[T.R.]

I know a couple guys in western Pennsylvania that bought a junk car and dragged it with tractor to edge of a meadow within a forested ridge. They stuffed old clothes with newspapers and placed therm in front seat to simulate two human forms. The deer quickly became accustomed to this sight.

These clever hunters tore out the door panels from inside to grease the roller mechanisms. On opening day, they toss the dummies in rear seat and roll the windows down. They've tagged many deer from this unusual outfit. It's weather tight and comfortable.

One year, a Warden came around and cited them for hunting illegally from a motor vehicle. But they beat the citation and related fines because the junk car had no tires; they'd rotted badly over the years.

My buddies are a little "red around the collar" but certainly not reckless violators or criminals.

TR

[daorhgih]

... but did it have a motor?

[clutch]

Next time pull the motor and sell it. Then there is no way to run a foul of the game warden.

Clutch

[T.R.]

They way I was told: the Magistrate didn't care about a running motor. He asked about the tires. Go figure.

The junk car is a big Mercury from the 70's.

TR

[Yarddog]

Great homemade ground blind ; )
Y/D

[daorhgih]

You could set up a whole bivouac in the station-wagons!! Room for a reefer of suds!

[MCgunner]

I had an old van on my place when I bought it and shot a couple of deer from it. :D It's been 25 years and the top has rusted out of it, brush grown all up around it. I prefer an elevated tripod out there anyway to see over some of the stuff out there.

[slicksleeve]

I've always wanted to find a junk combine near a corn field, but I've always been under the impression it would break the hunting by aid of a vehicle law.

[mbopp]

When I was younger my dad & I would hunt some land that had an old school bus in the woods near a field edge. Every now and then I'd sit in it, never shot anything though.

[JEB]

sounds like a pretty good set up to me. im sure it would be a lot more comfortable than a little stool in a conventional ground blind.

[Art Eatman]

Back around 1950, my father "recycled" the frame from a 1939 Mercury club coupe, since it was the same as the frame under his ex-GI 1941 Ford staff car. My uncle set the body on four stub-ends of power poles and used it as a blind. Worked out just fine. :)

[buck460XVR]

In Wisconsin, it is illegal to hunt from or to have a uncased weapon in, on or leaning against ANY vehicle. This includes using the vehicle for a rest. A vehicle is anything that can be driven, ridden or towed. A few years back, putting elaborate deer blinds on haywagons became popular because they could be easily removed from the fields after hunting season. They could also be easily moved during the season to another spot. To be legal to hunt outta of, you had to remove the wheels before you climbed on/in with an uncased weapon.. A friend of mine once built a tripod stand outta the top sections of old windmill. Put a old boat trailer axle on one side so he could lay it down and move it with his tractor. I told him to contact the local warden about it's legality and yep.....wheels needed to be removed before he could use it to hunt. Old rednecks around here drive running vehicles out to their deer spot and then remove the wheels. Not only do they have protection from the elements, but they have heat and can listen to the Packers on Sunday. Deer have no natural fear of stationary vehicles, so parking it weeks in advance to get them "used" to it is not really necessary.

[MCgunner]

Wisconsin is weird. Down here, on your private property, you can shoot FROM a moving vehicle. Commonly, jeeps or 4x4 vehicles have a high mounted seat with a gun rest. One sits in the seat, taps the hood for the driver to stop when he sees something. Not legal on public land in New Mexico, not sure about private, but I don't think so. They call those vehicles "Texas war wagons" out there. :D

[41 Mag]

They stuffed old clothes with newspapers and placed therm in front seat to simulate two human forms. The deer quickly became accustomed to this sight.

Did this in one of my deer stands using cardboard to make up the silhouette, the deer paid no more attention to me in there than they did the empty stand. Got a pair of old coveralls to stuff and put in my bow stand a few weeks ahead of this years opener to see how that works.

Growing up, it was the norm for my pop and uncle to drop me and my cousin off in open ground blinds in what ever weather we had, then drive over to their stand and sit in the truck with the heater and radio on till time to pick us up. Usually they got a deer and we simply froze our buts off sitting in the cold and or rain. We would really love it when they would shoot a deer, then watch them drive off back up to the house till it was time to come pick us up.

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

Excellent ideas!

[Cob]

I was cruising a tract of timber near Okefenokee swamp a couple years ago, and once i get into rythim of measuring trees, hours can pass before i realize it, & in perfect solitude.

As i was walking thru the woods, i came across a ladder tree stand with someone in it, at 3 pm in May. I stopped measuring, focused on the stand, and wondered what was he hunting at the time. I did not want to mess him up, and sort of became perplexed for a moment as my intended route went straight under him. As i got closer, no movement...

It was a "dummy" with boots, hat, sunglasses, camo pants, camo shirt, etc... Very real looking. I felt like just as much a "dummy" as the one sitting in the tree stand... guess it was there to "season" the deer.

[dirtykid]

I've seen farmers around here build old-grain carts into mobile shooting stands and then tow them into the field just before harvest, by the time corn/beans are out of field,deer have become accustomed to "box' on wheels and will walk right in front of it,, My favorite hunting-stand is an old pallet with 4-pcs of 2x6 screwed into bottom (for legs),then i made a simple roof out of old 2x4's and scrap-fence board then hung old-pieces of artificial x-mas trees on the side for cover,, cheap and effective

[T.R.]

I really like the idea of using artificial Christmas limbs for cover & concealment. BRAVO!!

TR

[kingcheese]

nock the wheels off, pull the motor, remove the doghouse, at that point i dont think the game warden can complain, speaking of witch, what was the game warden doing on private property, i mean, howd they find out?

[JimKirk]

My farmer friend has killed many deer from a corn combine ... parked over night in the field they are picking... the deer come right to it.

My logger friend does the same from his log skidder... I guess the deer are curious about the machines.

Jimmy K

[rcmodel]

+1 on tractors, combines, or other farm equipment.

They get so used to it you have to stop sometimes to keep from running them over at feeding time.

A buddy & I built a duck blind once out of a old barn wood stock feeder.
We set it up right at the waters edge of a stock pond and had to beat the ducks off before daylight every morning to set out decoys!!

rc

[thales]

Ya wouldn't ever catch me tryin' that...

Them ol' cars is bullet magnets!

[buck460XVR]

+1 on tractors, combines, or other farm equipment.

They get so used to it you have to stop sometimes to keep from running them over at feeding time.




Yep....that's why just about every year you hear about a farmer in Wisconsin having his $100,000.00 combine confiscated because he got caught shooting a deer outta the cab. My brother in law had a neighbor, that after watching a nice buck trying to stay in the few remaining rows of standing corn left in a field he was picking, had his son sit in the gravity box and pick it off when they got down to the last strip. The neighbor got to buy his tractor with a mounted picker and the gravity box back in the DNR auction.

[rodensouth]

Deer seem to like the smell of fresh turned soil.

When I was 14, I had hunted stands, stalked, and still hunted every hour I could be in the woods that season with zero opportunities, likely due to my skill level at the time.

On the last evening, my grandad told me to drive the skidder into the woods(our land), and push a little strip clean with the blade. He then told me to crawl on top and wait.

I was only there 15 minutes before some nice does and a spike showed up, sniffing and pawing at the dirt. I was sure proud of that fat doe I drug back home!

[Cob]

Here's a pic of an old piece of Ag equipment a friend routinely shoots PD's & antelope from in Eastern CO

[JerryM]

Sometimes I wonder what has happened to hunting, and what percentage of "hunters" really know anything about hunting.
Jerry

[juk]

I used to think that hunting out of a duck blind would be almost too easy. I mean, they are in that specific spot for a reason! Fast forward 4 years and I will tell you that blinds aren't any help at all if you don't pay attention to wind and water level. When you duck hunt where I live, the wind is the difference maker.

If I ever sign on a deer lease or own my own land I may have to try the junk car thing. It actually makes sense, and would surely beat a ground blind.

[T.R.]

I perceive nothing wrong with using our God given intelligence to make deer hunting easier as long its legal.

- African leopards are hunted from pit blinds over fresh bait (at night)
- Michigan hunters use a variety of fruits and grains (bait) for deer hunting
- the exploding industry of portable ground blinds is evidence of a growing trend

TR

[JerryM]

For me hunting is about finding, stalking and shooting the game. I see nothing about shooting over a field from a junk car. It is just shooting, and takes no skill.
Being legal does not make it sporting. If one just wants deer meat then that will work, but don't tell me about hunting or any skill except shooting being involved.

If intelligence is the answer, then we can wipe out the deer herds with our intelligence, but we will not have hunted.

Regards,
Jerry

[TexasPatriot.308]

in Texas, as long as you aint on a road, but on private property I aint ever heard of that being against the law, lots of hunting buggies (jeeps etc) have high seats built on em, some even have the steering wheel etc. on an upper deck. hunting from old farm equipment and hay bales works good too.

[788Ham]

In the state of Colorado, you can't even lay your rifle over the hood of the pickup to take a shot!, private property or not!! I got busted several years back hunting P-dogs on private property, squatting and leaning "against" my left front tire when I shot, GW saw me, wrote out a ticket for $300.00, and said he could confiscate my vehicle, but since I didn't argue with him he didn't. If you come out of the field, set your rifle against the pickup, while getting a sandwich and a Coke, you'll get busted too! I understand this is pretty chicken dippin' sorry, but a fact.

[TexasPatriot.308]

Jerry I agree with you with hunting and stalking and you can do it in New Mexico etc. wide open land, if you are on land with several hunters around or places with deer blinds and city slicker inexperienced hunters, you are asking to get shot by one of these non hunting a####.

[withdrawn34]

If intelligence is the answer, then we can wipe out the deer herds with our intelligence, but we will not have hunted.



Very well stated.

[JerryM]

TexasPatriot.308,

I can agree with that. I also realize that some country is so thick that the only way most can hunt it is from a raised blind. But I do notice in the TV programs such things as shooting over a planted field from a barn with windows and gun rests in them.

Then some 8 year old shoots a deer from that set up, and the adults brag what a great shot and hunter he is.
I grew up partly in East Texas hunting squirrels, and learned to stalk in the brush and trees with the leaves dry and noisy. That has stood me in good stead over the years.

One might argue over what is fair chase, but there is an element of that in hunting. If it does not exist then one is not hunting in my view.

Regards,
Jerry

[Art Eatman]

Terrain and vegetation control the methods of hunting. There is no one size fits all, in this deal. I don't see any particular difference between sitting in a car, in an old car body, or in a store-bought box blind. Sittin' is sittin', even if it's just at the base of a tree or by a big rock on a hillside.

I prefer walking-hunting, to kick Bambi out of bed, judge him, and then bust him before he gets too far away or gets into cover. But that doesn't mean I won't sit down to rest my legs and maybe take a nap in the "hunter's doze" fashion, to pop my little eyebones open when Bambi wanders past.

Heck, if Bambi's not running, where's the sport in shooting? It's soul-satisfying to lay the crosshairs out maybe three or four feet in front of his nose and watch him crumple up from a busted neck. If you have a witness, it's even better! :)

People get way too negative if somebody does something different than they do. Bad as my wife about "different", being highly resistant to new ideas. :D

[ILikeLead]

I agree. Just to add more sport, I won't shoot any deer closer than 350 yards and that has to be measured with a laser rangefinder. If they're any closer I just stalk em and slit their throats with my pocket knife.


















(Not Really, just sarcasm to make a point.)

[Speedgoat]

Man, and I've been doing it the hard way by road hunting all these years...

[ripp]

shooting at rrunning animals is the mark of the slob hunter, if it's more than 25 yds across your front, or more than about 75 yds mostly straight away from you. In other words, if you have to aim at hair, not air, it is a serious breech of ethics. No way in hell you can adequately gauge the lead and you will cripple a lot of animals, sooner or later, for no reason other than you are too inept/lazy do get a decent shot. You can't tell if he's running 30-35-or 40 mph, which is 45-50-60 fps. At say, 100 yds, the bullet takes at least .10 sec to get there, so the critter runs 6 feet after you shoot, with the bullet in the air. What does 6 ft look like out there, while watching a running deer? While focused on the moving animal, are you also watching your background for safety, no you are not, mr Cheney! The deer will be dodging around real and perceived (by him)obstacles, making even a perfect shot a mere wounding hit. He is also bouncing up and down several times per second, so you can easiily shoot off his lower jaw or break a leg and he can run many, many miles with that broken leg. Don't do it, and for sure, don't brag about having done it, especially on Net forums where anti-hunters and anti-guns can use such stupidity against us!

[Carl N. Brown]

Fair chase is fine for sports hunting. Some folks are hunting for food for the winter. It is the folks who "hunt" neither for sport nor for need that bug me.

That said, as I have been told, "shooting from vehicle" was made illegal to prevent poaching or killing game from the roadways, often shooting onto private land without permission of the landowner. What's that got to do with using a non-movable vehicle or even a tractor as a blind on private land?

[usmccpl]

Years back some of the folks in my family would shoot a last day deer from an old manure spreader the neighbor had at the edge of his cornfield. We would only do that if the rest of the season was a bust so we wouldnt have empty freezers.

[Smokey in PHX]

thales has a good point.