I would venture to guess that outside of some random unsuccessful attempts whitetails have generally always been ambushed and mulies spot and stock. Whitetails being the older species, I would venture to guess that people have been hunting them longer and have always used the ambush method. As the mule deer became more prevalent and the cover to hide in became more sparse, people had to adapt their methods to the terrain - covering more ground and/or hunting from horseback.
I would love to meet the man that can spot and stalk a mature whitetail in midwest hardwoods when the leaves are down.
Why would whitetails need to have been hunted like Muledeer? Natives did primarily group hunting, a lot of drive and ambush hunting, they would send one group ahead and another group would push the deer to them. Hunters have been hunting out of trees and building blinds for ever. What used to be tying a couple boards or logs between two branches to make a standing platform, or wedging oneself in the crotch of a tree just became easier. Just like advancements have made spot and stalking easier.
Hey coop I wasn't referring to a hunting style was referring to being on a wild fire cutting through manzanita. I think you took that the wrong way.
I've spot and stalked a few does but haven't tried to on a buck. It works pretty well when it's snowing and visibility and noise are at a minimum
I think its possible during the rut/pre rut, this year I was hunting a new piece of property during the pre rut, I wasn't seeing a whole lot of activity and decided to get up and move at about 9:30 (with the ghostblind) I was walking through the woods, at a regular pace, making quite a bit of noise in the dry leaves when all of a sudden a buck comes cruising by me at about 60 yards, I could hear him walking and I know he should have been able to hear me, but he seemed so focused on the rut that he either was oblivious to me being there, or just didn't care. after that I left my blind and decided to "still hunt" and move at a snails pace along a ravine I had found. I only covered a 1/2 mile in about 3 hours, but I was able to get into range of yet another buck. this one was about 45 yards away which was too far for me, but I learned that the deer are behaving recklessly enough during this part of the year that a novice such as myself could potentially get within bow range by just being in the right place at the right time.
Watch some of the white tail adrenaline videos. There some Midwest spot and stocks. One was in Iowa threw some woods.
