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

I thought you could only kill animals while sitting in a Redneck blind, over a Techomante food plot while carrying a TC Pro Hunter, Nikon scope, and wearing Scent Blocker clothing??

Only if you paint your face in some warrior looking crap and are watching a buck that you've seen on a trail cam and named him "Big Tine"

Oh yeah, and sucking down a Monster Energy drink.

Booyah

Good thread...I call it "sneak hunting" and have shot my best bucks, both Whitetails and Mule deer under 40ft in the standing timber. If its early season I will put several pairs of worn out wool socks on my feet (no boots I keep them in my pack) so silent sneaking.
There is always one in the pipe, safety on of course, I always hunt alone.
I learned how to sneak hunt on my own and not too many hunters do it I dont think, I hunt in the rain/snow/heat and will spend all daylight hours hunting, its getting harder to stay out all day as I age but I have more patience now.

I tape my swivels so they are silent, use no cover scent, nose into the wind, and I always hunt the same ridges as I have for 40 years now.
That I figure gives me an edge knowing where to look and the wind is generally always going the same direction so I dont waste my time. No Whitetail for me this year but tagged out on Mule deer.

I'm looking forward to some pointers in this thread for sure.

Pointers? But on some f'n boots, lol. I'm sorry, but I had to.

Hahahahahaha....ha...huh?

It depends on the terrain.

I don't recall ever seeing a tree stand or deer blind when hunting mule deer in the western high desert or mountain areas.

If there is a lot of hunter activity on public land, even in the west it can be a good plan to find a place to sit waiting in ambush, and let the other guys stir things up.

Numerous times on crowded public land hunts, I've seen deer sniffing a still hunters trail, walking behind about five minutes and watching and listening in the direction of the hunter.

Had to chuckle at this. I tape zipper pulls so they can't clatter. Removed a plastic clip in an otherwise quiet new fleece orange vest - with my pocket knife - seconds after a tiny plastic "tick" cost me a shot. The vest ties with strings now. I use a bumper of electrical tape to pad and silence the muffled rattle of my magazine floor plate against the bottom of the magazine frame. I carry it with my hand there and the little rattle drives me nuts. I don't worry about the swivels, except to oil them, because my sling is in my pocket most of the time. Sometimes I have to stop and rearrange my partly full canteen so it doesn't go "glurk" at every step. Keep my shirt tail over my pack buckle so it won't clank. Little sounds, but they don't belong. Unnatural sounds.

Funny, though, I did have a curious buck walk into me once. I was holding still, but eating a sandwich in a plastic sandwich bag. The faint crinkle/rustle of the plastic apparently made the buck curious. I saw his antler tips coming and swapped the sandwich for my rifle. He walked practically right up to me. He never did learn the answer about that sound.

I don't mess with cover scent either, I try to use the wind to my advantage, or at least not to my disadvantage.

Patience is a key component, for sure.

Yep. Had a forky follow my trail to me once after i climbed a shallow ridge in the woods that overlooked a creek bottom.

I once saw a doe with two fall fawns feeding on acorns under my oak bust a bobcat that had been in a low crouch sneaking up on them. I didnt see it until the doe spotted it and jumped between it and the fawns while facing it head low for battle. It headed on off through the S Texas brush and oak motts. She followed while blowing at him for 300 yards.

They were back again that evening and he came in at them from an area of high grass. My arrow hit it in the neck. Heck of a trophy for a 16 year old. I still have its open mouth rug mount.

BTDT Jag, well except for the plastic bag trick.

I was about 18 one year when i went through a bit of thick stuff in the south Texas brush country to get to a nice sized mesquite i could climb. I made considerable racket doing it and the about blew my mind when i looked down to see a nice buck looking to see what the racket was about. I hadnt even rattled the horns yet.

40 years ago uncle was sneak hunting the Davey Crockett NF in east Texas and kept hearing an odd clicking sound. He followed it to the point he could see a deer pawing at a big coke bottle that had corn in it.

I still do it sometimes. The biggest reason for it being less common than it used to be is that many hunters not in Alaska just don't have the space for it.

Haven't read the entire thread but space is a big thing . I hunt mainly western Va and eastern Wva . Still have some big tracts of land by eastern standards. I like still hunting for something different . This past season I took deer by stand hunting , still hunting , drives and running dogs . The 8 pt from Wv killed still hunting was the most memorable.

The best advice I ever got about hunting came from the local Gunsmith. He said "If you want to learn how to hunt put down your rifle and pick up a bow."

But I'll add, When you pick up your rifle hunt as if it was a bow.

Still hunting is alive and well. Is the only way I hunt, wet/dry/calm or breezy.

i do but its tough where i hunt. it seems that the wind switches direction every 30 seconds. but if you can walk into a prevailing wind on wet leaves or snow, it is a fun way to hunt. i remember a dink i walked up on one time. it was bedded behind a log looking into the wind and i came up behind it about 50 yards back. i stood with my gun resting on a big tree for probably 10 minutes before i could get a shot. it never even got up.

Same here.

I love bow hunting. Think i found my next crossbow....
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dTTmjG1v...sed_before_guns_were_invented_640_12.jpg

One thing for thems what sits in stands/blinds to consider.

Still hunting is how predators do it. They make a decent living from all appearances, stalking, watching, nose to the wind and moving slowly.

They don't sit on their butts waiting for something to walk nearby so they can jump on it.

Allow me to defend hunting from a blind or treestand for y'all. I don't mean to change any minds here. However, I think it is important to understand why it is a good choice in our circumstances.

First off, let me explain that our camp is located on 200 acres in SW Bracken County, KY. It's a bigger than average plot. 40 acres are in pasture and the rest is either cedar thickets or Oak/Hickory savanah. Along the N/S axis it is about a mile long, and it is about a 3/4 mile walk from the house to the property lines on the east, west, and south. We have about 15 resident deer on the property at any given time. Probably one of them is a mature buck. This year, we scored 3 mature bucks on Opening Weekend. This was a good year-- one of our best. I have no more than 4 hunters on the property during season, and we all hunt from raised stands or ground blinds. SW Bracken County can sound like a war zone on The Opener. I count as many as 3 shot strings per minute over the first 4 hours of rifle season.

The first problem we face is safety. We need to make sure we're not going to shoot each other and we don't want to shoot or be shot by our neighbors. Therefore, it is a good idea to stay away from the property lines and hunt in the interior of the property. Second, we all coordinate our hunting so that we all know where each other are. We also use walkie-talkies to inform the others as we are leaving our assigned areas. The problem would get far more complicated if we were all stillhunting. So far we have had no close calls in over fifteen seasons. I'm not worried about a mistaken-for-game-incident, but it is still a good idea to know where your buddies are.

The other problem is pressure on the deer. Whitetails tend to follow the paths that offer the greatest amount of slack. They flow to the property that gives them the best habitat, best food, the least trouble and the least crowding. I try to offer them just that. I don't do a whole lot with food plots. I rely mostly less demonstrable habitat improvements. However, the deer find I have good place to offer them. I probably have have the hunter density of the surrounding plots and I don't do any ATV joyriding. The payoff is that we can see twice the number of deer out in the fields as normal after the Rifle Opener. All the deer come over to our place to get away from the Orange Army. My neighbor, who spends gobs of money on supplemental feeding admits that he's basically feeding my deer. They all bed on my place and come over to his to feast after dark. If I started putting hunters out to stillhunt, that would probably all change. As it is now, all those ATV's and stillhunters on neighboring plots are acting as beaters, gently herding deer onto our property. That may be as many as 3,000 hunters within earshot.

Treestands give you the best chance of getting a shot on a deer with a downward angle going into the dirt behind them. We all shoot from either a stand or a blind where we're firing down at the animals. We aren't making a lot of noise on the way in. We travel regular paths, so there's no blundering around in the dark. The deer are fairly used to our comings and goings. I spend all fall out and about scouting, so in a way I get my stillhunting desires out of my system before season starts. When I go out, I'm there to get a job done.

Lastly, my hunting buddy is 75 and recently had quadruple bypass surgery. His stillhunting days are over. I'm 58 and built like human landform. Geologists probably ponder the perturbations I make on their seismographs when I'm hiking. My sons are similarly blessed with gargantuan dimensions. We are not lithe creatures. Size 14 boots fall heavily in any forest.

As much as I love stillhunting, I have to agree, differing conditions require differing techniques. Especially under the conditions you describe. Safety is a big consideration, so is calmer deer.