Back to Basics Deer, If You Get My Drift

Written By: A Lady Dressed to Kill With a Poodle

Though now at the end of the pecking order of the deer hunter’s craft, still hunting has fallen to the side of the road. Hunters with the wool pulled over their eyes think that good things come to those who wait if you act dead as a doornail in a deer stand. I’m not just whistling Dixie here- chew on it and maybe give still hunting a shot. You’ve got nothing to lose, and maybe you’ll score big. Even if you come up empty, the excitement will blow you away.

Still hunting is not about getting dressed up with nowhere to go for nine days. Its boot scoot boogie’n over hill and dale while biting the dust of a deer trying to fly the coop. It’s all about feathering your nest by hook or by crook to bag the deer before it catches on and ducks under the radar to lead you on a wild goose chase. The barn burner is the hunter and the deer at loggerheads in the battle royal with their ears to the ground.

As described by the late Wisconsinite George Mattis in his famous 1969 book, Whitetails, Fundamentals and Fine Points, in still hunting the hunter’s movements are slow as molasses with radical chic precision requiring the patience of a saint. For all intents and purposes, an old logging road, frozen waterway or grassy field edge is used to clam up and put one foot in front of the other. No surprises here, but you can be quiet as a mouse if you don’t jump the gun until just the perfect moment when the morning frost softens the ground cover. In the ridge-and-river country of Western Wisconsin, you can grab the brass ring in spot-and-stalk pursuit if you mind your ps and qs.

Some people miss the boat on still hunting because they won’t jump on the band wagon and scare a deer off a property. If this gets your goat, use the middle of the week for your bottom line or keep your junk in the trunk until others are at lunch in the middle of the day. Seriously, dreams are made of this and you’ll get all that and a bag of chips if you just let it go and go with the flow.

The elephant never forgets the law of the jungle and keeps his cards close to his vest knowing he is the fox in the henhouse. The info dump is the parts of the deer, antlers, tail, and horizontal line of the back that are more often in the cross hairs first. This should be grist for the mill.

If you are looking for a hunt that will totally stun, awe and amaze you, and snap your game without losing a streak, still hunting could be your ace in the hole.