How do you hunt your deer with dogs or...

How do you hunt most of your deer?

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rickyford2

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How do you hunt most of your deer?

Do you Still Hunt?

Do you Hunt With Dogs?

Do you Stalk Your Deer?


Just wondering how many guys hunt with dogs and stalk I already know that still hunting won:D

Ricky
 
Deer hunting with dogs is a tradition in many parts of the Southeast. It is espescially popular in my homestate of Mississippi. There are those who call it unethical and immoral but most of those types have never tried it. It is much like hunting rabbits with dogs. One group of hunters unleashes the dog while another group of hunters stake out the deer's escape routes and wait for the deer to run by and present a shot. Often times the deer is so far in front of the dogs that the hunter gets to shoot at a deer that has stopped to rest. It's not my favorite way to hunt and it is best kept on private land where other hunters will not be disturbed, but it certainly has it's merritts.
 
Deer hunting with dogs was mostly traditional in the southeastern U.S. Ruark offers some descriptions of hunts in his, "The Old Man and the Boy". With many fewer large tracts of land suitable for the use of dogs, there is much less than in the past.

I once was hunting in the riverbottom jungle along the Appalachicola River below Blountstown, Florida. I watched a couple of dogs trail a doe, the other side of the river. She finally jumped in and swam the 200 yards to cross it. She landed near me, shook herself, and walked on up into the woods. The dogs never realized they'd been eluded...

I guess most of my own hunting has been of sitting at early morning or late evening, and walking/stalking during mid-day.
 
I'm more of a stalk kind of guy. I will wander for awhile then sit and do some glassing then get up and cover some more ground. The country I'm used to hunting is just to big to sit and wait, and until now I'd never heard of people using dogs to hunt deer with.
 
Art, I may have been down in that exact location myself at one point...
I have access to some land over in Notrhern Lafayette Co. right on the river. My favorite time is sitting just off the bank in a little slough with my back up against an old live oak facing away from the Suwanne and just taking it all in. Walking during the mid-day, and still hunting early and late is the norm
I have, and will again hunt hogs with dogs, but that's a whole nother story...
 
Yes dog hunting is big in south carlina where my uncle lives he owns a hunting club with 6000 acers and they pick a place and let the dogs go and make a circle around that spot and then let the dogs go about 20 and we shoot the deer as they come runing out.

Ricky
 
As my post name implies I'm a dog hunter. Probably the LEAST productive method of deer hunting I know of, but sure a challenging hulluva lot of fun. Anyone who's never engaged in the practice simply cannot imagine just how difficult it can be and just how wily an experienced buck is.

I also still hunt yearly with family and friends in the appalachians and I've taken a few of them with me here in Fla........EVERY single one was left in the dust wondering what had happened!....They fail to realize just how far ahead of even very fast dogs a deer will be, where he's likely to run, much less the techniques a deer will use to lose those dogs including round abouts on sandy roads, running back thru a pack, stopping dead and letting them over run his position and hauling ass back where he came from......not to mention the trick of finding a wad of does and yearlings and running into their midst and screwing up the whole works !! Then there's the oldtimer that'l find a thousand acre windy clearcut, run to the center and lie down...........you might find him if you have a helicopter and tracking device on his neck! Those still/stand hunters that've tried it sure left with a lot of respect for the method, not one killed a deer even tho they're quite accomplished on their home turf.

The big issue with running dogs is landowner conflict. Most areas are simply not large enough. My best estimate of a minimal area for a small group would be in the neighborhood of five thousand acres......Less than that and you are gonna have problems. Then too, you need a usable road system if you are not hunting on horseback so as to head the deer off.

It is sporting, it is very difficult, and if you succeed in killing a good buck, fairly hunted with good dogs you have truly earned a trophy!
 
I shot a dog by accident here in va with a shotgun. I was in a tree stand the dog howeled I looked left and saw a doe and let er rip. Bang deer goes down instantly dog squeels deer gets up and runs. The dog was in some pines just past the deer could not see him at all. got hit with over shot.
End result the club made me pay for the dog(fair)
called me a lier about the incident(unfair)
would not let me keep the dog(unfair) dog had nose blown off
club found doe 2 days later about 150 yards from area would not apologize(unfair)

bottom line I will not hunt with dogs or shotgun ever again.
 
I still hunt & stalk- depends on what kinda mood I'm in I guess.

I got really ruined on hunting deer with dogs. I have never tried it myself but have got a lot of hunts ruined by others hunting with them.

I do however enjoy rabbit & bird hunting with dogs.
 
I still hunt and stalk when I see them.. Depends on the cover/terrain I'm in. That's real hunting. Not sitting in a tree stand waiting for one to walk by. Not sitting next to a feed station. Not with dogs, (both illegal here anyway). Not shooting from a half mile away. (although I appreciate a long shot's skill, especially if out on the open tundra). I don't use scent kill/spray. I wear wool. I do sometimes use a cover scent. I walk softly. I use the wind to my advantage when possible. I follow tracks and other sign. I tend to stay away from other hunters.

I HUNT PUBLIC LAND!

-Steve
 
I tree stand/box stand hunt most of the time. Some folks out west refer to it as "deer waiting" instead of deer hunting :).

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
 
Many hunters here use dogs. I have always still hunted. I never saw anything wrong with dog hunting just never took up that kind of hunting. Dog hunting is far less than a shure way to get a deer so I believe it is ethical hunting. Where I live there are now two hunting clubs in my neighborhood. One on each side of the road. All of the land I hunt is surrounded by one or the other clubs. I am thinking about joining one club next year just to have more land to hunt.
 
I deer hunt both ways. Most people who condemn dog hunting have never tried it. As has been noted, it is illegal to run dogs in more states than those who allow it. It is a challenge to be ready for the split-second you usually have to identify the target and fire a lethal shot. I belong to a dog club that allows still and stalk hunting when dog drives are not in progress. Dog season ends 2-3 weeks before deer season does in Alabama,so if you don't still hunt, your season is over prematurely.
 
In August i hunt roe deer by stalking or high seat. From the 1st October i only hunt with the dog. I use a Taxen ( Dachshund). To me it one of the most fun forms of hunting.
 
I was telling Daddy about this thread earlier today. We've always just set up where we figure/know the deer will be and waited and that works. But, Daddy said he's been in on drives and agreed that this isn't the easiest way to hunt deer. He said he's watched deer ahead of the dogs and the deer know full well what they're doing and how far back the dogs are. He said mostly, down in Alabama where they hunted, they'd run short-legged Beagles and they didn't push the deer as fast. On the other hand, some of 'em did run some long-legged hounds and the race was on. In the latter case, he said when the deer came through, it was fast and then it was over. He said it's mostly a social event with the dog work involved... the dog guys goin' at it with "my dog's better'n your's". He said, in the social aspect, that if you had 12 guys and they only got one deer, everybody'd go home with meat. Daddy also told about one time some other guys were having a drive on our cousins' place... these two deer cut out to Daddy's side and he heard 'em coming and set up on 'em. Those two deer weren't in any hurry either and Daddy got 'em. That brings me back around to how we set up and wait... I can recall several years ago, there were these two idiot dogs across the road and they'd run deer. I'd leaned on a tree as long as I felt like that evening, so I slung my rifle and started to head back to the house. Well, I looked up and across the field and there's this buck... I guess he was about 2 year old, five or six points... coming bouncing across there. Well, this buck came right up within 15yds of me, looked at me, looked back the way he came, and then took three jumps out of there and was gone. That's when I saw the neighbor's stupid dogs running wide open. That buck... he may have been young, but he wasn't stupid and he looked like he was having fun leading those dogs. He probably just circled back around and went back where he wanted to be to begin with.
 
Around here hunters take still hunting to mean a tree or ground stand of some kind and you wait. We have lengthy archery seasons and while I am not a bow hunter I think almost all of that is still hunting. Our shotgun season this year was 9 days and regular muzzle loader season is 4 days; archery season runs from 9/29/2007-2/3/2008.
 
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