Have you identified anything that you were taught, or were not taught in your early stages of bowhunting that you wish you would have been more educated on?? Example ... hunting field edges ...... we never did this when I was a kid ...so thruout my BH career, I struggled with confidence on a field edge ... then I hunted Rob's .... I realized I have been missing out on some dynamite spots .... what about you guys and gals?
I Never really was taught anything about bowhunting, I'm the only one in my family that does it. While I do owe it to my Dad for getting me into hunting, I never really "learned" anything, other than "safety" actual hunting skills That I achieved were basics, because the way he hunted, was walk around see a deer and shoot it.... SO I figure I am still getting over several birth defects, considering, most everything I take in about hunting, comes from these boards and visible observations....
Given the quality of the land I had access to out in western PA I wish I knew how to bowhunt it instead of spending my first couple of years putting on drives and sitting in the same wooden stands everyone else sat in. Had I known what I knew when I left for college a few years earlier I would have had a chance to lay some quality bucks on the ground. I have yet to find a property with the potential of what I had access to out there.
I have had almost the same experience, my Dad always taught me that you would be much more successful on a consistant basis by hunting inside the timber. I grew up with this mentality and even though there were probably fewer sightings where we hunted, The sighting to shot opportunity ratio was awesome. Most of the deer we would see, we could get a shot on. It definetely effects me still today, I'm not as comfortable hunting field edgeds, unless they are small openings inside the timber, even then......
Identifying trees, food sources, hunting topography, using the wind correctly..basically how to hunt! LOL. I am for real. I started out hunting by myself for many years and just learned things from time in the woods and magazines. I sucked bad for many many years.
I actually tried it this year near a couple of food plots, but like GMMAT said, I was constantly having to deal with deer that came into the fields late. The deer eventually quit showing up in the food plots during daylight hours and I basically wasted my first two weekends of the season trying to take a doe there. It's just not something I have alot of experience with, luckily our property is about 85% timber.
No, I don't have anything that I was taught or not taught in the early stages of my hunting that I wish I would have been more educated on. Back then, deer were relatively scarce and we sort of just picked a spot and hoped for the best. Over the years I started reading everything I could find that pertained to deer and deer hunting and tried to see what of it that I could apply toward my hunting. In other words, I did what I had to do to get close to deer. I had no barriers that prevented me from trying anything that might help my success. The main thing that has helped my deer hunting is the studying of deer behavior. This is still helping me to this day and I learn at least one new thing about deer every year.
I was self taught. I do wish I would have started out with bows that fit me... but they really didn't make them back then. I was a trapper before I was a hunter so finding deer wasn't a problem for me at all... but I did act more like a trap than a hunter at first. The very first time I went 'seriously' bowhunting I plopped my butt right down on the deer trail. Sure enough, a nice buck comes walking right down the trail. He got within ten yards before he noticed the camo blob in front of him, waving a bow all around, trying to get it pulled back. Took a couple times out before I got the nerve to get about 10 yards off the trail. To this day, I tend to set up too close to the trail. While I often get nice, close shots, I often have to pass deer that are directly headed to me or away. :/
good points on the scarcity of deer years ago, Greg ... it was sooooo different 30 years ago than it is now ....
Im in the same boat Buckmaster is in...i learn through my own experiences and this board..and 2 other buddies.....i trial and error almost everything....play the wind and hope for the best....i figure the only way you'll learn is by trying new things.....and being open and considering everything people tell you....well not all..but the logical ones that make since..
Chatham had been a deer driving community for 20 years. So needless to say everything i do is things i have learned myself.
21 years ago I learned that your chances of seeing deer greatly improve if you don't use a salomander fueled by diesel to keep your cabin warm before heading to the woods.
It took me a long time to get the winds in these mountains figured out in regards to how old bucks used them versus any deer....and then how to use that against the old bucks .. His greatest asset is his nose and it can be his greatest weakness if played right imo. Learning the discipline too to only hunt the right conditions came through many a hard lessons. But thats pretty normal on the whitetail learning curve I think.
The only thing I wish I was never "taught", was the philosophy that if you hunt the same good spot long enough, eventually a buck will walk by.
You bet Tony! I've been hunting a long time and have read all the latest theories. Some I agreed with some I did'nt. Some I believe actually made people worse hunters because the info just was'nt true. I always question info that's offered and weighed it against my personal experiences. I'm more interested in mature buck info because that's what I enjoy hunting. I struggle to unlearn things that I once believed to be true. When I see a big buck doing something against the rules I used to try to explain it away because it didn't fit the mold. Now I realize that the mold is wrong. By following many mature bucks' tracks I am starting to understand them much better. Here's a good example. Big bucks always walk into the wind.Wrong! Here's another myth. Big bucks aren't patternable during the rut. They will run a circuit in search of does. They will run the same circuit, even taking the same trails. yes they get side tracked when they find a girlfriend and may even expand their search but starting from their core bedding area they like to run the same pattern. Just like if I was looking for some action. I would leave my house and take the road that leads me to the nearest good tavern. If I didn't hook up there I'd go to the next tavern that held promise. and so on. He may not make it home by the next morning but he will come home and start the whole process over again.
I have witnessed this and believe this to be true in the big woods here, old bucks will almost always show up on certain doe family groups year in and year out close to the same exact dates and this make sense because a doe has her specific photoperiod that triggers her cycle year in and out within a couple of days max.. I hunted one particular buck that two years in a row showed up on a specific doe like clock work on the calender and this was in the big woods.. He knew exactly when she would be coming in.. and he was there.. Any time I see a big buck I am after on a certain doe or doe group, I write thsoe dates down and expect him to be there the following year if that doe is still alive. Does here usually run by themselves with their young or in adult pairs.. thats it due to low deer densitys ... I never see multiple mature does running together there is just too much room here for them to find their own little niche. They do however overlap travel areas.
I was self taught and by doing so, it took me a long time to realize just how important SUBTLE wind direction is if you don't won't to burn an area out. For example, any of the three wind directions, south, southeast, or southwest might not interfere with me getting a shot from where the deer were traveling from, but the differrences within the three may have a SIGNIFICANT difference on how many bust me after they have passed by me. I no longer generalize the wind by 4 directions anymore but rather 8 now and am very disciplined in staying out of unfavorable areas regardless of how bad I want to get into an area. I also look at my hourly forecast to make sure the wind is not going to shift to an unfavorable direction (again even a subtle shift) later in the hunt that will adverserly effect me. (learned this from a post from Greg H , thank you very much)
