I\'d like to know.....

[OldMan]

Sure are a lot of still hunters here.


John......10 steps?? I stop every step.

Still - Do you enter this 1 step mode as soon as you enter the woods or only when you get into an elky area?

Whenever I think elk are around. Almost always in the timber i\'ll move like a snail. It only takes one step to give you new angles. If I stopped every 10 steps like you mentioned i\'d be missing elk/muley\'s.

My dad drove one thought into me 60 years ago.................Son, you can\'t move too slow, but you sure as hell can move too fast.

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

Sure are a lot of still hunters here.


John......10 steps?? I stop every step.

Still - Do you enter this 1 step mode as soon as you enter the woods or only when you get into an elky area?

Whenever I think elk are around. Almost always in the timber i\'ll move like a snail. It only takes one step to give you new angles. If I stopped every 10 steps like you mentioned i\'d be missing elk/muley\'s.

My dad drove one thought into me 60 years ago.................Son, you can\'t move too slow, but you sure as hell can move too fast.

So if I can get a bull to respond and he\'s close, one tactic I could implement is to still hunt my way in. Do you still hunt bedding area\'s? Is it hard to 1 step still hunt herds on the move?

 

[OldMan]

John..........One of the reasons I never call is I don\'t want the elk to know i\'m there. Once you call the bull is alert, and looking in your direction. I don\'t want that. Still hunting is all about seeing the animal before it sees you. So, your movement has to be extremely slow and quiet. If the animal looks in your direction you\'ve failed. Getting back to your 10 steps. You couldn\'t do that without being noticed. It would also be hard to be quiet. Quiet as in no noise at all.

My hunting is 99% in bedding areas. Some say to never do that. I agree if you\'re not good at it. I had 60 years of practicing it. During the scouting, and hunting. I\'ve mentioned how much I scouted. Up to 250 days a year. Scouting for me wasn\'t just finding the bedding areas, but actually simulating a hunt by going in close enough to take an imaginary shot, and then backing out without ever being seen, heard, or smelled. I don\'t recommend that someone that anyone try\'s to go after an elk bedded down during a hunt. Odds for success will be low. Practice during scouting until you can do it everytime without being detected. Of course it\'s much easier to do it on a lone bull than a herd. My dad could do it on a herd, but it took me years before I felt comfortable enough to try it during a hunt.

Still hunting a moving herd is impossible. The definition of still hunting is moving slow, and trying to spot an animal before it sees you. That means you don\'t know an animal is there at all. You hope there\'s one there, and you try to put the odds in your favor by scouting, but i\'m never positive an animal is where i\'m still hunting. So, the animal can\'t be moving most of the time. Unless it\'s moving towards you. Otherwise it will move away from you, and you\'ll never see it. Even a slow walking elk will move faster than a still hunter.

Sometimes it\'s a fine line between still hunting, and stalking. If you see an elk enter a small patch of timber, and you move slowly towards it. You\'re stalking it. If you didn\'t see an elk enter the patch of timber, and you move slowly through it hoping there\'s an elk in it. You\'re still hunting.

Some will dispute this, but i\'m sure i\'m right. The term still hunting means you\'re standing still as much as you\'re walking. I like to carry it further by saying you\'re standing still five times longer than you\'re walking. Step.....long pause looking at everything.....slow step.......long pause...

Part of being a good still hunter is being able to spot little parts of an animal sticking past a log/tree. You also need infinite patience, focus, and balance. Sometimes you may be standing on one foot for 5 minutes on a hill. Move, and the bull is gone.

I could go on forever, but I don\'t want to bore you. I think you\'ll get the idea of what i\'m saying.

btw I was talking about what I used to do, because I am officially retired from hunting now. Fly fishing will get all my attention from now on. This year i\'m going to concentrate on using a fly fishing method, and the old North Country Spider flies that were used in the UK 300 years ago. Should be an interesting challenge.

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

That did not bore me at all! Great info Pete.

So to prevent time in an area void of elk, could you see locate bugling a bull to bed from a distance? Then moving in, knowing that the herd is bedded in an exact area.

Once, I caught 10 cows out feeding in a clear cut. I took off my boots and put on heavy wool socks on and stalked in really close. It was one step....very slowly. Took a cow at 45 yards. I know that\'s more of spot-n-stalk! . But if you know your in an area that definitely has elk, do you try to soften your steps?

P.s. FYI....always make a good mental note of where you left your boots. :lol:

 

[cohunter14]

Very good info Pete. I know you have mentioned a book at some point, but that now it might not happen. Personally, I would love it if you would share some of your thoughts on here if you aren\'t going to do the book. I have learned a lot about still hunting from you over the years, but I am sure there is plenty more that you haven\'t gotten into. Maybe one thread dedicated to your thoughts or multiple threads on different ideas? Something to think about, but would love to hear more!

 

[OldMan]

The book isn\'t dead yet. It\'s just more of a project than I thought it would be. Sometimes it\'s hard putting my thoughts into words. I didn\'t realize how much I relied on instincts in my hunting. I have to think back to how I developed those instincts for it to be of any value to the reader. It\'s not an easy process.

John......taking off your boots will certainly help you stay quiet, but can be pretty uncomfortable in rocky terrain, or mud/snow. I prefer to have something to slip over my boots. They have commercial products you can buy that are like wool slippers. I made a pair from bear skin with the hair left on the outside. Very quiet to walk with, and easily slip on and off. I wore them out, and tossed them when I decided to retire, but i\'d make up something like that if I were anybody who still hunts. It\'s amazing how quiet you can be. Even on crunchy ground if you step slowly enough.

I\'ve often thought that elk are aware when the ground id noisy. If you can sneak up in those conditions the elk are very comfortable that nothing is out there. I have to snicker when I hear someone talking about still hunting, and they say you can only do it under certain conditions. meaning quiet ground. Not true. Noisy ground is the best time to do it.

Hunt like a cat.

 

[Zpd307]

I spent most of my time in Idaho still hunting their bedding areas. I moved so slowly that I was able to be close enough to hear them get up and do their raking rituals. I had it timed pretty well. 10, 12, and 2..... the wind always seemed to change at the last minute. I was within 40 yards numerous times and couldn\'t see them. just tress moving or the occasional antler tine.
one story that was fun to experience..... I still hunted along a well used trail, heading up to their bedding area. it was cool because I followed a bull that left a muddy trail from when he had just wallowed. I sat down around noon to take a break and have some lunch. about 10 minutes into my break, a bull got up 40 yards away and started raking. I got up and watched him for about 10 minutes trying to find a way to get closer. no luck, way too thick. all I could see was the tree that he was beating up swaying back and forth and the occasional antler tips. I could see that he was a rag 5x with the 2 small tines at the split. as I was setting up to call, I heard him lay back down. I figured that I had a good set up. he was on a bench and it was sloped down and thick to my left. it opened up along the bench to my right. the wind was headed up and I would have seen him and had a shot before he could catch my scent. so I called, and heard him get up. I broke sticks, pulled grass, crunched dried leaves. nothing, then the wind swirled and I heard him trot off.... frustrating, I had been there for over a half hour and one little swirl screwed the whole thing up.

 

[Bob Frapples]

My rule for still hunting is if you have to look down to make sure your not stepping on a stick, loose rock or anything to make noise, your moving too fast. The situation always dictate extra speed if you think you can get away with it. If the animal is slowly feeding and wind is in your favor you have a chance, if animal is traveling I\'ve found you almost always will never be able to get ahead of it unless terrain will force it to turn toward your direction, this of course is the fun part where still hunting turns into stalking.

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

Do you guys have good luck still hunting really think timber? I\'ve hunted a bull, that we call the growler, which I can find in the same area day after day and year after year. But he will only respond to distant location bugles. The problem is his herd is always bedded in thick nasty timber. Can you affectively still hunt while stepping over nasty down fall?

 

[OldMan]

John...........I never had a problem with thick timber. As a matter of fact it\'s my favorite terrain. I preferred it didn\'t have a lot of blowdown/deadfall though. Not so much for the hunting part, but for the pack out.

Here\'s a picture of one of my hunting bedding areas that\'s ideal for still hunting. It\'s what I look for.

 

[Zpd307]

pete, I have yet to find any bedding areas that look like that.... every place that I have seen them bedding in is thick and choked with downfalls....
in Idaho it was easy to find the areas. I just followed heavily used trails until it stopped. that\'s where they fanned out, and they always ended on benches.

 

[OldMan]

The above area is what I call a low to no pressure bedding area. Elk will go to more rough remote areas when pressured. The more pressure, the more ugly the terrain.

 

[Zpd307]

I would definitely call that a low pressure area. I haven\'t been able to find elk in those areas when its light out. well, I guess, that I did twice last year....

 

[cnelk]

not all bedding areas are created equal
We have taken many elk bedding areas like this
It may look thin, but in reality you cant see very far and elk will move out and you cant even see them.

 

[OldMan]

Exactly Brad. They\'re usually early season bedding areas. Almost impossible to find them during rifle seasons unless it\'s private land.

 

[JohnFitzgerald]

Dang, I would be happy to hunt those areas. Here\'s the bedding areas we get to hunt. And these are the flat spots!

 

[OldMan]

I do those too John. Usually in areas that have more hunters. Elk don\'t like those areas anymore than we do, but they\'ll go there to get away from us.

 

[Zpd307]

john found the perfect picture that describes where I hunt

 

[OldMan]

John.........Are you finding elk in those areas? Explain what happens if you do?

 

[elkmtngear]

john found the perfect picture that describes where I hunt

Yep...me too. The foreground in the upper pic would be considered an \"open area\" :lol: