The difficulty of having choice

[Stinger-Hunter]

After hunting for many years, and learning so much from some of the greats in the past 18 months, this year is the first year I am actually having difficulty choosing which spot to hunt. (All public land)

I scouted for 10 months before the season and my OnX maps app has more than 100 different pins for a possible bedding areas and Treestand placement Locations.

This year every time I go out it’s difficult because I think whatever place I choose the deer might be in the other three or four places that I could hunt that day with a good wind.

in years past I only had a choice of wherever my friends wanted to hunt or the one or two places that I had set up with a tree stand, but since switching to mobile hunting and scouting so much, honestly, I’m constantly second-guessing where I’m at even though I know that deer will be around.

I have seen more deer this year than I have ever in my life.

Just wondering if you guys experience the same thing.

 

[gameflogger]

The big one always shows up at the location you didn't pick!!! Thats kinda what keeps us going back though isn't it?

 

[Sziggy2.0]

First year in a saddle and I had the same difficulty to some degree. I didnt necessarily think that the "big one" was somewhere else but that with this system it opened up so many possible locations that it did get hard to pick a spot sometimes. But that was also the most awesome part of it. I was no longer tied down to the 1,2 or 3 places I had placed a stand, I now could choose from thousands of acres........which is a wonderful problem to have. Starts to put more pressure on us as hunters, because now we really better know where we should be going. Because I just lost biggest excuse not to go there, " I dont have a stand there".

 

[ofor]

That is a great problem to have. Really makes you think through all the variables like access, wind, thermals, expected direction of deer movement, anticipated hunting pressure, ... when making your choice. I wish OnX had more features for capturing this kind of meta-data for each marked location (besides the notes field) that you could set as “best location” filters to help narrow down the list of options.

 

[kyler1945]

Go find spots that don’t make you feel like a choice! They’ll make your decisions for you!

 

[Bowmanmike]

man,i feel the same way. So many options out there,and i always second guess myself. I would say pick one and give it all you got as far as getting in unnoticed and learning what you can.

 

[cspot]

I do a little, but it is far better to feel like that than to not have any options to go where you feel confident.

 

[Stinger-Hunter]

That is a great problem to have. Really makes you think through all the variables like access, wind, thermals, expected direction of deer movement, anticipated hunting pressure, ... when making your choice. I wish OnX had more features for capturing this kind of meta-data for each marked location (besides the notes field) that you could set as “best location” filters to help narrow down the list of options.

very true. Went out to get my sticks to hunt a different spot.l today. Walking out found 2 great places for Oct 1, 2020. 80 yards off the cut walking trail, 5 trails all converging and a bed with fresh scat. Got down in the bed and you can see the DNRs house and the walking trail everyone uses. Sneaky deer.