Let me explain with my own example:
This is not a super deep lesson, but I had the very issue of “don’t pass something on the first day that you’d be tickled to shoot on the last day” come up. I shot a doe in October and I was riding the high of getting the first deer of the season when a couple weeks later from the same tree, a pretty good 4YO+ buck showed up and offered me a couple of shot opportunities. I actually posted about it in LftS23, but to summarize, I drew on him at 15 yds, didn’t shoot an almost-perfect sight picture, held for another 5 yds, he kept moseying slowly and I could have bleated and shot quartering away at 19 yds, but I let down and let him walk. I watched him hang out behind some brush for another few minutes and he responded to a grunt, then like a ghost disappeared.
I should have shot that deer, but didn’t because it was so close to the last deer I’d shot, we only get one buck in OH, and I knew there were “better bucks” aka bigger racks in the area, so I didn’t have the urgency of a meat deficit or a closing season and I wasn’t hard-pressed to harvest a mid-racked (maybe 120-130” at the very most) buck even though his body was, “in hindsight” literally and figuratively, just brutish. I have him on camera before/after and he’s a thiccboi for sure. Like the Ronin who wields the kanabō in lieu of the katana, his muscles had muscles on their muscles. This WAS the “better buck” and I let him go because he didn’t have better bone, if I really boil it down. What a butthead.
And what a mistake not to shoot, as I haven’t seen a decent buck now since before Christmas. Neither have any of the neighbors. My “better bucks” mindset was just, well, wrong for my current progress as a hunter. In the original interest of “managing” our small property in a way that keeps good relationships with neighbors, I morphed from not shooting “small bucks” to setting a somewhat unrealistic and honestly un-enjoyable standard in short order, right under my own nose.
I have since readjusted my standard to: any buck that makes me want to pick up my bow, is getting the bow picked up for, and I’m drawing if he gives me the chance, and I’m shooting if the lane is clear.
Generally I still want to target 3YO+ bucks, as a manner of good practice with the herd and the neighbors, but if a buck tickles my fancy I’m going to try to shoot him from now on. Period.
Okay, your turn. Be as specific as you can, try to refer to one mistake per post (but post however many specific mistakes you feel you need to), and tell us how/what you learned from contemplating it after the fact.
Above all, don’t take yourself or anyone else too seriously. This should be fun!
This is not a super deep lesson, but I had the very issue of “don’t pass something on the first day that you’d be tickled to shoot on the last day” come up. I shot a doe in October and I was riding the high of getting the first deer of the season when a couple weeks later from the same tree, a pretty good 4YO+ buck showed up and offered me a couple of shot opportunities. I actually posted about it in LftS23, but to summarize, I drew on him at 15 yds, didn’t shoot an almost-perfect sight picture, held for another 5 yds, he kept moseying slowly and I could have bleated and shot quartering away at 19 yds, but I let down and let him walk. I watched him hang out behind some brush for another few minutes and he responded to a grunt, then like a ghost disappeared.
I should have shot that deer, but didn’t because it was so close to the last deer I’d shot, we only get one buck in OH, and I knew there were “better bucks” aka bigger racks in the area, so I didn’t have the urgency of a meat deficit or a closing season and I wasn’t hard-pressed to harvest a mid-racked (maybe 120-130” at the very most) buck even though his body was, “in hindsight” literally and figuratively, just brutish. I have him on camera before/after and he’s a thiccboi for sure. Like the Ronin who wields the kanabō in lieu of the katana, his muscles had muscles on their muscles. This WAS the “better buck” and I let him go because he didn’t have better bone, if I really boil it down. What a butthead.
And what a mistake not to shoot, as I haven’t seen a decent buck now since before Christmas. Neither have any of the neighbors. My “better bucks” mindset was just, well, wrong for my current progress as a hunter. In the original interest of “managing” our small property in a way that keeps good relationships with neighbors, I morphed from not shooting “small bucks” to setting a somewhat unrealistic and honestly un-enjoyable standard in short order, right under my own nose.
I have since readjusted my standard to: any buck that makes me want to pick up my bow, is getting the bow picked up for, and I’m drawing if he gives me the chance, and I’m shooting if the lane is clear.
Generally I still want to target 3YO+ bucks, as a manner of good practice with the herd and the neighbors, but if a buck tickles my fancy I’m going to try to shoot him from now on. Period.
Okay, your turn. Be as specific as you can, try to refer to one mistake per post (but post however many specific mistakes you feel you need to), and tell us how/what you learned from contemplating it after the fact.
Above all, don’t take yourself or anyone else too seriously. This should be fun!
