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Why do you not kill the deer you are after?

My private I hunt is a big parcel 800 ish acres. It sees a good bit of pressure from all sides. There’s a posted property that’s about 60 acres that was logged probably 10 ish years ago if memory serves correct and logged 10 years before that so it’s thick on half and even thicker on the other half. The bucks have taken to it for bedding pretty hard the past 5 or so years. I’m allowed to hike it but not hunt it. Also believe the land owner is not so legally baiting in season which makes it hard. Those bucks give you a 5 minute kill window for a few mornings a year if you can find the one that’s a home body and sticks to it as his core I’m sure it would be and easier kill but I’ve yet to find him. Also hiking it I have found major buck bedding areas just absolutely torn to shreds and found quite a few sets of sheds in there. Wish the guy would let me hunt it but can’t win them all I’ll just keep skirting the edges till it works out
 
If I knew the answer then I would kill him because I would quit doing whatever that is that's causing me to not kill him. I just don't know why I don't kill him and when I do, I don't see what I did differently that allowed me to kill him.
 
Hunting smaller private parcels ends up in my target bucks being killed on adjacent properties and significantly lowers my success rate on any specific one. You cannot keep a mature buck on 25-50 acres all season. Minus that, the rate would be closer to 75% on getting a shot opportunity during the season. As to shooting any general mature buck that comes on the property, closer to 85% or more, but I chose not to shoot much anymore. For does, it’s a 95% success rate daily, not for the season. I don’t shoot does much either, just don’t like the effort to get them out, but plan to kill quite a few with the hickory creek mini this fall since I found a place to donate them and don’t even have to field dress them first.

Most hunters make it much harder than it should be! Deer are dumb and predictable.
 
Guess I should have clarified the question a little better. Love the responses so far though. The intent was why do you not kill the deer you are after whether that is a specific buck, a certain age class of buck, a fat doe or a milk lip. A little over 10 years ago I decided my focus would be does and any mature buck (4.5 or older). And I feel like I have been pretty consistently successful in that, 9 of my last 11 bucks were 4.5 or older. Shot a 3y/o about 4 years ago now that I misidentified as it was approaching and didnt look closely as the shot was about to happen because I was in kill mode. Shot a 3y/o last year on purpose because I was high pissed at 'em. Last year was a one of the toughest I remember in my life time.

Last season as tough as it was though was really beneficial for me as a hunter because it forced me to reevaluate how I was hunting, what my goals are and my commitment to them. Every hunting magazine and every podcast is full of content about how you too can be a big buck killer. I cant recall ever seeing or hearing one that addresses why we arent successful pursuing the deer each of us individually is after. I have been guilty of nearly everything listed so far at some point in my hunting career but I for a long time was really good about learning from those flub ups and fixing those things for the most part. But as the last several years have rocked along I got complacent with the success I was having and stopped pushing myself to get better. Everyone's situation is different, some things we can control, others we may not have much control over. I just though it might be a worthwhile exercise to think about the things that keep us from being as successful as we would like to be and evaluate the things we can control vs. the things we cant.
 
kbetts said:
WTH does that have to do with it?

Serious question.
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As someone a decade ahead of him I think I get what he is saying. I am still learning and hopefully this season get back to improving. I have no expectation of ever perfecting the hunt but I think it is a worthy goal to pursue it.
 
My #1 excuse is time..... And I mean time on a multifaceted level....no time to scout is probably a big factor....and the actual hunting time allotted. Quota hunts are roughly 36 hours. So with 3, roughly 12hr shifts, and no real plan, I go fart around and sometimes run into deers but mostly just walk around. And having the family with young kids at home doesn't help with having free time to scout or hunt either

Excuse #2 would probably be weather. If it is raining 2 outta the 3 hunt days that'll kinda put a damper on things...extreme heat and high humidity saps my energy and I might say I'm gonna hunt all day but there is usually late morning to mid afternoon resting/cool down periods of unconsciousness

Excuse #3 is access.... If I had some woods that didn't require paperwork and lottery systems that I could drive to in a reasonable amount of time and just pull off the road and hunt whenever I wanted im pretty confident I'd have a higher success rate.

This is my 8th season since taking on learning how to hunt with no mentor or clue of what I'm doing. 3 deer to show for it and no antlers....pretty pathetic success rate. Pigs outnumber the deers so I usually find them first.

I could go into how thick our woods are or how we have low deer population and the "hunt by the numbers" like u guys talk about is some of the worst in the country but 3 excuses it enough
 
I normally have a small hit list if you will of bucks I'm willing to shoot at the main place I hunt. Last year I was skunked at that place but blame my water well issues screwing up my season. The number one buck made it through the season and though I haven't gotten a pic of him yet this year, I know where he was generally last year (doesn't mean that doesn't change this year). I have his sheds from the year before but couldn't find them this spring. Turns out he shed a long ways from where he was all season and another guy has them. The best looking buck from last year is even bigger this year and is at least 4 years old now so he's moved to the hit list. I have his sheds from 2 years ago but again couldn't find this past years sheds. He's moved location quite a bit from the last two seasons but maybe its just his summer pattern and he might return to his normal location once fall gets here. I should know that answer soon. For me, it's way more fun to have the history with a buck and finally win than just lucking into a buck.
 
Because the family 40-acres I’ve hunted for the last 12yrs since leaving the military has A-holes on all three sides and across the street that illegally bait year round and have conditioned the deer to be nocturnal. The only thing I can do is hunt harder than them during the week and hope they don’t come north for weekend hunting. That’s usually the only way see/harvest a deer.

The family 40 is also transitory property that doesn’t hold deer, the bedding areas are on neighboring properties. I can get within 100yds and usually watch deer go to either property on either side of me.

And the last reason is that I choose to hunt with a longbow so I’m usually just outside my comfort range. Most of my harvesting comes from rifle season and late season muzzleloader when everyone else has called it quits.

There is a giant 14pt that I missed last year with a compound at 40yds after hitting a branch. He’s walking in front of my cams but the odds of seeing him prior to mid November are pretty slim if at all.
 
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Cuddelink tells me he does make mistakes, but not often. I can hunt a fair amount, but not as often as I used to. The overlap between his mistakes and my presence have only worked out once in three years and I couldn’t get drawn without getting busted. Whatever other tricks / tactics are available to me I haven’t figured out yet. Some deer are a borderline waste of time to hunt, depending on what you’re looking for in the process.
 
BTaylor said:
Doesnt look like it based on your profile pic. Or was that just blind luck? I'm guessing it wasnt all luck. Personally I am a sore loser and they pretty well whipped my butt last year. Paybacks...
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I figure you know your stuff and have had lots of success yourself. I read your posts and can see it.
I have had success many times but each year it's like that slate has been wiped clean. Another year, another challenge, it never gets old.
I'll take a little luck over skill anytime!
 
BTaylor said:
As someone a decade ahead of him I think I get what he is saying. I am still learning and hopefully this season get back to improving. I have no expectation of ever perfecting the hunt but I think it is a worthy goal to pursue it.
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I'm still learning too, but at 47 I feel like I'm more dangerous now than ever. There's a balance of health, wisdom, patience, etc that only comes with time. I've been doing this my whole life and NOW are the years I'm expecting to be able to close deals.
 
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