danowak

Just to give you a little perspective, I have been bowhunting in South Florida in the Big Cypress Preserve for3 years now (I used to go to North Carolina to hunt with my brother-in-law before that, and I still do). I hunt in a 50 square mile piece of swamp that is walk in only. It is very rare for me to see a buck at all, much less one that I can take a shot at. If I could shoot does, I would have a freezer full, but I can't so I just have to be content to watch them walk by and believe that sooner or later a buck will wander by too. It has happened every year so far.

In the three years, I have seen 6 bucks that were shooters, meaning that they met minimum qualifications. Only two were in bow range. I have killed one of them and had an arrow glance off a branch with another. That's two shots in three years. Every year I get a little better as an archer and as a hunter. Every year I scout more places. Hopefully I will get better at finding them, but so far this year only 10 deer have been checked outthrough the check station that I go through so I'm not alone.

It has been much wetter this year due to hurricanes and whatnot. The deer were disrupted by that and also there has been an increase in the panther population lately which makes them more scarce. Anyway, I guess the point is that if you are going to hunt where you hunt, you have to do the best with what you have. I have gone days in a row (and because it is so difficult to get around in the swamp I hunt all day and I don't tend to move around a lot) without seeing any deer. It gets frustrating, but that's just the way it is.