What’s a big mistake you made on a specific hunt that cost you a chance at a big deer that still haunts you?
For the killers… do you use leg straps? Jokes aside, how would you arrange each of the following groups in order 1-3 based on your personal success/priority? 1 being the most productive, 2 being somewhat productive, 3 being the least productive?
Group 1 (location):
- bedding
- transition
- food/water source
Group 2 (time of day):
- morning
- midday
- evening
Group 3 (season):
- early season
- rut
- late season
Group 4 (most important group)
- group 1
- group 2
- group 3
Wow, that’s an important question that completely slipped my mind. Perhaps I should ask anyone who wishes to respond to clarify what their target animal is, because that certainly changes the dynamics.For bucks? does? Big bucks?
Wow, that’s an important question that completely slipped my mind. Perhaps I should ask anyone who wishes to respond to clarify what their target animal is, because that certainly changes the dynamics.
I also have never hunted over bait as I can't really call that hunting. I just like hunting and love venison. I still like watching big bucks working scrapes, pushing does and tearing up trees. I can tell if I'm eating doe or over yearling bucks and I try to get 100 lb field dressed does for the best meat. Not willing to argue that point it's just my take on it. I've went past collecting antlers and an older doe is just as smart as an older buck. I don't feel like it is much of an accomplishment to have killed over 100 deer in 58 seasons as Illinois has no limit on archery doe tags and many years I've taken 4.
I want these guys' deer recipes. Two or three a year is all we can eat through. TBH I like deer meat, but I don't love it. It's fine.
I still prefer venison over most red meat, but sometimes you just gotta have beef lol. I also don't like my meat above medium, medium-rare preferred, crockpot or ground not inclusive...I want these guys' deer recipes. Two or three a year is all we can eat through. TBH I like deer meat, but I don't love it. It's fine.
The trigger that actually eventually led to the saddle hunting rabbit hole... A climbing stand used to be my vehicle of choice. Scouted into a really good area, picked where I wanted to be and there were no acceptable trees... AND it was too thick to sit on the ground. I picked the "best" tree. Had a the largest buck that I've ever encountered in the woods come up over the ridge about 200yds. away and literally walk until his nose was at my tree. He never violently spooked, he just backed up about 10yds., turned around and walked out of my life the way he had come. To top it off, it was the literal last day of the season. I gave up on climbing stands that day, switched to a mobile hang-on setup before the following season, and after two seasons of fighting mountain laurel and blueberry brush with that on my back I switched to a saddle. Still kinda makes me sick. Hindsight being 20/20, I could have possibly backed off a bit further or pushed forward a bit to select a "better" stand location. Most of my mistakes were location based more often then not...What’s a big mistake you made on a specific hunt that cost you a chance at a big deer that still haunts you?
3 deer limit in area 4 where i am and less deer population so im guessing 30 years for me to hit 100 lolJust for perspective, in Louisiana if you used the brown it’s down approach and filled all 6 tags every season it would take 16.6 years to kill 100. I’m barely in the mid 40’s and I’ve maybe hunted 10- 12 seasons relatively hard and in these parts I’m doin pretty good for only bow hunting public land. 100 is impressive in almost any circumstance. For the nay-sayers, these 100+ guys regardless of how they hunt or what they kill whether it be spikes or small does it doesn’t matter, I’ll take a full freezer over pope and young records all day. . I have no questions but thought I should put some perspective on this. To the 100+ guys I am both humbled and optimistic that there’s guys like you that exist. Congrats! And thanks for just doing what you do.
Yeah I get it.I still prefer venison over most red meat, but sometimes you just gotta have beef lol. I also don't like my meat above medium, medium-rare preferred, crockpot or ground not inclusive...
Yeah I get it.
Phase 1 of my hunting career my grandma cooked all the venison we killed. I love my grandma and her cooking, but most of her venison was an abomination as per standard for her generation. She did make good crockpot roasts and chili, but all steaks were overmarinated and overcooked.
Phase 2 I think I got a little smidge of virtue about the whole free range organic caveman whatever thing. I told myself I loved venison and we ate quite a bit. We were dinks and I had a lot of time to cook. We ate so much deer I think I ruined my wife on it. She can't really stand any braised or slow cooked red meat now. Whoops.
Phase 3 we have kids now and we do a lot of venison recipes where you can't really tell it's venison. Tacos, chili, that kinda stuff. Most of our cooking is fast, furious, and efficient. Ground coon would be just as good with enough seasoning. I got over the virtuous part of it and realized a good beef steak is about 50x better than venison. Not that every meal has to be bonappertif, and sometimes I tell the fam to suck it up, it's sustenance.
I know you can kill and donate but I never felt right about doing that around here. I hunt all public land, and there are deer but not a ton of deer. Certainly not so many I feel responsible for their population control. If you manage property, you could rack up 100 kinda quick. Heck I read a game warden book and this guy talked about poachers shooting 50+ deer a night.
Hard to say. My style of hunting has changed totally in the last 10 years. Also I moved from NJ to MT 23 years ago. The terrain is totally different. My deer now are very condensed. Those deer were more of a big wood setting. Back then I was more of a transition hunter and just sat on good trails. In the beginning a LOT of my success was dumb luck. Probably most of it. Then as I started paying attention to more details, the success rate went up. I hunted every chance I got. Early, rut, and late. I made a lot of mistakes. Now I very rarely hunt early unless I'm on a big one and I have specific info on what he's doing then I will go in after him. 2 year ago I killed a big 10 cause I he was coming out on the same point every night. Bad wind there for and evening hunt. But I knew what bedding area he was coming from so I knew most likely he was coming by a morning tree leading to it. I Killed him on my 1st sit of the year. Anyway now I'm mostly a rut hunter cause that's all I have time for. I'd rather take the Grandkids fishing in October. We don't have a late season here anymore but when we did in certain area, I was in tree mostly in funnel areas.. It was a Whack em' and Stack em' situation. They wanted them dead. I've have doubled and tripled there several times. It was mostly does but the more you kill, the better you get especially when a big one come in. You learn how to handle it and don't get too excited till after it's over. One year in a snow storm I killed a giant doe. When I rolled her over there were balls. I rolled him back over and there were great big Bases. I would've loved to seen what he had on his head! I'll never know but he was really big deer.For the killers… do you use leg straps? Jokes aside, how would you arrange each of the following groups in order 1-3 based on your personal success/priority? 1 being the most productive, 2 being somewhat productive, 3 being the least productive?
Group 1 (location):
- bedding
- transition
- food/water source
Group 2 (time of day):
- morning
- midday
- evening
Group 3 (season):
- early season
- rut
- late season
Group 4 (most important group)
- group 1
- group 2
- group 3
Could you please specify if you are prioritizing based on packing a freezer or adding to your trophy wall?
Where do you think most hunters mess up when it comes time to fling arrows? Is it bad/not-enough practicing, misjudging yardage, messing up on the draw, aiming at the wrong spot, or what? What has cost you the most deer?It was mostly does but the more you kill, the better you get especially when a big one come in.