Wow so much thought for a Sunday!! This will be my 34th season bow hunting and I have gone through the kill everything brown it's down stage as a Michigan hunter does, Then started killing bigger bucks here in Michigan on stateland and then moving to trad. bows for 10-12 years and now back to compounds. But the one thing that always stayed true through all of it was I was a loner, not that I didn't share my camp with anybody but when it came to the hunting and scouting it had to be my way and I didn't want someone else smelling up my sets or really knowing where I was hunting,I was a lone wolf.. Then came the videoing and playing around with it even before Todd with my dad videoing and then moving onto WKP and my buddy Steve filming and hunting and now I couldn't even amagine going out to a stand without Steve or someone else with either me or them lugging camera equipment. I keep saying I will go back to trad. gear some day but for right now I am being selffish and want bigger bucks maybe because I hit a life long goal of always saying I just wanted a 160 and when this past year I finally did that now I want bigger or maybe because I have seen them and know they are there and that makes me want bigger. But as for does they will always have a special place in my freezer, you can say it is good for the herd or the land but heck addmit it they are just plain tasty and fun to shoot.. Walt
im just starting in my career, i belive last season(my first) was just a try it out season....loved it, this year its time for me to improve each and everyone of my skills, learn as much as i can, and just enjoy every second of it. this will be my second year, i am still very much a beginner but i am confident in my abilities and belive i have prepared myself very well. I will be hunting for a long time to come.
I'm at the stage where if it makes me happy/proud at the time, I am going to shoot it. That is including does. I want to kill a buck and atleast 1 doe this year, hopefully a couple . As far as a buck goes, I don't care about score. I will most likely know immediately after seeing the buck if I am going to shoot it or not.
I simply want my first archery deer this season, and as I've stated, I don't care if I have to jump out and club the deer to death with my bow, I'm gonna bag one....
Don, I realize this thread already has three pages running, and probably has some sort of heated debate, but I only read your initial post and I am going to answer you initial question. I will soon be entering my fourth season of bowhunting with a different attitude than ever before. I completed my first season with no sucess (in terms of killing deer), and carried on to the next where I took my first whitetail with a bow. My third season resulted in four deer on the ground and a very sucessful season in my books. My fourth season will be different: Will I kill some does? Hopefully Will I shoot a small/young buck? Who knows.....I'm not saying no. The point is, my experience has grown tremendously. That may not mean that I will begin to kill larger deer, but it will mean that my time in the field will be spent differently. My scounting has revealed new things, my stand sites will change, my hunting strategy overall will be different. What stage am I? NEWB Oh well, it doesn't bother me. I am having just as much fun as everyone else.
i THINK im to the point where i need to really know the deer im shooting before i even think about drawing back. i used to see antlers and think... "ok here we go" now its " which buck is this" i would like to think i could be as patient as some of you out there, but im not there yet.....
In a few years I'll be at that stage your at Joe and DC. Great post you both, awesome!!!! The stage I'm In now, the frustrating one (whitetail wise). I also gotta agree with Dave (buttonbuckmaster). A career Is something you get paid to do, hunting Is no career to me. Instead It's a way of life.
I'm at the stage of not caring what stage I am in. I'll be honest, I've had my share of philosophical moments and found the stage thing fairly interesting, but right now is just not one of them. I still want to kill a lot of deer. I want to kill nice bucks Sometimes I care what implement I use to do so, sometimes I don't Sometimes the definition of "nice" changes from what it was before.
That pretty much sums it up for me too. I guess I'll be going into my 18th season of bowhunting this year. Up until about 6 or 7 years ago, I was pretty much learning on my own. I got lucky and managed to kill a few deer when I was younger, and then got pretty proficient at killing bucks and does by focusing on food sources, but the last 6 or 7 years I really started learning how to focus on different types of stands, and get off the food sources. I've had good success over the last several years with getting off the food sources, and managed to kill 5 bucks that are "above average", including 3 bucks that were 3.5 years old or better. At this point, I'm well past shooting the first legal buck I see, I've passed a good 80+ legal bucks over the last several years, mostly 1.5's and smaller/average 2.5's. I think I'm quickly reaching the point where I may be comfortable eating a buck tag now and then while trying to get on a higher end buck. While I've killed good representative bucks for the areas I hunt, I'm yet to kill a true slammer or buck of a lifetime. I really think this year I'll hold off unless presented with an opportunity at my personal best. I still get the itch to make something bleed sometimes, but am lucky to have a lot of doe tags to scratch that itch with. I'm also hitting the point in my life where I struggle with the stand time needed to get it done on a true slammer. I need to focus on learning how to get it done with fewer nights spent away from home. Between work, family, and working on my house, I've got a lot less time in a tree than I would like, and a lot less time in the offseason to prepare. I need to learn more about how to maximize what I've got. I'll be focusing on hunting closer to home in the next few years so that I can maximize the stand time I do have, and minimize the nights away from home. I'll savor every moment I get to spend out there too, successful or not.
I'm a watcher, not in a creepy way, i just like to watch deer. Some times I'll shoot a 1.5 year old jacked up 7 point and most times I pass a 120" 2.5 year old. It differs for me based on principle I guess. If it feels right, it feels right. Alot of hunting for me is instinctive.
