Hang in there. My season is the toughest it's been in 3 years. Deer have a mind of their own and as hard as it is to believe sometimes, something overnight can change their pattern. These are very smart animals and very small changes in their environment will warrant a change in their movement. A coyote could have run across the trail the night before and they didn't like the scent so they changed their movement. Detecting things in their environment keeps them alive. Try to think of every day in the woods as a learning experience. Even if the experience is you didn't see anything and they changed their pattern, you learned they aren't as predictable as you though. I still day the worst day hunting is better than the best day at work!
☝☝this. It happens. Keep the camera going, try an afternoon sit, and most importantly keep at it. Bow hunting takes tons of patience. It'll be worth the wait when it all comes together in the end.
Hate to see a first year guy quit...heck it aint even halloween yet. The best part of the season is coming. Also in my experience it helped to change the way I look at things. Measuring the success or failure of time spent in the woods hunting by only counting meat in the freezer is ,for me anyway, a mistake. Sure I like taking game but when Im in the woods Im insulated from the usual noise that fills my head the rest of the time...like stress, women, money, work, my daughter dating now and everything else. I can think about all that crap if I want but am not obligated to. Thats my time its good for my head and good for my soul. Not only that I find if I come in from an "unsuccessful" hunt I can time it where I can come in about right to be introduced to the latest knucklehead picking my daughter up while I'm wearing camo, war paint and carrying a deadly weapon....shoot I like to think hunting is at least as good for their attitudes as it is mine.
Some good advice here. Or, consider taking up the pan flute. I think that would be less stressful than deer hunting for you.
I could be a number of things. Coyotes, weather, acorns, etc. Whatevery you do don't give up. That is the easiest thing to do. Take a break. They may have also figured you out. Throw something different at them. Sorry if I repeated anything. I didn't read all the posts before I posted. Not much time to be on here today.
Don't give up, it happens to all of us, that why it is called hunting. Keep hunting and your luck will change.
Keep hunting, it happens to all of us, that why they call it hunting, keep hunting and your luck will change.
We can put out corn, peanuts and or sweet potato's to bait and have a good steady flow. However when the acorns start to fall they are gone until that natural food source is goon.
To this day I still get picked on because I don't shoot many deer. Let me tell you I could have shot "ALOT" of deer the past couple years but I chose not too. I enjoy being out in the woods deep in the timber like some of my spots and just being alone and watching the woods come to life. I'm more of a horn hunter than a meat hunter. I'm after that mature buck so I don't have to kill the first deer that walks by me like a lot of people think. I don't know why but I always have to explain things to atleast 1-2 people every season when they ask why they haven't seen me in a picture holding a deer lately. I haven't shot a buck with a bow in like 5 years now but it doesn't bother me one bit. Its not about the kill, its about the hunt and enjoying nature.
You are probably bumping them out on the way in and if you think about it maybe put more time in in the woods I put a lot of time and sits in in a season sometimes with nothing to show for it but I have strict shooting Rules I follow. This is hunting not shooting
^ That's dedication...and true. I didn't shoot my first deer until 4-5 seasons after I began bowhunting...and I lost her. Didn't shoot my next with a bow until over a decade later. Recovered him. Patience, grasshopper.
YES, I have pushed deer off course before daylight! Rest that site for at least a week.. they probably have patterned you. Try an alternate entry, wait for rain when scent is dropped, wash everything, leave everything outside... hardness, lines, release etc. T
