New Hunter

[Antfinn88]

When you started out hunting who did you learn from? This is my first year hunting and I don't have any family that hunts or very many friends who hunt. Those that do usually just hunt with a rifle in a stand. That's cool, but I'd really like to become efficient at spot and stalking. My thought process was that once turkey season starts I'd start pounding the woods looking for hogs and hunt as many of them as I could. Hoping that would at least get me a little seasoned for deer season. I've spent about 6 days out there without spotting a single hog. So if anyone spot and stalks and is willing to let someone tag along I would be extremely grateful.

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

Self taught is about the best you are gonna do. Hogs are a slave to their stomach, find the food, find the nearest thicket and you will usually find the hogs. You normally have to cover slot of ground. There is not any acorns or hickory nuts on the ground now, so they will be rooting more. If you can find a receding water line, a pond that is loosing water, their will often be alot of rooting there. Worms and fresh shoots of new growth will be what their after. They are different than deer, if you hear or smell them…..get to them quick, you can get away with a lot more noise than a deer. The wind is your biggest adversary. If your gonna stalk deer with a bow, plan on some weight loss on your part unless you have a whole lot of injun in you. Keep trying tho. Good luck.

 

[Antfinn88]

Self taught is about the best you are gonna do. Hogs are a slave to their stomach, find the food, find the nearest thicket and you will usually find the hogs. You normally have to cover slot of ground. There is not any acorns or hickory nuts on the ground now, so they will be rooting more. If you can find a receding water line, a pond that is loosing water, their will often be alot of rooting there. Worms and fresh shoots of new growth will be what their after. They are different than deer, if you hear or smell them…..get to them quick, you can get away with a lot more noise than a deer. The wind is your biggest adversary. If your gonna stalk deer with a bow, plan on some weight loss on your part unless you have a whole lot of injun in you. Keep trying tho. Good luck.

Thanks man. I've been trying to find the food, also been searching along all the creeks. I'll check around the ponds next time I'm out. I've been covering a decent amount of ground but I always find old sign. I appreciate all the advice!

 

[bfriendly]

Keep going! Find routes to walk that’ll hopefully keep the wind in your face. I do some big circles most times, almost never taking the same route back to the truck. While hillbilly is spot on and you may get away with some noise, hogs are no easy task spot and stalk! Have you smelled them? When you do, you’ll know it! It’s also easy to walk right up on bedding pigs if you’re quiet and the wind is in your face………if they are there. Anywho good luck man I can’t wait to see your first kills!

 

[across the river]

There is a reason you typically see spot and stalk hunts out west in the open country when you can "spot" whatever you are hunting a long ways off, and then "stalk" up on it from there. If you aren't seeing animals, you aren't spot and stalking. There are typically few options for it in Georgia, outside of seeing some in a field and running around to try to get in from of them.

Now, you can still hunt, and basically just slowly move through the woods into the wind, and hope you run into one, or one walks by before they spot or smell you. I've have done that for pigs, but your success is typically related to the numbers of animals on the place, as it is just a numbers game. If they are only sporadic, it is tough to run into them. As far as tips for still hunting, most people move too fast and end up just walking through the woods. You have to spend more time looking than moving, which is tough for a lot of people.

 

[Roebuck]

I do a lot of still hunting here in the UK. As across the river said above most people move too fast and don’t look enough either with binoculars or just normal eye sight.

You should be spending way more time looking than you do walking. As you reach each new view in the woods make sure you scan all the way round making sure your eyes become accustom to picking up the slightest movement, the twitch of an ear the swish of a tail (deer) and look for partial body shapes as you very rarely see the whole of the animal.

Use the wind to your advantage and continually check the wind as in woods the wind can swirl around and change direction.

Practice walking without sound, this is very hard when the ground is littered with dry autumn leaves and fallen twigs after a strong wind. Don’t look and walk at the same time (you’ll just end up stepping on the noisy stuff) when walking watch where you put your feet, avoid the stuff that makes noise and roll your feet down heels first rather than placing it flat.

When you have gone a few yards or reached another view point then stand still and scan slowly all the way round, when you are sure there is nothing there continue your steady and slow walk.

You won’t cover much ground this way, so scouting the ground beforehand out of season is essential to know where the quarry bed, eat (identify potential sources of food), drink, so you can get near to these areas to start your hunt. Also use your ears hogs tend to tend make quite a bit of noise, but so do deer as they move through the woods.

Good luck and remember no time in the woods is ever wasted, you will always be learning and getting more experience.

 

[Antfinn88]

Thanks guys! I'm definitely having to remind myself to move slower. The first few hunts especially I was just hauling *** through the woods but I'm getting better. I decided to give up on Pine Long WMA. I wasn't seeing enough sign out there and every hunter I ran into said I'd have better luck elsewhere. Yesterday was my first day at Paulding Forest. It was just a quick scout before work and I set up a trail cam. So hopefully I'll have something on there when I go pull the SD card in a few days. If it isn't stolen hahaha! Seriously guys I greatly appreciate all the advice.

 

[bfriendly]

Thanks guys! I'm definitely having to remind myself to move slower. The first few hunts especially I was just hauling *** through the woods but I'm getting better. I decided to give up on Pine Long WMA. I wasn't seeing enough sign out there and every hunter I ran into said I'd have better luck elsewhere. Yesterday was my first day at Paulding Forest. It was just a quick scout before work and I set up a trail cam. So hopefully I'll have something on there when I go pull the SD card in a few days. If it isn't stolen hahaha! Seriously guys I greatly appreciate all the advice.

I’ve seen very little hog sign at pinelog the last few years….some, just not much . Paulding has some nice areas and you can’t go wrong there. Best of luck! And hope you get some good pics…..and your camera back

 

[Antfinn88]

Haha I got the camera back! But sadly the only pics were of me coming and going lol. Been out on paulding Thursday, and Friday but no sign of a pig. I've seen a lot of deer though so that will be nice come deer season. About to head back out there now🤞

 

[mwood1985]

Haha I got the camera back! But sadly the only pics were of me coming and going lol. Been out on paulding Thursday, and Friday but no sign of a pig. I've seen a lot of deer though so that will be nice come deer season. About to head back out there now🤞

Hide that camera high up in a tree and leave it for a few weeks or even a month. Look up Tim Harrell trail camera on YouTube. He leaves them out in Florida for months at a time and does a good job getting animals.

 

[Antfinn88]

Finally got something on the trail cam!

 

[splatek]

When you started out hunting who did you learn from? This is my first year hunting and I don't have any family that hunts or very many friends who hunt. Those that do usually just hunt with a rifle in a stand. That's cool, but I'd really like to become efficient at spot and stalking. My thought process was that once turkey season starts I'd start pounding the woods looking for hogs and hunt as many of them as I could. Hoping that would at least get me a little seasoned for deer season. I've spent about 6 days out there without spotting a single hog. So if anyone spot and stalks and is willing to let someone tag along I would be extremely grateful.

I’ll be 48 years old in July and started hunting three years ago. Finding a few great mentors is worth it’s weight in gold. boots on ground. Pay attention to your hunches. You’d be surprised how after a few times in the backcountry your instincts Might come out. My second season I out a camera in a spot that just felt right ended up having everything on it: bears, bucks, pigs, yotes, bobcats. I was shocked.
And always keep learning. Humility goes a long way.

 

[35 Whelen]

Start squirrel hunting on August 15th, it will teach you a lot that will help you with hunting on the ground for deer, hogs, and bear.

 

[Antfinn88]

I’ll be 48 years old in July and started hunting three years ago. Finding a few great mentors is worth it’s weight in gold. boots on ground. Pay attention to your hunches. You’d be surprised how after a few times in the backcountry your instincts Might come out. My second season I out a camera in a spot that just felt right ended up having everything on it: bears, bucks, pigs, yotes, bobcats. I was shocked.
And always keep learning. Humility goes a long way.[/QUOTE
Just finding someone to teach me h

I’ll be 48 years old in July and started hunting three years ago. Finding a few great mentors is worth it’s weight in gold. boots on ground. Pay attention to your hunches. You’d be surprised how after a few times in the backcountry your instincts Might come out. My second season I out a camera in a spot that just felt right ended up having everything on it: bears, bucks, pigs, yotes, bobcats. I was shocked.
And always keep learning. Humility goes a long way.

I'm definitely learning a little bit more each time I go out. I was going to hunt all this weekend since it's the last for hogs until small game season. But I've decided to just focus on my bow skills. I'll still go out and check the cameras and scout but for the next few months I'm gonna try and shoot 3D. I've got like 3 solid hunting spots scouted out so it's a start!

 

[Antfinn88]

Start squirrel hunting on August 15th, it will teach you a lot that will help you with hunting on the ground for deer, hogs, and bear.

I plan on it! I figured if I can hit a squirrel with an arrow it should be able to hit a deer!

 

[splatek]

I plan on it! I figured if I can hit a squirrel with an arrow it should be able to hit a deer!

Any reason you’re limiting yourself to a bow?

 

[Antfinn88]

Any reason you’re limiting yourself to a bow?

Nah that's just all I have.

 

[splatek]

Nah that's just all I have.

Copy that. Nothing wrong with that. I will tell you I started thinking that way, too, but where I hunt the animal density is pretty low and my buddies more or less convinced me that taking up a rifle would be a good idea. And it was. And I don't just mean because it helped me knock down a few more animals. I think I learned as much about bowhunting by using a rifle as any other thing that has helped me. It allowed me to sit further away from the animals and see how they were using terrain, vegetation, what they were eating. My bow kills this pas season we complete luck; I learned a ton from my rifle kills about how I am going to bowhunt this coming season. Just a thought from one noob to another.

 

[fishfryer]

I do a lot of still hunting here in the UK. As across the river said above most people move too fast and don’t look enough either with binoculars or just normal eye sight.

You should be spending way more time looking than you do walking. As you reach each new view in the woods make sure you scan all the way round making sure your eyes become accustom to picking up the slightest movement, the twitch of an ear the swish of a tail (deer) and look for partial body shapes as you very rarely see the whole of the animal.

Use the wind to your advantage and continually check the wind as in woods the wind can swirl around and change direction.

Practice walking without sound, this is very hard when the ground is littered with dry autumn leaves and fallen twigs after a strong wind. Don’t look and walk at the same time (you’ll just end up stepping on the noisy stuff) when walking watch where you put your feet, avoid the stuff that makes noise and roll your feet down heels first rather than placing it flat.

When you have gone a few yards or reached another view point then stand still and scan slowly all the way round, when you are sure there is nothing there continue your steady and slow walk.

You won’t cover much ground this way, so scouting the ground beforehand out of season is essential to know where the quarry bed, eat (identify potential sources of food), drink, so you can get near to these areas to start your hunt. Also use your ears hogs tend to tend make quite a bit of noise, but so do deer as they move through the woods.

Good luck and remember no time in the woods is ever wasted, you will always be learning and getting more experience.

Well said!

 

[Antfinn88]

Copy that. Nothing wrong with that. I will tell you I started thinking that way, too, but where I hunt the animal density is pretty low and my buddies more or less convinced me that taking up a rifle would be a good idea. And it was. And I don't just mean because it helped me knock down a few more animals. I think I learned as much about bowhunting by using a rifle as any other thing that has helped me. It allowed me to sit further away from the animals and see how they were using terrain, vegetation, what they were eating. My bow kills this pas season we complete luck; I learned a ton from my rifle kills about how I am going to bowhunt this coming season. Just a thought from one noob to another.

I've definitely thought about a rifle, but the WMAs around me have longer archery seasons so I figured that would work to my benefit. I've yet to see anyone else with a bow out there hahaha. It's also kind of forcing me to be better with my bow. I'm practicing like a mad man!