That you aren't as good or actually better at chasing whitetail than you once thought? Open ended question here.... Let's hear what you have to say. Be specific if you can, I am interested in what you have to say.
2006. I bought a house and some ground in late 2005. Up to that point I had hunted some less than stellar ground. I had never killed anything over 100 inches. I didn't see them, so in my mind, they didn't exist. Fast forward to fall of 2006, first year on the new ground (which is only 30 total acres, half is timber). This property had zero pressure, so I just hung a few stands and killed my biggest buck to date exactly 1 month into the season. Topped that one in 2007 from the same tree. I didn't do anything differently, I just hunted an area with less pressure using the same old tactics. Not saying I'm good, bad or anything else. I became a firm believer in "you can't kill whats not there" in 2006.
I can pin that down exactly.....Back in the 80's under Ronald Maximus Reagan, I was a Medevac Helicopter Pilot. I was lucky enough to be stationed near were I hunt. So I had the opportunity to fly at lowlevel over the hunting area. What is realy cool is that deer simply can not get away from you in a helicopter. For several years I had the opportunity to "scout" from my whirly bird.... It amazed me that there were so many deer....they were every where. Then when you were on the ground hunting them they were scarce....I flew sometimes on say a Thursday and would see deer all over the place....then GO in on Friday hunt the weekend, see few deer (as compared to flying) then fly again on Monday....deer every where Again this was back in the day when I was a rabid deer hunter and generally killed several every year.....I lost interest when I started Turkey hunting in about 96...but the bow has gotten be fired up again. Any way....I realized I wasn't as good as I thought when I realized how few I actually saw and new they didn't go to the next county they just hunkered down..... SB
The very first time I really tried to deer hunt I went out with my bow, found a good looking deer trail and sat right on it. I guess I was thinking more like a trapper and less like a deer hunter. Anyhow, I picked a good spot because sure enough, a really nice buck comes strolling along. I tried and tried to draw my bow but couldn't do it. I even looked down at my strings to see if I was pulling on the cable or something. When the buck was a couple yards away, he finally noticed me sitting on the trail, waving my bow all around in a desperate attempt to draw it. Bug eyed, he jumped to about 15 yards away and stared in disbelief. I finally just yelled some expletives at him and he bounded off. I realized, the finding the deer part wasn't so hard... but I really needed to work on the rest of it. This past fall I hunted at new public hunting area. It was too far away for me to really scout. Instead I went out and followed my gut. I had my first deer down by 7:30am. I had three deer down in by my third trip. I feel fairly confident about my ability to find deer and I'm feeling better about my ability to kill them. There's still a lot to figure out tho'.
I realized I wasn't as good as I thought after the 2006 season. I thought that I had several large bucks pegged, even saw them from stand, but couldn't close the deal as they seemed to be coming in randomly. I realized that I hadn't got them figured out, I just got lucky in seeing them. I realized I was better than I thought on Jan.5th of this year when I took a late season archery buck here in PA off of private land that is open to all hunters (and it got hunted hard during rifle season).
When I started trying to kill older bucks. That pretty much sums it up. I could always kill deer, so I thought if I hunted an area with older bucks, passed on the younger ones, I could kill older ones. I realized that it is a lot harder then that, but I've never had more fun hunting since I started trying!
There was never a time where I actually thought I was good. In fact, I will expand this a bit. It was the season of 2007. The first year after I graduated, and I was reading up on HNI more than ever, and I realized just how BAD of a bowhunter I was through the years. I hadn't been doing one thing right (with the exception of hunting a few food sources). The past two seasons have seen me hunting harder, smarter, and seeing plenty of deer as well as passing up 1.5yr olds (something I never did before). However, I still failed to put anything on the ground, so I still say I'm not very good at this point, but there was never a point where I considered myself good.
The question is.. When did you know that you aren't as good or actually better at chasing whitetail than you once thought? It could be just me.. but what? Those double negatives are really giving me a serious migraine. I feel like I'm looking at one of those goofy pictures where a 3-D image pops out. Kudos (sorry Kyle) to anyone who answered this Q. Sorry Scott.. but what?
Feeble minds indeed do struggle with simple tasks at times :d Next time I write a post I will PM it to you for a good proof reading and editing
Wait... I messed up... I didn't PM you that post to see if it was suitable for posting... Crap.... I just messed up again by not sending you this one either
Exactly :d Now you can change the wording around any which way that makes you feel warm and happy inside, so you can answer the question also.... That's if Robocop wants to answer it that is.
I can't really comment regarding whitetails as I never really thought about it. But as a hunter in general, I realized I wasn't NEARLY that good when I left my comfort zone and went elk hunting. That put me in my place and put a lot of things in perspective, and did the most to help me realize my weaknesses and learn from them.
Don't be sorry, DM. I actually love Kudos, I prefer snickers. Anyways, I learned I sucked at hunting deer this year. I made more mistakes any normal human hunter shouldn't make. I sucked. I over hunted stands, didn't play the wind, and didn't read what the woods was telling me.
This is a tough question, I always feel like im improving. I like the end of the season reflection when I think about how I did that year, as compared to the last. As of right now, I feel like im the best deer hunter that ive ever been!:d
Well, I never really thought that I was better than I actually was and I never found out that I was better than I thought! However, once I had taken my 3rd P&Y in consecutive seasons, I thought that I was really catching on to the hunting of mature whitetails. I hope that makes sense!
