I'll try to explain this, but it all boils down to being in the right place at the right time, which is another way of saying being lucky.
For the most part I don't think being in the right place at the right time on a consistant basis has very little to do with luck.
Suppose the best hunter in the world sees a P&Y buck every 20 hours he's in the woods, and a novice hunts the same woods but only sees a book buck every 100 hours, both hunters are still playing on luck
If it where luck they would both see deer the same amount of time
If you gotta roll snake eyes to win, who are you betting on - the guy who rolls the dice once or twice, or the guy who rolls it twenty or thirty times?
Rolling dice thirty times is easy. It ain't luck that gets a working man up at 3:30AM every day off he has for three months to sit in a tree.
I'll bet my newest set of thermal longjohns that such a study would find a monster correlation between the most successful hunters and the guys who spent the most time out there
The top pros in any sport will probably be the ones who practice and work the hardest. Same thing for hunters.
I consider luck a non factor - I have had just as much bad luck as I have good - I call it a wash. The only thing left is what knowledge, preperation, and determination you bring to the table.