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Things you've learned (no gear allowed)

Plenty of awesome information here this whole Thread should be made into a "sticky" and entitled something like " Saddlehunter.com's Best of the Best Deer Hunting Tips and Techniques."
  • A good hunting buddy is priceless
  • One in the hand is worth two in the bush
  • You can't call that bullet/arrow/slug back..... ever
  • There are no re-dos with a firearm
  • Always treat your quarry with respect, alive or dead
  • There is nothing wrong with being a trophy hunter
  • Have fun first, everything else will fall in place
  • Always be ready for the unexpected, accidents are never planned
  • Take a kid hunting
  • Take a woman hunting don't hunt for women
  • Scout more than you hunt
  • Wind is king
  • Remember, the 80/10/10 rule: 80% don't hunt but do not have an opinion either way, 10% are hunters, 10% hate hunting, Think about the 80% in everything you do as a hunter, you'll never convert that anti hunter so there is no point arguing with them.
  • Woodmanship, woodsmanship, woodsmanship
  • The Lord gave us dominion over the wild animals, enjoy it as a good steward of his resources
  • As a hunter, you have a direct role in conservation
  • Buy your hunting license every year whether you can use it or not
 
Don't be afraid to change plans, and dont limit yourself to being "just a sadle hunter" or just "some type of hunter". The one good shot I had this year I missed(literally). I walked past a ladder stand on my property with some great sign one morning(and had repetitively seen good sign there), right over to a preset about 130 yards away. Climbed up my preset bolts and hung in the guidos. about 8am a nice looking doe appeared...about 20 yrds from the LADDER STAND. I took a shot through the hardack's, wind, snow, with my open sites ML and pulled it, horrible trigger release. Missed. It was 108 yards when I walked it and ranged it. If I had been in the ladder stand it would have been a broadside shot at 20 yards. Easy as pie. But I didnt feel like "sitting in a ladder stand". Would have had meat in the freezer though.

holy crap this happened to me this year! Heartbreaking. All cuz I wanted to feel like a mobile hunter that day.
 
I know we generally talk about gear on here. We all know what kinda saddle who wears, what kinda bow who shoots, and what kinda camo who wears (or doesn't wear.)

I wanna hear what you've learned, that can apply to any hunter, saddle or no. I don't care if you hunted 2 years or 60. But...

RULES

You cannot mention a piece of hunting gear, you cannot argue with what somebody else has learned, and you cannot comment without including what you have learned. Dem'z da rules.

I'll start.

Deer are pretty simple to hunt. It all revolves around the desire to not be eaten and to keep their bellies full. For about one month out of the year, they also wanna breed. This inclusion of one little task throws their entire, simple little world into insanity. Wanna find deer? Ask yourself, "Where can I hide, what can I eat, and where can I hookup with the ladies?" That's 90% of the game.

Deer don't read hunting magazines. They don't know where they're "supposed" to live, or how they're "supposed" to move. They don't read maps, or feel obligated to be where the map says they should be. They live where nobody bothers them, and eat the best food they can find without compromising their safety.

Your secret spot is not secret. No, not even that one.

Bucks die during the first week of season and during the rut.

You can't shoot as well as you think you can.

20% of the spots produce 80% of the deer. Don't hunt a good spot. Hunt the best spot. Always be looking for the best spot, whether it's on 50 acres or 50,000. Collect best spots like crazy ladies collect cats. You can't have too many, and you obviously have to replace the ones that die off, right? ;)

I'll add more as I think of them. Maybe this will be a good summer thread?
I have learn that every season is different so matter how good you are.

I love it when I can watch deer come by my stand and study how they move, feed, interact with each other and their habitat. For us old guys...it's like watching Wild Kingdom on TV. lol
 
Be a good dad, husband, friend, brother, son...that stuff comes first.

Always and never are ideations that hunters should immediately toss in the trash.

Deer aren't smart in any sort of strategic or intellectual sense. Because hunting is tough for a litany of reasons, we tend to assign them smarts way beyond what they actually have. They respond to simple stimuli. They are prey animals, they are wired to survive. They don't see particularly well and their hearing isn't any better than ours. But you can't trick their nose. Don't overthink it though. I believe paranoia about spooking deer handicaps a lot of hunters to hunt in stupid places.

Related, deer snort in the woods a lot for a lot of different reasons. Your hunt isn't over by any means because you were winded and a deer snorted at you a few times.

In bowhunting, much of the conventional wisdom regarding shot distances and angles is garbage. Learn from experience, screw up a few times, learn anatomy by butchering your own deer, and develop your own criteria. Personally I tend to be a lot more aggressive with angles than conventional wisdom, but I am very conservative with distance.

Deer on alert jump the string...most of the time. Unalert deer don't...most of the time. I go to great lengths to shoot at unalert deer. Merping is a last resort.

Tracking advice....in the vast majority of circumstances, wait. If you don't have visual confirmation of a dead animal, wait at least an hour before even looking for the arrow. Any inclination or doubt whatsoever, wait. Wait a few times longer than you think you should, then wait some more.

Cyber scouting was great circa 2005. Everyone does it now. If a place looks great, it does to a lot of other people too. There simply is no replacement for eyes and boots on the ground.

For most of us this is a hobby. Remember to keep it fun and novel. Stay humble. Figure out what part of the whole hunting process is most enjoyable and personalize your experiences for max fun. Don't get caught up in external pressures.
I definitely get caught in the paranoia stage sometimes. I hate when I'm sitting in the tree questioning why I'm sitting there. Reading deer sign and being confident in your setup definitely comes with experience. Something I need a lot more of.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk
 
Here is one I was taught by my mentors and I think needs to be re-emphasized a bit. Especially in the context of relating to to @elk yinzer's post on the 80-20 rule.

If you take it into the woods . . .please, please take it back out with you. Nothing gives hunters a bad name like trash (especially a pile of beer cans under a tree stand) left in the woods.
 
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Take out more more than you brought it, a saying from back in my Scout days. I don't enjoy seeing man made materials lying around the woods where I hunt so I pick up a few pieces of garbage on the walk out of every hunt. I find it more relaxing to not see trash mixed in with the scenery and land owners appreciate it as well. And I'll bring a hefty bag to a new spot that I'm prepping.

Sent from up in a tree
 
- You won't know if you don't go
- Wind: Find one almost perfect for the deer and barely huntable for your [just 'off wind']
- Deer do move in daylight hours, just not always very far
- nothing beats time, hard work, and lots of spots/options
- unite as hunters ...don't belittle & fight (online) w/those who essentially believe what you believe, but choose different methods - find commonality
 
Can you explain this one a little more please?
When you're hunting stuff that looks like this from an aerial

Screenshot_20200213-081956.jpg

And this on a topo

Screenshot_20200213-082100.jpg

You have to rely on changes in the understudy if you want an edge to key in on edges of thickets, transitions from grass to palmettos, palmettos to yaupon, yaupon to open woods, etc. That, and small elevation changes that don't register on today's maps.
 
Can you explain this one a little more please?
An specific example that comes to mind for me is an area of 80-100 year old hardwoods here in Michigan. Under the canopy there's lots of open areas where you can see 50-75yds without too much trouble but then there's pockets where large beeches have created relly thick areas of beech scruff underneath/around them. The edges of these thickets (and relatively open areas between them) in the woods create travel corridors for whitetails.

In my experience, unworried whitetails will generally walk the path of least resistance just the same as you or I would. In fact, I find as I pick my way through the woods, a lot of the time I'm inadvertently following deer trails just because we take similar paths of least resistance.

Edit: This reminds of one thing I was kind of waiting for @Allegheny Tom to throw out here because I remember it being something he's posted here before. When walking through the woods try to avoid touching the brush with your bare hands. Our hands STINK (any hockey player will tell you the worst smelling piece of equipment in the bag is the gloves) and since we naturally follow roughly the same path through the woods as a deer would we are leaving a strong scent trail right at nose level for them if we are pushing brush out the way with our bare hands as we walk through.
 
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One thing I’ve learned over the years is that I have refused to move after I have setup. Been so many times after setting up I see or feel that I should be in this or that tree over there. It has burnt me one to many times. Well needless to say I don’t care if it’s at daylight or and hour after daylight I move. It has brought me good success and has killed me a few times.
 
Things I've learned:

** Hunting is a hobby, enjoy it, be good at it, but it's not the most important thing in life.
** Understand thermals - they are just as important - or more - than what the weather man says the wind direction is.
** Be reasonable in your expectations of what a 'trophy' is for your area. You can't kill a 150 class buck if he ain't there.
** I need to kill more does - our deer herd here in NC is way out of balance.
** Big bucks must be smarter than me or else I would be killing more of them. lol
 
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