This is important. It can be frustrating when you don't have as many opportunities to hunt, but if you're not enjoying your time out there, it makes waiting quietly and still a lot more difficult and will make it feel like you're wasting time instead of biding time.

All the hunting stories you hear leave out the part you're experiencing - those times when everything seems perfect, but nothing walks by. This was my first year attempting bow hunting, and I had three opportunities early in the season that I screwed up in different and spectacular ways, and later wished I had back when hours of waiting turned into days.

I don't know about your area, but here the deer have been keeping nocturnal a lot more than last season and sticking to the thick rather than wandering fields. Everyone has their theories from the excessive acorn output this year to how area game farms have harvested does to climate crisis and everything in between, but it doesn't really matter. They just haven't been moving as much as they did last season around here and I'm not going to pretend I can change what the deer are doing and when.

Give it time and enjoy whatever you can while you're out. You seem like you're on the right track and doing the right things. I wear street clothes, smoke in my stand, always find a way to knock my bow or an arrow against something metal and the only call I use is an occasional fart. But hell, I want to enjoy myself while I'm out there, so I'm not going to go to extremes and make the experience uncomfortable or less enjoyable, but that's just me. I would rather have a good time and miss a deer here or there than stress out and bore myself to death. Point being, if I can manage to have deer walk within 30 yards, someone who's actually doing it right shouldn't have a problem given enough patience. Good luck!