For those of you who have killed with archery equiptment congratulations. This is my first yr with archery equiptment. I was out this am and trying to make a setup.its a little hilly here in the ozarks and I am hunting from a ground blind stool.when I looked up the trail where I thought the deer would be coming from there was my dog 30 yrds from me.After that I started to stalk and my quiver would get hung up and my bow was getting snaged and I would have to pull leaves out of it. To top it all off it started to warm up and I went to the house with a skeeter in my ear and cobwebs in my face.  :(  It wasnt very much fun....I will hit her again in the am. (Dog will be tied up before I leave).maybe things will go better..G

Yup! All in all a pretty good day; I'd say!

We must be related..

some times it takes a few trips in the timber to get in the zone. seems i always start off the season forgetting something i need and bringing stuff i don't. hang in there it will get better and when it all comes together if will be worth it.

Shoot, that's a good day!

Shoot, that's a good day!

I'd fallen down, broke my bow's tip, and jammed a broadhead into my arse....

Success is not in the harvest, it's found in the particpation, in the journey, in the doing....

any day spent in the woods is a good day...

Geno.  except for the typical "blind hog / mushroom" thing, it isn't as easy as these guys make it look.  

I will say, that if you give it a bit of time you will get used to moving quietly and easily in the woods.  You will get used to how to move your bow, your quiver, your feet,  how low to duck,  how to always stop standing next to some cover, never stopping in the sunlight (specially in the mountains), and many many more things.  You may have read about them all, but till you actually do them, they are just ideas, thoughts, not real live actions.    

You will get there, give it time.  Try to find a way to enjoy each simple success, even if that success is stalking very quietly for 50 yards, no deer, no shots, just having done the stalk.  Then, ....do it again.
Later
ChuckC

QuoteOriginally posted by SouthMDShooter:
any day spent in the woods is a good day...

That is not really what was going through my mind brother...and I havent even tried the broadhead in the arse thing yet.  :D

well written chuck. I believe I was in the wrong frame of mind this am..G

Geno, I'll bet it is not what it is CRACKed up to be....
ChuckC

Restraining the urge to grab and pull the cobwebs off of your face is the hardest thing to do.  That in itself taught me to slow down my speed and look at everything twice.  I have scanned an area a second time and seen deer that I had missed before.

Keep at it.  Cooler weather will get the skeeters and webs out of your way.

Dennis

You need to small game hunt more. You get used to carrying your bow, quiver,and accesorys through the woods quietly before you go for the real important stuff.

LOL, my Coon Hound tracked me right to the bottom of my tree one morning and started to howl. What was I gonna do, shoot her?  Nope, I just smiled and got down and her and I walked back to the house.. I cooked bacon and eggs for her and I. But that evening she stayed in the house and drove the wife crazy:)

beats beaing at work,,,with a cold. sounds like it was not what you expected but then again it won't always be as we expect. better luck the next time around bro.

I think bow hunting and golf were invented to keep us humble. Even those who we see as having had fantastic success at either have prolly had at least a few servings of humble pie. jmho

Oh I have plenty of stories like that as well. Went to a new area a few years ago and tried do a blind setup in the dark. Struggled to find a decent tree and finally after much struggle got my stand hung. This was with screw in steps mind you.

I am sitting about a half hour in the dark and here come some lights from behind me. It gets closer and closer and then voom right beside me. I was setup 20 yards from a road!

Needless to say I hightailed it out of there.

Been there.  Done that.  Smile!  The important part is the time in the woods!

I am sitting about a half hour in the dark and here come some lights from behind me. It gets closer and closer and then voom right beside me. I was setup 20 yards from a road!


lv2hunt...Thats funny

Geno...

Some of us have done this so long it seems like second nature.

1. learn how to walk. I know that sounds silly- you  know how to walk. But do you know how to walk in the woods without sounding like a person?

Tromp tromp tromp tromp sounds like one thing- people. Toe/heel is the way you walk- to reduce noise. Its a lost art to a lot of people..but when you put your toes down first, you feel sticks, rocks, whatever you are stepping on that might make noise, and you can then stop, lift your foot off of it and replace it. You can't do that when you put your heel down first.

Then how about the way you walk. Do you walk like a metronome? step step step step step..without stopping? Try taking two or three steps, and hesitate. Think about the deer you hear walking in the woods. Try to move your feet like their feet...or like a squirrel moving across the forest floor....that is the type of noise that game is used to hearing and will not alarm or alert them.

2. Wind. Get a squeeze bottle, and fill it with corn starch. Walk to your stand with the wind in your face, and away from where the deer are if possible..sometimes its just better NOT to hunt a stand...and always know where the deer are when you are moving into a stand location.

Is it close to a bedding area? You have to be really quiet when moving into a stand placed there. If in the dark of night, on a morning hunt, you have to find a way into your stand where you don't tell the deer you are there. Come in from a direction away from where the deer are in the dark..and let them come back toward you, going to bed.

If in the evening, you want to hunt trails and transition areas where the deer get up out of their beds, stretch and stroll into to await darkness. Especially bucks...they won't typically move into open areas to feed until the cover of darkness, after Labor Day and their horns harden up.

3. Hunt high in the morning if you hunt food sources, like ridge lines or saddles...and hunt low in the evenings...usually good advice there but temper that with your scouting.

4. if you don't find fresh droppings under an oak, don't hunt it...just because there's acorns there doesn't mean deer are feeding on them. Remember whites first, reds and blacks second- oaks that is. Soft mast, like grapes, persimmons,apples, crabapples, pears...that's like candy to a deer.

4. Creeks and streams are good ways to get into an area quietly...and stands hung near them gives you lots of cover noise as well.

5. look for pieces of deer when scanning the woods, not the whole thing...and always look for movement becuase that's what you will pick up on most..more than seeing the deer itself is movement. Train your eyes while riding in your car to see things in your peripheral vision..like movement...and horizontal lines in a world of vertical lines( the forest is usually taht way- vertical) so any horizontal line should be suspicious to you as a potential target)

Stick with it...it gets easier. Hunt squirrels and other small game....it will train you to hunt big game well.