Idon't know what it was in particular but about the time I turned 30 all of my hunting and fishing started to "click". I have always hunted and fished a lot since I was a little kid and I have always been pretty successful at it, but I would havegood years anddecent years hunting and good days and bad days fishing etc. But about that time I just started hunting and fishing smarter and my instincts got sharper and I started to expect to kill a good deer everytime I walked in the woods. I started hunting funnels during the rut even if they didn't have sign and I started hunting little patches of woods that other overlooked and little things like that, that I wouldn't have done before. I always wanted to be on the heaviest trail and hunt the area with the most sign etc. Instead of hunting an area with good buck sign but less overall deer sign. I started to realize that deer are much more likely to pattern us than we are them. I learned this lesson by walking out to the parking area at one of the public ground areas that I hunt. Everyone would come in and park and walk to the back, including me, and one day after walking out a doe crossed the road right in front of me when I was 50 yards from the truck. I watched her scurry across the road and down into a thick draw less than 100 yards from the parking area. I got my binos out and started watching her and there were 6 more does bedded or feeding in this thicket. I got in the truck and slammed the door (to see what there reaction would be) and they didn't react at all. I started up the truck and turned around and started to drive off and got the binos out and they were still down there not paying any attention to me. The next day I got there early and climbed a tree 70 yards from my truck and watched the trucks come in and park and the guys get out and walk to the back and I watched the deer sneak up to the road and look to see if anyone was around and then run across the road and then slow down and feed right on down to this thicket. Well, I killed a nice 8pt and and a doe that morning andit dawned on me that day that deer pattern us just like we try to do them and I have hunted accordingly every since then. I also figured out that the more hours than I spend in the woods the woods during the season the more encounters I have with good deer. Must be present to win!