Deer hunting at noon

[pauli]

around here, the deer seem to think they'll blend in best if they're lying down on the edge of the road... ahem.

(on the flip side, none of the ones that i see trying it are getting shot at...)

 

[skynyrd1911]

I'm a beginner, but I took my first deer last year. Although it was a doe, she sure cooks up fine. One shot, one kill, with a 12 gauge, at about 1430 hrs. Windy as heck! I was walking down a path and there they were. Lucky, I'm sure, as I need to learn ALOT more.

 

[fisherman66]

Glad to hear it Skynard! I think does taste better (especially compared to a buck in rut.)

2:30 pm That's good to know.

 

[20cows]

In my part of the country, I don't have to smoke to read the wind for two reasons. 1) My shots will mostly be within 50yds if not closer; not far enough to really effect the bullet's flight. 2) I watch the way grass and leaves are effected by wind, as well as the flag I put out as a scent bomb when I was using scent lures (won't be using that this year because they ain't collected from deer in my part of the country and so smell different).

Wind deflection was not the reason. Keith was reading the wind to know which direction to keep moving. He always traveled up wind.

 

[mustanger98]

20cows, That's a good strategy. If you keep moving upwind you'll run into something that hasn't smelled you. If you're sitting in a blind, like me, you watch upwind too. I was reading an article by a guy who hunts in open country by using blinds- he said he saw more trophy-size bucks inside 300yds on the upwind side of his blind. He said all the trophy-size bucks on the downwind side stayed outside of 500yds, effectively out of range of most of us. Where I am, though, you just flat can't see that far.

Another problem where I am is that in late Fall, the fronts always turn goofy and the wind swirls more than other times of the year. It's real hard to stay downwind of anything when you're sitting still.

 

[20cows]

I "still hunt" too, from a blind

When I read Keith's book years ago, I wondered why he called his walk around style "still hunting." But he wrote the book and got to call it what he wanted to. (And he was good enough at it for me not to argue with.)

 

[JShirley]

I've had pretty good luck still hunting in the middle of the day. I've usually used a handier unscoped weapon at such times- last season I was able to hunt, it was usually my ghost-ring Mossberg 500.

 

[Don Gwinn]

Been thinking about ghost rings on my Ithaca 37. I dunno. Gotta go shoot that gun this weekend, I think; season will be here soon and I won't have fired the shotgun since last season. Not good.

I've had good luck around midday too, but mostly in the evening. Pike County deer like to be dressed in the dark. We don't still hunt since the property we hunt is very small and the landowners and rich urban guys are walking draws all around us and missing left and right. We sit in stands and observe most of the day.

I'm excited about this year; by the time season rolls around, I believe I'll be about 125 lbs. lighter than I was last year. I've lost at least 105 so far, but probably more like 110-115. Last year, deer season was the time I chose to start a diet, not really thinking I'd stick to it. I remember climbing over a barbed-wire fence and thinking to myself "Hey, that wasn't too bad for a 400-pounder." When I realized what I'd just thought--and later when I was afraid to climb the ladder into my stand and chose to stay on the ground with very poor visibility--it really hit me what a slob hunter I'd let myself become. A fat guy who can barely drag himself a couple of miles into the woods and is afraid to climb into his stand? Sad.

Not this year. This year I'm still fat, but a lot less so. And this year I'm in better cardiovascular shape than I was 6-8 years ago in college.

 

[roo_ster]

DOn:

That's terrific. 125lbs/year. I'm cuttin' weight, too. Wanna go from 290 to 225-ish.

 

[Don Gwinn]

You can do that, no problem. 290 is about where I am now, and if I'd started this new life back when I first hit 290 instead of waiting so long, I'd be closing in on my target shape now.

Right now I'm 290 and have done one 62 mile bike ride. My long-term goal for the next two years is to ride 100-mile "centuries," weigh 200 and do five pullups at that weight.

Someday I may be able to afford to hunt Montana or Alaska, and I hate the thought that I could have that chance and be too fat to do it.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

About 5 years ago on my property in Missouri, I killed a small 6-pointer on opening morning. After returning to camp about 10:30 or so, an old friend of my dad's who never hunted with us before asked me if he could go use my stand. As I wasn't hunting anymore, I said sure and he trudged out there around 11:30. Not 10 minutes later he killed the biggest buck we ever got on my land (still to this day). A very nice 10-pointer.

 

[20cows]

Don Gwinn,

I'm 112 lbs. down myself. It makes it alot easier to get on a horse.

 

[JShirley]

Wow, Don. Good for you.

Wonder if I could lose 125 lbs?

 

[Byron Quick]

Wonder if I could lose 125 lbs?

You'd probably die at around the 80lb loss mark, John. You weigh what when you've been munching away? 155? You're a hobbit.

 

[PCGS65]

I'll be going out bow hunting deer for the first time sat. oct. 1st. I've already scouted a couple good spots in midewin tall grass prarie in Illinois. I found a spot under a medium sized bush where a deer lays down. I think I'll wait near that bush for when he's/she's tired. Only 3 days to go and I can't think of anything else. I sure hope I can sleep friday night. YAHOO!

 

[Matt G]

John, you could lose it better now than when I saw you in GA a coupla years ago (how has it gotten that long?!?).

20 Cows said:

I'm 112 lbs. down myself. It makes it alot easier to get on a horse.

Easier for you, but MUCH easier on the hores, no?

Don, I've got to say that you've inspired me. Gears are being put into motion.


Regarding hunting during midday-- I've done it a little, but typically, I use the midday for other fun activity, like kicking up quail, or going back to camp for lunch and chit chat and nap. The main thing is to use the trip for fun, rather than find yourself wondering why you've taken yourself out there to be tired, sleep-deprived, and dirty.

 

[GunGoBoom]

You're a hobbit.

Hey I resemble that remark!

Easier for you, but MUCH easier on the hores, no

Indeed, being a little guy makes it much easier on the hores when climbing on and off of them.

Smoke, not fair!

Gonna try some of that mid-day hunting this year. Like that 11:00 start idea too. Usually, my SOP is get out before dawn, hunt til about 9:30 or 10:00 am, then get very sleepy, get afraid of falling out of the stand, so climb out of the stand, take a nap on the ground under the stand till about 11:30. Get up and hunt again til about 1:00. Take a quick 1-hour lunch from 1 to 2. Then hunt the rest of the day. But I think this year, I'll just pack some apples & granola bars in my pack and stay out all day, for the reasons mentioned here, AND because I've always felt like the smells which I acquire by osmosis at mid-day back in camp while cooking lunch & cleaning up can't possibly be a good thing. Last year, IIRC, the ONLY deer I saw that were not running away from me, due to me jumping them while they were bedded, were at 11:15 am, Noon, 3:45 pm, and right at dusk.

 

[JShirley]

Matt,

I've actually stayed about 155 just about the whole time I've been out (late '03). Got lazy briefly, bumped up 5 lbs...lost it...back to 155 again.

Darn it. Almost everybody else seems to have lost weight in Basic. I gained 10 lbs!

GGB, I also resemble that remark!

Here's proof...

 

[Mannlicher]

Where I hunt, I find myself in a tree stand when out before dawn. The location varies according to local activity, but I usually great the sun from a treestand.
After the morning hunt, its back to camp for a belly bustin breakfast, and a quick snooze. Then by 10am or so, its off to the swamp, or the piney woods to still hunt. Careful, slow, cautious walking. Stopping to look, and hear. This way I catch the deer on their morning move, whether its to find a doe or to go to water. If nothing happens by around 2pm, its back to the camp again, for an early supper, and then off to the tree stand again for the late afternoon hunt. When its finally pitch dark, I climb down, and go to the camp. Another feed, a nip, some talk around the fire, and then off to bed.

Thinking back on all the deer I remember killing, I believe most were killed during the still hunting, middle of the day hunts.

 

[GunGoBoom]

He'll clear a trail of several hundred yards of leaves, sticks and debris to avoid noise while walking. Use the pruning shears so that he doesn't have to brush against limbs. Then he takes two or three steps and waits a few minutes. Then two or three more slow steps and so on.

One problem with that type of stalk hunting is that, when going back and forth along your trail, you will, by definition, have the wind against you exactly one-half of the time. Whereas, if you set up on the ground or in a blind or stand, with the prevailing wind in your face, it will be in your favor the whole time you are hunting. Still, you can't argue with his results, as you say. Plus, it's 'active' hunting, which is of course, more fun (and not as cold).