I just got over being sick for almost a week. Missed my last weekend to hunt completely! I'm hoping to get out to post season scout Saturday morning. Thinking about hanging a camera on some public for the heck of it? Suppose to get stupid cold here soon. It was really fun season with you guys, thanks!
Back at ya, this was hands down my favorite team so far & we didn’t even win!
I've been down with a pretty bad cold for about the last week as well. Finally decided this morning to see if some fresh air would help . . . turns out it was bad idea, at least at this point (cough, cough, sniffle sniffle)
. It's all good though, it'll pass.
I also really enjoyed this season, both from a hunting standpoint and from a team interaction standpoint. It was a pleasure sharing the season with you guys, I just wish I could have contributed to the points total. I must say though, I've hit the point in my whitetail hunting journey that a successful season has less to do with the actual harvest and more to do with the encounters throughout the season.
I've finally had the opportunity to go back through my season log (I should probably be posting this in the "Shame" thread
) and I logged 272 hrs in the tree this year spread over 81 sits. It would have been more but I missed a bit over a week in December with kidney stones.
During that time I saw 131 deer from the saddle (33 bucks, 52 does, 33 yearlings and 13 unknown), I passed on 5 legal bucks that just weren't what I was looking for and countless does that were in range. I had four clean misses, twice on one deer with the bow and twice on one deer with the muzzleloader. I had one buck stopped inside 10 yds that I was unable to get a draw on due to some ongoing old age shoulder issues and, unfortunately I hit one I didn't recover with the bow. Ironically all of my shots (and attempted shot) with the bow happened in a 4 day period in November and in the same general area so I had that dialed in at that time.
This season really was a tale of two seasons for me. Early season I hunted only remote. Even though I came home during the week in October I never hunted locally pre-rifle season. From my observations as well as the buddies I hunt remote with, the deer herd numbers were definitely down in the area I hunt remote as well as were decent buck sightings. But, even with a two week "skunked spell" in the middle of October I still ended up with decent sighting numbers. In fact, I was having more/better encounters than my hunting buddies down there so I have to call that a win even if I couldn't close the deal.
Second season (post rifle season) I had one of the best deer sighting years I can remember for that time of year. I saw almost half of my yearly deer totals during a time when the deer are generally very nocturnal and hard to come by. This included multiple daylight sightings of a decent 8 point that I had missed with the muzzleloader. I experienced almost zero hunting pressure during December here locally. In fact there was only one day that I even crossed another hunter's tracks and that was during late November. Additionally, there was a downed tree across a logging road that needed to be bypassed on the access to the area I was late season bow hunting and it appeared to me that no one had gone around it all season. I had to break the trail around it to get in with the bow. Lack of local pressure may have been the reason I had such a positive late season.
My takeaways from this season . . . first and foremost I was extremely pleased/surprised with my ability to keep a positive attitude even though my season didn't go as I exactly planned. Not that many years ago I would been in an angry funk over the season's progression. This year I managed to take it all in stride and can honestly say I never once got down on myself. I truly enjoyed the experiences and accepted what came my way. Second take away. . . I need to do more offseason work on rehabbing and strengthening my shoulder. Although I knew there was a possibility going in that I would have an encounter where I wouldn't be able to draw my bow, I really don't want to experience that again. Third, I need to spend more time hunting locally during the early season when I'm here. I don't really have a reason why I didn't this year, I had done a lot of summer scouting but I just never put it to use in the early season. Given the apparent lack of pressure and possibly better herd numbers I think is an area where I probably left encounters and chances on the table this year.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with my 2023 season regardless of my tag soup. Hope you guys enjoyed your seasons as much.
