“Still hunting is an art of patience, precision, and instinct, where every step taken is slow and deliberate. In this tale of slipping through rugged Texas terrain, I share my strategies for moving silently, reading the wind, and using shooting sticks to steady my aim—all essential skills for any hunter looking to master still hunting and succeed in challenging environments.” – Larry Weishuhn aka Mr. Whitetail
The wind was near perfect, blowing gently into my face out of the north. A “Texas Blue Norther” cold front had passed through our area, dropping the temperature considerably and now hovering just above freezing. Rain during the leading edge of the front dampened the ground, dried grass, and fallen leaves. Conditions could not have been more perfect for where and how I wanted to hunt.
On the property I was hunting lay a considerable “chunk” of mesquites and cactus, several hundreds of acres with no roads other than along the perimeter of the south side. Seldom did anyone venture into this area. If you did shoot a deer there, the only way to bring him out was to either drag him or bring him out in quarters. The brush was too thick to navigate even an ATV through…and not only was the brush thick, so were the mesquite thorns that wreaked havoc on anything with tires. Occasionally, there had been talk about bringing in bulldozers and creating some roads through the area to make it more accessible. Thus far, I have been able to prevent that from happening. The area is 700 acres, more than a mile square. During much of the year, it served as a whitetail sanctuary.
My fellow leaseholders like sitting in established raised blinds and hunting around a corn feeder. Most of them also only hunt on weekends. My schedule, thankfully, allows me to hunt during the week. I often have the entire property to myself. This plays perfectly into how I like to hunt, quietly slipping through the canyons, ridge tops and broad plain resembling the famed Brush Country of South Texas. Hunting this way, I stop frequently to carefully glass the brush ahead, on either side and behind me. I occasionally stop to sit down and watch scrapes or heavily traveled trails. Then a bit later, I move on as silently as possible walking slowly into or quartering into the wind.
There’s something truly special about hunting this way, seeing deer before they see you. Hunting this way, I continually play the wind. Early in the season, during the pre-rut, I often grunt occasionally as I move forward. As a wildlife biologist and a hunter, I have often heard bucks grunt softly as they walk through the woods, even during the pre-rut. As the rut gets closer, they tend to be a bit more vocal, not only in frequency but also in volume.
I have long still or “slip” hunted in all sorts of terrain and deer habitat. Hunting the wily whitetail on his or her own “ground” is challenging but fun and exciting, and when successful, it is tremendously rewarding!
When moving, I do so in essentially slow motion. All my moves are orchestrated, slow, and deliberate. I do not make quick, rapid, or jerky movements, for this is what catches a deer’s or, for that matter, other wildlife’s attention. Even when I do see a deer, I move slowly in preparing for a shot.
I am not good at shooting off-hand, so when still hunting, I generally carry shooting sticks, taller sticks from which I can shoot from standing up. These shooting sticks come in handy for other things as well, such as moving cactus pads or low-growing limbs out of the way or even pushing away a rattlesnake, which has happened on more than one occasion. They also make traversing rocky ground and slopes much easier when used as a walking staff.
Not only do the shooting sticks steady my shot allowing me to “thread the eye of a needle”, as is sometimes required when still hunting in relatively thick cover, they also make it easier to keep a rifle in a shooting position for longer periods of time. While still hunting, I frequently spotted a buck behind a screening of cover, offering no shot opportunity. But, it’s imperative to point your rifle or handgun, such as the Taurus Raging Hunter revolvers I frequently use when still hunting, at the target so as to take a shot at the first clear opportunity. Sometimes, it may take as long as 5 minutes or even longer for that clear shot to develop. I do not want to hold up my rifle or handgun in a shooting position that long without a rest!
I use tripod shooting sticks when still hunting. They are steadier than bipods when shooting upright. I have some commercially made shooting sticks, but often, they are made on the spot from local saplings or limbs.
During the most recent hunting season, I hunted for several days in the previously described area with a Rossi Model 92 .44 Mag lever action and a Rossi Model 95 .30-30 Win lever action. In the .44 Mag I shot Hornady’s 225-grain FTX LEVERevolution, and in the .30-30, Hornady’s 160-grain FTX LEVERevolution. Both, to me, are ideal for still hunting thick cover. And while normally, these days, I hunt with a Mossberg Patriot bolt-action rifle topped with a Stealth Vision SVT 3-18×44 scope, I also like the challenge of hunting with an open-sight lever action rifle.
I also still hunt with my Mossberg Patriot Predator in 7mm PRC, shooting Hornady 175-grain ELD-X Precision Hunter or Hornady 160-grain CX Outfitter, the usual hunting rifle. It is topped with a Stealth Vision SVT 3-18×44 scope. I keep my scope cranked down to 3x. I use that same rifle when hunting open country and can crank up the scope’s magnification and also its turret to shoot a long way out there with great precision, should such a shot be required.
Meanwhile, back at my hunting lease, it was a day with a slightly cool, northerly breeze. I walked ever so slowly and cautiously, stopping often to glass the area ahead, to the sides, and behind with my Stealth Vision 10×42 binoculars. Even when hunting tight cover I like using quality binoculars. They help me find deer, or rather “pieces” of deer, investigate horizontal lines where they should be vertical lines; the wiggle of an ear, the glint of an antler, the shine of a nose, or even a deer’s leg or foot.
Hunting with the .44 Mag Model 92, I spotted a feeding buck fifty yards away. He was thankfully facing into the wind, away from me. As soon as I saw him, I slid up against a mesquite that offered a right proper rest. With the lever-action pointed at the deer or what I could see of him, I waited for a killing shot. If he moved just a few inches to the right I could shoot, if he happened to move to the left, no shot.
Thankfully, he finally stepped to the right, exposing his shoulder. I already had the hammer cocked, the front bead in the “valley” of the rear sight aligned with his shoulder. I squeezed the trigger. The buck bolted, but I saw him falter and go down behind a screening of mesquites. Moments later, I walked to the buck’s side and said a prayer of thanks!
It took some doing, but I dragged my field-dressed buck about 400 yards to the nearest road, propped his body cavity open to cool, and hunted my way toward where I had left my vehicle.
Toward the tail end of last year’s whitetail season, I started using a “new” deer attractant, a product called “Vineyard Max,” which is made of hammer-milled, dried red and white grape skins, rice bran, and cracked corn. I learned even in areas where the only grapes are found in a grocery store, someone’s refrigerator, in a bottle of grape jelly or jam or wine bottles, deer are attracted to the aroma of Vineyard Max. Toward season’s end I hunted the area described at the beginning of this epistle.
After seeing how deer were almost immediately drawn to Vineyard Max, I decided to “seed” an area with the bait, which also happens to be really good for deer in terms of providing much-needed energy in their diet.
Just before mid-day I carried a 4-pound bag of Vineyard Max into an area about a half mile from any roads, the area described earlier. Finding a reasonably open area, much like a savanna, I made several small piles of the bait, then headed back to my vehicle. I ate a sandwich, while glassing a distant hillside.
I spotted a couple of bucks. One was interesting, but when I put my Stealth Vision spotting scope on him, I could tell he probably needed at least one, if not two, more years. He would be one to look for in the future.
An hour after putting out the Vineyard Max, I still hunted my way into that immediate area. Honestly, I had to force myself to slow down. I really wanted to see what might have been attracted to the area where I had put out the bait.
I approached the area from downwind and immediately spotted a couple of does feeding on the Vineyard Max. I sat down, watched, and waited. I watched seven does, six fawns, and three young 8-point bucks feed on the bait I had put out about an hour earlier. My hope was an older mature buck would put in an appearance. Unfortunately, none showed.
But, I learned several things. Using Vineyard Max, I could “bait” several areas along the route I later planned to still hunt, thus drawing deer to areas where I could see them. Please realize baiting is legal in Texas!
My plan this year is to bait several areas where no one usually hunts. I plan to “pull” deer into specific areas that can be still hunted, slipping quietly through the areas I’ve baited. If I can pull in several does to specific areas where there is little or no hunting pressure, particularly as the rut approaches, I think I might be able to get a shot at a couple of the bucks finally I saw last season that this year should be prime for the taking…
How, where, and when I move while slipping through my baited and non-baited areas will have a huge bearing on whether I am successful still hunting…or still hunting come the end of the season!
