The Hunting Beast

I can't count how many tiny cedars and mesquite I have hunted 4-6 foot off the ground. Just high enough to see and get a shot over the thicket I was hunting. I consider this normal ops in many areas I currently hunt. What is cool is this opens up lands that you NEVER see a stand hunter in only an occasional walker or someone will throw up a popup blind. I am going to start filming some of the buck beds I find in these 6-8 foot high plum thickets - you sit back and ask how in the heck does a buck with headgear get in here. I have had to crawl on hands and knees into some of these areas only to find a bed 10 yards in with very little wiggle room. I still remember Dan's video of using a common step ladder and I thought I know a 100 places where that would fit right in - no real trees over 8 foot but enough back cover to be extremely effective. I just need to find a kid to pay to walk these ladders in :)

Chuck B wrote:

Kraftd wrote:When I first started dating my wife my father in-law offered up I could sit at my wife's grandfathers place. In Chicagoland you jump at every private spot you get a chance at. It was about 7 acres, mostly an open hay field and a couple of apple trees with thick bedding on either side off-property. Climbed in a tree and on the right wind I could have maybe put an arrow in the wooden trussing on the America Eagle at six flags (well not quite but darn close)! Almost got a shot at a double beamed two year old the first night. Hunted it a few nights later and almost stalked in on 135 inch 10 using a little belly in the field at last light. Sat one or two more times over the years, but just never felt right. Almost certainly deer would have died on the neighbors or an industrial park next door, just didn't want to deal with that.

Man, I kind of forgot about the American Eagle at six flags. That old coaster still running?

I'll have to bring my kids there someday, that was a highlight of my youth. American Eagle, Corkscrew, Batman, Iron (something), those were the days!

I always wondered about the bottomland just south of six flags. Lived down in that area back in the late 80’s for a couple of years. The Des Plaines river bottoms always looked interesting. I didn’t hunt for a couple of years, those where the days I should have taken up archery and had some fun.

I shot a doe once right next to a trash dump of old farm machinery and tires. She ran off and died right next to a big pile of beer cans. No joke

I shot this buck from the tiny beech tree below which was no bigger around than my thigh and I was literally one stick high. As a matter of fact, when I hung my stand and went back down to tie my bow string to my bow, I just reached up from ground level and put the other end of my pull up rope through a hole in the stand platform. There was a scrape 25 yards to my left and a rub line with acorns dropping 30 yards to my right and it was the tree I HAD to be in so I got in it. The buck came up the rub line and put his head down and started feeding on the oaks and never looked around at all.

mag1 wrote:

Chuck B wrote:

Kraftd wrote:When I first started dating my wife my father in-law offered up I could sit at my wife's grandfathers place. In Chicagoland you jump at every private spot you get a chance at. It was about 7 acres, mostly an open hay field and a couple of apple trees with thick bedding on either side off-property. Climbed in a tree and on the right wind I could have maybe put an arrow in the wooden trussing on the America Eagle at six flags (well not quite but darn close)! Almost got a shot at a double beamed two year old the first night. Hunted it a few nights later and almost stalked in on 135 inch 10 using a little belly in the field at last light. Sat one or two more times over the years, but just never felt right. Almost certainly deer would have died on the neighbors or an industrial park next door, just didn't want to deal with that.

Man, I kind of forgot about the American Eagle at six flags. That old coaster still running?

I'll have to bring my kids there someday, that was a highlight of my youth. American Eagle, Corkscrew, Batman, Iron (something), those were the days!

I always wondered about the bottomland just south of six flags. Lived down in that area back in the late 80’s for a couple of years. The Des Plaines river bottoms always looked interesting. I didn’t hunt for a couple of years, those where the days I should have taken up archery and had some fun.

Agreed on that bottomland. It's always looked intriguing.

xpauliber wrote:I shot this buck from the tiny beech tree below which was no bigger around than my thigh and I was literally one stick high. As a matter of fact, when I hung my stand and went back down to tie my bow string to my bow, I just reached up from ground level and put the other end of my pull up rope through a hole in the stand platform. There was a scrape 25 yards to my left and a rub line with acorns dropping 30 yards to my right and it was the tree I HAD to be in so I got in it. The buck came up the rub line and put his head down and started feeding on the oaks and never looked around at all.

2016 Buck 2.JPG

Tree I was in.JPG

That's awesome. You had some decent back cover at that time of the year even in that toothpick. Way to capitalize!

greenhorndave wrote:

xpauliber wrote:I shot this buck from the tiny beech tree below which was no bigger around than my thigh and I was literally one stick high. As a matter of fact, when I hung my stand and went back down to tie my bow string to my bow, I just reached up from ground level and put the other end of my pull up rope through a hole in the stand platform. There was a scrape 25 yards to my left and a rub line with acorns dropping 30 yards to my right and it was the tree I HAD to be in so I got in it. The buck came up the rub line and put his head down and started feeding on the oaks and never looked around at all.

2016 Buck 2.JPG

Tree I was in.JPG

That's awesome. You had some decent back cover at that time of the year even in that toothpick. Way to capitalize!

Yup. It was October 8th. When I first looked at the tree, I thought "I can't hunt out of that" and then I thought "why not give it a try" and the results speak for themselves.

#1 South Dakota - my buddy bought a house in town for 7000.00 great deal, half the town is empty, (today hunters from Utah and Kansas all own houses there.) any way, lots of deer in town. I go into an old junk yard, and there are big scrapes everywhere. Hello, I said to myself. Sat on a chair, that I put on top of an old suburban, next to a big cottonwood. the outside areas are the deer woods, big sunflower fields. Shot a great 8 pointer, off that old vehicle......

I kid you not, later that week we bought 3 doors off that suburban, for a vehicle project back home,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


#2 Upper Penisula - found a beaver dam crossing. all big hills on either side, and lots of swamp above the dam. I look down stream, big windfall in the water. Come back with an old wood chair with a back. it set firm in the water. Watch a parade of deer, come across that dam. Shot a buck, and the entry was low, going out high in the back, since I am shooting up. Could have shot a lot of small bucks with gun and ml. great spot......... It is on "nevermind creek"...... anyway, its a honey hole, a go to area, when other spots dry up

greenhorndave wrote:

mag1 wrote:

Chuck B wrote:

Kraftd wrote:When I first started dating my wife my father in-law offered up I could sit at my wife's grandfathers place. In Chicagoland you jump at every private spot you get a chance at. It was about 7 acres, mostly an open hay field and a couple of apple trees with thick bedding on either side off-property. Climbed in a tree and on the right wind I could have maybe put an arrow in the wooden trussing on the America Eagle at six flags (well not quite but darn close)! Almost got a shot at a double beamed two year old the first night. Hunted it a few nights later and almost stalked in on 135 inch 10 using a little belly in the field at last light. Sat one or two more times over the years, but just never felt right. Almost certainly deer would have died on the neighbors or an industrial park next door, just didn't want to deal with that.

Man, I kind of forgot about the American Eagle at six flags. That old coaster still running?

I'll have to bring my kids there someday, that was a highlight of my youth. American Eagle, Corkscrew, Batman, Iron (something), those were the days!

I always wondered about the bottomland just south of six flags. Lived down in that area back in the late 80’s for a couple of years. The Des Plaines river bottoms always looked interesting. I didn’t hunt for a couple of years, those where the days I should have taken up archery and had some fun.

Agreed on that bottomland. It's always looked intriguing.

My main private spot in IL is bisected by the Des Plaines....its fun. Overwhelming majority is Forest Preserve so not huntable, but there are some giants that live along the river.

I found a spot scouting this spring. It is a clearing along a large creek. The clearing is full of shrubs and has a few trees. Near the center of the clearing there is a large ash that separates into 3 trunks about 6 feet up from the ground with a huge scrape underneath an overhanging branch on the outside edge of the trees canopy. Where the trunks break apart it creates a dirt mound. I made that into a nice level platform that I can stand on and use the trunks to hide behind. I am not sure if I am going to stand in the center of the tree or get in there and use some sticks to climb a little higher. The trunks are so large that I do not know if my straps will make it around the tree. Because it is a fairly large clearing with no suitable trees I do not think any other hunters go back there.

I hunted ontop of a steep cliff face with a 30 foot drop. The 2 year old 8 point came out of the bottom right around the edge of that cliff headed upto bed .

My stand I only put 7 feet up in a oak tree.
It was scary hunting that spot looking down.

I doubt many people would put a treestand on the edge of a cliff but it was the right spot. I didn't post it on the beast because it was not a beast style afternoon kill.

Definitely a spot I'll remember.

Tennhunter3 wrote:I hunted ontop of a steep cliff face with a 30 foot drop. The 2 year old 8 point came out of the bottom right around the edge of that cliff headed upto bed .

My stand I only put 7 feet up in a oak tree.
It was scary hunting that spot looking down.

I doubt many people would put a treestand on the edge of a cliff but it was the right spot. I didn't post it on the beast because it was not a beast style afternoon kill.

Definitely a spot I'll remember.

Speaking as someone who is not especially fond of heights, that sounds pretty Beast-like to me! Post it up my good man!