Definition of STILL HUNTING

Newsome Road

Ten Pointer
It's a traditional way to hunt. Move to the game or you may be sitting for days, months or even years, back in the day.

I have always heard that "back in the day" there weren't as many deer around, but now I'm starting to think that maybe there were plenty of deer, they just never saw them because they were making so much noise stumbling all through the woods! :D
 

Weekender

Twelve Pointer
Just curious as to what everyone considers still hunting to be ........no right or wrong answers just curious as some of us posted our thoughts in the 11/14 live thread.....thought I would get it out of that thread

My definition is basically any hunting that does not include dogs or humans driving deer and requires you to sit still in a stand or blind

Still hunting is staying upright on your feet and watching, walking very little, glassing a lot, standing or sitting on a stump for a bit at each gamey spot. It's not spot and stalk, its get in there with 'em, and wait where they like to be, slipping to the next spot just as stealthily. If you work up a sweat, you're walking too fast and you're gonna spook 'em.

Stand hunting is what many native Carolina hunters still hunting. In still hunting you stand/walk slowly...In stand hunting, you sit. :)
 
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Weekender

Twelve Pointer
I have always heard that "back in the day" there weren't as many deer around, but now I'm starting to think that maybe there were plenty of deer, they just never saw them because they were making so much noise stumbling all through the woods! :D

You'd be surprised how quiet you can be, NR. Seriously. A classic still hunt is so fun and can be so productive. All of my public land deer have been killed still hunting.
 

aya28ga

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
You'd be surprised how quiet you can be, NR. Seriously. A classic still hunt is so fun and can be so productive. All of my public land deer have been killed still hunting.

I'll take at least one deer still-hunting every year, and this year has been no different - took a small 6 point last Saturday doing it.

Oldest School is right about the term "still-hunting" meaning something different up North. I grew up in northern Maine, and the only two ways of hunting anybody practiced up there was still-hunting or finding a fresh deer track in newly fallen snow and literally running the deer down. But there you had lots of land open to the public to do it on, plus the temps in Maine in November can be -10 at dawn, and not much above freezing during the day. If you tried to sit on a metal tree stand in those temps, you'd be pretty cold pretty quick!
 

nchawkeye

Old Mossy Horns
As the Benoits did, back in the '60s it was fairly easy to still hunt...I could walk out the back of my house and hunt for miles without seeing another hunter, any farmers I saw would stop and chat and ask if I had killed anything...

I had an older friend that I used to eat breakfast with, he would say he had to go to the doctor to fill his subscription...I never corrected him...We all knew what he meant, knew he wasn't using the correct word..... :)
 

appmtnhntr

Twelve Pointer
You'd be surprised how quiet you can be, NR. Seriously. A classic still hunt is so fun and can be so productive. All of my public land deer have been killed still hunting.

^^^Yup...Especially in the rut... I still hunt big transition zones. Deer come in front of you, bucks run does behind you, gotta be on high alert all day, but some days I've seen 20+ deer on public land still hunting...
__________
IDK if anyone cares, but here's a thing I do that keeps me from spooking deer if the wind is swirling and I'm still hunting...

Obviously I try to mitigate scent as best as possible before the hunt, but there's always something left...

Every time I stop to wait/glass/sit, I grind my boots into the ground (quietly) and make a little "scrape" for myself... Rub that fresh dirt/leaves all in my boots and on my pant leg as much as possible...

Viola, "fresh earth" scentaway that isn't made of chemicals...

You guys know how "earthy" a scrape smells when it's really getting worked over this time a year?
I've had bucks come in directly downwind at less than 100 yards, and turn to walk directly at me.

IDK if it fools them into thinking there's a fresh scrape there, or if it's just something "different" that makes them curious, but it works...
Same for does... I'll have groups of does walk by downwind at 30 yards and never even know I'm in the world!
____

Oh yeah... another two things thing that's cost a lot of guys a lot of deer while still hunting...

Get that rifle off your shoulder!!! I'll even take a sling off my rifle to keep me from wanting to shoulder it. Just strap to my pack for the hike in and out.
And, keep your scope down to the lowest mag possible... I rarely shoot deer on anything higher than 4x...

When it happens, often times it happens QUICK! Always take your first, best shot. Don't count points, don't wait for anything except a clean opening, and let it fly...

Both big bucks I killed last year, the whole deal happened in less than 20 seconds from first seeing them to taking the shot. The big 6 was dogging a doe and it took about 20 seconds for me to pick a spot through the laurels. The big 8 was cruising, and I think I shot him less than 10 seconds after seeing him come into the holler before he dropped off under a little cliffline.
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
Just curious ....how does the name Still Hunting IMPLY moving through the woods? I guess that is what baffles me a bit....

and why do we say "stand hunting" or call it a "stand" when most (dare I say all) sit most of the time???
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
still hunting,,,as traditionally defined,,,is how I killed most of my deer when I was a kid and young soldier,,,,never owned a stand until into the 1990s,,,

now when we hunted down in the Black River Forest area of Wisconsin for two years on opening weekend, we sat on our butt and let the 223 other Nimrods in the woods (who had less patience) drive deer for us,,,,but my FAVORITE deer hunts to this day were in the big woods of northern Wisconsin - Langlade, Forest, and Iron counties,,,,still hunting for bucks
 

ScottyB

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
and why do we say "stand hunting" or call it a "stand" when most (dare I say all) sit most of the time???

Now, there you went and started a whole other can of worms.......I do like to stand in my stands a lot, but I do call each session a "sit", so now I am so confused.........maybe we should come up with the HUNTERS Dickshunairy.....so we can get all these terms straight......no yankee interpretations of any words will be accepted.....that would just mess up the whole book.....
 

appmtnhntr

Twelve Pointer
still hunting,,,as traditionally defined,,,is how I killed most of my deer when I was a kid and young soldier,,,,never owned a stand until into the 1990s,,,

now when we hunted down in the Black River Forest area of Wisconsin for two years on opening weekend, we sat on our butt and let the 223 other Nimrods in the woods (who had less patience) drive deer for us,,,,but my FAVORITE deer hunts to this day were in the big woods of northern Wisconsin - Langlade, Forest, and Iron counties,,,,still hunting for bucks

Ahhh... Forest County... dang cool place... been meaning to get up there with my dog and kill grouse for a week out of a buddy's bear camp...
We went up there to run bears in July during training season and I saw some stud deer every year...

I'd love to get "lost" in some of those big blocks following a big track in some fresh snow...
 

nchunt101

Ten Pointer
This may not be considered still hunting in the traditional sense but I have had good luck walking slowing around the edges of bean and hay fields glassing. It allows me to check hunt multiple locations that generally hold deer and is a lot more fun than sitting in a stand all day.
 

Homebrewale

Old Mossy Horns
Ahhh... Forest County... dang cool place... been meaning to get up there with my dog and kill grouse for a week out of a buddy's bear camp...
We went up there to run bears in July during training season and I saw some stud deer every year...

I'd love to get "lost" in some of those big blocks following a big track in some fresh snow...

I was thinking "ahh....Forest County" until I saw it was Wisconsin, not PA. Our hunting camp was in the PA county.
 

appmtnhntr

Twelve Pointer
I was thinking "ahh....Forest County" until I saw it was Wisconsin, not PA. Our hunting camp was in the PA county.

Sure it's a pretty place too!!!

And there's no way any place can have more skeeters and biting flies than northern WI in July!!! If there is, I don't want to go there!!!
 
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