A-friggin-men! I think too often in bowhunting things are chalked up to "it happens". And while things do indeed happen, I believe that if a person takes a little effort to think about why, then they could reduce the chances of that mistake happening again.
I've also decided that for now at least, it's time for me to put down the camera and focus on becoming a better hunter. I feel like self filming my hunts this year was a major distraction, and I felt like I put to much pressure on myself to make it happen on film, and ended up losing my drive/ambition 2nd week of november, right during the rime time of the rut.
Poor shot placement isn't solely to blame on too little practice. Clinton from the final BHOD episode proves that, a lot of it is mental at that moment of truth when you have the pin on that animal that you have pressured yourself into devoting so much time and energy on. Practice at an inanimate target isn't going to fix that problem for those that have a problem there. Only experience in the field killing animals and gaining control over nerves is going to fix that problem and accepting that we are flawed creatures and make mistakes is part of that process. Make the mistakes and learn from them, that's the only way we improve. It's the people that keep making the same mistake over and over and never learn that need to step back and reconsider what they are doing and where the problems are.
Covey, Is 100 percent right. You can practice all that you want but if your not mentally prepared at the moment of truth all the practice in the world doesn't matter.
This year was a complete learning experience. Everything was new from shooting a bow for first time to putting up my first couple of stands up. Looking back I learned a hell of a lot. That being said, nothing replaces passion and effort. I know I probably made a ton of mistakes, but got results because I kept at it even when i saw nothing time after time. Next year just have to bring the lessons learned with the same level of effort and I'm pretty confident I will get "lucky" again. Funny how often time the people who hit it the hardest get "lucky" most often.
I agree, it's not 100%.There are many things that can go wrong, and we've all missed shots because of buck fever. Your right about learning to control it. It's something that just comes with time in the field taking animals.
We all have had that certain animal that just makes our gut flip flop like topping a crisp little highway rolling hill and dropping sharply down the other side, you know that second that your gut feels like it's weightless in your stomach. When you get that feeling just from the sight of an animal you've been chasing hard, you're psyched out. Anyone is going to have trouble getting a grip on that situation. We've seen video from guys on here that at that moment, they rushed and took poor shots. Even if they have a lot of experience killing animals...that one special one that has it's mystic buried in the deepest recesses of our brains can make us do stupid stuff. I think I've learned more from the few animals I let walk than the ones I killed in that respect. The few nice ones I've let walk, introduced the idea to my mind that the choice is mine to kill that animal (any animal) or not and there's no need to freak out over any encounter with a deer. That's totally related to the comments about "luck". There is no doubt times when sheer luck is there but much of the time guys with a lot of what seems like luck is actually 'self earned fortune', be it from dedication and careful study or just from ice cold blood running through their veins and the ability to calmly "deal" with most any situation that's thrown their way. Very much like good or bad karma. I don't really know too many hunters that don't tend to take full responsibility for their mistakes. Most dedicated hunters care more for the animals we chase than anyone else in the world. It generally and literally makes most of us sick to our stomach to make a poor shot and in fact, often times to the point of making us question continuing the hobby/sport of hunting. In my mind, that's the way it really should be because if someone is callous enough to not care then that person probably should be doing something else.
Covey I had an interview that was five min long where I talked about those exact things that you just talked about. Unfortunately they chose to edit it down to about a min. Your post is pretty spot on. I never did get buck fever to bad. I just got inside my head after I missed him on the first encounter. That night he was in front of me for 20 min before I took the shot. The second night he was there for 15 min then I had a doe bust me and I freaked out and tried to shoot him quartering to. Im not sure what happened I just drew back and took the shot. Both times I lost full concentration and got inside my own head. I haven't slept a night since where I haven't woke up thinking about the what ifs and things that I should/ shouldn't of done in the situation.
I just watched episode where you had the two encounters with your target buck. Definitely some tough breaks. I thought when you spined the buck, you were starting to doubt yourself or second guess your shooting. But as I watched it I thought we can be defined by our successes or failures, but I think it would be a more accurate description of our character to be defined by what we do after we fail. I'm not even talking about hunting here but more about our everyday victories and defeats. I was glad to see you get back after it after the first miss. I think after chasing that buck for as long as you did, I may have been tempted to hang it up for the season after missing. Good luck getting after him again next year. Blessings........Pastorjim
Many many years ago I used to blame the property I hunt with not getting more chances on mature bucks. These days, Ive seen enough mature bucks on the property to realize it is ME that is the issue. I don't make any excuses on the place I hunt anymore....excuses take the fun out of the hunt for me.
Now that actually does sound like a good time with your family...and awesome that your Wife and Son are involved with you and even practice with you as well...it does make shooting more fun I bet instead of the normal just slinging arrows by yourself ..
That's tough brother, I feel for ya. Next time you have one of those big guys in front of you...you will have an easier time keeping your focus. Whenever we encounter those situations, it's always us getting too wrapped up in our own heads. It's the pressure we put on ourselves and the weight of the situation that we convince ourselves is present that gets us all bunched up. The deer doesn't care or know...it's just being a deer and doing it's own thing. It's all in our head, we have to remind ourselves that no matter what it looks like, it's just a deer doing it's deer thing and we can worry about making comparisons and qualifications on size and personal accomplishments after it's dead and we can lay hands on it. No matter how cool the hunter or how much experience, sooner or later there will always be that one animal that gets us flustered and tied up in knots. The funny thing is that one animal isn't necessarily the biggest one we've encountered but they are always animals we have a connection with. On the lighter side, I laugh every time I see that grain cart blind...not because it's laughable but because it's so freakin awesome.
The Wagon blind is absolutely awesome. They are by far the best thing that I have ever hunted out of. I Have two built so far ( one of witch I need to burn since I jinxed it) and I am going to build two more for next year. I literally had deer with in 5 feet of it on several different occasions. They rock and I would highly recommend anyone who has extra wagons to build some
I watched the video and would have taken the shots myself. Who wouldn't freak out with a booner at 20 yards? You had him figured out.
Thanks French, Missing the same giant deer twice out of the same blind in nine days will make you question everything that you do as a hunter.
It may make you question everything about being a hunter, but it may also help us grow as hunters. Being able to self evaluate a situation as upsetting as this and own up to it the way you did/are is incredible, shows you have tremendous character. It is a hard learning experience that is for sure, some of us may never even get close to a deer of that size on camera let alone in person, but the way you are treating this is absoutly amazing. Just try and keep looking up, because if you can look up that you can get up and rise from this. Congrats on the buck that you did take that is a trophy buck in my book and would be in a lot of others as well! Fate will happen soon enough with you two soon enough.
In my opinion, it takes a hell of a hunter to show those two misses for everyone to see and all the emotion you had after the shots. You probably helped a lot of people mentally who had a blown shots in the past and were letting it haunt them. That's the great thing about the show you guys put out - everything makes it to tape. Here's to hoping Ernie's around for you next season
I don't have failures, I have learning experiences. If you don't learn from either mistakes or the behavior of the animal you're hunting then your not doing it right.
Failures? Where do I begin? My season has been full of them leading to what has been the worst deer season I have had in 23 years!! Let me begin by saying it didn't start out bad I feel like I started things off well putting in several mineral sites and some food plots. I put my mineral sites in in March and freshening them up and checking cams once a month but once opening day got closer I began checking cards more often and I believe several of the nice bucks I had been seeing on cam got wise and left those areas! My next mistake which led to a failure was setting up too many stands and I spread myself too thin causing me to miss bucks on daylight movement at stands I would normally be at! My next mistake I made was not trimming shooting lanes when making adjustments to my stands and thinking " oh it will be fine" this cost me the only shooter buck I saw in 4 months!! I hit a limb that should have been GONE if I hadn't gotten lazy causing a deflection which led to a bad hit on a nice 7 pointer!! My biggest mistake that cost me a doe was being over excited to recover a doe that I thought I made a great shot on but unfortunately jumped her up out of her bed and never recovered!! Worst part is I was off the next day and had cold weather and I could have left her til the morning!! All of these things are things that I know better than to do but I let my emotions get the best of me and tried to out think myself instead of doing what was right!! It has been a long and frustrating season for me and only have myself to blame so I will move forward and learn from my mistakes and make myself a smarter and better Bowhunter in the future!!!
