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What did you learn this hunting season?

Exhumis said:
Cold reminder to keep my weapon at the ready for at least 45 minutes after first light and 45 minutes before last light. Twice had eight points come walking in and I couldn’t reach for my xbow without spooking them.
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The time when my bow is on the ground but my body is in the tree is seriously such a stressful few minutes for me.
 
useyourbow said:
I learned that cell cameras are not an advantage more of a disadvantage. I hunted less and killed less because I chose not to hunt so as not to spoil an area because target deer either walked by in the dark or failed to walk in the 40 x 30 yard cone of camera coverage.
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Definitely this. Not sure why I relied on these things so much. Probably bc I was too busy to actually get in the woods to do some proper scouting. They also gave me a false sense no deer were in the area bc I wasnt getting pictures, which led me to move around a lot more. The result was my poorest season in about 15 years. You'll see my cell cams listed in classified soon enough.
 
C.J.M. said:
Definitely this. Not sure why I relied on these things so much. Probably bc I was too busy to actually get in the woods to do some proper scouting. They also gave me a false sense no deer were in the area bc I wasnt getting pictures, which led me to move around a lot more. The result was my poorest season in about 15 years. You'll see my cell cams listed in classified soon enough.
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I get it, but I hunted a spot with a lot of sign. Rubs scrapes and a good funnelI. Saw 2 good bucks last season their. This past season only a few does and a 7 point. It can work both ways.
 
BTaylor said:
I have been testing a new scent protocol for me, ozoning my clothes and using nose jammer at the tree. The results have been a little surprising. I paid attention to the wind like always but still hunted some spots when I knew the wind was marginal at best. Have had a lot of deer pass through my downwind without any reaction and had a doe and fawn bed straight downwind about 50 yards out. They stayed bedded for an hour and a half or so before getting up and feeding off. Had 2 deer come in from straight down wind that had obvious reactions but neither buggered up bad, just a couple hops in a different direction then ease off. Still think the obvious answer is dont be up wind of them but this combo has worked well enough to continue to use it going forward. If nothing else it may buy enough time and or distance to get a shot when the wind isnt consistent which for me seems to be every where I hunt.

Reconfirmed its called bowhunting and not bowkilling for a reason. So far I have had 7 bucks 8 points or better between 15 and 30 yards and one at 50 and I have yet to get to draw my bow for one reason or another. None spooked by me. Still have some season left though, just have to keep grinding.
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The biggest thing I learned this year is very similar to your story. I tried real hard to get one with my new bow this year. I too found out it's bow hunting not bow shooting. Early season I blew 5-6 different opportunities on deer within bow range. The one that taught me a huge lesson was this one.

Opening day of muzzleloader I took my bow (that way I could shoot a doe if I had a chance, buck only with muzzleloader). Muzzleloader is peak rut here. In my saddle way early. Half hour after light a nice 8 point comes walking through from my 4 o'clock, he's literally going to pass broadside 25 yards in front of me. I'm literally thanking Jesus and praying for his help to connect on this opportunity, I'm thinking dang I blew 5 shots and he's bringing this buck right to me. Well I got stood up on my platform, maneuvered my bow, connected my release. Ready. Here he comes. I'm thinkin ok wait for him to stop and look away, ok wait wait. Dang he's not stopping. But I know this is going to work out. Hes almost straight in front of me and slows down behind a big double tree so I draw. Well he stops and his head and butt are sticking out middle covered. Thank God for high let off bows. He didn't see me but I couldn't shoot and couldn't move. Finally two minutes later off he goes again. I let down. Well now he's still walking off fast to my left. I swing and reposition on the other side of the tree and am trying to get a shot. He's around 45 yards now and walking away and I make way too much movement and he sees me. Got a big limb in my way. So I watch another minute or two until he gets pissed and snorts and runs away.

The lesson learned when bowhunting is this: You cannot wait for the deer to stop and not be looking to draw. You have to MAKE the deer stop, exactly where YOU want it BY drawing your bow back to shoot the thing! The thing I learned is any movement they will instantly stop and stare at you. For minutes If you don't move again. But if you're not drawn, you can't draw, your done. Also you can't wait for them to stop and look away, it won't happen. You gotta use their own reactions against them. By drawing your picking when they stop and where and look at you. But they're where you want them, stopped and you're drawn with pins floating on them. Its head is up, which severely limits how much they can dip on the string.

Had I known this, when that buck was 25 yards away in the open I would've drawn, and smoked him. And if they don't see you and stop, you can always make a bleat or grunt noise to stop them. Either way I didn't get a deer yet but had such a successful season seeing deer on no less than 6 or 7 hunts on public land and just got to spend time enjoying the beauty of God's creation and being in the woods and learning more to help me next time.

I still have next week to go out for late bow. Hoping their patterns aint changed much and I'll still be in a good spot. I sure could use some deer jerky.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
I relearned to pay attention when I am hunting and not play on my phone. I had two does come in within the first 5 minutes of sitting on the ground in a blowdown yesterday evening. I was busy marking the spot on Onx and when I looked up, they were looking at me like "OH, heck no!" and bounded off.
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Two of the opportunities I blew this year were due to my radio. Where I hunt there's no cell signal. I'm a HAM radio operator, there's a repeater on top of the one mountain. I can hit it with my handheld radio, the tower sends it back out. So when I leave in the morning I put a second handheld on the wife's nightstand and take mine with me. I usually radio her to tell her I'm in my tree and alive, and when I start to climb outta my tree. So if she doesn't hear from me or im dying and radio for help, she knows my GPS coordinates (Onyx screenshots).

Once got up in my tree and heard a deer down behind me by the creek. Thought well heck ill radio her before its light, wrong. Deer see better than we do in the dark, imagine that. Spooked that one moving reaching down into my bag.

Second deer coming up the hill right in front of me. Almost 10 am, figure it's time to head home. Literally thought I seen a squirrel the minute before, reached down and got my radio. Look up it's not a squirrel, it was a does ears. Now she's right in front of me so I wait until she looks away and lean down to put my radio back, lean up, yep she's staring at me.

I gotta work on limiting unnecessary movements and maybe trusting my gut more. I should've waited on that first one and possibly could've got her, not worry about radioing my wife.
 
Like elevator said ...get to full draw at all cost.froze up to many times in the past trying to not spook deer....stop them with a grunt if the draw dont catch them up....what ever it takes ...better to spook them with movement than wait till they sent you cuz then its game over without even trying..this year i learned what its like to hunt the rut in a 1 buck state ..a time that was traditionaly the kids choice week.huge difference between the late archety season.get out every evning of the rut if you cant hunt the mornings.hunted à spot where i only see does day in and day out but the second she was hot she was fallowed like the textbooks say.
 
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Chimney7 said:
Sign isn’t the end all be all that it is hyped up to be. I hunted a spot that held five scrapes all within a 50 yard circle. I saw lots of deer and some legal bucks, no shooters. few days later I see a hot doe in an area I had wanted to check out during the rut. Hung in a tree right next to where she ran, which led to observing a funnel less than a hundred yards from where I was and I saw lots of bucks using it. Hung by funnel, killed nice buck. No sign in the area. No rubs, no scrapes. Lots of deer. It’s not always about the “hot sign”.
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I'd argue seeing that doe was your hot sign and I'd argue every time that deer themselves are hotter sign than actual sign. Sign on the ground put you in the right area code. The sighting put you on the x. It's all a piece of the puzzle.
 
hokiehunter373 said:
I'd argue seeing that doe was your hot sign and I'd argue every time that deer themselves are hotter sign than actual sign. Sign on the ground put you in the right area code. The sighting put you on the x. It's all a piece of the puzzle.
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This is a POV I hadn’t considered but it makes a LOT of sense. Like, “duh” levels of making sense.
 
GCTerpfan said:
I learned filling your only archery buck tag on opening day makes for a long and miserable November.
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Sounds like you need to venture over to region B next year... Bonus buck tag (not that it's led to me actually using it yet lol.)

I've learned (and am continuing to learn) the value of boots on the ground scouting. Got me into the most successful early season I've had yet.

Am still working on learning late season, even when I see deer alive on the hoof, it hasn't translated to shooting anything in December/January (yet). I like early season dumb deer more than these "educated" late season ghosts lol
 
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