Friday, February 29, 2008
The Art Of Sitting Still
Anyone who has bow hunted more than one day knows the importance of being able to sit still and quiet. Knowing that, and doing it, are two different things.
I seldom hunt with another person, but in the past when my kids and grandkids were young, they would go out with me. Most adults can??t sit still, and even fewer children can do so.
One of my grandchildren was fidgeting when I whispered to him to sit still. He whispered back that he was sitting still.
Your idea and my idea of being motionless and quiet may not jibe. My buddy Dave Richey has mastered the art of silent sitting. He has taken more black bears than he has fingers and toes, and he has learned some of the tricks to sitting as still as a stone for long periods of time.
??The first bear I shot,? he said, ??was on Sept. 10, opening day of Upper Peninsula bear season. This was well over 30 years ago, and tree stand hunting wasn??t legal. I sat downwind alongside but downwind of an active bear trail, my back against a big cedar root-wad on a warm day.
??Sometime later, I awoke from my dozing and cracked one eye to see a black bear walking past at eight feet. The animal walked past, and a smooth draw and an clean bow shot took that bruin behind the front shoulder.?
The bear didn??t go far, and Richey said he was absolutely motionless when the bear walked by because he was asleep. He admits that was an accident, but he??s since learned to sit without movement or sound.
I??ve found one trick to being still while hunting is to be comfortable, and a hunter must learn how to relax and be comfortable if he hopes to be motionless and still. The first step is to remove anything that can cause discomfort while sitting. Richey says his chief problem is he must remove his billfold from his back pocket. If he leaves it in, he can sit on it for 30 minutes before it starts to bother him.
Sit on the ground, and a root an inch under the dirt will put a crease in your butt, and you??ll start moving to get comfortable. I make certain if I??m in a tree stand that no branch stub is digging into my ribs or spine. A stone in the dirt under you butt will feel like a boulder after 30 minutes.
Check out each spot where you hunt. Remove offending branches or broken branch stubs. Many tree stands have uncomfortable seats because the seat is too low, and your knees are up under your chin and that makes for an uncomfortable seat. Just as bad or worse is a seat that is too high, and you have to sit on the edge of the seat to keep your feet steady on the platform. This cuts off blood flow in your legs, and your toes and feet go to sleep, which leads to movement.
Learn to get comfortable first, and then learn to relax your body and mind. Richey told me once that he meditates while in a stand, and although his eyes are closed and his heartbeat and respiration slows down, he can hear the rustle of bear hair against bracken ferns or the faint twig snap of a wandering buck.
This isn??t recommended for someone unaccustomed to meditation. What works for most of us is to free our brain of all thought, to feel comfortable and relaxed, and to will yourself to being motionless. I??ve had bucks approach to within several feet of me without seeing any movement, and that is part of the secret. Keep your mind uncluttered by unnecessary details, and it??s much easier to remain motionless.
Fix your attention on a distant object, and stare at it. It will blur, come back into focus, and blur again. Stick with it, and don??t think of deer or work or anything else, and try to become one with your surroundings.
This works for me and some other people I know, but it may not work for you without a great deal of practice. The first and foremost thing is to be comfortable. Once the human body is comfortable, start working on the mind.
Soon, with continuous practice, it will be possible to sit motionless for 30 minutes. Then start working on being motionless for an hour. If you can get up to two or three hours, many of your hunting problems will be solved.
You won??t be moving so you won??t be making a sound (unless you snore). Without movement or noise, the only thing you must worry about is being winded. Stay downwind of where deer travel, and you will have removed most of the key things that spook deer.
Practice now, long before bow season opens, to sit still and motionless in a non-hunting environment. If you can pull that off for two hours, and you follow the other rules of hunting, there won??t be a deer that will be safe around you.??The Whitetail Wizard