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Your worst mistake

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Wapsi Tree Rat

Well-Known Member
Reading through this forum, there is all kinds of great advice. No matter what your skill level or experience, there's valuable info for everyone. More often than not, putting a mature buck on the ground is all about getting him to make a mistake. I'm not as seasoned as some of the old farts around here (like Daver :)), but I really want to help my team win that contest and all that prize money. So this year I'm not looking back on my successes, I'm trying to remember the big mistakes I've made. We were all inexperienced at one point and we've all learned something the hard way. I would love to hear everyone's #1 on their "don't do that" list.

The biggest mistake I've ever made on the stand?

It was my first success with calling in a buck. I spotted him at 200 yds across an open feild and gradually coaxed him in to about 40 yds with a series of soft grunts. He would stop, I would grunt, he would advance. He was a beast, 180ish with a 6" drop. I just needed 10 more yds. When his ears pointed my direction again, I spit out two more soft grunts. His head flew up as he instantly pinpointed my location. He knew damn well there was no buck in a tree...and I never saw him again. Ooops.:mad::mad:
 
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Taking iffy and eager shots - lack of patience & nerves getting me when I started. Biggest mistake by far.
 
Hunting a rut stand too early, just eager to get deep in the timber early is probably the most consistent mistake I use to make.

Biggest single mistake was not having a stand completely quiet. I was still back in Iowa at the time and had a brute 180 or better buck at 30 yds and coming perfect to a 15 yd lane. As I was set to draw I shifted my weight a bit and the stand creeked. That deer stopped at 20 yards needing to take 2 steps for a shot and never took another one forward. Ass straight toward me and gone 20 seconds later. Heartbreaker for sure, but a good experience.
 
Rushing shots, you have way more time than you think once you stop a deer. I used to be in a hurry thinking the deer would take off running.
 
hillrunner said:
Not holding low on an alert buck is a mistake I made a few times over the years.
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What distance u generally considering there? Like 20+ yards? I probably should think about this more. Most my shots are 7-12 yards I’d guess but I know, even after all these years, I need to think about that. Lot a deer can do If alert & distance gets out there some.
 
The most painful memory I have was on a buck at 27 yards. If I'd of held even a couple inches low he'd of been mine. I had chased that buck for several seasons and messed up the only chance I got.
I once cut the hide on an old ten points back at around 30 ish yards . I can remember another buck at around 25 that ducked the arrow completely.
All of these are bucks that I stopped with a mouth grunt. I don't know the best solution but I now always aim at the bottom of the kill zone. That has been pretty effective whether they duck or not.
 
Right now I'll say that I've missed out on some really nice bucks because I was waiting for the "perfect" shot and missed my opportunity. Of course if I would have taken one of those shots I might be saying the opposite.

In the end I would say I need to take the first decent high percentage shot and not wait for the "perfect" one . . . Would probably have two or three 160"+ bucks hanging in the basement if I had just let the arrow fly,
 
On a cold frosty morning standing up when a buck was walking straight to me. He was a 100 yds. out and at that distance he didn't have to look up very far to pick me off clean.
 
Hunting too hard early in the season and getting wore out by mid november. Not paying attention to entrance routes . First year wearing a harness didnt put the tie off strap high enough , guess whose tether got in the way of them shooting . :mad:
 
Not being able to stay still. More than once I've been busted by a nice buck because after about two hours I get real fidgety. That was in the pre-smart phone days. Now with a smart phone my short attention span can stay occupied for hours.
 
One time I shot a buck at 25 yards square in the shoulder, never did find him should of held a little back and that woulda been it. But the story isn't over for me yet. I still have a chance at that buck.
 
I use to overhunt in high school. As soon as class was out after Oct 1 I'd burn home to hunt everyday I wasn't working. Burned out my spots and didn't see much rutting activity.
Another one is I would draw too early or too late worrying I would get picked off. The one that sticks in my mind was the biggest 8 point I've seen in my life. Walking down a trail that brought him to the base of the tree. Instead of letting him pass and then draw I tried drawing when he was behind a tree and he busted me. That one still haunts me 15 years later
 
I'd say, not putting enough thought into my stand placement in the tree and not clearing shooting lanes. You need cover and shot opportunities with as little movement as possible. When I first started hunting I would just face my stand towards the trail I thought the deer would walk down. I had a 170 incher at 15 yards and I never had a shot opportunity because I didn't clear lanes and I couldn't do a 3/4 turn in my stand with deer all around me. Now I'll angle my stands based on cover and shots and since I hang and hunt, I'll fine tune them every sit.
 
Sligh1 said:
What distance u generally considering there? Like 20+ yards? I probably should think about this more. Most my shots are 7-12 yards I’d guess but I know, even after all these years, I need to think about that. Lot a deer can do If alert & distance gets out there some.
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Out past 30 is when I think it becomes a consideration. No hard data on that tough..... any closer and bows are so fast I don't think they have much time.

What I do know is I watched the biggest deer I've ever shot at duck an arrow at 40 yards. Arrow went 1" over his back. I always seem to aim for double lung...wasn't thinking straight. Aim for heart shot and likely a dead deer.
 
This is my 5th season bow hunting so many more mistakes to come but so far a bad shot made on a deer pushing 160" often feels like my biggest mistake. In reality the biggest mistakes were hunting spots too frequently and taking chances on wrong wind directions or questionable wind directions. Some I hunt with still fight me on this and will hunt the wrong wind but I am learning that really messes up future deer movement. I hunted a fringe spot Saturday that hasn't been hunted in 2 years and despite the wind and the hot weather I got to see a nice 8 and 9 pointer go to war. Seems like something that plays out over and over with spots that I stay away from for long periods. My dad had a 150" 8 come into 10 yards after shooting time on another spot we just hung a stand on. It's still the Oct lull and movement has been really late but the lack of pressure on the spots is still proving evident.
 
Buying land with partners is my biggest mistake, lol.

Hunting mistakes include changing stands at 1:00 when I planned to sit that stand all day. I moved due to a lack of action on a game cam only to have the drop beamed dandy I really wanted walk by the vacated stand at 15 yds at 5 pm. Another debacle is when I chose to hunt in MN with some buddies during a 2014 Halloween cold front seeing virtually nothing only to be greeted by mutiple mature bucks on cam during daylight in Missouri where I should have hunted.
 
I think my most often made mistake, and something that I continually need to work on is over calling. Not necessarily blind calling, but if I can see a buck and I'm trying to coax him in, I can overdo it a bit. In my experience, you can usually tell pretty quick if they are going to be interested or not. If not, just quit or else you'll scare them more than anything.
 
IowaBowHunter1983 said:
Out past 30 is when I think it becomes a consideration. No hard data on that tough..... any closer and bows are so fast I don't think they have much time.

What I do know is I watched the biggest deer I've ever shot at duck an arrow at 40 yards. Arrow went 1" over his back. I always seem to aim for double lung...wasn't thinking straight. Aim for heart shot and likely a dead deer.
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One thing I started doing on alert deer is for instance if the deer is 40 and on alert I will shoot him for 30. Something have done with a few does with great success.
 
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