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

I don't remember where I read this little rhyme but I always liked it.
"Don't tell me how far you shot, brag about how close you got".

In the East you would have a better chance of finding gold than always still hunting into the wind. It just doesn't work that way.

Still hunting: taking a walk with a rifle/bow and seeing game before it knows you are there. Quiet is good, but sometimes it surprises me how much noise you can make and still win the game. There is a time to move like a Turtle and there is a time to cover ground.

Stuff you read today also gives me pause. Like never invade their bedding area. Sometimes you catch them and most times you don't, but they usually don't go that far and that place will always be their nest. They will return. Tomorrow is a new day. Go back in with what you have learned.

I've found one of the best times to sit is after you have bounced them out. Or make a big loop and try to get to the front. For the most part they will be within a 100 yards if you are in the wood. And now they are moving, which is to your advantage. Moved many pickups of Deer and it doesn't take them all that long to forget about what happened 30 minutes ago.

Addition: have always wondered about the number of Bucks I have still hunted past, within easy rifle range that I just missed seeing.

Noise doesn't matter to me, most especially 'natural noises' not blowing a tuba.

Deer seeing me, doesn't bother either. Deer scenting me though, that bothers me.

I've killed more than a few deer I'm bumped, simply because the wind was favorable. I'm talking about deer I've jumped that made a hop or 3 out of sight, a few snorts etc etc.

Just because you jump them, doesn't mean much. It happens to them all the time. I truly believe they don't fully trust their eyes/ears.

So long as the wind is right, I'm happy to jump deer.

I

Most quit and try to find another standing broadside when they move them out.

I have shot north of 40 deer out of stands, some I hunt with have shot north of 75, I just don't shoot as many as some I hunt with. My family does eat venison year round.

Pretty much stand morning and evening. Amount of land permitting, rest of the day I'm moving from stand to stand.

Addition: deer can be the most patient of creatures, but like people every so often they like to move around and stretch their legs. Perhaps like us, they get bored of looking at the same set of trees. I think they like to go for a walk the same as us.

I consider it game on once I bump one.

It came to me after moving from AK to FL. It was my first go at whitetail and everyone said you needed to hunt from a stand, so I did.

I hated it and one morning while sitting in the stand I said 'Screw this' and went out looking.

I bumped into a buck and doe together. Off they went, snorting. I immediately blew my deer call and waited for a few. Sure enough, the doe came back to me. The buck was in tow but I didn't see him and he snorted and off they went again.

I made a little circle, blew my call and waited again. I saw the buck start to move in on me and killed him.

I've had many like situations since. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it works enough to know that wind matters.

No doubt it is better to have the wind in your favor.

However, unless it is a steady drift and the ground is level, I'm not sure what I feel is always what they smell.

Addition: wind at my back, hill and Deer in front. Either on the hill to the front or on a side.
Wind hits hill. Does it go up, right or left. I don't know and sometimes the Deer is screwed.

I'm no great Deer hunter. I just try and walk around long enough in the right places until we eventually cross paths.

One of the points I made in the article is the difference between stalking animals that don't know you're there, and those you've "bumped."

When bumped, they ALL go a ways, then stop and watch their backtrail to see if anything's following. But how far they go depends on the animal, terrain and hunting pressure.

Whitetails in average cover usually don't go all that far, but I have also hunted whitetails considerably on the high plains: They're the same animal, but they go a lot farther when jumped, because they feel the need to get someplace they feel relatively secure before stopping to look back. I've watched a buck run close to a mile before finding another brushy draw where he felt safe enough to stop. In typical woods they might not even go 100 yards before stopping.

I've hunted whitetails in at least 17 states and provinces from Old Mexico to Alberta and Quebec down to Alabama. (There may have been more places, but that's what I can remember off the top of my head.) The hunting has been both on private and public land, and guided and unguided. The most interesting thing is that everywhere they're the same animal, with the same defenses and habits. It's just the terrain, vegetation and hunting pressure that changes.

Steelhead

What kind of deer call do you like?

Did you use the same call for whitetails as you did the Sitka blacktails?

Yes and no.

In the 'story' above I used a grunt tube, which I didn't use in Alaska.

I do use deer bleat call, which I did use in Alaska. I have several different ones, some made there locally. The one I do use that you can get is the Faulks D50.

Another example, last year when hunting in KY for a few days, every time I blew the D50 I'd see a deer within a few minutes.

Coincidence? I don't know, I just know what I saw and what I've seen before.

My last morning there I jumped a doe, then immediately blew my D50. I then got into the stand (which was literally 10 feet from where I jumped the doe) and blew the D50 2 more times. A few minutes later an 8 point came in off my starboard side and I killed him.

Dad always said that a good still-hunt turned into a stalk. A good stalk turned into work.

Thanks

Pretty interesting.

I have used the grunt calls with good effect but never played with the bleat calls. Think I'll give one a try.

To my mind what I'm trying to do is make the deer think I'm an ugly deer. When I jump one I will immediately blow a call. I'm hoping they think 'Hey, was that another deer and I'm just overly paranoid again from too many soybeans?'

Not invading bedding areas is for bow hunters and stand hunters who depend on undisturbed movement;or outfitters who don't want disturbed deer or lost hunters. Good strategy in the midwest with small woodlots, but in big woods you die on stand before you see a buck doing that.

In big woods, I want to know where they bed,and with snow will make a swing around to see if a buck has moved in over night. He may have cleaved off a hot doe and herded her someplace where he can breed her without competition.Now he's vulnerable, and if I see that situation,I get very aggressive.I have killed them when they knew I was around but thought they had given me the slip.

Explain this to many mid western bow hunters or people used to stand hunting they will think you're nuts.

Even a buck that is alone, knows you are there,may never have been tracked,and will swing downwind on his back track,watching for you, in range. When I see the track starts to swing,time to make a move.

Like Steelhead said this stuff does not always work but then neither does stand hunting....and it's a lot more fun.

With mule deer I will frequently move into bedding areas and have killed a lot of bucks doing that. Big ones ,too that I am convinced I would never have seen otherwise. The evasive tactics of a big mule deer in open country will leave you sort of dumbfounded.

fwiw as to them not trusting eyes/ears...I don't know

For us, when we are on snow, with room to roam, tracking a particular animal and you jump him, you can get seconds if you stay on them--which may take hours....or more. Thinking maybe: they get to a point that they have things to do and are sick of you on their butt, they may want to weigh just how much of a threat you really are, or they need to lay down and chew their cud. Winding you extends the tracking time, but you still can get a look-see if persistent and have the time and room to follow.

Have heard from a couple different old-timers that they would trot after them, to get another shot. That has never appealed to me, no matter how large a track.

Your Ak posts on using a bleet got me to trying them here in Pa. Sat down one morning and after letting things settle down got the call out. Wind was still moving down to the low ground and I was on top.

Blew a couple bleets and put it away. A little later looked behind me and a Buck was on higher ground looking right at me from the other side of some brush. He had to see me me move, but he was sure there was a Doe down there close. In a little while he walked straight down to me all the while obviously looking for another Deer. He would take a few steps then look. Repeated same over and over. Shot him at around 20 yards.

Eyes/ears can be fooled, which is the reason I immediately blow a call. I believe they fully trust their sense of smell.

As with me, there are plenty of times I've said 'I think I heard something', occasionally smell something, but I always trust my eyes.

That along with moving etc is they type of deer hunting I enjoy. Being proactive and making things happen as opposed to sitting in one spot all day reading a book. I can read a book at home.