Luck still plays a big part!!!

[nybuckboy]

You can set all the stands... you can set up the trail cams... you can plant all the food plots but the best thing you can do score a big buck is pick an area with a good doe population... sit on the down wind side of good run and just put in the hours. Pass on the little bucks and wait for a good one.

[ncountry]

So true.. you can do everything you can think off to increase your odds, but a little bit or sometimes a lot of luck is involved...

[Doc]

Kind of like that old saying, "I'd rather be lucky than good".

[Renegade Hunter]

Kind of like that old saying, "I'd rather be lucky than good".

 

That's what I'm counting on!

[TeeBugg]

Kind of like that old saying, "I'd rather be lucky than good".

Rather be lucky anyday!

[phade]

Odd, the harder I work at becoming a better hunter, the luckier I get.

[growalot]

Well ya know my thoughts on that...Show me the doe...

[NFA-ADK]

Good luck is always a blessing.  Right place at the right time.  Proper shot placement, due to practice.  Wish I could scout more but it never seems to pan out...  One thing I do notice is that the guys who spend more than 7-10 days hunting seem to be the exception and due to the time put in, well like Phade said they seem to create their own luck.   

 

Persistence, practice, in depth knowledge of my prey and it's anatomy help in a major way but I will take good luck over the bad luck any day!!! 

[gjs4]

it is tough to find a common denominator with deer but luck is not where its at.

 

maybe you have great ground....maybe not

 

Hard work may be necessary for some folks but it will always pay back.....hoping for luck is an admittance of being lazy

[NFA-ADK]

it is tough to find a common denominator with deer but luck is not where its at.

 

maybe you have great ground....maybe not

 

Hard work may be necessary for some folks but it will always pay back.....hoping for luck is an admittance of being lazy

I do not hope for it but if you think luck does not play some part, well then I would say you have not hunted very much for any hunter who hunts long enough will admit to having some good or bad luck at one point during the many years put in...   That being said the more prepared I am when hunting the better my luck becomes...   The land/soil/residential/farm/forest and populations of doe, buck and hunter are huge factors in NY.  State vs private, farm vs woods, rural vs deep woods I could go on...

 

EX: If I practice shooting with my gun at 200 yards every week and shoot a nice buck at 300 yards I would say that was a good shot and my buddy would say that was a lucky shot you took at a walking deer quartering away...

 

I shot a monster buck in the ADK in 2010...  I found his track the day before and was LUCKY enough to catch up to him at mid day.  I was also luck enough to call him back and get a perfect broadside shot on him.  The several unlucky times I had with mature bucks after taking my 1st ADK buck in 2000 were unlucky times...  Usually cause by user error resulting in bad luck for me and was part of the reason I was enveloped with taking a mature ADK buck.  Still...

 

Yes hard work, dedication to my sport, shooting, knowledge of trajectory, prey, extreme patience and the ability to track, hike, still hunt, read sign well and exploit it.  The willingness to learn from any other hunter willing to share regardless of experience.  Much of this has raised my level of hunting but I pray good luck follows me every year, I have had enough bad luck to write a book...   

 

Think I will write a good luck poem for bow hunting...  Seem to be in a writing or typing mood...  Will post under new topic.

Good luck!!!

[doecomander]

Gun hunters are lucky, bowhunters are good. 

[stevenjackson]

for sure

[Doc]

Gun hunters are lucky, bowhunters are good. 

It is getting harder and harder to pattern deer during bow season with all the other people wandering around the woods. Of course, I am primarily talking about hunting state land. Between the hikers and bikers and small-game hunters, and birdwatchers and some others that I don't have a clue what they're doing, it is getting pretty tough to get deer to do the same thing twice. So maybe there are some places where bowhunting is reliant on luck as well.

 

Gun hunters are always subject to the activities of other hunters keeping the deer moving. And while luck plays a big part in successful gun hunting, there is some skill in understanding hunter patterns and escape routes.

 

[First-light]

Well said Doc, BTW good morning.

[Doc]

Well said Doc, BTW good morning.

Hey .... another early-bird! Kind of nice here early in the day.