Still Hunting versus stalk hunting

[dverna]

Many of the hunters here that use blinds set up over bait, food plots, or game trails. I do not call that hunting....but that is me. They have propane heaters in the blind, cell phones to play with and some even bring magazines to read.

We also have quite a few road hunters. Illegal but effective.

Of the two dozen or so “hunters” I know, only one is successful still hunting or stalking. He is a hunting fool but very good at it.

Although I do not like sitting in a blind, it is an effective way to hunt and it is comfortable if the weather is nasty. Coupled with baiting, food plots are just bait to me, a kill is almost assured.

[waksupi]

I was always a still hunter, and have killed a lot of game. I am crippled up enough at the time that I didn't even shoot a deer from the front deck this season, afraid I wouldn't be able to tend to it properly without help.

For still hunting, as was stated, go slow, and glass a lot. If you think you are going slow enough, you're still going too fast. I've only been able to teach one person how to do it properly over the years.

[rking22]

Another still hunter here. I love the challenge of getting close and frequently spot and stalk as well. I hunt my farm so no concern of other hunters and I know the land and the critters. Lived and hunted this land all my life. As close as I get to stand hunting is spotting a deer feeding or moving then slipping in ahead of him and taking a "stand" behind some blow down or other natural cover. Now I have been known to slip out and sit in my friends tent blind, but that's generally just to get away from the house for some quiet time. Did have a nice buck commit suicide while I was relaxing in it a few years back

[kens]

OK, I see more clearly now.
What you guys call still hunting, we call stalking, or walking.
for us, still hunting is just that, you are sitting still in a blind or on the ground, not moving.
for us, stand hunting, is hunting from a tree stand or other elevated position, still not moving anywhere.
then there is driving, that is having several hunters walking through the woods to force deer to move towards other hunters at another position on the property
then there is dog hunting, using dogs to chase deer similar to chasing rabbits.
I'm down here in South Georgia, we got a different word for everything.

I hunt on federal land, in Georgia, and that carries its own set of rules:
no baiting, no driving, no shooting at night, no buckshot, no dogs,
food plot is OK, but not laying out corn nor bait nor salt licks
I hunt either from tree stand or ground blind, and get deer either way, tree stand is preferred tho
Seasons change, as does their diet, early bow season (late Sept.) they are on palmetto berries, then muzzleloader season (early Oct.) is live oaks & white oaks, then first part of high power rifle season (mid Oct.) is remaining acorns, late season (Nov.-Jan.) they go nocturnal on the food plots and red oaks

[mart]

Ross Seyfried once wrote a still hunting treatise I consider one of the best I've ever read. It was in successful Hunter back in the early 2000's. I have it but would have to dig for it.

One doesn't need a big tract of land to still hunt effectively and productively. Some of my best still hunts have been over little patches of cover, some barely over an acre. It's surprising how much game is walked past, driven past and otherwise ignored because, "that little patch of brush won't have any ____________ (deer, moose, elk, etc).

One of the most productive spots I had for whitetail does was a thin little band of brush and timber, 100 feet wide and 3/8 of a mile long. My wife and I took a lot of does out of there by still hunting. I never saw anyone else ever hunt that little patch.

Here in Alaska I have a favorite spot close by that gets a lot of four wheeler traffic over the trails that cut through the area. It's a relatively small area, maybe 5 square miles, but I've never seen anyone off their four wheelers boot hunting. The last season I still hunted in there I saw seven bulls and 20+ cows over the course of the season. Unfortunately, none of the bulls were legal but the four wheeler hunters I spoke to all complained of the lack of moose in the area. A lot of the moose I saw were less than 100 yards from the trail but the cover is thick and unless you get out in it you'll never see them.

Back in my timber cruising days I had a sale I had to walk into that was on the far side of a large open meadow. Just a short ways from the road was a little patch of timber and brush, maybe a half acre. I walked close to it one day and spotted antler tips. I switched to still hunter mode and manage to sneak up on a very nice bull, during the season. I backed on out and spent my day cruising the sale. The next several days I found him in there. Some days he would see me and some days not. After a couple of times he didn't run off too far as he seemed to know I wasn't hunting him. He spent the entire season less than 100 yards from a well traveled forest road. I assume he went out at night to feed and water as he looked healthy and fat.

A good binocular is your best friend when still hunting. It will help you peel back the layers of foliage and penetrate the depths of brush. Take two or three quiet steps. Stop. Listen. Look with your eyes. Look with your binocular. Listen. Look again. Repeat as needed. Continue until you've thoroughly covered that patch of habitat or have made your shot.

Still hunting, done correctly, will put you on game no one else will ever see. Don't overlook small patches of cover. It will shock you how often you'll find game tucked in one of those little patches.

[whelenshooter]

it can scare every bit of adrenaline out of both of you when you get within 15' of a bedded buck you didn't see and he suddenly realizes your there when he smells you.

I'd like to experience that...I think.
What about the sun? Wind in the face makes sense but many also stress keeping the sun behind you. I think it'd be hard to keep both of those things going so I assume wind first and the sun positioned correctly if you can get it.

Binoculars no doubt would be a great help.

I plan to hunt with a Ruger blackhawk with iron sights. I killed a doe 15 years ago with a 480 Ruger Super Redhawk from a sitting position at the base of a tree. The shot was all of 18'. That's my only handgun kill. Still hunting plus the handgun ought to be a challenge.


Thanks,
David

[kens]

the problem I have, is that cover is everywhere, as is browse grasses & vegetation, or acorns, or palmetto. in a year of heavy palmetto berries plus acorns, you wont see deer moving, because they can eat an beddown in the same place. nobody here uses glasses/binocs because the cover is as high as their horns. I was successful with what you call your 'still hunting' when I was up in Kentucky, they got a deer behind every tree. Early season down here you might get by with stalking them, but not late season.
cover is so thick down here, the order of the day is .30-30 or .35remington, 7mm-08, 243. I have never shot a deer over 75yds.

[whelenshooter]

Before moving to Tennessee I hunted in Alabama and Mississippi. In both places where I had access to hunt you were either hunting open farm fields or thick woods and briars. In this part of Tennessee I'm hunting two places that are largely mature woods on ridges with scattered small open fields. I think it'd be a perfect place to still hunt.

It's interesting in all my years of hunting I have never killed a deer from a tree stand though I have done that a lot. All my kills have been while sitting on the ground or in a ground blind. Sunday I killed a doe while perched on a pine tree stump in the middle of an oak flat. That shot was about 20 yards. Earlier this year on a depredation permit I killed a doe at about 150 yards over a small field. I may quit hanging off a tree altogether.

David

[FergusonTO35]

I am interested in learning to become a better still hunter. Only taken a couple of deer this way but it sure is fun. My new place has a lot more land but much fewer deer than where I used to live and even if you set up in a place that seems perfect there is no guarantee you'll even see anything. The deer also tend to change their travel patterns a lot. Fortunately there is also much less hunting pressure so deer don't instantly high tail it as soon as they get a whiff of you.

[kens]

Ross Seyfried once wrote a still hunting treatise I consider one of the best I've ever read. It was in successful Hunter back in the early 2000's. I have it but would have to dig for it.

One doesn't need a big tract of land to still hunt effectively and productively. Some of my best still hunts have been over little patches of cover, some barely over an acre. It's surprising how much game is walked past, driven past and otherwise ignored because, "that little patch of brush won't have any ____________ (deer, moose, elk, etc).

One of the most productive spots I had for whitetail does was a thin little band of brush and timber, 100 feet wide and 3/8 of a mile long. My wife and I took a lot of does out of there by still hunting. I never saw anyone else ever hunt that little patch.

Here in Alaska I have a favorite spot close by that gets a lot of four wheeler traffic over the trails that cut through the area. It's a relatively small area, maybe 5 square miles, but I've never seen anyone off their four wheelers boot hunting. The last season I still hunted in there I saw seven bulls and 20+ cows over the course of the season. Unfortunately, none of the bulls were legal but the four wheeler hunters I spoke to all complained of the lack of moose in the area. A lot of the moose I saw were less than 100 yards from the trail but the cover is thick and unless you get out in it you'll never see them.

Back in my timber cruising days I had a sale I had to walk into that was on the far side of a large open meadow. Just a short ways from the road was a little patch of timber and brush, maybe a half acre. I walked close to it one day and spotted antler tips. I switched to still hunter mode and manage to sneak up on a very nice bull, during the season. I backed on out and spent my day cruising the sale. The next several days I found him in there. Some days he would see me and some days not. After a couple of times he didn't run off too far as he seemed to know I wasn't hunting him. He spent the entire season less than 100 yards from a well traveled forest road. I assume he went out at night to feed and water as he looked healthy and fat.

A good binocular is your best friend when still hunting. It will help you peel back the layers of foliage and penetrate the depths of brush. Take two or three quiet steps. Stop. Listen. Look with your eyes. Look with your binocular. Listen. Look again. Repeat as needed. Continue until you've thoroughly covered that patch of habitat or have made your shot.

Still hunting, done correctly, will put you on game no one else will ever see. Don't overlook small patches of cover. It will shock you how often you'll find game tucked in one of those little patches.

Now, that just don't sound right,,,,,,you could get an animal used to your presence, and then walk up to him with a pistol, and,,,,,,,,BLAM !!!!
it just don't sound right !!!!

[kens]

when you guys do your 'still hunting' are you using buckshot, or no ??

[obssd1958]

when you guys do your 'still hunting' are you using buckshot, or no ??

Not me. When I still hunt, I am using either archery equipment, or rifle/pistol/muzzleloader. I've never hunted big game with a shotgun.

[runfiverun]

I have a few different guns I use when lurking.
I'm not much of a hand gunner but I'm pretty fair with a lever gun.
3 that go a lot are 20" barreled model 92's, one in 45 colt, one in 44-40, and the other is in 357.
I also take the 94 trapper in 44 mag but use home swaged bullets in that one.
the 351 win is also a good one but I hate to look for or replace it's brass, and it's heavy.
either of the 375's are good choices too.

none of the loads are big heavy boomers, they are generally more of a handicap in getting a second [good] shot off than they are a help in putting the deer down.

[Larry Gibson]

When hunting deer and elk I've used all 3 methods; still, spot and stalk and stand. The game, weather, terrain and other hunters activity dictate which method I use. Couple years back when still hunting elk in Sterling Gulch in NE Oregon I got within 15 paces of a coyote before he knew I was there. About 200 yards later I got within 25 yards of a nice spike bull in his bed.

As mentioned above when still hunting going very slowly, a few steps at a time, and using binoculars is the best way.

Spot and stalk works well if the terrain allows and other hunter activity is very low.

Something to be said for hunting from established stands with feeder bait down Texas way.....mighty comfortable.....I also don't really call that hunting. To me it's shooting. Scouting an area and setting ups a rudimentary stand/hide in over watch of a likely game trail/area is more like still hunting to me in that you just stay in one place longer.

I don't really care for drives where the "drivers" just bust brush to push game. However, putting another hunter(s) in over watch of likely escape routes while you still hunt and area is more to my liking.

Many different ways of hunting through out the world. When in Rome I like to do as the Romans do........

[kens]

I truly wish one of you guys could come down here and hunt with me, I could show you my favorite areas, if you could possibly show me some tactics. I hunt on the military reservation and know my way around it fairly well. 260,000 acres available, with a little river going thru it, and the biologists plant food plots for late season, some good oak mast orchards too.
A lot of talk going around about the feral hogs getting populated too much and encroaching the food from deer. The military reservation is no baiting, no driving, no dogs, just straight up deer hunting. so far this year I seen more turkey than deer. my favorite section is about 4,000 acres and never open thru the week, last 3 weekends I had it all to my self. I got 3 tree stands, and some ground blinds that I leave out there and just move them around thru the season.

[atr]

I am a still hunter. Pay attention to the direction of the wind, and sunlight. Move very slowly and be watch full. Good peripheral vision is a most. Good hearing helps too. Use the natural environment for cover when you move. Sneaking up on the critters is alot of fun !
I enjoyed Larry's sneaking up on a coyote. I did the same once when hunting in the Hell's Canyon area of Oregon. He was barking at another coyote across the valley and I got probably within 20 yds before he sensed I was there ....

[CastingFool]

Kens, are you stationed at Ft Stewart?

[waksupi]

the problem I have, is that cover is everywhere, as is browse grasses & vegetation, or acorns, or palmetto. in a year of heavy palmetto berries plus acorns, you wont see deer moving, because they can eat an beddown in the same place. nobody here uses glasses/binocs because the cover is as high as their horns. I was successful with what you call your 'still hunting' when I was up in Kentucky, they got a deer behind every tree. Early season down here you might get by with stalking them, but not late season.
cover is so thick down here, the order of the day is .30-30 or .35remington, 7mm-08, 243. I have never shot a deer over 75yds.

Start using binoculars, and learn how to pick the brush apart with your eyes, you may be surprised how many deer you are walking past.

[kens]

Kens, are you stationed at Ft Stewart?

civilian, but yes, Ft Stewart

[labradigger1]

Still hunting for me is as follows,
Only walk when other noises cover the noise you are making. Things such as wind, planes, vehicles, crows etc. only a few steps at a time, stop, look and listen. This is the only way I hunt and is very productive.