Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JB Article on Stalking Big Game

JB has a great article on stalking big game in the May-June issue of Successful Hunter. I hunt deer and antelope and sometimes elk in Wyoming each year and his article made me a lot smarter. It is five pages long and typically of John, it contains detailed advice and options for those who want to be better hunters.

Steve

Cool. I should read it. Most of us seem to like to talk about buying or building better rifles, scopes and loads/ammo, and not so much about how to be better hunters.

Guy

Someone feel free to come down to SC and teach me how to stalk these deer.

ringworm,

The examples JB uses are almost all for western hunting. Like a lot of us Eastern hunters, I've used some stalking for deer hunting in the East. But not very often and not very successfully.
Like most of us in the East, I hunt from a stand and let the deer come to me.

But I would be glad to come down to SC and help out with your deer population!

Steve

ringworm,

The article is indeed mostly about Western hunting, because that's where more open terrain lends itself to stalking--which means spotting animals at a distance and then sneaking closer for a shot, whether because of distance or cover.

Whitetails tend to live in terrain and cover that doesn't lend itself to stalking, but as I state in the article, it's certainly possible to stalk them, given the correct terrain and conditions, and can even be the best way to hunt whitetails in some areas. I've successfully stalked whitetails in several states (not all west of the Mississippi), a couple of Canadian provinces, and Old Mexico, so know something about it.

But if conditions aren't right for stalking, then it makes far more sense to use another method, no matter the animal. It makes little sense, for instance, to sit in a stand when hunting some species. I could also suggest, "Someone feel free to come out to Montana and teach me how to put up a stand for black bear." Especially since we can't bait bears here. Though I do also know something about finding a place to sit and glass for black bears.

But the article isn't about choosing the best method for hunting different species in different areas. It's specifically about stalking big game when that's the most effective method to use--and also about how so few big game hunters know how to do it anymore, partly because so many rarely hunt from anything except a stand.

Right on, JB, guess I'll have to buy a copy.

I grew up hunting whitetails in hardwoods back east, tough to sneak up on them there but it can be done. You get conditioned to hunt by letting them come to you.

The hardest thing for me to adjust to when I moved out west was the whole idea that sneaking up on animals was not only not that difficult, but the best way to go. The first year or two, I'd find areas with lots of elk sign and want to sit at a good vantage point and wait for them to come to me. Didn't work very well.

Once I got over my mental block, I did a lot better.

On the other hand, I've also known several Western hunters who didn't believe anybody could stalk any sort of big game except from a pickup, known in some circles as "the old F250 sneak"....

You must run in better circles...we always referred to it as the F150 sneak......

Naw, just mostly ranchers who could actually use a little heavier-duty pickup.

You can tell the really high-class hunters because they call it "the Escalade stalk."

Haven't heard that one in my circles. But I did use a red Dodge Dakota as a blind once.....

I'd eat a bullet if the only way I was allowed to hunt was in a stand.

I hunted this year for a few days from a stand for the first time in 20 years or so and remembered why I hate the frigging things. No mobility. Sometimes being able to move 3 feet is the difference between a shot and no shot.

Stalking deer in the hard hunted east is a tough one.. Have managed it a some... Now with the amount of tree houses, it is even more difficult.. But a very satisfying way to hunt.. About 50 years ago, I had one neighbor who was deadly in the art of stalking whitetails.. Rumor was he had been a sniper in WW2. Dick often killed his annual buck stalking and tracking.. He shot several whitetail bucks in their beds..

I think I've killed less than a half dozen walking. Just not feasible here.

Did he stalk or still-hunt? In some parts of the country the two terms are used interchangeably.

The kind of stalking I discussed is first spotting game, and then sneaking up to get a shot. Some people call it "spot-and-stalk."

Still-hunting is moving quietly through cover until game is spotted, but that point its usually in range, or at most requires a few careful steps to get a clear shot. In the South I have also heard it called "slip-hunting."

I stalked this deer in Florida. First spotted him bedded in a grass field about 450 yards away.

Got on my belly and crawled till I was 240 yards from him (that took an hour). I had to lay there for 1 1/2 hours till he stood from his bed.

Great article! I like the way it starts by referring to youths stalking small game with an iron sighted .22. BTDT.... Then there's stalking woodchucks with said .22's. My dad did all his woodchuck hunting pre-WWII with a Mod. 67 Winchester .22. Had to get to about 50 yds. or less for a head shot that would anchor them right there. It wasn't until a few years AFTER I bought my first centerfire varmint rifle that I started using the .22 LR and stalking techniques in sort of a "retro", "old school" approach to culling woodchucks based on the stories I heard growing up. Even used my dad's old Mod. 67 among other things. That's when I got interested in stalking bigger stuff, like deer. It can sometimes be done but you had better not move very often or very fast; and note the wind direction. Made my first antelope hunt in 2003. That was my first time stalking in wide open spaces. It was exciting!! I even brought along knee pads; It's amazing how good those antelope are in the eyesight department. Never shot one using my daypack as a rest though; always went with the short Harris bipods. I've filled 3 antelope tags in my life; every one prone off the bipods after a long stalk. But I had a guide laying next to me each time so all I had to do was tilt the rifle sideways so he could reach out and deploy them for me.

Nice buck, especially for Florida!

Yep, if you can spot whitetails in open country, it's certainly possible to stalk them. I've even done it on a herd of deer grazing in the open, by pushing a daypack ahead of me, slowly, while crawling behind it. I dunno what they thought it was, but it sure didn't look human--and one of the deer didn't survive the experience.

I've probably stalked more turkeys than I have deer in my lifetime. I have the cow shiet covered clothes to prove that you can put a sneak on them...

Lots of things work with game, like your daypack trick, just that I find too many people are afraid to get outside of their comfort zone.

The worse that will happen is you will not get the critter, not a big deal.

I've always said good things come to those that move.

Yeah, I'm not fond of sitting and waiting either, though I can force myself to do it if it looks like the best plan. Would much rather move, or at least call--or both.

Have also stalked quite a few turkeys, and not just Merriams and Rios but Easterns.

There are opportunities to stalk Whitetails here in farm country where there are small woodlots, CRP ground, water raceways in ag fields and fence rows.

When a deer is spotted entering and not exiting, the stalk is on.

On a couple of occasions I cheated and closed some of the distance with a farm tractor and manure spreader.