Growing up hunting, we all went to food plots, powerlines, gas lines or wide open cutovers. I understand the amount of area one can see in these places but now that Im hunting more thicker cover (deer on you at 20-70 yards) I feel like those type of hunts didnt prepare me for actually hunting. If you are in a shooting house or looking over thousands of acres of cutover, that really takes no skill at all in my opinion, except being able to make a good shot, but with todays guns and scopes, its not as hard as it used to be. I now have my own property and it is very thick and deery but has required me to adapt new skills that were not instilled in me from the time I was 16-30. (I started hunting at 16)

I feel like there are more people these days that dont actually know how to “hunt,” and simply know how to walk to a convenient stand and wait for whatever might come by (THIS WAS ME) by, instead of finding tracks, droppings, scrapes, rubs, wind direction, scent control etc. I know cameras have changed things dramatically as well but thats here to stay because I find it nearly as fun to look at my cameras as I do seeing deer in person.

Im not condemning anyone at all, just stating that I dont think I was prepared for hunting in the thick stuff, but its been an extremely fun year learning new skills and the deer I do see and shoot have been extremely rewarding knowing I did everything possible not to be detected and that scouting has paid off.

By the way, I would probably hunt cutovers if given the opportunity but very fortunate to have been able to learn new skills. I also know Alabama is extremely thick hunting compared to other states (and we deserve to get to hunt open areas) with all the agricultural fields and what not, this is why a big buck taken in a corn field in Nebraska doesnt impress me as much as a big buck taken wayy back in the thick stuff of deep south swamp.

Thoughts?

This is why I still bowhunt. I do all of the above mentioned but still nothing like getting in a bow stand and hunting the wind on good hot sign.

I wonder if you could do a drive with a drone in a cutover?

I agree with your observations 100%, however, there are those on here that will argue that scouting , reading sign, woods hunting and such is not a dying art.

Both ways are fun. I like hunting mountains and thickets in the mornings and plots in the afternoons. Can’t hardly stand to sit on a plot in the mornings though unless it’s raining or something.

With all the new fancy guns and scopes they still havent came out with a gun for me. One that doesnt shake when a buck comes out.........

It sure seems to be a dying art. If sitting in a shooting house with a heater, watching a field is what folks like to do, then I guess have at it. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just not as rewarding to me personally as finding where one lives and getting in his bedroom and killing him. Heck it must be a dying art with me personally, I’m working on 3 or 4 years without killing a buck. Being short on time to scout and hunt is the problem I have, and is probably half the reason most people hunt the way they do. I think maybe hunting club rules is another reason. Nobody wants a club where 20 people are out walking and scouting 2000 acres due to pressure, and that’s understandable. Ways of the hunting world have just changed, and it seems it’s still steam rolling in the opposite direction of what it once was.

Plenty of people do it. There are all different skill levels. Just like golf or any other activity.

Another "You aint doing it right unless you are doing it like me" thread.

No was actually just st getting thoughts and making conversation. Trust me I love hunting open areas and seeing a long ways but it didnt prepare me for actually getting in a bucks bedroom and possibly taking him at another time of the year than the rut when most people seem to take their bucks.

Ive done more woods hunting this year thani have in years past. Hasnt paid off yet but i seem to enjoy the change.

All this scouting and “buck’s bedroom” stuff....... if you find his “bedroom “ and it’s in daylight hours there’s a good chance he was laying there and you done run him off, making him that much harder to kill. I get excited when I find a lot of buck sign in a thick place but then I start thinking I’ve done stunk this place up brushing up against these limbs and bushes. I’ve got about 60 acres of limestone and cedar thickets that I get in my head I could kill a good deer on but on the other hand I hate to stomp thru it cause I think that’s where the majority of my deer live.

I wish I knew what the happy medium was concerning scouting vs stinking.

We get these type thread a lot. It's worse during turkey season when noobs that have 10 birds under their belt show up and tell turkey hunters around here that kill 15 birds a year in multiple states that they aren't doing it right if they don't call them up to within 3 feet. Just gets old after you've read 40-50 of them.


Sorry...... nothing personal. I just subscribe to the theory that you should hunt the way you enjoy as long as it's lawful and not have to worry about people looking down their nose at you. I've killed them in cutovers, shooting houses, greenfields, and looking them dead in the eye in a thicket a rabbit might think twice about entering, and I just don't look down my nose at anyone and tell them they aren't "hunting". The President of my club and my Dad like to pull up to areas and watch out the truck window. Not my bag but they seem to enjoy it, and I'd love to see someone tell my dad he wasn't "hunting" by doing it. He's 70 years old and that guy has killed more bucks than CWD lol.

I get ZERO satisfaction shooting one out of a shooting house.

Me and you both! I don’t think once runs them out completely. Not every time anyway. You go to hanging and checking cameras, cutting shooing lanes, etc. and an old deer will leave for sure. I believe just about every old buck that’s killed involves luck. Obviously some more than others.

I was talking to a distant relative from Texas who has a "small" family ranch. I was telling him how baiting in Alabama is illegal and he basically said they wouldn't know what to do if they weren't able to hunt over corn.

I feel like a backwoods hick barbarian these days because I do all my hunting from a climber, and almost never on fields. Even when we leased premium land for 20 years, with powerlines, cutovers, food plots, I "might" hunt from a permanent stand or shooting house once a year. Had a great shooting house on the powerline overlooking a lush greenfield, but from that shooting house I couldn't see what I wanted to see into the woods (nor could I hear the deer). So I would literally climb the power pole 10 yards away from that stupid shooting house.

I went to a club as a guest a couple of weeks ago, hunted three days in a row morning and afternoon, never once took the climber out of the truck. Nothing I've ever done felt as stupid and lazy as sitting on a greenfield in a shooting house in the morning???!!! The whole time I'm thinking, "If I was in that tree right yonder, I could get another 25' higher and see all those woods the left, I could see all those woods to the right, and still see this big food plot here (that no friggin' deer is gonna walk out on till 30 minutes before dark this evening). We'd drive by a mile of the most premium looking cutover, only for him to drop me off on a road and say "walk till this road hits that field, there'll be a shooting house on the left". Drove me nuts. 3000 acres of insanely good land in the Black Belt, and everybody sits in shooting houses on plots morning and evening.

I hunt thickets till rut kicks in then I'm watching hayfeilds or big hardwoods i grew up hunting in woods and I plant greenfields but I don't hunt em mainly just for draw and guest that don't wanna climb and when I take my kids...I absolutely hate hunting in a shooting house nothing personal I just like being out there on the ground with deer

BC I can see that you are offended by something or someone has rubbed you the wrong way in the past, but literally I grew up mainly hunting by myself and never really had anyone to really talk much deer hunting with over the years and thats why when I found this page years ago, I just enjoyed reading the daily threads and experiencing everyones excitement and joy from this side of the phone, so I decided to post a thread. I have many, many, many deer under my belt. I have a 152” 10 point from Talladega county I scouted for early season and finally took him in December, BEFORE the rut, sitting on a stump, because I played all the variables correctly, and the stump was literally the only place to sit and that has been the most gratifying kill of my hunting career, so I have taught myself quite a bit from trial and error. I never had anyone whatsoever take me out to the woods and show me what to look for when it comes to trails and food sources, and bedding areas. The ones that did invite me to their clubs, just stuck me on some food plot or cutover no one ever hunted, and yes I killed many bucks but didnt learn anything. I learned to walk to a stand, shooting house or whatever and just wait.

What I love about hunting, its continuously changing (much like everything else) and I love to increase my knowledge of whatever it is I am pssionate about. I love golf, and there are COUNTLESS ways to play the game just like hunting. I have a 2.8 handicap and most people would say, dont change a thing, but I love trying new things just like hunting, (heck im not getting paid to do either so whats it going to hurt) and hunting thick stuff is extremely new to me and I didnt realize I didnt know half about hunting that I thought I knew, at least when it pertains to changing up tactics and habitats. Its been a learning year for me and I was literally making a “serious deer hunting” conversation and your opinion is greatly appreciated if it pertains to the thread subject but Im sure most people would appreciate it if you would just keep your first assumption pessimistic comments to yourself. Not just for this post but others.

I basically hunt hardwoods because I don't want to part with my cash and join a club with 40 food plots. If money grew on trees I might. I just watched a spike feed through at about 20 yards from me and you normally don't get as up close and personal sitting in a shooting house 150 yards off the plot.