Still Hunting

[Jlorsun]

I know the popular hunting style out West has become to spend countless hours glassing and to spot and stalk. I am curious to know if anyone here still hunts? anything from ground blinds to excruciatingly slow moving through timber. I live in Oregon and there isn't a ton of open country West of the Cascades but I have had success below 5000 ft with these methods.

[zonie]

One thing about walking in general you start seeing things like tracks, bedding areas, wallows, bear dens,  etc.  Still hunting isn't a bad thing as long as the Elk or other animals are there.  Out West in some of these big burn areas the re-growth is so thick  with spiked brush in places and steep,  when walking you can't see anything  and you are damn noisy, you get scraped /scratched to pieces.   so it's best to get up on a hill , mtn rd or ridge and break out the spotting scope & good bino's and sit for awhile. In the lower cedar country walking might be a better way,  look for water holes and look for tracks. No elk sign they ain't there.  but that doesn't mean they won't be there  later in the season when snow falls or the migration routes, our migrations might only be a few miles from going on top of the rims during deeper snow to down lower in elevations where the food is. Other states elk migrations can be miles and miles.  Personally you cannot scout enough.  Locally within a 2 hr drive we started scouting for elk seriously about a month ago and one of our friends Archery bull hunt is in Sept and my son's and friends bull hunt are in late Nov early Dec so we will be scouting at least every month and as the season get's closer that will drop to every 2 weeks and every week until opening day.  We really won't know our hunting spot  until the last week, and you would never know this stuff if you didn't scout and pattern animals where we hunt.  Other places are a little different elk can be habitual and follow the same general routes/areas year to year and sometimes not. Game cams will be placed and checked we can't use any wireless type game cams that send any type of signal to another device so they have to be checked in person.   We are looking for Patterns of were the elk are going, and usually a mile  + or so away from any roads/trails, this means walking and still hunting slowly as you hike. Get on your walking boots take a gps and start still hunting.

[Blackbear3]

I enjoy still hunting here in Minnesota, but never on opening weekend while the orange army is in the woods. Lots of stand hunting for me until the woods calm down, nothing more satisfying then sneaking up on an unsuspecting deer.

[grizzly340]

I am far and away A blind or tree stand hunter. But in A pinch I have taken to foot mostly when I see A deer that has showed up early and beat me too where are paths were sapost to cross. In most cases I was able to close the distance to with in shooting distance even with A bow.
But in saying that. Makes me wonder why I don't do it more often.

[zonie]

One thing I forgot out west are big areas my county is larger than a lot of New England States.  Be prepared if you break down ,  no cell phone coverage in a lot of our county, and let someone know where you are going to be.    Right now we got a few damn big fires going on and there ain't going to be any hunting in there until new vegetation growth starts appearing.  I  do this almost on a daily basis when we know what hunts we will be hunting.  I consider it scouting just on a computer,  get  on google earth   (mark)  interesting trails, water holes, get on game and fish web sights and look up drinkers/guzzlers/small springs and other water resources that game and fish/ranchers and  others maintain.  Get  a pen and paper and start marking lat's and long's, put them in the gps and goto each one and see what it currently looks like,  you might be surprised.  Might be a long hike also. 

[Jlorsun]

I started scouting deer and elk in the same wilderness area at the end of April. My 2nd year in the area (I will post some pictures when I get home. I have come to the conclusion the area holds a ton of game but they are near impossible to spot from elevation because of the super thick canopy and old growth timber. I have a few natural meadows, springs and feed areas that I literally just sit on. I will get a good comfortable prone position and just lay there wind in my face for hours. I have heard of people walking "indian style" into bedding areas by taking 1 slow step at a time and glassing but have never tried it.

[Jlorsun]

some pictures

[Jlorsun]

Hard to tell but this stuff is about waist deep during season

[zonie]

It's like in our burn areas the Aspen trees are growing back very thick. When overlooking  these lower  areas you can't see most animals, back  a couple years after the burns you could see  pretty much every thing the vegetation hadn't grown so high , but now 10 years+ later those same Aspens and brush is 10 / 20 ft high and these animals just hide can't see them every easily.   The down side to the burn  other than it burned  all the hunters could see the animals and the animals got shot up.  There are a few guy's I know archery hunting elk that will put tree stands up or use ground blinds mostly in the Junipers  on known game  trails they have hunted for years, these are core hunters and hit and miss from year to year.  I've never seen them use any rifles from tree stands always bow and arrow.

[zonie]

Oh I know ,  Sister and her adult kids/grandkids  live in Seaside, cousins in Coos Bay,  Newport, and other towns Lincoln to Depoe Bay.   Aunts and uncles, grand parents, parents lived in Gearhart to Astoria,  all gone now,  and my parents lived there when they retired, for a few years until they moved inland.   I stayed in Arizona.  There are things about the coast I really like,   clam digging, oysters and crabs, salmon fishing , I can't handle the rain and fog. 

[BB340]

I utilize both. A mate and I rode my Polaris ATV whilst fallow deer hunting a few weeks ago (that is my style of stalking) then when I came to a nice spot to sit we wrapped my quad with camo netting and still hunted until darkness. It worked quite well as we had fallow does, wallabies, kangaroos and rabbits feeding within 20 meters of us. I didn't shoot any as I was holding out for a buck.
 

[DW5]

Hard to tell but this stuff is about waist deep during season

Great picture! I see you back there!

[Jlorsun]

I took my photographer scouting with me (wife). I have a few cameras in the area spread out over 4 miles. I have seen every big game animal Oregon has up there over the last 2 years and haven't seen another person I didn't bring. It was hard to adapt the way I hunt to fit the area but I shortly figured out there is nothing more exhilarating than killing a predator from close range that doesn't know you are there. Glad that other people enjoy this style of hunting. It take patience but man is it worth it!

[Jlorsun]

Walked in on this guy at 45 yds a couple weeks ago. Got a fall bear, cougar and deer tag that all overlap on my 8 day hunt.

[Grouchy]

This is where I hunt. You can't see 10 yds. at ground level. We use tree stands to gain a few more yards of visibility.