Good for you in this choice! Spot and stalk IS hunting. Sitting in a tree stand by a rigged plot, even a well planned one in a carefully selected spot, maybe rattling or calling every once in a while, is more what I would call baiting and waiting. That's not hunting--that's fishing. Sure it can put meat in the freezer, but so can dangling a worm on a string.
Without getting deeply into Webster, we all know that hunting for something we wish to find is active rather than passive. To hunt is to seek, to look for, to search out. Sitting in one place hoping a deer walks by does not sound like hunting to me.
Then tell me why they call it duck
hunting or dove
hunting or quail
hunting, why isn't spear fishing "fish hunting". Then there is alligator
hunting, but the same technique on catfish is called
drop lining.
I enjoy fishing, so if I'm fishing on the deer stand, well, I like it. I'll take more deer than the still hunters do this way in most woods situations and am more likely to get a nice buck this way. I've done both, so I know this for a fact. But, every hunter must suit themselves as to why they're in the woods and what floats their boat. If walking around in the woods is more enjoyable than actually shooting something, I have no problem with anyone doing it. And, you can always get lucky....I have.
Not saying the OP shouldn't try some still hunting. It's enjoyable and when I was younger and less patient, I did a lot of it, usually unsuccessfully, but occasionally got lucky. A previous post also is true, where there's LOTS of deer, an overpopulation, it works better. That's probably natures way, actually. I can remember scoring twice still hunting in Llano county in one weekend back about 1968. These were doe, though, and, well, they looked more the size of dogs than deer. The place was just teaming with animals, deer in herds like antelope on an African plain. I probably saw 300 deer in two days, many running in groups of 10 or more. Had a little buck walk right up and munch on a tree I was sitting beside while taking a break and watching ducks land on a tank about 100 yards away. I put my crosshairs on him and could see ticks on him. I probably could have killed him with a hatchet, but it was a doe hunt, so he lived.
Where there's not so many deer and there is hunting pressure, just sit, watch a trail, and live with it.
That pretty much describes most of the whitetail hunting I've done in the past. It varies, though, and where I can successfully still hunt, I really enjoy the experience. I'm not paying a day lease fee to walk around in the woods, though. I'd like to shoot something and I'll use the methods I have to for this. Rattling was mentioned, the bonus to this is rutting bucks can be big, nice deer. Don't work on does.
Another story, I found an ad in the local paper back in the 80s, "doe hunt" for 50 bucks. So, not yet having a place to hunt and not getting to hunt often as I was broke, young with a kid, and hunting costs money in Texas, I called 'em. I had just bought a little Rossi 92 in .357 magnum. I wanted to shoot a deer with it, but knew I had to be inside 100 yards. I asked the guy on the phone if he thought I could get that close, "Sure" was the reply. I took my Roberts along just in case. The place was about a 30 minute drive south and I KNEW there were lots of deer around there. I says, "What time should I show up?" expecting 4AM or something to get on stand by sun up. He says, "Well, I have a slot open at 10AM"......
OOOOOOkiedokie then.
So, I drove out there, one of the Welder ranches, they own half of south Texas, and met the guy at the gate. He was a game biologist that worked for Welder and was culling does. So, we're driving down this ranch road in his Toyota 4 Runner and I see a herd over there, a herd over there. He says, "Oh, that' one'll be nice in a few years, he's about a 14 pointe"r....
A herd runs across the road about 50 yards away, I jump out, but can't get on one. We drive in a little farther, there's a herd of doe grazing like cattle about 80 yards away. He says, "Can you take one of 'em". I think he doubted the little .357. I rolled the window down, took aim, shot. Deer jumpted up about 4 feet, took off in the high grass. We get out to go look, huge blood spot on the ground, great blood trail. Meanwhile, I see a doe, think it must be wounded, lower the gun on it, it's just walking along. It takes a poop and keeps walking.
A deer taking a crap? Don't see THAT every day and it CAN'T be wounded! The guy had followed the blood while I was doing this, found the doe, about 90 lbs i guess, laying about 20 yards from where she was hit. I was in an out of that place in 45 minutes with a gutted doe! Yeah, I was still hunting from a TRUCK!
So, you see, success often depends on where you're hunting. I've hunted many more places where there was low population density and high hunting pressure than the other way around. Hunting the Welder place was not even fun, even if I'd been on foot! Just too danged easy! And, it's not even a high fence ranch, but there are a LOT of acres of land there.
Sitting on my little 10 acre chunk of paradise, I've taken a lot of deer and hogs. There's lots of deer out there, but there's a few 10 acre chunks of paradise around me and the hunting pressure is there. I heard the guy behind me connect a few days ago about 5:30PM. My turn will come as it always does. I'm on the fence line of a larger ranch and I get 'em crossing through my place a lot. I feed 'em, but it's rare that they'll come to the feeder in broad daylight after season starts. They go there at night, along with the bazillions of hogs I have out there. There is simply NO way to still hunt such a small property, but that's okay, it's a place to hunt and for more'n just deer. I trap hogs there, I've shot a lot of dove there, and I still wanna have a tank dug to attract the ducks, thousands of ducks, geese, and sandhills in the area that fly over. When it's wet in the back, I have big numbers of ducks that land there, natural low spot.
After this litany, I just want to point out that the good deer hunter adapts his style to the situation. I've had situations where still hunting actually worked as good or better than stand hunting, but that's where there's lots of deer and low hunting pressure. It's all about enjoyment, though, and if still hunting is the only way you'll hunt, knock yourself out. I, however, won't limit myself to one style. I will improvise and adapt.
Of course, that's really good policy in a state with about 5 acres of public hunting all located in the dense woods of east Texas and about ALL in low density habitat. You wanna still hunt successfully here, you'd better have a large hill country lease. I did have a lease out in West Texas, 13,000 acres, GREAT spot and stalk hunting because it was rugged open desert. However, I did a lot of sitting in the brushy draws where the deer were, too. I never used a stand there, just sat on a rock or something and watched from the rim of a draw. Out there, driving deer through the draws works pretty well if you have a number of hunters that'll work together. I never left there without SOMETHING if only a doe. One hunt, spike buck, doe, javelina. That was fun, all shot while spot and stalk hunting. One hunt, got a nice 8 point and a doe. I miss that place.
