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.

Once you’ve mastered this stalk-hunting tactic, you must locate an area to hunt deer utilizing this method. “The more hunting pressure a deer feels, the more nervous the deer will be, and the less likely you’ll be able to stalk it,” Larry Norton of Butler, Alabama, a longtime bowhunter and guide, reports. “That’s why I try to get as far away from hunting pressure as possible. I’ll often slip-out in the middle of clear-cuts that only may be 2- or 3-years old and use this stalk-hunting strategy. I may move deep back into the woods where most hunters won’t go to get away from the pressure that makes deer nervous.”

According to Norton, you even can stalk-hunt deer successfully over green fields. “If a green field is hunted often, the deer know where to expect the hunter – usually in a tree stand or a shooting house. However, if you get on the side of a green field where the deer never have seen a hunter, you may be able to move along the edges of the wood line and stalk within bow range of the deer feeding on the green field. Deer on hunted green fields often are oriented to look for danger coming from one particular spot. If the deer are nervous or fidgety, they constantly will be watching a tree stand or a shooting house, expecting danger.

By understanding this, you can remain on the downwind side of the field, move slowly, and get-in close enough to take a shot with a bow. This technique often is deadly after gun season has begun, and the gun hunters have started setting-up on green fields. However, if you plan to stalk a green field, make sure gun hunters won’t be hunting this region on the day you hunt, and that everyone who hunts this area knows you’ll be on the edge of that green field. Only utilize this method of stalking on private lands where the hunting is strictly controlled.”

Native Americans learned to stalk slowly and patiently and used however much time they needed to get-in close-enough for shots with their bow. An Indian brave’s success meant the reward of food for his family. Norton enjoys the stalk because of the excitement and the challenge presented by his moving-in close enough, 30 yards or less, to take a bow shot at a deer. As Norton explains, “Stalking a deer with a bow is the most intense form of hunting for me, because all my skills as an archer and as a woodsman are tested.”

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 “” 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.