Opening day was September 27th here in South Dakota. I went out early afternoon with hopes of at least seeing a doe. I've had does and yearling bucks come on cameras right before sunset everyday for the past month. The cameras are about a mile apart from each other also where my stands are placed. I had been planning the weekend out for the past two months as it is my first time bow hunting(only one year rifle hunting last year) and I can't keep my mind off it during classes and just about everything else. I've learned lots from the guys here on the bowhunt or die videos and also the many friendly people here on the forums. Anyway.. the day before opening day arrives I'm going through my list checking it twice, I figure I should shoot my bow to make sure everything is on.. I pull it back without an arrow like I have done many times before to stretch I guess and the string slips from my fingers and I dry fire my bow.. before I even look at it I shove my face in the ground mad as ever. Then I get up and look at it, the cam on my mathews z9 is busted luckily nothing else. I run it to the nearest bow shop thankfully a mathews dealer about an hour away, they put their miracle hands together and their bow techs throw another cam on it in a few hours(luckily again they had an extra one at 31" laying around..). I get back to town, toss and turn throughout the night and wake up the next day ready to go. I wait around till about 2pm I check the wind its perfect going south for both my stands as the deer come in from the north and as I have planned I took the extra step to keep my hunting clothes in a airtight container and spray down before I go into the stand and come in from an area the deer don't come in and one that my scent doesn't get carried to where the deer are coming from. I get out into the stand around 3 pm and I sat around still as every all afternoon until sunset and see nothing. Next day rolls around and I same routine different stand no deer once again. I guess I'm just stumped on what I did wrong. Hopefully just a bad luck weekend and the deer know theres a deadly presence around. This weekend I'll being going out again hopefully to actually see a deer!
Keep at it brother, deer movement can be pretty slow at the beginning of the season sometimes. Best of luck to you this season. Blessings..........Pastorjim
What he said^^ Deer right around the start of the season the patterns start to change drastically for some deer due to the loss of sunlight and just temp changes. Deer are not creatures of habit and know kind of an area when hunters come in due to some people choice of no scent control. Don't get discouraged just yet, it may take you a month or maybe even a year to get your first deer, hopefully it takes you about 3 more hours if you go out this morning. My only real concern is that you drew back a 700 dollar bow back with your fingers... I would never recomend doing this again, just throw your release next time and sling a couple arrows into the bag to warm up, OR to warm up and stretch take a 5 pound weight and light your arm up like you're raising your bow to shoot and hd for about 10 seconds and repeat about 5 times than go up to 10 pounds and do the same. Than do some circles with your arms big and small forwards and backward about 30 seconds each to get blood flowing to them. Also the deer may just not be in your area at this time due to the lack of resources your area may provide. Do you have corn out if legal? They may hit that onces the temps drop into the mid to high 40's. So don't give up just yet! Keep practicing shooting your bow m, and get as much time in the stand as you can when the conditions are good
Never draw your bow without an arrow, as I think you now already know haha. Glad it wasn't worse and you got fixed up quickly. I only saw 4 deer all last season at the one public land spot I hunt in Pa. Don't get discouraged after one weekend.
I hope you've shot your bow since you got the new cam put on. Make sure everything is still hitting the same
Yeah thats what I've been reading lately. I've definitely learned my lesson thats for sure... I will have to try those! We cannot bait in SD, but its about 40 degrees here right now I'm planning on hitting the stand tonight! Thank you!
You'll have bad days and good days in the woods. But the real question is are those bad days in the woods really bad? No, sure I love seeing deer every time I go out. Makes me feel good about the stand site, but these are wild animals with a mind of their own. They may have been close by but chose to take a different that day and eat some acorns or something. A "bad" day in the woods as far as not seeing any deer isn't really a bad day. Just enjoy everything the good Lord has to offer. Keep your head up and good luck.
I don't think you did anything wrong per say - I go on plenty of hunts where I don't see any deer. Unfortunately we can't control their movements or predict where or when they'll move so it's a constant guessing game. Stick with it, you'll see them eventually!
