Still hunting becoming a lost art?

[bucknuts]

I almost never hear much talk about still hunting these days. Hunting "Spots" are merely places i like to still hunt to. Kinda hard to do when there is a 4 wheeler and a feeder around every bend. I feel like i am out of place in the hunting world today. Yea i kill deer out of feeders too. I just enjoy my time much more slipping around the woods. Anyone else?

[panhandlehunter]

I almost never hear much talk about still hunting these days. Hunting "Spots" are merely places i like to still hunt to. Kinda hard to do when there is a 4 wheeler and a feeder around every bend. I feel like i am out of place in the hunting world today. Yea i kill deer out of feeders too. I just enjoy my time much more slipping around the woods. Anyone else?

I grew up still hunting with my grandpa, I'm not old, 29, but that's how I learned to hunt. What makes it tough these days, is that most leases are too crowded to hunt that way.

[Bisch]

Not me! I don't have the patience to still hunt. I want to sit still in a place where I think the deer will come close to me. Sometimes that is at a feeder and sometimes just on a well used trail.

Bisch

[Limbwalker]

I almost never hear much talk about still hunting these days. Hunting "Spots" are merely places i like to still hunt to. Kinda hard to do when there is a 4 wheeler and a feeder around every bend. I feel like i am out of place in the hunting world today. Yea i kill deer out of feeders too. I just enjoy my time much more slipping around the woods. Anyone else?

There aren't many places left in Texas where a person can still hunt with success.

There are a few places on public lands, but if you're not careful you'll **** off all the other public land hunters.

A guy would need a lot of property to still hunt.

It's popular in many others states still, because of the availability of unbroken public land.

If I had a choice, it would be the only way I hunt, however I can usually be found in a tree stand over a well used trail come deer season. Feeders are a last resort for me.

[RTC]

Not me! I don't have the patience to still hunt. I want to sit still in a place where I think the deer will come close to me. Sometimes that is at a feeder and sometimes just on a well used trail.

Bisch

Feel the same way, btw I still hunted a lot when I was a teen, enjoyed the heck out of it.

[bucknuts]

Sitting still usually more effective for sure. I am lucky enough to have relatives that put up with my roaming around and messing up there hunting.

[jefandaward]

I killed my first doe still hunting and got an elk the same way two years ago. It is an art form and I really am addicted to it. I'm all for using different techniques and blasting at feeders too, but I prefer still hunting by far.

[Abcdj]

At our lease if you are on foot you get busted, period! I don't know why. Except during he rut. I guess thin cover and pretty flat. Drive up in a mule, stop sit there moving around they trot off and stop to look. Step foot out of the mule and off to the races they go. It's strange for sure.

[PSD Ryan]

I've always enjoyed it. I usually see more deer, and even if i don't, at least i got a nice hike through the woods. I get bored in a stand

[buckmastertexas]

i am very addicted to this!

[bentstick]

I'll guard corn whenever I need to, but I'd rather still hunt!

[Tracker0721]

No offense to any stand hunters, but the day that I can no longer still hunt, stalk, whatever you call creeping through the woods, is the day I quit hunting. Baiting is illegal in WA. so I grew up with everyone saying it was poaching or harvesting. So I still feel it'll be harvesting to sit over a feeder. I just about pulled a stalk on a Muley buck in the clearing by our creek a minute ago, it's too much fun to go primitive predator and test my skills even without a bow just a camera. To ambush the prey on a trail is okay too, but to sit same spot every night waiting, way too boring for this guy. My dad taught me tracks, sign, and to go find and kill, I'd feel like I'm shunning all he passed on to throw up a stand rather then track a buck

[150class]

I still hunted for 20+ hours over 3 days my last hunt just to crawl up in a tripod, sit for 15 mins, and shoot a buck to wrap up the hunt.

Screw that walking around stuff!

[SwampRabbit]

Since I am pretty much a 1st generation, self taught hunter, I have tried a lot of different styles. When I started off, it was on public land, and since I couldn't read sign very well, I still hunted. When I found the areas that seemed to hold squirrel and deer, I'd focus around that area in the future. Needless to say, it was very difficult and I wasn't very successful because I couldn't get out there often enough. I eventually got on a lease and hunted ground blinds set up 100 yards from feeders out in the hill country. I learned a lot from that and it was a boost to my confidence. When I started bow hunting the next year, I pretty much hunted ground blind/popups that were set about 25 yards off the same feeder. I would throw hand corn to get them in closer. Learned some more. I would get bored however, especially if the cows busted my hunt and I would get out and still hunt. Doing so netted me shots on hogs and axis. I was very proud of those encounters.

It wasn't until I went on a TBH group hunt where we spot and stalked javis/hogs on corned roads that I really started enjoying hunting on foot again.

I also picked up a book by Asbell on still hunting that was a pretty good read. I wanted to see if there was anything I had missed. There is one thing in there that I couldn't agree with more, and I think gets people bummed out on still hunting. Still hunting is not randomly walking through the woods looking for critters. Still hunting is walking a well thought out plan/path that leads you into areas that you already KNOW hold deer.

So I have broken down hunting into 2 strategies. The stalk and the ambush. Still hunting can involve both. Minding the wind and known bedding, feeding, travel corridors, you walk slowly looking for signs of your prey. Once spotted, you have to make a decision. Cut them off and ambush, or stalk up to them for your shot. Sitting in a stand is obviously an ambush. However, I tend to still hunt on my way to the stand. I have on occasion followed a hog on foot after spotting them on my way to a stand.

Hunting over bait vs nature provide food is a different subject and is just a tactic the hunter can employ to create/alter natural travel. I argue that you can still hunt with the use of corn.

[Chunky]

The guys above are right. A lot of Texas does not lend itself to successful still hunting. Add to the fact that you can do it without messing up the next guy over. With the number of hunters per acre getting larger and larger, only makes this worse.

That being said, there are plenty of places in the country, in particular out west were still hunting is alive and well and enjoyed by most. I would suggest off season hog and javy hunts, to keep your skills up, if deer season is not an option on your lease.