2018 Lessons learned

[OldNewbie]

This was my fourth season overall and third with a bow. I'm still very much a newbie. So yeah I learned plenty:

1) treestands aren't that hard to put up by yourself if you only go 12 feet instead of 15 feet. And they still work well enough. And aren't as scary. But I still used a harness and safety rope for climbing up/down. (60+ yrs old is just too old to recover from a fall without some lasting damage.)

2) button bucks can look an awful much like a doe on the last day of archery at 4:30 PM. I will use binoculars to verify no buttons before shooting henceforth (they are tasty, though...). 

3) I learned that if your first shot on a deer hits left by six inches, then your next shot probably will also, if you don't take time to re-check and adjust your bow sight. 

4) A friend told me, and I tested and verified, that deer don't spook much at sounds ("the woods are full of sounds") as long as they don't see or smell you.

5) Grunting and rattling actually works. It helps if you have done enough sits to hear real doe bleats. I found I had to cup the end of the call in my hands and squeeze it tight to get that soft, muffled doe bleat that I have heard real deer make. Like humming with your mouth closed.

6) micro food plots work great.. for a week or so.. until they are totally eaten up.

7) lighted nocks (Lumenocks etc) aren't any help in tracking a deer if you shoot pass throughs. And they don't help recovering the arrows either, if there are a few inches of snow on the ground.

8) tracking a deer in fresh snow is really really easy! Even in the dark.

9) don't push a liver shot deer. Just don't. Even if gun season starts in the morning and the deer is heading toward a neighbor's stand and its getting dark and the coyotes will be out soon. Just.. wait.

There's probably more but I have to go cook dinner..

[landtracdeerhunter]

On 12/19/2018 at 1:58 AM, nyslowhand said:

For us old farts - Don't expect this ole body to be able to do next year what it has reliably done in the past!

Gotta be positive!

[landtracdeerhunter]

I've made many mistakes in the past deer hunting and I'm sure I'll make some more in the future, God Willing.

[Doc]

On ‎12‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 6:30 AM, Robhuntandfish said:

 thanks Wolc for the idea of taking hot cider for hunting.  Did that a bunch this season and after hunting a thermos of that hit the spot.

Apparently you guys are not afflicted with the same malady as I am when it comes to cider. For me it is the world's best laxative. I absolutely love cider, hot or cold, but on stand, it would cause near-instant problems.....lol.

[Nomad]

13 hours ago, OldNewbie said:

4) A friend told me, and I tested and verified, that deer don't spook much at sounds ("the woods are full of sounds") as long as they don't see or smell you.

You’ve learned much, but I think you’ll find sounds can sure spook them. I can think of two very nice ( one true monster) bucks that just flat out ran from very minor sounds. One was a slight squeak of my rubber boot on the stand , the other was a noise from the stand it self moving .

This year reaching for my gun my hand “ hit” the bolt and made ,the tiniest little noise, stopped a doe in her tracks .

[wolc123]

9 hours ago, Doc said:

Apparently you guys are not afflicted with the same malady as I am when it comes to cider. For me it is the world's best laxative. I absolutely love cider, hot or cold, but on stand, it would cause near-instant problems.....lol.

I am very thankful to be quite regular, and have always been able to take care of that business early in the morning, prior to spending part or all of the day in the woods.  I feel sorry for you folks who have to pack the TP.   As far as piss goes, this was the first year I let it all go from the stand.   It did not seem to bother the deer at all.   I guess the warm cider cover scent might help out with that.     

[landtracdeerhunter]

13 hours ago, wolc123 said:

I am very thankful to be quite regular, and have always been able to take care of that business early in the morning, prior to spending part or all of the day in the woods.  I feel sorry for you folks who have to pack the TP.   As far as piss goes, this was the first year I let it all go from the stand.   It did not seem to bother the deer at all.   I guess the warm cider cover scent might help out with that.     

"Lessons Learned,"   LOL.

[landtracdeerhunter]

23 hours ago, Doc said:

Apparently you guys are not afflicted with the same malady as I am when it comes to cider. For me it is the world's best laxative. I absolutely love cider, hot or cold, but on stand, it would cause near-instant problems.....lol.

The unpasturized cider of years ago really bothered me, all the bacteria and all. Those little worms in the cider apples can do a number on ya, LOL. Today"s, of what they call "cider," doesn't bother much. They also use higher quality apples; don't use the "drops" like they use to. At yeast the producers I know.

[crappyice]

Seems to me that deer have learned to check the more permanent stands on properties as they walk past...aka they look up which I was told they don’t do by someone years ago. My greater success comes from the climber stand and with the exception of one “money tree” I try to have a few different trees to climb in a particular area if I plan on hunting that piece a few sits in a row. May be the reason, mid season changes helped people this year. As we pattern them...they pattern us!
I also learned that shooting a deer with my kid next to me is awesome and the fastest way to get him hooked.
And finally (for now!) GO SLOW! Had a deer bust me this year cause I tried to grab my bow too soon and she caught my movement. I had plenty of time but got too antsy.
Oh yeah...melatonin is my friend at hunt camp with 6 guys who snore!



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[wolc123]

11 hours ago, crappyice said:

Seems to me that deer have learned to check the more permanent stands on properties as they walk past...aka they look up which I was told they don’t do by someone years ago. My greater success comes from the climber stand and with the exception of one “money tree” I try to have a few different trees to climb in a particular area if I plan on hunting that piece a few sits in a row. May be the reason, mid season changes helped people this year. As we pattern them...they pattern us!



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That certainly seems to be the case with older deer.   It is easy to do the same thing over and over, but that also makes it easy for them to pattern us.   When I got busted by a big 3-1/2 year old buck in a stand on one edge of a swamp this year, I moved that hang-on stand to the other side of the swamp soon after he disappeared.   That helped me kill him on my next hunt.  It was the first time I had been in that stand at the new location.   The year prior, I killed a slightly larger chest-girth, but smaller-racked 3-1/2 year buck with my crossbow.  That happened after I moved from a ground blind on the edge of a food plot, to a tree stand in the adjacent woods, with only 15 minutes of daylight left.  It was also the first time I had hunted that stand that year.  It was almost like he was watching me in the ground blind and did not come out to feed until he saw me leave.   The noise I made clearing the leaves from the deck on that other stand must have sounded like another buck making a scrape, and quickly drew him into range.   After they survive a couple of seasons, you got to work a bit harder to get where they don't expect you to be.     

[CapDistPatriot]

Afternoon sits most productive. Dont move after 2:00-3:30-sundown = witching hour, all kinds of activity.

Bring two flashlights. Swing flashlight in circular motion all way out of woods, 360 orange on way out of woods.

Edited December 22, 2018 by CapDistPatriot

[Daveboone]

Not so much learned as reinforced...

1)Hunt the wind! 

2) No such thing as getting to the stand too early, be in morning or afternoon hunt