cameronmclain

I just posted on another thread about not seeing any deer this past year. I was just wondering if some of you guys are ever in the same boat. I hunted really hard last year and saw 8 deer- all on opening day and all out of range (was gun hunting). Then this past year, I hunted even harder with both gun and bow, and didn't see one deer. NOT ONE! All I saw were some squirrels and an armadillo. ALL SEASON!So that makes nearly two full seasons withouteven so much as asighting!!!!!

I'm not saying I had any desire to quit. I love being out there- scoring or not is better than not hunting. But I did have recurring doubts: "Am I doing something wrong?" was a frequent thought!

I think that a person has to at the very least SEE some game to stay motivated. I'm not looking for advice on tactics or encouragement, I was simply wondering if any of you have ever been TOTALLY skunked and what your thoughts were about it?

hunter9022

Man, ive had that happen. One place that use to be my honey hole, had no deer this year. Never saw one. So, i started hunting another place which i saw deer every evening. The main thing around here was the weather. The deer weren't in the normal patterns like they have been the past few years. I understand what you were going through though. I just kept going because it gave me something to do, and you never know if the day you werent there something finally did show up.

Begging 4 Bucks

lol if everyone quit after not seeing deers 1 season there would probaly be no hunters in the world!! do better scouting, the real season starts before opening day, and yes its happened to me and almost all the hunters i know have not seen even one deer the whole season, even when they payed thousands of dollars to get profesinally taken by a guide and they still dident even see a thing... dont give up just keep trying maybe buy a scouting camera or get a better spot, you will get one i promise!

fl.huntress

not seein' anything just motivates me to keep huntin' harder...eventually the big boy will walk by.

nctaxi

Spent 2 years like that. It motivated me to find better places to hunt. Now I have more places than I can hunt! Seen 18 opening day of bow season, during rifle took4 friends to their best kills ever. Maybe you need to really look at your land. Trail camera's are like gold. I have pictures of 10 different bucks on one small piece of property and eyed 3 more that I didn't havephotos of. Could be that your hunting a place where the deer don't like, look for travel corridors, feeding areas, staging areas, etc. Go to www.local.live.com and look at your property from above and see what you might be missing. It may be that you are overhunting your stand, do you have a few stands? I have5 on a5 acre parcel, play the wind.

NCYankee

Do some pre-season (or early season) scouting. If there's deer sign, there's deer! If you don't see scrapes, rubs, or deer crap, then you need to move somewhere else.