Come Down Out of That Tree And Hunt

By MHS Member: sharps4590

As of November 2007, I’ve been privileged to have participated in 41 deer seasons. If you do the math, that takes us back to 1966. There is enough of my generation around to attest to the fact that there were a lot less deer back then. It seems to me that there were also a lot more hunters. I don’t mean warm bodies in the woods, I mean “hunters” in the true sense of the word.

Back in the 1950’s and 1960’s if you were hunting with a center fire rifle there was a pretty good chance it was either a 30-30 lever-action Winchester or Marlin or a 30-06 of one variety or another. Back then you could order an Arisaka 7.7 or 6.5, SMLE 303 British, or one of several Mauser variants from places like Aldens, Spiegel, Sears & Roebuck and other places, and often for $20.00 or less. Many of those were seen in the deer woods.

More than likely, the rifle sported open sights and the odds are that factory ammunition was used. Magnums, long, short or otherwise, were deemed unnecessary, expensive and for the most part unheard of in the local woods.

If you chose to hunt with a bow it was most likely a recurve, although there were some long bowmen around. Arrows were of Port Orford Cedar, the arrow had a two blade broadhead honed to razor sharp and the arrow had fletching that looked like feathers. Gratefully, at that time nothing else existed.

In my hometown there were a few gentlemen who hunted with muzzleloaders. They used original rifles or built their own. Most were percussion but there were a couple die-hards who insisted on using flintlocks. The patched round ball was the projectile of choice as no one would have considered using anything else. Indeed, the patched round ball was the ONLY projectile. Sights were traditional open. To mount a telescopic sight on a muzzleloader would have censured the user, and rightly so. Besides, no one could afford a scope.

The very, very few tree stands that existed were permanent and built from 2-by lumber. The majority of folks hunted from the ground either from a “stand” or what today would be called still-hunting. When a deer was seen, it was then stalked. By those fine gentlemen who introduced and tutored me in deer hunting, once a deer was seen, it was usually in the bag. They were hunters. That’s what I’m talking about!

Over the last 15 or 20 years there has been entirely too much emphasis placed on hunting success, antler score, “gettin’ a deer” and using whatever high tech methods are available. Sadly there has been little or no emphasis placed on actual woods skills and precious little on the entire experience. The experience is given lip service but when read or viewed on hunting shows on TV, it is evident that little is actually given to it.

Ok, where does that put us? It puts us in the position of having lost skills and knowledge that were common place merely a generation ago. That generation was not as competent as preceding generations. Those skills and knowledge cannot be obtained sitting in a tree or in a blind and certainly not from a book, video, or some show on TV. One must come down from the tree or out of the blind and hunt. Ambush doesn‘t teach much more than where to be when deer are moving.

Let’s call those lost skills “woodscraft”. Precious little of it exists today.

To come down out of a stand and hunt, the first thing a person must do is change their mind set. Our brain is why we are at the top of the food chain and you’re going to have to use your brain if you’re going to do more than sit in a tree and kill a deer. It doesn’t matter if you hunt with a bow, muzzleloader or center fire rifle. You’re going to have to think on your feet and sometimes think fast. Your success rate is going to go down, but it is called “hunting”, not “killing”. If all you’re about is killing a deer, stay in the trees. For me there’s more to it than that.

Let’s start with clothing. Anything that has Velcro attached to it should be left at home. Velcro is the most handy thing I have on my work clothes, but it has absolutely no business on clothing you wear hunting. I am a confirmed user of buttons and wool. As far as I’m concerned even zippers make too much noise. Next to the wind and frantic movement, unnatural noises are your worst enemy. Remember we’re hunting from the ground, at the same level as the deer. I’ve never seen a deer, or any game animal, that had Velcro or a zipper attached to it. There is no noise in the woods quite so obnoxious as Velcro ripping open or the sound of a limb slapping heavy denim or scraping across some synthetic. Fleece is pretty good but wool is better. If you want to be consistently successful, warm and quiet, wear wool.

There is no piece of footwear that has ever been developed that is as good for hunting as the moccasin. Quite probably, there is also no piece of footwear that has ever been developed that is as subject to the elements as the moccasin. When the weather is pleasant I much prefer to hunt in the moccasin. A pair of running shoes, sneakers, tennis shoes or sport shoes, whatever they’re called today, with a sole worn thin is also very good but equally subject to the elements. When the weather is unpleasant, well, we all make some sacrifices. Then a good boot will work quite well if we don’t hurry. Try to use footwear that will allow you to feel what is beneath your foot. For me that has become a well worn pair of boots with a sole worn thin. When wearing that well-worn boot I can still feel what is beneath my foot and move quietly through the woods. Which brings us to the next subject.

Noise or sounds

If you’re moving in the woods you will make noise. Normal woods sounds aren’t near as alarming to game as unnatural sounds, limbs and sticks breaking aren’t uncommon. Truth be known sticks break all the time in the woods. It isn’t a sound game is unfamiliar with. Sound, normal woods sound, is not the enemy or bugaboo it’s made out to be. If you break or snap a stick, stop! At that instant stop! Don’t move, don’t even look around. Simply stop and listen and sense. After a few moments you can slowly begin to look around you. Rest assured that movement, especially sudden movement, is a much greater enemy than normal woods sounds and noises. Critters travel through the woods all the time, limbs and trees break off and fall to the ground and create a lot of noise and small critters are scurrying around constantly creating a lot of racket. Noise isn’t so bad, movement is.

Movement is our greatest enemy and the one thing we can actually control. Wind will betray us in an instant but there is nothing we can do about errant zephyrs. Unnecessary, frantic or sudden movement we have absolute control over. To use a too well worn phrase, we’ve all seen “the flick of a deer’s ear”. If we can see that ear flicker how much more can deer or other game animals see our frantic slapping at mosquito’s or fly’s, scratching whatever part of our anatomy or simply moving too fast? Except for the wind, movement will betray our presence quickest. CONTROL your movements. As was stated in a previous paragraph you’re going to have to use your brain and think about what you’re doing. Think about the erratic or unnatural movements you’re making. It takes a while to change the thought process but it can be done.

To my knowledge and from my experience the only place the wind can be depended on to come from one direction and one direction only is on the flat plains. The rolling prairies have swales, ridges and tree lines that effect the wind direction. Anyone who has hunted hill country or the mountains knows how fickle the wind can be. If there is an upside to that it is that the deer or other game can also be confused by the wind.

Always hunt into the wind, no matter how fickle you know it is. Bear in mind that those same swirling zephyrs are also swirling around the game. It may well bring your scent to a game animal from a completely different direction from which you are hunting. Hunt into the prevailing wind. That effort will not go unrewarded.

At this moment it is pretty windy outside. We heat our home with an outdoor wood furnace and I have been watching the smoke coming from the flue. The wind is basically from the south but in the last 10 minutes it has blown from every direction on the compass several times. In my home area of the Missouri Ozarks the terrain is about as varied as I’ve seen anywhere in the continental United States. It isn’t as high or wide as the Rockies or even the Appalachians but it is certainly as steep and as dissected, perhaps more dissected. The wind swirls all over the place the same as it does in the real mountainous areas. Perhaps a bit worse as it doesn’t have the altitude to contend with. Thus one doesn’t get the upslope wind as the morning warms nor the down slope wind as the afternoon cools. The point being is that in wooded areas where the landscape forces the wind to swirl all one can do is pay attention to the prevailing wind direction and hunt into that direction. You will be betrayed but if you’re out there enough you will also occasionally be blessed. A hunter can contend with all other elements and often times overcome them but the wind is a fickle vixen and not to be trusted.

Ok, let’s put these few things about “hunting” together. You arrive at your hunting destination or step out of the door of your hunting camp or in many cases, out your back door. Take notice of the wind direction first and foremost. You should be familiar with the area and know how the land lays, where the deer feed, bed and travel so that knowledge is already in the equation. Pick what direction you should hunt and start hunting immediately. Sometimes there is a distance that can be traveled before one shifts into hunting gear but often times that distance is not far. Probably the greatest piece of advice that can be given is to go slow! GO SLOW! Look much and move little. The deer, and big deer, are there! As you hunt, plan your route so that you don’t travel far between stops and when you do stop, stop in a place so that your form is broken up. Look and listen more than you move. That cannot be emphasized enough.

As you travel through the woods just pay attention to what is going on around you. Blue Jays, crows, squirrels, chipmunks, pileated woodpeckers, literally all kinds of critters will tell you what’s going on if only you pay attention and learn what makes what sound and why. That is called woodscraft. Do you think for a moment the Mountain Man of old would have lived very long if he didn’t pay attention to what a banded Kingfisher was telling him? Do you even know and would you recognize what a banded Kingfisher is and would you recognize its call? They’re really quite common and their call is unmistakable...if you take the time to learn.

Essentially, go slow, look, that is pay attention to what is going on around you. Listen more than you look. Bear in mind that movement will betray you more than sound. Learn to walk in the woods. Much has been written on that topic alone and anything I’ve read is accurate. When hunting we aren’t in a walking race! Each step is deliberate and calculated to move forward with the least amount of disturbance. Even as you’re putting one foot in front of the other pay attention to your surroundings. They change with every inch of movement. An ear that was invisible a half step ago is now visible as can be any other part of a game animals anatomy.

Although it isn’t often mentioned, pay attention to your sense of smell. Many is the time I’ve been downwind of a rutting buck and smelled him. Any attentive hunter or huntress who has spent much time in the woods can say the same. Rutting bucks stink and stink to high Heaven!

If you will put the above mentioned things in practice and “come down outta that tree and hunt” I am convinced that any success you have will be more satisfactory than any game animal that could be taken from a tree stand.

I have to reiterate that I do hunt from tree stands and will again. I do that on a very limited basis and readily acknowledge that it is an effective way to take game. I also submit that the satisfaction of taking any game from a tree stand cannot compare to the taking of that same game from the ground, in the same geometric plane as the game lives. One is putting themselves at the same level as the game and subjecting themselves to all the vagaries of wind and terrain that the game has to live with moment by moment. It is a greater challenge. If it were easy, everyone would do it. That, in and of itself, is why I chose to “come down outta that tree and hunt”, challenge and satisfaction.

The above is a very brief description of things a hunter needs to know and has to put into practice when still-hunting. Indeed, entire books have been written on the subject, some good and some not so good. Each area will have its own quirks and idiosyncrasies that can only be learned while hunting. The things I have told are the bare essentials and will serve in good stead as blocks to build upon. Ultimately it is incumbent upon the hunter to choose to hunt in this manner. It definitely puts the hunt back in hunting.

It may take a couple years to put all the pieces together but the end result is worth the effort. The first time you’re sneaking through the woods and you spot a deer before it sees you and you put the sneak on it and subsequently put that deer in the freezer you have accomplished more than most will ever know or even suspect.

 

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