New to posting here but not a new lurker. Curious how many dodgy New Englanders we have roaming these campfire streets? I’m here in VT and burning up the last of my firewood hoping that Winter gets the hint and goes away.

Anyhow hunting: who tracks & who stands? I know we all do a little of each but why do you do what you do?

Renegade is a good tracker. Just avoid being downwind. #CiCi’sPoots
#Shoowee

Hunt the NY/VT boarder. Mostly from a stand since I only own a couple hundred acres. I like to still hunt the most but rarely do since bumping deer off the property is not a wise move. No real tracking opportunities like in the Adirondacks.

Northern Maine here. Mainly a still hunter or tracker if we have snow

I'm in eastern Ct and hunt out of treestands for the most part due to the small parcels of private land I hunt on. If we have snow I'll still hunt and track if I find a good buck track but typically the buck will walk off the property. Last year I was able to track a buck that I saw from my stand into a swamp and shot him in his bed. Pretty rare thing in CT but conditions were right.

When I hunt in northern New England I track when there is snow. If there isn't snow on the ground, I'll over-watch in the early AM and late PM and still-hunt from 9AM to 3PM. I mostly hunt in the Connecticut River valley in the towns of Haverhill, Piermont, Orford, and Lyme on the NH side and the towns of Bradford, Newbury, Ryegate, Barnet, and Waterford on the VT side.

Have stand hunted in Connecticut and Maine mostly. A little still hunting if we have snow up north.

Tracking and still hunting is all I do and enjoy, unless I'm hunting with relatives. Then I sit as long as I can.

Thanks for chiming in fellas! I hunt the Champlain Island area but with the small plots I mostly stand but then when it snows I cross the lake, into the Adirondack area and have pretty much huge woods to roam. I can’t get enough of the Adirondacks & spend as much time as I can over there.

I hunt SE NH and northern Maine. I'm too old and clumsy to track like the Benoits so my deer hunting is generally a combination of sitting, still hunting and tracking. Mostly sitting in NH since I've hunted the same woods for decades so know some pretty good places to sit (on the ground; no more tree stands for me). Northern Maine is mostly still hunting and occasional tracking if conditions are good. I don't expect to walk up on a deer but tracks often lead to good spots to still hunt.

as much as i enjoy still hunting, i find its about impossible to do it right with the wind constantly changing directions in the mountains where i hunt. still rainy days are really the only time i feel like i am not actually driving deer instead of hunting them. never had success tracking in the snow. i've done it, but never shot one doing it.

Just my humble opinion but if you are tracking a deer in the north woods and are worried about wind, you'll be walking in circles. It is what it is and there are times when you are going to have the wind at your back.

Stillhunting is different for sure.

Still hunt without snow, track with it

i agree on the walking in circles. sometimes it seems like the wind is always at my back.

I live in Maine and find myself doing all three depending upon time of day, time of the month (rut, etc.), weather, and presence of other hunters. I find tracking fascinating, tree stands boring, and still hunting tolerable. But then the magic happens and it's all worth it.

Two constants about the wind in Maine -- if you're hunting, it's at your back and if you're canoeing, it's at your face!

Haha here in VT too

I am in NW CT. I have done both in the past when I hunted some farms which had enough room to walk a little bit. But that was then and this is now. I hunt on the ground stands on state land. Relatively speaking I do OK. If I tried to still hunt all that I would succeed in doing is driving the deer to another hunter or outside the boundaries where I can legally hunt. When I have gone to Canada (Anticosti) I love still hunting.

Hunted NH most of my life. Given some fresh snow in norther/central NH (white mountains), I was off and tracking. Dry leaves or southern NH, it was on a stand.Still hunting when bored of sitting

When I hunt in Southern New Hampshire I track when there is snow. If there isn't any snow on the ground, Tree stands in the early AM and late PM and still-hunt during the mid-day. I use 4 stand sites. My trail cameras tell me when the deer move past certain stands. I run the cameras all summer long and into the season.

Ken

If there is snow I track. If there isn't any snow I stillhunt. I have had the most success stillhunting.

And if sittin' around the campfire, it will be swirling.

^^^^^This^^^^^^
But prolly not as much “magic” as @bluefish....