Hunting log

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I do. I record what days, what stand/ farm,the amount of deer what they were, how long I hunt, and the over all weather like temps wind direction if its raining or any of that.
 
I'd like to hear some of it.. I'm putting one together mine is going to be geared mostly toward movement in relation to wind and weather, that's what I'm most interested in....
 
I have my own paper log book that I write alot in. But I have an app called the hunting journal and it has a map that you can mark where you have seen sign and what kind of sign it was. All of the hunts I go on the app has where you can put in the barometric pressure, wind direction, wind speed, temp, moon phase. Pretty much everything about the weather. Every deer I see gets documented on the exact time I seen it, its behavior, and which direction it was going. I also document all the sign I see so I know whats old and whats new. What time I enter the woods and what time I leave. And all of this information has been useful to me.
 
BHC,

Again, I collect far more information than most hunters would be interested in, but a partial list of data that is collected for every person, every time they hunt is: the date, hunter's name, weapon carried, stand they hunted from, time they got into the stand, time they left the stand, and their elapsed hunting time. If a hunter sees any deer, the exact time they saw each deer or group of deer, how many deer were associated with each sighting time (broken down by adult bucks, adult does, fawns, and unidentifiable deer [and for bucks, their ages, antler points, gross antler score, and photo census ID#]). Data is also collected on which of these deer were legal for harvest (using property rules) and whether a shot was attempted or a clear shot opportunity passed. For shots attempted, the number, distance, and results of each shot are logged, as well as the results of the harvest attempt (missed, wounded and lost, or killed and recovered).

For each time anyone hunts, the following environmental condition information is collected: High temp for the day, low temp for the day, average wind speed during the hunt, average cloud cover during the hunt, primary wind direction, any precipitation that occurred during the hunt, atmospheric pressure, atmospheric pressure trend, and the percent of the moon's surface that is illuminated for that date.
 
After 31 years of keeping data on all my deer kills (247 to be exact), and most of my days afield, I have discovered a pattern.

The BEST day for me to hunt and kill ANY deer, is October 20th. The best time is 10 AM EST.

My average bow shot is 19 yards.Practice shooting every shot possible at distance 25 yards and in!

Know where to put the bullet or arrow to make the quickest kill.

The best day for me to kill a mature buck in Tennessee, is November 18th. Again...that time is 10 AM EST.

The best conditions are a calm cold, clear day right after a couple days of rain.

OR...a drizzly day after a long, hot, dry stretch of weather, especially during late October or November. Better hunt all day.

This being stated, I have hunted both conditions and had ZIPPO action!

Try to stay clean. Try to hunt the wind. And always try to know on what deer are feeding so you can be between where they are, and where they are going.

OFTEN times I've had deer do the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of what I expected. One of my favorite sayings is, "this deer obviously did NOT read the rule book".
Just last Halloween I killed an eight point that I watched walk right behind my truck and down a dirt road all the way to 30 yards of me...IN MY WIND!

But most of all, I try to always remember, you can't kill anything sitting at camp. HUNT!
 
102 said:
The best conditions are a calm cold, clear day right after a couple days of rain.

OR...a drizzly day after a long, hot, dry stretch of weather, especially during late October or November. Better hunt all day.

This being stated, I have hunted both conditions and had ZIPPO action!



...OFTEN times I've had deer do the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of what I expected.
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And with enough data, that is exactly what you will find. No "pattern" is a guarantee of deer activity. Analysis of data will just find which conditions increase or decrease the odds of seeing deer moving. However, that's just the odds. You may still have the best hunting day of the year under the worst odds, or a complete zero day under the best odds. It just means that if you hunt days with the best odds numerous times, you will have more total successes than hunting the same number of days with the worst odds.

For instance, over many years of data collection, bucks sighting rates under the "best" moon conditions average about twice as high as during the "worst" moon conditions. That doesn't mean a hunter should stay home on the worst moon days. It just means the hunter has half the chance of seeing a buck that day as on a day with the best conditions. In addition, that's only over the long term--looking at many, many days under those conditions. In that data can certainly be found hunts under the worst conditions that were exceptionally good, and hunts under the best conditions that were big zeros.
 
i have started and stopped many times over the years.every time i have stopped i kick myself.congrats to anyone more consistent than myself.i plan on being more consistent but knowing myself,i will not
 
We kept one at the hunting cabin where I hunted in Wisconsin. we logged all our hunts. You were expected to put down the following:
Date
Time out
Time in
Weather conditions
Which stand used
How many deer,sex, if bucks how big
What time they came through
If killed and what weapon
Anything special to note, bucks chasing, still in bachlor groups, 1 in velvet, ect

We were running on about 5 years of notes when I moved to TN.
 
greygoose said:
i have started and stopped many times over the years.every time i have stopped i kick myself.congrats to anyone more consistent than myself.i plan on being more consistent but knowing myself,i will not
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26 years of consistent data collection

6,343.27 hunting hours
2,602 deer seen, including 644 antlered bucks
157 deer killed, including 72 antlered bucks
 
My brother had this made for me a couple years back since I like keeping up with something's. I don't always remember but I just right down a few things here and there. I added one page I wrote on...if its less than 5 mph wind I put it as none. I no that's a sin to some but that's the way I write it. I mainly do it for memory purpose.

 
Nice BSK, now that is consistency. Hopefully when I get to that number of years I will have some good data too. That is something I would like to pass down to my kids, lol they would be like, dang dad you sure spent alot of time in the woods to only have killed 20 deer. haha
 
MattR,

Consistency of data collection is a necessary and wonderful thing over the long term. However, the trick is interpreting the data over the long-term! Over time, many conditions can change, including local regulations, hunter attitudes, habitat, local hunter harvest desires, hunting pressure, and even hunter skill/knowledge. All of these can alter hunting data-driven results. Although "environmental influence" type data (what weather/moon conditions are best/worst for seeing deer) shouldn't be as affected by any of these possible changes over time, results such as "deer/bucks seen per hour" certainly can be. Sometimes it can be very, very difficult to figure out if a certain change (or lack of change) in a particular value over the years is due to an actual change in the local deer herd, or due to a change in hunting technique, style, or intensity.

For example, take a value such as older bucks observed per hunting hour, looked at over numerous years. If the value increases, most would assume that means there are more older bucks around to be observed. Yet the increasing value over time could also be the result of the hunters becoming better hunters--more knowledgeable about hunting older bucks--hence the hunters see more of them per hunting hour with each passing year.

Data collection is easy--just keep the data collection consistent. But data analysis--what it all means--can be really, really tricky...
 
Of course, there are many things that effect your data, some of it you have control over and some of it you don't.
This is the way I look at it, to get better as a hunter you have to examine your self; If you have a lot of your actions documented consistenly then you can look at what you have done and what produced the best results.
If I am not seeing any deer in a spot and I have seen plenty of deer at in the past I like to try to understand why. I find it a lot easier to pin point the reason I'm not seeing any deer if I have solid information to support my theory. Even though there are so many things that have an effect on a hunt trying to figure what went wrong or what went right is very much part of the fun of deer hunting for me.
I guess I'm a nerd when it comes to it or something, or maybe it's because in the military we documented everything. But it still makes sense that it can definately help you be more successful.
I
 
MattR said:
If I am not seeing any deer in a spot and I have seen plenty of deer at in the past I like to try to understand why.
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That's the biggest question everyone should be asking themselves.....Why?

Once I started trying to kill older bucks, I noticed I constantly started asking myself, "why?". "Why" did that deer do that? "Why" did that deer make that loop? "Why" did that deer cross right there? "Why" was he walking just over the crest of that ridge? "Why" was he bedded right there when I jumped him? These are things that eventually led me to start keeping a log. I am much more successful than I was by keeping that log.
 
MattR said:
This is the way I look at it, to get better as a hunter you have to examine your self; If you have a lot of your actions documented consistenly then you can look at what you have done and what produced the best results.

If I am not seeing any deer in a spot and I have seen plenty of deer at in the past I like to try to understand why. I find it a lot easier to pin point the reason I'm not seeing any deer if I have solid information to support my theory. Even though there are so many things that have an effect on a hunt trying to figure what went wrong or what went right is very much part of the fun of deer hunting for me.
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Extremely well said MattR. That was the original reason I started collecting such detailed data--to help myself learn to be a more successful hunter. And analysis of all that data has certainly done that.


I guess I'm a nerd when it comes to it or something, or maybe it's because in the military we documented everything. But it still makes sense that it can definately help you be more successful.
Click to expand...

I'm a hard-core data head (read: numbers nerd). I best understand and conceptualize ideas only after all of the "input" has been converted to numbers. That's just the way my mind works.
 
I keep a log and fill it with tons of details of each hunt. If the day comes that i can no longer hunt, i will be able to lose myself in those pages.
 

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