What is your favorite style of hunting?

Status
Not open for further replies.
H&Hhunter

H&Hhunter

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
13,341
For me it is without a doubt spot and stalk. The more country I can cover and look at in a day the better. I also love still hunting in thick cover, moving slowly until you either spot an unwary critter or jump shooting them.

My least favorite is stand hunting. I am the worlds worst stand hunter, I just want to get out and move. If I am seeing critters it's not too bad but on a slow day my need to make something happen overrides my ability to sit still.
 
Last edited:
H&H I agree with you. I think hunting is an active pursuit. It allows us to shed just a little of our civilized thinking. The stalking hunter becomes a part of the prey and the predator's world. :)
 
My treestand has been the most productive way for me to hunt, but I enjoy it more when I go somewhere that I can wander around. For deer I stick to home and the treestand because I see more deer, and I can pick them up with a tractor. Every chance I get though I will go to national forest or state forest and just walk all day, usually look for squirrels but will hunt whatever is in season just so I can be out there.
 
I would love to spot and stalk hunt. Unfortunately the property around here is in relatively small tracts.
We are fortunate to have pretty decent amount of hunting property, and I can do a little walking to check out some favorite spots, but most of the time we are in stands.
I have yet to take a deer from it, but hunting from our new elevated blind is fun too.
. 20161202_113503.jpg
 
My prefered style would be black powder still hunting but that applies to elk. Antelope pretty much require spot and stalk with 200 yd shots being close in, so a 6.5mm or .308. I'm a terrible deer hunter; can't sit in a stand and they hear any little noise I make while still hunting.

There's nothing like getting close enough to a herd of elk that you can smell them before you can see enough to get a shot in.
 
I got my first ever deer (an 11 pt) this last season by walking the property. I wouldn't really consider it a stalk since I just happened upon the two of them and I was lucky enough that he didn't wind me or spook once he stepped out and saw me. With that said, I do really enjoy walking, but I also enjoy sitting. Be it on a bank, the ground or elsewhere. Always something interesting to learn about yourself or nature. Always something new to be seen or experience.
 
I agree, spot and stalk is my favorite. Love glassing and love pulling sneaks. I also really like still hunting thick pinons and junipers, especially for cow elk. Shots are close and you don't have time to evaluate a nice bull, but with cows it's easy; verify antlers or not and shoot them. Just enough time for that ;)

I have a hard time sitting unless I can see a long ways and glass it. Or if I'm calling and waiting for something to come in. But sitting water is hard, have only tried it a couple times.
 
Approaching/Stalking Antelope in a sage brush covered desert is a challenge. Some years ago West of the Wind River Range I was crawling and holding like a good bird dog.
My rifle was a modern John Browning Mtn rifle using percussion caps. The big Prairie Goat was a wall hanger. I managed to close on him to 100 yards, game on.
I waited for him to do his scan looking away. I rose up on my knee triggers set and tripped the fore trigger. There was only a load "Clunk". The Prarire Goat went from zero to sixty pronto. The damn cap had fallen off the nipple.:oops:
 
Stalking, without a doubt, though predator calling has perks too. I've set hunters up to stand hunt the pronghorn and sent them away smiling, stalked real close to a herd of Wiley ones once just testing a theory, sidewinder crawled and rolled my way down from a TALL hill to see how close I could get while holding my rifle. I was on the shady side, wind was in my favor, and I didn't move RIGHT towards them and sure looked goofy too. It worked, by the time I got to the bottom, I was maybe 150 from em but just couldn't stop snickering at myself or the fact that it worked out so I just stood up and walked back to the top to join my dad laughing for a bit before we headed home. Stalking muleys is pretty up there too though, I like the challenge of using the terrain available to see how close I can get, this year, everyone got a shot under 60 yds and that was more rewarding than anything else. Sat a stand next to a creek once, woke up to my partner hollering for me to move to the next spot. Guess it's not my thing.....
 
Horsey it is interesting just seeing how close you can get. Back in the late 1970s Wyoming made handguns legal for hunting. I stalked a nice Goat/Antelope near Robber's Roost in the Red Desert. I was shooting my S&W 29-2 ,8 3/8" . I made the shot at 40 yards in a grease wood stand. Now that was exiting. :thumbup:
 
i like to take a stand in the early morning untill about 9:30 and then a slow stalk and at around 3:30 i go to one of my favorite stands untill close to dark. most of my deer are shot from a stand or ambush early in the morning going to their bedding areas or ambush them looking for does in the rut. eastbank.
 
I'd no doubt have more success if I climbed up in a tree and sat all day, but I can't stand that. I hunt on WMA and National Forest land here in N GA. I started doing it out of necessity. I owned no land, and couldn't afford the high prices to get into a lease or join a hunt club. I could afford either now, and looked at a club last summer. But it was only 1200 acres and I was told there would be 3-6 hunters there most weekends, and I'd have the place to myself during the week after the 1st week of the season. They had about a dozen blinds and tree stands placed on the property. It was 1st come 1st serve as to which stand, but you had to hunt from one of the stands for safety reasons. They didn't want hunters wandering around the property.

I could have taken 2-3 deer there, but decided to save the $600 and continue hunting public land. I usually hike in 1/2 to 1 mile, sometimes much farther, and most days never see another hunter. I never fired a shot this past season, but still enjoyed my time in the woods doing what I did much more than spending hours trapped inside a box or up in a tree stand.
 
I have become a lazy hunter in the last several years,and most of my deer have been shot out of the short fields,but in my younger days I was more of a walking hunter..When I did woods hunt it was usualy the lighter woods,were I could cover a pretty good area were a few hot deer trails came together..I always had a hard time finding a place to sit in the thick woods because once I did sit I wasn't satisified.I alway found my self wanting to move to what looked like a better spot,then wasn't satisified with it either..The thing I dislike about woods hunting from the ground the most is that often by the time I see something to shoot there are several others right up on me,and I can't move an inch..
 
Depends on the conditions. Warm and windy and my Summit might as well be a lazy boy. Those trees start swaying and I'll be asleep in 30-45 minutes. Also depends on if I'm bow hunting or rifle/handgun. For rifle/handgun hunting, I walk awhile and sit. Then repeat. For bow hunting, it's mostly with my climber.
 
Kinda depends on what I am hunting. Gun hunting for deer, my favorite is stalking/still hunting when on large parcel of big woods. When hunting small Ag parcels, stand hunting, while not my favrite, works best. Same goes for bow hunting. While I have successfully still hunted for deer, it's nuttin' like sitting in a tree all day when the rut is on. Turkey hunting, I like to run and gun, and work active birds....unless I know there will be birds in the area at some point during the day. Again, the strategy depends on the size of the area I'm hunting. Predator hunting is generally a lot like Turkey hunting.....mostly run and gun to animals coming in to the call. Give 'em 15 minutes to a half hour and then move on. Where I live, it's hard to spot and stalk much of anything. Even still hunting for deer, odds are the animal will be within 100 yards when you first see it. Then there's working upland birds behind a good dog......which in the long run is probably my most favorite type of hunting. Watchin' a big Rooster busting outta deep snow it's buried itself in, in front of a good point.....it don't get no better.
 
BigBore44 said:
Depends on the conditions. Warm and windy and my Summit might as well be a lazy boy. Those trees start swaying and I'll be asleep in 30-45 minutes. Also depends on if I'm bow hunting or rifle/handgun. For rifle/handgun hunting, I walk awhile and sit. Then repeat. For bow hunting, it's mostly with my climber.
Click to expand...

I have never bow hunted out of a tree stand. Something I know almost nothing about but would like to learn. The main thing that holds me back is the amount of gear needed to safely do it. The learning curve on setting up a tree stand and using a harness etc is something I'd like to have some guidance on before I went out and tried it.

As rifle season tags are getting harder to draw and are getting more crowded. Bow hunting is becoming more interesting to me every year.
 
I've always liked walking hunting, figuring out where Bambi has his bedroom and ambling toward it. I've made many a dozen-mile walk in the desert country around Terlingua. In thick cover country, sneaky-snaking is fun.

I'm like H&H. I don't like sitting for any lengthy period in a box blind. I'll often sit a while on a hillside, just watching, but that's mostly toward the end of the day.
 
I've hunted about every way depending on the habitat. Here, I stand hunt. Can't spot and stalk when the only openings where you can see are senderos and fence lines through the woods. I don't care much for still hunting, very unproductive in heavy cover and it's hard to do when you only have 27 acres to roam. Every habitat has its best methods and some of us don't live near the rocky mountains.

My favorite method of hunting is pothole hunting for ducks, though. Been doing it since age14, now age 64, never got tired of duck hunting with a deek bag of a dozen deeks, a call, a good lab, and productive marsh habitat. :D I love seeing the sun rise over the marsh as I scan for those pesky early morning teal flights. :D But, I'm getting long in the tooth and have my issues. In the last 5 years, I've started reverting back to doves for my wing shooting, not as involved, one doesn't talk to the doves like you do with the ducks, but hey, it's sure the heck easier on an aging body! I don't know if I could handle the high country anymore, to be frank, and tripping around in muck trying to pull your waders off is getting tough, too.

Now that I've moved to the self professed "goose hunting capital of the world" (sign outside Eagle Lake professes this, anyhow) I'm sorta in to booking goose hunts with my friends. Did two this season and it's still open, might get a late season white goose hunt before that ends. They run you out to the spot in ATVs, laying out in rice fields on a plastic mat of some kind, usually. My buddy's knees are beat up and he can hardly get down on the ground anymore. He makes me feel fit just watching. :D The old 10 gauge can beat ya up on a good morning, but heck, I'm still tough, just not in great shape. :D

So, anyway, I love it all. My default when I'm not headed for the coastal marsh or to shoot doves is my box blind out back. I really prefer bow season here, though. The rut is during bow season and I can legally shoot a doe in bow season without a doe permit. :D So far, in 2 seasons, I've not shot a doe, though, just a legal 8 point bucks. Has to be 13" inside spread or a spike. See, that's another thing. Judging spread is tough enough from a tree stand let alone a bucks who sees you first as they always do in the woods.

There's a time and a place for spot and stalk and I've done my fair share in west Texas's trans pecos and the SE mountains of New Mexico in my day, but this around here ain't the time or the place. I do enjoy spot and stalk, it's different, but I may never do it again. I will continue to hunt, though, and what most excites me as a hunter is feathered game. I stated a few weeks back that I don't do it for the meat, I do it for the love of the sport. Someone accosted me about that statement. I do EAT the birds, but I could get a lot more meat for a lot less money buying chicken at the store. :rolleyes: I mostly kill deer and hogs for the meat, the hunting ain't that thrilling from a stand, I admit. But, then, I'm really a bird hunter at heart. I am certainly NOT a trophy hunter. If I see something legal, doe or buck, it's dead. :D I ain't passing up the meat. We do have hogs around here and I trap 'em more often than I shoot 'em from a stand. Frankly, I'd as soon trap 'em as hunt 'em. But, soon as they're coming back to corn (lots of acorns this year) I may try to gangster one with my new AR. :D Hogs can be taken any time of year, as many as ya want.
 
H&Hhunter said:
I have never bow hunted out of a tree stand. Something I know almost nothing about but would like to learn. The main thing that holds me back is the amount of gear needed to safely do it. The learning curve on setting up a tree stand and using a harness etc is something I'd like to have some guidance on before I went out and tried it.

As rifle season tags are getting harder to draw and are getting more crowded. Bow hunting is becoming more interesting to me every year.
Click to expand...
Stand hunting with a bow isn't difficult. Nor does it require a lot of gear. I have a backpack with rope (for a deer drag) if I don't have my dolly or cart, range finder, water, snacks, grunts, flashlight, extra batteries and knife.Total weight...4 lbs maybe. My bow and quiver. My release is on my wrist as soon as I get out of the truck. My Summit Razor or Viper (both have bow ropes for raising and lowering my bow after I climb up and before I climb down. And my safety harness. So basically bow, backpack, and stand. Backpack is strapped to the stand when I walk in. Total time from truck to walking in the woods, maybe 1.5 minutes. Time from base of tree to 15-20 feet and ready to hunt....3 minutes, maybe 4. All you need is a system. And it allows you to be very mobile in the woods. I've shot deer with my stand still on my back. There's really nothing to it. And you don't have to worry about someone stealing your hang-on stand, steps, or ladder stand. I've had my Summit for 14 years. Never given me an ounce of trouble. And I've never felt unsafe in it. Rock solid. Easy to set up to climb. And Summit stands are COMFORTABLE. Not saying others aren't. But I have most of my experience with Summit.
 
H&Hhunter said:
I have never bow hunted out of a tree stand. Something I know almost nothing about but would like to learn. The main thing that holds me back is the amount of gear needed to safely do it. The learning curve on setting up a tree stand and using a harness etc is something I'd like to have some guidance on before I went out and tried it.

As rifle season tags are getting harder to draw and are getting more crowded. Bow hunting is becoming more interesting to me every year.
Click to expand...
I'll bet you could start a good thread on that topic 1477085935333.jpg
 
Still, or spot and stalk, tho i do sit on ridges and watch trails. Never tried stand hunting with either firearms or bow.
 
I can't shoot a right handed bow because my right eye is bad. I can't shoot a bow left handed, too weak/awkward. So, I've got a cheap 175 lb recurve crossbow I've used the last two seasons. I love the thing, SUPERB accuracy and enough thump to get the job done. I'm considering improving on it with a new bow, a recurve Excalibur. I really like the simplicity of the recurve crossbow vs compounds though I realize they're wider. Don't matter in a tree stand, though. My tree stand is a ladder type. The trees out here are oaks and are anything, but straight. There are a couple of pines out here in the wrong place for a stand. I'm thinkin' about building a platform in a tree in the future. I've hunted like that before.
 
H&Hhunter said:
I have never bow hunted out of a tree stand. Something I know almost nothing about but would like to learn. The main thing that holds me back is the amount of gear needed to safely do it. The learning curve on setting up a tree stand and using a harness etc is something I'd like to have some guidance on before I went out and tried it.

As rifle season tags are getting harder to draw and are getting more crowded. Bow hunting is becoming more interesting to me every year.
Click to expand...
Haha man I'm the same way. Gonna try and get out to NY this fall and try the tree stand deal, my buddies say they'll set me up and show me how to do it. I'm legitimately worried about falling, I'm told it's not a problem. While I'm bad at sitting it's probably different if you know you're gonna see something. My buddy in NY sent me a bunch of cell videos this year from his tree stand, it does look like fun.

Kbbailey that is a sweet pic. What broadhead is that?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

LoonWulf
  • Locked
Your big game hunting style?
2
Replies
49
Views
2K
GAF
GAF
U
  • Locked
Hmmm, what should I do?
Replies
14
Views
888
UltraMag1981
U
S
  • Locked
Hunting Report..mine and yours?
Replies
12
Views
830
Tinybob
Tinybob
BP Hunter
  • Locked
Hunting back pack
Replies
11
Views
583
JJHACK
J
H
  • Locked
Deforestation of favorite hunting spot
Replies
19
Views
763
Art Eatman
A
Back
Top