Stalking or still hunting

Good going. It can be done with patience. If it was easy it wouldn't be as rewarding.

Smokehouse: Anyone who climbs into a tree stand without a safety harness on is just asking to be crippled for life, or make a one way trip to the morgue. One of my best friends fell out of a treestand as he was climbing down, without his harness still secured to the tree, and broke several ribs and fractured a vertebrae. I bothered him all the rest of his life.

Ron: Two ways to stalk deer in open areas. Use a small tree or bush as moving cover, and crawl forward at an oblique angle when their heads are down, or use a horse, as cover and walk very slowly, stopping frequently for the horse to also feed, while you close the distance. Both work because deer and antelope can't count, and don't recognize danger from a PLANT, as long as its not moving when they look at it. Even then, they will be curious more than frightened. Of course, both methods require a mountain of PATIENCE, and in the case of using a moving blind, crawling through scrub- and maybe even cactus in some locations. I know of a couple of MLers who spotted antelope, and found small cutbanks they could crawl up to close the distance. They got kill shots at 35 and 50 yds. respectively doing this.

I had a personal friend who belly crawled down the rows between corn stubble, here in Central Illinois to get into position about 50 yds. from a Windrow( windbreak) in time to watch a large group of does and bucks walk down the row in front of him. The biggest buck was last in line, and he killed him with one shot, after laying on a piece of tarp on the cold ground for more than an hour. None of the deer were aware of his presence until he fired his shot. He had the head and should mount on his wall in his law office.

So, these kinds of stalking techniques can work under a variety of conditions, and terrains. You simply have to practice, and scout the ground with the idea of learning the routes you can take to close with your game unseen. No one said its EASY. Otherwise, everyone could do it. :shocked2: :hmm: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I can never get shots while stalking during gun seasons but it always seems I'm not too bad during bow. I belly crawled and closed 60 yards and was offered a shot on a group of does at 30 yards. I decided to pass because even if I hit her through the lungs she was at the top of a hill and I was on the ground so I didn't want to lose an arrow. Plus it was about dark on a school night.

What's the difference in gun season? The same method you use with a bow should work with a gun.

I'm betting bow season comes before bow season. In a couple of states I've hunted, and early bow season with few hunters is a completely different species than the gun season that comes a month later. I'd see many, many deer just outside bow season that wouldn't survive for their next breath in gun season. And they're relaxed.

We need a season on dumb hunters. There's too many and we need to cull them. :grin:

I was just talking about how luck pans out. Nothing about seasons. Kind of like when you see turkeys when you're deer hunting and seeing deer when you're turkey hunting.

BrownBear said:

I'm betting bow season comes before bow season. In a couple of states I've hunted, and early bow season with few hunters is a completely different species than the gun season that comes a month later. I'd see many, many deer just outside bow season that wouldn't survive for their next breath in gun season. And they're relaxed.

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I bow hunt Oct. 1 til Thanksgiving. Gun is the weekend before thanksgiving.

I was at the resteraunt here in town and there was some hunters talking about how the season went for them and I heard them say they did some "sound shots." He said he didn't hit anything. This scares me because there are probably these kind of hunters hunting around me. I know we're supposed to wear blaze orange but since it's a "sound shot" there is probably enough brush that this hunter may not notice the orange.

We have pressured whitetail locally (and one fallow deer that was a windfall) and I hunt on foot or a ground-level tree seat or occasionally sit in a blowdown. I use a treestand in archery season but prefer still-hunting with a bow.

When still-hunting: move slowly! Keep your nose to the wind if possible, if not be as observant as possible of it. Deer actually see motion very well but don't seem to be nearly so able to pick out a motionless human (especially with a bit of cover to break up your outline) as we can identify a part of them (ear, leg, tail, antler). They will scoot if they hear a sound or at least become highly antsy (the 'ol Robo-deer jerky leg trot to alert the other deer.) If they smell you - zoom! - game over.

When still-hunting look for parts of deer. You seldom see "a deer". You see an ear or a nose, etc. If you spot the deer all at once chances are you're made, as well. Listen frequently. In fact, you should never take more than one step at a time and scan, listen before taking another. Keep your weight on your rear foot and, once you place your other foot forward, slowly put weight on it. That way you don't snap any twigs or crunch in the frost and dry leaves. Almost ever deer I've ever shot (bow, muzzleloader, slug shotgun or rifle) I have heard before seeing them. On snowy or rainy days it's usually just a glimpse of movement.

Concentrate on areas the deer will be. Still-hunting in hopes of stumbling blindly into a deer reduces your chances. By pre-season scouting you can select some "day use" feeding or movement zones. Don't walk down the middle of a trail or road. Walk off to the side 5 yards or so. Also, a unhurried deer is doing the same. They stay off to the side of main trails unless they're in a hurry. That's where the available browse and cover is.

Personally, I don't "stalk" a deer until I have seen it. Following tracks gives me ideas of where deer were, but they know their hoof glands leave scent and they keep an eye on their back trails for predatiors . . . like us. Better to cut to where they may be headed and meet them there. I have, at times, run like hell and caught a deer crossing a field or gully and taken them. Never with a bow, though, and usually it's hopeless.

If a deer is spotted a distance away it becomes a challange to move when the deer is relaxed and either blocked or looking away. It is hard to pull off but the best of the best when it goes to plan. I can remember two deer I've shot while they were bedded. Dozens more that I blew the stalk.

Any special reason you addressed your post to me?


btw...They aren't always hard to get to.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/251979/

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Not that I can remember. I probably read down the thread and backed up to some other response or quote and then grabbed the first "Reply" on the screen.

Why do you ask? Guilty conscience? :haha: :haha:

Proly cuz Stumpy typed slow and loooonnnngggg and Luie typed fast and short. :haha: :v

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I was watching Pearl Harbor and Saving Private Ryan last night. Probably got distracted. ;-)

Very little snow in Texas. Sometimes very little rain. Our ground is like concrete much of the time. It's kind of hard to stalk in some conditions. I've set up ladder stands, popup blinds, time feeders, all the modern stuff. But I'm about done with all that. I don't enjoy it. I've killed more game while still hunting than any other way. I walk slowly thru the timber watching and listening. Then I sit down by a tree and wait awhile. Then repeat. No rush no hurry. That's my favorite way of hunting and it's been very good to me. I get "wiggly" and uncomfortable in a ladder stand. I get stiff. Not enough room. I don't like the blind spots in a popup blind and I tend to doze off in them. Probably about when the deer are walking by. And whether on a ladder stand or in a popup, I constantly feel like I have to cough and clear my throat. Out walking my throat is fine. Mental thing I guess. I'm more alert just easing thru the woods. Rain doesn't bother me, I've been wet before and I will again. When it does rarely snow I take a white sheet that's been washed in detergent to get the UV out. I walk then I sit on a rubber pad to keep dry and lay the sheet over me. Good snow camo. I feel like my chances are better when I move around. K45

There you go. That's hunting. It's fun. It's interesting.

Somehow, I don't think Daniel Boone sat in a tree. :grin:

Capper said:

Somehow, I don't think Daniel Boone sat in a tree. :grin:

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No I don't think the old time hunters did much tree cimbing either unless there was a mad bear involved. They probably hunted very close to the same style I described in my last post. When there was snow or wet ground and fresh tracks they probably stalked. No frills hunting. They likely moved around until they located game or they ate cold jerky again tonite. And I'd bet that a coon or oppossum was just as welcome in the camp as a deer. If I don't find any game I locate a Whataburger. Some changes are good.

Kentucky45 said:

If I don't find any game I locate a Whataburger. Some changes are good.

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I would not put money on their possum content being zero

Strangely enough I have insider knowledge about this and Whataburger uses the best quality burger meat of all the "big 5" fast food burger joints.

The blend recipes differ for all 5.

Somehow, I don't think Daniel Boone sat in a tree

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Timothy Murphy climbed up in a tree to shoot General Fraser in 1777. It must be politically correct. :rotf:

I don't think Daniel Boone worked 8:00AM to 5:00PM most weekdays during a three-week big game season, either. ;-) (But I've never had a muzzleloader in a tree. Don't want to give the squirrels any ideas).