Sun near sinking into the cedars and oaks to the west, I still hunted my way to my “deer stand”, a 2”by6” board wedged into the fork of an ancient white oak. Wind in my face, I slipped slowly and quietly walked toward my stand.
Nearing my stand I spotted a young forkhorn. He was staring at the tree where I would have been sitting had I not had to unload a hundred, 100-pound sacks of cottonseed and meal. The young buck stood statue-like still downwind, where I would not have been able to see him had I been in my tree!
Hmmm! Made me wonder how many times the same scenario had happened in the past. If a young buck would be so cautious, I could only imagine what a mature buck would have done.
I waited until buck satisfied there was no hunter in the tree and had walked right under my deer stand before heading toward a fallen tree. After cutting a cedar and youpon limbs and pushing them into the ground in front of me to help break my outline, I sat down on the ground, my back against the fallen tree trunk. This, long before the days of Realtree’s excellent concealment camouflage patterns.
Ten minutes legal shooting remained when I spotted an older 6-point. He approached downwind of my tree stand. I shot him when he too stared up at where I normally would have been sitting! It was at that point I became a serious and dedicated “grounded hunter”!
I have been hunting whitetail deer from the ground almost exclusively ever since. Doing so I have learned deer do have great eyesight and quickly detect any rapid movement. But I also learned I can “get away” with slow, almost orchestrated movement without attracting a deer’s attention particularly when camouflaged to blend in with my background and surroundings.
Observing other hunters, I have learned most tend to move their hands very quickly when they do make a move. Movement even I can quickly detect. Deer are far better at seeing such things compared to me. Rapid movement immediately grabs a deer’ attention. If that happens the next thing we see is their departing movement.
Most hunters’ hands are light-colored, especially their top side. Ungloved in darker or camouflaged color, deer quickly pick up on hand movements. This is one of the reasons I long wore leather gloves, which I had personally camouflaged. These days I still occasionally draw a camouflage pattern on my leather gloves, or simply wear gloves that are greenish, or darker brown in color.
Even when camouflaged head to toe or doused with the latest and greatest scent-control products it is extremely important to always “play the wind”. Of all the scent-control products I have ever used, and I have used most, those previously made by Texas Raised Hunting Products wer the only of such products that really worked for me. Alas, to the best of my knowledge the company is unfortunately no longer in business. Remember, deer live or die by being able to smell danger and reacting accordingly and quickly.
Hunting on the ground, opposed to hunting from an established treestand, if the wind changes directions I can simply move where the wind will “work” to my advantage. It is as simply and getting up, walking to another place where I can sit down, my back against a tree or brush and wait in ambush. I tend to hunt all day long. During the course of a day the wind can change directions several times. Sitting on the ground I can quickly and easily move.
My ground stands in most instances take advantage of what’s available; sitting in front of a large tree, or next to log or a bush where I can see trails, scrapes, or natural food sources, hard and soft mast. I often fertilize stands of green briar or Smilax, a favorite deer browse in the numerous areas where I hunt whitetails. Green briar responds well to commercial fertilizer in terms of growth and quality of browse. Deer have an innate ability to search out the most palatable and nutritious forages! Fertilizing selected patches of green briar I create natural food plots!
Being a native Texan and hunting a lot in Texas, I occasionally hunt over bait. But, I very seldom hunt over “corn feeders” other than when harvesting does. My favorite way to hunt older mature bucks, whether still-hunting, rattling or simply sitting and watching an area is to find places away from where anyone else is hunting. I regularly hunt a 2,000-acre property in northeastern Texas and a1,000-acre lease just below the Red River which separates Oklahoma from Texas. Hunting either, II look for places away from existing deer stands, relatively small openings or relatively so in the middle of nowhere. I “bait” these areas with Vineyard Max (www.vineyardmax.net), a combination of hammer-milled red and white grape skins, cracked corn and rice bran. Amazingly, deer that have never encountered grapes or grapevines are almost always immediately attracted to Vineyard Max’s aroma, as are those deer which are familiar with wild or planted grapes.
I usually distribute bait in small piles for two days prior to hunting those areas the third day. I always “build” two or three brush blinds at each sites so I can hunt there regardless the direction the wind is blowing.
I hunt these areas during the pre-rut sitting and watching, moving my eyes more than any other part of my body. But I often do the same as the rut approaches and during the rut, particularly to attract and hold does in specific area. Is such hunting from the ground challenging? Yes, it is! But the challenge makes hunting even more fun. And, it’s a great way to learn about deer.
I love “messing” with deer, trying to learn what I can get away with doing without spooking them. That includes moving very slowly and trying different grunts and other sounds.
I use only my natural voice to make deer vocalizations.
One of the things I learned long ago is whitetail deer tend to be curious. Going back to when commercial grunt calls first became available, my two young daughters started hunting with me. To keep them engaged and interested I gave each a Haydel deer grunt call. I nodded to them when I wanted them to do a grunt, like I had taught them. Deer sounds or communications I learned from real, live whitetails while working with penned deer during my days at Texas A&M University working for Texas’ Wildlife Disease Project. Usually, in spite of my daughters’ perfect grunts, nothing responded.
On our hunts together my two young daughters would become bored and start grunting “The Itsy, bitsy spider crawled up the water spout….” on the grunts calls. I remember the first time they did so, I rolled my eyes knowing our hunt was over for that session. Of course, I did not tell them to quit blowing the calls, for they were having a great time.
I “knew” no self-respecting deer would think about responding, most likely scaring any deer within earshot into the next county. But “hunting” time with my daughters was all about them having a good and fun time. They continued playing other songs with their grunt calls.
Then, completely to my surprise here came a doe, moments later abuck, looking for the source of the “sounds”. They came in with “airplaning” ears, obviously totally curious… Valuabel der hunting Lesson learned!
Hunting on the ground I can observe “in your face” deer reactions, unlike if I were sitting in a treestand looking down on them. Again, sitting on the ground while hunting adds to the challenge and the adventure of hunting, especially mature deer. But it is still my preferred way of hunting!
In recent years we have seen a proliferation of canvas-covered frramed ground blinds, often referred to as “pop-up blinds”. These are designed for both archery (bow and crossbow) and firearm hunters. They have proven very useful. Not only do they hide the hunter inside but also help contain scent. I have used top-up blinds on numerous occasions. But frankly, I prefer creating my own natural blinds using logs, limbs, and trees as backgrounds and in the foreground.
Hunting whitetails with my dear friend, Johnnie Hudman on the Buffalo 4 Ranch (www.buffalofourranch.com) east of San Angelo, Texas we targeted a particular six-year old buck.
“Larry…the buck we’re after frequents an area near where we have a feeder, but he only actually comes to the feeder under the cover of darkness. He usually hangs up a couple of hundred yards away until it gets dark, real dark. I have a place picked out where we can see a fair area of scattered mesquites about 300-yards from the feed area. On the edge of the mesquite flat are two big live oaks. That’s where I think we need to sit and watch. We’ll cut a few cedar limbs to put in front of us, then use the broad tree trunks to hide us so he can’t see our silhouettes.”
Sounded like a plan and a good one! After our morning hunt in a different area of the spacious ranch we walked to where Johnnie planned on us ambushing the targeted buck. We dragged a couple of big fallen oak limbs in front of the trees we planned to sit against, cut some cedar limbs and stuck them in the ground and between the bigger oak limbs to further help hide us from the front.
Ground blind completed, we decided to head back to camp, grab a bit to eat and come back for the afternoon’s hunt. On our way to camp we started seeing deer, does, fawns and bucks up feeding. I looked at Johnnie and he at me. No words spoken, we turned around and headed to our recently built ground blind. Hopefully “our buck” would be moving and feeding as well. En route, Johnnie and I commented we had both taken some of our best whitetails during mid-day. By the time we had set up and I loaded a 175-grain ELD-X Hornady Precision Hunter round into my Mossberg Patriot Predator 7mm PRC, it was 1:15 in the afternoon.
Five minutes later we saw our first deer, a nice young buck with exceedingly long brow-tines. Moments later we saw a couple of does and another young, though impressively antlered buck. They were walking toward the feed area.
I was watching the approach of another young buck to our far left. Johnnie grabbed my elbow and pointed straight ahead. He mouthed, “Big buck!” I slowly raised my Stealth Vision 10×40 binocular and saw not only the buck Johnnie had seen, but three more. They were slowly feeding our way, nibbling on forbs and mesquite beans. Each succeeding buck coming into view seemed to have bigger antlers than the one ahead of him.
Earlier in describing the buck he hoped I would take, Johnnie had said, “We’re after a typical 11-point buck, three kickers on the right and one on the left, his typical 6-point side. And, he’s got abut a 3-inch drop on his right beam.” My heart skipped several beats when I realized our target buck was approaching. “Fourth buck! Shoot him!” whispered Johnnie.
I did! The buck turned to run, faltered, then fell! He was mine…properly “grounded”!