Going to try something new this year

I plan to log every single sighting this year from the stand. I loaded an application into my phone (blackberry) that allows me to create a spread sheet. I already have the template made up with 7 columns labeled date, time, #of deer, bucks/doe, weather, wind and notes. This will allow me to keep track as it happens rather then wait until I get home and try to remember everything. Seems a little "high tech" for hunting I know, but I want to see how this will help me.

So I ask you this, how has keeping track of this information helped you?

Is there anything else or another column I should add that will give me more information?

 

I haven't ever done it but I'm interested. Where did you get the app on your Blackberry? I could really use that to start logging sitings like your going to do. It's an awesome idea............hope you don't mind if I steal it from ya:D

 

I found it on Blackberry App world but you can also find it here http://www.simprit.com/free/gridmagic/ . The community edition is free, but I had to switch mine over after it was downloaded.

 

Kudos to you for making a spreadsheet on your BB. I've tried working with spreadsheets on my BB and wanted to throw it across the room.

I think it's a great idea. Good luck with it and let us know how it works out.

 

Thanks, I will pm you my email now.

 

Jeff, what you sent me is almost exactly what I am going to do, plus a little extra. I will study it a little better when I get home, Thanks!

 

I've tried it before but fail after about the second week. I just get into hunt mode.

 

Im probably going to start doing the same thing but in a less tech form, probably just log everything in a notebook.

 

I'll be doing the same thing with a notebook. I started to last year, and then I started bouncing around the property in November and forgot to log sightings for a couple weeks. Not this year!

From what I gathered last year, there is defintely a pattern in early season movement on a particular ridge at certain times of the day. After about the 1st week of November, things started changing drastically (obviously because of the rut). The late season hunting is tough with deer sightings WAY down. Hopefully that will change this year, with late seaon food sources put in, in hopes of keeping them around instead of moving off to whatever is left of the corn in the fields a mile away.

Late season bedding areas are also WAY different. In early december I started to notice most of the deer were bedding in the bottoms. In the summer and early fall, it is the ridgetops and cedar thicket nearby. I plan to be more consistent with logging my sightings and observations this year.

 

I will be keeping track this year with the Deer Diary. My wife picked up for me never herd of it but it looks like a good idea. http://www.mydeerdiary.com/

 

I will get back to you after this coming season. Last year was the first year I kept track of every hunt
and I am going to see how it helps me this coming season.

 

See.. I kept a journal for like 7 years.. although the first 2 years were barely kept.

I never really cared or put into my journals anything about sightings.. unless I thought them important.. by that I mean.. bucks. Although I did keep track of doe bedding areas too.

My journals are mostly a bunch of maps.. aerials and drawings from my mind onto the paper before me. I only scribbled important notes of that hunt.. like time of year.. temp.. wind direction.. etc etc etc.

I'm self-taught.. so this is what I did to find patterns.. not patterns of specific deer.. but patterns on properties.. and deer movements on those properties and when and with what wind direction... moon phase etc etc etc

How has this helped?

Every property I walk onto now reads like a book to me. I see things based off past experiences.. failures and successes.. things that were all written once before in my journal collection.

I can now pattern whitetail before ever setting foot onto the piece.. even guess where likely buck and doe bedding areas are.. it's just all up there now.. I don't even keep records anymore.. the mind just see's it and everything I once wrote.

I think it's the best thing I EVER did for my hunting.

I hope for the same for you.

 

Duke, I hope to one day be able to do this as well. Don't get me wrong, I will still scout and use trail cams, but right now I feel like I am just flipping a coin.

 

going to also utilize a GPS this year to log rub lines and other important sign- I log the game I harvested - but haven't done much with sightings- maybe start this years as five years down the road may be invaluable especially if can keep hunting the same track