Deer hunting on the move, or still hunting, is typically misunderstood as to what it is and how to go about it. It is following deer, not waiting on a stump or in a blind for the deer to come up to you. It can be the most gratifying deer hunting experience you can do. It can also be the most discouraging, since it is a skill which calls for you to slow everything - your sight, your breath and your walking gait. But the rewards go beyond the hunt to your better enjoyment of nature itself. These few simple techniques can be used on your next hunt - whether you choose to still-hunt or not, the principles are the same. These techniques will also make your deer hunt a richer experience. Quietly walking thru the woods enjoying nature is very relaxing and rewarding. It's all about: you're outdoors - enjoy the scenery, hunting or not. However, deer, and all prey species, have eyes designed to detect motion. Deer and all prey species have eyes on the side of their head, and this aids in perceiving motion first, long before the animal can make out whether what they see is a threat, or just some pattern-breaking motion in the woods. When still hunting for deer, we must adopt to the way they see. We must see motion first, patterns out of sync second, and the deer last. The only way to do this is to relax our focus and broaden our field of vision. You see it all the time - the hunter walking through the woods as if he's hunting on rice paper. It doesn't work. As a hunter, you're going to make noise. Then again, so do deer and other game. So does anything dwelling and breathing in the woods. What you want to avoid is making the pulsing gait a hunter makes when he's running, usually after a deer, or doing everything he can to be quiet, when he doesn't yet see one. Walking toe-heel is the way to walk, because the palm of your foot can be more flexible in its response to the softwood twigs and deadfall underfoot - like deer, whose hooves make relatively light contact with the forest floor. Walking heel-toe makes for a heavy, stiff step - a human step. Walking heel toe, take a few steps, pause, and, using the soft-focus described above, take in the environment, in a holistic way. Be careful, if you find yourself entering in to a steady, rhythmic gait, break it up. You also want to avoid any obviously human sounds sounds coming from anything man-made, such as metal or hard plastic. Bottom line - brushing past an oak stump is o.k. marching in cadence is not, nor is that canteen banging against your hunting rifle strap buckle. Finally, walk into the wind. Yes, this is rule 1. But many hunters, especially those used to staying in a relatively insulated hunting blind, forget this cardinal rule. I've stood with my bow drawn on a buck 10 yards away, with the buck clearly trying to figure out what the heck this would-be rambo was up to - only to watch it spring to life once the wind shifts, and thanksgiving was a bit - thinner that year. Don't even bother still hunting on blustery days, with no prevailing winds. The bottom line, when you are hunting deer in this way, is to get used to is slowing yourself down, for hours at a time, and softening your focus to "deer hunt" for motion - not deer. But act like, see like, deer, become more a part of where you are, and you will reap many rewards - whether you take a deer or not.
Trialing for the deer fro long could be sometimes frustrating once you missed the shot. You can always learn from these kinds of experiences of trailing. Trailing behind the deer could take you to the level of exhaustion. Then the deer loses their natural fear if followed without being harmed. Instead of running behind the deer like anything its best to calculate your moves so that you save your energy and shoot at the deer with much ease.
If a man fails to shoot the deer on the second start, he is in for a long and sometimes discouraging job of trailing, but there is nothing that I know that will give a hunter a more thorough knowledge of a deer's actions than trailing the animal. I am never discouraged when I follow a deer all day and fail to bag it. I feel that the knowledge gained that day will be of help, if I ever again hunt the same territory.
I have been told that a man can outlast a deer on the trail. I can believe this for, although I have never followed one to the point of exhaustion, I followed two for a period of three days and they were very tired deer before the end of the chase. On the third day, they were continually seeking a chance to rest and on several occasions, they actually lay down when they knew that I was close on the trail and would soon force them to move. I saw those deer twelve times on the third day and they were within shotgun range each time that I saw them.
I do not think that it was muscular fatigue that permitted me to tire them out; I think that it was more a matter of their digestive system revolting. A deer's feeding habits demand a period of rest and tranquility in order for it to chew its cud and to dispose of the roughage that fills its paunch. I do not know how long this food will keep in the first stomach without spoiling, but I am sure that, in time, this undigested food will cause distress.
Deer feed normally twice a day, night and morning, with the intervals between feeding devoted to rest and digestion. If the animal is forced to move soon after the morning feeding time, the digestion of this food is delayed until the deer has a chance to rest, and if the deer is kept on the move all day and every day, the feeding routine will be disrupted so that the evening feeding period becomes a digestion time. This restricts the deer to one feeding time each day, forcing it to travel with a full paunch at the start of each day's chase. Perhaps this is why it is easier to shoot trailed deer late in the day than it is earlier in the chase.
Possibly this theory is all "poppycock" and trailed deer merely become accustomed to the trailer and lose some of their natural fear after being followed for some time without being harmed. If a man should ever try to trail a deer to the point of exhaustion, he should not take out after some ranging buck that tries to leave the country. He will go so far and so fast that he will have hours of rest before the hunter can overtake him-and will start out again as fresh as a daisy while the trailer will be about ready to call it a day and go home.
One of the most sporting methods of hunting deer, as well as one of the most difficult, and one that requires the most knowledge of deer and of the country to be hunted, is to travel the woods until a deer is found and started, and then to anticipate its course so as to be able to circle the animal and shoot it as it approaches a predetermined spot.
In order to do this the hunter must have the ability to find deer at different times of day. He must know what they will do when disturbed, how far they will travel, where they are most apt to go and how to take advantage of the terrain so as to arrive at a spot before the deer can get there. This requires a great deal of walking, often through thick brush and over rough ground, and often quite a bit of hurrying in order to head off the deer, but the man who bags his deer in this manner has a right to be proud of his feat. These several methods, often used in combination, are the principal legal ones. While going for hunting deer it is very necessary to know when they have their foods and rest for the food to get digested because this can help you in monitoring their moves. So get ready to run even to trail the whole day and if fortunate enough then you could end up with a good fat deer at the end of the day.
The ability of finding the deer at different times of day, their movements when disturbed and how far they can travel once trailed, and the knowledge of the different terrains can help you in overtaking the deer when on trail. Getting equipped mentally and physically can be of good advantage in deer hunting.
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