What were the things that you finally did that made you successful using a Trad.bow for hunting Deer?
I'm not too old to learn.Help me out.How do you get within 15yds. of a deer?i'm seeing them but never in the right spot [so far]
Give me the top 1 ,2 or 3 things that you figured out
wind in your face
not moving
wait for the shot
hunt where the deer are. Not kidding!! It's hard to kill a big buck in an area where a 6 pt is lucky to live through the year.
QWM is a great thing and I hunt quality wildlife management areas as much as I can.
Mike
if missing is your worry, try to hold your position after the shot. I have seen so many guys miss because of dropping their arm during hunting situations when they never do it during target shooting. Buck fever is real and not a myth.
good luck,
I read everything, and watched everything, I could find written by or had the following names connected to it Barry Wensel, Gene Wensel, or Rodger Rothhaar, and then followed their advice and actions. It doesn't do much good to seek advice from experts if you do not follow it. The two things you should get from them, if nothing else, are to spend a lot more tome scouting then you do hunting and it is a lot more important where you hunt then how you hunt.
LUCK
walk and stalk for me..
seeing the animal before it see's you! thats a BIG must. you can trick an animals eyes ones in a while but your relying on a lot of luck
and QUIET shoes!
we have so many guys come over and hunt with big "snake boots" (they are the worst shoes) or "hunting boots with massive hard treads" just a complete waist of time trying to stalk in those things.
I would say shooting wise- holding form after the shot; and picking a spot.
Hunting wise- wing nut is right; you have to be where the deer are to get a shot.
I have this little trick to make the sucess rate go up. I walk a section of dirt road- or a trail that you can see deer tracks cross- where I am hunting. I look for tracks; and the direction of tracks.
Most people drive in the middle of the road; so drive the whole road in the area you want to hunt; and drive over all the tracks--- or wlk over them and kick them to dust -just before light; and then go hunting; and come back after the first few hours of the hunt and walk that same route you drove or walked over.
Any deer tracks will have come through: in shooting time.
Then figure out their trails away from the road or trail; and put a stand of whatever kind there - away from the road or trail. Your chances soar of seeing something the next day at the same time.
Hanging sewing thread accross trails before the days hunt and after can tell you direction of travel; and you know its within shooting time.
Check the wind to decide a stand spot every chance you can while doing this.
lastly - pick a spot and don't miss....
thanks guys.Keep them coming.Missing isn't the worry.I've put a full summer in practicing.My current range is 15yds.Beyond that and I'm not willing to chance it.This will improve next year.I'd rather let it walk than risk a bad placement.
1. Scent free and the right wind.
2. Keep scents and lures inside 12 yds to your set-up.
3. Tune your grunt call to sound more like a small doe, than a big buck. I've killed most of my deer, including bucks, by using a very soft "mew" sound to get them to come in.
4. I have to add a fourth. If I don't see a deer by the third time on stand, then I'll move to a different location.
5. Oh yeah I almost forgot. Tons of post and pre season scouting!!!!! I have to know where the deer are or go when pressured. I've been lucky a few times by setting up "on chance", but most of my good spots I found in early spring before the leaves popped out. I like to prep my spots then and leave em' alone till it's time to hunt. Prepping more than one location at this time will allow you to move to a new set-up with minimal disturbance to the deer.
Arwin,thanks good stuff there.Is that ASAT camo in your pic?
Yup, I love the stuff!!! Deer and turkey seem to look right past me if they happen to look in my direction. I don't use anything else now.
Wingnut, hit it on the nose. We can talk about wind in the face, not moving, etc. But the bottom-line is you have to be in a place where there are deer and the more the better. IMO, main difference between guys who take deer all the time and those that do not is simply opportunity not as much skill as we all would like to think..
RayMO
P.S. Success is measured in many different ways.
QuoteOriginally posted by RayMO:
IMO, main difference between guys who take deer all the time and those that do not is simply opportunity not as much skill as we all would like to think..
The bulk of my deer came off public ground here in Michigan, which is insane with pressure. It does take some skill to find the right spots. ;)
perseverance.
QuoteOriginally posted by Jerry Jeffer:
perseverance.
Number one factor, bar none.
Put your time in, figure them out, then move in for the kill under the right conditions. Knowing how to finish the deal comes with experience.
My wife asked me who the better hunter was between two friends of mine. One is very serious about scent control, where he hunts, under which conditions, etc. The other pays attention to wind some but really just goes and gets it done. He puts a lot of hours up in a tree every year and he has become a "finisher". He's killed a lot of deer and when the moment of truth arrives, it just happens for him. My answer was a vote for the latter.
Dave
time/experience
hunting the wind
a little luck never hurts
"pick a spot" is a good one
give up a little on stand hunting time and do more scouting. proper stand placement. Be patient and don't rush your shot, wait for the right shot. pick a spot.
Over the past three plus decades I've mostly hunted the foothills and mountains. I've spent much of this time working on basics such as learning where the deer I hunt tend to be throughout the day. I also work on keeping track of the prevailing winds and the changing thermals. I've kept runnining journals of this for most all the areas I've hunted throughout my life. Certain patterns may emerge that are unique to particular areas or to particular bucks you are seeking, but most often generalized patterns develop that stay fairly constant throughout the years. At this point, I use this gathered information to identify funnels within the deer's travel routes to target. This can be by ambush in the traditional static stand hunting sense of meaning, or this could be by spotting from afar and then working your way to intercept at one of these identified funnels in a dynamic stalk hunting sense of the meaning. In the end, this boils down to lots of good hard scouting while using good observation skills which makes for easy hunting. This scouting is not just pre-season, but is conducted every time you step into the deer woods. Always observe and take note of your observations.
As a result of doing this over the years, I now find it far easier to look at a new area from afar with no previous experience by using topo maps and aerial photos to have a good idea as to likely bedding areas, water, and food sources. Today it takes me far less time once my boots are on the ground to confirm this information and to identify travel routes and funnels to target. I also find it easier to look at the lay of the land and to predict the thermals and wind changes based off the prevailing winds of the day. This is a big factor for me as I hunt mostly afoot and at times distances as small as ten yards for where you place your feet can mean the difference of your scent being carried off so you are invisible to the deer that are within close quarters, or can mean you are easily winded by the deer from a distance. I do not rely on luck for this stage of the hunt and give great thought as to how I attack an identified hot spot as it relates to sun, wind, and thermals. I place every odd I can to my favor and give up nothing willingly to the deer.
A final old time tried and true method to tag big bucks is to target the doe of the buck you seek. Many have success going straight after a big buck during the pre-rut, but most often will end up with that big buck patterning the hunter first, and the hunter will then lose any chance at the buck. Often it is better to determine the best travel routes and funnels to ambush the doe in the area of the big buck you seek without being too aggressive so you are not patterned by the doe. Have patience in timing for the rut and carefully choose the best identified hot spot for the conditions present at the time. If you stack the deck in your favor and you allow the doe to pass, you just may find that big buck in tow well within 15yards with nothing on his mind but the doe he is following. Every single big buck I've posted pictures of on the *********** were taken using this technique and all were point blank range, save one which was beyond 20yards being my longest shot to date.
Good Luck,
Daddy Bear
Daddy Bear,Well stated .Very informative.thanks
"IMO, main difference between guys who take deer all the time and those that do not is simply opportunity not as much skill as we all would like to think"...I agree completely...You can learn all the required skills but if your not in a good spot to hunt then the skills do you no good.Hunting and fishing are games of luck by nature anyway.You have no control over what the deer will do...All you can do is control YOUR actions and the rest is up to the hunting Gods.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, replaces experience. Spend as much time in the woods as you can.
ounce i learned to keep it simple. i love my hunting toys. scents, calls, camo, broadheads, and boots are all great and ill probably always love never stop "playing" around with them but really they arent neccisary. ounce i learned to keep it simple and just hunt without relieing on a bunch of gadgets and such to help me out i really came to learn more about my quarry and ultimatly about myself as a hunter. simplicity really is what started putting game in the bag for me.
-cory
Knowing my area well and the habits of the deer there is what makes the difference for me, some of my stands have been in the same place for years, while I move a few to make minor adjustments in travel patterns. I like to spend the hours in the stands just to see what the deer do, I like to have the stands in place long before the season is underway. Hunt the wind and don't hunt the same stand two times or days in a row even if it means hanging back in a different stand just to observe the deer that day.
Know your deer, they are creatures of habit, especially after snow. And like stone knife says
" travel patterns " they're very predictable, I think the best piece of equipment that you have is your attitude about your abilities to track and harvest. When you step into the woods think like a deer. " don't try to get lucky " every time you can't, ability, ability, ability. From scouting to tracking harvesting, ability
Carl
1. Getting in the woods often.
2. Getting an idea where deer are.
3. Luck(right place/right time.)
4. Confidence in shot.
5. Good follow up.
location, location, location!
Make sure your scent free always and check the wind also went making that special shot concentrate like burning a hole on the spot you want to hit on that animal
Learning to go slow, sit still and move my eyes before anything else.
I like to get in the woods all year round and watch deer as much as possible.
In the winter after the season or in the spring I'll sit on a stool or even in a treestand. Sometimes I'll take a bow to shoot at coyotes. With the deer I'll sometimes draw my bow to see how much movement I can get away with. The more I'm around the deer, especially up close, the less likely I'll get too excited when I am hunting. I think E. Don Thomas recommended this kind of "scouting" in a magazine article.
But Wingnut nailed it: you've got to be in an area with deer. :knothead:
For me the biggest thing was actually shooting animals. The target shooting and practicing has never been a problem for me, it is the actual shot on an animal that screws me up and I usually do something stupid and miss, like short drawing or snap shooting, even though I shoot great when practicing or stump shooting. So find some animals to shoot and shoot alot, whether small game, hogs, fish, whatever, just shoot some real stuff! Mark
Patience
Gotta put the time in. Can't harvest a animal on the couch. Also practice, practice and more practice, form must be second nature as you shoot.
Spring scouting. Get topos of your areas if you don't aready have them. Try to find funnels even if they are subtle (fingers of dry ground surrounded by swamps, saddles, points jutting out into heavy cover or swamps, locatioins where multiple habitats come together to create a lot of edge such as old cuttings with mature hardwoods, swamps, thickets, benches, sharp cuts that force deer to walk in a certain spot for the easiest route of travel, oak ridges with acorns, etc.). Sit a little longer in the morning and arrive a little earlier in the evening (especially during the rut) and don't hunt stands if the wind is not right.