Most common mistakes...

[dan]

What are the most common mistakes you see others make while hunting big bucks?

[Spysar]

Listening to my advice....

[DevinJD2007]

Over hunting it once the see the big buck is by far the most common mistake I've seen from people...

[cornfedkiller]

Everything Ive been doing for the last few years

Here a few off the top of my head:

1) Sitting near a funnel or pinch point day after day all season long and expecting a big buck to come walking through

2) Thinking if I took the proper precautions, Id be scent free and didnt have to play the wind

3) Trailcams right in the middle of the woods and checking them waaay too much

4) Not scouting near enough

[Buckfever]

Not commiting to it.

Not being aggressive enough.

Not doing the work year round that is necessary.

Not sticking to the plan.

[DEERSLAYER]

By far the number one mistake is not using proper entry and exit routs. Next would be over hunting a spot. Followed by underestimating the sensitivity of a big bucks nose and value he puts on what it tells him. There are plenty of mistakes made, but those are probably the top three mistakes I see.

[DEERSLAYER]

By far the number one mistake is not using proper entry and exit routs.

[headgear]

I have seen many times where a guys hunts a different stand because of the wrong wind, then ends up getting a trail cam pic of a nice buck right under his first stand during shooting hours. Everyone keeps pushing the wind in your face stuff but as most of us know that is the wrong wind a lot of the time. I always ask those guys if the buck showed up was it really the wrong wind? I get nothing but a puzzled look.

I would also strongly agree that overhunting a particular buck, stand, area does a ton of damage.

[jonsimoneau]

By far the biggest mistake that I make each year is trying to rely on terrain features such as funnels for success. I still believe that a guy should take advantage of a funnel situation when it is available, such as when it is on the route leading from a bucks bedding area to a food source.
But this problem is the number one reason I searched out and found a site like this that spoke of different tactics with success. The reason is....and it is really starting to hammer home for me...is that most classic funnel type situations have most of their value during a very brief window during the rut.
I have found...at least where I hunt, that even during the peak of the rut...bucks do not cruise looking for does during daylight as much as many authors would lead one to believe. I think they still do the majority of it at night.
Trying to hunt bedding areas is not something that just occured to me when I found this site. It's just that I have not been hunting enough bedding areas during the season, and have for sure been over hunting some of the ones I have been hunting.
Alot of the strategies that are spoken about on this site, by guys who do it on land that others hunt has caused me to become even more excited about this upcoming season.
But really, I am even more excited about next season because now that I am armed with these new ideas, I can spend the off-season locating more of the types of areas that will hopefully increase my success on the type of deer I am interested in.

[Hodag Hunter]

My biggest past mistakes:

Assuming where a deer beds and not knowing exactly where the primary beds are for mature bucks.

Not observing deer bed and have daylight movement in "high" elevations....all previous stands were swamp related.

Cutting short spring scouting time and what to really look for.

Setting up to far from an actual buck bed (see first mistake) and hunting a staging area/gathering area. Burned my spots after the first sit with out even knowing it.

Over using cameras, once the intel was gathered no need to keep getting pictures of the same buck.

Not meeting Dan sooner.

[PLB]

Not getting closer to bedding and waiting for that big buck to appear in a food source during shooting hours!

Not listening to my gut about a particular spot.

Not hunting high enough

Not using Lone Wolf stands years ago

Overhunting a stand because of convienence

Too fidgety in uncomfortable stands

Not following up what I found in the spring

Not meeting Dan about 10 years earlier

[BackWoodsHunter]

Not applying the info I picked up from Dan sooner, not finding his information sooner as others said but for me personally....

Thinking I had it figured out hunting field edges, bait piles, food plots, and funnels.

NOT spring scouting.

The one I've picked up on recently just reading on here is that I don't always go into the woods with an open mind. Rather than learning from the sign and the traces left by the deer I tend to come up with a reason in my head why I think they are there or why I think they should be there. I notice the guys with the most success have little arrogance about anything and are open to always learning new things. I just figured if I was "seeing deer" I was in the game and better than my friends who see nothing.


Having no sense of care to wind direction has ruined many hunts for me I realize now.


Permanent stands and overhunting are a killer too.

[KLEMZ]

-relying on "mainstream" deer hunting information as being correct without passing it thru your common sense filter. This behavior leads to

-using rut tactics all year
-believing the whole thicket is the bedding area rather than understanding there are strategic precise beds. this results in tipping off the deer before you even have a chance.
-believing there is a secret short cut to shooting big bucks
-not understanding that no matter what scent precautions you take,every deer, for the next week, that crosses your path will know you were there.

[76chevy]

I honestly have made them all:

Not using Lone Wolf stands years ago

Over hunting a stand because of convenience

hunting a stand with a bad/wrong wind just because of convenience

thinking I can be totally scent free

hunting with rut tactics and hunting in funnels all season

not trusting my gut instincts

hanging trail cams near my stand during hunting season (major no no!)

following others, because they MUST know where the deer are



The Marsh bucks and hill country DVD's opened my eyes, they are the absolute best tactical videos out there. They have changed how I think about hunting mature bucks...but I don't need to tell this crowd that. They already know it.

[Zap]

Not moving when the thermal switch's in the evening.

Hunting a very good spot when the condition's are not perfect.

Hunting a good spot when there is no wind and your scent drift's everywhere.