Still Hunting

[timberjack86]

Good video, thanks for sharing!

 

[Brunson84]

Southeast South Carolina we have a deer gun season that lasts 4 1/2 months, that gives you an idea about our herds. The only chance you have of ground stalking here is in the rain when they can’t hear or smell you, and that is few and far between, I take a trip every year Ohio area and the deer don’t even act like your there when riding down the road 5mph, totally different animals than the southeastern states


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[KM5019]

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Anyone else like still hunting whitetails? Most years I do it more than I sit on stand. I feel like in the "big country" I hunt, it's a little more efficient than sit and wait...I put together a video from a kill a few years back. Let me know what you think.

I love still hunting and deer tracking in snow. Most areas I hunt are big tracks of forest with low deer densities. I try to wait for a day with light rain when there is no snow or hunt immediately following a good snow storm and woods are coming alive again. That said if I find an area with a pocket of deer I know when to slow down and sit. I don’t get a lot of time for pre season scouting so still hunting helps me to understand what is going on in an area pretty quick.

 

[Yoder]

I just started still hunting last year with a rifle and my bow. Before that I would just sit in the stand all day. So far I've killed a doe and my biggest buck to date with my rifle. I've even had a couple shot opportunities with my bow but didn't shoot. It is so much more exciting hunting that way. Stand hunting I feel like I'm shooting deer. Still hunting I feel like an actual hunter. It's tough in the North East but if it's wet and windy you have a pretty good chance.

 

[eaglemountainman]

More guys should try it. They might discover the same thing you did. Good for you, sir.

 

[Cedarsavage]

I love still hunting and deer tracking in snow. Most areas I hunt are big tracks of forest with low deer densities. I try to wait for a day with light rain when there is no snow or hunt immediately following a good snow storm and woods are coming alive again. That said if I find an area with a pocket of deer I know when to slow down and sit. I don’t get a lot of time for pre season scouting so still hunting helps me to understand what is going on in an area pretty quick.

Same for me. I still hunted more years past then I found good spots and sat. this year I was on the move alot without many acorns the deer were spread all over

 

[Cedarsavage]

I just started still hunting last year with a rifle and my bow. Before that I would just sit in the stand all day. So far I've killed a doe and my biggest buck to date with my rifle. I've even had a couple shot opportunities with my bow but didn't shoot. It is so much more exciting hunting that way. Stand hunting I feel like I'm shooting deer. Still hunting I feel like an actual hunter. It's tough in the North East but if it's wet and windy you have a pretty good chance.

I always feel like it's how hunting was meant to be done

 

[Macintosh]

You could easily characterize many of the areas I hunt as: tens of thousands of contiguous acres to hunt (often much more), far less than 5 deer/sq mile in nearly all of it (they dont specify but it's off the chart low), zero timber harvests, zero ag, 100% forested with limited visibility, and very, very few areas with any sort of concentrated food source like mast, no concentrated bedding, and generally only very, very large-scale "travel corridors" that concentrate deer movement. Think of it like hunting a wilderness area in the arid, intermountain west, but with magic glasses that limited your view to 150 yards or often much less 100% of the time. For sure I sit at times where it makes sense, and that happens somewhat frequently--AM and PM, super crunchy conditions (did I mention that sometimes the ground is covered in 6 inches of frozen fritos that are audible from 300 yards away with every step?), as part of large-scale drives with a few hunters, etc. Sit the right spot and you will definitely see a deer, but even in the best of locations it can easily and realistically be several days or a week until a legal deer walks by, let alone a big one. Pick the wrong spot, and well, hope you like watching paint dry. As a weekend-only guy, for the most part sitting as a strategy in itself in a place like this is a good way to rarely kill (or even see) a deer unless you want to sit the same spot for weeks on end. I dont. I mainly hunt 2 states, one has a pretty long gun season, but the other(where I live) I realistically get a maximum of 6 days to hunt with a rifle, 4 with a ML (every sat/sun of a 2-week rifle season and a 1-week ML season), so given the density and time "no one" (i.e. extremely few) does anything but gun hunt there, bow hunting just isnt a thing there for the most part the way it is in much of the country.
In places with more deer, more defined food sources and bedding areas, and more defined travel corridors, sitting (and bow hunting) makes far more sense, relatively speaking.

 

[Cady Creek]

Definitely a great way to hunt, especially up North or the West end of the Yoop where you can avoid the orange army. Nice to have a little snow so you can cut "a big buck track" like the Benoit's. Good stuff!

 

[DanielRidlen]

If conditions are favorable it is a fun and productive way to hunt. Sometimes conditions make it almost impossible and stand hunting is the only way to go.

What makes for good conditions? I'd like to get into hunting public land this way, but I've always been a stand hunter.

 

[Still Hunter]

What can I say? It's the only way!

 

[KM5019]

Same for me. I still hunted more years past then I found good spots and sat. this year I was on the move alot without many acorns the deer were spread all over

Yeah tough year for acorns in NW NH. I was optimistic all year seeing them in the trees. They fell early and what fell were not great and vacuumed up quick by the critters before the season started. Did have some in the southern part of the state though.

 

[Kenai_dtracker]

What makes for good conditions? I'd like to get into hunting public land this way, but I've always been a stand hunter.

Fresh snow is the best of course, especially if you want to track. If there's no snow, then wet conditions keeps things quiet and scent down.

Tracking or stillhunting, nothing better for mature whitetails in the mountains! Especially with a 7600 carbine with peep sight!

 

[eaglemountainman]

Agreed^^^^^^^^

Even dry leaves and crunchy snow can be stillhunted, if there's a stiff breeze or wind to make some cover noise. Move when it's blowing, don't when it's not.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Love still hunting after a fresh snow or in light rain here in PA. A very effective tactic in the mountains if you are good at it, I still have a lot to learn!