"Stalking"

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In looking back over this sub-forum, I note that I have inconvenienced a number of electrons while discussing the idea of "stalking" or "still hunting". I have no argument with those folks who get their food over bait, or from tree stands, or even in high-fenced lots with rejects from the petting zoo.

I wonder, though, if my preference for going into the woods and fetching them out is genuinely strange. Some of my very best memories are of creeping through the forest - or even just sitting on a comfortable stump and trying not to interfere for a few hours - and I would like to hear from any folks who have shared the experience, as well as those who have found it a waste of time.
 
I’m not sure I could “stalk” what I don’t know is there but I have spent decades walking around outdoors, trying not to disrupt nature.

We have been baiting for hogs, with a dog running around, and had deer come up 30 yards or so away, waiting for us to leave.

I guess I don’t feel anything negative about people that hunt using various methods, than I do about people only fishing in water, or using live or artificial lures vs a bare hook.

I have caught fish on a bare hook before though, IIRC that was right after a childhood friend caught one off of a bugger...

Most of my “stalking” was using my game radios at baited sights. Bury the corn, the hogs come to dig it up and eat, radio goes off, the we sneak up on them. Does that count?

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Almost all the deer I've taken have been by stalking. I've read numerous comments on THR about old time hunters and their lack of camo. I guess I'm one of them. I'd keep my flannel shirt/socks/underwear/pants in a huge plastic garbage bag, smothered in baking soda, laying out by the bunkhouse. Drive to the area I'd hunt, take them out of the bag, put them on having showered only with water around 4 AM.

Once in the woods take 10-15 steps slowly and stop for 10 seconds or so and move on. Lost count of all the deer I took that way using nothing but a .50 cal CVA Hawken.

No trail cameras, $600 camo outfits, some type of super short magnum caliber, $2,000 Zeiss Glass, $600+ range finder etc. etc. Just recently somebody in a thread mentioned tactics are more important than the gun you choose. Maybe they were on to something.
 
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Almost all the deer I've taken have been by stalking. I've read numerous comments on THR about old time hunters and their lack of camo. I guess I'm one of them. I'd keep my flannel shirt/socks/underwear/pants in a huge plastic garbage bag, smothered in baking soda, laying out by the bunkhouse

I do the same thing too but instead of baking soda I use the mesquite beans and other flora that is abundant in the West Texas plains/desert environment. I'm sure blue jeans could be considered camouflage . If I am walking along a ridge line and the deer is looking up my blue jeans would blend with the sky.
 
It really depends on what I'm doing, what my goals are, and how much time I have to complete them.
I hunt for fun, and as an excuse to not be in the house. I also hunt to put food in the freezer, sometimes the two align, sometimes they don't.
If my freezers are stocked with what ever it is I'm hunting, I really prefer to still hunt, or stalk.
If I feel a NEED to collect an animal(s) then I'll use the most effective method I can for the area and game I'm hunting.
 
For over 35 years I stalked deer in England. Thats woodland stalking as opposed to Highland stalking as done in Scotland after red deer.
The thing with Stalking is you have to do it often to get good at it. I stalked roe and fallow deer and the occasional muntjac. The good thing about stalking in England is that there is a deer species to shoot all year round. Over 35 years I accounted for more than my fair share of deer and I must say woodland stalking is no great hunting challenge.
I do mainly driven hunting now and sitting out at night for boar.
 
Stalking / still hunting with snow on the ground is my absolute favorite way to hunt. I move to keep the cold at bay and no faster. I’ve shot countless deer / elk / coyotes etc using this method, sometimes in their beds or just standing up from their beds. It forces you to use all the basics to control what you can: scent, approach, sound, direction, etc.

With a bow it is a whole new challenge level because you almost never have time to range your shot, thus you have to practice range estimation and it makes one all that much better with a handgun / rifle / shotgun.

The down side is that you can drive critters from an area to other hunters, so definitely something to consider. You can also stalk around and not enter an area for a few days and when conditions are right, enter that area. You will find game.
 
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I also prefer still hunting, but honestly it's not the most "efficient" way to kill a deer IMHO. Especially now that there's not a lot of stalking/still hunting land available. Most is broken up into areas that would take less than 45 minutes to cover, and the odds are you'll just push the deer off that property into the neighbors.

On my 80 acres I've built a deer "engagement area" with a food plot, fruit trees, feeder, sawtooth oaks, persimmons and now I'm adding chestnuts. It's adjacent to 25 wooded acres that I leave as a bedding area/sanctuary. Last year we put in a new pond that backfills an intermittent stream, so we've got water too. Relatively easy to shoot does and young bucks out of my shoot house, but I find it kind of boring.

I'd much rather head out to western KS and still hunt through the walk-in hunting areas, putting in 4-8 miles a day, normally covering new ground every couple days. Somehow I can constantly convince myself that there's a keeper just over the next rise. There's just something about putting the sneak on one that appeals to me. Then if I don't fill a tag on a decent buck I'll come home, head out back, turn on the propane heater, sip coffee and wait for one of my pet does to appear.
 
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As a western type hunter I have always been a fan of spot & stalk which is to get on a high point, locate the game, and plan a route to a shooting spot without the game knowing I am coming. I am not a fan of still hunting other than I move slowly on my way to a shooting spot and I take advantage of the situation if I see an animal I want. Once I get to my planned shooting spot I don't move until the deer quit moving. Since I go to my shooting spot in the dark and return after dark this method is limited. That being said, the animals are much more woods wise than a hunter so if you do the same still hunt two days in a row the animals will pattern the hunter instead of the other way around. Still hunting every day will run the animals out of an area.
 
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I do most of my deer/turkey/hog hunting from a tree stand or ground blind. A turkey ground blind is generally some vegetation like palmetto fronds stuck in the ground in front of me. I have killed a 26 pound turkey in Iowa "stalking" with a decoy in front of me. Some people call it fanning or reaping. I would do it again, given the opportunity. In California, we "stalked" blacktails by driving around a very large ranch with little cover in a jeep using binoculars, and shot the deer often from longer ranges than what most deer here in the South are shot from.
 
As far as hunting, I also enjoy stalking. As far as food or getting rid of pests then anything (legal) is fine with me.
 
In looking back over this sub-forum, I note that I have inconvenienced a number of electrons while discussing the idea of "stalking" or "still hunting". I have no argument with those folks who get their food over bait, or from tree stands, or even in high-fenced lots with rejects from the petting zoo.

I wonder, though, if my preference for going into the woods and fetching them out is genuinely strange. Some of my very best memories are of creeping through the forest - or even just sitting on a comfortable stump and trying not to interfere for a few hours - and I would like to hear from any folks who have shared the experience, as well as those who have found it a waste of time
.

I had three years of very bad results on my own.

My dad wasn't a deer hunter, and I didn't know any deer hunters to hunt with. OK well that's not exactly accurate..., I knew some older men who loved to let me come with them deer hunting as I was young enough to track down the deer they poorly shot, and had strength and stamina to drag the thing out. I was also good to do heavy labor on the property to "help out" in the summer leading up to each deer season. OH they shared some venison with me, but I was never allowed to go alone, nor was I given the choice locations to await the deer. So after four years of that I finally realized that these guys had sons and grandsons that were never there..., seems they had tired of being "the help" too..., So I didn't know any deer hunters willing to teach me. ;) It's also possible that the group where I'd been the help had nothing really to teach.... :confused:

When I moved home after four years in The Service, and after three years of seeing deer at a distance, or spooking them up, but never getting a shot, I stumbled across a book, The Still Hunter by Theodore S. Van Dyke.

I read it, twice. Then started applying it in the woods in the summer, and then into that autumn. Wind Direction and/or incorrect movement had been my downfall. The heard me enter the woods, and they smelled me.

I found after reading that using the wind direction, and moving without a rhythmic pace as humans normally do, I could get close. Then I added to that by reducing my "detergent scent" through using plain lye soap on my field clothes..., allowed me to get very close to deer. Sometimes as close as 25 yards. When I spooked deer, I did as the book suggested and figured out where the deer had been, and how it had seen me. Made a world of difference.

So now I Still Hunt, or sometimes still hunt to a spot and then hold there for a while, and then move again, or maybe just stay put. So far it's worked rather well.

LD
 
Im am extremely quite for such a large guy. Still hunted, and stalked the woods growing up. And it has paid dividends. I can sneak up on my kids doing naughty things. Still practice anytime Im outside. And inside.
 
Stalking adds real excitement to a hunt specially out west when you can spot the animal and then plan the stalk.
 
For deer, if I have a large enough parcel of land, I still hunt most often. If not, I’ll find a stand. No bait.

Hog hunting on public land is a stalking and still hunting proposition nearly every time. On private, I prefer feeders for maximum efficiency.
 
Do a little bit of everything, last year while sitting in blind glassed a large buck that was over 3/4 mile away. Became obvious he wasn't headed my direction so stalked through pastures, river, cornfields, and brush to get him. Stalking seems to work best when weather conditions keep them hunkered down,
 
I'm a fisherman who has done some ooccasional hunting.

I'm also a person who hates sitting and waiting. My fishing can cover 1000s of feet, as I move from spot to spot. I cast a few times, then move on. When I have hunted, it's much the same way. I believe the fishing concept of "it's a desert with a few oasis" applies to both fishing and hunting.

There are a few areas in the woods that have what's needed: food, water, shelter, and possibly minerals (salt, etc) and they can change with the season. It's much more fun for me to find fresh tracks and move between those oasis, trying to anticipate the game. I'm not sure it is as productive as a blind with a call, or a stand over corn, but it sure is cognitively stimulating and just plain fun. I think I get more from just being out there, learning and observing, than actually hunting.
 
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