Understanding WHY…

[PK_]

You people confuse the heck out of me. I mean we go from removing rut action and just any old buck. To hunting a specific animal. Maybe I’m just to stupid to understand the logic but I provided a specific example of a specific buck and it appears to me we arrived back to hunting any future buck who happens to do the same thing. So how is that a “why” a individual buck did anything? In my eyes it’s exactly what I do and get called “relying on pure luck.”’ It don’t matter to me. And LD this is a great topic that I’m interested in. But I have my differences of opinion.

My bad. I honestly didn’t read every reply, I skimmed thru them, and didn’t know we were playing by those rules otherwise I would have shut up cause I don’t hunt that way. Up until this year I have never seriously pursued a single buck at all.

But I have been hunting some places where the mature bucks utilize the same spots and have been following the same patterns for as long as I have hunted there, over 20 years(unfortunately I did not understand or even recognize these patterns 20 or even 10 years ago). But as of now, I don’t need to know anything else at all to go there and kill them(errr, well, have an encounter with them at least, I have not been so great at the killing part lately). There is no way that these bucks, for all these years keep choosing the same exact spots to bed and trails to use by luck.

I bet you have some spots like this as well. Or maybe you don’t, I know you have said before that the bucks seem more nomadic in your landscape…

But anyways, knowing the reasons WHY they pick that same exact spot, year in and year out, allows me to go just about anywhere and find spots that set up similar and find mature bucks, pretty darn quickly. Although I really hope it hasn’t just been a string of good luck that is about to run out… (get out of my head Boog! I have enough issues)

Also knowing WHY helps me to understand what likely happened if a spot goes cold and where I might need to look next…

Also for your example, I quit trying to figure out 2 and 3 year old bucks, it’s like trying to figure out women. (no offense ladies)

[Lockdown]

Boogie I don’t feel you derailed the thread. We’re jumping around a LITTLE. Probably splitting hairs a little too. But it’s all good discussion IMO. And I appreciate your input.

When you said something to the effect of “after all these years we can dive right in and not have to ask why…” I would say that’s true. After a while the basics aren’t even a conscious thought anymore.

A veteran big buck killer is no different than my high school algebra teacher. He’d been teaching the same stuff for decades. He’d fly right through the calculations crazy fast because he didn’t even have to think about them. Therefore, he didn’t explain himself well.

Regarding your persimmon tree comment, are they all created equal? I’m assuming you dont think they are and don’t hunt all persimmon trees the same way.

A guy like you might walk right past certain persimmon trees without hesitating, then at a point of interest find one that you know you’re going to hunt the second you see it.

Mind you, this thread is all about discussion and is meant to get the newer guys’ wheels turning. Maybe make them think harder on why some of their bedding areas do or don’t pan out.

[OldFarmBuck]

If i get caught up “why” too much I lose focus on the how. I learned long ago that deer are way more random than I had ever previously assumed. Once I started operating my hunting plan with the idea that a mature buck really doesn’t have a plan in mind and is just being a deer I started having more fulfilling hunting experiences. I have a few historical spots that I can go too year after year and see mature bucks use. I used to try to figure out in my mind why they were using these spots as opposed to the spot just over the ridge that has better cover and better food source nearby. Then it clicked. There’s simply no reason why. I think some deer in general and more specifically bucks see what the other bucks around them are doing and follow the leader. Other times I think an area holds a mature buck for years and he either gets killed or dies and another buck moves in to take his place and does something completely different. Then the subordinate buck see what he’s doing and copy him. Then the old reliable spots go cold. I’m not gonna tell anyone to not think about the why. I’m just saying for me the “how” works better than the “why”

[Boogieman1]

LD I appreciate the explanation and your post always peak my interest. That’s a good thing. I think lol. My persimmon tree was mainly how I initially viewed a why. I think you mentioned it but some why’s are a no brainer. With all the time I have dedicated to this thread I’ve had time to reflect on lots of things. And truthfully I wasted a lot of time focusing on “why’s” that don’t really make a hoot. I mean some stupid stuff. I did it with fishing to. When u open the book of “why’s” it lets in a bunch of stuff that nobody ever really knows for certain and some stuff that just don’t matter.

I believe I translate why’s into odds. What a buck should do based on experience. Sometimes it works and sometimes it don’t. Guess those yearly failures show that I truly never understood the why just the odds. I mean sooner or later they do what I think. But I could never say I know why and I only need one day to get it done. Any how it doesn’t matter and didn’t mean to ramble.

[headgear]

Suspect you are probably correct. I think sometimes I just forget my old thought process with what I do now so many years later. When I close my eyes and in-vision someone talking to themselves asking why. I see them standing under a loaded persimmon tree asking why on gods earth do the deer come here. I think as seasons roll by we can skip a bunch of the whys and dive right into high odds situations based on previous years experience. I didn’t mean to derail this thread. When a hunter is thinking that’s always a good thing. I tend to answer things that capture my interest with how I’m thinking at the current moment. And now I simply don’t ask any why’s. I scout out locations I believe I can catch a buck in daylight. From there I use a camera to tell me when or if it was a swing and a miss. The why I got him in daylight never factors in, believe the why is because I new it would happen. Personally think I could do the same thing anywhere if I can hand pick the topography before hand. Now whether that makes me a one trick pony or not I don’t really care. I’m just happy to have the time and the health to be out there giving it my best shot. Won’t be long I wish you the season of your life Headgear. Happy Hunting

Good post and I agree as well, like you said earlier we all kind of have our own thought process and hunt different stuff and have had different experiences.