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Awesomeness

Still-hunting forest whitetails is the best. Move and look, move and look, sometimes stand at a productive spot with converging trails for what seems the right time. This year's buck and I met at the end of a 2+ hour creep, over less than a half mile, at a special spot I know. There were other deer along the way that never knew I was there. Dry leaves, no snow, public land. It pays to know an area. I do love still-hunting in snow best because it is quiet, you can see deer better, you can track, and a buck slides well on snow, plus it is not so dang hot going up the steep ridges. Most of all, still-hunting is moving, not being riveted to a spot, and committed to only one location. I see and learn so much more.

Fred Bear believed tree stands were unethically used according to what I read?

Well done!!!!

??? You mean like dropping them from helicopters on unsuspecting game? In his Field Noes book, he tells of hunting from an elevated platform several times.

Thanks for that.

I dunno where I read he was against tree stands. It kinda bummed me out.

Battue: I hope this new year finds you and your well, interesting posts and pictures.

Living in Alberta I have access to Whitetail country which is too thick to still hunt, way too sparse (open grain fields with miles between trees that aren’t right next to a house) to still hunt and all points in between.

I prefer hunting on foot over fixed stand hunting but have a found the sneak sit sneak routine to work really well.

One thing I have found in opposition to your experiences is that of snow and whitetail deer. especially in our foothills when we get a heavy snow it seems to snow whitetail. They are up and moving although staying in cover and in my experience the best time to still hunt is during the snowfall. In screaming blizzards they are not out and about, no surprise.

I hope y’all have a good January

GRF

Were I in Texas where every plant bites and scratches, I'd sit. Elsewhere, sit early AM and late PM and still hunt midday.

I use to still hunt a lot but as I get older, I tend to sit more .

It's hard to move around much in CT due to the small pieces of private land most of us hunt on. I typically hunt out of a hang on tree stand but I won't hesitate to get down to make a move on a deer if I can make it happen. I would love to walk in the woods on a snowy morning cut a buck track and stay on it but it's not feasible for the most part when you hit a border within a few hundred yards. I saw a buck a few years ago from my stand in the snow walking off the property but I thought he might bed near a swamp mid-day at the edge of the border further north. I backed out and drove around to the other end of the property and cut his track. A few minutes later I spotted him watching his back trail. Not the biggest buck I've shot but one of the more satisfying considering it was 2 days before the end of the season.



Most public land areas are so crowded I think you're better off sitting up high or on the ground near funnels or edges and let others push the deer around. Sometimes it works out...

I sure don't learn much about my woods just sitting in a stand all day, but I sure do when I go tracking or moving around looking for sign. I've happened into a few deer doing that, but I've also found my best ever stand sites taking a big track to see where they are moving. It usually takes me a couple of hunting seasons to refine my hunting areas as deer do pretty much the same thing each year. People move deer and people and their access points are predictable too. I've watched a deer walk right around a guy walking through and I've pretty much decided that I'm in too much of a hurry and not stealthy enough to catch up to a shootable deer on any kind of regular basis. A man's got to know his limitations. What I need in my big woods is a guy who THINKS that he can sneak up on a deer and I'll get it when it comes past me. Who moves deer around... should be the title of this thread in my not so limited experience.

Love to still hunt.
Had a decent place if one got bored, could get out of stand and still hunt to a diff stand.
Killed a few that way.

Have looped small thickets going slooooow and popped em too.

But nothing great. 100 to 130" bucks

Have only seen one solid B&C doing that, and of course I was bucked out

I'll have to have a couple hunts in me to settle down and still hunt properly.

Bud and I have bumped deer to each other, scent bump they call it. Could kill some doing that but the focus is for the other guy to score.

Works well if one knows the area halfway decent.
May take a good loop to get one positioned to start the bump. Too many just march to the start and think that wont blow em out other ways......small.parcel you gotta think a little cause once you do it, the day is done.

I sure dont wiggle through stuff as well as I used to LOL

Ladder stands at pinch points are pretty comfy.

That's generally how I do it. Sat till 9:am opening day this season and only saw a few does. Started still hunting and killed a buck at 10:15. Done it many times over the years.

I hunt near Hondo and kill deer with no problem in the brush.

I rarely hunt from a stand these days. I move with the wind and as I like to say, no faster than the grass sways. When I’m in the brush I stick to game trails to stay quiet and be able to focus on what’s around me. I’ve learned that the slower I move, the more deer I find. I also key in on vegetation changes. There are several persimmon stands scattered amongst the thickets. Those are good places to slow to a snail’s pace as they tend to have a more open understory with more herbaceous understory on the ground that the deer love feed on.

Sometimes it makes sense to move and sometimes it doesn't. I usually move around by 10 or 11 am. If I sit in a place and while I'm sitting, I see a better vantage point close, I will sneak over to the better spot. I usually hunt on the ground, so it isn't too hard to get mobile.

Once u[on a time there was no one hunting on the neighboring farms, and I could move around without worry of pushing a deer to someone else, or messing someone else's hunt up. I killed a lot deer while still hunting, and it was my favorite way to hunt. Now days the neighboring land has all been bought up and there is someone hunting it, so I can't sneak and hunt anymore like I used to. I still kill deer while stand hunting, and it's the best way to take the grandkids, but I do miss still hunting.

I like when my neighbors are out walking around. Still hunting - slipping around is the #1 way to cause deer to go nocturnal and or leave your hunting property. Animals are not supposed to be able to reason, but I believe whitetail deer especially mature bucks have that ability.