JoeRE wrote:I started building natural ground blinds in the woods about the same time I started bow hunting when I was about 14 years old. They ended up being thick walls of sticks with small holes to shoot out of and took a lot of time to build. Since then I have become a lot more efficient at hunting from the ground and constructing natural blinds where needed.
To decide if hunting from the ground in a location makes sense, I find it helps to look at strengths and weaknesses of hunting from the ground and apply that to the spot you are looking at.
Primary benefits of a ground based setup include the following:
- Time required for setup. No matter how you look at it slipping in and sitting down on the ground is quicker than hunting from an elevated stand even if it is pre-hung, not to mention easier than packing in any stand or climbing equipment. No safety harness or pull up rope needed either.
- Noise of setup. Sitting down on the ground, on a log, or even on a decent portable seat is quieter than climbing a tree, period.
- Depending on location, hunting at ground level can actually provide better visibility and more open shooting. In many locations hunting from ground level lets you see from a deer’s elevation, beneath brushy understory which often is the thickest above 4-5 feet…meaning less (or no) trimming needed. This is very helpful in areas trimming is prohibited.
- You can hunt locations where a tree stand cannot be put. Many great spots do not have trees large enough to hang a stand in. I personally am a pretty large person and if I am up in an 8-inch tree it will sway at every little move I make…not to mention I will stick out like a Great Dane at a wiener dog convention.
Some locations where hunting from the ground doesn’t work very well include:
- Hunting down low in a valley or on a steep side hill. Hunting at low elevations often requires you to get as high as possible for consistent wind and thermal currents and sometimes allows you to keep your scent above a deer on the downwind side of you if you get high enough. Just like any stand site – you need to know exactly where your scent should go.
- Where tall grass, swamp, or nearby elevation changes requires an elevated position to see. You have to be able to see. Having deer appear already within bow range is bad news! My rule of thumb is I want to see a buck from at least 50 yards away.
- A location you plan on hunting numerous times in a season. I try to avoid this but for those that do, I think deer will notice your scent from sitting on the ground and over time bust you more often on follow up hunts.
- Do not pick a location where you will be silhouetted against the sky from where deer will be. Deer can pick up movement more easily in those circumstances.
- Large numbers of deer at close range is bad news if you are on the ground because you will be unable to twitch a muscle. Generally if you are after mature bucks this isn’t a really big deal because they are solitary critters.
When hunting from the ground you can go in and just sit down next to a log, a boulder, a blow down, a thick bush, even a couple trees close together to break up your outline, or as I like to do, “prep” a spot in the spring to leave less to chance.
I should note that I use a ghillie suit for bow hunting turkeys but not deer. I just have not found a need for a ghillie suit for deer…their eyesight is not that good if you remain still. A ghillie would let you hunt more exposed areas.
If you are building a natural blind the most important thing I can offer is don’t overdo the blind construction. I think everyone builds their first few natural blinds far too thick, and far too tightly…and take far too long to do it. When bow hunting, you need plenty of space to move and draw, and you don’t want to have to look for a hole to shoot through in your blind. This is one of the reasons I HATE hunting from popup blinds, they box you in.
Literally, my "blinds" are just a few logs leaned up against each other, with a rock or log to sit on and a tree or something to lean back against. You just don't need much. It takes me 5 MINUTES MAX to do this, less time than it takes to climb and prep a tree. You need lots of room to draw and move a bow.
Here are a couple pictures of ground set-ups I have done in the past. There are some more in the hunting journal I started this year.
I sit center of photo in those leaned-up limbs. Buck bedding area is off to the left...I can slip in undetected without alerting deer within 100 yards of me.
I sit against that big white oak center-right in the photo. Buck bedding area is off to the left...once again deer might be bedded within 100 yards of me. The hill drops off almost to a cliff behind my setup which keeps everything in front of me.
Here are a couple bucks I shot with a bow off the ground.
I should mention almost all of the deer I have shot with a gun were off the ground...I rarely find need to climb up in a tree with a gun just because gun hunting distances are further so I have much less worry of deer spotting me.
I shot this deer at 12 yards from a rough blind like those shown above. This taught me you have to be careful calling from a blind, I snort wheezed this buck in and he was coming on a string...I drew early enough so he did not see me but the shot was difficult. It could have ended differently.
I shot this buck from a clump of sumac I sat down in over a pond when it was hot and dry. The closest hunt-able tree was 60+ yards away. It worked perfect.
I shot this buck from another rough blind, just a couple logs leaned up against a tree about 100 yards from where he was bedding. Another lesson - bucks can look bigger when you are at close range at ground level with them...was some ground shrinkage from what I thought when I shot. I made a poor shot on him and didn't recover him till the next day (hence the blue jeans).
A key observation from these examples is that full concealment is not a goal for me. For whitetails, a mobile hunter only needs to avoid movement and break up their outline if they only plan on sitting in a spot once or twice in a season. A hunter also needs plenty of room inside the blind to move around easily – I like a 6’-8’ wide clear area inside so I can move my bow and arrow around quickly and easily. I have often had deer pass just a few feet away from me in blinds such as these without detecting me, and my camo of choice is just old army BDUs. A ground hunter should avoid being silhouetted on a horizon, and have just enough large objects around to avoid standing out, and of course a ground hunter cannot be a swivel head.
The example blinds took maybe 5 minutes to construct. Little to no trimming of branches was required – something almost always needed when hanging a stand. Best of all, these blinds look natural enough that almost every other hunter in the woods will walk right by them. Hunters keep an eye out for tree stands and pop up blinds but these, particularly after being left alone all summer, will be virtually undetectable.
I think I just laughed out loud. That's funny stuff. I would have to agree that a Great Dane would tend to stand out at a Weiner Dog convention.
