A More Versatile Hunter?

Tommy Garner

I have hunted deer from the trees, climbing stands, hang-on stands, tripod stands, 2 x 4's nailed to trees and about any other way that you can think of, simply because it normally is easier to fool a whitetail's eyes, nose and ears when you are elevated above the ground. I have hunted deer on the ground while rattling, calling and spot and stalk hunting, but when hunting on the ground, the odds often shift in favor of the deer. Hunting whitetails on the ground is sometimes a difficult thing to do. In an attempt to be a more versatile hunter, I have explored other avenues of effectively placing myself and others in a position to intercept whitetails without the aid of elevated stands or trees. One of the best, most effective methods is a portable ground blind. There are a number of them on the market, each seemingly having an advantage or good features which may give it the edge in a certain situation, but as an overall, they all are good.

Wanda and I have used several different kinds of portable ground blinds while hunting and videoing deer and turkeys in the last several years and we have not settled on any particular brand or type, but we own several of them to use in different situations. They have helped us take advantage of deer movement when it would have been difficult at best without them.

This fall while hunting with bow and muzzleloader, we observed deer movement where it was difficult to place a stand and I decided to again rely on a ground blind. I set the blind up and put a hunter in it for the evening. He had deer all over him from the time I left until dark. It was this young hunter's most exciting day of hunting ever. Because I had seen several bucks in the area, I went to the blind myself and settled in for a pleasant afternoon's hunt. I had just begun to enjoy the tranquility of being in the woods when I spotted a deer walking through the trees off to the right. At a glance, I could tell the deer was a buck and had at least two tines sticking up off the left main beam. I grabbed my rifle, found the deer in the scope and touched the trigger just as the buck was disappearing over the ridge. This was one of those time where I had maybe five seconds to see the deer, identify it as a shooter and then shoot. I think I must have used at lease four and a half of those five seconds. At the shot, what I could see of the deer disappeared, leaving me uncertain of that extremely quick encounter of the whitetail kind. I ran out of the blind, dropped down over the hill and spotted the buck lying on the ground. The beautiful buck was down for keeps, compliments of a portable ground blind which allowed me to be a more versatile hunter.

Learning to be more versatile when hunting has its advantages and pays big dividends. Recently, on a deer hunt in South Carolina, my friend Linda Thompson, Pro Staff member for WomenHunters, was attempting to bag a whitetail with a handgun. She spent two days in a permanent stand, a well placed small house on stilts. She was seeing lots of deer activity, but all of the deer were farther away than she wanted to shoot. Being an excellent hunter, she felt she had to move to be able to take advantage of the deer movement if she was going to bag a deer with her Encore. She chose a portable ground blind because there were no trees to climb in the young pine thicket that the deer were using. By strategic placement of the portable ground blind and being versatile, Linda bagged a beautiful, sleek doe the first evening she sat in the blind.

There are some things which will help your portable ground blind to be more effective. One is to place them where they are not skylined but where they have background cover. Another is to cut a few shrubs to place around them, even though they are made of camo material. This will give a better 3 D effect. Use a camo headnet and gloves when hunting from the blind because deer and turkeys can see your face and hands through the windows. Deer seem to pay more attention to newly placed blinds than turkeys but most of the time they simply don't consider the blind any kind of threat until they see movement. The blinds without camo mesh window material are less effective than those which have it. One of the advantages of hunting from a ground blind is that you will never fall out of one if you decide to take a nap while hunting. There have been times in the past when the cold November wind has blown, deer were not moving and a nap seemed to be the most important thing on the agenda. I have simply crawled into a sleeping bag in the floor of the blind and drifted off into peaceful sleep until the deer decided it was time to move.

By learning to be a more versatile hunter and using things like ground blinds, you will become a better hunter. It will also pay good dividends in big bucks. Good Hunting!

Reprinted With Permission