RE: What is most important---Skill, Luck, or Land??
 

I think you make your luck!!

RE: What is most important---Skill, Luck, or Land??
 

You can' t shoot what isn' t there so land (more importantly deer herd size) is most important. Then skill comes into play. You can have tons of deer but if you don' t know what you are doing you won' t shoot many of them. Lastly is luck BUT sometimes luck can superceed any of the above.

RE: What is most important---Skill, Luck, or Land??
 

Being a Pennsylvania bowhunter that hunts heavily pressured public land in PA I would have to say...uhh..hhhhmmm...

...Land maybe?

;)

RE: What is most important---Skill, Luck, or Land??
 

True, good land is important, but with no luck & no skill -
there is no harvest. I think it' s a combination of all 3 and
one cannot be seperated from the others. I know guys who
bowhunt land that' s filled with deer and are the only ones
to hunt it....they see a lot of deer, but rarely put
their tag on one.

RE: What is most important---Skill, Luck, or Land??
 

I think it takes a good combination of all three. If you have a prime piece of property but limited knowledge/skill, I think your success will be limited. You can control and improve your skill level but the land you have access to hunt is much harder to control. I know some areas of the country, private property is nearly impossible to come by. My success is better now than it was several years ago when I began bowhunting on National Forest lands. I now hunt private land almost exclusively but I do not think that is the only reason that I enjoy better success now. Deer populations are much higher now than they were when I first started and I don' t make as many mistakes as I did when I first started. I also work much harder during the offseason scouting, practicing and making sure my equipment is in good working order.

RE: What is most important---Skill, Luck, or Land??
 

I would have to say LUCK, We hope we are lucky enuff that our
hard work preparing pays off!!

Puttem in the K-ZONE,AL:D

RE: What is most important---Skill, Luck, or Land??
 

Here is my take on this.

As far as luck - throw it out of the equation..why..because though there have been hunts where I felt I got a little lucky, there have been just as many where I have felt that old lady luck was looking the other day. So for every time i did get lucky there are just as many, if not more times I felt I was unlucky - its a wash:)

As far as land - you do with what you have and judge your succes accordingly. A trophy hunter in Florida is not going to hold out for a 170 but a hunter in ILL. might. That 130" in Florida is just as much an accomplishment in Florida as a 170 is in Ill. - just a rough example. I have done all my hunting in high pressure public land, and have leaerned NEVER to blame my lack of success on the woods I hunt. Where there is a will there is a way;). The deer, even the big deer are there, if you hunt this type of land, and you want those good deer you just have to work harder than everyone else. That brings me to last and most important factor...

Skill - or a better term I think is work. I made up my mind many years ago that I will eat my last buck tag stew, and that i would give myself the best oppertunity that I could to put myself over good bucks. There is a real, and just reason that some hunters around me were consistantly killing much better and more deer than me. And it was easy to say " yea but that guy hunts some great land" . Well that may be true, but upon investigation he was also scouting and working at his hunting 500% more than I was. My eyes were opened to what it takes to kill good deer in my area, it takes more than a month or two of fall scouting and a handfull of stands, It takes more than putting the bow away in december and concentrating 100% on fishing until september. It may come easier to some, but for me to consistantly kill the deer I want to kill, I have to have horns on my mind 365 days a year. I have to scout and create options all winter and summer long, and this mind set has enriched my experiance ten fold.

My opinion is take every other factor and throw it out the window, if you are willing to put in the work (some areas require more than others), All the other things that seem so important just fall into place.:)

The good hunters never rely on luck, they expect it:D

RE: What is most important---Skill, Luck, or Land??
 

The deer Density in the area your hunting is def number one in the ingriedients for a succsessful hunt, and number 2 is knowing where, how and when the deer in that area are moving, eating and sleeping.

I hunted a field strip last year where you could literaly take a plastic bag and fill it with deer droppings(very fresh) in no time. I hunted it in the mornings, the afternoons and evenings, no moonlight, full moonlight, pre rut, post rut, rainy days, sunny days, cold days and warm days!...did not see one deer! Conclusion? its obvious! they were completly nocturnal in that area.

RE: What is most important---Skill, Luck, or Land??
 

The only problem with saying hard work will always pay off regardless of the land you are on is that in a state forest you just NEVER know what you may encounter when you go on a hunt. You can' t hang stands and leave them so you are limited to your climber......You may think that you are all set for a perfect hunt and when you arive you find 3 other guys that scouted your same areas and have been up a tree since 3:30 am........leaving you grasping for options at the last seconds of darkness. You also may get to hang your perfect stand in your perfect spot only to have a group out on a nature hike parade by talking and leaving 100 different scents all over what used to be your good spot(happened to me and a buddy) It is possible to see squirrel and turkey hunters shooting guns in your area and walking and talking aloud.

There are just a ton of things on state land that can negate your hard work and scouting. I am not saying that you can' t still get the job done.......I took 2 bucks and a doe on state land last year. 90% of the time on prime private land you don' t have to worry about being disturbed........if you do get disturbed it is probably by the landowner so tough beans.

An average hunter can go years on state land without even seeing a deer(I know more then one guy it' s happened to) put that same guy on property with a large herd and all he has to do is not miss.

My brother is a good example. He doesn' t have a great deer hunting history. He doesn' t spend all year scouting and planning.......he spends all year fishing. He knows the woods and he can get the job done but he just doesn' t see a ton of deer. He was telling a friend from work about this and the guy was laughing his butt off because he couldn' t believe it. He told my brother he would take him out to his farm and let him hunt because he had filled his tags already with a 9 and 10 respectively. The day my brother went out he saw 17 deer and 5 different bucks. He took a nice 8 pointer that graces his wall today. Was he lucky?? no Did he suddenly become a master woodsman?? no He was put in a spot that had a great herd his average skills allowed him to take a very nice buck.


Give a bass fisherman the choice and I am sure they would pick a private well stocked pond full of lunkers any day over fighting through jet skis and party boats on the lake.


Outfitters make a living off this very fact. " Come hunt our land.....We have 40,000 acres of prime unpressured land with 150 and up class bucks all over the place."

People pay thousands of dollars every day for the chance to hunt............LAND. I have seen 12 year old kids on TV shows take bucks bigger then I have ever seen in my life. Put that kid and his game boy out in the state forest and see how many tags he fills.

RE: What is most important---Skill, Luck, or Land??
 

Atlas - I agree 100% - I have had small game hunters hit me with there shot - when a pheasant launched between myself and them[:o], I have had kids walk down the very trail I was over, joggers, horseback riders, mushroom pickers, and have found other hunters in my stands, next to my stands or stolen my stands. Fustrating to the max[:@]. These events can loose the battle but not the war.

I am not saying it is easy but you have to go in further-thicker, get in earlier, and learn the habits to a point that you can overcome the public land horror. I have to use a climber, as too many of my stands " walked away" on me. If you have to set up 30 trees and blaze them, to give yourself enough options to stay one step ahead of the deer and everone else then so beit.

All I am saying is that even in heavy pressured land, it is possible to find yourself alone and over good deer - consistantly. It will take much more work than those fortunate enough to hunt private land.

You can use that as your excuse, or as your motivation.