Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting You eastern thick woods deer hunters: tree stands or ground hunting?

Our gun season here in Virginny starts on Saturday and I'll be out next week with my trusty slug gun. I pulled down my faithful climbing tree stand and it seems so much heavier than it has in years past. That near mile haul into the deep woods with that on my back is just not that appealing anymore. I didn't use it at all during the 2 days of early muzzleloading season I hunted, and still saw deer one of those days. I'm really considering giving up my climber and hauling my throwdown blind I use for turkeys into the woods with me.

Eastern Virginia is deer hound country. If I'm hunting a weekend when I know the hunt clubs will be out running their dogs, I'm usually on the ground anyways. But during the week when I pretty much have the woods to myself, I'm in a climbing tree stand. At 56 years old, it ain't as easy as it used to be.

Just curious: are you a ground hunter or a tree stand hunter? What's you set up? If you do both, when do you do one or the other?

I made the switch 2 years ago, parked the climber at 57[then].
Have a couple of ladder stands I use rarely.
Mostly hunt two different box blinds, fav is only 2' off the ground.

I hunt from a Summit Goliath climber, from the ground and I've been using a Lone Wolf Alpha 2 and a set of Hawk Helium sticks lately. The LW and stick combo is a bit lighter than the summit and I don't have to have a straight tree to climb. I use the lineman belt to hang the sticks with the stand on my back and then hang the stand and step on it. From setting the first step to being in the stand takes me 7-8mins and tear down and repack takes about that long. I have my sticks on my stand with a couple bungee cords for transport.


Evening sits I'm almost always on the ground using a Dead Ringer tree seat. I've killed some of my bigger deer from it.

I hunt tripods when bow hunting, elevated box blinds when it’s rifle season

Probably just as thick here where I hunt as where you are in Virginia.

Here low is better for seeing, too high and all of the limbs block your sight and I am not keen on cutting lanes.

Lately I have been hunting the ground more and more. Natural blinds with a chair are comfortable for all day sits. Feet stay warmer too since they don't have cold air all the way around on the bottoms.

If in a tree 12' is getting up where limbs become an issue. I do have so.e 18" stands but those are in more open hardwood ridges.
Here is 1 natural blind. Killed my 8 from it last Sunday AM.

I only use a stand {hang on}when archery/crossbow hunting. Haven't climbed into one with a rifle in over 20 years.

Another. Dropped a cedar then started trimming limbs so I could have a place to sit. You can't really see the blind but you see the surroundings.

Sit on a log or milk crate and have shot a lot of nice archery and rifle bucks over the years.

Those are nice set ups.

"Here low is better for seeing." I agree. Where I hunt there are a ton of holly and beech trees. The hollies never drop their leaves, and sometimes the beeches don't until spring when new growth pushes the old leaves off. Finding the right tree to look down through that can be challenging.

When I first started deer hunting, it was always from the ground, using a dove hunting stool at the base of tree. Only in the 90s did I start using climbers. I think I'm pretty much over it now and may reitre to the ground permanently.

1 ladder stand occasionally, a ground blind(with my daughter), but mostly stalking and sitting on the ground.

Doc_Holidude

In my early seventies, I climbed back down on to the ground. Only hunted from treestands about 10 years.
Most of the deer that I've killed over the years have been close. Some were less than 20 feet, with me in a blaze orange coat or vest.
I tend to sit and try not to move much and i don't build or use ground blinds, just sitagainst a tree.
It's just a matter of being at the right place at the right time, paying attention to the wind.
Keep the wind in your face and the sun on your back and enjoy your time in the woods.... oh and we're your mittens tomorrow, it's gonna be cold in the Tidewater.
Bfly

I use a log. I don’t have to carry it with me.

2 man ladder stands the last few years plenty of room

I hunt private land, so we cut lanes through the thick stuff or utilize existing logging roads and pipeline ROWs. We generally put 2-person box blinds in our permanent locations, typically with 4-6' legs to gain a little elevation. When more height is needed we'll often put up a ladder stand with shooting rail. We'll also use pop-up blinds to test out new spots when we need to.

Below is a pic of one of our 2-man, short-legged box stands. That one is situated on an old woods road along a fenceline where three timber types meet up. Shots on the three lanes are about 130, 120, and 80 yards. Probably the shortest-range stand we have.

This one is in more open woods, being positioned at the center of a 40ac hardwood timber block on a pipeline that runs right through the middle. I took a chainsaw out this summer and also cut a lane looking into the timber, so it's also a 3-direction view. Comfortable stand.

I have four stands on public land here, plus a tree seat. I use whatever works with the wind that day. Also have a couple of seat cushions with backrests, and a couple of totable stools. I’ve killed twelve there, about half from trees and half afoot or from a seat. In the woods, a ground seat often works well, but in the brushy meadows, being aloft is a big plus. None of my stands is over 15’; a couple are only 10 or 12.

I always use a safety harness and a solid rope, cause Grandpa don’t bounce so good.

You can leave stands on public land there? You have to carry your stand in and out each hunt here.

I think Pappy is in WV. Here in Virginia on public land you can leave portable stands in place all season but you have to take them down at the end of the season otherwise the DWR, if they find them, can take them. Permanent stands are no no on public lands. It's an offense to even occupy a permanent stand on public land even if you didn't put it there.

I never leave my portable stand in place. I don't want to lose it in case something happens and I can't get back to it, and don't want it stolen.

I stopped using tree stands back in 1999 after the 5th one was stolen. There was a sixth that was taken but I had marked it under the seat and found it later on the same property set up in another tree about 400 yards from where I had put it. Some of those stands were taken from public land and some from private. I had also had blinds and the seats within stolen or desroyed several times. There are a LOT of low life, thieving, scum bags among the ranks of deer hunters. They will steal your stands for their own use or destroy them in an effort to hopefully discourage you from hunting the area.

I’ve been using a gobbler lounger kinda of reminds you of a beach chair but after reading about ole Renegade50 I’m going to cut me a chair down like he does because I like to be a little higher than the gobbler lounger. Years ago all we would do is rake the leaves back from a tree with your feet and just stand there.