It seems that most hunters fall into one of three style groups; the baiters, the waiters, and the nomads (constantly changing from spot to spot from one hunt to the next, hunting fresh sign or areas). Which of these do you gravitate towards and why? If you do not fall into one of these categories, what would you consider your style?
Waiter. This will become even more so with the recent acquisition of 150 acres that borders our existing 90. We don't have the greatest public options within a reasonable driving distance of where I live, and leases/permission is hard to come by. With a family, and work obligations, having a property that can be accessed 5 minutes from home just makes it easier to juggle it all. With that being said, I'm getting the itch to do a DIY hunt out west someday. I do think that hunting the same style for too long can get stale.
Since I'm fairly new to hunting (5 yearsih) I used to try to bait my meat so I can get easy kills to gain experience. However, I slowly learned after many many hunts that I only pull in hogs by baiting. I have never seen a live deer at corn in my area except on camera and mostly at night (usually these are very young deer too). However I'll shoot me some hogs that way and have a great time every time! Last season was the first time I finally had deer success and I did so by waiting. I killed 2 deer in consecutive days on different parts of the property. I started using a summit climber to make myself mobile and basically scouted much more in the months leading up to bow season. I also did not make any attempts to clear shooting lanes or taint the areas by having cameras out. Basically I wanted to leave the area pure before paying a surprise visit in my climber. This will be my tactic going forward. I don't see how I can be a nomad on my property since its soooo thick. Unless stating on a road, it is tough to find many 40 yard clear shot opportunities and the animals have so much cover to run to. I have "run into" animals at a very close range before we knew each other were there but this was by pure luck. I had hogs less than 10 yards on a few occasions and still couldn't see them because of tall grass or bushes. I accidentily bumped a deer out of bedding last season and we were looking at each other through vines (5-10 yards) but I still couldn't have gotten a shot... I couldn't even tell if it was buck or doe. I don't see how I can pull off a nomadic hunt in my area.
Nomad 100% when I can. I'm often limited by the amount of property I have to hunt though. When this happens and I know there aren't any deer I want to hunt or fresh sign, I'll fall into a pattern of waiter based on what I think are high percentage areas to encounter the type of deer I want to kill. I've killed good bucks using both tactics at different times of the year but highly prefer nomad. While I've killed several good ones getting aggressive with this strategy, I've also gotten too aggressive and burned myself a few times too.
In the past, I have been a waiter. I hunted the same property for 8 years and had the deer well patterned. Simply had to wait for the right time of year and weather patterns. It is looking like I will no longer have access to that property so I am looking doing some nomadic run and gun stuff next season on public land.
I'm a nomad, but I aspire to be a waiter when I grow up (....if I ever do grow up). Sent from my SM-N915V using Tapatalk
I’m a waiter and baiter. I’ll bait for a little while then have to wait until I’m ready to bait again. On a decent day I’ve been know to bait up to 4-5 times.
Waiter! Baiting is illegal in NY!! Im so used to parking it in a stand I don't think I could bowhunt any other way!!
I’ve been a master baiter, a master waiter, but will be going nomad. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
I would like to be more of a go getter, but being limited on property size...only so many things I can do.
Nomad (run n' gun). I have always been one since my first season just didn't know there was a term for it. This past season never sat in the same tree more than twice and had my best season on public land.
Passive aggressively nomadic, lol. With over 200k acre, over 7 different public lands, I rarely hunt the same tree twice. I find myself hunting mostly with cameras these days, searching for bedding and travel within the cores, trying to predict shifts ahead of time...then slip in to hunt when I believe the timing and conditions are right.
I plant a few small plots on my land...so, I guess baiter, waiter, and nomad. I have about 7 stands up. Move around to those and wait. Sent from my SM-S327VL using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
