Confidence...

[Ol'DanBoone]

Ohhhhhhhhhh, man, this is an AWESOME thread.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Jonny]

This thread deserves a bump. Really reminds me I need to kick it into high gear so that I am confident in my bow, stand, and ability to use both by the time the season rolls around

[<DK>]

"Confidence" : a feeling or consciousness of one's powers or of reliance on one's circumstances. The feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust.

"Confidence, I never leave home w/o it." - Lockdown

I didnt know this was truly possible to gain while hunting whitetails. That is a bold, strong feeling that not many get to exp. Its tough sometimes, but there is alot of truth to what Dan says about seeing less deer but more big bucks. Confidence kills big bucks.

[perchsoup]

I used to have a lot of confidence because the sign I was hunting looked so good, or the spot felt right, or it was November, or I had one on camera at 2 am. But it didn't often work out. Very infrequent to be honest. The confidence was more to do with optimism and excitement.

Now, my confidence is different. It is kind of a reserved confidence. This will be my first true year of beast hunting where I was able to scout for a whole year in advance and then hunt. Last year I found the beast around this time of year and was trying to adapt, learn and hunt all at the same time. It was great and a lot of fun, but now it's different. I have been able to explore some hunches and scout a bunch of ground to confirm or deny things. Regardless of how the season goes I will still adapt, learn and hunt at the same time. But I can now confidently say I feel much closer to being in the game of mature bucks.

[Boogieman1]

I am prob the biggest believer of confidence out there. I believe in the power of positive thinking. Have u ever seen those people who bad crap just continually happens to. They are always thinking negative the gee what now type. Flip side of the coin how many hunters have u seen who consistently lay down a mature buck. I'm willing to bet they are positive and confident and understand it's a long season and they are picking there spot. Another type of confidence is your shooting ability. I missed 2 whoppers in back to back days afew years ago. I was questioning my shot and overthinking. The way I shoot if a thought pops in my head I might as well let the string down. But I decided I needed a confidence builder and went out the next day and filled my doe tag. Wish I could say the story ended with me getting a giant. But it wasn't in the cards, no buck 4 boogie but I had 2 close encounters with mature bucks that I missed what more can a guy ask for. Stay positive and confident it's a long season and it just hasn't happened yet!

[rizzo999]

My buddies are always telling that I'm the "luckiest hunter in the World". I always just nod and act like I'm agreeing with them. I feel over-preparing provides that confidence to keep food on your taxidermist's table!

[Bonehead82]

I completely agree with what has already been said. I never had any bow hunters in my family growing up. I saved up aluminum cans as a teenager to build my first bow. It took me two summers to complete it and bought a second hand climber. After I had some gear and taught myself how to shoot, I still had absolutely no clue how to bow hunt a wild deer. I can not count how many hours I spent in a tree without seeing a deer. I was frustrated beyond belief, but refused to give up. There were no smart phones, and we didnt even have internet back then. I had no books to read. I started to piece the puzzle together on my own after a season or two. I finally started to realize that if I sat up on big doe trails that I would "see deer" that started opening up some shot opportunities. Then low and behold come november, that doe trail had a few bucks walking on them. Now I started figuring some things out and learning the different phases of the season. By year 3, I was killing a couple does and 2 year old 8 point bucks. Things were looking good, I thought I was a rock star. Confidence started building. But I still wasn't content, I wanted to kill older, bigger bucks. I knew there was still so much more and something that I still hadn't known and the notorious big buck killers in my area wouldn't give up their secrets. The next season I started scouting harder in the off season. I found a horizontal rub line 80 yards from the parking lot. I set a stand up 20 yards above it. I came back on October 17th and killed a 3 year old 9 point on the first sit. Confidence was really starting to soar now. It was the "October lull" none of my friends were seeing a buck and I just shot my biggest buck to date. Things were slowly starting to come together. The next season I scouted even harder than before. I knew of a buck that would be coming up on to 4 years old and would be around 140's. I wanted this buck pretty bad. I had not killed anything near his size yet. So I invested into a couple of trail cameras, I hung them that summer and found him using a deep draw very frequently in early morning and late evening. I knew I was close to his bedroom. So I went in there in mid august and hung a tree stand. I came back in early October and hunted it one evening with no success. At this point in the game, I started realizing that over-hunting an area is bad news. So I backed out, left it alone until November 7th. I planned on sitting there all day, thinking he has to walk by at some point. Now with the leaves off, I can see quite a bit. At 7:30am that morning I see a big body coming up out of the creek bottom and going up to the highest point on the property. It was him and he had moved his travel pattern about 90 yards down the hill from where I had hung the stand 11 weeks earlier. At noon that day I tore the stand down, moved it down the hill over that trail and came back again the very next morning. At 7:40am here he comes again. Here's where things started to change for me as a bow hunter. I watched this buck come down the side hill from the neighbors place, stop at the bottom of that draw and look up to the point of it where I had my stand prior. He stood there for 3-4 minutes looking up the hill in the direction of my old tree. After he confirmed that there was no danger (me) he turned and started up the trail that I was sitting on now. Even as he walked toward me, he would still look over into the direction where I had hungry that stand in late summer. He came up and gave me a nice quarterback away shot. Afterwards I thought long and hard at what I just witnessed. That buck had my number! I educated that deer in summer and he was skirting me the whole time. Thats really when things started to click. Also, I knew he was heading back to bed and the spot he was going to was a half acre locust thicket on the highest point of the property. It was over-looking the fields and access roads. I went back that off season and really started opening my eyes up to how the deer were bedding. Before that I guess all I ever focused on was food source and sign. Now I started looking at bedding and how things related to it. Since then I have killed multiple good bucks out of it. Every year, theres not a single doubt the biggest buck on the property will be in that half acre point. The difference now is that my confidence level is through the roof. I walk in there now with 100% confidence that the buck that I'm targeting is going to walk out. Looking back at what I do now, compared to how I used to hunt 10 years ago is night and day. My set ups are so much more thought out and well-planned. I will leave earlier, be more quiet, patient, still, alert, etc. Years ago I would sit in a stand and think about everything else other than hunting. I wasn't confident and to be honest, I didnt think that I would even see a deer, let alone a buck. I could even be making a few mistakes to this day, but I'm 100% confident in what Im doing now. Even looking back at the progression (and I still have a long way to go) I could still think of key moments when each little thing I did would boost my confidence just a little more each time. Ive always said confidence kills and I still feel that way! sorry for the long-winded reply

[<DK>]

Thats a helluva first post

[dan]

Welcome to the BEAST Bonehead!

[Bonehead82]

Haha Thanks guys. Sorry for rambling a bit. I just joined a couple of months ago. I've been reading a lot of threads, but just never engaged. I suppose now was a good time to start. Love the site and all of the info. Keep up the good work!

[Bonehead]

Nice name

[JPiskun1080]

After listening to Dan, Joe and Andy today talking on the W2H podcast about the confidence needed to adopt these “beast style” tactics I figured this was a good thread to bump. I’m just starting to really follow the forum and I know for myself that my confidence is in need of some major work.

[Lockdown]

Bump

This is a great thread that I’ve read through several times over the years.

It really is quite incredible what a difference your mindset can make. I have had a great year this year, in fact I’ve had more shooter sightings and encounters than I ever have. I had two REALLY close calls that slipped through my fingers while archery hunting. I had a wall hanger at 282 yards while shotgun hunting. Biggest buck I’ve ever seen on that private parcel in 8-9 years of hunting it.

My old mindset would be “You’ve already had how many chances and they haven’t worked out. How many opportunities do you think you’re going to get this year?! It’s late, the deer are pressured now and it’s going to be tough!”

Talk about putting a nail in your coffin.

Largely because of this thread, my current mindset is I’m extremely satisfied with my growth as a hunter the last few years. I’ve had a phenomenal year and have learned a ton! Not to mention it’s still rut and I still have plenty of time to kill one. (And late season archery can be a blast)

Last year I kept a positive attitude all year long and ended up killing a 3.5 yr old 6 pt on the very last day of muzzleloader season.

I have had a few instances the last week or two where negativity has crept into my mind. I just push it aside and decide to trust myself and have fun instead. I’ve mentioned many times on the forum that when you prioritize LEARNING over the kill… THAT is when you can make improvements in both your mental game and your success in the field.

I’ve got two properties that I will be heading to that I’ve never hunted during either gun season. I will learn a lot, no doubt. The information will benefit me forever. I will keep Stanley’s words in the back of my mind the entire time. “You don’t have to be the best, you just have to do your best.”

It’s so true. I’ll be out there doing the best I can and whatever happens will happen.

[PaPublicLandHunter]

I needed this. Negative thoughts have really begun to take over in my head as of late.

[Brad]

I agree 100% that confidence is one of the most important things. I would say there are 2 things that can boost your confidence. Obviously #1 is gaining first hand experience. Obviously the more you hunt the more you will see, and the more you shoot the more comfortable you will get doing so. The other thing, which I feel is the one we have the most control over, is the relentless pursuit of self improvement. Gaining good first hand experience experience can be difficult if you aren't putting yourself in the right places and if you aren't having successful shots on deer. It's true for anything you are trying to have success in, not just hunting. Relentlessly pursue knowledge, and learn as much as you can from the experiences of others. I have learned a ton from the hunting beast (all of the dvd's, this forum, and the youtube channel), and a few others (you have to sift through the garbage, but great information is out there) like the hunting public youtube and the southern outdoorsman podcasts. Then you have to make sure you are very confident shooting your bow like you will be while hunting. Practice, practice, practice, then also practice from your tree stand or saddle. If you've put in the work... I mean really put in the work... knowing that you have done as much as you can do to prepare, helps immensely in building confidence. People call me obsessive... well yes... yes I am. That is exactly why I have success in anything I do. I am only in my 3rd season hunting deer (at the ripe old age of 47), but every season has been more successful than the last, and I still hope to continue to become better every day.