What's your deer hunting method?

[Stratosman]

Just curious during gun season how many guys hunt from a stand and who hunts from the ground? I for one have always hunted from the ground during gun season and have shot excactly one deer from a tree stand with my gun. I think the reason is, is that I hunt the same land I bowhunt on and those deer are making unpressured movements, while the gun season, at least after the first day, has deer moving in survival mode and using different cover, ect. And since I am usually bowhunting right up till opener, I don't take the time to reset my stands, besides it's easier to do some still hunting and streching of the legs from the ground. This year will be no different.

[freighttrain50]

every deer i have shot has been out of a tree. i can see more woods that way. This year you'll be seeing me in a tree on a bucket. Good luck all!!!

Train

[echotrail]

I prefer using a ground blind to. For most of same reasons you stated. I just use a strip of camo material around 3 or 4 close standing trees and break up the straight lines with some pine baughs. Works great.

[ducksnbucks]

I like being in the tree. I hunt some pretty thick cover and it would be hard to see anything on the ground. Sit pretty much all day, and let the deer get pushed to me. Good Luck!

[pikerliker]

I've done both still and tree hunting, but prefer tree hunting. I hunt in a large public area in Northern MN but it is so big the deer movement continues throughout most of the day even after the first few days of gun season. I have shot several deer in the 11am to 2PM range when a lot of guys go back to camp to eat and/or warm up. Last year I shot a fork horn on opener around 11am, a 6 pointer the second day around 930am and missed an 8 pointer again around 11 am the third day all out of the same tree stand! (We party hunt) No the 10 pointer didn't show up on the 4th day by the way! Also back in 92 I shot my biggest buck a nice 9 point again just before 11am. These were all taken out of tree stands so I'm kind of a believer in that for myself anyway.

~piker

[BradB]

I had a bit of an Epiphany last year regarding ground hunting. I've always hunted out of a tree, but last year I found I was in a spot where I could not get a decent shot at where the deer wanted to go. I watched them for several days, and where they went, and then I decided to make the obvious move and go exactly where they had been going. That next day I shot a nice big doe from a chair hidden in a balsam tree, and then 4 hours later I shot a nice big 8 pointer from the same tree in the same spot. I saw 17 deer within shooting range from that spot and no shot was further than 30 yards.

I believe this year I will do the same. Scout from the tree, figure out where they go, and then go there. I did this same thing hunting ducks this year and I shot a ton of them from improbable spots where they inexplicably wanted to go.

My 2 Cents.

[bigbucks]

I primarily sit in trees, but have shot plenty of deer from the ground, mostly while either posting or walking drives. A few just moving from what spot to another, not really still hunting, just roaming.

[WB make the CUT]

I sit in a tree......the longer I sit the better the odds!!!

[paceman]

The four of us hunting my dads land will primarily sit in stands the first weekend and then we will start still hunting to posters starting monday. Bigbucks is coming up to hunt with me on friday so I will make him walk through all the wet swamps and chase deer out to me......

[BDR]

My group will sit in stands till 10 am. Then we get together and make some drives on our private property then at 2:30 its back to the stands.

[Teddy]

I like sitting in a tree or ground blind, but it always depends on what suits your surroundings. Like if you hunt a good swamp but it has no trees, obiviously you can't hunt out of a tree. You really have to adapt to get the big one.

-"Ted"

[Piker]

I prefer sitting on the ground, mainly for ease and comfort. I've been putting a chair in a bush and doing a little trimming. All of my spots are on a hill or a river bank so it has the same vantage of sitting in a tree. I do both, but prefer the ground if it works.