Passive vs aggressive hunting

[fairchaser]

I've always been more of a passive hunter. I try to be a hole in the woods. No scent, no sound, full camo, high in the tree, quiet as can be.

If I grunt or rattle, it's usually as a last resort when a buck is leaving.

I know a couple other hunters who will constantly rattle and grunt aggressively and use lots of doe in estrus. At times, they are very successful. They will shun the stand and slip thru the woods and kill nice bucks from the ground.

What's your method and why?

 

[Tn Joe]

I'm more passive. I've been fortunate to kill some good bucks but being passive has cost me opportunities at some other nice bucks also.

 

[Big Pop]

I try it all at times but am usually more successful with the passive approach.

 

[Crappieaddict]

I lack patience, which is a lifelong fault. I can only sit in a stand for a couple of hours if there is no action. I would much prefer to stalk/still hunt, but admittedly, I'm not very good at it. After sitting over my less than stellar food plot Saturday morning, I have decided to mix it up for the rest of the season. I'm getting a little old, but the Climber is going back in the rotation as well as ground hunting. I may fail, but my enjoyment should increase.

 

[timberjack86]

Passive most of the time.

 

[Ski]

Both for me. There's a time & place for everything, IMO. Much depends on where I'm hunting, what time of season, and the vibe I'm getting while there.

Both early and late seasons I sit still & quiet as a mouse and just watch. If late season with gun I sit where I've got a clear view of bedding or food that I can shoot into. If early archery & I have to be within bow range, then I'll move my stand every day or every sit until I've tightened the noose around the buck's movements that I am close enough for a shot. But it's still just a waiting game.

For rut I'm generally pretty noisy. I set up inside doe bedding pretty often, or in an area so thick the deer has to get close to see what's making all the noise. The beautiful thing about small thickets or brier patches is that I can climb a tree inside it and see outside of it for cruising bucks, but they can't see me. When I grunt or rattle they have to come in close if they want to investigate. Calling to deer in the wide open hurts more often than it helps because they can look & see there's no deer where the sound is coming from. Often times if nothing is going on around me for a long stretch of time I will climb down & still hunt my way to & through some other spots and it works out pretty well pretty often. If there are no deer near my stand then I won't kill a deer no matter how quietly I sit because there are no deer to kill. But if I find the area where the deer are active I have a chance even if I'm on ground level with them. For me it's all about putting myself in the deer. If I'm not in them I can't kill them.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I've always been more passive but I've recently started still hunting a lot more and I love it. With our deer numbers just continuing to drop in my area, I'm afraid I'm going to have to move more and more just to see anything.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Definitely a bit of both here. I have killed several that I called in. Timing matters, I will definitely be more aggressive with calling just before and during the rut, even during post rut and second rut I will blind call.

Then sometimes I have been left wondering what put that deer where he was, like the last one I killed. I made a lot of noise getting to the stand through the blanket of leaves that afternoon. Then when I got the stand, I made a clanking noise adjusting the pedestal for the seat.

Timing.......

We hadn't gotten any pics of decent bucks for two months, then finally on October 17th a buck of interest shows up, and during daylight. When I saw that he showed up again on October 21 I knew that it was time to get my cell cam where this cam was. I ended up getting several more pics of him...

www.tndeer.com

My target buck was right there, within minutes. He had to have been bedded very close. I believe he heard the leaves and thought it was a chase. Maybe the clanking I made sounded like antlers. On that hunt I do believe I inadvertantly called in the deer. That would no doubt be considered aggressive.

 

[rifle02]

For much of my life still hunting was the pattern because when I started hunting there were no climbers or ladder stands to speak of. When you sit on the ground and your butt gets cold or the stump you sit on becomes hard as rock it's natural to get up and walk. On days when I was antsy and couldn't sit still I busted out a lot of deer just by walking around in the woods- bad technique. Starting in about 2000 when I discovered reliable climbers AKA Summit Viper I became much more passive and my success rate increased exponentially. Starting about 2015 I began to hunt a small piece of private property. If I got antsy and walked around it took me only about 15 minutes and I was done with that because the property was so small. Nowadays still hunting is something I try to avoid but find myself doing it on a larger property once in awhile. It's a mental attitude but I never expect to see deer when I'm still hunting it's usually the long way back to the camper and in my mind I'm done. Rattling, grunt tubes, attractants and lures, all seem to me to be expensive ways of scaring deer out of the woods. On days when there's nothing happening it's always worth a try though.

 

[deerhunter10]

More passive. Will call some but never use scents. Time and place for both imo.

 

[Lost Lake]

It depends on where and when I'm hunting. On private where I'll be playing more of a season long chess match with the deer, I'll be way more passive and try not to educate them any more than I have to.

On draw hunts during the rut, with limited time and bucks moving constantly, I'll get more aggressive with hunt locations, time spent in the woods, and tactics. Mobility is key, and it usually works best for me then. I very seldom call anymore though.

 

[DMD]

I'm passive aggressive i always hunt from a stand. I can't still hunt, I'm too impatient. I move too fast , make too much noise, get bored too quick. I have to be up in a tree, where I'm trapped. I never use scents, gave up on using them years ago. But, i do a lot of calling. How much and what type depends on what part of the rut it is.

 

[14deerhunter]

Both for me I've stayed quite and have deer all over the area and also have got aggressive and sometimes helps and sometimes they just ignore

 

[BSK]

Strictly passive, because of what I am trying to achieve. I want to outsmart deer, figuring out their travel patterns and then finding a likely place to ambush them along their daily routine.

Calling/drawing deer to me holds no interest. Probably why I'm not interested in turkey or duck hunting.

 

[30-06 type of guy]

Aggressive. I'm rattling and grunting from the bow opener until my last tag is checked. Does are nosey they love rattling but you can't just go beat the horns together like they do in the Midwest. As far scents go I have a collection of tarsal glands an keep a stick of evercalm.

 

[backyardtndeer]

On scents, I do use scrape drippers strategically placed, and timed just before the deer get to really working scrapes. I usually use active scrape or golden scrape in them. I believe they work, and if you can catch the Walmart post season clearance on them, cost little to nothing.

 

[philsanchez76]

Bow season is passive. Setting up an ambush based on scouting and reading fresh sign. Almost always hunting from a tree. Muzzleloader is kind of a tweener. Usually the first few days ill still be in passive bow mode, but by the end of muzzleloader I am usually putting on a lot of miles looking for the action if im not in it. Usually hunting from the ground at this point since I move around so much. During gun I stay pretty active and aggressive until about the end of the first week of December. After that, it's more of a sit back and see where they're coming out to food, and then adjust and ambush the next evening or something like that.

 

[JJ3]

More passive, sitting in a stand or on the ground or when it's raining in a tent. I like stalk hunting especially in wet conditions but my current lease doesn't set up well for it — largely at fields with wood lots and connecting hedgerows. I try to minimize my smell. I will use a grunt call if I see one at the distance to try and pull him in closer — and I've been successful. I will also use a grunt to get them to stop for a shot. I don't use doe pee — too many times when I used to use it, I saw does and young bucks throw on the breaks and head the other way.

 

[Snake]

Both for me and at times really aggressive but I like to ambush early on . When I had my lease in Lincoln did some still hunting with a lot of success but the terrain has a lot to do with it.

 

[fairchaser]

Strictly passive, because of what I am trying to achieve. I want to outsmart deer, figuring out their travel patterns and then finding a likely place to ambush them along their daily routine.

Calling/drawing deer to me holds no interest. Probably why I'm not interested in turkey or duck hunting.

That surprises me! Even if you see them but still out of range or need them free of cover?