Overcoming mistakes
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Overcoming mistakes
In your pursuit of a mature buck or bucks, what are the most common mistakes you have made? How did you know you made a mistake and what did you do to fix it?
My primary mistakes have been:
Over hunting stands- I started seeing less deer - fix is obvious
Trimming shooting lanes the day before hunting - buck smelled me where I trimmed - obvious fix
Finally, I need to be more sneaky getting to stands
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My primary mistakes have been:
Over hunting stands- I started seeing less deer - fix is obvious
Trimming shooting lanes the day before hunting - buck smelled me where I trimmed - obvious fix
Finally, I need to be more sneaky getting to stands
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"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
I think a couple of my biggest mistakes is overhunting stands but since buying the LW alpha and sticks and LW climber I can fix that. 2nd would likely be just not being patient enough and lastly is having the mistake of not doing all my scouting and moving stands during the spring instead of now when its hot and buggy!
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
It depends in my opinion. Pressured deer don't act like unpressured deer and I think anybody that's hunted both will say that. However, if you are hunting heavy pressure private then you are up against different challenges then large chunks of public. Usually on large chunks of public land you can find those over looked spots and hunt them. You can find them on private too but good luck getting permission to get there. Still nothing easy about hunting pressured bucks though.
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
Being hasty on my approach and making too much noise and rushing shots. Rushing shots has cause me the most heartache with marginal hits and flat out misses on nice bucks.
Also have been caught daydreaming and not ready too many times. I really need to focus only on hunting when I am out there
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Also have been caught daydreaming and not ready too many times. I really need to focus only on hunting when I am out there
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
Spending to much time hunting specific spots, because of what I got on camera. Maybe 4-5 wall hangers. My thought was process was to broad spectrum. Hunt here and eventually I'll get one of these deer. Where I should have thought more acutely. Where can I specifically kill one of these deer. I needed to be more detailed, and hunt tighter spots( where I may only see one deer), rather than hunting where I thought I'd see the most deer.
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
Spending to much time hunting specific spots, because of what I got on camera. Maybe 4-5 wall hangers. My thought was process was to broad spectrum. Hunt here and eventually I'll get one of these deer. Where I should have thought more acutely. Where can I specifically kill one of these deer. I needed to be more detailed, and hunt tighter spots( where I may only see one deer), rather than hunting where I thought I'd see the most deer.
I think this is true with many hunters. I myself have been caught over hunting an area due to trail camera giants
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
hunter10 wrote:Spending to much time hunting specific spots, because of what I got on camera. Maybe 4-5 wall hangers. My thought was process was to broad spectrum. Hunt here and eventually I'll get one of these deer. Where I should have thought more acutely. Where can I specifically kill one of these deer. I needed to be more detailed, and hunt tighter spots( where I may only see one deer), rather than hunting where I thought I'd see the most deer.
I think this is true with many hunters. I myself have been caught over hunting an area due to trail camera giants
What is a guy to do if your seeing multiple shooters in an area? It'd be difficult not to even knowing what I know now.
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"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
fishlips wrote:Being hasty on my approach and making too much noise and rushing shots. Rushing shots has cause me the most heartache with marginal hits and flat out misses on nice bucks.
Also have been caught daydreaming and not ready too many times. I really need to focus only on hunting when I am out there
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This is a big problem with me when I'm hitting it hard during the rut. I eventually learned how to day dream but still keep my head on a swivel. Looking and day dreaming at the same time. Also if you can try to daydream about actually shooting a big buck instead of say the Packer game your mind kind of stays with the hunting program.
Another way I look at it is if your day dreaming about some kind of stress from work or family or other things in life it's kind of your bodies way of helping get the stress out. Sometimes this is way more important than getting that big buck. Still look at it as a positive: hey you were in the right spot so you did something right. Just seeing a big buck in some places is quite the accomplishment.
Mistakes are part of the game. But like an old carpenter once told me: All carpenters make mistakes. It's just that the good carpenters know how to hide them. I bet Dan and other notable guys on here still make mistakes. They just know how to get around them or make sure they figure out how to fix them.
- Ridgerunner7
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
I used to hunt stands too often but got out of that habbit a long time ago and success went up.
I use to practice no scent control. I started and continued to improve it and my success has gone up on small private properties that I may repeatedly hunt. I practice it all the time but that setting is where I see the biggest impact.
Midday sits during the rut. Didn't do it in my early years but now I won't miss it if I'm able. I've killed 10 good bucks between 10-3 in the first two weeks of November. Considering i don't get vacation time and my all day sits are very limited I'd say that's really good odds.
Rushing my shot. I was a trigger puncher and got some bad target panic that carried over onto live animals and cost me a few good ones. I fixed that by learning to shoot with back tension method (unanticipated shot). Now I typically put beautiful shots on animals.
Pushing the limits too soon. When I new a good buck was in the area I would typically go after him right away even though the wind, weather, conditions may not have been ideal. I somehow though I was good enough to overcome poor conditions and usually I was wrong. Now, unless unique circumstances present themselves I hunt low impact (to observe, gain intel, or just be out there) until I make a specific move to kill.
I make a ton of mistakes but I just try to keep learning from them, and eliminate/minimize them.
I use to practice no scent control. I started and continued to improve it and my success has gone up on small private properties that I may repeatedly hunt. I practice it all the time but that setting is where I see the biggest impact.
Midday sits during the rut. Didn't do it in my early years but now I won't miss it if I'm able. I've killed 10 good bucks between 10-3 in the first two weeks of November. Considering i don't get vacation time and my all day sits are very limited I'd say that's really good odds.
Rushing my shot. I was a trigger puncher and got some bad target panic that carried over onto live animals and cost me a few good ones. I fixed that by learning to shoot with back tension method (unanticipated shot). Now I typically put beautiful shots on animals.
Pushing the limits too soon. When I new a good buck was in the area I would typically go after him right away even though the wind, weather, conditions may not have been ideal. I somehow though I was good enough to overcome poor conditions and usually I was wrong. Now, unless unique circumstances present themselves I hunt low impact (to observe, gain intel, or just be out there) until I make a specific move to kill.
I make a ton of mistakes but I just try to keep learning from them, and eliminate/minimize them.
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
I make mistakes almost every hunt. I repeatedly say inside my head a four letter word that equates to "well, that wasn't good". Most are small unanticipated changes to wind direction due to unaccounted thermal activity on a given day, but its sometimes an unintentional clank from a stand, stepping on a stick, etc. The most important thing is to learn from these mistakes. Some mistakes I'm still analyzing to determine where/how I went wrong. Its part of the process of becoming better. A lot of good examples in this thread. I've done them all and will continue to do them all...hopefully to a lesser extent.
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
My biggest mistake the last couple of years is not keeping a positive attitude. I believe staying positive is a huge part of success. It's so easy to let lifes problems frustrate you during the season and put you in a negative attitude. You have to have confidence in what you are doing and stay focused to consistently kill good deer.
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- oldrank
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
a few mistakes that come to mind r... improper tuning of equipment. Not taking a shot n then never getting the "perfect" one I was waiting for. Not being tuned into hunting from start to finish.
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
blizzardhunter wrote:My biggest mistake the last couple of years is not keeping a positive attitude. I believe staying positive is a huge part of success. It's so easy to let lifes problems frustrate you during the season and put you in a negative attitude. You have to have confidence in what you are doing and stay focused to consistently kill good deer.
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Good one Blizzardhunter!
I took an autistic cousin of mine hunting one morning. He didn't have rain gear and it was raining so I told him and my hunting buddy I was going to wait in the truck and nap till it stopped raining. My buddy was sleepy and morale was low so he decided he'd do the same. About 2 hours later I woke everyone up just in time to see a mature buck cross the logging road ahead of us. My buddy went to his stand to find that the buck had thrashed two holly trees not 10 yards from the stand on his way by just minutes before. That memory has spurred us forward more than once.
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
Missing out on a shot opportunity. Being a consistent big buck killer boils down to two things, getting a buck in range and making a good lethal shot. Encounters with mature bucks don't come easy or often. If you want to be consistent at killing them you had better be closing the deal at a very high % when you get one in your wheelhouse. The big bucks I have lost, missed, wasn't ready, spooked or my setup just wasn't right are the bucks I reflect on the most often…
3 years ago I lost the buck of my life to a single lung hit/botched recovery and it still is gut wrenching when I dwell on it.
Solving those problems comes in many forms, practicing shooting, conquering buck fever, choosing 'thee' tree/spot, knowing when to move and not to move as the shot unfolds, being sure to adjust my sight picture as the buck changes angles, staying ready while on stand, constantly trying to spot/hear an approaching buck at earliest possible point of detection, etc...
3 years ago I lost the buck of my life to a single lung hit/botched recovery and it still is gut wrenching when I dwell on it.
Solving those problems comes in many forms, practicing shooting, conquering buck fever, choosing 'thee' tree/spot, knowing when to move and not to move as the shot unfolds, being sure to adjust my sight picture as the buck changes angles, staying ready while on stand, constantly trying to spot/hear an approaching buck at earliest possible point of detection, etc...
No Shortcuts. No Excuses. No Regrets.
Everybody's selling dreams. I'm too cheap to buy one.
Everybody's selling dreams. I'm too cheap to buy one.
Rich M wrote:Typically, hunting FL has been like getting a root canal
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Re: Overcoming mistakes
I think knowing when to draw your bow without alerting the buck can be the most difficult thing....it's never like the movies!
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"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
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