So I haven't posted here in quite a while.... have been posting on "another" site and they tend to be less than..... nice. Anywho, I'm having a frustrating season and I've decided that after striking out last year, and the lack of deer I'm seeing this year, that the problem must be me!! Anyone have any sugestions on say, books or sites to read/study? I'm hunting public land here in central illinois, and have but TONS of time in... I've sat 21 times so far this year, and have seen 2 deer.... total. I did miss a doe at 28 yards. Its been easily 2 weeks since I've seen a deer. I know the area I'm hunting gets quite a bit of pressure, and its not unusual to see other hunters walking in our out. I've tried field edges, deep timber, ground blinds, climbers... I've even hunted twice near a rub line of 6 trees all within 200 yards of each other. I'm just not sure what I can do, change, study to make myself a better hunter and maybe have some success. I'm not even a trophy hunter, I'm trying to fill the freezer first! Any thoughts you guys have would be a help!!
idk much about hunting i public land i have only hunted on private but even on private land i hunt the food sources deer need to feed at some point. I do under stand that on public land it is hard to get spots on the food sources. My advice to you is to try to find some apple trees and either hunt off the path the deer are taking to get to the apple trees or hunt right off the apples tree this way you will see deer. But like i said there are people on here that know a lot more about how to hunt public land better than i do hope this helps
If you want to read a phenomenal book about bowhunting strategy in general, but specifically targeted at public land bowhunting, read Hunting Pressured Whitetails by John Eberhart. Ive been out of the game for 7 seasons until this year, so i bought this book to freshen up my skills. It completely altered the way I hunt, and the results I've had so far this year have been excellent on the one mediocre parcel that I have permission to hunt.
Two thoughts, are you hunting near a food source or if it's as DRY there as here, are you hunting near a WATER source??? What is your overall SCENT CONTROL plan??? I never realized how much SCENT CONTROL meant until I'd been hunting nearly 10 yrs. No one ever taught me about it. I was reading a magazine one day about stuff, and thought "Well Damn, that's half my problem." The very next season, I got my FIRST bowkill, and I've been killing a few deer a year since. And when I say scent control, I don't mean are you wearing a SCENT BLOCKER outfit or anything like that. Washing clothes in scent-free detergent, no softener or scent-free softener only, keep your boots away from where they may pick up scent, use a little cover scent complimentary to your area, earth scent works well around here, pine would work well in the south where there are lots of pines, etc. I ALWAYS wear a facemask as much of your offending odor will come right out of your mouth and nose, and even after all that, try to watch the wind. I've yet to actually kill a deer on public land, but I have passed up more than a few, never a GREAT buck, but more than a few does and young bucks. Keep at it, GET IN EARLY, stay LATE, don't be afraid to sit all day if your schedule allows, NOW is the time to be in the woods!!! Were I not heading back to work tonight and had worked last night, I'd have put some hours out there that's FO-SHO!!! Figure out where it looks like the deer should be bedding, get a topo of the area you're hunting, and look for ridges w/ shelves, or flat areas near the top of ridges, catch exiting paths out of these areas and set up an ambush. Once you get an area sort of figured out, it still can go WRONG, I had about 50 turkeys cruise in and feed under me for damn near an hour the other night when I was set up right where I'd had a BIG BUCK come through twice. As tempting as it was to whack a turkey, I had to sit tight and quiet and wait them out HOPING he'd still come through, as luck would have it, they left at sunset, meandered back a few minutes later then something on the ground spooked the hell out of them (likely a coyote), and I never did see Mr. Big!!!
In terms of scent control, I do what I can. Scent Free Shower, Sent Free Clothing Wash, Sent Spray on feet/cloths at the car. I hunt the wind when I am able to. I can't say I'm always perfect with my scent control, but I do make the effort to be as scent free as possible.
