you also started killing deer before the internet. Folks born into hunting, and having the advantage of community knowledge base that increased with the internet, can really shorten the learning curve.
I’m a proponent of boots on the ground, real life experience when it comes to most things, deer hunting included. But not just because it’s a better teaching tool. It is. But the main reason is the learning and journey are the fun part. There is no destination in deer hunting, like most dynamic activities. The beauty is in the doing.
but to think that aerial maps, Internet forums, access to gear cheap(relatively speaking), don’t have an impact on how quickly people can learn to hunt really effectively, is a fool’s errand.
to also assume that people who have only killed 20/30/50 deer, but haven’t been around or witnessed the killing of hundreds, is pretty silly too.
What you ‘feel’ works, sometimes works. What works, always works. Confidence is useful in many social matters. But the deer care not if you feel like you’re going to kill them today. I’m not sure it’s got anything to do with terminal arrow performance.
There are some first principles in hunting that are important, and don’t really change. But most of your innovation in techniques, tactics, equipment, etc come from people good enough to be good enough, but diverse enough in their skill set and interests to think outside the bubble.
all the people I’ve met who have killed 50+ deer have one or more of a few things going for them.
an understanding wife or no wife.
100% or more time spent in the deer woods than 95% of other hunters.
they are extremely adaptable, and are good at learning.
they are dumb as a brick, and stubborn, figured out a way to kill deer that works, and do nothing else.
they’re an outlaw.
with the exception of the oxen, all of them would listen to a fellow who’s only killed five deer with his bow if they thought it might help them kill more...
