Editor’s Note: Stalk-hunting deer with a bow was the way of the early Americans. Native Americans were deadly effective at taking game using a bow. However, today, because of our hurry-up society, most hunters can’t refrain from walking too fast to stalk successfully.

“The best way to learn to stalk deer with a bow is to mentally give-up any possibility of having the opportunity to take a shot,” avid bowhunter and my friend Larry Norton of Butler, Alabama, explains. “When I first started stalking deer, I decided there was no way I could move close enough to a buck to get a shot before I spooked him. But I tried to move-in as close as possible to a deer before I spooked him – just to see how close I could get to the animal.”

Norton found that by giving-up the possibility of a shot, he didn’t feel the pressure of having to hurry to the deer. The stalk, not the shot, became the game. He also learned that the slower he moved through the woods, the more likely that he would take a shot at a buck.

When asked why the majority of bowhunters choose to hunt from tree stands, while he prefers to stalk-hunt bucks, Norton answers, “When I’m stalking and moving through the woods, I locate much-more deer sign and learn more about the deer’s movement patterns on the property I’m hunting, than if I spend that same amount of time in a tree stand. Also, I enjoy pitting my skills at close quarters with a white-tailed deer. Personally, I feel that stalk-hunting a deer with a bow is a far-greater challenge than taking a deer with a bow from a tree stand.”

Because the woods are generally most quiet immediately after a rain, Norton prefers to stalk deer then. “If you can’t move quietly through the leaves, you’ll never be able to get close to a buck,” Norton reports. Clear cuts, briar thickets and other types of dense cover provide the backdrop for Norton’s tactic. “I attempt to move along the edge of the cover as close to the thick places as I can get without actually being in the thickets. I want to be able to see out into a hardwood area, so I can spot a deer. But I also want to use that thicket as back cover. Then the deer won’t see me, while I’m looking for him.”

Once Norton is scouting, if he spooks a deer, he goes to the site where he’s seen the animal to determine what the deer has been feeding on and to try to learn why the deer has come to that area at that time of day. Once Norton observes a deer in a region, then he assumes that place may be good for stalk hunting, since deer are creatures of habit. Norton waits for a clear morning after a rainy day and then returns to that area to begin his stalk.

John E. Phillips’ latest deer book “How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro: Volume II,” just was published on Amazon in print at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BGSP3QPB/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p4_i4 The Audible version should be available in December. Since deer hunting and deer hunters are drastically changing each year, John has interviewed some top deer hunters like Mark Drury, Dr. Larry Marchinton, Dr. Bob Sheppard, Pat Reeve, Gene Wensel, Cody Robbins, Ernie Calandrelli, Brian Murphy and Luke Brewster, who took the world’s largest whitetail, to learn their up-to-date techniques for successfully hunting deer and having more places to hunt.

Also, John’s first book in that series “How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro” in Kindle, print and Audible at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007D3H08M includes other outstanding deer hunters.

Too, check-out John’s book, “Bowhunting Deer: the Secrets of the PSE Pros,” https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0091T1NKM/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i1, available now in Kindle, print and Audible versions.

You may have to copy and paste these links into your browser. When you click on these books, notice on the left where Amazon says you can read and hear 10% of the Audible books for free. On the right side of the pages and below the offer for a free Audible trial, you can click on Buy the Audible book.

Tomorrow: Walk Like a Stalker to Take Deer