Gut feelings

[Bowfisher]

I want to hear stories and examples about some of your true gut feelings. It doesn’t happen very often to me throughout a year, but sometimes I have a primal GUT feeling about something. I feel confident in almost all my sits but some are on their own level of confidence.

I’m sure many of you can relate, I will chime in on my personal experiences once the ball gets rolling.

So I want to hear about your experiences with these feelings, what happened, good or bad? Did you trust it or fight it? Why do you think you had that feeling? It’s something that truly intrigues me, and I honestly think it’s a deep primal feeling we sometimes experience.

[magicman54494]

You can literally drive yourself crazy by doubting your gut feelings. Its basically mental toughness.
I have taught myself to follow my gut without doubt.
I make a plan and stick to it. There are many things that come into play when making a game plan and one of those is you gut feeling. The worst thing in the world is sitting in one spot thinking you should have went somewhere else. Make your plan and stick to it.

There is an exception to my rule and that is if I come across fresh sign I might decide to hit that spot. if I switch plans that becomes my new plan and I dont second guess it.

Im kinda preaching about this because I learned the hard way by second guessing and mentally goofing up my hunts.

I also believe that it is a sense that you develop. You develop it by trusting it. Doubting it destroys it.

[<DK>]

You can literally drive yourself crazy by doubting your gut feelings.

I agree w this 100%. Iv been bowhunting for almost a decade now and cant count how many times iv talked myself out of initial gut feelings.

Great thread topic Bowfisher

[Ridgerunner7]

Gut feelings is your mind accumulating all of your hunting experiences. Your mistakes, your successes, and every observation are all included. Your instinct is constantly evolving especially if you’re an attentive and focused hunter. Always go with your instinct and then if you fail, it will recalculate. Over time it gets more and more dialed in and you’ll find yourself making the right decisions more often.

[hambone]

Not only in hunting, but in all facets of life, I have learned to trust the gut.

[HunterBob]

I often have gut feelings that I will or will not see something and it often times works out this way. I would rather trust my gut and go wrong than not trust it and wish I did. How I try to live life in general, so why not apply to hunting?

[Hooks1]

Gut feelings is your mind accumulating all of your hunting experiences. Your mistakes, your successes, and every observation are all included. Your instinct is constantly evolving especially if you’re an attentive and focused hunter. Always go with your instinct and then if you fail, it will recalculate. Over time it gets more and more dialed in and you’ll find yourself making the right decisions more often.

I agree with this. After the first 10/15 years of second guessing myself I began going with what first came to me after assessing what I was seeing. I scout much more in season than I actually hunt, when my gut says this is what I'm looking for, I setup. As the seasons and decades passed, I have 6 decades under my belt, I was right more often than not.

[bigbuckhunter88]

Gut feelings is your mind accumulating all of your hunting experiences. Your mistakes, your successes, and every observation are all included. Your instinct is constantly evolving especially if you’re an attentive and focused hunter. Always go with your instinct and then if you fail, it will recalculate. Over time it gets more and more dialed in and you’ll find yourself making the right decisions more often.

I completely agree. One example that jumps out to me was my late season buck from last year. Cameras and glassing told me the food source was being hit by does and immature bucks. I glassed it on a day that was -5 and there were lots of deer hitting it but nothing I wanted to shoot. The next say the high was below 0 again and the wind was NW which is not ideal for this spot which only allows one sided access. My gut said to layer up and sit in a funnel between the food and bedding because in those temp and conditions even the big boys would have to feed during daylight. I knew I had at best a just off wind at best, and the wind blowing to some deer for sure, but my gut was telling me that the cold temps and dry air(harder for deer to get the scent imo) and need to feed would outweigh their caution. With 10 minutes to closing time I killed the biggest buck of my life at 30 yards. I back tracked him and he had to have crossed downwind of me at one point of his travel.

[RidgeGhost]

The gut feeling is definitely real. It's obviously not a sure thing every time but worth getting acquainted with.

The buck I killed in Ohio last year is an example. I killed him on my third setup of the day. The first two sets just didn't have that feeling and I knew I had to get into the draw where I ended up killing him. I had to pack up and drive a couple miles down the road, head in and set up again to get where I needed to be. But my gut feeling allowed me to sit there that afternoon.

[ScottSpitzley]

ALWAYS follow your gut. I have learned that the hard way myself.

[street28ss]

All of the big bucks I've killed were from setting up on spots where my gut told me to.

My buck I shot last year was due to nothing more than pure gut feeling. There was no hot sign in the area. Not a ton of tracks. But when I scouted it I had a feeling this is where I need to be. It's really not anything I can explain other than your instincts know. Obviously, like others have said, it is not always the correct move. But I think it is important to always trust your gut. I agree with Ridgerunner7, it is an accumulation of information that builds that instinct.

I shot another big buck about 60yds from the one I took last year. That one was also based purely on gut feeling.

[Swampbuck]

This is something interesting to me. I've often got "that feeling" on the hunts that I've connected. Often times its 15-30 min prior I've just felt a calm and a feeling I would see a deer. I used to think it was in my head but it's happened too many times. I always try to listen to my gut now.

[Dewey]

Gut feelings is your mind accumulating all of your hunting experiences. Your mistakes, your successes, and every observation are all included. Your instinct is constantly evolving especially if you’re an attentive and focused hunter. Always go with your instinct and then if you fail, it will recalculate. Over time it gets more and more dialed in and you’ll find yourself making the right decisions more often.

Exactly. I couldn’t have said it better.

Whenever I don’t trust my gut feeling it almost always burns me.

[UofLbowhunter]

Gut feelings is your mind accumulating all of your hunting experiences. Your mistakes, your successes, and every observation are all included. Your instinct is constantly evolving especially if you’re an attentive and focused hunter. Always go with your instinct and then if you fail, it will recalculate. Over time it gets more and more dialed in and you’ll find yourself making the right decisions more often.

Great explanation of gut feeling! When I read it that way, it clicks and gets some gears turning for me. I have struggled doing this and really banged my head over the years, a bunch, because i second guessed my first thought and went somewhere else! Its something i will be dealing with this season, but plan on just doing it this year, when i feel it!

[Sailfish_WC]

Last year.

Search pajama buck on this forum.

My gut (and a yes a bit of knowledge) told me it was gonna happen if we did what we did. Without question.
A legitimate gut feeling isn’t something that happens all the time. When it’s there, go with it.