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Here’s how one very successful Maine hunter learned the advantages of ground blind hunting.
Somewhere in our ancient past, our progenitors discovered that abandoning their arboreal ways and largely herbivorous diet, and walking upright on terra firma and hunting for food was more successful. The rest, as they say, is pre-history. Jump ahead roughly a million and a half years, to where one of these sapient beings reasoned that returning to the trees might give them an advantage over certain prey (game) species. Enter the tree stand. And it’s safe to say that most modern bowhunters plie their avocation from some type of elevated perch.
However, history (and pre-history) repeats itself. Perhaps it’s fear of heights, convenience, the realization that there are certain advantages; or maybe it’s that same innate drive that first motivated us to the ground to become predators. Whatever the reason, more and more bowhunters are finding eye-level to be a very advantageous position from which to take game.
One such hunter is Joe Ciampa, of Farmingdale, Maine. He has become a devout, and quite successful ground hunter, who prefers to hunt from a blind. In fact, he's the only person to ever take two consecutive Maine Slams: deer, bear, moose and turkey in the same year. He took them all from the ground; his second slam was all bow kills; and he shot all but the turkeys and one bear from ground blinds. He also bowshot turkeys and bears in New Hampshire those same seasons, and helped others do likewise - all from the ground.
Like many bowhunters, Joe used to hunt from tree stands, but circumstances prompted him to try eye-level hunting. “My mother’s cousin, Richard, was unable to hunt from tree stand because of bad knee; so he bought an Invisiblind ground blind,” related Joe. “ Unfortunately, he passed away before he ever got to use it. But before he did, he gave the blind to me. I figured I’d give it a try. It seemed like a good idea.”
First Blood:
A good idea it was. Joe’s first successful hunt on the ground came in October, 2002. He set his blind on a bench overlooking a ravine, and was hoping to lure in a buck he knew inhabited the area. The buck never showed, but an 108-pound doe did. One shot with his C.P. Oneida Black Eagle did the job, and he was hooked.
Joe also began to take note of the advantages hunting from a ground blind gave him. Ravines and stream bottoms are notorious for their swirling winds; and many veteran treestand hunters know to avoid them. “Blinds work great hunting ravines or any area with swirling winds,” says Joe, “because you can control your scent much better.”
He noticed a couple other advantages too. “Where there’s a thick canopy, I can actually see farther at ground level than from a tree stand. It also gives me a larger kill zone, and I don’t have to think about compensating for steep downward angles.”
First Slam:
Joe’s first Maine Slam came in 2003; but not before he helped a few friends fill their tags. “I helped my friend, Shawn Wilkins, take his first bear,” recalled Joe. “We were bowhunting over one of my bait sites in an Invisiblind ground blind. It was a really active bait and we had a small bear come in early. Shawn had never seen a bear close up before, and I told him to hold off; I thought we’d see a bigger one.” Joe was right. Not 20 minutes later a larger bear showed up and it was the first Shawn took with a bow.
Next up was moose. Joe’s sister, Patricia, drew one of the coveted permits had listed Joe as sub-permitee, which meant he could hunt as well. He wanted to take the moose with his bow, and had practiced shooting it all summer, to the point where he was proficient out to 50 yards. However, after several unsuccessful stalks, and running out of time, he defaulted to a rifle. Joe rued having to use a gun, but was already thinking of how he might be able to do better with his bow should he get another chance.
After taking a trapped bear with his pistol, Joe went back to his ground blind for some more deer hunting. Just three days later, he was hunting near his home when several deer approached his blind. Joe actually missed the deer he wanted. At the shot, it and two other deer scattered. “I called a little and two came back in. I could tell they were nervous,” he said. So he wasted no time taking the closest one.
The deers’ reaction to Joe’s initial shot was somewhat atypical to what most treestand hunters are used to. They scattered, but not far. And they came right back in to his calling. Perhaps it was because they couldn’t identify the source of the noise, or they didn’t detect any movement. Either way, Joe began to think he might really be on to something.
Joe Goes for the Slam:
While Joe prefers to hunt from a blind, he’s not opposed to sneaking around on the ground, when circumstances dictate. Up to this point, he hadn’t contemplated trying for a slam; but another friend, Charlie Lawrence, soon changed his mind. “Charlie asked me if I hunted turkeys and I told him I just never had any interest. He asked me to join him during the special archery season; so I decided to give it a try.”
On the morning of October 24, Joe and Charlie went out to check some of the local
hunting spots. They soon found some birds in a field, and quickly gained permission from the landowner to hunt.
With bow in hand, Joe started walking down a road skirting the field. The turkeys, however, began moving the other way. While trying to out-flank them, Joe noticed a bar-way in a rock wall, and guessed the turkeys might go through it as they exited the field.
His hunch proved right. He hastily got into position, using only natural cover, and was about twenty yards from the bar-way when he saw the turkeys headed toward the opening. Joe nocked an arrow and waited until one offered a clear, 25-yard shot. When Joe fired, the bird went straight up in the air, then dropped to the ground.
Not only did taking the 10.5-pound hen round out Joe’s first Maine slam, it also proved that even the sharpest eyes in nature can be bested by a grounded hunter. One key is positioning. By anticipating where the birds would go, Joe was able to move to a position where he could intercept them, and draw his bow undetected. Another key is good camo. Conventional, two-dimensional camo works, but three-dimensional, “leafy” camo works better at breaking up the human form.
2004:
The following year, 2004, was a banner one for Joe. He kicked things off with bear season. “I had a camera on one of my baits and had taken pictures for a week before,” he said. “I knew I had a good bear coming in.” He wanted to take the bear with his bow, from the ground; so he set up his blind a few days before the hunt. Then, he waited.
Opening day finally came, and so did the bear - “just like it was supposed to,” said Joe. Unfortunately, the bear heard him draw his bow. Instead of spooking however, it walked up to the blind - fifteen feet away! “It kept looking my way and I couldn’t shoot,” he recalled. “I didn’t want to spook it; so I had to let down.”
The bear was unfazed, and remained close by. “It kept coming in and out,” said Joe. “I drew on it six times before it finally offered a 22-yard broadside shot.” At the shot, the bear spun around, then slowly walked off in direction it had come from. Then the skies opened up with thunder, lightning and pouring rain, and Joe had to retreat to camp. “I knew it was dead because the arrow was covered with blood,” he said.
Still, he didn’t want to push it. So he went back to camp for a fitful night’s sleep. He and a friend returned the next morning and easily found the bear a short distance away. The following week he took another bear in New Hampshire, also bowhunting from a ground blind.
Few archers hunt deer from the ground; and fewer still hunt bears that way. But Joe, an experienced bear hunter, believes a ground blind offers some distinct advantages. Veteran bear hunters know a bear’s eyesight is not as keen as a deer’s, until you move. Bowhunters especially, must wait for an opportune moment to draw, then for the bear to offer a clean shot. Concealed in a ground blind however, Joe was able to draw numerous times without alerting the bear.
While that task is possible in most any ground blind, it is made much easier using a blind with “shoot-through” mesh windows. Then, the hunter can draw or reposition for a shot and be totally invisible to anything outside.
Most hunters would have been rattled at such a close encounter, but this wasn’t Joe’s first bear hunting experience in a ground blind, and he described what it’s like. “It’s really exciting to have a mature bear less than two feet from you. You can hear them breathing as they sniff the blind material. Then, when they move off, they trip over one of the tie downs and have to squeeze between the blind and a big tree making the blind rock wildly. Man, what a rush!”
That points out another advantage to ground blind hunting. What a bear lacks for in eyesight, they more than make up for in their ability to smell. Scent control is of the utmost importance. Yet Joe has had several very close encounters, and the bears never seemed to pick up his scent.
Next:
With one notch in his belt, Joe was anxious to pit his bow and blind against the local whitetails around his home. On his first afternoon, he had several encounters while hunting a food plot. “By five o’clock I had seen four deer and missed one. When two more came out, I shot one - an 80-pound doe - with my Oneida.”
Joe had placed his blind several days in advance of hunting. He recommends doing so because it gives the deer a chance to become accustomed to the blind. At first, they may be a bit leery, but once they’ve had a chance to be around it, and experienced no danger, they quickly acclimate.
Moosing Around:
Joe was lucky enough to draw his own Maine moose permit, and was determined to make amends for his rifle transgression. A little pre-season scouting soon gained him access to some broccoli fields the moose frequented. “I found plenty of fresh sign and a heavy trail where the moose came from the woods to the fields,” said Joe. However, there were no climbable trees near the trail.
What most hunters would have seen as a problem, Joe viewed as an opportunity.
“I set up the blind on the edge of broccoli and clover fields in a secluded corner, where I’d seen moose coming out early in the afternoon,” he related. The first day was active. “I saw six moose,” he said. None offered a clear shot, except a young bull who offered a perfect 25 yard shot. Unfortunately, Joe’s tag was for an antlerless moose.
The third morning, Joe was in his blind before sun-up. “About five minutes of seven, I heard a moose grunt,” he said. Ten minutes later he appeared. “He stopped in one of my shooting lanes about 26 yards and stayed there long enough that I could have shot him several times.”
More moose sightings followed and Joe begin to get restless. A half hour later, he spotted a big cow and a calf crossing the field, but they didn’t come near the blind. “I got out and tried to sneak closer but they were gone before I could get to them.” At 7:50 he saw another big cow and a 60-inch bull stroll across the field, again out of range. By nine, he’d had enough, so Joe left to check some other areas.
He returned in the afternoon, and after several hours’ wait, a cow came out of the woods. “She came by several times over about a half hour, and was as close as 10 yards several times,” Joe recalled. “I was hoping for a bigger one, but this one was about 25 yards away and feeding away from me.” Joe wasted little time placing a perfect shot in the boiler room. “She started then to walk away, and I yelled to stop her. When she turned broadside and looked in my direction, I shot her again, at 36 yards.” The 300-pound cow dropped about 40 yards farther.
It was hardly a typical hunt, but proved once again some of the advantages of ground-blind hunting. There were no trees big enough to put up a stand, and he’d seen several times how difficult it was to stalk within bow range of a moose. Picking a strategic location and being patient afforded Joe an easy shot.
The Ground Blind Advantage:
After all he's accomplished, it's no surprise that Joe remains faithful to his ground blinds. "I wouldn't hunt bears without ‘em," he says. I probably wouldn't hunt deer from a tree stand again, but just because I wouldn't want to leave my blind. Turkeys: It's about the only way you can kill ‘em. Moose: I'm a bowhunter and I doubt I could stalk close enough."
Ground blinds may not be for everyone; and they won’t work in all circumstances. They limit your mobility to some degree, and you can’t see or hear as well from inside. But as Joe’s experiences point out, they do offer some distinct advantages. Portable blinds weigh less than most climbing stands, and you can set them most anywhere, instead of hunting for the right tree. They also take minimal effort and time to move, should you want to make minor adjustments in your location. You don’t have to worry about moving when game is close-at-hand, and they help to control your scent. They’re also safe; to my knowledge, no-one has never fallen out of a ground blind.
Blind Wear:
Camouflage is the standard uniform for the bowhunter. However, black is a better option for the ground blind hunter. Inside the blind is dark, and darker clothing helps conceal you even better than
camo.
Shoot-Through Mesh:
Ground blinds allow you allow you to move relatively undetected. But sharp-eyed game can sometimes still spot you unless your blind’s windows are covered with shoot-through mesh. Shoot-through mesh allows you to draw totally undetected. However, it limits your equipment to some extent. Mechanical broadheads are not recommended. Fixed broadheads must be razor-sharp, and cut-on-contact heads are a better
choice.
Perks:
Ground blind hunting, according to Joe, also offers some unexpected bonuses. “One season I watched several bears, a fisher and even a barred owl from my blind. I watched that owl for almost an hour one day. There were chipmunks at the bait and this owl swooped down and nailed one.” Hawk and owl sightings aren’t all that uncommon to camouflaged bowhunters, but they’re typically brief, and end as soon as those keen-eyed predators pick us out in our tree
stands.
No Rain Check:
Just one of the many advantages of a ground blind is that it makes a great rain shelter. The heavens may pour down upon you but inside the blind you can remain reasonably dry and comfortable. Most pop-up blinds are reasonably waterproof. Applying silicone or some other waterproofing material to the outside, particularly the seems can virtually guarantee
it. Article from Peterson
Bowhunting 2006 Big Game Issue
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