preferred way to hunt??

[okieshooter]

A lot of guys around here try to sit scrape lines and I will occasionally too. Last year my son sat good trails and crossings, sort of funnels I guess, and saw way more deer than everyone else. Most of what he saw were does and little bucks but he did see 5 or 6 big bucks cruisin'. Would you rather see a buck twice a week or 15 deer every time you went out? How do you hunt the most and how well does it work for you? I know everyone just enjoys being out there but if you had to kill a deer to eat tonight what would you do? No road hunting!

[Daman]

If I had to kill a deer today I would just grab the 30-06 and go over to my pastures with a spot light about midnight and whack a couple. But that is HAD to!!!!

Now what do I enjoy and do well at?

I like to either hunt out of a ladder stand or sitting on the ground in creek or river bottoms and overlook a creek bank or slough that has big oaks with acorns. I always see deer when I hunt this way. Sometimes it is only does and yearlings, but about once a season at least I get a shot at a bruiser.

Daman

[valvesinmyhead]

 Spot and stalk

[Rock Home Isle]

A lot of guys around here try to sit scrape lines and I will occasionally too. Last year my son sat good trails and crossings, sort of funnels I guess, and saw way more deer than everyone else. Most of what he saw were does and little bucks but he did see 5 or 6 big bucks cruisin'. Would you rather see a buck twice a week or 15 deer every time you went out? How do you hunt the most and how well does it work for you? I know everyone just enjoys being out there but if you had to kill a deer to eat tonight what would you do? No road hunting!

For me season starts months before opening day. I have my areas that I hunt nad will take weekend trips and just sit and watch the animals movements and where they tend to hangout.

So if I know that there are deer in the area...I'll arrive early and set up to have a look around. Once I spot my animal I'm a spot and stalk type. That is so much fun for me.

[Land_Owner]

I either have limited time or a limitation on property acreage so sit on stand and wait is typical for me.  I would prefer to see 15 deer a day, but then I am a meat hunter and I would tend to kill two of them a day as the law allows.

[kynardsj]

Prefer an elevated tree stand or shoot house overlooking some nice green fields or big woods that you can see a ways in. I take a snack, something to drink and a good paperback and just enjoy the day. If I take a deer it's a bonus to an already good day.

[hunt-m-up]

I like to hunt tree stands on creek banks within a hundred yards or so of a bedding area.

[Halwg]

I won't get into trees, so that leaves me on the ground.  I don't know where you hunt where you are seeing 15 deer a day and several bucks, but around here you are lucky to see one shootable buck all season, so when you see him, you better take the shot, or it could be a long, cold, deerless winter.

[mechanic]

We go with food plots with stands nearby.  Usually have feeders out until just before the season starts.  Of course, we wind up feeding the coons, possums, and turkey, but they gotta' eat too! 

When I hunt public land, I look for hilly places overlooking water, and hunt from a ground blind.

Almost always get does, big bucks are not that commonplace here because they go nocturnal so soon.  During the height of the rut you might have a chance at a trophy.  As soon as the rut passes it would be pure luck to see a really big fella'. 

I will shoot a doe over a small buck.  I usually let them walk!

[jedman]

    I am now, have been a meat hunter for the last 10 + years so I like having more shooting opertunities than going after big bucks only.  Here in Ohio we can take several deer a year if you shoot does, and i have no more wall space or need for more racks, unless its a trophy beyond anything that I have shot inn the past 36 years.
   But if I was just after anything to put a tag on , I go by DROPPINGS... Some times you find places where there are scrapes and rubs and you think this is it.... this is the place.... but after hunting that spot several times without seeing deer you wonder what happened to all the activity ?
  Well I dont know if the wind swirls or your scent is contained in certain areas where the deer get a heads up to a hunter in the area or what happens , but some places that deer hang out you cant kill one there.
  If i find a area with lots of fresh droppings and there is a place to sit, a downed tree , stump , a uprooted tree whatever in the area and its somewhat uphill in the morning or lower in the evening to where the trails , droppings are I'll bet if you can sit still for a couple hours you will see deer.
  Anymore I hunt with the intention of shooting just about any deer I see that I can kill cleanly, with longbow, crossbow, handgun,muzzleloader, or rifle, I try to hunt where the deer are now, today.
    Jed

[Ranger J]

I like to see deer.  It makes me feel good just to see deer each day!  I meat hunt and am interested in putting deer in the freezer and not a head on the wall.  There is nothing wrong with that if that is what turns you on and if a large buck wonders my way hopefully he is history.  I hunt tree stands and every deer I have killed over the years has been our of a tree.  Walking through the woods all I usually see is white tails in the distance (Wasn't there a song by that title years ago?).  I guess I am just too heavy footed for ground hunting.

RJ

[TommyD]

Here in Western New York, the terrain is not suitable for spot and stalk - although I think it would be a lot of fun.

Three seasons ago I built a 6x8 foot semi-enclosed "wildlife observation platform" on the edge of a 12 acre field where the deer like to graze. On weekends during the off season, my wife and I often get up before sunrise and sit up there with a thermos of coffee and binoculars. Lots of deer within 100 to 160 yards. Mostly does, but I am a meat hunter so it doesn't matter to me.

For the last 3 years I have been out there on opening day and filled my freezer with my savage muzzleloader. This year the will most likely legalize rifle hunting for whitetail in my county, so I am practicing with my .308.

Tom

[alleyyooper]

I used to like to still hunt when I was younger. Well getting older has gotten so I like to stay in one place. I've hunted all the land I now hunt for years and know almost to an inch of where the deer will go when the first shots sound. I have raised enclosed blinds near those areas many a measured 100 yard only and many closer than that.
I am the only person left at home who eats the venison if it isn't ground so I am very selctive in what I will shoot. My last deer was in 2003 a buck I killed with my dads rifle he gave me at 89 years of age and after his last hunt with it.
I also carry a thermos of hot honey laced tea and carry a good book to pass the time.

One of my blinds.




Another .



Two portable ones.




   Al

[Win 1917]

I like to see deer.  It makes me feel good just to see deer each day!  I meat hunt and am interested in putting deer in the freezer and not a head on the wall.  There is nothing wrong with that if that is what turns you on and if a large buck wonders my way hopefully he is history.

+1

I like hunting the thick brushy areas mostly because everything happens in such close quarters. In that context seeing deer is exciting even if I don't shoot. I love watching them come in and feed under the stand, watching them interact with each other and their environment.
If I'm hunting a more open stand looking out accross a field seeing deer isn't that exciting and would rather see an ocassional large buck as opposed to quantities of deer. 

[shot1]

I like to sit in an elevated shooting house with a comfortable padded chair over a crop field and wait for the deer to come to feed and shoot them waaaaaaaay out there. Or bushwhack them from a concealed blind or shooting house along a logging path while they are on their way too or from a crop field. I have busted my hump for many years climbing all over the mountains of TN and WV in my younger years. Some people say that my stand hunting is lazy. I tell them with age comes wisdom. I kill a bunch more deer than these people do.

[Rock Home Isle]

Spot and stalk

Spot & Stalk as well...

[mike4]

we spot and stalk because in south east nm there are no trees.  we will try to get to the highest hill and glass till we find some then stalk them.

[Rock Home Isle]

I do also enjoy still-hunting. 

[mrussel]

I used to like to still hunt when I was younger. Well getting older has gotten so I like to stay in one place. I've hunted all the land I now hunt for years and know almost to an inch of where the deer will go when the first shots sound. I have raised enclosed blinds near those areas many a measured 100 yard only and many closer than that.
I am the only person left at home who eats the venison if it isn't ground so I am very selctive in what I will shoot. My last deer was in 2003 a buck I killed with my dads rifle he gave me at 89 years of age and after his last hunt with it.
I also carry a thermos of hot honey laced tea and carry a good book to pass the time.

One of my blinds.




Another .



Two portable ones.




   Al

 I hate to break it to you,but Im not sure that first one is a blind? Have you noticed any strange smells?


 Seriously though,Im reading all these replies with great interest as I have never hunted before,but I just did the hunter safety and got my permits for a "Any bull elk" and "any buck deer" and am putting together my gear for this winter.

[squirrellluck]

Down here we call those privvy stands ... for obvious reasons Preferred way to hunt? With a weapon in the woods. Sorry I dont really care how I hunt but only that I get to hunt. A lot! Elevated stand, sitting on the ground, or stalking. With a long gun, pistol, muzzleloader or bow. As long as I am in the woods I am home!

[Drilling Man]

  If I "had to kill a deer today", i'd walk out about 100 yards from my house tomorrow morning (it's dark here now) and shoot the first one i see.  I see deer pretty much every day, and a couple mornings ago, six bucks all went through together,



 a couple of them will be big bucks by this fall!

  DM

[Rock Home Isle]

........ Preferred way to hunt? With a weapon in the woods. Sorry I dont really care how I hunt but only that I get to hunt. A lot! Elevated stand, sitting on the ground, or stalking. With a long gun, pistol, muzzleloader or bow. As long as I am in the woods I am home!

Nice...I would have to agree. 

[1marty]

At 67 I hike way into the hills, set up along the edge of some power lines; the other hunters are too lazy to hike up the mountain so they wind up pushing the deer right to me. One shot; one kill.

[mechanic]

At 67 I hike way into the hills, set up along the edge of some power lines; the other hunters are too lazy to hike up the mountain so they wind up pushing the deer right to me. One shot; one kill.

You bring back memories.  My Dad would park the truck in the middle of a power line at the top of two hills.  He would climb in the bed, set up a folding table with a shooting rest.  Then he would break out his coffee and smokes and relax.  He had a 400 yd. field of view each direction, and with his 25-06 killed more deer than we did in the swamps.

Ben

[Rock Home Isle]

At 67 I hike way into the hills, set up along the edge of some power lines; the other hunters are too lazy to hike up the mountain so they wind up pushing the deer right to me. One shot; one kill.

You bring back memories.  My Dad would park the truck in the middle of a power line at the top of two hills.  He would climb in the bed, set up a folding table with a shooting rest.  Then he would break out his coffee and smokes and relax.  He had a 400 yd. field of view each direction, and with his 25-06 killed more deer than we did in the swamps.

Ben

To both of you...Very Cool. 

[Mnswede]

Have elevated stands and tree stands.  Place them along the deer trails from one wooded island in the swamp to another.  Will place a free standing stand on high ground over looking bedding areas and get the deer coming and going from the bedding area in the swamp also.

[Ron 1]

well hunting many different places i have to change my methods so i can say i will still hunt,spot-n-stalk
sit in tree stands or climb in a pile of brush all the way to sitting in my heated hunting house.
i do think that a new spot every time has been the best for me. if it is legal i will try it at least once twice if it worked. i like to hunt in the swamps so that the deer cannt scent my trail. i have watched deer sniff
the trail that i walked in on then follow my foot prints to my tree and look up at me. yep, busted so then i know it is time to move. but in a couple inches of water there sniffer dont work so well.it also helps me hear them.it is hard to find the blood trail but 90% of the time they head out of swamp to dry land.


      rw

[SHOOTALL]

Depends , Black powder season - sit in a ground blind over a food plot or cruise looking then stalk. Reg. gun season - first choice let the dogs lose , second ground blind over food plot and last cruise and stalk.

Don't waste your breath condeming hound hunting Been doing it for over 40 years and love it. Here there are so many deer we consider them varmits (TASTY ONES )in some places.

[Spirithawk]

Funnel areas work great. I also like big hollows with points coming off high ridges that make good travel routes. When all else fails still hunting.

[tacklebury]

I stalk using wind and cover to my advantage.  If I get a little tired, I sit occasionally at the base of a tree and avoid silhouetting myself.  Don't ever use blinds or stands.