A good pair of boots will put you on the path to your next mature whitetail. Photo courtesy of Steve Sorensen

It’s deer season, and the smart hunters among us have spent the last month getting gear ready. The three-week firearm season in New York begins two weeks ahead of the two-week firearm season in Pennsylvania, so that gives border crossing hunters a month of rifle hunting this year. With four full weeks to hunt, don’t be the hunter who overlooks your most important piece of gear — your boots.

But forget four weeks. A pair of boots insufficient to the task can put you out of hunting commission in less than a day. Badly blistered and bruised feet will make your easy chair far more welcome than the woods.

As a 12-year old kid I wore a thick pair of wool socks under my Red Ball Jets, and my Red Balls under a pair of buckle-front galoshes. My uncle told me my feet didn’t have much support. As a Navy veteran of World War II, his training taught him an important lesson — foot support is critical to being fully functional.

My dad taught me a lot about deer hunting, but he didn’t teach me about foot support. Maybe that’s because he just wore what he had and was tough enough to ignore pain and discomfort. And maybe he didn’t understand that feeling good starts with a good foundation. Dad was a still-hunter, and I remember Dad wearing his legs out and then coming home to suffer debilitating leg cramps all night long. Now I see why.

Inadequate footwear didn’t matter much when all I did was hike to my chosen tree and stand there on young legs until a buck walked by. Whether that happened at 7:30 a.m. or 4:30 p.m., or not at all, I was adequately shod for a deer stand and boots were never the reason a hunt failed.

Maybe I was once man enough (or dumb enough) to think pain is normal. I remember that while my feet didn’t hurt, my legs did. It turns out that foot support is good not only for your feet, but it’s good for your legs, your back, your body, and your attitude.

Fast forward several decades. I’m a slow learner, but I eventually realized that boots are a critical piece of hunting gear. In 2009 a friend and I took a little trip to hunt antlerless deer in Greene County, Pennsylvania, and I forgot my boots. We stopped along the way, and I bought a pair at a close-out price. I’m still using them. In fact, they’re my favorite pair of boots. They have good ankle support, and I added an insole recommended by my podiatrist to the foot bed. Best boots I’ve ever had, and I spent about a hundred dollars, plus the insole.

Why all this talk about boots? It’s because since those long-ago days of wearing buckled galoshes over sneakers, I’ve become a still-hunter. I hunt on the ground. My scenery is seldom an area immediately surrounding a fixed stand position. It changes with every step I take, and those steps have led to my most favorite hunts.

I’ve learned how to see deer before they see me. Last season in Pennsylvania, I shot a 6-year-old buck lying in his bed, head up, his 8-point rack swiveling like a satellite dish scanning for a contact from the 3I-Atlas comet. That’s an old, smart deer by any standard, and it’s one of my most satisfying hunts to date.

I’m no longer afraid to pursue deer in a way that can increase their chance of seeing me first. Now that I’ve figured out still-hunting, for as long as my aging legs hold out, I’ll be a still-hunter.

I’m not trying to convert you, but I’ll suggest this. If you’re a tree stand hunter, put your boots on the ground for a change. Sometime in the afternoon on opening day, or on other days during the season, try still-hunting. The point isn’t to get from one place to another. It’s to be completely silent and, with every step you take, to let your eyes absorb every detail and feature of the new view you have. It’s the path to your next mature whitetail.

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When “The Everyday Hunter” isn’t hunting, he’s thinking about hunting, talking about hunting, dreaming about hunting, writing about hunting, or wishing he were hunting. If you want to tell Steve exactly where your favorite hunting spot is, contact him through his website, www.EverydayHunter.com. He writes for top outdoor magazines, and won the 2015, 2018 and 2023 national “Pinnacle Award” for outdoor writing.