Definition of STILL HUNTING

ScottyB

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
STILL HUNTING: As the name implies, still hunting is walking stealthily through an animal's habitat, stopping frequently - sometimes for long periods - to scan and listen for game. Typically, big-game hunters use this method in unfamiliar terrain or where stands are forbidden or impractical.

As a general rule, spend at least ten times longer being still and observing than walking, Keep a low profile; a human silhouette will spook many game species. Use binoculars in open terrain to identify movement properly.

If you still hunt effectively, game will be unaware of your presence but so will other sportsman. To avoid being mistaken for game by other hunters, always wear fluorescent orange.

From the NCWRC Hunter Education handbook.

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

Greg

Old Mossy Horns
Still hunting to me was always easing slowly through the woods. Stand hunting was stationary.
This.

Still hunting is easing through the woods, taking a few steps and stopping and scanning for long periods of time.
Stalking is sneaking up on an animal for a shot once you spot it.
Stand Hunting is setting up in ambush, staying stationary.
Drives are when people move, deliberately trying to "drive" deer past other hunters.

Some folks call fawns "yearlings". I don't know why. Yearlings are deer between 1 and 2 years old. Fawns are deer under 1 year old.

We define things for a reason. :)

I'm in my mid 50s.
 
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nchawkeye

Old Mossy Horns
Just curious ....how does the name Still Hunting IMPLY moving through the woods? I guess that is what baffles me a bit....

That's what it has always been called...It shouldn't surprise anyone that dog hunters don't know the meaning!!! LOL..
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I don't use the term specifically for this reason: It's traditional definition and what everyone who hunts east of Raleigh calls it are two different things.


I just say stand hunting. And I don't still hunt.
 

beard&bow

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
-Still hunting?

I'm still hunting.

I'm still hunting deer, still hunting squirrels, still hunting rabbits.... Still hunting for every reason to be out hunting. lol.

I'm still hunting.
 

ScottyB

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
That's what it has always been called...It shouldn't surprise anyone that dog hunters don't know the meaning!!! LOL..

I am not a dog hunter..... if you did not understand what I said why did you reply?

I simply said that the word "STILL" in no way implies movement .........that is all.......
 

ScottyB

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Pretty even split on the definition so far......that's what I was curious about.......that's it
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
I think you will find that the term still hunting is used in it's most traditional definition by the older segment of the hunting society, those who were around before climbing stands and pop-up blinds were introduced. Just like a lot of other terms and practices, as time moves on, definitions change and new words are used to describe a lot of things.
 

ScottyB

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I think you will find that the term still hunting is used in it's most traditional definition by the older segment of the hunting society, those who were around before climbing stands and pop-up blinds were introduced. Just like a lot of other terms and practices, as time moves on, definitions change and new words are used to describe a lot of things.

That is exactly what peaked my curiosity.....guess i should have asked for ages with the post to see if there was any correlation
 

appmtnhntr

Twelve Pointer
This.

Still hunting is easing through the woods, taking a few steps and stopping and scanning for long periods of time.
Stalking is sneaking up on an animal for a shot once you spot it.
Stand Hunting is setting up in ambush, staying stationary.
Drives are when people move, deliberately trying to "drive" deer past other hunters.

This is how I learned it growing up... I still hunt, and sometimes when still hunting I stop at a "stand". Whether that "stand" is a rock, log, mountain gap, etc. Sometimes a "stand" is an actual treestand... :)
 

bryguy

Old Mossy Horns
Weird but we always called what yall call still hunting 'slipping'. And I have always called sitting in a stand(either climber, tower, ladder or ground blind) still hunting. And I have hunted all over eastern NC and have heard the same thing regularly.
 

aya28ga

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I think you will find that the term still hunting is used in it's most traditional definition by the older segment of the hunting society, those who were around before climbing stands and pop-up blinds were introduced. Just like a lot of other terms and practices, as time moves on, definitions change and new words are used to describe a lot of things.

I believe there's a lot of truth in lasttombstone's statement.

I'm 60, and when I was growing up, hunting from a tree stand was just being introduced. The older hunters who taught back then me walked through the woods, (still hunted). I don't remember any of them sitting in a stand, much less climbing a tree.
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Technically, still hunting is easing through the woods. That differs from stalking, and man drives. Stand hunting is just that, hunting a stand or staying in one predetermined place.

Now locally, still hunting is anything where you ain't moving or running dogs. What we call true still hunting, is slippin'.
This right here..slippin, stalking..all about the same.
Used to love me some slippin around for hogs with my pistol( I guess i was really off hunh?) I guess I was really still hunting with my single action revolver the whole time[emoji12]
 

Big Country

Ten Pointer
This.

Still hunting is easing through the woods, taking a few steps and stopping and scanning for long periods of time.
Stalking is sneaking up on an animal for a shot once you spot it.
Stand Hunting is setting up in ambush, staying stationary.
Drives are when people move, deliberately trying to "drive" deer past other hunters.

Some folks call fawns "yearlings". I don't know why. Yearlings are deer between 1 and 2 years old. Fawns are deer under 1 year old.

We define things for a reason. :)

I'm in my mid 50s.
^ This, but as others have said slippin is what the older men that taught me called it

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JJWise

Twelve Pointer
We always called still hunting any type of hunting on the ground while moving. If i knew an area well I'd often walk rather quickly through areas where I don't expect deer to be, and if one should be there, I'd often jump them from their bed by moving quickly and that would offer a shot 3/4 times. If I came to an area where I knew it was very likely to see deer I'd move very slowly, sometimes sit against a tree for 10-30 minutes. I'd also stop and sit down if I realized the ground was too noisy to sneak up on a deer.

If, however, your whole plan for the hunt was to sit against a tree the whole time, we'd call it "posting" or "post hunting". If you're in a blind or a stand, we call it "stand hunting". And if 2 or more hunters we're still hunting through the same chunk of timber we'd call it a drive, even if that wasn't necessarily the intended purpose.
 

Newsome Road

Ten Pointer
Still hunting is sitting in a stand being still.

That other style is so foreign to me, it doesn't need a name. For one, my big tail ain't walking around all day when I can just wait for them to come to me. Plus half the places I hunt are so thick I'd be just as successful walking around with a knife instead of a gun. You ain't slipping up on a deer when you're cussing at the brier that's holding on to your ankles and ear lobe!
 

ScottyB

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Still hunting is sitting in a stand being still.

That other style is so foreign to me, it doesn't need a name. For one, my big tail ain't walking around all day when I can just wait for them to come to me. Plus half the places I hunt are so thick I'd be just as successful walking around with a knife instead of a gun. You ain't slipping up on a deer when you're cussing at the brier that's holding on to your ankles and ear lobe!
You got to learn to cuss in grunt and bleat tones!!
 

DRS

Old Mossy Horns
Still hunting is slipping through the woods at a pace that your still more than your are moving. Still hunting has been used years, before people would wait on game.

Stand hunting is where you take a stand and wait on deer, whether it be on the ground or in a tree. Even guys dog hunting that sit and wait on deer are called standers.
 
It sounds like a no brainer to define...you're sitting still, you're "still hunting". But I think the "proper" definition, if you can call it that, is walking...slow and methodical through the woods, spotting and hunting. At least that's how I've heard it defined. Sounds more like spot and stalk to me.

I consider what I'm doing "still hunting"...stands and blinds
 

genbud78

Ten Pointer
Slowly walking along as you scan the area. Stop for short periods and do it again. May take hours to cover a couple hundred yards.

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Firedog

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
If you are moving from point A to point B you are "Still" anything.. you are moving around.. I know the traditional definition and it makes no sense. I have always assumed, as Lasttombstone indicated, that it came from a time when the standard way to hunt deer was with dogs and this method was the only other way.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
i think that standard definition came about far from nc. more related to yankee deer than here. most deer hunting mags featured northern deer deals way back. the definition isnt newly created.

we just morphed it down here to mean not dog hunting.
 

DRS

Old Mossy Horns
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. It is one of my favorite ways to hunt, feet on the ground, hooves on the ground. Better than an ambush any day!
 

Banjo

Old Mossy Horns
We should rename it waiting. We sit still in a stand and wait for a deer.


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aya28ga

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
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. It is one of my favorite ways to hunt, feet on the ground, hooves on the ground. Better than an ambush any day!
And it's becoming a lost art, especially in this day and age of many hunters only having very small parcels to hunt, and it's a lot easier to sit on a corn pile then it is to still-hunt a deer.

I use stands & blinds (and corn), as much as anybody, I guess; but when the conditions are right, I love to change things up with a morning of still-hunting.



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Banjo

Old Mossy Horns
And it's becoming a lost art, especially in this day and age of many hunters only having very small parcels to hunt, and it's a lot easier to sit on a corn pile then it is to still-hunt a deer.

I use stands & blinds (and corn), as much as anybody, I guess; but when the conditions are right, I love to change things up with a morning of still-hunting.



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Growing up hunting in the hills of WV, we bow hunted from a homemade tree stand and baited with apples.

But come rifle season, we still hunted. On the ground, taking a few steps at a time, sitting on a stump or log occasionally. I have eased up on many ridge tops and saw deer moving through a cove. This is my preferred hunting style. But, living in Burlington NC, hunting in Caswell County, I have very little opportunity to hunt old school. We have multiple ladder stands and lock-ons. But sometimes it sure gets boring.


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