Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game The art of still hunting.

I prefer to move cross wind when still hunting. Even when sitting on deer crossings its easy to see whitetail bucks generally move with the wind at their back, unless spooked, when they prefer to move quickly and thus into the wind. Guess which direction-from whence they came, which is then against the wind.

They use their eyes to search for dangers ahead. Their nose protects their rear from coyotes or cats. Just like mule deer bed below a ridge with the wind at their backs to protect from cats, or bears, or coyotes,or dumbasses, while their eyes scan the unscented view ahead.

Still hunting success generally depends on your moving slow enough to see deer before they see you, which generally means moving slower than the deer. In open country binoculars can spot deer bedded under cedars and such. The thicker the vegetation the weaker the binocs need to be.

Its better to watch really thick bedding cover than still hunting it. Bears and cats cant normally bag a deer in such. Try it if you wish, but the odds of success are astronomically against you.

Trying to sneak within bow range of a deer is a 1/6-8 proposition. If the deer is bedded its less.

In east Texas timber, central Texas hill country, mesquite/oak mott/cactus brush country of south Texas, rocky ridges of juniper with mesquite draw/valley Pecos River canyon country and rolling plains of mesquite/cactus/juniper of west/central Texas and tall timbered/oak brush and buck brush Sacramento Mts of NM i have still hunted for deer for many years.

I have binocs but rarely use them in thick timber, preferring to be really still, unless i am in fairly open country or looking across wide draws or canyons.


In timber, and hunting only for bucks on the move or does with bucks, I travel slower than they. They move more than me.

I have come upon whitetails and mule deer while moving slow, to within 15 ft before seeing them at times as they move so slow and blend in so.
Once an open bush in front of me started shaking gently. I had been looking 40-60 yds ahead, as far as i could see in the Montana timber for a buck. Some how a doe was now pulling leaves in front of me from the opposite side of a small open sapling that i was touching the near limb tips of.
Stalking for whitetails in timber is a very difficult challenge and normally requires you to just see deer coming and drawing as their head goes behind a tree or they turn their head away.

For all practicle purposes, im not going to see a bedded shooter ahead of me in thick timber, therefore binocs are of little use and probably result in me spooking more deer by the mvt required in raising and lowering them. If i see deer moving through timber ahead i use them to see what ive got and to hopefully pick up other deer near it that are blending in and still are unseen.

For still hunting in timberland i wear wool or an old set of camo stretch fleece by Remington. I hold my arrowed bow with biscuit rest low on my left side or rifle with fingers between the scope and action with split rings on the right. I wear a felt hat with flat brim or tobaggan and a face mask and camo or brown gloves.

I move slow, turn my head slow, etc. I dont have a binoc coming up or any excess movement. I dont want a ball cap bill rotating and have had many deer and one antelope buck stand up and look at me while wearing a togue and i could see them thinking "wtf", sometimes too long.

I wear 16 inch LLBEANS normally when still hunting, though i have some leather slippers which i bought a sheep skin for and cut out and glued wool side down for using to get up on previously spotted and stalked animals.

I once got within 15 yds of a black bear with those and drilled him with an arrow.

I have no idea how most people nowdays could ever become good still hunters. Growing up walking on flat surfaces is a killer for the stealth and skill required.

One has to learn to pick the knee up while walking and only partially extend the lower leg resulting in shorter steps, such that No 1, The knee is slightly bent when the leading foot contacts the ground resulting in a cushion effect from the knee flexing rather than being stiff, locked, and straight when hitting the ground. When ones body weight is totally moving forward a stiff leading step is required to keep from landing on ones face, and there is no stealth. Of course, the stiff contact with most ground lends a great warning "thunk" with each step to the ears of most game.

No2. When walking flat surfaces efficiency, ones heel passes within 1/4 inch of a known and constant flat surface. There is no way to travel quietly with ones heel constantly hitting and rolling even small stones and twigs while travelling in this manner.

The knee has to come up enough for the foot to come forward OVER most slightly elevated obstructions in order to move forward without kicking rocks.

I finally came to realize one day while trying to sneak up on mallards on the Pecos my lawyer could not be quiet while sneaking up to the bank on the river bend above them as all he could do towards my constant, repetitious, whispers to be quite, was to go slow.


He had no concept of having to balance on the back foot and pick the leading foot a couple inches higher and over chitt or to take an extra short step before getting to a small branch and then stepping over it with the next step.

Then i remembered dealing with others before while TRYING to supposedly sneak still hunting deer in shallow valleys and the rocky ridges near Sonora Tx.
We are sneaking in on a deer and the hunters freaking boots are catching and rolling rocks as his foot moves forward. Though
we are moving slow, he has no concept of keeping weight on the back foot with the knee slightly bent and picking the leading foot higher over rocks while moving forward and rolling forward onto the leading foot with the leading knee slightly bent and flexing slightly as the heel comes down to prevent a thud as the heel hits down on gravel, twigs or hard ground.

Remember, a deer looking through the woods can see you moving and coming towards him a whole lot farther than you will be able to see him due to the way he blends in. Sneaking in on a deer feeding on acorns under an oak or laying in its hidden bed is almost impossible.

I will admit, maybe if i had learned to move even slower and had used binocs to see way ahead and through near brush the way a deer can do, i may have learned a different technique.

Good fortune on the still hunting. In timber, its the greatest hunting challenge and pure hunting thrill where no dangerous game is involved.

A point about mule deer. They do bed high on ridges over the crest from where they feed OR under the crest of ridges they will move down feeding on. Rising thermals tell them whats below when they are going to wait for the evening thermals to start moving down. When it does they get up and feed down with it. They look ahead and smell behind.

If they bed over the crest in dark timber the rising thermals tell them whats over the ridge behind them as the breeze going over the ridge forms a vacuum that rolls smells down over them. When rising thermals falter in the evening they get up and cross over the ridge while gusts are still kicking back and forth before it cools enough to consistantly go down hill. In this situation for elk or deer i try waiting off to the side or a ways down the canyon from where i want to ambush them and when the breeze stops kicking back uphill i try to haul it over to where they will be headed down.

In the morning they will be feeding up with the falling thermals in their face. Trying to waylay them with a bow is a low return proposition. Side hilling and approaching from the side is about ones only chance with a bow then.
There are times when they bed below a crest in more open country and can be sneaked down on from above or if you have a buddy and can get around and to the side and above the deer and your pal moves toward it, the deer will get up and head up and hopefully give one a shot. Be very careful to not sling an arrow toward your pal if the deer comes side hilling up toward you though.


Well, thats about my take on things. I wish i knew all the successful tricks others use. So many times, if i had just had the ability or skill to see game as well as the Indians....

God bless, jag.