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Next year I'm gonna...

elk yinzer

elk yinzer

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Messages
2,921
Location
State College, PA
I see iterations of that phrase on the regular around these parts. Something about the tinkering aspect of all this brings birds of a feather together. We're not the type to rest on our laurels. Dreams and schemes always sound nice on paper, but how are they holding up when we look back? Let's analyze some of our planned gamechangers from the past years and how they played out in retrospect. My thought here is generating a good introspective strategy discussion, but I guess it could include gear as well.

How well did you execute your plan? Was it success, failure, or in between? What turns and pivots were there along the way?
 
One thing I did was not climb the same tree twice. That was my plan going in for the year. If I found a hot spot I hunted a different tree if I went back to that same spot. Not one time did I have a deer spook or look my direction. I got much closer to the creatures I was pursuing. The one gear thing that I found was that I don't like gear hanger really ( a rope or strap style that is). I tried 4 or 5 different styles that I made and all of them just piss me off. :rage:
 
Well this will year will be my first year with saddle so gonna be a lot of new things going on. I am gonna work on hunting some new properties and hunt more spots in some old ones
 
Last year I said I was gonna try a different climbing method. I was planning on putting the Steps aside and trying sticks. Didn't happen, I stuck with the Step/Aider configuration. This year, I'm gonna consider giving it a shot. At least that's my plan.
 
I actually found an old post where i laid grand plans for the 19-20 season. Spoiler alert, they all failed.

"Boat Access - My canoe and kayak have allowed me to really expand my hunting grounds. After buying a house on the river, it didnt take long for a 14ft jonboat with a 15hp motor to move in with me. I haven't used it this season, since I'm frankly not comfortable with navigating a very cold and very flooded river in an unfamiliar vessel.

Over the summer, I plan on getting comfortable with it, and exploring some locations that are way beyond feasible paddling distance. I'm really excited about the ability to get to places that are less pressured."

Nope. Didn't hunt with that dang boat once. Hunted with a buddy a few times by boat. I've found that I just enjoy a canoe. Mainly the grab-and-go aspect of it, and the fact that there is almost no way for it to mechanically fail.

"More Preset Trees - my carbon fiber bolts rock for mobile hunting. But it cant be denied that preset trees give you an advantage in the stealth department, and they make hunting easy. With our generous season, burnout is a real thing. The idea of replacing paddling/hiking and drilling a tree with motoring down the river to a pre-drilled tree is very exciting. Anybody have recommendations for the cheapest way to do presets?"

Again, nope. I bought almost 300 bolts, and made presets. Didn't kill a single deer from them. Hardly hunted them. I like looking at new stuff too much I guess.


"Scent Control - Right or wrong, I'm going to try it in earnest. Guess I'm a "pee on the electric fence myself" kinda guy. I've always felt that the oppressively hot southern weather made scent control efforts futile. But by utilizing an outboard motor, pre setting trees, and limiting my deer hunts to cooler weather, I think I might can make it work."

Aside from shaving pits and pubes, and using 0 scented hygiene or laundry products (which is surprisingly easy to do), no dice.

What I did do was hunt a lot, take a lot of half-days, hunt new areas in better counties, and hunt lower to the ground.
 
Going into 2019:

1) Planned to do more inseason scouting (at the cost of early October hunts).

I'm calling this one a mixed success. This goes back a few seasons to where I endeavored to be a better early season hunter and honestly fell a little into the buck bedding fad. The cost was my scouting really dropped off and I was unprepared for the rut. Actual results, I indeed hunted some days I retrospectively felt were a waste. After 9 long months of not hunting the desire to sit in a tree can be pretty strong. But I did get back to more early season scouting and ultimately killed my buck partly because of it.

2) Alter my rut vacation strategy. Previously I would take a whole week off in the rut. This year I scattered days over three weeks and adjusted based on the weather forecast.

This one was a big success for me. I was able to hunt in great weather, work when it was raining or warm, and did a lot to avoid burning out. It was better for my workflow not to miss a whole week consecutively also. This was a win-win-win I highly recommend.

3) Planned to do an out of state hunt

Failed. My PA season came down to the final weekend. I was nearly burnt out and my wife was well beyond burnt out. I scrapped my WV trip last minute.
 
Squirrels said:
One thing I did was not climb the same tree twice. That was my plan going in for the year. If I found a hot spot I hunted a different tree if I went back to that same spot. Not one time did I have a deer spook or look my direction. I got much closer to the creatures I was pursuing. The one gear thing that I found was that I don't like gear hanger really ( a rope or strap style that is). I tried 4 or 5 different styles that I made and all of them just piss me off. :rage:
Click to expand...

I almost never hunt a tree more than once myself heck that’s how I came up with my “treehopper2” user name. I try to keep the deer guessing and that’s one of the reasons a saddle setup works for me and I’ll give up on some comfort to move consistently.
But what did not work for me was I wanted to hunt all year in my saddle but when the temps dropped during the rut I found myself in my hang on so I could hunt longer in trusted preset areas that have done well for me over the years.
I need to figure out a cold weather setup where I can hunt all day in my saddle and not freeze out back to the truck.



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Excellent thread Yinzer.

2019 major goals and realities:

1) Kayak access. Only did this twice. It was cool. It added an element of fun and exercise. My spots were secluded but produced no sightings. Hope to do more in the future. Modestly low success.

2) Hunt an additional state that expands my early season (September). Successful in that I did it (3 sits out of 6 possible anyway) but no deer sightings or harvests. I'd call it mostly a failure compared to my vision. I felt way out of my element and in very unlikely spots.

3) Help a new guy get his first deer. Failure. We had a blast trying together but it didn't work out. The experience of doing this was both the best and worst part of my overall season.

4) Do all day gun sits high in a ridge saddle from the comfort of my JX3. Failure. Never did one. I did hunt out of the Hybrid a bunch and it was uber comfortable, but I never did the hike way up part or the dark to dark sit.

5) Focus my climbing method around "the year of the stick ". Success! While 1-sticking did not prove to be the panacea I had imagined, climbing with 4 lightweight DIY sticks was the best gear part of my Fall. No aiders. Easy climbing with a LB. Double steps and a runway of glowing lights guiding you to the ground at quitting time! They were awesome and and not that heavy or tough to pack. I don't see changing that approach anytime soon (until the next cool idea/ thing comes out!).
 
This past season was the one that put me on the board in my mind. First buck and first bow kill. I also took most of the season to figure out what I really wanted/didn’t want in my gear. That’s everything from weapon to climbing method. I think I narrowed all that down almost completely. Of course it’s sort of ever changing as new stuff comes out. I guess I’m talking a general sense.

In a nutshell, I’m going to continue what I’ve been doing this last season primarily. That is just focusing on all the hunt smarter not harder tactics we all talk about. Too many to mention here. I’m continuing to modify my setup to make everything lighter smaller etc. without sacrificing a bunch of comfort. I’m almost completely satisfied with everything I do in a tree now so I think I’m going to continue to work on ground hunting a little more.


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Previous season Vowed to not hunt the same tree twice and failed. First sit in a new area and I saw two shooters and several does. Killed one of shooters and proceeded to harass the area until I had scared them all off. Didn’t see a single deer in that area over the following month of trying different trees in the vicinity.

Next year I’m going to
1. Join a club for some variety.
2. Finally buy a vertical bow and use it.
3. Kill more squirrels.



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Westdesign03 said:
This past season was the one that put me on the board in my mind. First buck and first bow kill. I also took most of the season to figure out what I really wanted/didn’t want in my gear. That’s everything from weapon to climbing method. I think I narrowed all that down almost completely. Of course it’s sort of ever changing as new stuff comes out. I guess I’m talking a general sense.

In a nutshell, I’m going to continue what I’ve been doing this last season primarily. That is just focusing on all the hunt smarter not harder tactics we all talk about. Too many to mention here. I’m continuing to modify my setup to make everything lighter smaller etc. without sacrificing a bunch of comfort. I’m almost completely satisfied with everything I do in a tree now so I think I’m going to continue to work on ground hunting a little more.


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Click to expand...
Congrats on the first bow kill.
 
I plan on winning the lotto, spending more time with my wife, my kids, hunting, and spending more time concentrating on work while simultaneously getting more practice time in on my Wild edge setup and fine tuning my DIY saddle while killing hogs in the off season between bay fishing bowfishing and inventing a new dehumidification system for residential applications all the while Putting God first in my life.
 
For the past two seasons I've said "I'm going to solely bow hunt this season."

Turns out, I won't be saying that again this season so it's not wasted breath...
 
gameflogger said:
I plan on winning the lotto, spending more time with my wife, my kids, hunting, and spending more time concentrating on work while simultaneously getting more practice time in on my Wild edge setup and fine tuning my DIY saddle while killing hogs in the off season between bay fishing bowfishing and inventing a new dehumidification system for residential applications all the while Putting God first in my life.
Click to expand...

You plan on sleeping at all so where in there? Hah!


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'19 I said scout more, get in the tree more, get in better shape, kill more deer. Weeeeeli did none of that, actually in reverse. This year I'm exercising more, scouted a couple times already and damnit I'm gonna gun hunt this year even though to me it kinda feels like cheating. I have obligations.
 
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