OK, I am way late to the topic and did not read everything between page 1 and 7, but I still think Kyler is on to something. Why do bowhunters in the east assume that we have to be in a tree to kill deer? (Archers in the west kill a gob of game from the ground...) Are the pros and cons of tree stand hunting really worth climbing trees? I have hunted mostly in Tennessee, and I suspect that most of the deer that I have killed could have been shot with a rifle from the ground in the same area. Many of my deer were ground kills with a rifle, and I have also shot and killed deer from the ground with my bow. Though I don't hesitate to ground hunt with a rifle, I feel like a novice when it comes to hunting from the ground with a bow. Yet, I go back to a quote from someone else (unknown) on here, and it goes something like this: "If you find a good place to kill deer from a tree stand, there is probably a good place nearby to kill the same deer from a ground blind."
As I read Kyler's post and some of the better commentary, I still think this holds water. Like hunting in general, climbing trees has inherent risks. One can learn to limit these risks with good gear, good technique, and good decisions, but for me, climbing a tree is not as safe as walking or sitting. But, as we get to be better hunters, do we NEED to climb trees to kill deer? Probably not. If a novice really wanted to accelerate the curve to being a better hunter, is he/she better off spending hour after hour in a tree stand or stealthily searching for deer to observe and hunting them where the are? How many of you, like me, spent way too much time sitting on stand in the wrong place waiting for deer that never came? This is probably most common among inexperienced hunters, and I guess that all we learned was where and how not to hunt.
Now, I am a 54 year old forester who weighs 146 this morning. I live to be outdoors and have been hunting since an early teen. I don't know how many deer I have killed, but at this point I find it no great challenge to put a deer in the freezer each year. Some years my bow provides, but more often than not it is a rifle kill. But, really, how much fun is it to shoot a young buck at 20 yards with a scoped centerfire? Perhaps us tree stand/saddle guys would learn something if we dedicated ourselves to trying to kill a deer with a bow from the ground. I am not saying that it would be easy, but if we are looking for new challenges by targeting older deer or using bows or handguns, why not see what we can learn from the challenge of ground hunting?
If you don't think that you can do this in your area, try hunting somewhere else. Chances are, however, that someone else can close the deal in your terrain/vegetation and likely is. "What one man can do, another can too."
No one is saying that YOU should not hunt from a tree stand or saddle, but I read it more like, "IF" climbing a stand is more risky and "YOU" can kill just as many deer from the ground, why bother? Yes, there will be a challenge to learning to ground hunt effectively, especially with a bow, but are we looking for a new challenge that may be just as fun (or more) and probably a bit safer for some of us? I still love hunting from a tree and will probably continue to do it, but I am also open to embracing the challenge of ground hunting.
JMO - Hugh
