Committing to a Spot Issues

[may21581]

last saturday I ended up hiking through the hills all afternoon trying to get on some good sign. I never hunted and only got on marginal sign. I felt by hunting in such spots would only produce marginal bucks and thats not what im after so why waste a hunt? Is this normal to scout your way in only to not hunt? I'm OK with this now, a few years back I would of been blown away and upset about it. In order to be a 10 percenter you have to not be like 90 percent of the other hunters!

[Ghost Hunter]

I have walked into spot on afternoon hunts to turn and walk out. Because of no sign or not what I expected. Sometimes when you hunt a new area you will slowly hone into where you need to be at. Big deer do not always leave a lot of sign.

[ODH]

Adding on to what Ghost Hunter just wrote, it’s been mentioned in one of Dan’s recent vids and by DIY Sportsman, recognizing what an area looks like when it’s being used is one of the hard parts. To me it’s perfect when there’s heavy trails, rubs etc but often in early season they pointed out it’s harder to recognize low or moderate sign means the deer are there that’s just the way it is in that spot. Also in central NY where I hunt I have found that the closer I get to the bed the less sign there is. That’s both bucks and does but especially bucks. So the subtle sign is hard to recognize but key for certain spots.

[Tydaniel2340]

I am very guilty of this as well. I try to stay out of areas until I am ready to hunt them. So when I go in I constantly have a feeling of “what’s over there though” and it seems to get me in trouble most of the time.