How to Still-Hunt in Thick Timber

This may drive my looking buddies loopy, who insisted I used to be blowing out the world and scaring the hell out of all the sport. They, like many different hunters on the market, believed that the one manner to achieve success was to sit down both in a possible spot and look ahead to an animal to stroll by their stand or to glass the sides of open meadows and timber strains after which make a stalk, all whereas staying out of the timber themselves.

Many hunters imagine that discovering success in thick timber is unattainable. They imagine that within the woods, the animals have the higher hand and that stepping on sticks, snapping via brush, and shuffling via dry leaves is simply going to spook each animal you’re looking.

Nevertheless, as I ultimately discovered on my attention-deficit excursions, when you understand how to maneuver and the way and the place to hunt in thick timber, you’ve got a fantastic probability at bagging the deer, elk, or bear you’re after with out them even figuring out you’re there.

One of many largest errors hunters make after they’re strolling via the timber goes via willy-nilly. They head into the forest with no technique and no plan of assault, after which they surprise why they didn’t see something. To achieve success in thick timber still-hunting, it’s important to plan your method, take into consideration each step you’re going to take, after which follow it even when it doesn’t appear productive. In brief, it requires numerous planning, focus, dedication, and flat-out religion to be a great huge timber still-hunter.

The primary and most necessary factor you have to do is locate timber that might be productive. This could possibly be a small woodlot in in any other case open terrain that provides the one cowl for whitetail, or a excessive, pine-choked mountain ridge that’s within the excellent spot for bedding and/or migrating elk.

One of the simplest ways to search out these areas is with numerous thorough scouting with a map or mapping app at first, adopted by preseason and even midseason walk-arounds. Search for tracks, glass them from a distance, and do every little thing you may to make it possible for the animals you’re after are within the timber earlier than you make your method.

When you’ve scouted out a great patch of timber, you’re going to need to decide each a great start line on the upwind facet so you may make your method undetected, in addition to an finish level the place you may exit the woods. This latter level is extraordinarily necessary as you’re going to be transferring extraordinarily slowly and wish to have the ability to hunt it completely, so don’t chunk off an even bigger chunk than you may chew. Utilizing a map or mapping app, attempt to break up the timber you’re looking into smaller one- to two-mile chunks in what you imagine would be the most efficient areas.

As beforehand talked about, the important thing to success in huge timber nonetheless looking is transferring slowly. You don’t need to jerk your head round or make fast changes as you duck and weave across the brush and timber. As well as, you additionally don’t need to step on any sticks or break off any twigs or branches as you progress. One of the simplest ways to do that is to plan out your steps earlier than taking them.

Whenever you transfer into the woods, take a fast take a look at the bottom and notice any clear areas the place you may place your feed with out obstacles, akin to sticks or thick patches of leaves which will hinder your progress. Memorize the place they’re after which take two or three steps into these spots at a time, protecting your head up and scanning the timber as you progress. After you are taking your steps, look down and select three extra spots, and repeat the method, stopping, wanting, and transferring as slowly as attainable in direction of the place you propose to exit the timber.

Whenever you’re nonetheless looking in thick timber, you need to follow cowl. You don’t need to skyline your self or be caught out within the open, the place you’ll stick out like a sore thumb to no matter you might be looking. The simplest and most evident manner to do that in timber is to stay near the timber.

One of many largest causes that numerous hunters don’t like looking in thick timber is that it makes it laborious to see animals. The factor is, although, timber additionally make it laborious for animals to see you. Vertical trunks and thick clumps of branches are incredible for serving to to interrupt up your define, and with the correct camouflage sample and technique, you’ll be capable to transfer via timber with out something figuring out you’re there.

As you poke your manner via the timber, attempt to all the time hold at the least one tree instantly in entrance of you to assist block you from any sport you could be approaching, and if you transfer, keep as near the timber round you as you may.

The important thing right here is to by no means let your self be caught within the open, in order that any eyes that do spot you’ll attribute the motion to branches blowing within the wind. On the events if you do have to maneuver via an open space, attempt to use the shadows of the timber to your benefit. Decelerate and transfer via the shade, persevering with to step fastidiously and hold your head up, with the intention to spot one thing earlier than it spots you.

Shifting and looking in thick timber is a wholly totally different world from looking in a stand. The animals aren’t coming in direction of or standing proper in entrance of you (or not often anyway), and sometimes it takes extra than simply wanting across the woods so that you can discover them. To achieve success nonetheless looking in thick timber, you will need to use all of your senses and be capable to select a goal in a mass of timber.

Whenever you’re searching for sport in thick timber, you’re not searching for a deer, elk, bear, moose, and so on., however reasonably a bit of 1. The oddly straight line of a again, the shining white colour of an antler, the flick of an ear or tail, or the curve of a leg. These are the issues you have to be searching for reasonably than the entire animal itself.

As you progress via the woods, flip your head slowly and decide the timber aside. Search for one thing that appears misplaced or for a slight, barely discernible motion, after which attempt to form that factor into the animal you’re looking. It’s necessary to notice that you just don’t need to be simply randomly capturing at shapes, however wanting and scrutinizing every hole within the timber to make certain of your goal earlier than you pull the set off.

As you progress via the timber, you may depend on your different senses as nicely. Transfer slowly after which cease, hear, and odor the air. For those who’re being quiet and stealthy sufficient, you’ll be capable to decide up on the sound of hooves shuffling via the leaves or twigs breaking as an animal passes via.

With the wind in your face, you’ll additionally typically be capable to detect the nice and cozy bovine odor of ungulates like elk and deer and even the moist canine odor of a bear. Whereas issues like this may occasionally not lead you to an animal instantly, they will at the least let you recognize that one thing is about to occur with the intention to decelerate and put together for the shot.

Nonetheless looking in thick timber is a kind of old-world looking strategies like monitoring or utilizing conventional weapons, that may reconnect you with the soul of looking. In trendy occasions, a lot of the looking world is geared in direction of hunters being outsiders in an alien world. We sit in snug stands, use trail-cams and mapping apps, and principally do every little thing we are able to to get a leg up on the animals we pursue. Whereas there’s nothing improper with this, typically it’s good to get again to fundamentals.

Nonetheless looking in thick timber appears to strip every little thing else away, reverting you again to the naked bones of being a predator in the hunt for prey. It’s a incredible strategy to reconnect with the pure cycles of the wild and take advantage of taking a stroll within the woods.