Most of us have been through similar situations at one time or another but all you can do is keep trying. It took me 6 years to finally kill a deer so don't feel to frustrated. I know some people who have not killed a thing yet they still keep at it saying this year is going to be their year. Confidence is key because if you go in with a negative mind set you will drive yourself crazy and trust me you will because it has happened to me before.
I bowhunted for 6 years before I shot my first deer, and I lost her. It was another 10 years before I shot my second deer with a bow- also lost her. (I shot and recovered many deer with guns in between those years.) But I kept at it- I just loved to hunt. I read everything I could, hiked every place I had a remote thought to hunt, and kept picking guys brains. Since that season, with a bow I've shot and recovered at least one buck or passed on non-shooters every year. My point is, keep at it. You obviously have a passion for hunting, turn that passion into effort...practice with your tools more, scout harder, knock on doors, search the Internet for better public land areas. Some guys are born lucky. Most of us make our own luck. Of course, I am a Cubs fan, so I might just be eternally optimistic.
3 words of advice: KEEP AT IT! Eventually it all comes together and after what you're going through it will be the sweetest thing you can imagine! KEEP AT IT!
Somebody may have said this already because I didn't read every comment. Who do you have showing you the ropes? I have learned a lot in my 7 years of bowhunting. However the growth rate of my learning has increased when I went into the woods with a seasoned hunter. YouTube and Field and Stream can't teach you the tricks as well as an old timer who's lived in the woods. And from my vantage point not much of the stuff on tv I can relate to in South east ohio.i don't have biologic plot or even a corn field where I hunt. So keep at it and ask somebody who actually knows what they are talking about to help you out.
Sounds like you need to change things up a bit. Too often hunters do the same things over and over and keep getting the same results except for a dose of dumb luck once in awhile.
I'm sure this has all been said before but keep at it. Ask questions and research. I realize it has been a while since you posted on here and you may well have got a deer by now. However I am not to far from you. (SW Ohio) You mention an NBC suit.. I have one too but have never used it to hunt. I got them for that reason just never did. So here is what I do. I use scent free laundry soaps available at the store. I shower with scent free stuff and dry my clothes with a fresh earth scent away dryer sheet. I don't have the fancy scent away clothing...not that they don't work just I have never saved the cash to buy it (always something else to spend money on lol) Scent control helps but playing the wind is key. I hunt stands with wind I think may be the best for that stand. That being said you just never know with deer (I actually shot my buck this year almost directly downwind. But the lead doe in the group he was following had just got my scent I believe) So keep that up you wont regret it. It is a pain sometimes. And also yes some people are lucky and can be out there and have deer walk right up to them smoking. Next I want to say scout as best you can. This never ends for me. I start every year by looking for sheds. I spend hours walking trails looking at sign and hopefully finding sheds. (I did this a lot and only in the last few years have found sheds) Spring turkey has become a good scouting time too for me. During the season I glass as best I can in and around my area. I have a spot I saw deer almost everyday about 250-300 yards away. I will move a stand there for next year. I took my daughter to that area during youth gun. She took her first doe that morning from right where I had been seeing deer. Sometimes backing off and just spending time watching helps figure out what is happening. In this case it was across an open field so I watched it a lot from my other stands. What I am saying is maybe you can sit back a ways and watch the area your hunting an see if your spooking deer out or if they are just not using it. Or only using it every few days. etc... you can learn a lot from glassing. Improve habitat if you can. I put in a small food plot this year. I shot my buck about 20 yards away from that plot. Not sure the does were coming to it but I know they probably are now at times as it is still green. Throw and grow from Walmart is what I used. Great as you don't need much to used it. Even clearing to dirt and tossing it out seems to work. There is soybean and corn fields everywhere I hunt so food is plentiful. But different foods can be great things especially late season. Keep at it and keep shooting. When the shot comes picture the target you shoot for practice or Pick a hair on the deer and aim at that. FOCUS push the excitement and everything away. Make the shot. I know that is easier said than done. You have to make yourself a machine of sorts...after the shot you can fall apart....throw up....whatever. But at that moment you have to make it count. Again I know that is easier said than done.
Good things come to those that work hard for them. My 2015 season is a prime example of that. I got a new job in November of 2014 and was able to move from 3.5 hours away from the area I hunt to 30 minutes away. Needless to say when May rolled around I got all my cameras out and I was all over the deer from the start. Going into September I had a 160", 156", 145"+, 135", and 136" deer all on camera and all during day light. Well here is how the season played out for me... the 156 I knew a buddy had been after for years so I pulled off of him and the buddy shot him 50 yards from where I had my camera. The 160 was killed Sept 24th about 200 yards from where I had day light pictures. The 135 got a basketball sized infection on his belly and vanished before October I am guessing he died. The 145+ I had been after for 2 years now at this point with all the other deer gone. He gets killed opening weekend of gun season so I am down the 136 who I had 19 days of day light pictures of after season opened. December 19th was the 25th day I hunted and the 20th day the 136 showed up and my terrible bad luck deer season ended on a high note. I cherry picked days during November to burn up vacation based off the weather and wind directions and I always picked the wrong days to hunt or the wrong stands to hunt. Keep your head up, work hard, and hunt harder. As some other people said, scent control is good to have but back in the day people would kill deer in oil covered work boots while smoking a cigar. Spend more time scouting then hunting and it will pay off in the end if you play the wind every time you go into the woods.
All I can say is, you can't even imagine how it's gonna feel when you put an arrow in a deer for the first time. The struggle will make the eventual success even more rewarding.
