ORIGINAL: pjhunts

Okay, can you all hear me from my high pedestal here where the P&Y's are tripping over each other to come by my setup, Let me colaborate a little on the point I was trying to make. I arrowed a P&y the 3rd yr I bowhunted(strictly luck) then went for a drought that lasted almost 20 YEARS. Yes almost 20 yrs here where there's one under every rock. Then I consciously made the choice to sacrafice other stuff that I enjoyed and focus on the pursuit of a decent buck. I ate a few more tags, while passing on young deer that i would normally be happy zipping an arrow through, but then things started to change, plans started to come together, my style of hunting evolved and I started to reap the benefits. I t is now 6 years later and I've taken 7 bucks that will score over the P& Y minimum. It's not that there weren't any good bucks here for my long dry spell, I just didn't have the desire, passion, or whatever you call it to sit out in the woods from daylight to dark, through pouring rain, freezing cold, other hunters tripping over me, etc,, to get the job done. Every single day of the year i think about deer hunting. It may be as simple aslooking for deer while driving down the road or shed hunting or scouting, anything that might tip me off to a big buck. I'm by no means rich, I work full time and them some building scaffold, help my father farm, I burn fire wood year round, and I still find plenty of time for my family of 4 childern and my wife and am still able to hunt quite a bit. During the heat of summer, I pick anywhere from 100 -130 gallons of black berries to provide for my hunting endeavors, so as not to spend any of our "regular" money and take away from my family's financial needs.We budget our money so that I am able to take off as much work as I can afford during hunting season. My wife is very understanding, and she too has a great desire to pursue big bucks. When I say that i hunt quite a bit would be an understatement compared to what most others hunt. The year before last I logged ~500 hours in the woods, last year I had to work more and was only able to hunt around 300 hours. When I'm not working, hunting is my "job". I by no means find it easy and sometimes it's not all that enjoyable, but that's just fuel for my fire.
I do realize that there are some exceptions, like the guys that hunt in florida and other places of the like, that there is a limited #(if any)ofP&Y deer. but that doesn't mean that there is no hope. I believe that age grows bigger antlers, so by letting a buck that you would normally shoot go for a year or two, he is going to grow a lot more in inches. I know what most would now say, "Well around here, if I don't shoot him so and so over there will" I know this because that is what I used to say. Ive long since kicked that motto to the curb. I've been hunting public land and have nice young bucks stroll by that another hunter was also watching, and they would always be shocked that i didn't shoot it. Obviously not everyone would do that, but that to is one of the sacrafices that I've learn to make. Realistically, odds are that the guy over there will never have the opportunity to shoot the deer that you've just passed on. And there are even higher odds that you will ever see that deer again. that is just a chance that you have to be willing to take.
I dunno, Ive kind of lost track of what I was wanting to get across, but just want to note that EVERYONE goes through a learning curve and progression in their hunting careers, some just get stuck in some phases longer than others, some may never reach the pinnacle, I know that i have a long way to go, but feel that I'm on the right track. Also, there is no sure fire method, no magic call or scent that is going to do it for you. A lot of hard work, effort, and yes, sacrafices are necessary to move to the next level of progression.
As a sidenote, I only use the term P&Y because it is a common reference, I value the age of a buck a lot more than the inches on it's head.