How do you hunt?

[Jerry D]

Pick a couple species of animals and give a short description of how you hunt them so a new hunter whose just getting into it has an idea of where to begin or how involved they can get.

Deer - we hunt private land and stands. Ladder stands, tripods, popups and wooden tree stands on scaffold - scout the area, hunt field edges and travel corridors in the bush. We can invest more time and money here because it is private land.

Ruffed/Spruce Grouse - We simply walk the bush slowly looking for them, private land, crown land. Its the same.

Ducks - We walk edges of streams and waterways looking for them.

Geese - We wait at the edge of a small pond for them to fly over and land on it. They are regulars at the pond so we don't bother calling them in. If they are out of range, we can sneak around the banks and flush them off the pond. Like to do this once a year for a weekend away.

Most of my hunting, only requires the shooter to have permission on the land and a rifle or shotgun. Very little gear required. Simple rifles for closer range shooting and a common 20 or 12 gauge shotgun.

If your hunting crown land and don't have time to scout, we take the week hunting and scout while hunting. Drive or walk some trails. Find some spots that feel good to setup for the day or afternoon. Look for sign before you leave. At the end of the week you'll know the area better than you did, spent time outdoors, maybe bagged something as well and know more for next year!

[huntinstuff]

Deer

I will spend a few days scouting out some likely areas from past experience. Tracks, type of food close, how it will change after harvest, walk and look for beds. Later I will recheck for scrapes. Make my own or urine up the existing ones and plan a stand area or decent natural blind

Moose

I look for willow, check for chewed plants, and I will go out in late September, whether I have a tag or not, and I will simply sit and call and bulls come out eventually. Sometimes I will have more than one online. It is great practice. I find that a poplar stand near willow and swamp tends to produce better.

Sometimes i will sit at a cutline intersection and just watch all 4 directions.

I think most hunters forget that just sitting is usually very effective. But many dont do it. They feel the need to move. Patience is a virtue in the bush. Yeah, it can be boring, but you see a lot. Ive sat and watched pine martens, weasels, coyotes and bears walk down lines. A few lynx. And one time, 5 elk just popped out and walked past me.

[obsessed1]

Elk.
Generally I hunt elk in the rut starting in Aug.
Due to recent health issues I don't use an atv but rather hike into thick bedding areas and call. Once rifle season opens if I still have a tag I continue as before just with a long gun...if season get on and I still have a tag I track Elk then call them from their beds. I generally hunt aggressively and prefer to be moving to find game rather than sitting.


Coyotes
Generally call both open areas and thick brush. I also spot and shoot them when possible.

Wt deer
Again I prefer to hunt deer aggressively again and still hunt, track, rattle,and call mostly. I do sometimes sit a tree stand or saddle but I tend to prefer to be moving around.

Generally speaking I like to hunt aggressive and be moving rather than sitting a cut line or blind/ stand.

[ChrisGrohms]

I suspect this will be a short thread as those who hunt via truck will not be sharing and me thinks most hunt this way.....

[jungleboy]

Deer

I drive around in my Yamaha Viking looking for grouse on lease roads and cut lines.
If a deer steps out, I get out of my Yamaha Viking and shoot the deer.

If no deer steps out, I am happy because I am driving around in my Yamaha looking for grouse and my knees , hips and other ailments don’t bother me as much as they do when I am walking.

When it’s really cold I drive around in my truck doing the same thing except I stay out of the cut lines

I have worn out more than my share of boot leather slogging through the bush after Deer so I don’t feel any remorse at all for being a4x4 hunter now.

[Dale S]

On the flat prairie of southern Alberta starting out in a truck is the way to go. It's big open country. Take the Suffield Base for instance. It would be a tough hunt with out a truck. Since you can see so well on the flat prairie, you need to take advantage of it. Finding high spots and glassing. If there's nothing around you have to move on. Keep looking. You just can't do that on foot out here. You need to be in a truck. We put on the miles until we find something. Then the stalk is on. So pretty much a spot and stalk hunt. Spotting from my truck.

[slough shark]

Waterfowl mostly field shoots with some slough hunting and 1 place we jump shoot on a creek.
Whitetail- mostly makeshift ground blind or tree stand
Mulie- spot and stalk
Moose- spot and stalk
Elk - call during the rut or spot and stalk later in the year

[Dick284]

Waterfowl: drive around and find a field they are feeding in, get permission, set up on the X, in anticipation, for the next feeding cycle.

Ungulates: park my derrière in the elevated and heated blind, and wait for the quarry to step out.

[huntinstuff]

Originally Posted by ChrisGrohms

I suspect this will be a short thread as those who hunt via truck will not be sharing and me thinks most hunt this way.....

Nothing wrong with driving, seeing a deer or moose on land you can hunt, getting out and shooting it.

[Smoky buck]

Whitetail

I enjoy the long game ambush in bush country. Start scouting early and often checking out different locations. I do this till September early October and then I choose the locations I have most faith in. Because I hunt thick bush I prefer tree stands. I don’t get serious about whitetail hunting till late October early November. I also utilize multiple calls

Moose

I prefer still hunting combined with calling. Mature poplars near swamps or rivers are my favorite

Black bear

Spot & stalk and some predator calling. Cover lots of ground looking for potential feeding areas. Find the feeling areas that hold good sign and glass the location or cycle through multiple locations. I use predator calls on bears spotted in the distance in areas that are poor stalking conditions

[Pudelpointer]

Elk - climbing to a high spot before first light, glassing from 50 m to 15 km. Spot elk, go after them, regret later shooting a bull so far from where you can get you truck. Quiet cow calls if they are close but I cannot see them, and will blow it if I get much closer. Only difference for archery season is I do more blind calling, including some bugling.

Whitetail - I really enjoy still hunting (moving slowly through the timber), and calling and rattling, however, almost all hunters will be more productive if they sit in a blind or stand. One to three slow steps, stop, glass EVERYTHING from way close to as far as you can see.

Mule deer - Still hunt the timber or bottoms, or spot and stalk the prairies.

Birds = dog work. Old shotguns, new shotguns, singles, semis, SxSs, O/Us.

[obsessed1]

Originally Posted by huntinstuff

Nothing wrong with driving, seeing a deer or moose on land you can hunt, getting out and shooting it.

In some places/ for some people it's the best way to hunt

[catnthehat]

Deer: I am primarily s still Hunter/ stalker , but I have been parked in a elevated fancy stand z few yeas back , and have set up in ground blinds .

Moose :I hunt are primarily on the river , drifting an calling but I have shot two on a special calf draw down south on farm lSnc - that was cruise / spot and stalk

waterfowl: my favorite way is on a water spread of jump dhooting Ducks , but I also us field spreads .

Upland : over a dog with a shotgun or walking sandy trails with a black powder rifle or shotgun.

Cat

[wildwoods]

Bears:
Go to a remote NW area of the province and drive around. Once you spot one, determine if it’s a shooter and get stalking it. Waiting for a bear (unless baiting) is pretty futile (there are guys who are proficient at calling them. Not my cup of tea.) . Cover lots of ground (I use a side by side) and get after it!

[KegRiver]

I hunt for the food that the species I am interested in prefers.
That changes with the seasons.

For Geese in the fall a good place to start is by finding pea fields.

For Deer, early in the fall that could be canola fields or any place with peavine or members of the clover family. Later they switch to second growth alfalfa or canola. Later still they switch to small twigs such as Saskatoon ans Willow saplings.

For Moose, early season I look for swamp areas with marsh marigold or similar broad leaf plants. After the leaves start to turn I look for willow flats or old cut blocks with lots of poplar saplings.

For grouse I look for rose hips and other late fruit in heavy cover. Mountain cranberries and Chick berries are also favorites.

For Bear, standing Wheat and oats are worth checking.

[Phil McCracken]

Originally Posted by huntinstuff

Nothing wrong with driving, seeing a deer or moose on land you can hunt, getting out and shooting it.

You are kidding right?

[MyAlberta]

Waterfowl - Drive 100s kms tracking feeders, decoy in or setup on flights paths.
Upland - chase while spotting waterfowl.
Whitetail - sit quietly at pinch points pre scouted, with just enough cover to draw.
Mule - spot and stalk, grunt.
Moose - push with buddies

[thumper]

For prairie deer, it's drive, park and walk - checking out coulees. Few roads follow ridge tops, so getting out and sneaking over the ridge tops to scan the other side works well.
For deer and moose in the foothills, I 'saunter' along trails, stopping and sitting for 15 minutes or so, then moving for 15 minutes or so to the next vantage point. I often carry a 3-legged stool for this. I know it would probably be more productive to stay in one spot, but I'm not patient enough to sit still that long, and sooner or later - while sauntering along, a deer will show up! The trick is 'sauntering' - not hiking, not walking, just sauntering along without a specific destination in mind, in a slow, pokey, random manner. Bonus points for getting distracted by birds, mushrooms and cloud formations.
For antelope, it's find a high spot and glass, figure out which way they're headed, get in front of them unseen, dig in & wait. I don't even bother to try and 'sneak' them!

[calgarychef]

Bow hunting deer is so easy.... sit in a likely spot from sept until the second week of November. Go out lots and lots, burn lots of gas, get mosquito bit early on and freeze my arse off later in the season but go out many times! Waste time, waste gas! See not much! Don’t get many shot opportunities.

I always try to miss easy shots a few times early in the season just to waste some expensive arrows and destroy my confidence. Then about the second week of November I kill a deer. When I bring it home my wife always says... “ I knew you wouldn’t get one until November.”

[sns2]

Originally Posted by huntinstuff

Nothing wrong with driving, seeing a deer or moose on land you can hunt, getting out and shooting it.

This ^^^

But I never forget this just in case...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/2-Pack-Ju...pose/132751498

[ChrisGrohms]

When we started having little kids we would take the boys out west of Caroline and hike down cutlines pushing a stroller looking for grouse. man what a blast that was.
A friend and I had tried our hand at bow season moose in 417 and had found a cool spot we would quad into and setup camp and hike from there. It was logged shortly before we left AB so it became quite accessible.
Here in BC now we set up camp and usually hike around. The kiddos are still little so can't venture to far from camp.
There is nothing wrong with shooting animals from amidst the dust and screeching gravel and brakes and have harvested (won't call it hunting) animals this way myself but I really do enjoy getting out on foot or in a blind.

[Knotter]

Elk- starting with a bow in hand I like to call early season and locate, moving light and fast, working over the features they are using. Switch to spot and stalk post rut.

Deer- Exclusively on private land with permission. Usually only a few times per property to keep the intrusions down. With a bow it's in a stand or blind with the odd stalk mixed in. With a rifle it's sitting a watching the travel routes and feeding areas with hard rules about not touching the bedding areas.

Waterfowl- geese I spot fields for likely spots for them to land. I don't think I've ever seen them land in a canola field. The right crops and food matter. Then hit the big roosting water and chase them into the fields. Knowing the likely spots pays off. Then we st up on the field the next morning so long as the wind has not changed. Layout blinds or burlap bivies. Do the odd Bushwack jump shoot or pass shoot with dekes to bring them closer.

Grouse- whatever I can use to make a clean and relatively quiet kill.

Moose - calling with a bow in hand or bust.

[brewster29]

Elk: Younger days- go anywhere any terrain any time chasing bugles. However, now that I am in my 60's I hunt smarter. In my province we have a general open season on 6 pt Bulls, which means I get to hunt every season, but also means there is a lot of competition. Usually I hunt solo. I have three or 4 areas that hold elk that I check out on a rotating basis. I hike slowly through my areas, set up and keep cow calling quietly for at least half an hour or so and listening lots, move several hundred yards and repeat. There are a few spots where I "power" cow call across meadows and into large tracts of timber to pull elk to me. I almost never bugle as it usually drives herd bulls away. I don't hurry because I discovered lots of Bulls came in quietly 30-40 minutes after I began to call. I won't go more than an hour from vehicle access. Since I slowed down and began to go solo my success rate has gone up. I found with a partner we usually called for 5 minutes and moved... I don't even want to think about how many Bulls came in silently 20 minutes after we left.

[Trochu]

They see through your plan Jerry D, not a one of these clever old Dodgers has given you any tips for hunter Cougars!

[huntinstuff]

Originally Posted by Phil McCracken

You are kidding right?

Not at all

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by Phil McCracken

You are kidding right?

I posted this a few years back, and it is something to think about.
http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=215831
Cat

[Dewey Cox]

Originally Posted by Phil McCracken

You are kidding right?

What exactly is wrong with that?

[Dewey Cox]

I really only hunt deer, and here's how I do it:
Get out before the sun, and sit in a spot that deer will probably walk by.
Usually within rifle range of my house.
But sometimes I'll drive as far as 20 min to get to my hunting spot.
If I have family down from the city, we'll usually drive around for an hour before lunch, and an hour after lunch just so they feel like we're putting proper effort into our hunt.
And then in the afternoon, I'll sit somewhere the deer will walk past for 2 or 3 hours.

[roper1]

Originally Posted by Phil McCracken

You are kidding right?

Wake up, hit the remote start, need the Ford warmed up, pull covers back up. Rassle around a bit hoping the old girl will get sick of it & go make coffee and breakfast. Get up, grab rifle & head for Ford. Throw gun in, run to back of garage for pool noodle. All set, lock 'er into 4 high & hit the back roads.

[Dewey Cox]

Originally Posted by roper1

Wake up, hit the remote start, need the Ford warmed up, pull covers back up. Rassle around a bit hoping the old girl will get sick of it & go make coffee and breakfast. Get up, grab rifle & head for Ford. Throw gun in, run to back of garage for pool noodle. All set, lock 'er into 4 high & hit the back roads.

That's disgusting.
Your type of hunting makes me sick.
You degrade the title "outdoorsmen".

With everything man kind has learned about about our existence, our place in the world, our duty to the universe, our "raison d'etre", how can you still drive a Ford?