What sucks is, my name is Kyle....and my dad's buddies...

well...they call me Gomer, or Pyle. Either way it sucks, and it shows thier Age[:-][8D]

I'd like to think I'm neither[&:]

You're not confused. He was a cross-over....and maybe the original!

Heck....rumor was...he might also have been a cross-DRESSER!

Access to land plays a part also. The more land you have to hunt the more you (SHOULD) learn.

My problem. I have access to a bunch of land...but I fail to connect them and learn from how they differ. If I try to apply my approach that worksfor one farm, I usually fail miserably on another. Its like a game of cat and mouse for me the first year on a new property..I feel like a lost puppy.[&:]

I am not a awsome hunter by any stretch of the imagination, but I have tagged at least 1deer in 18 of the 23 years I have hunted. But honestly, have you ever paid attention to what some of the other guys in the woods do?? And they do it year after year after year and wonder why we tag deer and they can't. That answers you question with an emphatic NO!!! Just being there does not make you better.

Trev.....that is classic! I'll have to save that one for future use!(think about it[8D])

MOTOWN (chris) said once that hunting bucks is like a game of cat and mouse where the hunter is rarely the cat. (If I messed that up, MOHO...I apologize).

That's cool.

Gomer did not suck as much as me[8D]

1 thing I have learned, you can have the plan, improve your hunting habitat, improve your entrance and exits to your stands. If you are boneshead and do not plant any corn, you get what you deserve

I have 60 acres of nasty cover i planted, and hands down I'll take a cornfield over them. Big bucks in SLP MI love corn fields.

1996 2 mature bucks shot next to corn field
1997 1 mature buck shot behind corn field
1998 1 mature buck shot behind corn field
1999 1 mature buck shot behind corn field
2000 buckless
2001 1 mature buck shot behind corn field
2002 1 mature buck shot behind corn field
2003 buckless
2004 1 mature buck shot behind corn field
2005 2mature buck shot behind corn field
2006 1 mature buck shot walking out of corn field
2007 seen Mr mass all year had corn
2008 did not see diddle and no corn

Anyone see a pattern? I may be disking up a CRP field in the spring, for corn

A season of dinkers and you shoot a dinker on steriods

there are alot of things that make you a good hunter its not just time spent it is knowledge of the animal you are hunting. Time spent scouting and many other things

Motown hit it on the head...and I really did mean it that way (Im the lost puppy meaning Im not even in on the game of Cat and Mouse.) I really suck at starting from scratch on setups...but I am learning, or getting better, as the thread relates to.

I know it's been said.. but it would depend on the individual mostly.. than the herd they hunted secondly.

I know a few hunters who are brilliant and only into their first decade in the woods.. and I know more hunters who are long past their 2nd decade and still don't understand what they're doing.

The later.. seems.. most common.

It's like anything.. there is a HUGE difference between knowing and understanding.

A dude/dudette who has been hunting all year on a new piece of land might know where the deer have been traveling (based on his/her experience).. but that doesn't mean they understand.

So to answer your Q.. It's not impossible to hunt an entire year and learn nothing. But the hunter will likely "know" something different.

It's the understanding that seperates the men from the boys. So to speak.