Centaur 1

Not boring at all Crokit, even if someone never perfects doing what you do, we could learn from your experiences and apply them to the way we hunt. Thanks, and instead of writing all day just write a book, I'll read it.

SouthernBuckFever

Yeah I won't go in depth as much as Crokit did but that was a really good post. The factor for me most of the time is the leafs. Wet, dry, or in between is a huge factor, I'm not going to walk if the leaves are really really dry because its almost impossible....but I've tried. I think no matter how slow you go when the leaves are really crunchy you'll get caught, unless the deer is dumb. When the leaves are wet then I like to go a pretty good pace, I want to cover as much ground as possible. When the leaves are in between wet and dryI'll slow it down a tad and slowly let my boots down on top of the leaves and stop every 20 yards for about 20 seconds and listen very closely for anything moving. You cancall this skill or whatever but a lot of its luck. You just have to be lucky enough that that one step that makes the decision to walk down or up that ridge besides walking on the road is the right decision. Thats been the case for me a lot of times.....if I hadn't decided to just take that extra 10-20 minutes to walk the hard way besides walking the road and making it easy on myself I wouldn't have harvested any of those bucks. We've all done it, we would all be suprised what monster buck or trophy we've walked by that was just 20 yards off from where we were in the woods, you have to be lucky and make the right decisions. Knowing your land inch by inch helps a lot while youdo this to and knowing where fresh rubs and scarpes are at also. Thats another thing that is so great about stillhunting, you find rubs and learn that a buck is using that trial hot n heavy, meaning move the stands if the rubs are big. Thanks for the replies and keep them coming, once agian paitence paitence paitence, thats what you need for success in stillhunting and making the right decesions.

Champlain Islander

I still hunt almost all the time and hunt Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. I actually have had great luck when the conditions are dry or noisy and find that if I walk slowly and carefullyenough I often hear deer before they hear me because they are moving faster than I am. When deer are moving and you are are slowly moving often you will hear them first.

salukipv1

gonna try more ground hunting(still hunting)this year, been feeling kinda limited by a treestand in recent years.

halcon

I've been hunting for over sixty years now and I started out still hunting . Just never had the patience since to sit in a stand and wait for some thing to come along . Spot and stalk works good to but usually do that more with elk than deer .

rritchey sr.

I have had success still hunting. That is the primary way that I hunt. I was brought up still hunting by my grandpap and all my uncles also still hunt with great success. It is a great way to hunt and it is a systematic routine of walking and standing. Under the right conditions you can get extremely close to deer before they know your there.

bryant1

Exactly, I still refer to 'stillhunting' as this; as do many other huntersin the South.

SouthernBuckFever

Rritchey sr.yeah I know what your exactly talking about.....last season I got extremely close to a 8 pointer twice during bow season. I had just got around the corner of the road where it straightend out and there he was thrashing a tree, unfortunately a few little twigs kept me from shooting when he was 15 yards away. I had a second encounter with the same buck walking through a pretty thick area, he was bedding down and I couldn't shoot again because of some little tree branches, I was probably 12 yards away that time.

mondo104

Far Northwestern WIsconsin can have pretty fickle weather in late Fall. Someone probably taught me this but I can't remember who :

If it is really cold the deer will have to move, so sit.
If it is very mild they will bed down and you have to seek them out.
If it is windy and/or raining or snowing you have to seek them out.
If it is peak rut and there are does moving around any option can be good.
If there are other hunters moving about sit and let them move the deer around.

Just my 2 cents.

hunterboy2008

Alright, I agree with you 100%. I do however think that I agree with whomever said that it is more stalking than still hunting. When I go deer hunting in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, we park in a field and me as well as the other members of our hunting party walk to our deer stands. We have on numerous occasions jumped deer but it has been to early in the morning and no light for shooting. I do prefer sitting in my blind on top of a huge rock. I like the vantage point that I get when im up on top of the rock without the work of having to put up the tree stand. Long story short I would much prefer the comfort of the blind to the stalking method. I get enough of a stalk walking back to the truck for lunch and jumping some deer.