I haven't been bowhunting for long at all. ( 1season). I have to say that my least favorite thing about it was losing the second doe I shot last season. Some of you may remember my thread while it was happening. It was what I thought was a pretty good shot. Quartering away a little back and high but I know it was lethal eventually. Took the shot at around 7:40am watched the doe run off about 100 yards till couldn't see it anymore. Saw the shot hit a tad back and tad high but felt confident in the shot. I decided to back out for about 4 hours. Went back into my spot about noon. Couldn't find blood until about 90 yards from the point of impact and it was not a good trail at all. I followed the blood for a couple hundred yards and all of the sudden I jumped the doe. Saw where it was bedded before jumping and it had ok blood there. It was still pretty early season and the temps were rather warm. I regret not staying out until the next morning initially, despite the warmer temps, because she probably would've been laying there dead the next morning if I hadn't jumped her. I searched the 112 acres for 2 1/2 days alone and with my father to no avail. This was the first time I haven't recovered an animal and it was a tough thing to get over at first. This is definitely my least favorite thing about bowhunting.
Missing a B&C 10pt last year was my least favorite thing, lol... The 2 things I dislike the most is- 1- hanging stands... If I hang 20 stands in a year 1 of them will go up easy, the other 19 will be a life and death situation with me looking like a 240lbs squirrel wrapped around a tree trunk hanging on for dear life. 2- field dressing deer, I've been doing this for 30 years and killed a lot of deer over the years and I still hate it every time I have to do it... Don't mind skinning one just don't like field dressing them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I haven't lost any deer but that would be towards top for sure. My least favorite part is putting hours upon hours into plots scouting etc just to have shotgun hunters screw up the pattern of the deer. There is nothing I hate worse then 90% of shotgun hunters being slob hunters. (My area anyways) I guess just the pure disrespect some people show is what I hate.
1- road hunters / tresspassers screwin up my hunts 2- not being able to hunt as much as I used to (family, kids, etc)
I hated the mosquitoes the first couple sits then I went and got a thermocell. Best thing ever for early season.
Getting focused to the point where I shift away from being a good dad and husband. I have to combat that every year and so far I have been improving a ton. That is the only thing I don't like about bowhunting...I get hyper focused and sometimes lose sight of the big picture.
Turkeys! Nothing worse than waiting for the perfect time to get into a stand, crawl in hours before daylight, just to find turkeys roosted around you freaking our for the first half hour of daylight.
things i hate the least are soewhat in line with a few others. *1) my ultimate dislike in hunting here in VA is no sunday hunting... so it gives me a handful of saturdays and any days i take off from work to bowhunt... they are trying to pass it, i just hope they do it soon 1) putting in the work and having other carelessly screw up what i am trying to achieve, key word is try. took a friend with me to check cameras the other week...he hunts, bow hunts a little and hunts with dogs. i was putting a camera up and pour of bag of some primos stuff to try out.. and damn if i didnt turn around and he was take a pee break at the fourwheeler like 10 yards away, i let him know i wasnt very happy. now thats just an example.. people tear thru the woods and can really mess up what im trying to achieve. dont like, but cant really say anything unless they are out of line. 2) HOT WEATHER... i hate it i hate it i hate it. setting stands in june is miserable, checking cameras is miserable, doing any work that needs to be done is miserable... not to mention the bugs and snakes that come out. as with most of yall, we start bow season here in VA in October... its still pretty warm, if not down right hot... hate hunting in hot weather, but i love hunting so just gotta deal with it. 3) losing an animal. no other way to put it other than it sucks... lost a small 6 pt than we did find later in the follwoing fall and a doe one time while bowhunting... ive kind of grown accustomed to some deer getting away as here we hunt with dogs. people take stupid shots they have no chance on, find a few drops of blood and then nothin else. i hate to see it, wont take a questionable shot, but cant stop others from doing it.
The pure frustration you get when you are >< this close to getting that shot and they disappear unscathed. Usually brush or needing them to take that one extra step. You spend all that time trying to figure them out and place your stand accordingly only to have them slip away like that. Losing a deer would be right up there as well as I have done that even with my biggest buck to date, even though he was found later that week.
My least favorite thing about bow hunting is the end of the season or I run out of tags, which ever comes first.
Lack of time in the stand. Every time I think I'm going to get plenty of time in the stand, something comes up and I don't get to hunt. Only got to spend maybe 4 days in the stand last season. Hopefully that will be different this year. Also, on a general deer hunting rant, I hate when people don't at least attempt to track a deer they have shot or shot at. So many "hunters" (usually gun "hunters") don't follow up after the shot. If it doesn't fall they assume they missed. Drives me nuts.
The lack of other things getting done during the season. I don't really do much of anything else productive during our 6 week archery season, and it makes me feel lazy at times. Or selfish. That and field dressing. Seriously hate that part.
