Weakest link

[dan]

Weakest link... as a deer hunter, what one thing effects your lack of success the most, and what steps can you take to change that?

[backstraps]

Mine is not spending enough (more) time scouting
Learning a mature bucks playground is a must. To do that correctly takes a lot of dedication and time. Something I strive on improving each season
Both in season and post season scouting..,

[PaPublicLandHunter]

I’m only a year and a half into beast hunting but I agree with backstraps in having to do much more scouting. But also what seems to be one of my weakest links is finishing. I’ve started to have a good amount of encounters with good bucks but unable to get the buck down. And it’s multiple ways these deer are getting away. Whether it’s them just skirting me out of range, smelling me, spotting me (tree and ground), or just plain whiffing on the shot. Seems if it’s not one, it’s gonna be another. My plan is to look at all of these situations in the off-season and attempt to fix them. So it seems just a lot of trial and error to fix mine? I’ll take any tips to speed this up. I’m in hill/mountain terrain.

[Drenalin]

Preconceived notions. Getting in a mindset that I'm going to do "x" today and being inflexible when I should change it up. Recalling information I've heard or read about deer and assuming it's true even if what I'm seeing doesn't jive. I think the fix is confidence, which will come with success. In the meantime, I try to remind myself of two things: (1) make a plan, plan on making changes (2) deer don't "always" or "never" do anything.

[Twenty Up]

Time.

Time scouting, hunting, driving to and from hunting areas. I hunted 6x in November, hard to be successful from the office.

[Buckfever]

For me right now it's the hunting specific archery practice. I guess you could say it's time because I just haven't been making the time for that. I'm a good shot still if I have 2 seconds on a stopped animal out to 40 he's dead, but before I would practice everything. Low light conditions, different angles and ranges on the 3-D target, executing shots quickly one after another, swinging on to the target settling and executing.... I'm a better shot now I just lost those hunting specific archery skills because I got away from that kind of practice.

In the field if you haven't practiced so that everything is automatic you're kind of screwed. There's no time to think it's just got to be there.

[DaveT1963]

Availability of public land and distance to get to it. Makes for some really long days when you have to add 2 hours on front and back end of a hunt that starts at 530 and ends at 830. Makes scouting more difficult as well. Only other option is to get a lease which I just am reluctant to do.

[Seeker529]

Scouting inseason to learn where bucks move to from summer/ early fall.. and then game planning a strategy good enough to sneak in and ambush them!

[Lockdown]

My biggest problem is time. I’ve got two young kids and the wife just loves having me home

As far as my weakness mentally or execution wise, it’s being too narrow minded. Expecting things to go a certain way cost me lots of encounters over the years.

I did a lot better this year and hope to keep improving.

I’ve found that when I EXPECT to see something and don’t, it can get to me after a while. If I keep an open mind and stay after it, it makes scouting and locating one a lot more enjoyable.

[IndyDawg]

I've made big strides in scouting and locating places a mature buck beds and lives, but I still need to identify more areas, stands, and access routes to ensure that I always have a spot to go where I have a chance at being in the game. Working M-F and having two young kids means I need to make the most of my weekend hunts, and stop sitting spots that take me out of the game just for the sake of being "hunting". I should be scouting on those days, and not worrying about burning a day of hunting time.

[headgear]

Time is the obvious one but hunting other terrain has been a weak spot for me that I have been correcting. Lately I have been finding more mature bucks in the hills than the swamps so I have been really cutting my teeth in some hill country and taking some lumps. Might have even cost me a deer by not focusing on swamps as much but I think in the long run it will pay off as I gain some of that valuable hill country experience. There are several hill bucks I have been chasing that have really shown me a lot but I have yet to lay eyes on any of them, going to be much more prepared in 2020 and I have a pretty good shot at one of them early season if I play my cards right, assuming they are still alive.

[1STRANGEWILDERNESS]

Probably putting too much thought into the wrong things and not enough into the question you ask. Need to focus more on my weakest link so I can improve as a hunter.

Locating mature bucks but not able to consistently pin them down in the big swamp.

A close second .. I quit practicing year round on all sorts of scenarios. Just shoot at 20-30-40 yds head on and call it good. My shooting performance was not very good this fall.. seeing the Video “ can’t hardly hit em” raised my spirits some. This problem I’m already in the works on resolving.

[Wlog]

Trusting my scouting. Not following my first instinct. When I do I’m successful but I often doubt myself unnecessarily.

[fr0sty]

Lack of scouting, focus hunting on private parcels and being too damn noisy getting on stand.

[SEMObowhunter]

Time.

I hunted seven sits all fall where I was in the drivers seat and two full days with my son. I had three opportunities at Average 3.5 year old deer for my area. Which is 50% odds and pretty dang good I suppose but you can’t do much with older mature deer hunting no more than I get too. Corporate America gets in the way and has really put a damper on my hunting as I used to hunt 50-60 days a season. Sure wish I knew what I do now and had the time I did ten years ago.