Recognizing your weakness...

[Boogieman1]

My biggest weakness as far as getting a buck on the ground is loving the hunt more than the kill. A small handful of times I have had the best buck in the area broadside under 20 yards on opening day and I never reached for my bow. Every time it came back to bite me and all but once I was left with tag soup. I'm allowed one buck and I just don't want it to be over that quick. It sounds stupid I know, but my wife lets me hunt everyday I want cause I'm right down the road and still home for dinner, don't wanna press my luck by asking to go else where. In hindsight I wouldn't change a thing, I learned a lot about myself as well as my local deer but I do view it as a weakness to seal the deal.

[Tennhunter3]

In previous years I didn't scout enough!
This year I corrected this previous mistake.


I don't spend enough time picking the correct tree for the setup if I did I would have a few more bucks on my wall.

[northeast beast]

I'm pretty good at getting on deer and being in the right place at the right time....I struggle with the finish. Seem's something happens in those moments that cost me the buck....I've shot my but off this year from ground in stand on knees and sitting....I've had enough miss stories I need some more bone on the wall to tell those stories....good topic

[Rutnstrut]

My biggest weakness as far as getting a buck on the ground is loving the hunt more than the kill. A small handful of times I have had the best buck in the area broadside under 20 yards on opening day and I never reached for my bow. Every time it came back to bite me and all but once I was left with tag soup. I'm allowed one buck and I just don't want it to be over that quick. It sounds stupid I know, but my wife lets me hunt everyday I want cause I'm right down the road and still home for dinner, don't wanna press my luck by asking to go else where. In hindsight I wouldn't change a thing, I learned a lot about myself as well as my local deer but I do view it as a weakness to seal the deal.

I totally get this. Last year I let a mid 140's 9 pointer walk because it was early October and I didn't want to be done;). It was stupid as it would have been my largest public land deer. Oh well, It was fun.

[dan]

My biggest weakness as far as getting a buck on the ground is loving the hunt more than the kill. A small handful of times I have had the best buck in the area broadside under 20 yards on opening day and I never reached for my bow. Every time it came back to bite me and all but once I was left with tag soup. I'm allowed one buck and I just don't want it to be over that quick. It sounds stupid I know, but my wife lets me hunt everyday I want cause I'm right down the road and still home for dinner, don't wanna press my luck by asking to go else where. In hindsight I wouldn't change a thing, I learned a lot about myself as well as my local deer but I do view it as a weakness to seal the deal.

I totally get this. Last year I let a mid 140's 9 pointer walk because it was early October and I didn't want to be done;). It was stupid as it would have been my largest public land deer. Oh well, It was fun.

I would whack em, and go hunt another state, and/or get the best kind of scouting done, in season scouting with no worries about ruining the spot for the year. Nothing better than scouting bedding areas right when there being used.

[mainebowhunter]

Balance. Remembering to keep my priorities straight.

[tgreeno]

I would whack em, and go hunt another state, and/or get the best kind of scouting done, in season scouting with no worries about ruining the spot for the year. Nothing better than scouting bedding areas right when there being used.

This is my plan every year, but it never seems to work out for me! Or buy a couple doe tags, and have some fun.

[Jonny]

My biggest weakness is my own mind and not pushing my limits and comfort zone.

And being worried about yesterday, not focusing on today, and not being ready for tomorrow.

[MN_DeerHunter]

My biggest weakness are:

1. Not enough post season scouting and cyber scouting more than boots on the ground.
2. Picking the correct trees to set up in
3. Not staying laser focused in the stand the entire hunt
4. Ranging distances on the fly. I wish I was better at this and didn't have to rely on my rangefinder. I've been trying a more minimalist style when packing in and would really like to leave my rangefinder at home...maybe someday i'll have the confidence but im not even close at this point.

[elk yinzer]

I would say that in the past, I pussyfoot around the first three weeks of season and basically hunt does in areas I know I have practically zero chance of killing a buck, because I didn't want to disturb my core areas for the rut. I am going to try a major strategy shift in that regard this year, somewhat due to discovering the beast.

But then a part of that is attributable to this also....

My biggest weakness as far as getting a buck on the ground is loving the hunt more than the kill. A small handful of times I have had the best buck in the area broadside under 20 yards on opening day and I never reached for my bow. Every time it came back to bite me and all but once I was left with tag soup. I'm allowed one buck and I just don't want it to be over that quick. It sounds stupid I know, but my wife lets me hunt everyday I want cause I'm right down the road and still home for dinner, don't wanna press my luck by asking to go else where. In hindsight I wouldn't change a thing, I learned a lot about myself as well as my local deer but I do view it as a weakness to seal the deal.

Totally hear you there. I live to hunt the rut. And aside from my Western elk hunts, truth be told I haven't had great experiences on my out of state bowhunts. Never been able to learn an area like I need to. Then there is the camping or staying in fleabag motels and eating crap food for a week. I'm no diva but it sure ain't as nice as camp or my own bed. Don't get me wrong I still love it, but these things are factors. Plus when I take my week off for rutcation I usually coordinate it with my dad and/or brother, and hunting with them is part of the overall enjoyment. Just my personal take, but the unplanned out of state hunts look better on paper than they actually turned out so far having experienced them a few times.

[bowfreak8]

This is easy for me.. Post season scouting. Having a baby at home has really put a damper on my time away. I try to hang around the family as much as possible during the off season since I know I'll be away quite a bit in the fall.

I have picked up my cyber scouting quite a bit. You guys have shared some awesome map web-sights.

[Brian1986]

My biggest weaknesses are:
1) I rely too much on hunting the rut and using rut tactics.
2) Late season hunting- Other than passing a mature wide 8ptr at 15yds (if the other side had matched) who had shed one side, I've only had a
handful of encounters with mature bucks after Dec 15th on stand.
3) Not practicing shooting my bow during season. My form starts to suffer.
4) Finding specific buck beds- I know the general areas many are in, but I'd improve my hunts especially in late season if I found the beds in those
general areas and hunted them for specific movement.
5) Scouting after the season- I don't take enough advantage of scouting the time period of after season until the morels come up. It's the best time to
scout.
6) Scouting new spots- I need to spend more time scouting new spots and logging additional good spots. I tend to spend a lot of time scouting places
I've already checked out.
7) Distance from hunting land- my best spots are all 85+ miles from home.

[Jonny]

My biggest weakness is my own mind and not pushing my limits and comfort zone.

And being worried about yesterday, not focusing on today, and not being ready for tomorrow.

Still working on this....

[Rob loper]

My biggest weakness?
Ok here we go sorry guys you asked
My confidence in myself and hating who i am and tirned into is my biggest weakness
I suffer ptsd depression and severe anxiety
I just want to be successful at one thing in my life
I have never felt success or satisfaction in myself or anything i was really involved in ever other than my kids and wife
My life has always been a struggle. I was abused mentaly and physically my whole childhood. Was close too suicide in 2015. Very close. I am recovering and am trying hard i take it hour by hour not day by day. I swear i am not psycho lol
I just hate myself and always have
I was always told im worthless and ill never be nothing but a loser im fat out of shape and never amount to nothing so its tough for me to have confidence and be happy with myself. Im 43 half my life has been negativity
Well i do know that im not a loser and im retired from law enforcement that diddnt really help me at all but i did succeed there but that was a unthankful empty job but i gave me a pension and health benefits
My wife and kids are my support and i love them more than anything. They are my biggest asset I just wAnt to be somthing or achieve success in what i love to do. And thats deer hunting its all i do. And all i think about when i see a deer anywhere it just elates me. I drive my family nuts in car. Ill say hey look a deer. Lol. Its weird deer totaly make me in a good mood and elate me or anything that has to do with deer. Lol. Weird hugh? Lol
Success for me would Not to be to impress gain anything bragging rights notarity etc. it would be for meand only me. Im the most unselfish person you would ever know but once just once i would like to feel success for myself I hate myself and always have. I have found this forum and love it it has really inspired me that there are good people out there still that will help a complete stranger be successful for nothing or any price . So once again. Sorry im not looking for attention or telling a sob story but my downfall in life is and always be me. I just wanted to express where and why i feel this way about my weakness. Thnks guys. Sorry so long

[Net Guy]

Hard to narrow it down to just one

1. I don't spend the necessary time shinning and observation sits preseason.
2. Scout an area once or twice, assume a mature buck is there, but never confirm it. Starts weighing on confidence at times.
3. Spend too much time trying to convince my dad that this works.
4. Spend too much time trying to put family and friends on bucks during the gun season that I let it take away valuable time from my beast hunting during bow season.
5. Because of reason #2, when I find a spot with a bunch of bucks (usually small) I tend to gravitate to that spot more than I should because I love seeing deer. This is probably my biggest weakness.