Just curious who still does it. I’m fortunate to Lunt in an area where there are large tracts of federal,state and, corporate land open to the public. I can go for miles on a track and never see a boot print or other human sign. I do a mix of hunting styles depending on snow cover,sign and weather. And, if my ass is really wore out I just might sit for a minute or two. Typical day on which is November 15 th here in Michigan I usually go to known areas that have good sign and go above 12-15 miles that day. If I have good snow I’ll cut a good track and run it. If the snow is light and old it’s a bit tougher but I’ll still run a track. No snow? Well that is where still hunting plays in and I might sit on the side of a ridge during prime time overlooking a good looking area with sign. If I come up on a cut while looking for a good track I’ll glass it for a while and if I happen to see a shooter then the stalking game is on. Sometimes this ends in a situation of just getting in a good position for a shot or it can turn into a track if the buck moves on. This is my preferred way of hunting and rarely sit. Again if I’m whooped from the day I’ll slow up at the end of day and bust out my portable hammock chair I carry in my pack. Or if I’m sitting on a tag at the end of the season I’ll blast a doe from a blind to fill the larder.

Who else does it old school and how?

Good way to get shot in the Southeast. We climb trees for reasons. I don't even chamber a round until I get settled.

We still hunt that way in Adirondacks Brinky and even a little in our area if we have snow and can hunt the larger pieces Of state owned land. One of our favorite ways to get on deer. We hunt from stands as well. Pretty much equal opportunity hunters mostly.

Not many stands out west, spot and stalk is how we hunt.

Spot and stalk or still hunt. Is there any other way to actually hunt?

Any more mine is spot and stalk. 20 years ago when I was still doing some hunting in Pa. and WVa. I killed a lot of deer still hunting..

Public land in the SE I won't still hunt, too many itching to pull the trigger. On private land I like to still hunt. If it's a smaller property sit against a tree for a bit then still hunt to another area and find another place to sit. Bigger pieces just slow go it all day. Knowing the movement patterns helps and you can learn a lot while moving around. Just don't forget about the wind.

Still hunting/calling timber gives me a giant hard on. I love it. Probably why my average shot is about 30 yds. I creep through steeper old growth focusing on benches that are intertwined with centuries old trails and beds.

Also love the adrenaline rush of sneaking closer. Yesterday I spotted a buck on the beach. Did the quick deploy with the packraft about 200 yds down the beach. Could have killed it at 200 but crept within 20 yards. Lost sight of it. Hit the call and the buck and two does came flying at me out of the timber. So much fun.

Still hunting is my absolute favorite way to hunt... cut a track, and creep along, glassing constantly. Some of my favorite hunting memories have come from this method.

Spot and stalk is different... that's seeing/locating an animal and trying to get close.

Still hunting is cutting a track, and following it while trying to figure out in the process what exactly you're tracking.

For me the ultimate hunting is still hunting a north woods whitetail buck or mountain bull elk...

I track exclusively once we have any snow & will get tags for surrounding states and watch their weather too. Really tried to like tree stands but for me they are my least favorite - nearly undesirable way to hunt. I’ve been a back country backpack hunter for my whole life so the contraptions seem unnatural plus cold as hell.

Well said POC... Couldn't agree more!

This year was my first to hunt deer with a decoy. A cow. This on a flatazz 8000 acre ranch in far north Texas. I did enjoy the failed sneaks and, in the end, it proved effective. Just different.

Thats a dang nice buck!!!

Damn nice deer big Ed 👍

I prefer to “hunt” as well .

I use spot and stalk due to the numerous openings I can glass. I much prefer a small group of elk - maybe 12 or so. Two scenarios usually unfold. They are either feeding and moving or just feeding and lying down. Playing the wind and visuals is quite enjoyable. If they move off into the timber before I can get there, I setup for their evening feeding as they usually will retrace their steps. Good luck.

One of my preferred methods is to still hunt in a light drizzle or with an inch or two of snow, Sneeking down game paths and old skid trails.

For deer hunting in such beautiful weather in the back 80, I dawn my wool bibs, wool cruiser and my filson tin cloth packer hat.

Woolrich don't do wool bibs no more. I wore out two pairs in 33 years of hunting. Big Bill now are the bibs, liked Woolrich pockets better. Just glad Canada still realizes wool bibs are needed...

Knife, and minimal stuffs al fit in pockets. Lean, light, quiet. Most Shots well under 100 yards. Its more of a style or an 'art' gramps had told me.. Much like generations before me, it's a timeless very rewarding act.

never seen that. How does a cow decoy work?

Deer are so used to seeing cows that they don't pay any attention to them or consider them a threat.

I've thought that in rural Nebraska the cutout of a pickup truck would provide good cover. Pickups are parked everywhere during harvest and post-harvest field work, so deer have been seeing them for weeks and one that isn't moving isn't a threat.

Still Hunt

Spot and stalk

On rare cases stand hunting.

Often combining all of the above on any given day.

Whatever works on the ground I’m hunting in. We hunt thick timber, open poplar woods, flat wide open grain fields, badland coulees and pretty much everything in between.

Tree stands are my least favourite way of hunting even for bow hunting and have spent the least amount of my hunting time in them.

I never got it done by still hunting. It is likely cause it is so thick where I hunt. I hunt cattail marshes and high grass with mixed trees that have dead ash trees fallen all over. This is why I use climbers and sit for a few hours at a time. It is not as fun and like one poster said it is cold as hell. I do however get on a track and follow it but they always have me beat. I may be walking too fast.

I normally hunt PA and/or NE OH. I do a slow walk stopping quite often. Unfortunately my back bothers me more now that I'm older and is affecting my legs more. Starting not to be able to go as far as I would like. Walked up many a deer that way.

I love tracking and still hunting. Once you get on a track you can learn what a deer is doing. I had one that would always go through a thicket and circle around to the left and come out behind me after the third time we hit a thicket and instead of following through I circled left on the way in and stood there waiting for him to walk to me.. I was on that track for most of the day shooting him at last light. It took me hours in the dark to drag him out to a trail.

I have never been good at tracking, there are enough deer in the Black Hills that tracks get awful cluttered. Have not had much success.

I like still hunting, but normally it involves going from rattling location to rattling location. Or sitting for awhile, then moving to another location to sit. Have never put on 10-15 miles going after deer. Have done it many times covering ground while bowhunting elk.

Spot and stalk and is my preferred method.
I have not sat in a treestand for many years, easily close to 15.
I do not mind ground blinds, and that is how I hunt deer with my traditional bows

I like trucks, one of the best ground blinds ever made. Contain scent and do not leave a bunch of human scent on the ground contaminating the area.

We are lucky I guess. Those guys in the east hunt from stands. I love to be out there still hunting, tracking and reading sign. I don't just get on a track though, sometimes you have to try to anticipate where they are going and then get there before they do. That all depends on the time of day though. Elk always watch their backtrack so you can't just get on a track and follow it... No other way for me..

I could never stand just sitting in a blind. I have to be out there on foot. This year my partner and I spotted 9 elk from about 1.5 miles away and we watched them bed down in a shallow draw. We drove about 1/2 mile on a road to get the wind right and then hiked about 1.25 miles to get to them. We knew exactly where they were and walked right into them. We both got our cows.

Yes, you are lucky. I would have loved to have spent my deer hunting life tracking, still hunting, or stalking. However, conditions in the South don't allow it. Flat, too much underbrush, and ground covered with woody debris all combine to make silent movement, however slow, impossible. Some very local exceptions may exist, but I haven't seen them in person.

By the way, most southerners misuse the term still hunt. They really mean "stand hunt". It's been my understanding that to still hunt means to move so slowly as to appear to be still.

Still hunting in the classic sense around here is practically impossible. I’ve done it on occasion but only in larger creek bottoms. Even there a foot of sycamore, oak and other hardwood leaves makes it really tough unless it’s after a rain or pretty windy.
Most hunting land is owned by paper companies and consists of pine plantations at varying stages of growth. Cutovers where you can see hundreds of yards but covered with logging debris or saplings so thick you can’t see ten yards. Oh, and no snow.
Food plots, shooting houses and tree stands are the way to go.
Do a search for NAS Meridian, ms on googel earth or your favorite app with aerial photos. Then go about 3-4 miles WNW and check out the timber. Still hunting ain’t happening there.

Glass, spot and stalk. Pack the meat out on my back. That is how I was taught to hut and that is how I hunt. Personally I HATE sitting in a blind if there is another way to hunt. I'll do it, but that is my least favorite way to hunt.

Still hunting and spot and stalk are the only ways I hunted until a few years ago, plus tracking for some of the African stuff. Age caught up with me and Texas box blinds started looking more and more attractive.

The OP posted in General Game, yet talked about old school tactic he uses on Whitetail deer. On Whitetail deer I do very little of what he outlined as "old school". Hunting Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan private land I spend a lot of time studying terrain, feed and bedding areas, then sit on the ground, stump, log, bucket or set up a ground blind or ladder stand.

If there is enough hunters available, conduct deer drives. To me, while hunting Whitetail deer, the most exhilarating experience is being on stand and knowing there are 10-20 drivers moving toward you.

A whole lot of mining activity...Both past and present around here. The woods are criscrossed with old overgrown mining and logging roads.

I just can't stand to sit in one place too long. I'm always wondering what might be right over that next rise or on the other side of that thicket.

I generally just park my vehicle down low....near the creek or railroad tracks and start sneaking along some of those old roads. Always hunting uphill and into the wind.

Sometimes it works out, Most of the time it don't but when I do kill one, I have a downhill drag.

One other thing, I'm only 52 years old but dragging deer is getting tougher each and every year so I have been holding out for the smaller ones. Got me a trophy doe a week and a half ago.....Got tenderloins, backstraps , 2 roasts and 17 pounds of burger out of her....Very easy to drag.

In Oregon we have lots of public land. In my estimation about 5% of tag holders are hunters who wear out boots. The other 95% wear out tires.

Why drag?

Some states require deer to be brought into the check station whole.. field dressing ok.

Years ago we would hang them in a tree near the kill sight and the last day of the season the whole camp would spend the day dragging them in.

Still hunting, spot-and-stalk, tracking, stand hunting, calling, drive hunting; I adapt to the conditions, terrain, and game behaviour. I’m not attached to any one method of hunting (though truck hunting is the least enjoyable, IMO).

As a rancher friend said to me once after helping me get a backcountry bull out; for me anymore, a hardship hunt is manual windows!

LOL

HA! Now that is a good one!

I like walking and stalking, but don’t hunt anywhere open enough to do that.

Depends on where you are. If you have a small plot of land or there are allot of hunters in the area then still hunting. If you have room to roam and you don't have to worry about being shot and the conditions are right, spot and stalk all the way. I love spot and stalk hunting in the rain. I have killed numerous deer that way including a wall hanger.

I have never done it that wat for deer but, I do it that way each summer for G-hogs. I use a 22 mag rifle and pistol. I love to stalk them my max distance for a shot is 100 yards. I can often get much closer. I have killed one g-hog at 3yards with a Ruger single six. Getting closer makes me work for my shots and it is exciting. I think stalking them makes me a better hunter and the results are way more rewarding. The investment in effort is well worth the reward!

I have also run into several Southerners who call still-hunting "stalking."

I haven't still hunted in several years. When there was a light rain I loved doing it.

This is great fun and a real challenge. I do the same with a .22 mag in either a rifle or single six. "Woodchucks" aren't easy to sneak up on!

I love still hunting for deer and try to do it whenever conditions are right. Tracking just isn't practical here and stand hunting is really a must for archery.

That is funny!

Similarly, I had an older friend named Warren who had the ability to book numerous guided hunts all over the west. We (our little band of hardcore hunting geeks) used to tease him about the last thing a particular bull, buck etc heard was the sound of his power window going down. His response was that it stopped them in their tracks every time lol.

He always tagged out earlier than everyone else.

Warren cooked a lot.

Warren. Cool guy & miss him.

That’s pretty funny.

Yep. Agreed.

I don’t see myself hunting any other way until I’m too old and feeble that I can’t physically do it anymore. At that point I’ll likely off load my guns and buy bird feeders so I can sit in front of the picture window and watch them from the lazy boy like an invalid.

Lord I hope that day doesn’t arrive for any of us but if it does, you’ll find me feeding my pot off that bird feeder with my old Sheridan .20 till the reaper calls my name.

Same here, albeit without stands.

Deer density in the Adirondacks is so low the chance a buck wanders past a stand is skin to winning the lottery.

Yeah. I wouldn’t wanna take that bet on when a buck wanders past.

I don’t have anything against those who stand hunt but it just isn’t for me. What does get me is those that think that they own the area because they put up a stand and dropped a bag of apples on the ground. Then they think that all trackers do is scare everything out of the area and only connect with a deer by sheer luck. I’ve literally back tracked my tracks before to find deer browsing on grass in my boot tracks. So much for scent control. Best part is that there is no such thing as a nocturnal track. If the buck I’m tracking is sleeping all day and not moving until night that means I’m gaining on him.

Ain't that the truth....

Best part is when I hear everyone bitching about deer going “nocturnal” after opening day I just smile and say “there’s no such thing as a nocturnal track.” And when I get a decent buck I could care less if anyone knows where I got it. I hunt all over and It’s simply dictated by where I cut a good track. I could be tracking a good buck thirty miles away from where I was the day before. I go where there’s snow and few or no wolves.

Off topic but do any of you belong to or know anything about BHA Backwoods Hunting and Angling. Heard about it on a podcast.

Reminds me of the stories my dad would tell about when my grandfather would be laid off from the mine back in the late 40’s and early 50’s. My dad and uncle would take the family car and put it on the railroad tracks, adjust the idle just right and would sit on the hood and knock over a deer or two to feed the family. My dad ran the Savage 99, 250-3000 and my uncle had a Lafever 16 ga side by side with slugs.

If you're a commie, they would be perfect for you.

Do share. All I heard was that they were for “public access” and working for getting more accessibility. I’m sure there’s more to it. I did see the thread on corner crossing and some things about BHA after I posted this. Are there any trustworthy organizations for hunters doing anything for public access and public lands that aren’t a bunch of shisters? The closer I get to freedom/retirement the more I’m looking into public access and public lands across the country. Just looking for solid information on who’s on the up and up and who to avoid. Hunting, fishing and public lands and access are what mean the most to me and always have. Sifting through the bullshit is always a pain.

I used to still hunt a lot when I was younger. I liked to do it on rainy days and windy afternoons. I did it in thick woods and have shot deer at less than 20 yards walking. It requires patience to do it well. You have to hunt hard with your eyes seeing everything before you move and moving slowly enough and moving the right way. So you spot them before they see you.

90% of the time when I try to hunt from a stand, I fall asleep or get bored and start fidgeting. I still-hunted exclusively for close to 30 years but now I'm learning to enjoy spot-and-stalk.


Okie John

Yeah, successful still hunting definitely requires more skill than some other forms of hunting.

That's pretty neat. I never would have thought that'd work.

In my experience still hunting in the southeast isn't productive due to being so thick. Mainly speaking of public land, seems the wind blows 360* anywhere within 30 miles of the Gulf of Mexico, which is where I lived most of my adult life.
Find an area with a lot of sign, climb a tree on the edge of the thick stuff and wait it out. Also deer/hogs DO go nocturnal especially during warmish hunting seasons. Oddly from what I've seen on Game Cams they often don't move until well after dark, > midnight too 3-4am is their moving around time near coastal areas.

Now in northcentral Arkansas mature hardwoods hunting is tough, 3 game cams out last year, VERY FEW deer. Sylamore WMA.
There are roads cut through the woods every quarter mile, lads cruise the place in their trucks for something to do.
The place is heavily Trapped which is good for the deer herd, although very few coyotes to hunt. I've always been able to call coyotes/etc.. Called many days calling last year daylight to dark never heard or saw a single critter other than hawk/owl.

Brinky72,

Howdy.

Don't know of any groups doing what you ask about, sounds like you need one of the modern map apps for hunting/fishing public land on a phone or GPS.
Something definitely needs to be done about landlocked public land that can't be accessed.

Same here.

I've been lucky enough to chase whitetails in a bunch of different states and provinces.
What works in some is a recipe for disaster (and tag sandwich) in others.

Funny you mention the map app. I have OnX and found out that it’s not so current and accurate. I was looking at a parcel of land for sale and asked the neighbor about it come in find out he had bought it. Ten years ago. OnX showed a different owner and the realtor dropped a pin a half mile off.

Still hunting mostly ... my preference. Natural blinds .. sit in a pocket in the brush to break up my silhouette and see what walks by. Very rarely spot and stalk.

We do a little of just about everything here 'cept tree stands. I've seen 2 in 50 years. One was pretty nice, the other was a home-made wooden death trap, a plank platform probably 30, maybe 40 feet above ground in a triangle of 3 firs. The ladder two it was made of 2 small fir trees sawed down with pieces of branch nailed between them. I know who built it .. despite the shoddy condition they were using it every year. Seems like one of those situations where you need a safety rope tied 'round your neck so you can't fall clear to the ground. The nice one .. I'd been running trail cams there for 2 winters before I saw it. Almost left the owner a note to watch his back 'cause there were a pair of cougars I was getting on my cameras fairly frequently. Probably should have.

I cut my teeth in Illinois hunting from a blind on the edges of corn fields. I live in western Oregon now doing spot and stalk and still hunting. Tough hunting out here but I love it. I only hunt national forest and BLM now.

Buckin brush will net bucks, but gettin high and glassing 5-6 year old clearcuts will produce more bucks for ya. 👍

The mention of old school and still hunting takes me back to my most memorable hunt. Technically, I was still hunting when I spotted him and then spent most of the day trying to get from 1/2 mile to 150 yds in open timber to be able to lob a 540 grain cast bullet loaded over blackpowder in this 45-70. Nearly 100% of my hunting is still hunting...

Nice buck
Is the Ballard an original?

Thanks - it's a Cody repro from the late 1990's...

Excellent! I used to shoot with those folks.

Outstanding accomplishment! Quite a buck taken with quite a rifle. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the kind words - it's the best buck I've taken and the rifle/load is what makes it very special to me. My wife's not fond of critters on the wall, but I won that one

Looks great! Congratulations!

Apart from the snow, that is the way all Aussies hunt. Never saw or heard of a tree stand there and the country is too big to sit still, so never enters the mind. The only time we may sit and seek is when deer hunting in thicker scrub where movement is the best tip in the bush. Deer only make up a small part of the hunting and kills taken there.

The other thing is, Aussie's call everything out of the city "the bush" even if its barren open land is still "up the bush".

When I first bought my 200 acre farm in GA (have since sold it), I enjoyed spot and stalk as I could never do that on leased land, mostly out of consideration of other hunters, I saw lots of flags but rarely shot anything while on foot. Once I got serious and settled into stands and waited them out, I started seeing and killing the kind of bucks that were typical for the area. We just don't have the open space in the south to do much glassing and stalking.

Thats some seriously flat country. Good on ya for working it the best you can with a cow decoy!

years ago i quit rifle hunting because it was just to dangrous to get out of the truck opening day was a war zone i started bow hunting because i loved sneaking around the woods and river bottoms..no time for archery any more but seems no one hunts any more just a few old guys and they usually just set in the truck and drink coffee so for the last 10 years i have had great sucess with a rifle in the woods