If you guys are anything like me and many of you probably are, you are continually looking at ways to evolve your hunting skill. I pretty much only hunt public land and found I was spending a lot of time roaming around but not creating any great shot opportunities and I wasn’t seeing many deer when I would wait in ambush near clearings. I always got my deer but knew that sometimes it was purely just because of the amount of time I was spending in the field.
So in October of 2019, I sent Bushleague a private message after reading a post of his. I explained that I wanted to learn more about Still Hunting. A phone call later and we were set up to chase some bucks in the woods in the middle of November.
For the 2019 hunting season I had put in for an antlered WT draw, so I would be unable to shoot a buck while hunting with BL, but that wasn’t the point, I was there to learn.
We met up on the evening of November 14, 2019. A plan was hatched, we would hunt a spot the following morning that BL hadn’t hunted in a couple of years. When we woke up on the morning of the 15th we were blessed with a fresh dusting of snow, probably no more than a centimeter, but enough that we could hunt with a blended style of tracking and still hunting. Once the truck was parked we quickly took off, we were sort of racing against first light but also just booting it to where we wanted to start to still hunt.
Once we were close and BL picked up a track, we slowed way down. I often find one of the hardest things about hunting the bush is the first couple of steps into it. It’s often thick and you may not know what is on the other side, but once you’re in the options open up. Because of fresh snow, BL had quickly picked up a track and was following it into the bush and out of the overgrown cutline we were currently in. We had only been on the track for thirty or forty meters when BL whispered, “this scat looks like it’s from a buck, I’m fairly certain we are on a buck.” With that we slowly pressed on, BL studying the track and the surroundings, me not far behind taking in the forest as it starts to materialize with the sunrise. We probably moved a few hundred meters into the bush when BL turned back and whispered, “it’s a medium-sized deer and most definitely a buck we are following.” With that, we continued at the pace where I started to understand why it’s called still hunting. It was only a few more meters further down the track a medium-size buck, stood up out of its bed, unsure of who or what was in his bedroom. That’s because we were intentionally trying to move through the bush the way a deer might move through the bush, slowly, with a deer-like cadence, constantly scanning for anything resembling the tiniest part of a deer. As the buck began to trot away. BL sent out a bleat, quickly attracting the buck's attention. As though I was reading a book on how to still hunt whitetail deer, the buck slowly turned and began to circle downwind of us. I had a good view of everything, I was excited and signaled to BL that it was indeed a nice buck. With that, BL raised his rifle, and the moment the buck gave him an opening, bang! I think I accurately named that buck the Text Book Buck as everything happened as though it was out of a textbook written about still hunting.
The following day we headed out once more, as I mentioned before I did not have a Gen. WT tag and was hunting with supplemental tags. This second day of hunting was just as quick to get into the action as the day before. It hadn’t been more than a few hundred yards of still hunting and we had a buck walk past us, the buck was within thirty yards and unaware of our presence as it was moving quickly and grunting loudly. Again BL sent out a call and the buck quickly changed its attention in our direction and began closing the distance between us. Because we couldn’t shoot, we just watched the buck. The buck eventually figured out something was off and carried on his way.
With these two experiences, I would say I was hooked. A couple of nice bush bucks within forty yards of us with under a day and a half of hunting. Hearing a deer grunt for the first time. I was hooked.
Bushleague's buck
Now to get back home and chase a buck on my own.
I wasn’t going to have as much time as I expected to hunt wt in 2019, at the last second work needed me to move my “rutcation”. I decided I would take the first buck I managed to sneak up on.
The day I put it all together was November 25th I woke up to fresh snow on the ground. By the time first light came over the mountains I was already in place, ready to start still hunting in an area I had seen whitetail before and I area I saw a nice buck a couple of days prior but never managed a shot. The problem was since the last time I had visited this particular piece of land it had snowed quite a bit and had seen a bunch of human pressure. The deer seemed to have completely moved. I executed what felt like a perfect day of still hunting and could barely find any fresh sign, let alone seeing a buck. It was the middle of the afternoon and I was unsure of what my next move was, were the deer just hunkered down? After a quick snack and a chat with some sheep hunters, I went on my way, hoping to at least find some fresh sign that I could use as a starting point for the following day. I started to move quickly when I cut a couple of sets of fresh tracks. I knew by the freshness the deer couldn’t be far off. I had a heavy pack on and after setting it down and marking its location on GPS, I started down the track I decided was most fresh. It wasn’t a couple hundred more meters and I hear a snort, ****! I was scared I was going to run out of legal light and started moving too fast. Barely moving an inch I sneak out my deer call and let out a bleat. Through my binos I can see the feet of a deer start to turn, going from facing away to now broadside. I still can’t see antlers, there’s too much brush up high. As I patiently wait with the bucks brisket in my sights, it slowly turns to face me. I still can’t see the antlers even though the deer is within forty yards. So I lower my kneeling position into some sort of a kneeling squat to get as low as I can. The deer is doing that thing where they move their head, almost cat-like, as they try to figure out what you are. I can now see it’s a buck, not a mature buck and so I hesitate, my crosshairs sitting on the front of its chest. I remind myself the freezer is nearly empty and boom, I send a ttsx into the boiler room. The buck didn’t move an inch. Now I only had 4 km to get this deer into my truck.
With that, I was done chasing bucks for 2019. I still had a supplemental tag in my pocket and in an attempt to fill it had another cool encounter with a buck you can see in the video below. Truth be told I probably had a half dozen really neat encounters with bucks while still hunting during the 2019 season, all definitely inside of 50 yards and most not that I was there or what I was.
2019 buck
I had to drag the deer through 400 meters of this before getting to a better trail.
A fun video I got of a buck after my tag was filled, I spent the morning still hunting and finally just sat down against a fence post to relax and come up with a plan. I hadn't been sitting down 5 minutes.
https://youtu.be/uy6Y7kfYK7o
I was going to post that story at the end of the 2019 season but I guess I got busy. I typed it up once and lost it. It has been fun to type it again and think about that year.
2020 - I tried to take the lessons I learned into the 2020 season.
I’ll try to make this write-up much quicker. The goal for the 2020 WT season was to find my wife a nice buck, as well as help some friends get some bucks and find myself a mature deer. Because of Covid, I ended up moving my summer holidays to November, this meant I was going to have the time to try and tick all of these off.
Early November had me out hunting with my wife. I had located some nice bucks and wanted to do what I could to get her one. I find “guiding” family or friends to be one of the more challenging things to do hunting. You have to find opportunities that are fun, effective, and ethical for them. This might be shortening the shooting distance, finding a decent shooting rest, or just making sure they are ready to shoot through the ebbs and flows of a day afield.
After four days of hunting hard with my wife and a couple of opportunities, we were seeing less and less deer. One downside to still hunting in my opinion is that it is much easier to overhunt an area. Instead of sneaking your way into a stand and keeping your scent somewhat local all day, you are dragging it all around the bush. The deer become more alert and become better at using the terrain to avoid you. In my experience, they don’t leave, but they get better at becoming unseen. So after a few days and my wife passing at a shot on a nice buck at 60 yards, she didn’t feel good about the shot, it was time to give the area some rest. My wife went back to work and I took a buddy out who had successfully harvested does before but was looking to hold out for a buck this season.
I wanted to show him what still hunting was all about. It was a windy day, a bit too windy for my liking but it was going to disguise our movement. After a morning of slowly working our way through the bush I was starting to get frustrated and feel the pressure, I guess the pressure is always a bit higher when hunting with someone else and hoping to help them. The wind was what was frustrating me, it seemed like we would come up with a plan, still hunt through a segment of the bush, only to find the wind was changing or swirling. It was around then my friend suggested that the wind was somewhat consistent when we were near the edges of the bush. With that, we kept the edge of the bush insight and crept our way up a ridge that I knew consistently held deer. As I was working my way up the ridge I caught movement forty or so yards ahead. A quick peek through my binos revealed a young buck grazing his way up the hill. I was already tucked behind a tree and looked behind for my friend, I couldn’t see him and had no idea where he was. So I used the time to shift my position so that if he came up behind me I wouldn’t be in the way of any shot opportunity. At this point, I was lying on the ground when I finally saw my friend pop up behind me. I signaled there was a buck and it was 40 yards away, with that my friend kneeled to get lower. Even though the buck was close, my buddy just couldn’t see it in the thick blowdown. I couldn’t blame him, I had been watching the young buck for a couple of minutes and was continually losing its position even though it had hardly moved while grazing up the hillside. With my friend still unable to see the deer I was getting worried the wind was going to finally swirl and we could lose our chance. So I signaled to my friend to try standing up, he caught a quick glimpse of antlers and front shoulder, took the opportunity and fired a shot. It was thick but he managed to thread one through the branches and the buck took off. The shot was a bit far back and hit the liver, the buck maybe ran 40 yards and expired. For me it was an exciting moment, I had now been able to pass on some knowledge about the art of still hunting.
Buddy's deer.
We took this picture to give an idea of the bush where it was shot.
At this point, I still had some time off work and my wife was still busy working so I headed to a new area, this allowed me to give the spot my wife enjoys hunting some extra rest. I was very lucky to wake up on November 23rd to fresh snow. A little more wind and it would have been what Hal Blood refers to as a “deer killing day” I didn’t know the area so the fresh snow was extra important. I walked a double-track until I picked up a large fresh track, I followed it into the trees and slowed everything right down. The last thing I wanted to hear at first light on a day like I had been given was a silence-piercing snort. I crept through the bush, more mindful than ever of my foot placement and balance. I would stop on one foot and my hand on a tree if I felt a deer would have paused right there. As I followed the track I also intercepted other tracks, however, I believe I managed to stay on the track I was following. The track was starting to wander and I knew there was a good chance it could be nearby. As they often do a buck materialized right in front of me. He was staring in my direction, roughly 20 yards away. He was clueless as to what I was and started to turn broadside to get a better look. I was sure to keep my eyes down but for some reason decided to take a better look with my binos. I slowly decided to raise my rifle and sneak some copper between some branches, the buck never made it 10 yards.
This buck was the second deer I was able to successfully still hunt during the 2020 season, the first was a doe in a group of does that never knew I was there. I was close enough that I could only see her shoulder in my scope.
My deer
My shot - you can see the green circle
My doe - closest deer I have ever shot. T3 300wsm.
My travelling set up. It gets cold!
So now I was back at my favorite goal for the season, finding my wife a buck that was larger than her first deer. We were again blessed with fresh snowfall, but instead of ending overnight, the snow was still falling when we hiked into the hills. We headed for an area to wait in ambush over some scrapes from earlier in the year. By 10 am we were getting cold and the snow was starting to stop. I suggested to my wife we come up with a plan as I think the deer are going to start moving very soon. When I am with less experienced hunters I like to have them make some of the decisions. We decided to gain more elevation to where I knew the deer had a travel corridor which was also very close to a doe bedding area. Once we had gained the elevation I told my wife we could still hunt heading into the wind or pick a nice spot to sit, get out some snacks and tea and see how long we can sit now that we are a bit warmer. She chose snacks, and I can’t blame her, she was pregnant and I dragged her all over the bloody hills that fall. We were only a few bites into our banana bread and I was still pouring tea when my wife shouted deer! That’s right a bit too loudly she proclaimed DEER! The deer's head was down but I knew the way it was moving that it was a buck with its nose to the ground. I whispered that I would stop it in an opening and shoot when she was ready. I decided to use a call instead of shouting as I wasn’t the shooter and it might stop the deer more softly. It worked perfectly, the deer looked our way, surprised there was anything there at all, in his curiosity moving closer and offering a 25-yard quartering to shot. He never went farther than 20 yards. The 100gr ttsx again served up textbook performance. My wife chose to field dress the deer while I backtracked his tracks back to his bed, I would be marking that location down for the future. Now an easy 2 km drag out on fresh snow and we could rest, our 2020 season was complete.
My wife admires her deer.
My wife hiking out with a couple of rifles strapped to her backpack as I help a friend drag out a buck a couple of kilometers to the truck. My friend had decided to wait in ambush at a location I told him about while I still hunted the area.
The reason I wanted to share this story was because of the full circle experience from being taught about and experiencing still hunting to being able to pass that knowledge and experience on. It might also give some hunters motivation to try something new this winter.
Still Hunting is my preferred method of hunting and I will use it even when the conditions aren’t favorable. I believe that trying to track or still hunt when the conditions aren’t great is good for getting better, but also for discovering fresh sign. That’s not to say I won’t sit in ambush, usually, however, the areas I may decide to sit are spots I have discovered while out still hunting.
Everyone will have the rules they try to follow when they are hunting a certain style. I do my best to keep the wind in my face, it’s not always possible when still hunting or tracking but when I can I try to keep my scent behind me. I am constantly glassing with my binoculars, for two reasons. One it forces me to slow down and allows me to look and listen. Secondly, you can focus so much deeper into the bush than your eyes would normally allow. Lastly, I try to wear clothing geared towards being quiet, most of the stuff marketed towards whitetail hunting works perfectly. I also wear some form of a rubber boot, they kind of suck for hiking all over the hills, but when you have to follow a track across some bog or creek they pay off.
In the end, it’s all about what floats your boat and trying something new. I have rattled deer in but never rattled and then killed a deer. I would like to do that someday. I would also like to get one from up high in a tree with my bow.
I have a 6-month-old this year so time is going to be a lot tighter, but if I can get a day with a bit of fresh snow and a breeze you better believe I'm going to do everything I can to get out there.
Still Hunting
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