The Still Hunter: The Classic Guide Book to Stealthy Hunting of Deer; How to Track, Shoot and Maintain Your Equipment and Hunting Rifle

By Theodore Strong Van Dyke

Book Overview

The Still Hunter is a classic guide to hunting deer in rugged terrain - dating to the late-19th century, many of this book's lessons remain valuable, relevant and highly useful to this day. A book long appreciated by hunting enthusiasts all over the world, The Still Hunter was the first book of its kind: offering detailed guidance and step-by-step instruction in a manner both lucid and demonstrative, at the time it appeared in 1882 deer hunting was a practice shrouded in mystique. Theodore Van Dyke was a hunter of long experience; his words are straightforward, with the practicalities of killing game given without embellishment. We are told in detail how to spot deer and track them through the wilderness. The methods deer use to blend into, and hide among, foliage and scenery are detailed, as are their typical movements through the rugged terrain they typically populate. Van Dyke tells of how to effectively pursue deer, and how stealth is crucial particularly as the hunter prepares to take a shot.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 035903375X
• ISBN13: 9780359033751
• Release Date: August 2018
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Classic Worth Reading

Van Dyke's still-hunting book is filled with good sportsmanship and well thought-out ideas on the subject.

Timeless Lessons for Hunting Deer

I found the well-written insightful guidance just as true today as 100+ years ago. I experienced several of the basic errors he writes of so well. Had to laugh when reviewing a photo I took of a mountain brook in my hunting area (after reading the book) when I discovered the head of a deer poking around some brush dead center in the photo - missed just as T.S.v.D predicted. The artist's rendition was nowhere to be seen (as referred to in the book). I found the book EXCELLENT.

Great insights and a good read

As a beginner hunter I have found few sources for pratical, useful understanding of the art of still hunting deer. I read this book during deer season and was immediately able to put wisdom from 100+ years ago to use. Prior to reading the book, I missed my first shot on a deer and was amazed that the chapter "The First Shot on a Deer", described my experience so well and helped me understand why it happened. My non-hunting friends have enjoyed reading the book with its almost conversational style or writing. I believe this book will be a resource and an enjoyable volume for many readings to come.

Great Book on Stalking Game

This book is probably the best book on stalking game I have read so far. To be a more effective hunter read and understand this book.

THE classic book of still-hunting--

First published in the 1880s, this is the first book ever written on American field sports. It helped inspire the craze for literary stories of hunting (carried on by Charles Sheldon, TRoosevelt etc.) amd was considered by both those men the best book ever written on the still-hunt. Written in the second person, it walks the reader through the process of learning to look for, stalk, and eventually shoot at deer, while drawing moral lessons on the evils of hunting "the wrong way." Van Dyke was esp. concerned with hunting techniques prevalent in places such as the Adirondacks at the time, shooting deer while swimming in water, etc., and his encouragement of sport by and for gentlemen helped set the stage for widespread prohibition of working-class and subsistence hunting techniques. Charming, gorgeously written, and immensely entertaining, this is a great book marking one of the most important turning points in how Americans thought about hunting and what it meant.