Long Range Hunting From Box Stand

[WildRose]

I don't have any recent experience in heavy hunting pressure. Any time that I have set up a blind we kill a deer or two out of it every year and that's it. Some blinds don't get one deer killed out of them some years. Also, we kill mostly young deer. I'm a meat hunter. I don't care about antlers at all. The only set of antlers that matter to me are the ones that are big enough to legally fill my buck tag. Every year I get 12 tags, and every year I try to kill 12 deer. I fill up my freezers with vacuum sealed one pound blocks of ground meat, make a jillion gallons of bone broth, tan some hides, and I am done until next season LOL. So, my hunting is a lot easier than yours. I will let the young guys chase the big racks. I have killed big wide 10-12 pointers. I have killed huge mass bucks with matching drop tines. I've killed a pie bald 10 pointer. I have taken a lot of "trophies" and it just doesn't matter to me anymore. So, I stick to the young, stupid, tasty deer LOL.

When we are making blinds for black bear we make them out of cedar trees and build them like lincoln log cabins. We take the cedar trees from the areas that we hunt. I believe that bears require a little more savvy to kill than deer, but maybe those old mature bucks are Einsteins too?

My experience tells me the old bucks aren't necessarily all that smart. If anything they may have heightened senses and are much spookier than those that don't make it to old age.

Speaking of the youngsters... .

Tonight I watched a very nice very big 8pt, probably a 5.5-6.5yo deer with six does. I've been watching this particularly buck for 3 or 4 years, always in the same area, always with the same does.

Apparently one of the girls isn't quite in but is smelling nice and she led him on quite a chase ending up about 40 yards from where I was hiding in the broom weed.

Finally I just stood up and went "Bahhhh!".

he nearly did a back flip. The doe was between us and at first she ran towards him but he got after her again and chased her almost back in my lap.

His rack hasn't gotten any better in a couple of years, very tall, very long tines but pretty narrow and something of what we call a "Basket Rack".

If he was any better, he probably would no longer be alive because he's not very bright and a hot smelling doe totally wipes out his other senses.

 

[WildRose]

My dear departed father in law always locked his stands on our old lease. He went home a couple of times and returned to find the lock broken. Someone had been hunting his stand. He caught a couple of Diamondbacks and locked them up in his stands. When he came back, one of them had been broken into. Never found out who, but never had a problem again. He was a tough old coot. Miss him.

We had a similar problem about 25 years ago. We figured out the schedule of the poacher and put a very large, very angry bobcat in the stand and locked it up.

He ended up in the hospital from "a horse throwing him in the brush" and it never happened again.

Whoduthunkit?

 

[TangoOscarMike]

We had a similar problem about 25 years ago. We figured out the schedule of the poacher and put a very large, very angry bobcat in the stand and locked it up.

He ended up in the hospital from "a horse throwing him in the brush" and it never happened again.

Whoduthunkit?

How did you get said bobcat in the blind?

 

[Orange Dust]

Speaking of bears, there is something about treated lumber they hate. They will destroy a stand made out of it. Dont know why, but if you have bears you need to use cypress or cedar to build your stands.

 

[Riflehunter1776]

Add trespassing to that if on private land. I got to go hunting for the first time yesterday and had to run a guy off, same fella I've ran off before. Had my tree lounge stollen off that place, man I loved that thing.
If you can prove the price is high enough, wonder if a felony charge could be added? It is the county judge's property.

Trespassers are a huge problem. Where I hunt there is a guy from a neighboring property who will tear down signs, trespass, shoot deer out of season from our treestands, and when I caught him last saturday he made a threatening comment involving his firearm before walking back onto his property. He also makes a habit of walking the ridge behind my daughter's stand every time he sees orange, and he blasts off a box of shells to keep the deer away. Unfortunately the landowner only wants to post his land and gripe; so far he hasn't pressed charges.

 

[Bravo 4]

Yeah some guys are just straight up knuckleheads. My same guy was across a 350 yard field from me opening day with no orange on and sucking on one of those vaping apparatuses and looked like a freight train with all the smoke. After several minutes of watching said douche bag I got out of my stand and started walking to him. I got to about 40 yards before he noticed me (him go pee-pee) he grabbed his AR platform rifle and postured up on me. I got a little more aggressive and he turned tail and headed out. This time I noticed him across a smaller field and when he seen me eyeballing him through my binos he looked at me through his riflescope. I gave him the international foreign relations sign and he laughed for a second and headed out. He lives in a nearby country subdivision and I thought about hanging out with a thermal optic before daylight and see where exactly he comes from. Also setting up with my digiscope adapter and spotter. I hunt on the county judge's property and if had proof of who he is am sure he would get prosecuted.

 

[Orange Dust]

Yeah some guys are just straight up knuckleheads. My same guy was across a 350 yard field from me opening day with no orange on and sucking on one of those vaping apparatuses and looked like a freight train with all the smoke. After several minutes of watching said douche bag I got out of my stand and started walking to him. I got to about 40 yards before he noticed me (him go pee-pee) he grabbed his AR platform rifle and postured up on me. I got a little more aggressive and he turned tail and headed out. This time I noticed him across a smaller field and when he seen me eyeballing him through my binos he looked at me through his riflescope. I gave him the international foreign relations sign and he laughed for a second and headed out. He lives in a nearby country subdivision and I thought about hanging out with a thermal optic before daylight and see where exactly he comes from. Also setting up with my digiscope adapter and spotter. I hunt on the county judge's property and if had proof of who he is am sure he would get prosecuted.

Sounds like you were hunting our place. We had a guy just like that. We played cat and mouse until one day he ran into my daughter and pointed his rifle at her and ran her off from my lease. I had a very long talk with a most understanding Sheriff. I explained to him if i saw him over there again i would kill him on sight and he needed to fix it. He assured me if he disappeared they would NOT look for him in the creek on our lease. Too many snakes. He went to see the guy and told him the same thing. The guy went to town and complained to the chief of police. He told him they wouldnt look for him in the creek either. I haven't seen him since, and better not. Sometimes you just have to play hardball to get your point across.

 

[Rangerbear]

Sweet

 

[WildRose]

How did you get said bobcat in the blind?

We tranquilized him. I always have access to plenty of veterinary drugs.

I would not have wanted to be the guy that crawled in there with him on a hangover either.