74 PETERSENÕS BOWHUNTING 09 • 2019
AS THE BEADS of sweat rolled down my
forehead and onto my nose, I breathed a sigh
of relief. Thank God it didn’t go into one of my
eyes, I thought as I lay in the shadows by some
large boulders, waiting for my opportunity. I
had been on standby for almost an hour, wait-
ing on a pronghorn buck to finally stand and
stretch its legs. Like a sniper, I remained mo-
tionless, yet ready to strike at a second’s no-
tice. I had executed the perfect stalk, which
started hours ago. I was now inside what I call
“The Red Zone.”
As a lifelong bowhunter, I’ve gone through
many different stages and tried many types of
gear and hunting methods. But if there’s one
thing that has completely changed my bow-
hunting thought process, it is the art of a stalk!
Spot-and-stalk bowhunting has opened doors
and lead to opportunities I never thought pos-
sible. As an Ohio hunter who spends a lot of
time each fall hunting whitetails from trees-
tands, I quickly learned this method is im-
perative to being successful on my Western
adventures. But it’s also given me a new tool
in my box of tricks for whitetails and turkeys
back home.
Learning and evolving as a spot-and-stalk
hunter has not only upped my success, it has
given me a whole new level of confidence in
myself and my bowhunting skills. Executing
a perfect stalk is an art form that takes much
practice to perfect. But once honed to a sharp
edge, the ability to stalk is one of the dead-
liest skills a bowhunter can possess; it will
serve you well in any environment and on ev-
ery continent in the world. In this article, I’ve
broken down my spot-and-stalk process into
three phases.
The Game Plan
Talk to any successful bowhunter and you’ll
quickly learn they all have a plan that leads to
that success. Planning a stalk is no different.
Once an animal is spotted from a distance —
typically through the use of a quality spotting
scope or binoculars — I like to spend plenty
of time studying its surroundings and consid-
ering every detail. For example, maybe a bull
elk I’ve spotted has satellite bulls nearby that
could bust me on my stalk, or perhaps he has
some cows bedded down below him, necessi-
tating a stalk to drop down onto the bull from
higher elevation. Paying attention to these
finer details right off the bat is crucial, and it’s
why I like to take my time when mapping out
my stalk route so I don’t forget something that
could cost me an opportunity.
Wind direction is also critical during a stalk.
Simply put, you must keep yourself down-
wind of your quarry at all times or your stalk is
essentially over before it begins. Unfortunate-
ly, there are situations in which the inability
to get the wind in your face, or unpredictable
swirling winds, simply make the prospect of a
successful stalk unlikely. Knowing when not to
attempt a stalk is just as important as knowing
when to attempt one, and exercising prudent
judgment in this regard can save you hours of
fruitless effort and frustration in the field.
In addition to the prevailing wind direction,
you must also consider thermal wind currents.
Remember, warming air rises and cooling air
sinks, carrying your scent along with it as it
rises and falls. For a bowhunter, the important
thing to keep in mind is that air will generally
be falling early in the morning until the sun
warms it and it begins to rise. These upward
thermals will continue throughout the day
until evening, when the air begins to cool and
thermals shift to a downward direction. For
this reason, I have always found early morn-
ing and late afternoon to be tricky times for a
stalk, as the thermals are bound to shift at the
worst possible moment.
Another key consideration when planning
a stalk is the animal’s position. Whenever
Examining the Finer Points of This Deadly Tactic
BY CLINT CASPER
PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
