Well, we are in the midst of the holiday season once again!

Is it just me or is the time between these holidays getting dramatically shorter? I mean wasn’t everyone just at my house for Thanksgiving? Feels like it. Of course, it also feels like yesterday gas was $0.75 a gallon, dinner and a movie out with my wife was less than $40, and a good hotel room on the road could be had for $99 a night! Times change I guess, and the older I get the more those changes tend to aggravate me.

Hunting this time of year is not one of my favorite periods, believe it or not. Yes, I have killed deer during the rut, and I do sometimes love hunting the rut, but honestly there’s just so much unpredictability that it drives me nuts. I prefer the patterns and the certainty of hunting food sources early bow season and before they start chasing hard. However, never let it be said I didn’t have some advice or an opinion on hunting especially this time of year.

My preference is to do what I call slip hunting. This technique is what my grandfathers both called walking slowly and quietly through the woods, stopping to sit for a while on spots where you can see good and hear things moving. I particularly like to do this on days with little to no wind and misting rain. I use binoculars and pause every few steps to look everything over well. Remember, you are looking for pieces of a deer not the whole deer. More often than not you will see an ear or tail twitch or a foot move than you will see a whole deer just standing there. Your peripheral vision is very good at spotting movement so pay close attention to the corners of your sight lines. Investigate every movement you see because it might be a squirrel or chipmunk, but it just might be that buck slipping the creek bottom.

If I am going to sit in a stand this time of year. Honestly, I will sit for really long periods, meaning daylight till noon or noon to dark. No matter the moon or the weather. It seems deer this time of year just get notions to move and well, they do! So naturally if you are going to sit all day in the south in November you are going to experience every season. So, dress in layers and take snacks. My feet cause me the biggest problems while in the woods, so I often wear insulated mud boots and a good wool sock. Honestly, I can sweat it out easier than I can sit with cold feet so wool allows me to adjust to the temp changes without getting too uncomfortable.

Now one important thing is your gun. To me this isn’t the time of year to drag that heavy barrel 7mag or 300 out of the truck. I will often carry a lever gun or one of my lighter guns like a single shot for my trips. Even in the rain there’s nothing as comforting as a wood stock held in your gloved hands while watching the sun rise over the ridge or a swamp, or the sun set while sitting on a high point over the river bottom.

May you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and I hope to see you around!

—Outdoors columnist James Pressley can be reached at jameskpressley@gmail.com .