Quit watching hunting videos. A saddle is just another stand so grab your damn gun and go climb a tree.
I have a feeling bow hunters are like the guys that bought the Mantis. Once the mantis guys hunted out of it a few times they realized it was awful, but that’s not what they read.....are they the defective 1 in a 1000??? Can’t have folks you don’t even know thinking you suck at saddle hunting so they joined in the fanfare online and suffered in person.
Guys new to hunting want to kill deer. If you’re new and continually not killing deer it sucks. All they’ve seen on tv and YT is bow hunting so they go that route not wanting to be out of the loop. But they don’t kill anything so they adopt phrases like “passed” and “encounter” and “target buck” and “mature” and “a buck I call ______” to justify their lack of success. Inwardly they’re not enjoying themselves.
Finally, the Mantis crowd is provided with a new model and they all pounce “because it’s the new model, gotta try it” while inwardly they’re ecstatic because they’ve been given a socially accepted way out of their suffering. They post their Mantis for sale and as soon as it’s out of their hands you start to see the truth creep in......”never could get comfortable” , “sucked”, “hip pinch”, etc......
Don’t fall into that trap. If you want to kill deer and learn HOW to kill deer in the process then take a gun. The relief of knowing you might actually kill something in itself is liberating. Go do you. If you want to kill a deer then kill a deer. Once you kill a few with a gun it will sink in that it’s not that hard so a bit of the anxiety subsided and you realize you don’t have to shoot it as soon as you see it. You have a gun in your hands, the deer is dead, it’s now just a matter of where it’s going to die. This allows you to spend more time with deer in front of you and that’s where you learn them. And learn yourself.
Now that your wife/husband has renewed faith in your ability to provide if you decide you want to go back to bow hunting then start (gun hunting) setting up with a 30 yd restriction self imposed. Not saying you can’t shoot a deer at 80 yards, but setup to kill the deer at 30 and in. When this gets to be second nature then transition back to the bow.
Even after going back to the bow, every now and then grab your gun and go climb a tree and lay the smack down just to remind the deer, and your spouse, who the damn real boss of the woods is......