Hunting from a junk car

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T.R.

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I know a couple guys in western Pennsylvania that bought a junk car and dragged it with tractor to edge of a meadow within a forested ridge. They stuffed old clothes with newspapers and placed therm in front seat to simulate two human forms. The deer quickly became accustomed to this sight.

These clever hunters tore out the door panels from inside to grease the roller mechanisms. On opening day, they toss the dummies in rear seat and roll the windows down. They've tagged many deer from this unusual outfit. It's weather tight and comfortable.

One year, a Warden came around and cited them for hunting illegally from a motor vehicle. But they beat the citation and related fines because the junk car had no tires; they'd rotted badly over the years.

My buddies are a little "red around the collar" but certainly not reckless violators or criminals.

TR
 
They way I was told: the Magistrate didn't care about a running motor. He asked about the tires. Go figure.

The junk car is a big Mercury from the 70's.

TR
 
FoMoCo shorts from the 70's ...

You could set up a whole bivouac in the station-wagons!! Room for a reefer of suds!
 
I've always wanted to find a junk combine near a corn field, but I've always been under the impression it would break the hunting by aid of a vehicle law.
 
When I was younger my dad & I would hunt some land that had an old school bus in the woods near a field edge. Every now and then I'd sit in it, never shot anything though.
 
sounds like a pretty good set up to me. im sure it would be a lot more comfortable than a little stool in a conventional ground blind.
 
Back around 1950, my father "recycled" the frame from a 1939 Mercury club coupe, since it was the same as the frame under his ex-GI 1941 Ford staff car. My uncle set the body on four stub-ends of power poles and used it as a blind. Worked out just fine. :)
 
In Wisconsin, it is illegal to hunt from or to have a uncased weapon in, on or leaning against ANY vehicle. This includes using the vehicle for a rest. A vehicle is anything that can be driven, ridden or towed. A few years back, putting elaborate deer blinds on haywagons became popular because they could be easily removed from the fields after hunting season. They could also be easily moved during the season to another spot. To be legal to hunt outta of, you had to remove the wheels before you climbed on/in with an uncased weapon.. A friend of mine once built a tripod stand outta the top sections of old windmill. Put a old boat trailer axle on one side so he could lay it down and move it with his tractor. I told him to contact the local warden about it's legality and yep.....wheels needed to be removed before he could use it to hunt. Old rednecks around here drive running vehicles out to their deer spot and then remove the wheels. Not only do they have protection from the elements, but they have heat and can listen to the Packers on Sunday. Deer have no natural fear of stationary vehicles, so parking it weeks in advance to get them "used" to it is not really necessary.
 
Wisconsin is weird. Down here, on your private property, you can shoot FROM a moving vehicle. Commonly, jeeps or 4x4 vehicles have a high mounted seat with a gun rest. One sits in the seat, taps the hood for the driver to stop when he sees something. Not legal on public land in New Mexico, not sure about private, but I don't think so. They call those vehicles "Texas war wagons" out there. :D
 
They stuffed old clothes with newspapers and placed therm in front seat to simulate two human forms. The deer quickly became accustomed to this sight.

Did this in one of my deer stands using cardboard to make up the silhouette, the deer paid no more attention to me in there than they did the empty stand. Got a pair of old coveralls to stuff and put in my bow stand a few weeks ahead of this years opener to see how that works.

Growing up, it was the norm for my pop and uncle to drop me and my cousin off in open ground blinds in what ever weather we had, then drive over to their stand and sit in the truck with the heater and radio on till time to pick us up. Usually they got a deer and we simply froze our buts off sitting in the cold and or rain. We would really love it when they would shoot a deer, then watch them drive off back up to the house till it was time to come pick us up.
 
I was cruising a tract of timber near Okefenokee swamp a couple years ago, and once i get into rythim of measuring trees, hours can pass before i realize it, & in perfect solitude.

As i was walking thru the woods, i came across a ladder tree stand with someone in it, at 3 pm in May. I stopped measuring, focused on the stand, and wondered what was he hunting at the time. I did not want to mess him up, and sort of became perplexed for a moment as my intended route went straight under him. As i got closer, no movement...

It was a "dummy" with boots, hat, sunglasses, camo pants, camo shirt, etc... Very real looking. I felt like just as much a "dummy" as the one sitting in the tree stand... guess it was there to "season" the deer.
 
I've seen farmers around here build old-grain carts into mobile shooting stands and then tow them into the field just before harvest, by the time corn/beans are out of field,deer have become accustomed to "box' on wheels and will walk right in front of it,, My favorite hunting-stand is an old pallet with 4-pcs of 2x6 screwed into bottom (for legs),then i made a simple roof out of old 2x4's and scrap-fence board then hung old-pieces of artificial x-mas trees on the side for cover,, cheap and effective
 
nock the wheels off, pull the motor, remove the doghouse, at that point i dont think the game warden can complain, speaking of witch, what was the game warden doing on private property, i mean, howd they find out?
 
My farmer friend has killed many deer from a corn combine ... parked over night in the field they are picking... the deer come right to it.

My logger friend does the same from his log skidder... I guess the deer are curious about the machines.

Jimmy K
 
+1 on tractors, combines, or other farm equipment.

They get so used to it you have to stop sometimes to keep from running them over at feeding time.

A buddy & I built a duck blind once out of a old barn wood stock feeder.
We set it up right at the waters edge of a stock pond and had to beat the ducks off before daylight every morning to set out decoys!!

rc
 
+1 on tractors, combines, or other farm equipment.

They get so used to it you have to stop sometimes to keep from running them over at feeding time.


Yep....that's why just about every year you hear about a farmer in Wisconsin having his $100,000.00 combine confiscated because he got caught shooting a deer outta the cab. My brother in law had a neighbor, that after watching a nice buck trying to stay in the few remaining rows of standing corn left in a field he was picking, had his son sit in the gravity box and pick it off when they got down to the last strip. The neighbor got to buy his tractor with a mounted picker and the gravity box back in the DNR auction.
 
Deer seem to like the smell of fresh turned soil.

When I was 14, I had hunted stands, stalked, and still hunted every hour I could be in the woods that season with zero opportunities, likely due to my skill level at the time.

On the last evening, my grandad told me to drive the skidder into the woods(our land), and push a little strip clean with the blade. He then told me to crawl on top and wait.

I was only there 15 minutes before some nice does and a spike showed up, sniffing and pawing at the dirt. I was sure proud of that fat doe I drug back home!
 
Here's a pic of an old piece of Ag equipment a friend routinely shoots PD's & antelope from in Eastern CO
 

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