Lesson's Learned

[OneCam]

Each hunting season many lessons are learned - some by success but as we all know the best lessons are learned through failure.

I learned a very valuable lesson (which is really a no brainer) this year as I decided to climb out of my tree one hour early on Nov 1. Well I didn't even make it half way down and wouldn't you know it a doe and a huge buck (which was later harvest by a friend) came into view. Well they probably would have funneled past me for a shot but the doe caught me trying to get back in the stand

.

You can bet I didn't leave any of my stands early again.

Please share some of your lesson's learned so far . . .

 

[muddy]

same thing happended to me too OneCam...only i got a shot at my big one but managed to get briskit...

i think my most memorable lesson would be to take your time and not hurry no matter what. this also ties in with wearing your safety belt as i fell earlier this year but thanks to a full body harness i only had a sore back rather than a busted one. if i ended up like my sight did things may not have turned out for the best.

safety first.

 

[Central Iowa]

Great post, I learned to never give up and throw in the towel. I came close to giving up the night before I harvested Ole Droppy. I was so close that it's hard to put into words the emotions I was going through. I set a goal preseason and it took everything I had and more to achieve it.

 

[Old Buck]

Great post. I had the privilege of watching 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 year old bucks on several occassions this fall and re-learned why they are so difficult to take. On at least four separate occassions I watched these old guys and was amazed each time how much time they spend looking around and how little time they spend moving. I'd watch them for over an hour and in that time they'd move less than 150 yards. Most of the time was spent standing around watching other deer. As little as they move and as much as they watch it makes me wonder how often they've picked me off and quietly moved away without me even knowing they were around.

One of the things I love so much about bowhunting is that after well over 30 years there is still so much to learn!

Good hunting!
Old Buck

 

[Fishbonker]

I'm still learning the basic points of treestand hunting. Position in relation to where you THINK the deer will be coming. What to drag along and what to leave in the house/truck. What clothes to wear for the weather. How to move in the stand and not make noise. Where to put the safety strap on the tree so it doesn't interfere with your draw. And a lot more. Maybe someday I'll be able to see and harvest a buck like some of you have. Even if I do I'll still have tons to learn.

The 'Bonker

 

[Liv4Rut]

i learned two things so far, one thing is when it starts to feel like a job and you start to get frustrated, just remember why you are here, just to have fun and be a part of everything. it seems like that feeling just immediately goes away and then you can just enjoy yourself a little more. another thing i learned is windy days arent so bad, i shot two deer this year on extremely windy days. most days when its windy i have no faith ever when hunting, i just hate being there when my tree is about whipping me out and hoping the tree doesnt snap. when you stop to think about it, where they gonna go, its not like they are gonna be gone with excessive wind, snow, rain etc. they gotta live too!! also if you got a camera with a neck strap and wear a safety belt if you put the neck strap through the belt then the camera through that it will sit silently at your side and always there for a quick grab and wont get in the way of your bow and treestand while sitting!!! goodluck guys and im sure by the end of the year more stuff will be posted

 

[Big Timber]

Lets see...

My lessons for this year are;

1. Dont under-estimate does, they are bucks eyes/ears during the rut.

2. As liv4rut mentioned, dont disreguard windy days. I encountered 2 bruisers on 2 extremely windy days.

3. DONT GET MAD WHEN ONECAM SHOOTS ANOTHER MONSTER!

4. Take antlerless deer early, when there isn't a buck hot on their trail.

5. Be happy with your harvest, no matter what the score is.

6. The most important!, Don't tell your woman that you shot one, she will just assume that you are done bowhunting. (Yes, I have made that mistake, every year.)

I think I do more of re-learning old lessons then new ones. Gotta love bowhunting!

BT

 

[SaskGuy]

I think Shredder's quote is one to live by "What seperates trophy hunters from trophy takers is patience, persistence, and location, plus being able to make the shot when it presents itself." I did the first three in muzzleoader season then blew the shot. I was sick about it for days and really angry with myself. I then decided that is was not worth being mad and remebered why I was out hunting in the first place. From that day on I didn't get so frustrated with the outcomes of my hunts, I learned just simply to enjoy being out there, regardless what I saw. Now I'm spending the last 3 days of the season just sitting in a stand watching and it helps me remeber why I love hunting so much, it's not the taking of a trophy that matter so much, it's just as exciting seeing one. Oh yeah, old does should never ever be underestimated. I was made by old does this year that knew exactly where to look for me the next time I was out.

 

[IAHunter]

I learn something new every year. This year as well as last when the shot at the bruiser presented itself it was quick and I didn't think through the shot well enough before I pulled the release trigger. I hit them both high and didn't recover either (you would think I would learn)

I also over hunted my stands (lazyness). By the end of season the deer were walking around my "honey hole".
Trying new stand placement is a must. I have heard a lot of stories about people who shoot deer out of a stand the first time they hunted it. This was the case with a friend of mine this year. We hung a stand around noon and he went back and hunted it and shot his deer around 4.

Read iowawhitetail.com religously... I love hearing everyones stories Thanks for a great site!

#1 lesson... Enjoy yourself thats why you are there!

 

[moosehunter]

Jeez.........what have I learned. I know one thing fer sure. Bow hunting is a lot harder than it looks. Let me take that back. Harvesting a mature buck with a bow is a lot harder than it looks. Early in the season I missed a nice twelve from the ground. (shot low) A couple weeks later I missed a beauty of a 10, twice. (sights got bumped off) Then I hit one and good and couldn't find it. That still bothers me. Last night I had a 160" 12 at 18 yards and had plenty of time to think about everything I have to do. Center the pin, keep it a little high, take a breath, stop the deer. The string hit my coat sleeve and I missed. And the funny thing is, I've been shooting a few arrows almost everyday with my coat on and have never hit my sleeve.

If it wern't for bad luck I'd have no luck.

However, everytime I screw up I don't repeat that mistake so I guess I'm learning. All these years I've hunted deer and thought I was figuring them out fairly good, but everything is different during the rut that's for sure.

Maybe it's not my time yet. Or maybe I have my sights (not bow) set a little high. But one thing is certain, I will be out there and trying to get my 1st bow kill.
(right after muzzleloader)

 

[Blaster]

This is the first year bowhunting, that i was starting to not have any fun.
The reason for this was i was putting to much pressure on myself

to
shoot a buck as big or bigger then the one i shot last year. Finally it
hit me why i started bowhunting in the first place. I might not end up
with a deer from bowhunting this year, but what i learned might make
this the best year yet!

 

[Shredder]

My most important lesson this year was making the shot at the time it presented and that rushed shots equal poorly hit animals. For the last two seasons, I was so set on taking a giant that I got all worked up as the deer came close and I found myself forcing shots that were marginal at best. After grazing one the last week of october and yanking up a soon to be shot the first week of november, I had had enough. I was loosing interest fast. I sat back one evening with a frosty and told myself I had shot numerous bucks before with a bow without the problems I was experienceing. I just made it up in my mind that if I wait for a better angle and calm myself before the shot that things would look a lot like my 3 d target and I can hammer the hell out of that!! I changed my mentality mid season and harvested two great bucks during the next two weeks. I made it out of my "rut" and got back on track........

 

[Fletch]

Boy, this year really reinforced many of the important things (I thought) I had learned over the years.
1. Keep it simple. The more gear and gadgets you have the more problems you have. There wasn't many times in stand that I didn't forget something important(grunt call, binocs, rattling antlers)because I was trying to remember too many things. Start with only the sticks and string, then carefully work up from there.
2. There are deer and then there are mature bucks - they aren't the same. For 'deer' follow the sign, for big bucks follow the terrain. I followed this rule with one of my stands and arrowed a good buck first time in.
3. And I agree, don't tell the wife - at least not right away. I got on the cell phone to tell my wife I had a good one on the ground and her very next words were, "Good, now I can go to (some woman thing) tomorrow and you can get the yard raked."

 

[muddy]

don't overlook the simplest of things. for me this year it was to wear rubber boots and watch the wind. i put too much stock in my supprescent clothing. the stuff does exactly what it says, supperss but not eliminate. i got winded when i thought i was totally scent free on a couple occasions. once i started paying attention to the wind i began seeing good bucks. also, with regards to boots i was always wearing leather boots and would sometimes forget to descent them. i got busted once for it and taht was enough, after that it was rubber boots every time. the night i shot my buck i had walked all over the place where my buck came up the ridge and he never knew i had been there. keep it simple stupid i now tell myself!!!

 

[Ghost]

This year strongly reinforced what I already had been telling myself for many years of bowhunting.....put in the time in the stand.

Got myself into a bad situation at work and only got to the stand about 8 times. Sure you can get lucky and take a mature buck on the first couple of trips to the woods, but talk to any of the consistant mature buck hunters on this site and you quickly will find out that you have to put in the time.

I was happy to see a dandy 160 class 8 pointer on my last outting of the season, but he had a real interest in his lady friend that took him over the next ridge. I chose to pass several 120-130 bucks this year and am happy to live with that decision even if it means tag soup.

I'm also glad to hear so many of you comment about just enjoying being out there and learning. I hate to see someone feel pressured to have to tag something. I remember those days, I think we called it High School many years ago.

I hope everyone had a great season, harvest or not.

P.S. I'll be packing the 870 mag Saturday morning in my favorite funnel.

 

[HUSKERBUCK]

Be prepared!!! A good buck can show up at anytime. One morning I had been in the stand from before dark until about 10:00. I had not seen squat. Maybe one doe. Well I decided to get out, stood up and took off my mask. I spotted a dink buck about 80 yards away. I thought I would have some fun with him before I called it a morning. I grunted a couple of times at him loudly. No response. I then took out my "can" and hit it about three times. No response from this either. Must be too far away to hear it I thought. All of a sudden from my left a very nice 5x4 comes crashing out of some cedar trees about 20 yards from me on a dead run to find the doe he heard. He stopped directly behind my tree. I could look around one shoulder and see tail. I could look around the other shoulder and see antlers. Here I am standing there with what would be the best buck I had in range all year and all I have in my hand is my "can". My bow is hanging from a hook. Well needless to say after a couple of minutes of not finding his doe he took off. Boy was I pissed at myself. My best opportunity this year and I blew it. Just one of many things that I have learned since I took up this AWSOME sport. As Stan Potts says " You just gotta love this". And I do!!

 

[HawkeyeHerps]

This was my first year bow hunting and I think the biggest mistake I made was to start tracking a doe only 15 minutes after I shot it. The shot was a low pass through and there was a nice blood trail but I basically ended up chasing the doe through the woods. I found big puddles where she stopped, but the trail dried up and I never found her. I knew she was around because her kids were staying just ahead of me instead of taking off. Three hours looking alone and another hour looking with a friend and I never found her. The land owner was very happy because I didn't use up a tag but I felt really bad about not letting her die in peace and letting the meat go to the coyotes.

 

[hags]

Great topic......my big leasson for the year was to be mobile and maybe a little less(OK...a lot less) stubborn....I spent a bunch of time planning deer stands and installing deer stands and clearing shooting lanes way back on the hunting property were noone cares to walk to.When the rubs and scraps appeared right up by the main road I kept telling myself I was still in the "best spots".....couldn't believe that the big guys would be right out by the road.....until I walked out one night and jumped a nice buck at the gate.I looked around the front of the property at the end of gun season and noticed the bucks had it all ripped up and I was hunting in the wrong spot....I'll be out front the rest of this year and have at least one stand out there next year.

hags

 

[all4s]

Great topic OneCam...This is a bit different. I was duck hunting last Oct. and noticed a good buck chasing an uncooperative doe in a CRP field. I returned latter with my bow and began to sneek up through the short grass CRP towards a rock pile that was just over the hill from where I had last seen the deer. When I got within 100 yards a doe stood up on the rock pile, I was busted, she bolted in the opposit direction of the buck. Was That the doe? I did'nt know. Did she take the buck with her when she bolted? Anyway, I went to the rock pile and sat in the does bed. There I was, skylined, sitting on a rock pile the size of a pickup box with no cover, just a few iron weeds sticking up around me. I was'nt there two minutes when the big buck came over the hill on a dead run right at me. 70 yards, I can't believe this, 40 yards, I drew back, I can't believe he did'nt peg me! 30, 20 yards broadside. I miss! I think my arrow touched an iron weed. But I will call it buck fever! Lesson learned-and this is a streach... If I can move a (comming into heat) doe out of her bed with out spooking the buck I will sit where I jumped her and wait, because he is comming to check on her like a hot scrape. I don't know if I can duplicate what happened to me on the rock pile again but I will be looking for the opportunity. I hunt open praire alot and see more day time activity than most deer hunters typically do,so you never know!
This year I was able seporate a buck on a comming into heat doe (same time of year). The doe ran down the drainage and the buck went up over a CRP ridge and then looped around and came back to the drainage. Smooth move, kept his head low, but I seen him. Now I had two reference points. I closed the gap on the buck and waited. I knew he would come looking for his queen. And he did, and the wind switched!!! Next Year.
Hunt on All4s

 

[jason]

I've learned things this year the hard way! I put in so many hours this year in the stand, more than any year. It wasn't uncommon for me to be sitting half a day, or even full days in the stand. I had a chance at a nice buck, but couldn't get a shot opprotunity. But last week, while hunting off the ground, I missed a decent buck. I've learned not to rush shots. Because I'm sure if i would of been more patient i wold of got him.
good luck and good hutning

jason