Accuracy required for hunting?

[Mike / Tx]

Is it bad that I hunt out of a blind? I see all you folks talking about actually walking around in the woods and stuff. That sounds like a lot more fun than just sitting and waiting. I kinda want to do that now that I think about it.

Well it is my favorite way to hunt to be honest, but I have spent many an hour sitting in a little plywood box or perched atop some form of ladder stand as well.

As mentioned the terrain you have to hunt plays a big role in it as well. If your sitting on wide open pastures where there is nothing to blend in with but the tall blades of grass, it's pretty much useless unless you have some ridges or ditches to work with.

I hunt both wide open pastures and thick woods. The pastures are pretty much flat with no features to use, so you get behind something to try and blend in, like a youpon bush or similar cover, and sit and see what shakes out. Your mainly looking to break up your silhouette against any type of background.

In the woods though, if you have enough to work with, you can spend all day. If your working it right and proper as I was instructed growing up, you will only cover 3-400yds. I was always told, if your covering more than 100yds an hour your going to fast.

Still your outside using the natural cover, plotting your next move, and generally getting into the whole scheme of things. Use the wind and if you can try to pick days when it is misty rain and calm. That way the ground clutter is damp and quiet. Move as slow as possible even when stepping. Plot your next move to coincide with getting to the next little clump of brush, a bush, or two trees together rather than just one. Once there stop and ever so slowly look around 360 degrees. Those deer can seemingly just pop up like a jack in the box right out of nowhere.

It isn't like when a deer or 7 or 8 come up, or ease by a few yards away, that you can simply jump and duck behind a tree either. If your caught out in the open, well your caught, and nothing you can do but begin the contest of nerves, who's gonna move first. Trust me when I say, those white faced old matriarch's of the herd will peg you dead to rights in no time, and there ain't no winning a staring contest with one either. LOL It is however a total rush to stand still beside a tree and have them walk within yards or feet of you never realizing your even there.

One of the last really nice bucks I shot, I was simply standing next to a big ol tree. I had half a dozen or more does walk up with him in tow, to within 5yds, stop, and start feeding on the acorns. The old white faced one snapped first, and then they all started the staring and flipping their heads up and down, knowing I was something that shouldn't be there. The buck was standing not 20yds away watching all the commotion wondering what they were doing. He should have been paying attention to them, cause now he is on my wall

 

[tahunua001]

Thanks for all your help guys, one more question though.

Is it bad that I hunt out of a blind? I see all you folks talking about actually walking around in the woods and stuff. That sounds like a lot more fun than just sitting and waiting. I kinda want to do that now that I think about it.

nothing bad about it at all. I walk and hunt, my self diagnosed ADHD and my awkward build make sitting in blinds torture for me, but I will say this for blinds, you are concealed, you are quiet, and the animals will not notice you until it's too late if you play your cards right. sneaking up on animals is very difficult and often times you have a split second to shoot unless you are very lucky and manage to catch them while they are distracted.

 

[jimbob86]

Is it bad that I hunt out of a blind? I see all you folks talking about actually walking around in the woods and stuff. That sounds like a lot more fun than just sitting and waiting. I kinda want to do that now that I think about it.
__________________

I hunted with a blind for the first time this year. Bought it because getting little kids to hold still in the cold is hard ...... that and me enduring the cold is getting harder.

When I started hunting, it was with my grandfather, and it was done from the seat of a pick-up, for the most part: drive around and spot mulies from long range, generally, and then figure out a way to sneak up on them or get where they were headed before they did ......

When I started hunting on my own, that method was impractical, partly because the mulies were gradually being replaced by whitetails, but mostly because I did not know every landowner in 1 and a half counties, or have permission to hunt their ground ..... I was familiar with 4 or 5, so asked to hunt their ground. Doing so in a pick-up would have covered it all in a morning ..... I found if I walked it slowly, I saw more deer. I then found out that if I sat in the best spots, I saw even more deer, and more importantly saw them before thay saw me...... this has worked well for a long while, mainly because this was just not done- most people hunted from vehichles, and the deer were alerted by the sound of approaching vehichles ..... It was like I was invisible to the deer, so long as I was quiet ..... then the deer in the places I hunted most started getting educated ..... I had to start worrying about scent control .... and being quieter .....

I am a couple of decades older now, and though my hunting clothes are much better than the stuff I wore back then, I just can't sit on the ground in 6 degree weather with the wind blowing on me like I could back then ......

I hunted out a blind this year, and took a very nice 5x5 whitetail buck ..... maybe the biggest I've ever taken ..... and was pretty comfortable doing it, despite the freezing temps and cold north wind..... could I have made the shot with my mosin .... probably. It was 90 yards, which would have made it seem a chip shot, but it was minutes before the end of legal shooting light, and it was less than 5 seconds from the time I saw the animal until I made the shot- through a narrow opening he could have crossed in less than 5 more seconds ..... I don't know that I could have made the shot with a gun that was less familiar to me than my .270 .... (especially with the gun behind me leaning on my chair when I saw the big boy!)....

As for the Mosin shooting 4" high @100: mine does, too .... the Russian troops were taught to aim for the belt buckle .... not a problem for them ....

There are taller front sights available .....

 

[P71pilot]

However far you can keep every shot into a 24oz beer can is your max range. So if your mosin and you shoot decent should be about100+ yds. The bullet will do a lot of damage to a deer just make sure you disconnect the pump station

 

[jimbob86]

I practice on gallon milk jugs full of water: just about the size and shape of Bambi's boiler room, and certainly leaves no doubt about a hit.

Shoot them from field positions, at unknown distances ....... put some time pressure on your self, because Bambi is unlikely to wait around all day for you to make the shot.......