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How many of you get board and start walking slowly thro the woods? I may sit for a hr then gotta get up and move get so cold sometimes as well. I’ve shot more deer walking than sitting.

Walking vs sneaking....
Take 4 or 5 slow and quiet steps then stand still for 30 sconds to a minute

When I was younger I hunted that way often. I have killed several deer taking a few steps and looking for a while. My dad pretty much always.hunted that way. Killed my 2nd biggest buck in the Ozark National Forest moving slowly and stopping for a while at fresh deer sign. The trick is to never set up a rythym. Take a few steps and stop so you sound like an animal in the woods. Hunt with your eyes to the edge of where you can see. It requires patience to do well.

Everyone use to call that still hunting.Still do I guess. Probably 90% of those who do,move too fast

Still hunting is my preferred method on my home area that I have hunted for 40 years.
If I am hunting as a guest down south, I follow my host's instructions!
I have spent a few hunts in a box blind. And in a ground blind , but prefer to still hunt .
Cat

my method also. of course these days walking through the woods doesn't take into account your feed plot and all the associated modern deer hunting factors.

I find it less boring than sitting.

Still hunting and snow tracking is the way I was taught. Been hunting that way my whole life. Now that I'm getting older, I'll stop and sit for 15-20 minutes to stretch out my back. Other than that, I detest the thought of sitting in one place all day.

I get bored too. Cant stare at the same trees for hours if there arent deer, squirrels, birds, something to watch. Have shot several deer while walking slowly to a "better" spot.

Had a good still hunt a couple of weeks ago. Was turkey hunting, and trying to hunt one up. What I found was deer. Coulda filled the freezer, IF I was deer hunting. Even the one that saw me must watched me sidle off without spooking.

Very seldom is my hunting area free enough from human activity to make the technique effective and safe. Not only hunters, but dog walkers and folks just out for stroll pop up even pretty far back. I have popped a couple with my crossbow sneaking in and out of the place I wanted to sit and watch from, both pretty close shots. Both of those deer saw me, but thought they were invisible. Wrong!

Not only do I walk/sneak. But the last elk I took was immediately following my use of the backwoods facilities. Always wondered if that might happen someday. It did.

That is my preferred way to hunt. Sometimes you can’t make it work and have to s as it and wait tho

Taken many more deer when still hunting
Get cold and have to move a little.
If I can sit in a ground blind, not in the open like a tree stand or beside a tree I can sit much longer.
The last 2 years the ground blind has worked for me.
The blind isn't on a food plot or feeder, but covers a creek bottom.

The biggest buck that I know about which was a solid B&C animal was taken because the guy got tired of sitting and walked over the hill to have a cigarette out of the wind. I think that lots of the oldest, smartest deer don't go walking where most of us do our posting where we can see a ways. That or after a few years, they go completely nocturnal and we don't see them unless we happen to walk into them bedded down somewhere. I've found some of my best sitting spots when I was walking because I wasn't learning any new area by just sitting in the same old spot. Sure I've killed a few nice bucks walking around, but I've decided that I'm a tad clumsy doing that and those deer probably deserved to be removed from the gene pool.

I intentionally set out that way. it will take me several hours to cover a few hundred yards through a woodlot. kill a bunch of deer most guys wont ever see

I've always walked slowly into a ground sit area. Walk super slow always watching way ahead. The natural [bleep] always brings out a deer. I've sat in stone piles with tall weeds, nod off. 90% of the time wake up to a nice buck. I'm not a snorer lol

Love to make me a walk. It has worked very well for me. Kill deer and hogs regularly when "walking"

Tried still hunting a few times while rifling. Not for me; too impatient and I walk way too fast.

-Ken

Just like fishing, I prefer a mountain stream to sitting in a boat.

Most walk way too fast, especially in downed timber. Most of the deer I have killed have been while "still hunting", most of the elk sitting still. I can sit in the same place from well before dawn until dark. Of course you have to sit in the "right" place. Most of the area I hunt in, I have been hunting for years. They come out in the same openings now, as they did 20-30-40 years ago.

I did when I was younger, not much anymore

Yep. Killed this buck last year while I was still hunting into the wind. I had just gotten into the woods and had covered 10 yards in maybe 10 minutes when he stood up and was looking for something he heard.

Killed this one doing the same although I had made it past him about 50 yards when I heard something walking behind me, turned around and he was headed South on a trail I had crossed earlier.

No telling how many deer have done that on other still hunts that were never seen.

because of all the Timber Wolves here in Northern Minnesota still hunting doesn`t seem to work to well the whitetail bucks up here are very nervous because of Wolves.

One of my favorite ways to hunt. Thankful to have good public land I can safely do that on.

-looks like a she to me...

I do a lot of both, but greatly prefer still hunting. I bump a lot of deer, but I kill a lot that way too.

In big sky country, glassing and spot and stalk are the ticket. In forested environments and with elk, still hunting either level or down hill has given me good results. Seems that when still hunting and moving upslope, they always see me first.

I like to occasionally grab a rifle and go for a wander on local properties, not really caring to shoot anything so much as just getting out of town and unwinding at my pace.

Boards are too expensive to get right now, and if I had any woods I wouldn't be throing them anywhere, I'd be selling them.

Yep. Killed this buck last year while I was still hunting into the wind. I had just gotten into the woods and had covered 10 yards in maybe 10 minutes when he stood up and was looking for something he heard.



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I used to HAVE TO hunt from stands, leases & too many hunters.

I haven't been IN a stand or box blind, or hanging tree stand since 2011. I don't miss it.

If you're walking thru the woods you're not still hunting.


Jerry

Button buck.

Get and read a copy of "The Still Hunter" by Van Dyke.

Some real nuggets in that book.

Been still hunting for 50 years now. Still my preferred method. I have taken deer from stands but don’t get the same sense of satisfaction I get from still hunting. To me still hunting is not a method it is HUNTING. I have several rifles that are my still hunting specialized, one is a remington model 14 in 30 rem made in 1920. Another is my pride and joy a Mannlicher Schoenauer model 1905 in 9x 56 made in 1921. Funny how the older model guns are perfectly proportioned and set up for still hunting. Good luck this year gentleman.

the Still hunting Bible

Anyone who claims to be a still hunter either read it - or will learn a HUGE amount from this book.

It’s in it’ s5 or 6th publishing… the guy lived from 1800 - 1923….

the guy lived from 1800 - 1923….

Pretty old dude. No wonder he was so good at still hunting! 😊

Yep. He hunted more than most people would've in two lifetimes.

Started my still hunting education 58 years ago following dad and grandpa when I was 6yo. Because of this thread, I just ordered a hard cover copy of Van Dyke's book, to see if I've been doing it right.

We have mulies here. I've never sat in a stand. This is open country where you can sit and glass a long ways. Then move fairly quickly to another good glassing point.
Many hunters never turn around. I've spotted a number of deer and a few elk by looking back where I'd been and saw animals that I hadn't seen or spooked.
Keep your eyes on high ridges. The big bucks like to hang out way up high. If you see one, get out of sight fast and hope he didn't see you. If they see you at even a half mile, they're gone.

It's bored not board.

Thanks for the reminder. I just pulled my copy out and started back in.

I love to still hunt, where I can. A lot of the bigger woods I used to still hunt have been clear cut at some point these days, and you just can’t still hunt worth a crap when you have to crawl through briars and can’t see 5’. Have to stand hunt the trails, clearings, and fields mostly. The deer love the thick, new growth, though. Southern deer get super stupid in a hard snow storm, it’s always seemed. From my school age years to today, if it starts snowing hard, I love to still hunt. Often just take a shotgun or something with open sights.

Just ordered a copy.

Creeping along is almost as bad as sitting all day for me...I just go for a walk and try to be relatively quiet and to pay attention. See them before they see me and have caught a few in their bed, not knowing I was there. In Pa it is a rare day one can sneak along in almost complete quiet. I've bounced more than a few out of their bed and finished it before they ran off. Most of the times they escape, but others they just stand up and look...or run off a bit and make the mistake of looking back in the wrong place.

If I had my preference, I would hunt with a Bird Dog quartering in front of me. Have seen some nice Deer just standing there looking at and wondering what the Dog is all about and ignoring me.

Only problem is that you need some big acreage to roam..Wandering around the same 100 acres all day doesn't work all that well...

Windy or a light rain is a fine day to go for a walk.

Caught this one while walking-both of us-on a snowy windy day...He had no idea and eventually passed within 30 yards of me..Not a shooter...




Walking a ridge and looking over...caught him feeding maybe 30 yards away..He never knew...





Walking and looking over....Doe bedded...I watched and waited, hoping a Buck would come along. Finally gave up and she was still there...




An out of season walk...He thought it would be safe to just stay there...It would have been a mistake...

Sometimes you catch something moving.....before it knows you are there.



And if you are patient....

Nice pics Battue!

a 'newer' book on hunting whitetails is ; 'shots at whitetails' by larry koller. published in 1948.

In stuff like this, it's amazing how much a good pair of binocs can help. They allow you to focus beyond the 1st layer of brush and see considerably deeper into it.

They have a place if one is scanning cover. However, in this case I was walking the other side of the ravine, around 75 yards away, and visually picked up the Deer slowly coming down. Then sat and used the binos. Didn’t see any others, so took the pics.

If they are not pressured hard, our Deer here are not always on high alert...Caught this one out in the open right before Deer season with a Dog working in front. He hung around long enough to take a few pics before he said enough.





Saw these from a long way off and eventually did a belly crawl thru the grass to find out it was not a Buck...



Another walk about..being quiet but not moving at a snail pace. I stopped and he got up and tried put it together..Not legal, so took a pic..



Another walk while heading to the car at the end of a day Grouse hunting with the Dog...They could have cared less...

The results of two walking with a plan....

Not as well known, but also excellent are “Whitetail, Fundamentals and Fine Points for the Hunter”, by George Mattis, and “The Deer Hunter’s Guide”, by Francis E. Sell.