Am i unlucky or just hunting the wrong places?


Guest Buck_Kicker

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Guest Buck_Kicker

I have been bow hunting for 3 years almost every deer of bow season and still havent shot a deer and only saw 4 deer but far away, does anyone have any advice or tips to bring them in or find where the deer are?

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Re: Am i unlucky or just hunting the wrong places?

Did you mean say "every day"? If so, you may be overhunting an area and educating the deer.

For now, stick to the basics. Wind direction, aproach to your stand, feeding/bedding areas and the trails connecting the two, and scent control.

Don't give up. It took me 12 years to get a deer with a bow. Then, more recently, I connected 6 years straight before getting skunked this year.

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Re: Am i unlucky or just hunting the wrong places?

Here some ideas do to try. Some good scouting will make your chance better. Stand placement is another good thing but i dont get in right were they bed until late season and desprite. Scent control is key and wind. Maybe try hunting some rub lines early next season and see if you can find one of them bucks making them. And some great luck. lol

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Re: Am i unlucky or just hunting the wrong places?

Buck Kicker,

This is my 9th year bow hunting and rifle hunting. In those 9 years I have taken 2 deer with a gun. Up until this year I was lucky to see one deer a season in 10 sits. I got my second this year:) Anyways, I thought I was putting in enough scouting time to get deer but I was way wrong. This year I put in pleny of time and in 6 sittings I saw 21 deer. None of them came in distance to shoot with my bow unfor. but that's alright. I looked at it as if those deer will be alive and bigger for next year. I also feel like I learned a ton this year.

Try scouting a little more this summer and in early fall. I am no expert but I keep hearing it's all down hill after your first deer. This year for the first time I feel like I can go out and get one next year. Good Luck, Dude! Harvesting a deer is one of the best highs you'll ever get. I can't imagine what a big buck high will do.

Also, while your learnin the basics of deer travel, practice, practice, practice with your bow. I was one of the best young archers in the state a few years ago and for the first time I shot at a live deer this year. Twice in one day and missed both shots. This was on my buddies private property. Not because of the "shakes" but because I rushed shots and forgot to aim with different pins.

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Re: Am i unlucky or just hunting the wrong places?

I hope this helps...

I'll start off telling you that what you have described is not much different than what happened to me from 1987 to 1997. Almost as if you followed me around with a video recorder is the similarity!

During that time frame I hunted alot and was only able to see 3 deer...and only one of them got shot at(I missed).

I hunted where I thought the deer would be and where I thought looked like a good spot.

I got tired of hunting and not having the success I wanted.

I was hunting in a great area, even though it was public land, that many people had success in...except me.

I decided to make whatever change was needed for success and that meant doing something..ANYTHING..different from what I had been doing to make it happen.

It may sound strange but I decided to think like a deer. I decided to hunt where they wanted to be and not where I wanted to hunt.

I had to find out where they wanted to be in order for me to have a chance.

I started in the summer of 1998 doing some ground pounding.

The major difference in my success came when I started walking deer trails. Doing that took me into places where I actually said to myself: "There aint no way a deer would go here". The proof was under my feet...their tracks!

I started seeing where and figuring out why a deer would be on those trails...Cover, Cover, Cover!!!

The previous years I hunted where I had seen deer either when driving around on roads or after walking on hiking trails and having a deer jump and run off. My amount of success should have told me that it did not work...but I admit to being hard headed and not without determination.

I found that Cover is where the deer where when it was hunting season in daylight hours. I found out where they liked to be and started picking those spots that gave me an advantage taking into consideration the wind direction...I always made sure it was hitting me in the face.

Since then I have taken 27 deer and 2 of those were with a bow. I have missed chances at many more with a bow, either missing shots or passing on shots that were not good, and some of those were very good bucks.

Now I am seeing them, hunting where they want to be, and having a great time doing it.

Get out there in the summertime and start walking the deer trails. Go to where you saw those deer before with a compass or a GPS in your hands.

Find out where they go to and you will find your successful hunting area for the future!

Find where they are...

Hunt where they are...

Hunt there as often as you can...

Success is inevitable!

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