Wanted to share my score with the forum and provide some encouragement with those who may be setting up, saddling, then freezing yourself crazy with limited whitetail success. Lesson #1: be patient and be strategic.
Brief background - I started my hunting endeavor at 33 years old in 2019 when I felt it was a skill and desire that was inside of me since being a kid. For context, my dad whenever I had asked to learn his answer was "you know you have to gut it once you kill it right?". In a not so subtle way that was my father projecting his disgust with blood and guts to my curiosity of the desire to hunt animals. Fast forward to 2019, I got my hunter's license in Michigan surrounded by a bunch of 12 year olds who had dads who loved the sport. On opening day, I killed a decent size 6P on opening day with my 450 Bushmaster and was hooked. Later that year, hunting with a bow and archery in general interested me deeper with the amount of skill and stealth required. I picked up a used Bowtech General and began improving the skill, shot placement, and knowledge about good/bad shots with whitetails.
2020 rolled around and I have some friends who are passionate about it and taught me a ton throughout my endeavors. Earlier in the year, purchased a Hawk Helium Saddle as a minimal but effective initial investment for me to start with. This way of truly having a 360 degree opportunity on a deer and a minimalist way of setting up on the majority of trees in the woods was an awesome idea to me.
Long story short, 2020 and 2021 combined I had maybe 2-3 opportunities on a deer even with access to some large properties with decent food and water sources. Choosing my tree and location was something that I really just guessed at and thought I knew enough about where deer might be moving. This led to several very cool encounters with whitetails and none of them as calculated opportunities to drop one, they would have all been forced and I did not want my first experience on a whitetail to result in a risk to injuring them versus dropping them. Lesson #2: find a hunter/friend who know how to identify doe/buck paths, rubs, bedding, etc. and scout/setup proactively.
This year, I used some of the scouting skills my friends had taught me to setup at a junction/transient area for an overpopulated area of deer in West MI where my good friend has 30 acres. My first sit I saw 14 deer and shot at a doe at 18 yards with my 20 pin. Bright red muscle blood on the ground hitting high and bumped her with my buddy's tracking dog about 300 yards away from the shot later that day. Discouraged - no recovery.
Saturday I had some time for a 3H redemption sit before family soccer day. A weird looking 8P rolled in randomly at 20 yards and was too young/small to harvest. 30 seconds later, I hear footsteps and had my bow ready. A 13 yards and a total of 15 seconds in my shooting lane I saw an 8P, larger body, and good looking buck. I drew, paced with him, put my 20 pin on his vitals, then slightly dropped it, and let it fly.
He went 25 yards, took 3 huge huffs and sat straight down on the ground, dead. Lesson #3: don't rush, be ready, remember what you've learned, and methodically execute.
My goal of this post is for those novice hunters out there who might be feeling discouraged that your opportunity has not arrived yet. In West Michigan, there are some very territorial hunters out there, but overall the community is great for teaching/learning and better the skill of the hunt every year for ethical harvesting of deer. It took me 2 years to have that opportunity on a buck like that, this required significant patience and strategic placements of the gear and the arrow. Lesson #4: never stop learning and continuously improve your hunt.
If this post encouraged one person on this forum, it was a success. This sport has become an intrinsic passion of mine and I'll be the first to admit that I'm hooked . There is no feeling like this out there and saddle hunting is one of the greatest ways to get out and enjoy nature/hunting.
Thanks for the read!
Brief background - I started my hunting endeavor at 33 years old in 2019 when I felt it was a skill and desire that was inside of me since being a kid. For context, my dad whenever I had asked to learn his answer was "you know you have to gut it once you kill it right?". In a not so subtle way that was my father projecting his disgust with blood and guts to my curiosity of the desire to hunt animals. Fast forward to 2019, I got my hunter's license in Michigan surrounded by a bunch of 12 year olds who had dads who loved the sport. On opening day, I killed a decent size 6P on opening day with my 450 Bushmaster and was hooked. Later that year, hunting with a bow and archery in general interested me deeper with the amount of skill and stealth required. I picked up a used Bowtech General and began improving the skill, shot placement, and knowledge about good/bad shots with whitetails.
2020 rolled around and I have some friends who are passionate about it and taught me a ton throughout my endeavors. Earlier in the year, purchased a Hawk Helium Saddle as a minimal but effective initial investment for me to start with. This way of truly having a 360 degree opportunity on a deer and a minimalist way of setting up on the majority of trees in the woods was an awesome idea to me.
Long story short, 2020 and 2021 combined I had maybe 2-3 opportunities on a deer even with access to some large properties with decent food and water sources. Choosing my tree and location was something that I really just guessed at and thought I knew enough about where deer might be moving. This led to several very cool encounters with whitetails and none of them as calculated opportunities to drop one, they would have all been forced and I did not want my first experience on a whitetail to result in a risk to injuring them versus dropping them. Lesson #2: find a hunter/friend who know how to identify doe/buck paths, rubs, bedding, etc. and scout/setup proactively.
This year, I used some of the scouting skills my friends had taught me to setup at a junction/transient area for an overpopulated area of deer in West MI where my good friend has 30 acres. My first sit I saw 14 deer and shot at a doe at 18 yards with my 20 pin. Bright red muscle blood on the ground hitting high and bumped her with my buddy's tracking dog about 300 yards away from the shot later that day. Discouraged - no recovery.
Saturday I had some time for a 3H redemption sit before family soccer day. A weird looking 8P rolled in randomly at 20 yards and was too young/small to harvest. 30 seconds later, I hear footsteps and had my bow ready. A 13 yards and a total of 15 seconds in my shooting lane I saw an 8P, larger body, and good looking buck. I drew, paced with him, put my 20 pin on his vitals, then slightly dropped it, and let it fly.
He went 25 yards, took 3 huge huffs and sat straight down on the ground, dead. Lesson #3: don't rush, be ready, remember what you've learned, and methodically execute.
My goal of this post is for those novice hunters out there who might be feeling discouraged that your opportunity has not arrived yet. In West Michigan, there are some very territorial hunters out there, but overall the community is great for teaching/learning and better the skill of the hunt every year for ethical harvesting of deer. It took me 2 years to have that opportunity on a buck like that, this required significant patience and strategic placements of the gear and the arrow. Lesson #4: never stop learning and continuously improve your hunt.
If this post encouraged one person on this forum, it was a success. This sport has become an intrinsic passion of mine and I'll be the first to admit that I'm hooked . There is no feeling like this out there and saddle hunting is one of the greatest ways to get out and enjoy nature/hunting.
Thanks for the read!
