What is the best advice...

[nybuckboy]

If you could give one piece of advice to a another bow hunter that would up their chances of success, What would it be?

[bluecoupe]

One piece huh....
 

Stay afield all day.  Despite what you'll be told, deer don't go to jail midday. They are actually able, and do move around.

[Five Seasons]

practice

[Dad 6424]

Dont get upset about not seeing deer every time and enjoy the time have fun its a gift to do what we do I spend as much time as i can in the stands my wife goes and sits with me more eyes on the shooting lanes and keeps me from napping lol just have fun .dont get me wrong it is also being ready with the right equipment and making the shot count in the words of Ted Nugget.aim small miss small  good luck

[phade]

What is success?

 

Filling any tag? Seat time without cheating the wind.

Killing a mature buck? Hunt where they live and the above answer.

Enjoying nature? Stop hunting. Find a new hobby like bird watching.

Spending time with family/friends? Somtimes you have to sacrifice personal goals for the better of the group/experience/time spending. Don't worry about it. Before you know it, the people you want to hunt with won't be around or can no longer do it. Always give the best stand to the elders.

 

Kind of hard to provide a single answer.

 

 

[bluecoupe]

Kind of hard to provide a single answer.

 

Agreed!  But those were the parameters set

 

[jjb4900]

put the time in and scout, if you're in an unproductive area, you may be wasting your time.........

[Five Seasons]

he just chose not to follow them anyhow. Should remind people that it was about bow hunting too, not just general hunting.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Belo

[Doewhacker]

Spending time with family/friends? Somtimes you have to sacrifice personal goals for the better of the group/experience/time spending. Don't worry about it. Before you know it, the people you want to hunt with won't be around or can no longer do it. Always give the best stand to the elders.

 

Thats where I am as of now, and I am fine with it and in fact I relish it.

 

Any way, my advice, don't over think things, they are deer. They will eat, sleep, evade predators, breed and repeat next near.

[jjb4900]

Thats where I am as of now, and I am fine with it and in fact I relish it.

 

Any way, my advice, don't over think things, they are deer. They will eat, sleep, evade predators, breed and repeat next near.

good advice......deer haven't really evolved much, they are basically the same animal that our great grandfathers killed without any high tech, expensive gadgetry...it's the hunters that have complicated things, not the deer.

Edited October 9, 2013 by jjb4900

[steve863]

If you could give one piece of advice to a another bow hunter that would up their chances of success, What would it be?

 

 

What will up your chances of success with a bow is TIME.  If you don't have a good amount of time to devote to it, you surely won't be successful, if successful means putting a deer on the ground.  Giving it only a couple of weekends each year typically won't be enough. If someone wants to put deer on the ground with less time spent in the field, then stick to gun hunting. 

 

I would definitely agree with Phade that if enjoying nature is your measure of success, then definitely DON'T waste your time with bowhunting OR gun hunting.  Plenty of better and less frustrating ways to enjoy nature ALL year around.

[phade]

he just chose not to follow them anyhow. Should remind people that it was about bow hunting too, not just general hunting.

 

For good reason, defining success is critical to this thread. The OP should have set the guidelines clearer.

 

Either that or every person has to define their success interpretation with each response. Why heed advice on a success comment from someone looking to fill a tag when the person reading it is after antlers? Does more damage than good imo because this thread promotes miscommunication/misunderstanding.

[Five Seasons]

I would definitely agree with Phade that if enjoying nature is your measure of success, then definitely DON'T waste your time with bowhunting OR gun hunting.  Plenty of better and less frustrating ways to enjoy nature ALL year around.

 

I am not sure I understand this point. If you're just an outdoorsman and enjoy the stand, then you're not frustrated when you do not see a deer. You're only frustrated when you're out to kill a deer and do not. I went out last week just to sit. If I saw a big buck then great, but I really just wanted to get back in the woods. 1st and foremost I do love hunting, but part of WHY I love to hunt is nature. Success is all about what your goals are, and those goals are always your own.

[Five Seasons]

For good reason, defining success is critical to this thread. The OP should have set the guidelines clearer.

 

Either that or every person has to define their success interpretation with each response. Why heed advice on a success comment from someone looking to fill a tag when the person reading it is after antlers? Does more damage than good imo because this thread promotes miscommunication/misunderstanding.

 

fair point. I guess I assumed that success for a bowhunter is the harvest of any deer, otherwise he would have been more specific. Maybe he can clarify. My advice on practice reamins the same regardless. Many posts of hunters missing deer already this year. You can have the best stand in the world and if you can't stick the arrow in the right spot

[Doewhacker]

                                                                                        

[phade]

I am not sure I understand this point. If you're just an outdoorsman and enjoy the stand, then you're not frustrated when you do not see a deer. You're only frustrated when you're out to kill a deer and do not. I went out last week just to sit. If I saw a big buck then great, but I really just wanted to get back in the woods. 1st and foremost I do love hunting, but part of WHY I love to hunt is nature. Success is all about what your goals are, and those goals are always your own.

 

You can enjoy nature without a bow/gun in your hand. You can't hunt without a weapon.

 

Enjoying nature is a by-product when hunting. Hunting is not a typical by-product when enjoing nature, because you wouldn't have a weapon.

 

I get what you are saying. I've seen some fun/cool stuff that I really enjoyed, but I could have easily done that without a weapon.

Edited October 9, 2013 by phade

[moog5050]

Geeze you guys love to argue.  I am paid to do that for a living so I will not argue on a forum.

 

My advice, stop texting in the stand.  lol.  I almost didn't see the 3 doe in front of me when I was texting Monday.   I know one of the doe would have preferred me to continue on texting. 

 

Off to court.

[phade]

Geeze you guys love to argue.  I am paid to do that for a living so I will not argue on a forum.

 

My advice, stop texting in the stand.  lol.  I almost didn't see the 3 doe in front of me when I was texting Monday.   I know one of the doe would have preferred me to continue on texting. 

 

Off to court.

 

Moogs tip: bring a tarp so you don't get blood on the purty truck.

[steve863]

I am not sure I understand this point. If you're just an outdoorsman and enjoy the stand, then you're not frustrated when you do not see a deer. You're only frustrated when you're out to kill a deer and do not. I went out last week just to sit. If I saw a big buck then great, but I really just wanted to get back in the woods. 1st and foremost I do love hunting, but part of WHY I love to hunt is nature. Success is all about what your goals are, and those goals are always your own.

 

 

What I mean with frustration is all the BS that is associated with hunting, such as trespassers, people stealing your stands and property, difficulties in finding property to hunt, not drawing doe tags, etc.  Take up some other outdoor activity and you don't have to deal with any of this.

 

Yeah, success is what you think it is, but to me when it comes to hunting, success is putting something on the ground.  I hear people saying that it doesn't matter to them if they put something down or not, as long as they are out amongst nature, but to me that doesn't cut it.  I can go into the woods at any time of the year if putting an animal down is not the goal.  Why wait for hunting season to do it then?  For me waiting until hunting season to have this "nature" experience is quite silly and honestly just an excuse by those who really are not very good at hunting.

[TeeBugg]

Practice practice practice

[phade]

See, if success was defined...we'd all be chipping in, via the parameters. Now look.

[BKhunter]

Make sure the fridge is full of beer for your return

[Five Seasons]

i didn't think we were arguing. i asked a question, he answered it and I'm not sure we even disagreed...

[BUCKANDAQUARTER]

success to me is whatever I can get out of a hunt that keeps me coming back. sometimes I can have what I consider a successful hunt and not even see a deer. sounds crazy but I am sure others understand. its all in what you get out of it.

[nybuckboy]

To Clarify SUCCESS. I would think we all agree that we hunt whitetail deer for one main reason and a secondary reason, Perhaps I'm wrong here but I would think the number 1 reason we set cameras, scout areas and get up at a god awful time early in the morning is to "kill a Big Racked Mature Buck and secondary is for the meat. Anyone that says he hunts for the meat has no real reason to get up 430-500 in the morning and walk however far into their stand just to kill for meat.

So Success is: try to kill a mature buck.

Oh boy this will probably open up another can of worms...