I've never thought I was good at hunting mature bucks. I've always thought that I've got the tools to do It and that I've got to learn how to use them tools better. Talking on a computer Is one thing, doing It In the woods Is another.
I passed on 1 deer (yearling) early in the season. Then, later in the season, I screwed up 2 shots. And my last day, I fell asleep and woke up to a couple more. I learned that I should get a good nights rest before going out. Not working till midnight, and going out at 3 am would help. Maybe finding a better place to hunt too. Next year, We should be in NC. I guess I need to start over on the whole finding places to hunt thing. Probably going to have to take a year off, AGAIN! I took 4 years off for the Marines. Which I regret. Didn't have to, just didn't feel I knew enough to go out by myself, and hunt them deer up there in the Mountains.
It was this year... after my second Kansas hunt and after the majority of the rut had passed. I had an opportunity and misjudged a deer. I guess I was on a high from last year and after you kill a good deer... you simply think it should be that easy every time, while knowing at the same time that it's not. After the best part of the season passed, I still hadn't gotten it done, and the odds are in the deer's favor... that's when reality struck.
I gotta be honest here and say that after I shot my nice one last year, I thought I had it. Well, not "had it" but I thought it would get easier. To be honest, it got harder, and I realized that quick, fast and in a big damn hurry this past fall. But my beliefs were supported when I began seeing bucks as early as the first week of October, earlier than I've EVER seen them in the past. All that did was feed my ego and give a false sense of security. Oh, I had plenty of chances at bucks, but all but 4 were well under 100", my personal minimum. But all was not lost. I did have 2 different bucks 130+ within bow range, just couldn't get a shot. The short answer is, by mid november I realized I wasn't as good as i thought I was. They kicked my tail up one hill and down the other this year. I did see more antlered bucks this year than any other, so I guess I've improved. But I'm not nearly as close to having this "figured out" as I thought.
Every year I wait for hunting season thinking I am the man and then end up thankful for getting a buck or two. Truth be told I had a huge wake up call in Brown County this year. I did an excellent job of isolating a great spot on 102 acres of land that I had never seen, but did a terrible job of not getting busted by two nice bucks. This year reminded me that I will never be great but will have a great time trying to be. P.S. BBK 4 LIFE!!!
I figured by getting to hunt my own property without haveing to share the woods with 3 or 4 other hunters it would be easier to kill mature bucks. I got humbled by a few good bucks this past season. In the past usually if I saw a good buck while hunting I managed to get a shot at him. Part of this was because I hunted in thick woods and couldn't see very far anyways. If I saw a deer he was almost in range already. This past season is my first hunting over food plots. I regularly saw multiple bucks in my plots and some good ones too. But getting them in shooting range while there is still daylight proved to be a real challenge. There was no real pattern to where they entered the fields and seldom did they walk thru my funnels when I was in my stands. I plan on doing a few things to up the odds for next year. I am going to do some tree cutting to limit the # of entry points into the field. Lesson learned. I am also going to design my food plots to try and direct the deer past my stands. Taking a few tips from the Drury's on this one. My woods also has some classic funnels that I figured all I had to do was hang a stand and kill a whopper. It didn't quite work out that way. It seemed the deer knew just how far around the hollow they need to cross to be out of range or they went right up the steepest hills in the woods instead of around it. Twice they made a left instead of a right and past my stand. A lot of times I was in the right place just in the wrong tree or the deer made the right move to live another day. I am still learning how to hunt my new woods and which stands will be the real producers. It's not all about skill, there is some luck involved too!
All depends on the day you ask.........I have been at it for over 20 years and (like everyone else) some days I feel like a champ.....some like a chump. I am confident in my abilities to kill what is out there........with my location dictating that variable. No better.......No worse.
To be honest I just don't know. I swing back and forth thinking I'm pretty good for the woods I'm able to hunt, and then there are days that I'm convinced that I truly suck. :d I honestly don't know a single person in central/eastern PA other than Rob that has had similar success. At times I comfort myself in knowing this and think I'm doing alright with the woods I'm hunting. On the other hand, I'm consistently having encounters with bucks bigger than the ones I'm killing. I see on average at least one 3.5+ year old buck in the 110-130" class every year......so I know they are there even if it's on an infrequent basis. Knowing they are there occasionally and that in 17 years of hunting them I haven't tagged anything bigger than 98"...................then I think that I probably suck and am comparing myself to others that suck even worse. :d
Matt, I can say that after spending a good bit of time at my fiances parents place near Lock Haven in Clinton County, I have a new appreciation for anybody that kills any deer in that part of the state. It was night and day compared to the hunting I am use to in SW PA. We spent alot of summer evenings driving around, passing huge corn and soybean fields, and I never saw a single deer in any of them. Tiffany had hunted there before we ever started dating and had only seen a very limited amount of deer while hunting, she was shocked when I had her out hunting last year and she was seeing deer every evening from stand. The hunting in central PA is probablly about as tough as it gets.
The first day I hit the woods with bow in hand I relized I sucked and have been trying to get better ever since. Sure it is not rocket science but damn as a human being we sure can be stupid at times.
Whenever I could catch shooter bucks all the time on my trail cam and then never see "hide nor hair" of them while I was on stand. I still don't know what I was doing wrong At first I thought I was doing well this season. I was seeing more deer than ever before (which is a good thing), but the bigger buck sightings were seriously lacking. I answered both parts of the question. I saw more deer than ever this season, but still didn't see many big bucks.
when I switched from rifle hunting in central WI to bowhunting near the Canadian border in Ely. Some days they seen like entirely different animals.
I realized I was the greatest when I was at the ATA show this year and Tiffany was begging me to run away with her. I mean I knew I was a great hunter and I knew I was blessed with outstanding looks and the body of a god, but it was just wierd with Lee standing right there.:d Now for my real response....I don't ever know where I stand for sure. There are times when everything comes together just like I planned. The scouting paid off, the stand locations were dead on and I just seem to be in a groove. I think to myself, after 25 years I finally got this game beat. I have had this feeling last for entire seasons (this past season was awesome for me). However, there have been other times when I wonder if know anything at all about deer hunting, scouting, stand placement or anything else that really counts when it comes to putting good bucks on the ground. I have to say there are more times where I feel in control than not, so that has to be a good sign, but I have come to realize that everytime you think you got it beat, they will throw you curve ball that really puts you in your place.
I feel and have felt for a while I am decent at it. I would consider myself a pretty aggressive whitetail bowhunter, I think the enviroment that I hunt for big bucks in has forced me to hunt this way. I never feel like I am great at it, but solid in my approach. I have a friend that keeps me very humble with his successes on highly pressured lands. Big/old bucks keep me from ever getting cocky as well. I do know that I want to get a little better everytime I step foot in the woods. I have also had to learn some hard lessons and try my hand is a few things to make sure of what I wanted to do in regards to hunting in general. Being true to myself, I have made some considerable changes recently and want to get back to what I feel I am meant to be and want to be. Which is simply a hunter of old mature bucks. Nothing more or less. Time will tell. I know I have a lot of room to improve.
I like to believe that i am far from my peak. This is only my 3rd year bowhunting for whitetails. (Thread idea pops up in head :d )
I realized I was better than I thought when I started killing some of the biggest bucks living on certain properties. I came to the realization over my first few years of hunting out-of-state; that I was doing NOTHING wrong, just hunting the wrong areas for what I was looking to kill.
