Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Are trail cameras and shooting houses dumbing us down?

I agree, I learned to shoot before I learned to read and write.When I started deer hunting in the mid 70's in Jackson Co. there were few deer. If you saw one good day, if you killed a buck of any kind ,it was a big deal! No body around here new how to hunt them. I think the first Jackson Co. season was in '68. What you're saying goes right to my feeling of lack of woodsmanship. My son has killed some very nice bucks, he don't know why. He'll just say he has a good guide.

A woodsman that knows what he's doing is gonna stomp around less than most of the guys that run cameras in season. You may be right to the point the old school woodsman might be asked to leave. He'll be in the woods killing the studs, makes for jealous people. When hunting clubs or public land you gotta know how to outsmart the deer and the other hunters. There's ways to do both. I'm glad I only have to outsmart deer now.

I don't think so.

This may be an unpopular opinion but I'm used to that. I like trail cams because life for me is 10x busier now than it was for me growing up. I had plenty of time to wear out boot leather scouting in my younger days in college. As a divorced dad with a busy practice, every spare minute now is spent with my kids and working and I simply don't have the luxury to spend days tromping through the woods when a cam can give me the info I need. I also LOVE seeing pics of what is on my property! Whether it be a deer, turkey, coyote, bobcat, ect...I love those cams!

So far as shooting houses, I rarely sit in them but I definitely hunt more out of fixed stands now than I used to. Ladders and tripods mostly. I don't hesitate to climb when the situation calls for it but it's actually nice not to have to haul a stand 300+ yards through tangles and stuff (and hauling it back out) to shoot a deer when I can overlook a cutover, an oak bottom, a food plot, or a thicket from a fixed stand. And to be honest, I'm not as young as I once was so taking a relaxing stroll to my stand is more enjoyable to me now.

Dr. B

Whats the difference in someone sitting in a shoot house versus someone sitting in a treestand with camo coth wrapped around it? I don't hunt out of treestands anymore for four reasons: My wife and three kids. Ever since I got married and had kids, I just can't get comfortable in one. I get real nervous and constantly sit there thinking, "...if something happened to me what would they do"? It may sound crazy but thats the way it is, and if thats how I feel then I have no business up there. I do hunt out of shoot houses a good bit. Partly because my son is usually with me and partly because I just want to. I also enjoy sitting in the woods backed up to a Oak tree though. Its just all in what makes you happy. It doesn't make you less of a hunter. I guarantee you the native americans used every trick to their advantage way back when.

"Whats the difference in someone sitting in a shoot house versus someone sitting in a treestand with camo coth wrapped around it? "

Now there is another peave of mine, "with camo cloth wrapped around it". Putting that wrap on an elevated stand only makes it more likely to be seen by animals on the ground. If you don't think so, put up a ladder stand in the woods and back off 50-100yds and look at it. You will find it pretty hard to see. Put the camo wrap on it and from the same distance it stands out like a sore thumb.

Don't be "Dumbed Down". Hunt the manly way:

Hunting and fishing occupied much of the time of the natives. The hunter threw over his body the skin of a deer, with the head, horns and legs admirably preserved. Round wooden hoops gave the body of the skin its proper shape, inside of which the Indian placed his body. Then, in a stooping position, so as to allow the feet to touch the ground, he moved along and peeped through the eye-holes of the deer's head, all the time having a drawn bow. When near enough to the deer, he let fly a fatal arrow. The deer, in that day, unaccustomed to the noise of fire-arms, were gentle and numerous, and easily killed by a strategem like this.*

I love'm in the rain too. I sat in double ladders and shooting houses with my son when he was learning. We kill does out of shooting houses over plots the first week of gun season now. After first week or two we stay away, hunting in the woods around them.

I understand what you mean. Here's some o my experiences with the topic.

The first nice buck I ever killed was on a green field from a shooting house. I was hunting as a guest on a club in marshall county. It was raining that evening so we hunted from the shooting houses. It was a nice deer and I was very proud of it, but looking back, it took absolutley no hunting skills to take it. I just had to kill it. Anyone could have done the same.

On the other hand, I killed a 3.5 yr old 8pt last year on skyline WMA. Wasn't a huge deer, but I had to work for it. I put some hard miles on the ol rocky boots one friday scouting an area deep in the mountains that I had never hunted. I found a good spot that I thought would produce a buck. Didn't have a clue how big of a buck he was, but I knew a decent one was in the area due to the sign he was leaving. I got up early enough to beat the crowd on saturday morning. With 30lbs of treestand and gear on my back I had to find my way in the dark to the tree I had picked out the evening before. About 8:00, sure enough, he popped up out of nowhere from under a STEEP holler below to check his scrapeline on the flat I was on. That was his last mistake.

That was a deer I was proud of. Not because of the size of the rack, but because I felt like I had hunted it. To me, hunting is a more about a personal challenge than just shooting deer.

Not much real hunting goes on these days. I climb a tree - no stand, just the limbs - lie on a limb with a knife between my teeth, then leap on the deer when he walks by and cut his throat. I only cut mature bucks that are at least 6.5 yrs old.

If you don't hunt like me, you ain't no real hunter. Take up knitting and spend Saturdays with the other women.

We need to get back to real hunting.

I'll add when it is cold and pouring down rain.

Trail Cameras I use most of the year except for April-June.

Real hunters use our bare hands. We don't need no stinkin' knife.

Clem, that is certainly an opinion worth debating. The purpose of the knife is not to kill the deer, its to bleed him out properly. You know yourself that once you are on the buck's back, its no problem to grab the antlers and break his neck. Sticking him with the knife just allows him to bleed out before he expires, resulting in much better venison.

And I will admit that riding him on the death run is something of a rush. Bull riders are just a bunch of sissies. Try staying on a big buck as he runs into trees and such. Where are all the real hunters?

I'd much rather rope them from my horse and bulldog 'em.

Now THAT'S a real sport.

I'm not much on other hunters stomping around, although i've killed deer from ppl doing this but more times than not i've seen the hunter and not the deer. My way of "old school" hunting or whatever yall call it is lookin for signs and setting up in the area and figuring out the time the deer are comming in but putting time in the stand, not looking at a clock on a camera .