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Ground Blind success?

Crow Terminator

Crow Terminator

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Have any of you guys ever successfully bow killed out of a ground blind on whitetail deer?

I have a couple blinds...don't use them much because every time I have ever seen deer while hunting out of one of them, they bow up and stop like they've seen a pink elephant and about come out of their skin stomping and snorting. I've tried them brushed in...have tried putting them out for a few weeks ahead of time of hunting out of them. The one deer I have killed out of a blind was with a muzzleloader after leaving it out from archery to muzzleloader...and the deer came down through the woods...knew it was there, and tried to skirt around it. The closest it got was about 80 yards and was jumpy the whole time...til I shot it. No way I could have done it with a bow.

I tried it the other evening here at the house...I normally sit on a 5 gallon bucket behind a big round bale of hay...have had them come to within 25 yards of me on that bucket and never knew I was in the world. I have video'ed them from there. I set the blind up beside the bale of hay...brushed it in with some tree limbs. Yet every deer that started to come out in the field would stop...look to see if there was any danger in the field...look right at the blind, and snort and snort and be gone. I started talking to some of my buddies about it...they've ran into the same thing. They say a turkey don't mind a blind at all, but they have never killed a deer out of a blind.

I see them do it on TV...but those may be fenced in deer for all I know. LOL These TN wild ones don't seem to like them around here. What about you guys? Successes? Stories of things gone wrong?
 
I have had success putting it up under over hanging limbs where i was in a shadow mostly under cedars also I've had luck in the rain i dont know why but they seem to pay less attention to it in the rain
 
I have had more deer spook more from a pop up blind that was brushed in and setup weeks in advance , than I ever have when I setup a natural ground blind that blended in better with the surrounding cover .
I took down my blind that I had setup and brushed in before the season this year after I had 4 does spook while I was hunting from it .
My first bow hunt back in 1980 , I was setup in a brush pile in a bottleneck in Mi. . I had 13 does walk by within 15 yards and never knew I was there . I only had one tag back then , so I held off .
 
We've had lots of luck, including many large bucks within 20 yards. Some well hidden and some 'brushed' in but still out in the wide open including my daughter's largest (15 yards)and my own largest(13 yards).
 
I've had luck setting up in tree lines or in corn fields with standing corn, but never n the open without some kind of back drop.
 
It's best to leave the windows open when not hunting them too . I have had deer notice the open windows when I had a blind setup over a month with the windows closed . Wearing a black jacket and face mask inside the blind helps you blend in too .
 
Deer will pick them off easily if they are not brushed in, even then i think with the brush and all they seem to be cautious because its something thats not supposed to be there, it'd be like setting up a new lazy boy in the living room and someone expect you not to notice. Now if they have been out for a week or so they dont tend to pay any attention to it. But i have killed a few deer out of a pop up blind one with a bow and some with a gun, if no time to brush in or leave it like in my cases I agree on the over hanging limbs and i would also try to find some tall weeds or vines mixed in with small bushed or sapling tree's. I have had success with doin just that.
 
Ive had good luck with them in field edges if they are brushed in very well. If I can tell where the blind is, they have been nervous when they cam out. I did have one that I left out from turkey season one year. It was not brushed in and the deer did not pay attention to it. For some reason, in the woods, I have had them pay less attention to them as well.
 
I have taken many deer over the past few years from a ground blind, but you have to brush them in and they have to have the shooting windows down all the time. Put them out as least two or three week prior to hunting, usually after that time period and being brushed in with the windows out they don't seem to pay much attention to them. Make sure that you have a black head cover and a dark shirt or jacket. You'll stick out like a sore thumb otherwise.
 
I take Ryan and Logan out and we set the dang thing up wherever we think the deer will be in Eagleville. The deer pay it no mind at all. We have had them 5 yards from the thing. Came up on us so fast we did not have time to get ready. Then again the blind is complete asat. I think that has a ton to do with it.
 
The other day, I was set up on the edge of a clearing. 25 feet up with good cover around me.
About 6 PM, EST, I had a couple does come in from the South.

Wind was PERFECT!

As the lead doe approached, I read her body language as "troubled". She knew something was not right as she approached my shooting lane.

I did not get it at first. Then, I looked to the base of my tree. I had snipped off a small leafy branch as I ascended my tree and it was laying in the clearing. She was definitely alert to this new thing out of place. It was not the first time I had seen this.

She should have stopped a little sooner and turned around. But I am sure the reason she made it as far as she did was because of her concerns over the branch prior to her lung deflation.

I have never had any luck on deer, out of a blind.

Maybe on a cruising buck or displaced deer during the rut. Any deer that is not that familiar with the area in the first place might accept a blind. But for me, if you put a large "lump" in my living room, even I will notice it pretty quick.
 

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