I used to still hunt young pine plantations. I had my best luck early morn. or late evening when they were up and moving. IfI saw one and couldn't get a shot I would let them pass thru the row and circleahead ofthem and find a row that had a better opening then wait for them. I passed up a 8 pointer once and shot a doe that way. I never recovered the doe. She bled like crazy and the shot looked perfect. It was raining so I pushed the situation. I tracked her a long way and the blood trail ran out[&o]As far as spot and stalk. It would be tough because by the time I would get close enough to spot one I wouldn't have to stalk. I will try some tracking when I head back up north. The %'s are low but it will be fun and a great learning experience.

I did a nice little stalk earlier this year around the second week of November before rifle season. I heard two bucks sparring after I was leaving my stand and decided to check it out. I made it across the pasture and could see his rack above the tall weeds looking my direction. I got in a position and started raking the leaves to sound like a buck making a scrape b/c there was a scrape right next to me. He made a wheeze that sounded like somebody trying to blow his nose but it was too blocked with snot. I would grunt at him and he start tearing up saplings. He wheezed at me like 3-4 times trying to challenge me. Two bucks came out of that thick stuff and he began to follow them but just had to see what I was and came right over to the fence and tried to find me but couldn't. He finally went on his way but it was an awesome experience.

you could try a deer drive. not many people like the idea though. just gotta keep your eye out and be super super super stealth!

I did it once, back in 1977. I spotted this buck about 75 yards out after I had gotten down from my stand, a permanent one at that. The buck was tothe East of me with the breeze blowing from the north. I was able to close the distance to within 50 yrds before he started to take noticeso I would freeze. After what seemed like a6 hour stalk which was really a 2 hour stalk I was able to put an aluminum XX75 arrow in him. I spined him and had to run up to him to put another one in him. He was 170 lbs dressed weight.My 1st deer.Here he is hanging and after the mount. The bow was, damn, I can't remember[&:]

That's great Rick! Do you still have that bow?

I killed my first deer that way. My dad told me that there was a really nice buck walking up a hollow. So I decided to take a quick walk down and saw a huge bodied deer. Thats when i saw antlers, BIG antlers. So I got within 60 yrds of him and hit the rattling horns together and he came runnin into about 20 yrds and i smoked him.He only ran 60 yrds before he collapsed.
http://i362.photobucket.com/albums/oo69/tim03b/Mybigbuck096.jpg

I've had most of my luck with spot and stalk using water as a noise dampener. In the areas I hunt their are creeks and a river. I'll pick a day when the wind is in my favor, preferably blowing a little bit to cover any sound, but if you move slow enough in water you can eliminate all sound. No air bubbles equals no sound, so the key is to move slowly through the water without picking your boot up out of the water so nothing drips. I've killed 2 bucks using this technique.
This is a picture of my Dec. '07 spot and stalk buck. I used chest waders and stalked into his bedding area. The wind was in a perfect direction, blowing from the bedding area to me and across the river. It took me 3 hours to get where I wanted to be, but as I looked up river, their he was chasing a doe. As I moved into position at a clearing, I stopped a waited. After about 30 minutes, I heard sticks cracking and grunting. The doe comes toward me with the buck in tow. She tried to go the opposite direction but he just blocked her escape off and pushed her back toward me. As he followed her past at 40 yards I had the shot I was waiting for.



One thing about spot and stalk, be able to accept disappointment!

No Greg but it wasmy 1st 2 wheeler. I think my 1st bow wasone with 4 wheels. Still trying to remember it's name[:@]

That's some nice camo they had back in the 1910's [8D]

To me, sneaking into bow range on their level is the ultimate challenge! I've only had it work once, but that is by far my most memorable hunt.