mistakes of 2020 season

I understand, it’s a tough balance when you only have so much time yourself and then you give your time to someone, who doesn’t appreciate it.

I was talking to a new hunter who is 30 something and his assumption is that hunting is exclusionary. You don’t just break into it at his age because no one is willing to teach you, because most learn from dad, grandads or uncles.


RevWilder
Pastors in the Outdoors

 

Well, thanks for the pick me up. Unless I can seal the deal this weekend, which is unlikely with the weather forecast, this will be year four for me.

 

Misjudged the trail range of the biggest buck I had on cam by 5 yards and shot under him by a hair. Stings a little less that he was missing his whole left side. Here are some screen grabs of him.





Excellent video of him as well.







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You are correct sir! Just going to have to use better judgement.... the fines will be bigger this next year and If I blatantly do it again I could be kicked off the lease for a second offense. I believe our fine was too low IMO and I broke the rule lol. I think our fine will be $500 this coming up year so I better be damn sure before I pull back on something lol.

 

I lucked into a buck on my first sit of the season. My mistake will be next season when I do ZERO prep work and expect the same results.

 

damn you have a long season!

 

Kill em next year with both sides and he’ll be bigger

 

Yeah it is. Didn’t really think it would bite me like it did. I thought I would have had more time than I did though.

And you’ve just literally described me. Ive hunted before at an earlier age off and on. Never seriously and of course had no idea what was going on. But wanted to pick it up seriously as an adult. So I’m basically starting from scratch. Even though I’ve been hunting “seriously” for 3-5 years now, I still feel like the novice of the amateur class. No real mentors in person so YouTube as been my best friend. The big names that relate to the average hunter have been amazing. The Dan Infalts, the Jason Samkowiaks, hunting public guys, etc. Would be awesome to have actual hunting buddies but I’m getting along as is and still having a lot of fun so as long as that’s happening I’m gonna keep going.


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I’m posting these simply to give me motivation for this year... he’s one of the biggest ones I’ve got on cam. Thinking back on the live from the stand thread another mistake I made was moving the stand I missed him from too late. I need to be in that stand beginning 10/31. I had action every single sit I sat there but I was on the other side of the 50 acres hunting sign for over a week before I moved.


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He’s a cool one, hope he sticks around for ya. Curious to see what he turns into this year

 

I had a really nice 9 point walk right under my stand and walk out in front of me. He walked to 21 yards away and turned broadside. As I drew, a group of does just over the property line to my right blew at me. He looked over his shoulder and never moved. Still standing broadside. As I settled the pin, he looked away from me. So he is 21 yards, broadside to me and looking the other way. When I shot, I never saw a small limb(half the diameter of a pencil) that was maybe 3 yards in front of me. The arrow hit that limb perfectly and threw the arrow off just enough to hit just below him and left. ( I got it all of video) I never anticipated deer coming that way. I was focused on my #1 buck that just chased a doe across the property line to the right of me. Never heard this buck coming. I could have spit on his back as he walked under me. The deer always come from my left, right or in front of me. Lesson learned. Trim lanes for all directions. Some Bright Spots from that hunt. 1. The EverCalm I have been using for years REALLY WORKS! I love that stuff and I won't hunt without it! 2. My scent was at a minimum and I played the win perfectly that day.

 

huge fan of EverCalm as well but they have banned it in MI.

 

I'm 46 and have been hunting ever since I can remember, every year is a learning experience and I feel like a novice too. But one thing I'm certain of is putting in the time scouting and glassing pays off with a better return whether in conjunction with cameras or not I think you get a better understanding of their patterns. On year I'm too busy and skip that step it is not even worth hunting.

 

Yeah for sure. I have a 3 and 5 year old and they take up majority of my time. But I also don’t want to miss things with them so that keeps me out of the woods more than anything lately. Which I’m not complaining about for sure. Just wish I could have the cake and eat it too I guess.


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Bowhunting for 42 years.
Made every mistake in the "book". Everytime I think I've got it dialed in (another mistake) pops up.
Some of the very best hunters don't tag out and sometimes a complete dolt will kill a giant.
Right place/time still trumps all else.

 

Fun story that reminded me of this. In the 2019 season, I feel like I was on the dolt camp (probably still am) but I chose this area based on everything I learned up to that point thinking “well it would make sense deer would use this area at least to pass through”. So set up there in this area that seemed like deer would come in and out of this piece of public. At the time I was still trying to figure out how best to use a hang on tree stand abs be efficient etc. Ended up tearing everything down and was standing there trying to decide what do to next. Decided just to move to a tree about 10 yards back or so.

As I was getting ready to do that, I hear what sounds like an NBA basketball player slowly dragging his feet through the leaves coming right at me. Suddenly it got totally real as to what it might be. So I tucked up behind the tree trunk on my knees with my bow, knocked an arrow and waited. The movement stopped. I quickly glanced an eye around the tree trunk and observed the biggest buck I’ve ever seen staring right at me. His rack was so huge and tines so tall. I’m no authority at judging deer what so ever but I feel like he would have easily hit the 150-160 class range in the antler department.

He caught my movement knocking the arrow I think. At that point I had nothing to lose. So I drew back aiming directly at the tree trunk in front of me. He didn’t move. Now if anyone has ever watched professional paintball before, I did the move where you lean your upper body out the side of the barrier and just lay down fire like it’s your job. Only here I did the lean out around the tree, tried to take aim as quick as homely possible abs squeeze off that arrow. In that moment of making the move, the deer was fast enough to flip back around and take off back down the way he came in. I ended up never shooting but I was about 6/10 of a second away from burying an arrow in this bad boy from probably 7-10 yards away. What a rush that was.

At that point I had never killed a buck before. So moral of the story, I had no idea what I was doing but had enough education under my belt to decide to sit there even though it didn’t look like the stereotypical deer hunting spot. In hind sight it made perfect sense why there was a truck hood-sized community scrape just 50-60 yards behind my back in that spot too. Sad to say this same spot was a total ghost town in 2020, I think thanks to this guy that continuously runs his 4-wheeler in and out of there almost daily coming from his private property that butts right where the deer coming in and out there.


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Let's see where and how many times did i screw up this year. Let's see there was the day after election day. I stayed up til 130 am and couldn't get up on time. To go to the woods, I got to my stand an hour after daylight, after setting up and sitting down to text my wife I was up in a tree I heard a snap of a twig and watched him walk away from me. He had to see me set up and climb up the tree. A few days later a rushed a shot on a buck. The buck didn't die. He was seen later by a neighbor chasing does with an wound above his shoulder. Still alive. I had 3 run ins with the buck earlier ( twig snap buck). To far 50-70 yards. 1 was when I moved 112 yards away and he walked under my other stand. Then thier is the miss not once but twice on Nov 16. I put him on the wall before I killed him. I dropped my bow arm both times to see the arrow hit him. 145-155 inch 11 pt. Someone else killed him in rifle season.

Buck Fever got me!!!!!! I'm a dumb a$$


I had a great season thou. Saw more shooters. Than in years past.

 

Be patient. The sacrifice of being home more and missing a few hunts at when the kids are that age is worth it in the long run. Take them out once or twice a season just for the experience of being out with dad. Focus on making it fun for them, not necessarily about killing something. My oldest is 9. He has been going with me since he was four. He has never seen me kill a deer, but, he killed his first this year. My middle son is also 9 (adopted and a few months younger than my oldest). He has not killed a deer but has been there when I have killed twice. He killed his first squirrel this year. My youngest is three and is asking all the time to go with me. I may take him for a "scouting" trip this spring just to get him started.

 

Rushing my shots!! Constantly fighting myself to slow it down!!

 

Some of my best memories in my early years were with my dad scouting. Most evenings it was just pulling up to the hay barn and glassing a field his deer stand overlooked. I always knew to ask for things I wanted to do or an honest answer to a question then bc he was always in a good mood. Learned a lot about life and him during those evenings.