Most unorthodox, questionable, or down right weird hunting techniques that you have seen or heard about

[JustinsDad]

I was going to say this. Lots of blind shots happening back home... "I thought I'd heard something"

So it’s not just California! I’ll have to remember this the next time I think about taking a crap behind bushes again.

 

[MarvB]

Oddest story a guy told me (and yes I have reason to both doubt and believe the weird sob) was that his grampa used to hunt geese in a field adjacent to his irrigation ditch by what he called “lopping”. He said the old man would load shells by pinching split shot along lengths of piano wire or guitar string and then coil them down in the wad cup and then crimp. He’d sneak the bank, ease his shotgun over the top, blow a hard cluck on his call to get them to alert and touch off three rounds as fast as his old auto loader would cycle. Then he’d go collect his booty, often with the heads/necks all “lopped off”.

....hell I don’t know, but if true that must have sounded like a swarm of friggin hornets heading at those honkers! (And def illegal as shit)

 

[Rack Daniels]

I never get a haircut or shave the week I plan to hunt. Period. I know pot farmers in California that use hair from barbers to keep the deer out. Lol

 

[Wallydeuce]

I hunted several years with a guy that lived in his camo while I was always careful to keep my hunting clothes separate. He'd cook, sit around the campfire wearing his archery hunting clothes. He was successful every year. He also used his always lit cigarette as his wind checker. Gives meaning to playing the wind. Go figure.

 

[Seeleylakehunter]

Had a buddy back in highschool that would take the slider door of his old 88 ford aerostar minivan pop all the seats out have his lady drive for him and he would lay in the back with a crossbow slaying deer thru Missoula streets . . ALLEGEDLY!

 

[devon deer]

Ever hear of a "Castle hunt".
Many shooters are assigned a standing area, but only if you're dressed in the proper attire.
Then drivers push a gob of pheasants to the shooters.
Devon deer may know of this first hand I have just heard of it.

You are talking about commercial pheasant shoots, something as a keen shooter I don't approve of.
These shoots in some instances breed in excess of 100,000 pheasants, then driven towards people with more money than sense, and it's like a clay shoot.

Or you have a little 'rough' shoot like the one I was part of, mainly walked up over spaniels and pointers and we go home with a few birds for the table.
Sadly 3 people in the photo have since passed away.

 

[Shangobango]

Weird to me is sitting in a stand waiting for critters to come to you.

Weird to me is people tearing through the palmetto when they should be somewhere being still…

 

[Shangobango]

I guy a went to school with, who now resides in Angola State Penitentiary, got caught killing ducks by hanging long stretches of gill netting just above the water. That always struck me as one of the most dirtbag moves ever.

 

[belshawelk]

Weird to me is people tearing through the palmetto when they should be somewhere being still…

All I know is I have a buddy in MO who I traded elk hunt for a whitetail hunt. I sat for four days in different stands. The fourth night I decided to walk through the nearby woods. I killed my first whitetail. Maybe I walk quietly.

He walked his ass off up and down canyons and killed an elk. That's how we get it one out west.

 

[diamond hitch]

One year I decided to hunt pronghorn. Given the options, I prefer horseback. As we rode through the sage covered hills we watched an endless number of trucks road hunting. As the antelope ran from them we found they would flock to the top of a hill and stare at us like the Indians in the old movies. As we approached them they would suddenly run straight at the horses, stop at about 50 ft, blow and then take off. The trick was to contain your panicked horse, get a gun out of the boot and shoot at the stop. It was really quite exciting.

The first time was terrifying but after that with the horses as bait we got quite successful. After a couple of years we decided they weren't all that tasty and quit but it sure got your heart started.

 

[squirrel]

One year I decided to hunt pronghorn. Given the options, I prefer horseback. As we rode through the sage covered hills we watched an endless number of trucks road hunting. As the antelope ran from them we found they would flock to the top of a hill and stare at us like the Indians in the old movies. As we approached them they would suddenly run straight at the horses, stop at about 50 ft, blow and then take off. The trick was to contain your panicked horse, get a gun out of the boot and shoot at the stop. It was really quite exciting.

The first time was terrifying but after that with the horses as bait we got quite successful. After a couple of years we decided they weren't all that tasty and quit but it sure got your heart started.

Do the same thing with a leashed dog, they'll run in from 800-1000 yds away stop and "buzz" ya from archery range then tear off and circle and do it again. They are such a silly critter, too bad they taste like antelope.

 

[thusby]

You haven't lived until you see a guy send 8yr-13yr old children through a bottomless tamarack bog with pots and pans. Then he posts up on dry ground for deer on the other side, like a hero.

 

[JDH]

Guy who taught me most I know about bow hunting told me back in the day he used to have someone drive him to his stand with a four wheeler and he would slip off and the deer would be focused on the four wheeler as long as it kept moving. I believe that one probably worked judging by the number of whitetail racks on his walls.

I hitched a ride on an ATV from a buddy once and he dropped me off, turned around and went back to his spot. Less than an hour later I had a 120" whitetail down that was more than likely bedded less than 200 yards from me the whole time.

 

[np307]

It seems like every year there's some new magic super potion some of the guys in the hunt club have come up with thats guaranteed to bring the deer in to the same stands deer get killed from every year. Vanilla extract was the latest one. A buddy and I are trying to think up something truly stupid to see if we can get them to do it this year. Pine sol is the best we've come up with so far.

Funny enough, I'm the guy around here with the strange and unorthodox hunting style. When I hunt game lands I never take a stand or a blind. I just find a good spot and sit on the ground. I dont usually hunt the same spot twice in a year. I dont drag deer, I always pack them out. I get some funny looks carrying a pack frame.

 

[JFish]

In Pennsylvania the state likes to clear cut pieces of state land and put up tall fences to keep deer out. I was young and it was my turn to be a stander during a large deer drive. One of the old timers put me about 20 yards from the fence and told me it was the best spot because the deer would stop as he snickered. It confused me why it would be a good spot, but the drive started and he was right. Two does plowed into that fence at full speed and were so dazed that they stopped and stood there for quite a while. The old timer was a brown it’s down kind of guy and was really pissed that I didn’t shoot one.

 

[Falcon75]

Guy who taught me most I know about bow hunting told me back in the day he used to have someone drive him to his stand with a four wheeler and he would slip off and the deer would be focused on the four wheeler as long as it kept moving. I believe that one probably worked judging by the number of whitetail racks on his walls.

It does. Have used that or even better a tractor. Lift bucket let it hit ground few times and have friend drive off. When the deer come out for evening they come to check what the tractor did. I shot a nice buck in PA when late getting out friend drove me to hay bale pile in Truck and then went and "Hunted" with his fiance. Deer came out from bedding spot 80 yards away. If I walked in that Deer would have never come out in field cause it would have watched me climb up onto hay stack.

 

[Rzrbk]

I've tried a couple of strange tactics that ended up working.

Once, while antelope hunting I was really short on time and the antelope was in a position where it would take me hours to make a stalk with no guarantee of success. I had an ebike and a couple of antelope decoys. I figured it would either work, or it wouldn't, but either way it would be over quickly. I rode my bike at an angle towards the antelope while holding the antelope decoy at the side of the bicycle and rode to within about 400 yards. Then, I got off the bike, still holding the decoy and walked towards the buck. He started running towards me and I barely had time to sit down, shove the decoy stakes into the ground, throw up the tripod and shoot him at about 140. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed the buck had a look of total amazement the entire time. I guess it's the first time he ever saw an antelope riding a bike.

Another time, I was duck hunting in green timber in Arkansas. The woods were THICK with large rafts of mallards. They wouldn't decoy as they were all in the woods eating acorns and not flying. I tried to sneak up on them with little success. I believe they can sense the vibrations in the water. Anyway, I had my canoe with me and got the idea to load my shotgun, then paddle my canoe through the woods with some momentum while picking a lane through the trees that would carry me into a raft of ducks. It worked pretty darned well. Lots of the ducks would see my canoe gliding through the woods towards them, but several wouldn't notice till I was on them. It ended up being a pretty decent technique and fun as you put down down the paddle and grab the shotgun while your canoe continues to silently run right up into the middle of piles of ducks. Green timber duck hunting is the best hunt in the world! I was lucky to live in Stuttgart, AR for several years.

When I was younger, a couple of times I successfully fawn bleated does into archery range for harvest. It didn't feel right and now I feel a little guilty and wouldn't do it unless I really needed the meat.

 

[drexal]

I was told a story once of a guy who would find an area frequented by turkey. He would run string between trees with fishing hooks hanging off (think of a trotline) at turkey height. Then he spread corn in the area and then come back later for the birds that snagged themselves on the trotline.

 

[Rzrbk]

I was told a story once of a guy who would find an area frequented by turkey. He would run string between trees with fishing hooks hanging off (think of a trotline) at turkey height. Then he spread corn in the area and then come back later for the birds that snagged themselves on the trotline.

It's real. Some low-life's where I grew up used to do that till they bragged too much and got busted. They would spread corn and put a piece on the hook hanging where a turkey had to stretch to reach it and then hook itself in the beak. You're a low-life doing this sort of thing unless you have a starving family at home.

 

[Panda Bear]

I have heard rumors that people south of us object to the way we hunt baby seals