LOCATION A close second would be.......area, bearings, district, locale, locality, locus, neck of the woods, neighborhood, part, point, position, post, region, scene, section, site, situation, spot, station, tract, turf, venue, whereabouts. It's hard to pick just one
I agree, you gotta have big buck in order to kill big bucks. Although a close second would be time in the woods!
Killing Big Bucks is more of an equation...you gotta have alot of things for it to work out consistently...Sure, location helps some schmuck kill a booner every year who knows little to nothing about deer...but on the flip side, there are guys in terrible "locations" getting it done year in and year out. You need a good spot to hunt, alot of time in the woods, and in most cases, some knowledge of your quarry. I still think the number one element is time. If you can put yourself in a decent spot, and duke it out with father time, you got past the biggest part. You can have the biggest, best hunting lease in the state, if you don't have the time to put in to hunt it...it won't do you much good. I also think location is looked at on a far too large scale, people view location changes as 300 miles (basically however far it is from you to the Midwest)....location to me is more of a smaller move, moving 0.5 miles down the road can make all the difference in the world.
1. location they have to be there 2. Patience 3. Ability to get to your stands and exit with out spooking them. Does not matter how great your location is, if the bucks know where you are. 4. Ability to remain calm and moment of the shot and excute the shot.
Bar none the most important aspect to killing any deer, let alone a big buck is stand time. People kill big bucks in areas not known for big bucks every single year. That is a fact that is indisputable. So, fellas... Go park your butt in a stand and make it happen
It depends on where you live hunt/habitat, hunting pressure involved and finally when your state allows you to bowhunt the herd. If you live and hunt on/in big buck rich country were you can hunt the rut; I'd say "time" on stand during the rut will pay the most dividens. If you live where big bucks are far and few between then just sitting on stand doesn't always pay off; you will most likely have to do a lot of homework to get an opportunity and the opporunity may fall outside of the rut since thats when a big buck (if and when you locate one) is most patternable. Your best shot may be the first time or two on stand before he is onto you.
In order to kill a big buck. First it has to exist,(most important) and 2nd it's path must cross yours under circumstances that offer you the chance to make a killing shot. And lastly you must send the arrow thru the vitals of the buck.
(stand time)(location)(genetics)(hunting knowledge)/(luck)(right place right time). It's a very complex equation that I have yet to figure out lol. Hopefully I study enough to have it figured out by this season.
I've always believed this but my feelings aren't as strong as they once were on stand time. Like It or not, ya gotta have a few around so you can get It done. I wish I knew 10 years ago what I know now, our buck herd was of much better quality and quantity then. Man It Is frustrating now hunting the very exact same piece of land In pursue of a 135"+ buck. All In all though ya gotta put your time In, there's no way around It. Some people just have to put a little more time In. I also think allot about what Dan Infalt says on his hunting DVD (Marsh Bucks). He says some people are setting their goals to high meaning there might not be the caliber of buck that you want running around In your woods. Sometimes I think I set the bar to high but In saying that the bigger bucks are here, there's just allot fewer of them.
I'm not sure how anyone can argue against location ...... it's true that people kill them in places where there ae few .... but you are just fooling yourself if you think that your success rate would be as good if you lived in NC than Illinois ...
If we are just asking for a very vanilla answer to this very vanilla question. Yes.. LOCATION is number one. The problem with the answer is.. what defines location? Is it state? Is it county? Is it property? Is it tree? Then we must submit to state being where you live.. some are born in better places to deer hunt then others. Period. We'll call this luck.. unless you make the luck what you want it to be. Counties we live or hunt in usually reside closer to our home.. which is often based off work. Counties further away we often have less time to hunt than those that are closer. We'll call this one TIME. (which has been previously mentioned). Property we hunt is either given by birth right.. worked hard for to get.. nothing but knowing the right people.. or through some sort of monetary exchange. We'll call this one luck also.. unless you make the luck what you want it to be. Tree.. well that's the interesting one. It's solely based on the hunters shoulders. Period. Therefore.. the hunter who works harder to find what tree to sit in.. is usually the more consistent hunter. This one is ALL HUNTER if consistent. So while location IS the deciding factor. It should NEVER be an excuse. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
