" push them out. Beyond 200yds from a road, you don't see too many other hunters and they're mostly the ones you needn't worry about. You will find a few with magnumitis, but most shots are less than 50yds and the most popular rounds are -06, .308, .30-30, .35Rem, .243. There are many who prefer the older levers and it is not at all uncommon to see .250 & .300Sav, .32spec, etc.

[BD]

For me it depends on how the wind and woods are. There's nothing better than taking a handgun for a stalk on a calm morning after a new snow. If it's frozen crunchy I'll use a rifle and sit where I can look out a ways. I've shot many whitetails from the far side of a stream or clearcut on mornings when I could hear them walking long before I saw them. These days my whitetail hunting is limited. My wife is tired of venison and has told me to kill only pigs for awhile.
BD

[PAT303]

Most guys in Australia do alot of walking,our property's are pretty big and game is normaly spread out and you get a mixed bag.Over the last couple of years we have been suffering the most severe drought most people can remember and game is scarce,so much so many annual trips have been called of as there is no game at all.A property I shoot on is 55,000 acres of dust,where 7 years ago 4 of us would set out at 4 points of the compass and meet again hours later at camp.They were the good times Pat

[Hackleback]

You all know that one can not kill the modern steel plated white tails unless you use a magnum; an ubermagnum; is that the short ubermagnum...... or was that the super short ubermagnum.... I am all confused now.....