There have been several polls and discussion on AR lately about how good of a shot you feel you are. I thought that we'd take the shooting out of the equation and concentrate on hunting and stalking. In this part of the country, we mostly hunt whitetails from stands. For this reason, I love to squirrel hunt, as that gives me the opportunity to walk amongst them.

My personal best was at the age of 16. I was bow hunting from a ladder stand on a hilltop plateau during the rifle season split. I could hear bucks fighting in the food plot down from me, but couldn't see them due to the terrain. After a few minutes, I couldn't take it anymore and had to sneak down for a peak. There were 17 young bucks in the field, and the largest was also the closest. I snuck back for my binoculars to judge the buck. I determined that he was a shooter and went back for my bow. Upon the final stalk to him, I managed to crawl within 35 yds of the buck and shot him. He was a basket racked 9 point who scored 119, which wasn't a very good buck for that area (Port Gibson MS), but I was damn proud of stalking a buck, in a field, with a bow.

How about ya'll?

Here in the West I grew up hunting spot and stalk and for our guided hunts that's the method we use for the vast majority of the hunts.

Last year I hunted out of a tree stand for the first time to get a whitetail with my brother-in-law in NE KS. It was interesting to try, but I'm so glad I don't have to sit in a tree and WAIT for things to walk by. Maybe I just don't have the patience for it.

It's a ton of fun spotting game at a distance, watching the wind, working the terrain and vegetation to see if you can get close enough for a shot.

On just the most recent pig hunt I guided, we spotted a group of pigs from a ridgetop feeding down in the oaks. At least one looked good. We started the stalk and a little over halfway there the wind started switching on us. We backed out and came in off of another part of the ridge. When we were close enough the hunter got set up on the sticks and we waited until the pigs milled around enough to get a crack at the largest boar. Awesome stalk. It was a ton of fun, just how I grew up learning to hunt.

I was born and raised in New Mexico and grew up hunting mule deer in Southern New Mexico. The method was stalk & stalk. You just developed a feel over time where the bucks might be and moved through the mountains stalking out likely looking patches until you jumped one.

I was bow hunting one year and saw a doe bedded in a small, partially treed meadow. I started a stalk, but the wind shifted and she bailed on me. I stopped and after a few minutes I heard sounds, like a sheep bawling. I eased through the trees until I spied a fawn. I stopped on one side of a tree, and the fawn saw movement and stalked me, until she was on one side of the tree and I was on the other. She stuck her nose around the trunk,and was about 3" from the end of my bow. I moved it quickly and tapped her nose. She got this startled, what-the-f___ look in her eyes, and bounced away ASAP.

I have nothing but admiration for those who are allowed/good enough to stalk game with a bow, We are'nt allowed this method in the UK, but still some of us get the chance to stalk in close 40/50 yds with the rifle, I reckon bowhunting would be a fantastic challenge for us over here on wild boar! Steve.

KENSCO, what part of New Mexico are you from? I was born and raised in Alamogordo, NM. I did a lot of hunting with my Dad in the Sacramentos around Mayhill, Cloudcroft, Sunspot, etc.

I was born in Portales and lived in Elida, Roswell, Artesia, Santa Fe, Clovis, Las Cruces, and Hobbs. I went to Junior High, High School and college in Las Cruces.

My first deer hunt was near Winston. Killed my first buck on that hunt, with a borrowed .270. I hunted the Gila some, Ruidoso a little, the Guadalupes west of Carlsbad. I love Luna, but most of my time was spent hunting in the Sacramentos south of Weed. My favorite place was Salt Rock Canyon. We hunted there about ten years in a row. It was a short canyon and you could drive just past a small earth tank and make camp, then hunt up any of about four draws, or the thick blow-down on the north slope. I think over time I took about nine buck out of there, and our group saw one bear, some turkey and coyotes.

I knew it was all over one night when about 2:00am on opening day some want-to-be hunters drove right through our camp and pitched theirs in the middle of the saddle at the top of the main draw where deer constantly moved through. By mid-morning they were sighting their rifles in on a cardboard box. We struck camp and moved out. I'm sure they never saw a thing, and never realized what a bunch of dumb-asses they were.

I killed my first mule deer with a pistol (.41 Mag. Ruger Blackhawk) off Bluewater Canyon.

The last time I hunted New Mexico was in about 1976.

I just got back from visiting my mother in Las Cruces two weeks ago. Cruces has changed, but I still like it. I'm trying to talk to my wife about retiring in the Albuquerque area.

I married a girl from Alamogordo about 40 years ago. Not sure where she's at now. I always thought I would get out of college and work all my life at White Sands Missile Range. Life had other ideas.

I started hunting by sitting in tree stands, but that got pretty boring after a while. Now i will sit the first day or so, but being a bow hunter by the time rifle season comes im ready to still hunt.

I killed a spike couple of years ago with my bow, i walked right up on him, he had no clue i was there. Usually i dont shoot spikes but i kept bumping into this one so i figured his number was up.As i was closing the distance he decided to bed, looking right in my direction. I stood there for 45 minutes waiting him out, he stood, looked the other way, and i slipped an arrow right through his chest.One of the best hunts i ever had.

Getting back to the question i stalk or still hunt by getting into a great area and walk, if you can call it that verry verry slow. Take a step, look around for 10 to 15 minutes, take another step, etc etc... works real well most of the time.