GMMAT

What did you do differently (this season) to up your odds at having more "luck" than in the past?

Be specific.

TEmbry

I hunted more, paid more attention to where I hung my stands, decided to take a doe this year, hunted an area that I nearly gave up on due to being flooded March-September...I changed alot, and had a great season...but I can already think of 20 things I can't wait to change for next year. Im early on in the learning curve, so the year to year difference will be vast for me compared to alot of guys who already have the jist of things down.

solocamcan

Before I'd just hunt maybe a day or two in a row, or maybe just Sat. and Sun. morning....this year I hunted 4-5 whole days in a rowseveral times.

For instance, my brother came up from New Mexicoto hunt with me and we hunted hard for 6 days straight,and onthe firstevening sit I seen 15 deer, but nothing I wanted to shoot. Then the next 2 days I only seen 1 deer combined, then themorning of day 4 I shot my biggest deer to date a 132" 10 pt. So I know the added time on stand boosted my chances at even seeing that deer.

cooter144

Apparently nothing...I sucked this season!

wallhangr

I took a couple trips in the spring/summer to scout and set up my stands early in the year. Also, the stands I set up were much closer to the bedrooms.

I also practiced shooting from spring on.

chrowski

This being my third season of bowhunting....I used to scout to pick a tree, b/c I had a climber and in my area climbing trees are hard to come by.

This year I switched to a hang-on stand and treestep setup, so I could pick my spots BASED ON DEER PATTERNS INSTEAD OF TREES then setup in any nearby tree...as obvious as it sounds, it took me two seasons to break the habbit of tree scouting, and move solely to deer scouting.

Now I'm batting .500 for this year(kills/tree sits), as opposed to MUCH less in the previous years.

Mottz

I did alot more moving of my trail cams. Tried to find areas the deer were using during the day. Put my stands up and I did succeed with 1 of them. So my others may get a little adjustment next year.

NY Bowhunter

Took extra precautions (or same as when hunting) to be scent free when I have to go in the woods before the season. (cameras, stands, scouting etc...). I've always been a little lazy when it came to that figuring it's still early enough I won't alarm anything. If I do they'll be back. Now I take the same steps as if I was going in hunting. Just stupid on my part, but easy to do I guess.

No more tow ropes. Human scent wicks (thanks to someone on this board).

Entry and exit routes I'm constantly working on. I no longer take the "easy" route to a stand. Sometimes I even got dropped off in different areas and walked in if that was going to be the best approach. I messed up my ankle pretty good during the season and this became hard sometimes. I would have to walk 5xs as far sometimes when I felt it was the best approach to my setup.

Stay focussed. I have a tendency to let my guard down after the first 2 hours of morning and before the last 2 hours in the afternoon. I don't get fidgety or anything, I just don't scan or pay attention to the woods like I do during the primetime. I tried to work on that this year.

It's a pain in the butt doing laundry[8D]. I didnt' stretch out my clothes "one more day" this year. If they stunk, I sweat, dragged a deer out, or whatever. If I felt they were contaminated I washed them. Made for a lot of laundry.

Set out to not overhunt my main land and my honey holes................. FAILED on that one again. #1 priority next year.

Approach to stand. I have a tendency to go fast to my stand. Figuring in the back of my mind the faster I get there the more time I have to get settled in and the more time I have to hunt. Hence increasing my chances. I didn't run to my stands but I wasn't exactly stealthy either. Go in earlier and go SLOW!

Shooting lanes. Already made a thread about this. Cut to the bare minimum for me. Got screwed 3 times but maybe those were 3 times that wouldn't have happened

Shooting my bow a lot more during the season. I have buddies that will practice everyday until the season starts. Then they don't shoot another arrow until the next season rolls around. I have a treestand where I practice. Between hunts I'd leave my gear on, climb the stand, and shoot some arrows to stay in tune.

Wind. Always hunting the wind. I think I did a good job picking stands to hunt according to the wind. Sometimes the wind would change or swirl, but for the most part I really picked stands that I should have according to the wind.

Don't sweat going in. Kind of goes along with slowing down to my stand. I dress light heading in and pack everything else. I've gone as light as my baselayers and packing everything else. I'll dress when I get close, in the tree or at the base of it.

Probably the biggest one was doing everything I just mentioned on EVERY hunt. Gets old and tiring at times. I tried to take the same steps and precautions on sit #100 as sit #1. Got a little lazy towards the end but I held out a long time.


** probably a bunch others, but pretty much I just tried to pay attention to all the details every hunt.

Schultzy

Makes 2 of us.

NYak

I moved around alot and hunted hills that i know only someone really in shape or young like myself can make it up. I also moved to a stand i haven't hunted all year and last year and i seen deer everytime. even took my first buck.