SO after a lot of reflection it dawned on me why my season was so difficult and led me to believe why it was. I know I took the 2nd best bow buck of my life, and I am grateful, however, the overall bow season sucked. 16 sits and saw 12 deer total. And there were 8 sits in a row where I saw nothing. I have a lot of land to hunt, almost 6k private acres. I chose to hunt a 1500 acre block exclusively because it is more remote and tends to hold a lot of deer. I hung my cameras, moved them around a lot and got some deer here and there on them but not daily. Got a few shooter bucks but overall I was not getting a lot of deer of any kind. Out of this 1500 acres the nature conservancy burned 700 of it back in September just weeks before the season opened. This was also not a year where any acorns fell. So taking that fact and the large expanse of burn with no rain to speak of there was no greenery or acorns, therefore not much to eat and quite a bit of bedding was burned. The only constant was they were bedding near the edge or in the one swamp but even that wasn't holding the deer like normal. So my take away is, don't be an idiot and try to force something that's not there. I have possibly one more sit on Friday afternoon but after 30 years of bowhunting I am still learning things and even ther most obvious. Fresh burns and no rain are not good!
My bow season has come to a successful close as well and here are some takeways I have noted. 1) As much as I tried, I can't control the unknowns of a hunt. 2) Hunt the deer where they are, not where I want them to be. 3) Scent control/cover-up is shadowed by wind direction 4) Aggressive hunting is better than waiting for them to come to me. Make moves and don't burn out a single spot.
Absolutely hunt the deer and not hope for them to come to you. Once you learn the weekly patterns, then year after year you hunt those spots. Every week changes in the deer woods, and so should you. Some years I'm always behind the deer by a week, then some I hit it perfect. If you want more sightings there is only one thing that all hunters that kill alot of deer do, it's hunt more. I've don't know my exact number of sits this year so far, but easily over 40. And take someone like LittleChief, he hunts non stop for the whole season, and in turn he shoots lots of deer and sees even more. Time is our enemy when it comes to deer hunting. To OP, if you want to see more deer, learn there seasonal patterns like your doing and double the amount of sits you do. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
Amen. And I would love to double the amount of sits, this thing called work gets in my way every time !
For me it isn't even work - that will be there regardless, but I do have responsibilities there being second in charge that I do choose that over hunting some out of respect for my role. However, for me it is vastly more the family for me. I've hunted A LOT relatively to before the last two weeks....my wife last night realized a whole string of stories I'd missed and my son last night did something he NEVER does - he let me do mommy's role of the bedtime routine because he missed me...as he has only seen me in the closing minutes of the day, and just for bedtime. Not gonna lie, that gut punched me very hard and while I'm going to hunt tonight and tomorrow for gun opener is Saturday....I'm going to probably go back to few sits because when my son starts noticing that is a sign of failing as a father.
Yeh I did that when my boys were young. I missed out on a lot. But thankfully they got involved in hunting around 12 yrs old and I get a lot of time in the woods with them, plus I am a single dad and have full custody so I see them daily
Truthfully he doesn't appear to be the type that will want to hunt but way too young to know yet (four). I however, fully expect to hunt vastly less if his interests and loves go elsewhere.
Ty so many men get driven insane with the pressure to provide, taking time for yourself is nothing to feel guilty about, based on your character here when you are home you are home , actively involved as a parent, don't feel guilty about recharging and spending some self time.
oh I don’t, the guilt only comes when your son begins to see you as absent for sure. Just as it is fair to need time, I’d say if that didn’t hit me something is wrong as well.
