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the woods sucks at hunting thread

Landslide said:
Nope not for me either, never have. Out before sunrise and back at the farm house for a big brunch meal, knock out a few zzzzz then head back out around noon or a bit after until after dark.

I can’t hunt like I used to anymore either. I use to be in the stand until couple hours into the daylight. Then get down and stalk around. I’ve killed more deer on the ground then in a stand. I love to hunt but I’m not an all day in a tree stand hardcore hunter.
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Pretty much what I do. Come rut, I'll head out at 5am. by 9am I need to come in for some coffee. knock some stuff out around the house, stack a cord of wood, take dinner out of the freezer, etc., then come 4pm I'll head out for another couple hours.

I had a buck on the ground once. it was the one I shot. Not kidding, it was the first 20m of hunting I ever did. went out in an old set of wool overall and a camp chair. 20m later I get up to adjust myself, there's the buck. shot it, didn't hit vitals, and trailed it for 2.5 miles over eight hours. lost it.

that was my introduction to hunting. I have this paralyzing thing over my head since I lost that buck that I need to get something. That eats away at me constantly.

since then, on the ground. I've never seen a single animal. nothing.
 
I'm a pretty laid back unter I guess, everything is ground. Walk around for a bit, sit, eat, take a nap, walk back to rig, drive around, try 4 wheeling and not get stuck, walk around and sit some more go home when had enough. Maybe shoot something in the mean time.
 
Weasel said:
I'm a pretty laid back unter I guess, everything is ground. Walk around for a bit, sit, eat, take a nap, walk back to rig, drive around, try 4 wheeling and not get stuck, walk around and sit some more go home when had enough. Maybe shoot something in the mean time.
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there's so much ground cover, I do the whole heel to toe thing, tip toeing around, and I'm just crunching through the forest. there's not a chance anything is going to stick around. I may be as well be playing a bugle.
 
woods said:
Pretty much what I do. Come rut, I'll head out at 5am. by 9am I need to come in for some coffee. knock some stuff out around the house, stack a cord of wood, take dinner out of the freezer, etc., then come 4pm I'll head out for another couple hours.

I had a buck on the ground once. it was the one I shot. Not kidding, it was the first 20m of hunting I ever did. went out in an old set of wool overall and a camp chair. 20m later I get up to adjust myself, there's the buck. shot it, didn't hit vitals, and trailed it for 2.5 miles over eight hours. lost it.

that was my introduction to hunting. I have this paralyzing thing over my head since I lost that buck that I need to get something. That eats away at me constantly.

since then, on the ground. I've never seen a single animal. nothing.
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I’m 45 min from our farm but stay in a 175 year old farm house during deer season. It has some modern amenities but no shower tho which after a couple days gets kinda rough. I’ll stay three nights opening weekend and do a bucket bath wipe down. The old place has a ton of character that can’t be built into a new place. I expect one day it’ll be unusable but we do what we can to help keep it around as long as we can.

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bunch'a hours in the stand. one on foot sweating my ass off and scaring everything in a mile.

couple squirrels and a chipmunk.

cam had one on lowly raccoon.
 
You dont go out before first light do you? I think I read in another thread youre a bit uncomfortable in the woods at night. Not being a dick just asking. You really need to be in the woods an hour or two before dark so anything that moved will settle back in. You posted pics of your bait pile post a pic from the pile of your tree stand. You mentioned you were 40 yards away. Thats pretty close. My stand is about 100yds from where I expect deer to walk through. Are you hidden in your stand? Is it enclosed or wide open? Bears have a seriously sensitive nose

And dont worry about spooking them. If theres food they will come back. Maybe a day or two or different time of day but they will be back. Go buy a couple dozen krispy kremes and put em out on your walk through. Or order up a mess of wings for the family and leave the remains. There used to be a restaurant in Forest County PA that would regularly have 5 to10 bears munchin in their dumpsters they love wings.
 
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Stuck said:
You dont go out before first light do you? I think I read in another thread youre a bit uncomfortable in the woods at night. Not being a dick just asking. You really need to be in the woods an hour or two before dark so anything that moved will settle back in. You posted pics of your bait pile post a pic from the pile of your tree stand. You mentioned you were 40 yards away. Thats pretty close. My stand is about 100yds from where I expect deer to walk through. Are you hidden in your stand? Is it enclosed or wide open? Bears have a seriously sensitive nose

And dont worry about spooking them. If theres food they will come back. Maybe a day or two or different time of day but they will be back. Go buy a couple dozen krispy kremes and put em out on your walk through. Or order up a mess of wings for the family and leave the remains. There used to be a restaurant in Forest County PA that would regularly have 5 to10 bears munchin in their dumpsters they love wings.
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I go out at all times. 4am. 1pm. 7pm. whenever I have time or feel like it pretty much. not the biggest fan of wandering in the pitch black, but I'll suck it up.

tree stand is pretty close. but with how dense the woods are, there's really no other place to put it unless I start knocking down some trees. 40yds is about the limit of "range" I can get back there.

stand is....sort of open. its built inside a cluster of pines. so I have five pine trees and I'm in the center of them. just a wooden platform and there are sides to it about 6" from the platform.

I want to stick to just sugary things. Last year I loaded a LOT more, and had roughly fifty raccoons and at least a dozen coyotes.
 
woods said:
I go out at all times. 4am. 1pm. 7pm. whenever I have time or feel like it pretty much. not the biggest fan of wandering in the pitch black, but I'll suck it up.

tree stand is pretty close. but with how dense the woods are, there's really no other place to put it unless I start knocking down some trees. 40yds is about the limit of "range" I can get back there.

stand is....sort of open. its built inside a cluster of pines. so I have five pine trees and I'm in the center of them. just a wooden platform and there are sides to it about 6" from the platform.

I want to stick to just sugary things. Last year I loaded a LOT more, and had roughly fifty raccoons and at least a dozen coyotes.
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Get some of the burlap for tree stands and string it up around your stand to hide you better.
 
A couple things.

Scent control - you don't need to shower when you get up at 4 am. Shower regularly with unscented soap and leave whatever clothes you'll wear outside for a bit then store them in a tote with pine bows. Remove pine bows when you put them on.

Walking at night- get a headlamp with a red light. You can also get red lights to hang on your stand that will flash when you press a button.

Tracking - if you wound an animal give it time to bed down before you track it. You don't want to jump it quickly after you wound it because from that point it will run and you'll never likely catch up to it.

Baiting - either place it high up or down in a hole. Make them work for it. Move your stand back to 75 yards and clear shooting lanes. Put up bid feeders nearby and get the birds coming in. Animals will be less suspicious of other animals.
 
my experience has not been to use red lights, depth sucks and trip over everything. Green is fine, blue is okay as well and will show blood really well.

and second is the tracking usually don't have to track many but the ones did find were racked asap, leave them they get lost and not found. never had one bed after a shot, either dies or runs.
 
Two cubs showed up. And that's it. mama and papa bear are gone.

just this idiot walking through after a four hour sit,





so looks like bear season is done for. I can bait until Oct 5, but the only ones left are the cubs. So that's the end of that.

On my walk in the above video, I did spot a whole bunch of deer droppings in the direction that I am walking towards in the video. they were on a different path though that links up and follows the brook. So I may move over there on Thursday for opening day. No stand though, so I'll be in the brush or something- I have no idea.

All year I get so antsy and excited to get out there, and I lose steam so quick once I get going. :homer:
 
How much land do you have to hunt behind your house?

Hop on a game trail an see where it goes. Get to a spot that looks decent, camp out off to the side for a bit, then move on. I know the whole tree stand thing is popular back there, But still hunting works too.
 
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Steve300xcw said:
How much land do you have to hunt behind your house?

Hop on a game trail an see where it goes. Get to a spot that looks decent, camp out off to the side for a bit, then move on. I know the whole tree stand thing is popular back there, But still hunting works too.
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My land behind the house, 15 acres. Outside of my property? No idea. Square mile? All conservation land and a mountain. Varying terrain. Brooks. Ponds. Ledge. dense, dense DENSE forest. lots of inclines and descents.

there's an old logging road that runs through the corner of my property, enters the conservation land, then ends. Its pretty open and cleared. I go out there in the snow, and there's no real definitive tracks on that specific road. they're all over. I'm talking, a week after first snow, you can't walk 10' with a deer track. they're everywhere. scattered. I had the cam out there at different places, and all different times, places, and deer. totally random it seems.
 
so yea, that's the real reason I hunt out there. If I had to actually travel anywhere, screw that. there's just no way. just seems like such a waste to have this land and setting, and not really use it. I guess one thing I could do is get over my fear of sleeping alone in the woods and start, like, camping and whatnot out there. To me its paradise. Its ruined any other location for me. I could never live somewhere where I could see another house, camping has been destroyed because its too crowded, and every second home (non rental) we've looked at has been the same exact thing that we currently live in. :laughing:
 
I dont know shit about whitetails. But it seems some deer you can pattern and some just do whatever the fuck they want..

All I have ever hunted is blacktails. Have killed more than a few by moving point to point glassing rimrocks and clear cuts. That said I bet I have killed more inside of 40 yards by just taking a rifle for a walk.

If it were me I would poke around that skid road a bit. Might take a bit but you will find the deer trails..... And listen. Have killed alot of grouse, quail, and deer that I never would have saw if they hadnt made noise first.
 
Ghillie suits seem to be available for short money. would that be something to get for still hunting on the ground?
 
Now with a predator call.. that might just be the shit. Have not tried one
 
woods said:
Ghillie suits seem to be available for short money. would that be something to get for still hunting on the ground?
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I got one for deer hunting in the badlands. It works pretty dang well. I dropped the pants as it did catch alot of scrub and brush. Upper wasn't so bad. Had a coyote run up on me chasing a rabbit, 10 feet and then tore out of there like a bat out hell. Also had 2 bigger bucks walk up out of the creek draw and stare at me then keep on walking. I was standing on the other bank edge, would have been a 35 foot shot if I had buck tags.
 
Steve300xcw said:
There many birds down there? Quail/grouse?
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My good friend does this. There's a swamp and he's got two bird dogs. He's alllllll setup for birds. They got these devices on the dogs that when they stop moving, he gets an alert on a thing he wears on his shoulder. Its crazy. He does really well. We went down there and spooked two or three woodcock and that's it.


pics of the swamp:

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I walked there the other day. its completely grown in now. I couldn't get to where I was in that pic above. the beaver dams are probably 10' tall now and that whole thing is flooded. the grass is taller than I am.




If you have half a day to hike (not still hunt, actual hike/bushwhack) you get here:

 
woods said:
My land behind the house, 15 acres. Outside of my property? No idea. Square mile? All conservation land and a mountain. Varying terrain. Brooks. Ponds. Ledge. dense, dense DENSE forest. lots of inclines and descents.

there's an old logging road that runs through the corner of my property, enters the conservation land, then ends. Its pretty open and cleared. I go out there in the snow, and there's no real definitive tracks on that specific road. they're all over. I'm talking, a week after first snow, you can't walk 10' with a deer track. they're everywhere. scattered. I had the cam out there at different places, and all different times, places, and deer. totally random it seems.
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Based on where I have happened across deer spending many hours hiking a particular plot of similar state conservation land I would set up your stand over looking that clearing at the end of the logging road or looking into a fairly grassy and open spot (if one exists) within some of the hilly terrain.
 
arse_sidewards said:
Based on where I have happened across deer spending many hours hiking a particular plot of similar state conservation land I would set up your stand over looking that clearing at the end of the logging road or looking into a fairly grassy and open spot (if one exists) within some of the hilly terrain.
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When I said cleared, the logging road is cleared. Should have clarified that :homer:


There's no actual clearing of any kind. Its all solid woods. The only grassy section is that swamp above, but its waaaaay grown in now. I was just there two days ago.

However, at the end of the logging road there is a ridge. Walking there, there was a blind that had been setup using sticks/trees. It was really old. but you could tell someone had set that up to look down onto the logging road. I sat there probably forty hours total last year? year before? never saw a thing.
 
Yea, I would be hunting the shit outta those beaver ponds, swamp area. Find their travel routes and go from there.
 
Steve300xcw said:
Yea, I would be hunting the shit outta those beaver ponds, swamp area. Find their travel routes and go from there.
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The shitty thing about that, is getting it back. Its at least a three hour hike to that big pond. And that with just a backpack. ledge, brooks, thick brush, downed trees, etc. I couldn't imagine dragging an animal back through that. the swamp area is about a 20m hike. and the logging road goes by it. so that is way more doable. I could actually probably get the atv up into there. that large pond though, no freaking way.

I've setup camp there at the old blind before and didn't see anything. very few tracks in the snow. /shrug
 
several years ago my dumb ass shot a buck on the edge of these bluffs. Truck was parked about 1-1/2 miles away on the other side of the canyon, and its a deep, steep SOB. was the first time I didnt drag a animal out, I boned it out. Also bought a pack that was made for hauling a lil more weight before I ever went hunting again, as that hike out sucked ass.

Now days, I dont bone them out, Seem to save more meat if you quarter them. I also doubt I would drag a deer more than 50 yards.
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both bears harvested. confirmed. my good friend just messaged me that a papa bear followed by a momma with two cubs were taken out.

so that's that.
 
Well that sucks.

You gotta badass back yard! Think I would probly have a trail trimmed out getting back to those ponds.
 
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