I spent the weekend in the woods still hunting at a snail's pace and did some sits in a couple high traffic areas as well. I saw 11 doe's this weekend. 3 on Saturday and 8 today. Saturday morning I was still hunting a massive bench in some old growth. I was approaching a random alder thicket very slowly when all of a sudden it exploded with a doe! couldn't stay with her. went to a new spot which is made up of a massive clearcut with various good sized timber stands here and there. I walked into that spot over a mile and hunted some great stuff only to walk back at dark and jump two does right at my truck!

This morning I went in at first light to where I had jumped the doe's last night. My plan was to find an ambush spot where they were in the clear cut. I got to where they were and something about 100 yards to my left caught my eye. it was a doe's tail flipping around. She was shaking last nights rain off and eating. I stayed still and watched while trying to plan how I would get in bow range. Then I saw she was with two other doe's. they must have seen me lift my rangefinder cause they turned and made a run for it into a swampy alder stand.

I started heading down the road that splits the clear cut. My plan was to still hunt through an old growth timber stand a ways down the road that has 10' reprod bordering one side of it. I ended up bumping two more doe's in the cut to my right as I was walking in. so that was five deer in the first half hour or so of hunting!

After not seeing anything in the old growth stand I went back to the truck and drove down some logging roads in the snow to see if I could find a player. I had two doe's run across the road in front of me. They came out of one reprod patch and went into another. I jumped out of the truck and pursued into the reprod patch but it was thick and they were gone.

So I figured since I had seen so many deer in one small area where I was this morning and last night, I should head back and just sit and wait. along the road opposite of where I jumped the two does last night at my truck there are a few fir trees. I found one with really low hanging branches and sat under it. It was a perfect, natural ground blind and I was set up with killer shooting lanes where I thought the deer would come. I sat from 3:30pm to 4:45pm. at 4:45 I watched a single doe cross into the clear cut just like I had planned. Except she had other plans and went away from where I figured she'd come to. I know she didn't see me which was a huge rush because I finally had the upper hand. Too bad she didn't come in closer. When I saw she was heading away I crept out of the blind in pursuit. I saw her go behind a little knob in the cut and then I lost her.

moral of the story is that still hunting is tough! I'm getting a tree stand for sure! I'm pretty stealthy and literally take a couple steps every minute most of the time but every deer I have seen this year while still hunting has seen me before I've seen them. And the only reason I see them is because they bust out of where they were watching me from. Deer would be phenomenal people hunters if they had weapons. Haha.

Thanks for listening to my sob story. I'm glad I saw so many deer this weekend but I'm open to suggestions on how to up my still hunt game.

Thanks,

Drew

If you think you're going slow enough,you need to go slower.

Doesn't sound like you're using binos either.

Binos aren't just for seeing things at long distance.

I spend a lot more time looking through binos than walking.

I would say you are on the right track (pardon the pun) but, from your description, it seemed you were moving everytime you spooked deer and when you did decide to sit tight for an hour, you ended up pursuing it too.

If you have a hot spot, try hanging a stand or make a ground blind but you have to give it more than an hour. Sneak in an hour before daylight and stay for three hours. Try a doe bleat or rattling at least a half hour before you decide to get up to leave. Make sure you de-scent and are down wind of your expected areas of approach.

Still hunting is a different animal. It was explained to me, long ago, that if you think you are going slow you are going twice too fast and if you can hear anything you are making WAY too much noise.

One of the things I did in my black tail days was sneak into my area and then I removed my boots. I hunted in two pairs of wool socks and the better the spot felt, the longer I would spend there. It isn't where you want to be as much as where you ARE that is important; that means when you look up your trail you have to fight the instinct that anywhere is better than exactly where you are. The reason for that is the noise you make getting to that "perfect spot" ten yards up the trail makes that spot less perfect. It make take me an hour to go a hundred yards in a good spot. A Walkers Game Ear is a cool tool to give you an idea what a deer hears as you blunder around trying to be quiet.

Hunt into the wind.

Binoculars are a great tool too- when you still hunt slowly, don't glass a hundred or more yards away, pick apart what is right in front of you. The advantage comes when you defeat the wind, share hyper sensitive hearing and see them before they see you. At that point, it comes down to luck and that means it is only a matter of time before things take a turn in your favor.

I would say keep doing exactly what you are doing and it will happen. If you see them inside of a hundred, you are doing things right and it will come together.

It is a difficult thing in the beginning and will continually get significantly easier and, like most things, it is more about your own confidence that is the game changer.

I keep expecting a photo essay of a success story from you like your SRC report.

I do need a good set of binos. I have an older pair of full size binos that I keep in my pack for when I'm sitting somewhere but I need a set of smaller 10x42's that I can wear on one of those binocular harnesses. I learned a new way to walk today that really cuts down on noise. when you take a step let the outside edge of the sole of your boot hit the ground first and then roll your foot flat slowly while feeling for twigs. it allows me to focus more on whats in front of me instead of always looking for noisy stuff i might step on. this works really well when there's a bunch of sticks on the ground too. Give it a try if you haven't already.

a couple of the doe's I bumped today only went about 50 yards and then stopped. I dropped to my knees and watched them for a few minutes. I could see their tails twitching behind a tree. So I started belly crawling/hands and knees crawling through the wet clear cut. by the time I got close to where they were I could see they had dipped into the timber stand at the edge of the clear cut. I went in very slowly and found a log to sit on about 20 yards off of a highly traveled trail. There were a couple smaller fir trees growing out of the log which provided me with an excellent, natural blind. I sat there for two solid hours from 10:30 til 12:30. Nothing came in on the trail and didn't see anything move through the rest of the timber I could see.

I will for sure be buying a tree stand this summer. might also pick up some of those "bears feet" stalking booties for when I am still hunting.

and the reason I only say in the spot tonight where I had the doe come in is because I didn't think they'd come in until right before dark. Going in at 3:30 allowed me to slip in before deer were coming into the cut. that doe came in like clockwork at 4:45.

Sounds like your doin it right. A little rain and or wind to cover up your noise would be ideal. Ive almost stepped on deer walking slowly in a hard rain. Your doin it right, it will all come togethor soon. They are kinda like a steelhead too. Your first one is usually the hardest.

they are definitely the other grey ghost! and like I said above, deer would be great people hunters if they had weapons. haha. binnoculars are a must have I've come to learn. the large pair I have work fine when I'm sitting to glass a large area but aren't conducive to glassing as I walk through the timber. I need a compact pair I can have around my neck at all times. I might have seen the deer hiding behind that mossy alder thicket if I was glassing as I still-hunted. it busted out at 40 yards. With binos I may have been able to pick out an ear or it's tail before I blew my cover.

I can't stop replaying the close encounters from the weekend in my head. It was definitely a learning experience!

A famous blackie trick is to circle back and see what scared them in the first place. So hunkering down and waiting for them to come back and play peek a boo works. A good strategy sometimes is to bust them out on purpose to see where they are holding and moving. If you are busting them out moving slow and cautious you are not recognizing that you are in an area holding deer soon enough. Go back and study the area in detail and then plot it on a map and make notes to study it in the off season. . Look at how they entered and what they are feeding on, what about the terrain and browse makes the area attractive. What was the suns position, what was the elevation, where was the snow, was a storm coming or ending. You will learn to enter such areas in a certain way that will increase your chances of coming in undetected. Deer are very predictable once you start thinking and seeing things like a deer. Deer are alarmed by their ears, nose and eyes in that order if the weather is calm. . If it’s windy and loud in the woods it switches to nose, eyes, and ears. Keep trying you will put it all together.

I read that they will sometimes circle back when spooked. wish I would have remembered that when I bumped the one out of the alder thicket...

Hunter plunking.

Best hunters I've known cover ground.....fast. just sayin'

just picked up a pair of Nikon monarch ATB 10x42's on the cheap. also got a binocular/rangefinder harness. I'm one step closer to being at high tech predator status now. hoping to get out soon.

You going to be down our way again this weekend?

I'm shooting for a day trip soon.