Deerbuster.com

When I started bow hunting about 10 years ago, ground hunting was not only what I did most, it was all I did. But as the years progressed, I've recognized that perhaps tree stand hunting has less impact on my sometimes minute parcels of land where I hunt. I've also taken more and bigger bucks with the technique. One year though, back in the 80s, I took a couple of deer while still hunting. A buck and a doe. I didn't even realize, back then, what an accomplishment it was.

I recently read Stalking and Still Hunting by G. Fred Asbell. It kind of reminded me of another book, Stalking Deer by Don Groves. The former reminded me of the latter, and the latter reminded me of that magical year when I killed those critters while sneaking along. At 38 years of age, I'm a little less agile than I was at 28 but how bad could I be?

Upon my arrival at the property, I parked and began changing into Scent Lok for the planned tree stand hunt with my compound bow. It was to be the first time in the stand, having placed it near the bottom of a ridge line a week and a half earlier. Halfway through changing I decided to answer nature's call and walked a few steps from the truck towards the edge of the meadow. There were deer there. I quickly finished donning camo and began a stalk. At 67 yards, with no more cover between me and the two feeding does, I backed off and retuned to the truck. I had decided not to try to get past them to my stand, but rather switch to my long bow and still hunt down wind of them.

Then, I don't know why, they blew and made a fuss. They left, in the direction of my tree stand and blew all the way. This reverberation made me all the more sure that I should spend this particular evening with the long bow, testing my still hunting skills.

My long bow is named "sixty-six". I had it made for me by Black Widow Bows. The LBS model (long black stick) was about $170 less than the LAG. After spraying my own camo pattern on it, it was a fairly handsome bow, although snake skin would look better. I got the 66 inch model specifically for still hunting, as the height makes the bow the perfect for steadying my binoculars.

At first, I hadn't slowed down to predator pace, I was still walking like a man at a normal human pace past the pond, then spotted a deer. She didn't see me, so I put on my face mask and still hunted in her direction, She was 100 yards away and feeding in the other direction, angling down wind. I forgot about her and worked cross wind under the heavy cover of the hemlocks. I had to crawl at times to get under low hanging branches. After 45 minutes I had traveled only 50 yards, when I saw my second doe of the still hunt (fourth of the hunt).

Moving at less than 100 yards an hour....

She was off to my right, up wind. She disappeared behind a clump and never came out! I remembered a lesson learned from my journal. "Just because you can't see them, don't think they can't see you."

I stood motionless for a while and she still didn't reappear. I guess she just strolled away from me without ever knowing I was there. I took another 45 minutes to cover another 50 yards and found myself near where the doe had walked by.

While I contemplated my next move I spotted another deer walking and feeding on acorns about 80 yards away. I didn't need to see his antlers to know he was a decent buck. The angle of the ears on his head - wide, and the stocky body told me that this was the one for me! Best of all, he was cross wind and heading up wind.

My constant mindfulness of wind direction was aided by the simplest of wind detectors attached to the top and bottom of the limbs of my long bow. It was a G. Fred Asbell tip...... unwaxed dental floss. It was amazing how the slightest humanly undetectable breeze was evident to my eyes at a glance.

There was a decision to be made and made immediately. The bucks general direction of travel and speed indicated that I needed to move on him right away or stay back in the cover and hope that by some miracle he changed direction and came to me. To make a move on him I had to cross a 30 yard wide open area. I decided to go for it. Keeping tree trunks between his head and me, I sneaked forward only pausing when his head was up. I was doing good...for a while.

I was only about 50 yards from him and moving forward when the stalk began to evolve badly. Two serial large trees stood side by side between us, blocking out the whole deer, not just his head. I covered about 10 feet quickly but decided to lean out to the side to check on his condition. I saw his legs, and he took a step. I couldn't see his head so I interpreted this movement as feeding and assumed his head was down on the other side of the deer. I took a step and he stiffened up. Now I could make out his face. He had been facing me when I moved, but I couldn't see his face at the time. I had mistaken his body position and blown it.

He didn't bolt right off but his suspicious posturing and change of direction to my down wind side dictated that it was totally over. Five minutes later he was gone and I was alone near the ridge bottom with a raccoon who was scolding me for being there. It was a good hunt though. I had seen 5 deer, one of them a shooter buck. I also made some decisions about clothing for next time I still hunt. The ghillie pants, while great camo, tend to catch on things. If I just keep my nose to the wind I shouldn't have to use Scent Lok. I also needed to heed Mr. Asbell and carry some clippers in my pocket.

Anybody want to buy 15 tree stands?