Blinds VS Treestands for rifle hunting

[wooly]

I've been a ground pounder with gun and bow for all of my 25yrs hunting up until two years ago.

The past two seasons I decided to take to the treetops to see what I was missing out on.

I never had much trouble seeing plenty of deer from the ground, but stand hunting put a lot more of them within killing range of me without being detected.

I killed a doe, an 8pt, and a 6pt with both weapons from above and had dozens more offer opportunities, but I have never felt so disconnected from the hunt in my life.

I'm not putting stand hunting down in any way, but it turned out to be a real let down in the excitement department for me, and I'll likely be back to ground level again this coming season.

 

I'll stop short of saying treestand hunting is "easy", but it's a whole heck of a lot easy-er than hunting from the ground.

 

 

[Doc]

It is that vulnerability that puts some wild excitement into the hunt ..... basically the adrenaline punch that keeps me out there year after year. I enjoyed my treestand years, but when I finally came out of the trees, I learned what real hunting excitement was all about. It's a real kick!

[A Sportsman]

I hunt bow from trees on LI public land. And spend gun season on foot in catskills. I share docs feeling that by the time bow season ends, I'm sick of relying upon deer to come to me. I'm ready to "make things happen". Whether its still hunting, or teaming up with my hunting partners to try to bump deer to each other, depending upon Conditions. Also like doc, I select certain "deery" areas to focus on, where ill creep. And glass super slow. Other areas I move past quickly unless they are showing more sign than they normally do.

I would love to shoot a deer, any deer, with bow from the ground. Haven't done it yet, haven't really tried much, but its on my list. I can appreciate the rush that must be.