How Things Change

[Chief Paduke]

After reading the thread on board members' ages, and posting on the scope thread in the lounge, I am curious as to whether anyone "still hunts" anymore, or even knows what the term means?

[Zoomworms]

I Do, my neck is starting to swell with the cooler mornings

[Transom]

I do occasional I prefer to sit on the ground and maybe doing a little bit of walking. Honestly the way a lot of folks around me hunt I do not always feel safe doing so.

[mikeSF]

I love quail and pheasant hunting. Do a little deer hunting because the wife, kids and grandkids love venison.

[BP in ME]

My dad was an exceptional still hunter. Patient enough to move slowly and far-sighted so he was always good at picking out an ear or a leg at 50 yds in heavy woods. I had the patience but I'm near-sighted and I relied on my ears a lot (probably too much). Then I got tinnitus and now I let them come to me. Still like to get close though.

[BigSexyPhoenix]

I think most of the younger crowd sees hunting as sitting over a feeder and shooting deer when they show up. The skill of scouting and reading sign is almost lost now.

[Roddy]

I like close encounters, me with a bow sitting on a litely used trail.

[StratDude]

Bow, rifle, muzzleloader, climbing stand, ladder stand, pop up blind, deer, bear, rabbit, groundhog, coyote, I still love it all. Even at 45yrs old, I still get excited for hunting season like I did when I was a kid. Going to the farm, checking the mast situation, glassing fields in the evenings. It runs through my veins! My 5yr old son is turning out to be the same. He asks me several times a week to get his BB gun or his 22 rifle out and shoot. And I never tell him no.
Hell, I left the house last night at 9:30 with my buddy and his female Walker in the back of the side by side to go chase raccoons all night on my property. We had alot of fun. Technology sure has changed it from when I ran dogs in my teens. My son wanted to go but I told him he'd have to wait a few more years.
It's up to all of us that still hunt to pass the traditions along to the next generations.

[Babe Winkleworm]

Yep that's most of what we do out west.

[preacher ed]

Where I grew up in central Louisiana, still hunting meant stand hunting without dogs. While there were a few places a man could have still hunted as the OP is speaking of, it is difficult to walk through 1 to 10 yr. old cutovers. Opportunities to still hunt got even worse when the timber companies leased their land. In 99% of the leases around home, you are given a spot to hunt and you hunt from a stand. You cannot have a stand or hunt within 500 yds. of another man's stand. Most of the time, on our lease, if you were to hunt at the end of your shooting lane, you would be too close to another stand. It sucks, but that is the way it is done today here.

[dwmgg17]

Serious "stillhunting" by some hunters means moving thru your hunting on foot and my consider stalking your quarry whether it be a whitetail doe or buck. And here where i am from, stillhuntung if used as a term of clinbing a stand or getting elevated and sitting "still" in a area that may produce a deer to pas thru or travel close enough to offer a good shot for a harvest. Too many hunters lack the experience and talent if that term may be used to actually move around on foot to stalk and harvest a deer/buck. Applying all your senses and taking into account where the deer bed, move about feed, which direction in comming from requires a lot of experience and things to consider such as wind, time of day, local pressure, having the right weapon for any occasion that presents itself. Hunting by moving about or staking a deer is illegal in many counties and state with a rifle and must be strictly shotgun. I have to admit, being able to spot a buck in the woods and being able to close into range and make a killing shot makes you feel you have accomplished a true hunting practice that has the ultimate satisfaction. Being sucessful "still hunting" around here means sitting in a stand and waiting for a deer/buck to come out withinn your comfort zone and making a killing shot does not give that ultimate satisfaction. Every hunter has his limitations in either case. One time i decided to go into the domain of a really mature big that had been seen by several and escaped every time. Have I got to wade through chest deep water for almost 125 yards to get in range of that buck in a flooded beaver pond/swamp and take hime within 50 yards was one of my best hunts ever. The buck was beded on top of a small cypress knoll surrounded by water and when he stood up to see exactly what i was it was too late. One round of buckshot sealed the deal.great hunt and will never forget it.

[jc1992]

For all the old geasers talking about us younguns, my most memorable hunt, there were a couple of does and a buck in an open bottom and there isn't any cover to sneak through, so I had to military crawl over 100 yards in order to get a decent position to take a shot at the buck. The next year buck I was following a couple of does and he came out behind me and charged me so had no choice but to take him sadly. Luckily he was the one I been trying to get anyway so it worked out.

[mrlawler1]

I'll be 40 in November and I killed my first squirrel with my papaw Lawler before he died when I was 5... Took my first deer at 10.... Been doing this a long time... I've got a 900 acre club in southern Tennessee with about 20 or so ladder stands over years and box blinds over fields that have been in place since 04... If I had the money like some of these folks do is own a place like that instead of leasing it.... But it is what it is...I keep my freezer full and I got a wall to be happy about... I'd like to have a wall full of 150s and up but I live in Alabama so I'm not gonna complain...