What are some new strategies or techniques you will use this season?

Well, I have my E-bike now, so I can get to my deep spots without being physically exhausted. It will also allow me to check out spots I've never been able to get to. In the past, by the time I get to the place where I jump off the trail, I'm already physically spent, and my entry has always been a bit sloppy. I'd also like to get some rubber boots and hop in the deep thick swamp where I've been on the outskirts of the past 2 seasons.

I've took 2 extra classes this summer to get more internship hours required for graduating so I don't have to put in as many hours this fall at the private practice I'll be at. I think I'll be able to get 3-4 full days a week to hunt all season. After talking with my mentor/supervisor and me telling him about bowhunting, he suggested that after I graduate I stick to private practice in a group setting where I can set my own hours. He said by doing that, I can load up on clients in the spring and summer, and only work 2 days a week during the fall to give me more hunting time. He said once I get my license, I can call my own shots in a setting like a group practice.

I'm trying to lighten my load as well as much as possible so, during the rut, I can switch spots as needed. I've done it a few times in the past few seasons, but it is always a pain in the butt to pack up, de-layer the cold weather gear, climb down, pack it up and move without sweating too much. I'd really like to get some Sitka fanatic bibs to compliment my fanatic top, but that is gonna be a tough sell to the wife after dropping $1250 on an E-bike.

I'd like to do some of my pre-season scouting here in the next week or so, to see if a few of the bucks I've been chasing have made it. The one I was playing cat and mouse with at the end of last season was slipping up quite a bit. I'm hoping he is still alive, I'd like to get my dad on him!

 

That does look like a killer spot. Might get some pressure from the private land, so definitely be worth a walk along that creek

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

I want to hunt more land and new land. I’m too lazy to go to public and I end up hunting behind my house all the time. I burn that spot out pretty quickly cause it’s a small piece to hunt. I think covering more and new public land will really increase my odds of being successful this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums

 

My strategy is to hunt a lot less and do other things a lot more. Not sure how it's going to work out, but probably not very good.

 

I need to kill 6 doe before rut. I got the Vid last year and only killed 3 and we had to buy meat(eff that).

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

 

Swampy and VS,
My thoughts are". You both give up too easily on spots.
If you scouted it out and find good sign, it's most likely a good spot.
I would NOT worry about hunting those spots once a week.
I've hunted many places where I've had piles of deer come by, hunted it again and the hunt was dismall only to go back a week later and be covered up with deer.

If it's for adventure, keep moving but a couple times aint gonna spook deer that bad.
Just ,y two cents.

 

I like all of that. you have worked hard for that man

 

I don't mind the constructive criticism. In some instances I'd say you are right. But the places I hunt I've noticed a negative return on hunting even after 1 time. Just thr way it is. And I do love the pursuit and finding hidden spots. Haha

 

I’m going to kill deer. I pass on so many deer and I gotta stop. Definitely, taking a doe this year.
Also, going to try and hunt less and not push out deer before rut. That one is going to be hard. Love sitting in the tree.

 

I appreciate your input! I've noticed that, for the most part, unless a buck is on a doe, the spots I choose are only good for one hunt if a buck comes through within a 12-hour window of me being there. There is a very low deer population and if a deer comes through, smells my scent trail, they will alter their movement.

A prime example of this was the buck that I played cat and mouse with the last few days of my season last year. I set up on a traditional rut run a buck will use to scent check an area. I shot my butt shot buck off this run, my dad shot the "big one" off this run back in the 80s. a little after legal shooting light, I hear the heart-stopping crunch crunch behind me. Sure as chit it is a nice shooter (100" or so), but he veered off the run and stopped dead in his tracks on the trail I walked in. He was 40 yards away, but I couldn't get turned around enough in my SaDdLe for a shot. he slowly retreated. The next morning I tried to outsmart him and came in a different way to a spot a bit further down. I had just gotten done setting up, 10 minutes till legal shooting light and I literally hear crunch crunch 10 yards behind me. I slowly turned, and it was the same buck. He had stopped because he caught my scent in the still falling thermals. He again slowly turned around and left. He had skirted the area he caught my scent yesterday and was on a secondary run. I had actually planned for this, it miraculously worked, but he was 10 minutes early.

Where I hunt, if you see a deer, you have had an amazing day. If you see a buck, it is extraordinary and a long-lasting memory for seasons to come that you will talk about and tell stories about. All things considered, and statistically speaking, the past two years for me have been lifetime banners seasons. Last season I saw 4 shooter bucks (within shooting distance) all over 100" and the season before that I saw 3 shooter bucks, all over 100". I'm extremely happy with the results the past 2 seasons and I feel like it is all about to come together for me finally this season.

To be honest, It is a bit difficult following the LFTS thread with almost everyone being in areas with higher deer populations with more sightings and success. I think it has driven me to be a better hunter though, as it motivates me to work harder. The woods I hunt is a gold mine, I just need a few more pieces of the puzzle!

 

i need to kill SOMETHING this year, due to me no releasing an arrow at a deer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LAST YEAR


UUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I may switch to fixed broadheads, bought some magnus black hornets

 

Two hunts aren't a big enough sample size to say that your hunting pressure is what caused the difference in deer activity. As others have noticed - you can go to a spot one day, and it's dead, then come back the next, and it's on fire. And vice versa.

IMO the idea that the first time in is always the best time to kill a deer is anecdotal at best. We see and hear others say this, then look for evidence to support our idea. It's confirmation bias at its finest.

If a deer is nowhere in the area when you hunt it on Day 1, there is no reason for him not to be there on Day 2. And if he's not around on Day 2, there's no reason not to be there on Day 3.

GregH (RIP) killed almost all of his big deer on a very small piece of land that sat between a forest preserve and a large chunk of private that was very lightly hunted. He would sit the same 2-3 ladder stands day in and day out during the rut, smoking cigarettes most of the time, until a big one walked by.

We bowhunters have a terrible habit of putting human traits onto the animals we hunt and assuming they think and reason the way we do. But they don't - because they are deer. Not humans.

 

Where did I say that I only hunted a spot 2 times and then made my decision or observations based on only those 2 hunts?

Greg hunted on prime time white tail grounds when he killed those brutes. Some even would say world class. Like comparing your neighborhood pond where every fish is "educated" and will barely bite artificial baits as compared to a farm pond that hasnt been fished in 6 years.

Putting human traits to animals? Most animals have survival instincts. Nothing I said placed any human instincts to a deer. Deer smells humans. Deer get weary. Less deer moving when you are hunting that same spot in the future.

 

That is exactly how I hunted my Uncle's property. I tried to play the wind as best as possible but swirling winds down im the bottoms made it impossible. I could sit the same stand 4 days in a row, and often did, and see deer from all directions each day. I'd switch stands sometimes 4-5 times a day sitting the same stand multiple times.

Going to miss hunting that property now that it is being sold. Someone is going to get a gold mine for hunting amd don't even know it.

 

Your statement said that you see negative returns on hunting the same spot more than 1 time. I took that as on your second hunt, you started to formulate an opinion of why you weren't seeing as many deer or the deer you were looking for, and it was directly based on the fact that you hunted it a second time. Unless I'm missing something entirely?

I won't disagree with that at all. I've often said a great spot can make even a mediocre hunter look really good. My point was simply to illustrate that hunting a spot more than one time doesn't always mean you're burning it up or can't kill a big buck there. Each spot is unique in terms of entrance/exit routes, proximity to food/bedding, and how much pressure deer are used to encountering.

I wasn't necessarily talking about you directly, just hunters as a whole. We reason out scenarios that make sense to us as humans and then apply that to deer. We think about what we would do in those situations, which makes sense in our minds, and then assume that's what deer will be doing.

One of my favorites is bucks cruising the downwind side of doe bedding areas during the rut. Almost every buck I've ever watched in a bedding area during the rut is like a bull in a china shop - they barge right in from whatever direction they happened to come from and sniff around all over the place looking for does, and when they don't find any they move on to the next one with zero thought about which direction the wind happens to be blowing. They just want to get from bedding area 1 to bedding area 2 and continue their search. But the one time we happen to see or shoot one on what happens to be the downwind side that day, we immediately assume that's what he was doing because it makes sense in our minds.

 

You're hurting my mind with too much logic in these posts. That isn't how every industry expert has told us how it's supposed to be the last 30 years. DOWNWIND SIDE OF DOE BEDDING FOR CRUISING BUCKS ONLY.

 

Replace "industry expert" with "internet expert" and you're on to something.

 

What are some of your favorite podcasts that discuss strategy and techniques? I can't remember the last time I listened to a hunting related one and am way out of the loop on "what is hip" these days.