THE VANISHING ART OF STILL-HUNTING
Although we commonly describe climbers, lock-ons, ladder stands, and even shooting houses with the catchall term "stands," the truth of the matter is that a more accurate word would be "sits" -- because, with the exception of archers, sitting is the normal posture for those aloft or in blinds. Few of us stop to consider that hunting from an elevated position is pretty much a development associated with the last couple of generations; up to then, almost all hunting was done afoot, and was described as "still-hunting."

The approach still has considerable appeal. For starters, it's a proactive approach, in that the hunter doesn't wait for the deer to come to him but rather takes the action to the deer. Mind you, successful still-hunting puts emphasis on a set of skills that are by no means essential to hunting in a fixed position, most of which revolve around woodscraft. It's important to look and listen much more than you move; silence is truly golden. Factors such as working against the wind and using natural cover to good advantage are also part of the equation.

In some cases, fitness may enter the picture as well. For example, a highly skilled hunter acquaintance of mine, Joe Scarborough, thinks nothing of covering eight or 10 miles in a day of hunting, and if he finds promising sign in an area, he'll sometimes stay overnight, using a couple of MPI space blankets, high-energy food, and water he carries with him in a day pack to tide him over. He's masterful in the woods, as you might expect from a fellow who did three tours of duty in Vietnam as a sniper. However, most of us can't hope to match his stealth and overall level of woodsmanship.

Nonetheless, going it on foot deserves some special caution, especially where you aren't likely to interfere with other hunters, or where getting "back of beyond" makes toting a climbing stand a virtual impossibility. Still-hunting is also a smart way to ease into bedding areas or places where hard-pressed deer seek refuge, or even through vast fields of standing corn. It's different, and done right, it's demanding, but it can be a pure delight.

SPECIAL TACTICS FOR NOCTURNAL DEER
As has already been noted, whitetails in general and big bucks in particular show a pronounced tendency to do most of their feeding at night in the latter portions of the season. Yet you can take a number of steps to help you get around this behavioral pattern.

One involves what a longtime hunting buddy of mine calls "getting up close and personal." He studiously avoids bedding areas until the last week or so of the season, not wanting to disturb the deer that he knows are using them. As December's days dwindle, he eases into these spots in an effort, as he put it "to get right amongst them."

Basically, he slips into thickets, finds a place from which he can see a trail for 40 or 50 yards, and checks the wind; then he just sits down and waits. Deer in the area that he hunts almost always bed down in thickets affording no place in which to position an elevated stand. Besides, he noted, "They are sure to hear you shinnying up a tree."

Another possibility lies in a technique that I've found quite rewarding over the years: Hunt approaches to food plots rather than the actual food plots themselves. Often, December deer are en route to these whitetail restaurants well before last light -- they just don't venture out into the open until the light is gone. Your challenge is to identify their travel routes and intercept them while there is still shooting light.

This tactic requires considerable local knowledge: bedding areas, travel corridors, prevailing wind direction, and the like. It also put a premium on getting stands suitably situated without being intrusive. But if deer are obviously still using a given food plot and aren't there in daylight hours, moving to a position enabling you to cut 'em off at the pass makes perfectly good sense.