I get no respect

Sitting in a blind or on stand is the only way you'll get a deer in Wisconsin.
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Because something is difficult for you (or me) does not make it impossible.
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No sittin' in a blind is not the only way to get a deer in Wisconsin, still hunting still works well as do deer drives when done safely. But.......on small woodlots with lots of hunters(as in 6 guys hunting 120 acres) it is one of the safest ways. Even in heavy woods and steep terrain, having safe shooting lanes is difficult when folks are so close together. In hilly terrain, even if you can't see someone, don't mean your bullet won't hit them as it drops over the hill. Knowing where every other hunter is(or supposed to be) is the key. This is the same as deer drives.

Sitting on stand is classic Wisconsin whitetail hunting. Squattin' over bait ain't. Folks gettin' upset with hunting partners and kickin' them out of the hunting party because they thought they contributed to their lack of success is almost as common. Used to be you hunted with friends and family for the camaraderie first, meat second and horn last. You tolerated their shortcomings and they became the brunt of deer camp jokes. Kids were expected to get cold and bored and start wanderin' around, that was part of the indoctrination. They also kept the deer moving on your parcel or area, and the neighbors kids across the fence did the same. Now, it's all about gettin' a deer, and God forbid we drive it over to the neighbors. Family and long time friendships don't mean nuttin' compared to gettin' ol' mossy horns. Don't get me wrong, safety is one thing and I'm all for it. But I long for the old days when hunting was fun and memories were made, even when you came home emptyhanded. Those days when an old timer took his huntin' time and mentored you instead of kickin' you out of the group, just cause he thought you mighta blew his chance at a deer. It amazes me at the close of every deer season how many fights and arguments between friends and family has occurred over a dam deer.
 
Now, it's all about gettin' a deer, and God forbid we drive it over to the neighbors. Family and long time friendships don't mean nuttin' compared to gettin' ol' mossy horns. Don't get me wrong, safety is one thing and I'm all for it. But I long for the old days when hunting was fun and memories were made, even when you came home emptyhanded. Those days when an old timer took his huntin' time and mentored you instead of kickin' you out of the group, just cause he thought you mighta blew his chance at a deer. It amazes me at the close of every deer season how many fights and arguments between friends and family has occurred over a dam deer.
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That's sad ...... it's supposed to be fun .....

There were times this fall that I laughed so hard it hurt .... the 30+ minute riffing my brother and I did about "Scotty-n-Steven", two bucks we ran into that were more concerned with each other than the guys with the rifles .......
 
That's a great photoshop. Nice to see we don't all take ourselves too seriously...like "real" hutners do:rolleyes:

Maybe you should offer acorn, mineral pies, and soybean sandwiches to really bring the deer in:p

My deer stand is a pile of logs and brush with an old lawn chair in the center. Maybe I need to upgrade.
 
That's sad ...... it's supposed to be fun .....
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Ain't it? All over a dam deer. I help teach hunter safety and I always make a point when I see past students of mine to ask how their hunting has gone. It's depressing to hear the amount of negative experiences these new hunters have had, and it's primarily while deer hunting. For example, one young hunter whose dad does not hunt, took the course because his uncle said he could hunt with them. He shot a small 8 point buck on opening day and then what should have been a celebration turned into a azz chewing and a chastising, and ended up with the young hunter being told he could no longer hunt there. All because the youngster's buck was a few inches short of being within the rules of a "shooter" imposed by the other hunters on the property. The other hunters were other uncles and cousins. This was this 12 year old's first deer.
 
Just so everyone knows, I didn't make the rules on this leased land but it's the first time I've had a really fantastic place to hunt deer in Wisconsin in my whole life so I follow them. I'd love to walk around etc and just enjoy the woods but that's not how it works here. So I won't disagree with you at all, just understand that I'm obeying the "law of the land"!! :D
 
WBL, buck460- I shall count my blessings, and having places to hunt is high on the long list ...... "I bitched about my shoes until I saw a man with no feet...."

And thanks for doing the Hunter Ed work, buck .....
 
warbirdlover just a couple of thoughts, it needs the MickieD type sign "over 100 deer shot" or if you don't like that a bambi stamp to mark kills under the windows!

Just gotta love the Rodney's...
 
I like both those ideas! Since I'm a World War II fighter plane nut (hence my nickname) I'd go with the stamps under the window I think! :D
 
maybe you could point out the absolute futility of trying to stalk a deer on foot in that layer of brittle, crunchy oak leaves.

Those old stories about injuns sneaking up on and whomping a deer on the head with a rock are mostly bullcrap. some areas of this country you couldn't sneak up on a scarecrow.

You get a 6 inch layer of that stuff on the ground, and you either step on it or move it, and either way, it is loud.


Fifteen years ago, PETA ordered 25,000 realtree patterned whoopie cushions, and they spent weeks spreading them through the forests in august and september, before the leaves fell and covered them. the plan was for hunters to be stalking through the forest, stepping on whoopie cushions every few minutes, and driving off any game that might be nearby.

The hunters never even noticed them. Isn't that sound heard from one end of the world to the other all through deer season? the deer, on the other hand, enjoyed them. hundreds of hunters reported hormonally challenged bucks standing in the forest, stomping on whoopie cushions and laughing. it must have been just like a week at delta house. the hunters would follow the sound of what they thought to be a flatulent, snorting buck.

The harvest of bucks was phenomenal, although it was mostly the less mature ones brought to the table. peta sued the maker of the whoopie cushions for fraud, because there was no warning label on them relating that deer found fart sounds to be amusing. the case was thrown out with prejudice because, in the judges words,

"this is not a case of protecting the consumer from poor product design or a faulty product. The plaintiff ordered the product with clear intent to use it in a manner not supported by the designers. The packaging instructions clearly state 'people love the classic whoopie cushion!' Omission of labels warning that immature, horny young bucks also like woopie cushions is not to be constituted as either a flaw in product, or deceit."
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the absolute futility of trying to stalk a deer on foot in that layer of brittle, crunchy oak leaves.
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The cottonwood, elm and box elder leaves are no less noisy in Nebraskan Novembers ......

Windy days help ..... I have also used a turkey call ..... if you have ever heard a flock of young turkeys approaching in the fall..... a crowd of teenagers full of mountain dew and no-doz would be quieter...... terrain masking..... there are all kinds of tricks......
 
The only time I ever tried to walk up on a buck was on a drizzly day when all the leaves and grass were wet. Being quiet was easy. Got to within about ten feet of him and tossed a small rock onto his rump. Rodeo time! Hair sticking out, eyes rolled back, nose stuck way out in front. I don't think my raucous laughter did much for his nervous system, though. :D But he gave a whole new meaning to the word "acceleration".

Generally, in sneaky-snaking around in woods, the deal is not as much about absolute silence as it is about avoiding being rhythmic in your moving. Critters don't march the way people do. They take a step, nibble, take another step or two, nibble, pause and look around...So, always pause after every two or three steps.

I pause and look down and ahead, quickly figuring where my next three or four steps will go. When I move, I'm not looking at my feet, I'm looking around to see whatever is out there. Don't need to step on rolling rocks or on sticks. Flick a glance, walk, flick a glance, walk. It does take practice, though.
 
Windy days help ..... I have also used a turkey call ..... if you have ever heard a flock of young turkeys approaching in the fall..... a crowd of teenagers full of mountain dew and no-doz would be quieter...... terrain masking..... there are all kinds of tricks......
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yep, one reason I LOVE huntin' in the rain. Hard rain and wind, bucks will lay with the wind to their back towards heavy cover and lookin' out into the open. You got a 50/50 chance of comin' up behind them while workin' crosswind. Sometimes they will look at you like "what the 'ell", as if they can't believe a human would be out in this crap. Other times they will burst like a grouse and if you're lucky, they give you one GOOD quick shot. Crunchy icy snow and leaves, walk the creeks, if it's been cold enough the ice. I like walkin' 3-400 yards behind folks on public land. If they're lost all the better. Bucks will let them pass and then head to where they came from, thinkin' they are safe. Days when those silver dollar size snow flakes are fallin' and the woods is quiet, the big flakes stick to the trees making it difficult for deer to see very far. Those big flakes suck up sound and scent and altho they don't melt on the deers back, their sides and heads stick out like sore thumbs. Blaze orange in a deer's eyes, blends right in. Problem is, days that favor the hunter are few and you gotta be there when they are. Somedays you get lucky, somedays you just get a good days walk.

I'm fortunate. I've got some good private land to hunt with few rules other than safety and being considerate of others there. What you pull the trigger on is your choice and we all share in the feast. I also have plenty of big woods public land close by that in my older years, I never get to see the same trails twice in a season. After opening weekend there are many places I can walk all day and never see another hunter. Many is the day I wish there were more hunters out moving the deer. Problem is, most of those other hunters that once shared those trails with me are now gone. Either dead or hung it up. The new age hunters want to sit in boxes with Mr Heaters over food plots and bait piles and wait for mature bucks instead of trapesin' thru knee deep water just to jump shoot a scrub horn. They can't find their way outta a 20 acre woods without a GPS and a 4 wheeler. They never find next year's stand by followin' someone elses blood trail thru thick cover to a place they've never been before. They'll never know what they're missin'.



Sorry 'bout the rant.
 
Why does it always come back to somebody saying that if you aren't hunting the hard way, then you aren't hunting. Well, I'm not sure what a "new age hunter" really is, but I have a Mr Heater in most of my box blinds. My ladder stands haven't been used in years. I might be an older version of a New Age Hunter, but I've hunted for about 52 years and I earned my stripes the hard way in the first 35 or so years of hunting deer, and I can hunt with my Mr Heater now and feel no shame. My hunting predates 4wheelers and 3wheelers. Way back when, when I walked a mile or a half a mile in Louisiana gumbo mud and shot a deer, I dragged him the same distance back through the same unbelievable mud. And I walked 2 miles down the gravel road just to get to where the mile of mud started. I've had to use my Grandfather's WWII KaBar to chip my backside out of the ice that froze me to the metal topped ladder stand. My first tree stands were just trees. I climbed the tree and sat on a limb. I shot a big Louisiana buck once and dragged him about a mile to the bayou, where I wrestled his dead body into the flat bottom boat, paddled the boat across and dragged him (about 200 pounds) up the other side of the bayou and 1/4 mile to the truck. I've hunted hard in decades past with my Grandfather and my Father and I have the scars and great memories, and by now I think I can sit next to my Mr Heater if I want to. And I love my ATV. And I guess I'm ranting right back at ya, but no offense intended. I'm just happy that I can hunt. This evening was a perfect day. Blue sky. 40 degrees. hardly any wind. Didn't even light the Mr Heater. 5 does out in front of me. Of course the deer season is over, but I was hunting pigs and coyotes.
 
603Country,

I'm with you! I've put in the same hard work for over 50 years dragging deer through swamps, crossing swamps with a frozen sheet of ice on them with the water almost chest high (wadders) in below zero weather. (You've got to try that sometime). I'm old now and tired and the old body is falling apart. I'll sit on my bar stool in my warm box blind and feel no guilt either. And someday so will these guys blabbing about how to hunt. ;)
 
While I'd love to have your blind for deer season, I can't let this go unchallenged ;)
I don't think it gets to -30º F. in NM does it? Ever have to walk on snow shoes in 3' level snow with 6' drifts? Maybe mountains?
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Wisconsin - Highest point Timms Hill 1,951 ft (595 m)
New Mexico - Lowest point Red Bluff Reservoir 2,844 ft (867 m)

Our altitude mean as a state is 5700 feet, aka mile high, so a lot of New Mexico is mountain, gets a lot of snow, and gets cold. So mostly we're lucky for deer season as we typically don't get much early snow. Having said that, this year the northern areas had solid snow cover by Nov. 1st.
 
Warbirdlover, I'll pass on chest high water with ice on top, though I might have been dumb enough to do it when I was in my teens. But I did do dumb things, the worst I ever did was try to take a shortcut home from the blind by wading directly across a slime and algae covered Louisiana slough/swamp at dusk. It was deeper than I thought, and a much slower wade. And I had not considered the alligators. And I forgot my flashlight and my compass. It was pretty much dark when I was half way to the other side, but I finally got there. That was just about the creepiest hour of my life, and I remember thinking that in the worst case nobody would ever find my body.

Anyway...I'm way off topic. And that is a nice blind, though it does look a bit like an upscale south Louisiana Burger joint I once saw, except you don't have much of a parking lot.
 
mapsjanhere, I hear ya on the mountains.

603Country, I wouldn't like wading in alligator swamps with no flashlight or even WITH a flashlight! Of course I wouldn't like walking to my stand (almost a mile) in the dark without a flashlight either because of the wolves and this year a cougar on the land. I was in my 40's when I waded through that ice covered swamp but had been taking Karate for five years under a retired marine sargeant major so was in pretty good shape. Now I'd have a heart attack....
 
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