Spot and Stalk

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wolverinebuckman
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Spot and Stalk

Unread postby wolverinebuckman » Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:27 pm

I recently got to read this awesome write up by Ridgerunner7 about a great spot and stalk hunt on antelope with a bow.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=41451
:clap:

There is something that intrigues me about taking a whitetail in this fashion. Bow in hand, acquiring your game, and closing the distance between the two of you... what an adrenaline rush! It's how I envision whitetails have been hunted in these areas for thousands of years. Moving slowly from cover to cover, lurking in the shadows, a silent predator...

So let's hear it, what's your spot and stalk stories?


Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.
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wolverinebuckman
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Re: Spot and Stalk

Unread postby wolverinebuckman » Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:03 pm

I had two that got me pretty close to a couple younger aged bucks, each inside 30 yards.
The first time, my wife and I were just finishing up a great three day weekend at a friend's cabin on 30 mostly wooded acres. We had seen a few deer while there, but nothing came close enough to shoot. We were sitting in a little elevated platform blind, and could see a buck walking up the driveway in. I told my wife if he didn't turn our way I was going after him, and that's what happened.
The buck was moving along a wood line and crp transition on a small mowed path that made a U shape. He entered the south end and I quickly ran the 100 yards from the blind to the north end of the bowl.
I had no sight of him behind the six foot high screen of plants, and really being a novice hunter, I over committed on my approach and didn't stick to cover. We locked eyes at about 25 yards with nothing but air between us, my bow aimed down, my feet out of position. I froze, winded, trying to control my breathing...seconds ticked by, every one of my muscles screaming. Finally he grew tired of my efforts and bound away.

A year later on the opener, I was just putting the finishing touches on hanging my new ladder stand in a small chunk of timber at a 40 acre farm. As I stood looking around for lanes to cut, I noticed movement to the southeast. A buck was moving toward the woodlot along a hedge row bordering the soy beans. I snatched up my bow and was off, quickly using the shadows to close the distance between us. When our paths finally crossed, I found myself positioned perfectly to get a 20 yard broadside shot, but too much brush between us to shoot. I could only smile as he slipped away.
One of these times I hope to make it happen. I have experienced nothing in hunting more thrilling!
Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.
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Re: Spot and Stalk

Unread postby Rome » Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:10 am

I started trying this tactic this past season. It was very addicting. A few times I had bucks spotted first, other times i was just stalking known beds. I called it purposeful still hunting.

Had more near chances than I thought I would. I think this is a very overlooked tactic these days.

A few highlights. I was pheasant hunting one morning, on a hill, could see into cattails which have big patches of short grass. Saw a decent buck going through a short grass section, into some cattails towards a lone small tree. I watched for 15 more minutes, he never came out, I figured he bedded by that small tree. I finished my pheasant hunt, threw dog, orange vest, and shotgun in truck, grabbed bow and binocs (note...I didn't grab rangefinder... keep reading).

I get to the highest point on the hill to see if I could find him with the glass. No dice. I had a way to get about 40 yards from the bed, cross wind, and very silent in the short grass. As luck would have it, there was a trail that went towards the bed through the cattails. I painfully slowly started working my way. The tree was about 15 yards from me when I heard him stand up...I figured he heard me, or possibly got some wind of me.

I stood up, was crouched down, and I saw him going out the way he came. I froze for a second, worried I blew it, then realized he was probably trying to get my wind because he most likely only heard me. I made quick pace to the short grass. I could see him, on edge. Figured he was 20, aimed low on the crease in case he ducked, released, and shot below him. He never reacted to the shot, and was 33 yards.

He wasn't that big, a nice 2.5 yr old 8. But, for how the hunt was, he was a GIANT to me. I would've put him on the wall. I sat that afternoon, and the entire time in the stand, I kept thinking about that hunt, and how much more fun it was than sitting in a tree waiting.

I have more I'll share later...
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brancher147
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Re: Spot and Stalk

Unread postby brancher147 » Tue Mar 13, 2018 1:09 am

I spotted a buck with a hot doe in a pasture at noon on my way out of the woods. It was the day before gun season and wind was in my favor so I figured I had nothing to lose. I covered the 200 yards in an hour crawling on my belly in an open pasture with a doe a fawn and the buck. While I was crawling the buck lay down in some cedars and all I could see was his rack. I was able to crawl to 60 yards and lay prone behind some dead thistle stalks, which was all I had for cover. The buck was 60 yards straight downwind, the doe was 60 yards to my left and fawn was 60 yards to my right. Luckily I was hunting from the ground that day and had my crossbow instead of my compound. I lay there and began to grunt aggressively. After a few minutes the buck could not take it any longer and came out rubbing trees and postured up directly at me. I am sure he saw me but did not smell me and was rut crazed enough not to care what I was. When he stopped broadside at 43 yards, I let an arrow fly, and he just stood there looking at me and took the shot through the lungs and died 50 yards away. He was a big 3 or 4 yr old 8 pt (tooth wear aging was inconclusive on this buck). Still my biggest rack with a bow.
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Re: Spot and Stalk

Unread postby PK_ » Tue Mar 13, 2018 1:13 pm

Spot and stalk is where it is at. I view the treestand as a necessary evil in some situations, it can’t be beat for killing deer. But that treestand is absolutely a ball and chain in some situations and spot and stalk is not only more fun but can be more productive.
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Re: Spot and Stalk

Unread postby wolverinebuckman » Tue Mar 13, 2018 1:52 pm

PK_ wrote:Spot and stalk is where it is at. I view the treestand as a necessary evil in some situations, it can’t be beat for killing deer. But that treestand is absolutely a ball and chain in some situations and spot and stalk is not only more fun but can be more productive.


That's spoken like someone whose got some stories to tell... :whistle:
Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.
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Re: Spot and Stalk

Unread postby PK_ » Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:13 am

Man, even tho most of my deer have been from treestand, all my best stories and memories are spot and stalk, it’s hard to pick one. Lol

I will cheat and just copy paste one from a couple years ago...

2am, phone starts making a god awful racket under my pillow. I scramble to make it stop and reassess how bad I actually want to do what it is I am about to put myself through.

2:15am I reluctantly roll out of bed.

3am hit the road.

5am hit the parking area, 3 other trucks, not bad. Head due west. Slosh slosh slosh x like a billion

6:30am, whew, almost there, need to slow down, daylight is cracking. Utilize a small piece of dry ground to sort through gear and prepare for still-huntining the next half mile or so.

6:35 Didn't make it 20 yards. DOE! A deer, a female deer.

6:45am Covered about another 50 yards, lots of splashing, grunting, deer running all over in the sloughs. Not really sure what to do so I just kind of slowly slink forward to what looks like a crossing where I saw a couple of does pop through.

6:53am First sunrise of the season
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7am Deer running at me, deer running away from me, some deer blowing at me, some deer just like blowing, no way you smell me, shut up. What a mess.

7:10am 3 deer running at me, crap i am exposed. Hunch half way down in calf deep water, this sucks. Doe, buck, buck. 20 yards doe spots me trying to move behind brush because every muscle in my legs and back are screaming, puts on the brakes, turns and dives into the pond. Bucks stop at 40, looking my way, can't figure out why she did that. Bucks just stand there for about 5 mins. 3rd buck comes in, ears laid back, in a bad mood starts a fight with both bucks. I use their diverted attention to slide left and get the only little tiny bush around in between me and them. Work forward slowly to the bush. Range them, 45 yards. They finish fighting and one buck starts walking towards me he stops and looks back, I lean out and range him, 35. Release on the string, draw back slow. At this point my left leg starts to feel like it is on fire, I look down and I am standing on a fire ant mound. Oh man, I don't know how they synchronize to all bite at the exact same time but OMG the pain. So what was supposed to be a graceful moment of execution became and quick, sloppy step to the right, line up and let him have it. WHAM, I see blood spraying he goes down. Awesome now get these ants off my leg!!!

7:30am, now the work begins
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Snap a couple quick pics and start dragging
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Otw out had two bears come running at me not sure if you are able to zoom in and see one in the pic
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7:55am Use someones canoe to hold my gear while I shed some clothes for the rest of the drag out and update the Beast.
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9:30am back at the truck. Soaked to the bone, sunburnt, sore and sleep-deprived. Drink like 4 waters. Load him up, drive out and clean him up and get him on ice.

12:30pm hit the road

2:30pm Home, hit the shower and take a nap.
No Shortcuts. No Excuses. No Regrets.
Everybody's selling dreams. I'm too cheap to buy one.
Rich M wrote:Typically, hunting FL has been like getting a root canal
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wolverinebuckman
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Re: Spot and Stalk

Unread postby wolverinebuckman » Wed Mar 14, 2018 4:11 am

Awesome stories guys! Keep em coming....
:clap: :dance: :clap:
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Re: Spot and Stalk

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Wed Mar 14, 2018 4:40 am

I have shot many deer on foot. What I do is probably called still hunting vs spot and stalk, but I need to go find my story from 09 season, with me and young Patrick the killer. Wow what a memory that was. I took my friends ~13 yr old son on a blasphemous out of the blind stalk and walked up on a buck bedded with his girl. Walked up and shot them both in the bed at about 25 yds +/-.

I refer to it as blasphemy sarcastically, as the land owners son is a real tool and doesn't like anyone having success, especially if they do anything other than what he approves of. I think that was the best part, PTK shot the buck, bob was upset with us, and we stalked in their bed together. I shot the doe as she lay, and told PTK after I shoot the doe take the buck, BANG, BANG. Hunt over, get the truck and the knives.
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Re: Spot and Stalk

Unread postby Lockdown » Tue Mar 20, 2018 3:37 pm

Wolverine quoted my spot and stalk mulie comment in a different thread. I know I've talked about it before but here goes anyway.

It was 2013. I was running pretty hot for killing decent bucks the last 5 years, so I decided to try my hand at filming. My buddy Tyler and I headed to South Dakota for a week of fun with our bows and the camera. Day 1 Tyler was up and we had good action but nothing good materialized. Day 2 we decided to spot check "a river" backflow (its SD... you'll never guess which one :lol: ) and glass the opposite side. Sure enough we located what appeared to be a real nice buck with 5 or 6 does.
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That's the video camera through the spotting scope... you can see him laying just about dead center to the left of the trees. Problem was, all the does were spread out around a bowl. Due to where he was laying, and with all those eyes and noses, we decided to leave him be and go search for something else. It was low odds. After all it was only an hour after sunup and he would likely not go far IF he did move. After about 4 hours of boots on the ground glassing does and small bucks elsewhere, we returned to check on him. Sure enough he was still there.

We knew by the time we got over there and into position it would likely be late afternoon. We figured we'd at least try and watch from a distance, and make a move if the opportunity arose. We sure as heck couldn't sit and watch him from the truck any longer ;) He was bedded by the trees in the pic, and there was also a fence line behind him. That was huge. If I can tell you anything about spotting and stalking out West, things look ENTIRELY different than you will expect them to once you get into position. Pin point them with as many different land marks as you can. Being near a tree AND a fence, that's just flat out lucky. But he was far from dead.

First thing was follow the fence and try and locate the tree. When we accomplished that, we second guessed ourselves and both agreed we had the wrong tree and snuck up on a different one. Mid stalk we realize we were right the first time :lol: We stayed patient and played our cards right despite the "mistake".

I think it was this point we saw a group of does in a ravine several hundred yards North of us. We were pretty certain it was the does he was with (thought we'd have been able to see them bedded by now if they were still there), and being it was mid November we thought for sure he was with them. Had to be. We just about "recalculated" and went to cut them off when I thought "Man... we're ALMOST to his bedding tree. If we follow the does and don't find him I'll forever wonder if he stayed put." - Keep in mind mulies rut later than Whitetails. I THOUGHT he'd be with the does... but just had to check first since we were right there. We were about 100 yards or hair more from where we expected him to be laying.

We didn't go far when all the sudden there's his rack skylined against the river :shock: No... Freakin'... WAY! Things got real in a hurry. I nocked an arrow and Tyler hunkered down in the sage and was hidden well. Buck was probably 80 yards away, motionless. To complicate things there was ZERO wind, and I had to pick my way through patches of fairly crunchy snow. I went EXTREMELY SLOW, crouching most of the time to stay hidden if he did look up. Eventually I had to stand to take some bigger steps to avoid the snow. He's a hair over 60 yards. He eventually heard me and more or less caught me with my pants down.
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"Holy lord look at his ears!!" I couldn't help but think I was face to face with an old public land warrior. Narrow rack, with tall tines, chopped up ears and HEAVY neck. I'm certain he could see me from the waist up but what else can you do but freeze. I figured it was the beginning of the end. I waited for him to bound off but he stayed... staring... motionless.
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The fact that I had most of my weight on my left leg was starting to be an issue after a few minutes. After about 5 he turned his head some, then took a couple steps toward me :shock: It was evident it was a STEEP cliff because he raised up quite a bit with each step. Then he stopped and stared again. The whole ordeal lasted close to 10 minutes. Problem for me was I'm right handed and my right leg was in front of my left. If I was going to get a shot off I had no choice but to weasel my right leg back when he would move.

What I didn't know at the time was the cliff behind him was steep enough apparently he didn't want to go down it. Nor did he want to head toward me. Hence the stand off. (For those who are wondering mulies aren't as panicky as whitetails. A mature whitetail buck would have likely busted). He finally started moving laterally very slowly, stopping to check on me constantly.
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He picked his pace up some and I gambled with the opportunity to relieve my burning left leg with my right. He stopped again but I got my leg back far enough I felt I could shoot if he let me draw. I knew he was within a yard or two of 50 as I had everything pre-ranged.

When he got behind the thickest bush my instinct was to draw, but I didn't knowing if he saw me he'd stop and I'd be at full draw with his vitals blocked. I waited until he cleared it then drew. He saw me and stopped! By the way my heart is pounding out of my chest for most of this, especially at this moment. I felt a little awkward but practice shooting at weird angles. I settled the pin low and just behind his elbow and touch off the shot. Tyler zoomed in when he saw me draw.
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My bow isn't the fastest and I only pull mid 50's for draw weight, and it seemed like it took FOREVER for the arrow to get there. He loaded his legs, lurched forward and SMACK!!! Spine shot dropped him in his tracks :shock: I couldn't believe it. What a stand off. What an encounter. What a story to tell... and it was all on video 8-)

Here's where it gets interesting. He got up on his front feet, and headed down hill. :doh: I nocked another arrow and ran up to the military crest. Nothing. It was a dangerous situation and I fell once. Quivered my arrow after that :lol: Here's a shot about 30-40 feet down in elevation, still with no buck in sight. We did see some good blood so we knew he didn't head laterally.
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We finally found him bedded at the edge of an eroded cliff approximately 80' down what was about a 70 degree slope. He was hurting bad enough he didn't flee and I put the finishing shot on him. The first thing on my mind was how the heck are we getting him out of here?!? You couldn't walk up the slope without holding on to branches. We ignored that and soaked it all in. He was huge. I could barely fit my fingers around his bases and his g2's almost touched.
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We went back to the truck for the cart, and luckily Tyler had about 40' of rope. We tied it around his rack and heave hoe'd him all the way up then carted him from there. The rope trick worked pretty well. One guy at the end of the rope, and one in the middle. Pull until he reaches the bottom guy, top guy become middle guy and keeps tension while the other guy scales the cliff with the end of the rope. Then repeat. Plant your feet against something solid and pull hard :lol:



After replaying the footage at least a thousand times, impact would have been mid way up toward the back of the rib cage. Likely liver. Got super lucky and spined him in the flank area :?
He scored 134" and change as a 3x3. 16" spread and 16 & 17" g2's. I did a european mount (might shoulder him some day) and the taxidermist commented on how his teeth were rotten. "Must be a really old deer." he said. If I do shoulder mount him his ears will look just like they did when I killed him. Even without the video its a hunt I'll never forget.
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Re: Spot and Stalk

Unread postby tbunao » Wed Mar 21, 2018 1:50 am

2nd buck I ever took with a bow was a spot and stalk.

Back then I only knew to hunt field edges so I had built a little wooden plank on the edge of a corn field. It may have been the first snow of the year but that successful evening the deer were on their feet, only not coming from where I had hoped. I saw a buck follow a group of does out into the cut corn field and disappear over a knoll. I quickly lowered my bow and made a loop to get the wind in my favor and to get behind a telephone pole with a 4 foot mound under it. When I reached the pole I peeked my head over the mound and there he was slowly working is way into sight and in range. 20 yards quartering away I drilled him. I knew the hit was good but couldn’t find the arrow or blood so I backed out. Sick day from school to look for him and he was only 20 yards into the woods. If it wasn’t for the wind I probably would of heard him crash.

I weighed 89lbs and dragged that deer close to 2 miles back home, right down a dirt road. Lol he didn’t have any hair on the bottom side by the time I got him home. Struggled the whole way but was on cloud 9


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