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Picked off when leaning?

M

Mitchell

New Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2020
Messages
16
Twice now I have had deer come in at an angle at which they could see me leaning away from the tree. There was not a ton of cover from the direction they approached. I am wearing leafy ASAT and camo my face. Any suggestions about how you guys handle this? Our deer are pretty nervous all the time; especially the older does. But the last one was a spike. He never spooked, but he never quit looking up at me. Obviously he was not something I would shoot at, but if he had been he pretty much had me pinned. I doubt if I would have been able to draw.

Suggestions?
 
Get more cover in the deer's line of sight, AT the deer's eye level. The closer to the deer's eyes that objects(tree trunks, branches, leaves, bushes, limbs, etc.) are, the more useful they are in breaking your outline.

The deer is way better at perceiving movement, and irregular profiles in the woods than you are - it's survival depends on it. Having objects disrupt focus and cover more of your profile is the answer.

Also, shoot the spike.
 
Climbing higher works well. Most folks on the public i hunt rarely climb higher than 15', at 25' im rarely spotted.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk
 
Whenever possible get the tree in between you and the deer. A saddle isn't going to be a magic pill to keep you from being silhouetted if you don't have back cover, it's just not. If the deer comes in and catches you you'll have to wait to draw or change position until the deer starts moving away from you. It can feel like you've missed the boat if you have to wait until they pass by but if you don't rush you'll get to full draw on a deer that's quartering out.
 
I really try to keep the tree in front of me & pick my timing to rotate slightly & draw. I think any type of complete side profile & movement will get ya busted.
 
I hunt in funnels a lot and deer seem to come from all directions,sometimes I get picked and I try to get around 20’.I think that tree stands help you in this regard that the tree is between you and deer if they come from behind you.
 
One way I failed was that I failed to try to maintain the tree between me and the deer. In one of those cases the deer came in across the tree from me. But as it moved around to my strong side, I did not move with it. I believe I could have gotten by with slow small movements around the tree as the deer passed in front and continued to keep the tree between me and the deer. I will have to work on that.
 
Mitchell said:
Twice now I have had deer come in at an angle at which they could see me leaning away from the tree. There was not a ton of cover from the direction they approached. I am wearing leafy ASAT and camo my face. Any suggestions about how you guys handle this? Our deer are pretty nervous all the time; especially the older does. But the last one was a spike. He never spooked, but he never quit looking up at me. Obviously he was not something I would shoot at, but if he had been he pretty much had me pinned. I doubt if I would have been able to draw.

Suggestions?
Click to expand...
I tried a leafy suit for a season, I got blown at more and spotted that season than any other. Im curious to hear other peoples opinions on the leafy suit
 
I guess I only shoot the stupidest of deer. Works for me.
Last Sunday I was fortunate to take a Florida public-land doe in a WMA. She came in and I had time to draw my bow before she noticed me because of the ground cover that kyler1945 mentioned. As soon as she cleared that brush and picked her head up to look at me, my thumb was already pressing the button on my Wise Choice.

Tonight was venison fajitas on the Big Green Egg.
 
Scott F said:
I guess I only shoot the stupidest of deer. Works for me.
Last Sunday I was fortunate to take a Florida public-land doe in a WMA. She came in and I had time to draw my bow before she noticed me because of the ground cover that kyler1945 mentioned. As soon as she cleared that brush and picked her head up to look at me, my thumb was already pressing the button on my Wise Choice.

Tonight was venison fajitas on the Big Green Egg.
Click to expand...
I have killed deer from the ground with a leafy suit, but I always seemed to get busted up in trees wearing it
 
Mitchell said:
Twice now I have had deer come in at an angle at which they could see me leaning away from the tree. There was not a ton of cover from the direction they approached. I am wearing leafy ASAT and camo my face. Any suggestions about how you guys handle this? Our deer are pretty nervous all the time; especially the older does. But the last one was a spike. He never spooked, but he never quit looking up at me. Obviously he was not something I would shoot at, but if he had been he pretty much had me pinned. I doubt if I would have been able to draw.

Suggestions?
Click to expand...
This is the exact reason why I use a ring of steps. With a platform you are stuck in one spot and can’t hide behind the tree. I too struggled with this problem when I used to hunt from a stand. It’s the main reason why I changed to a saddle. I suggest if you use a platform get at least two steps to attach to your platform strap allowing you to hide behind the tree.
 
Climbing trees and saddles are not the be all, end all. This time of year when there are no leaves I often shoot more deer from a sitting on the ground. If you have the cover, climb, if you don't have the cover you stand out like a sore thumb from 100's of yards away.
 
Also, if you have the right tree but limited (or no) cover, you can shape your success by establishing your own cover. Obviously this is easier and much quieter if you preset the location.

If you have a known deer ingress route into your kill zone, you can attach some brush to adjacent trees to establish your own cover. Most trees will keep their leaves after you cut the branches in the spring/summer.

You can also create likely ingress routes in a similar way (with brush) or by making a fake fence with baling twine before the season. 100 yards of triple 'wire' baling twine fence will move deer where you want them simply by leaving a gap in the fence or by tying the strands together thereby pinching it to create the illusion of an optimal place to cross the fence. Obviously this works best on private land and it also better suited for a different thread; sorry.
 
Late season the higher you go the more likely you will be skylined - and seen.

Deer coming in from behind are one of the biggest negatives to saddle hunting in my opinion - I much prefer multi-trunk trees where I can have a tree behind me for this very reason . The other negative is leaning out from a tree with no limbs below you - I try my best not to set up this way unless I'm confident the deer will come from in front of me....
 
gameflogger said:
I have killed deer from the ground with a leafy suit, but I always seemed to get busted up in trees wearing it
Click to expand...
I find that perplexing and would've thought just the opposite were true. Thanks for sharing. I use both leafy suits and leafy ASAT suits but only for turkey hunting so far and they worked fantastic was caught more than a few times flat footed standing up next to trees and brush and had public land turkeys walk within spitting distance of me oblivious to my presence, but never used then stand hunting because unless a H&H situation I brush in all my preset hang on stand at least a little ladder stands a lot. I realize not an option on PL hunts.
Maybe it's because on the ground there is much more back clutter for the 3-D type suits to blend in with as opposed to up in a bare tree that the leafy type suits make your outline seam larger and possibly more pronounced?
 
DMTJAGER said:
I find that perplexing and would've thought just the opposite were true. Thanks for sharing. I use both leafy suits and leafy ASAT suits but only for turkey hunting so far and they worked fantastic was caught more than a few times flat footed standing up next to trees and brush and had public land turkeys walk within spitting distance of me oblivious to my presence, but never used then stand hunting because unless a H&H situation I brush in all my preset hang on stand at least a little ladder stands a lot. I realize not an option on PL hunts.
Maybe it's because on the ground there is much more back clutter for the 3-D type suits to blend in with as opposed to up in a bare tree that the leafy type suits make your outline seam larger and possibly more pronounced?
Click to expand...
If your scent control/wind is right, and you sit still, kill em on the ground with decent camo. Good scent/wind + ability to fool a turkey and you will be ok. I'll still be up a tree because I like the extra buffer.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk
 
Mitchell said:
Twice now I have had deer come in at an angle at which they could see me leaning away from the tree. There was not a ton of cover from the direction they approached. I am wearing leafy ASAT and camo my face. Any suggestions about how you guys handle this? Our deer are pretty nervous all the time; especially the older does. But the last one was a spike. He never spooked, but he never quit looking up at me. Obviously he was not something I would shoot at, but if he had been he pretty much had me pinned. I doubt if I would have been able to draw.

Suggestions?
Click to expand...
If he didn't spook then that means he saw something new or odd (you) that he wasn't sure of but wasn't taking any chances and kept a mindful eye on. In those instances you've got two choices at that moment, either freeze as if your life depends on it and don't even blink until said deer is gone or chance trying to draw when there's an obstruction between you two. The problem with that is the deer will most likely notice your movement or change of position and be set to beat feet if it sees the slightest twitch from your direction.
The smart play would be to stay motionless until said deer vacates the area and then the next time you hunt that location set up 20 or 30 yards away and catch that same deer looking the wrong way while skirting your initial location.
 
If you see them coming before they see you and you can move without alerting them then you can either walk around the tree to keep hidden or stay where you are and "teabag" the tree. Yes, get your junk pressed up against the tree like you're about to play some teenage tonsil hockey so that the deer perceives you as a slight bulge along the tree as opposed to the abnormal shape jutting out that it's never seen there before.
I did exactly that last week when a buck decided to walk behind me when I was only 14' up with virtually no cover to break up my silhouette. He stopped directly behind me for a minute or two, don't know what he was doing or where he was looking and I wasn't about to risk moving, and then he passed right alongside my tree and I was able to take him down.
 
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