Boll Weevil
Well-Known Member
duckriver,
I love to hunt...I mean really love it. But at some point, my desire to spend time in the woods chasing an old deer can actually work to my disadvantage. I stumbled onto this recognition in college and my first few years out of school quite by mistake.
Time in the outdoors during my college years was downright rare compared to when I was younger and had all the time in the world to walk out the back door, scout, hunt, build / move stands, and glass fields. I had to pick my time to be home or ask for time off well in advance vs. being able to go any time (all the time actually). Circumstances forced me to be a little more time-selective.
It was during those years that I started seeing big/old deer with far more regularity (and killing a few) and it really got me thinking. I was hunting the same ground, same stands, same food sources, etc but is it possible I was OVERhunting in the past?
At that point, the only thing that had really changed when I examined it all was that I had far less time to hunt. Old deer can feel this. They smell, hear, see, and quite frankly sense this. It can be hard for us hunters to stay out of a particular stand, but what I've found is if I hunt it at the wrong time my odds go down not up.
I love to hunt...I mean really love it. But at some point, my desire to spend time in the woods chasing an old deer can actually work to my disadvantage. I stumbled onto this recognition in college and my first few years out of school quite by mistake.
Time in the outdoors during my college years was downright rare compared to when I was younger and had all the time in the world to walk out the back door, scout, hunt, build / move stands, and glass fields. I had to pick my time to be home or ask for time off well in advance vs. being able to go any time (all the time actually). Circumstances forced me to be a little more time-selective.
It was during those years that I started seeing big/old deer with far more regularity (and killing a few) and it really got me thinking. I was hunting the same ground, same stands, same food sources, etc but is it possible I was OVERhunting in the past?
At that point, the only thing that had really changed when I examined it all was that I had far less time to hunt. Old deer can feel this. They smell, hear, see, and quite frankly sense this. It can be hard for us hunters to stay out of a particular stand, but what I've found is if I hunt it at the wrong time my odds go down not up.