Still Hunting Speed

[eschatts]

How fast or slow doe's everybody stillhunt? Doe's your success rate go up or down with your speed?
I still hunt extremly slow. I might take one step every four min. or so.

Ed

[Duffy]

I'm not exactly "Mr. Stealth", but I've been successful still-hunting in the past, this Saturday at Ravenna notwithstanding. My speed? Not sure, guessing maybe a step or two every two minutes. Maybe that's actually "fast". Still-hunting is not my preference, though, I do it only as conditions dictate.

[Thunderflight]

I've never been any good at it, but then again I've never really tried it either.

A while back I was watching Bushnells Secrets of the Hunt and the comentator made a good comment about still hunting speed. He said that if you are wearing your winter hunting clothes and you start to get warm then you are moving too fast.

[Nut]

I love to still hunt. I just use my normal walking speed which is slower than a snail.Naw I usually take 10steps and then stand for 5 minutes or more. Last time I kept track I went 70 yards in 3 hours. Of course I had to drag a deer after that. which was way slower until I got my oldest son to do the rest.:D

[MUZZY MAN]

Interesting question. When you stop Nut, do you crouch, kneel or just stand upright?

[Nut]

Originally posted by MUZZY MAN
Interesting question. When you stop Nut, do you crouch, kneel or just stand upright?

It depends on where I stop. I try to be in a couple of trees or some other cover to help break up my outline.But mostly I am kneeling at the stops to be at the same level as the deer.

The time I typed out about dragging the deer I shot it while in between stops. I heard a noise from the brush and stopped and knelt right where I was. The deer never knew I was there until too late.

Ground conditions also will determine if Ican or not do this.
;)

[Jimmy]

1 step every 4 minutes?

Holy crap.........I've been doing it all wrong. I have been taking 10-12 slow steps and waiting 2-4 minutes depending on what I see, hear and what the ground is like.

[shotgun]

It depends on the conditions. Last gun season i had a steady drizzle hunting some hard hunted land on wayne national the 3rd day of gun season. I walked with 20 yards of a bedded 8 point who never left his bed. He was watchin a pipeline (hunters usual entrance) while i slipped in the backdoor. I was surprised how close he was before i actually saw him.

[OHBOW76]

If you arent getting annoyed, anxious, and mentally fatigued, then you arent going slow enough. The key word in still huntign is STILL, meaning you spend alot more time looking and less moving. I like to still hunt down creekbeds, I have seen some nice bucks doing this, getting a shot is a different story.

[10Gauge]

Go as slow as you can then slow down!

Sometimes it might take me 30 minutes to go 10 yards.....practice trying to sneak up on a yound doe or button buck who is feeding. Last year while walking a logging road I saw a young buck feeding alongside the road.......I started stalking & still hunting him just to see how close I could get. When he couldn't see me (head down) I'd move quickly but quietly. When he looked back I'd move at a snail pace. Got almost close enough to touch him with an arrow!

Turkey's are another story (love doing this when it's raining), try still hunting about 6 or 7 mature toms, that's nuts, too many eyes to fool, but I did get within bow range (30 yards) before one of the birds saw me move!

OHBOW is 100% - making the shot might be a different story!

[eschatts]

I don't think that you can move to slow when still hunting. It is a challenge to slow yourself down. It seems that you are anxious to find deer and will find yourself moving faster than you should. This takes alot of practice to be good at.

Ed

[Andy Gehle]

Two man still hunts are the catsass, IMO. You can move a little faster and it's alot more fun.
We did it with success last year on a doe. The two guys walk behind one another, about 100-200 yards or so apart. Guy one still hunts at a slow rate, but faster than one should be still hunting alone. Guy number two stays put for a while. Once the first guy gets a couple hundred yards out front, then guy number two can follow VERY slowly.
You can do all kinds of stop/start routines, or leap frog each other, whatever. The basic premise is if the guy out front walks slowly, but not SUPER slowly, than a deer will hold tight as he walks past, and then double back on the hunter's backtrail.....where guy number two should be waiting.
It's REALLY fun...working as a team, covering more ground, and usually seeing a deer or two....which can be rare when still hunting alone.

On another note, anyone who still has standing corn around should be still hunting their butt off right about now. Cold, wet, windy day; still hunting down a corn row.....OH MY!!! Now there's something that if you get good at it, your success rates can be surprisingly good.

Can you tell I was raised by a still hunter? I love it!

[Duffy]

The following is a good article along the line of slowing down:

http://www.outdoorlife.com/outdoor/hunting/article/0,19912,1118485-1,00.html

[OHBOW76]

I like 2 man drives that are pretty quiet with one guy just moving downwid through thick cover towards you. Andy alot of guys do that with the rifle in the big woods of ME, I have seen soem monsters shot that way.

[Andy Gehle]

I was weened in the Upper *****ula of Michigan. Alot of the same tactics as Maine, from what I hear.

[OHBOW76]

I would imagine they are......I alwys wanted to hunt the U.P. I like big woods huntign with rifles.

[Andy Gehle]

Me too. Kind of let's you know you're still alive.
My Dad always used to say, "You aint a hunter if you've never been lost for more than 4 hours, or lost a toe to frostbite."

He was kidding about the toe thing, but dam can a guy get lost in those woods!!!! I came REAL close to spending a night in the woods once.

[OHBOW76]

Thats okay as long as you are prepared and use your head. Isn't it funny how we have a fear of sleeping under the stars, the indians and old trappers used to do it all the time. And we have better gear and equipment. I tell you what when I have headed to Northern ME (Aroostook County), I almost dread the drive home, the closer you get to polulation the more you wnat to say hell with it and turn round. You dont see many deer but there are some absolutely huge bodied monsters with thick, dark, gnarly racks!!

[Andy Gehle]

When I was a kid, that big woods used to intimidate me. Where to start? Once you finally get it, and can eliminate the majority of the woods as a decent spot, it gets easier. But you're right, you don't see as many deer, but there were some real brutes. And old buck had to be a real badass to make it through some of those winters.
Cedar swamps are always the kinds of places a big old buck would live up there.

...it's been a couple years for me. My Dad moved to South Carolina and he likes to hunt Ohio now, instead of the UP. But I can't wait to start going back with my own kids.
It's feels like an entirely different kind of hunting.

[Nut]

My Dad never hunted deer. He only hunted tree rats and rabbits growing up in SE Kentucky andtook me along when I was a kid there. He basically used the same still hunting tatics for the squirrels as I do now for deer.

One thing you can not do still hunting is to take a child along unless they are in training to be a ninja.;)

[Duffy]

Along the lines of getting lost, I have a story to share. I have shared on other threads here that my uncle taught me everything I know abouut hunting (or at least the basics) when I was growing up, and I spent a lot of time with him and my cousins hunting, learning woodsmanship, etc. One day, my uncle wanted to teach us about finding one's way in the outdoors that he said he learned in the Army. He actually blindfolded us, loaded us in his ytruck, and drove around for what seemed like a long time. Then he parked, let us out, and told us to get our bearings based on the sun's position, and travel west to get back to an old barn near the farm that we were familiar with, where we started out. He would hang around but not help, in case we got to intimidated. To make a long story short, it turned out that we were only on the other side of a hill, only about 300 yards from the barn. What seemed like a long drive was only going around in circles for 30 mins. or so! After he had his giggles, we learned more practical solutions to outdoor navigation.

Of course, you couldn't blindfold kids and throw themi nto the back of a truck and tell them to find their way back home nowadays!

[Nut]

Of course, you couldn't blindfold kids and throw themi nto the back of a truck and tell them to find their way back home nowadays!


You can't?:( ;)

["J"]

Uh-Oh I gotta go!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek: