spde911

Opening morning of gun season, I go out with plans to set up my ground in an area that I think deer might be walking. This is the first year for me to hunt this land and it hasn't been hunted before that I know of (at least not in my lifetime). Anyway, I messed up in bow season climbing out of my stand, took a couple of steps and two deer took off blowing like crazy. It had been about 5 days since I've been back to the area, wanted it to cool off a bit since I spooked them. Anyway, didn't have much luck sitting in the ground blind. Didn't see anything. I decided to to some walking to see if I could kick something up. This is only the third year I've been hunting and I've never shot a deer on opening day. I got my first deer last year on the last day of gun season and got a decent buck this year during early bow season. After scouting around for about an hour and not seeing anything, I decided to give my stand a try. After sitting in the stand for about two hours and not seeing anything, I was begining to get bumbed out. Then all of the sudden I hear something running through the woods. Turn to see what's coming and see a doe running right at me. I get up to get a better position and start wondering, how am I going to stop this deer. Now I've seen many hunting shows where they do a mouth grunt or sound or people have told me to whistle or make some sort of noise. I give this long mmmaaaaahhhhhh sound and she stops in her tracks only a few feet from the bottom. I didn't have a whole lot of time to make a decision so I decided to shot. Had a nice quartering away shot, should have been an easy shot, but I blew it. I hit the ground right beside her and she was long gone after that. I know that if I would have had my bow she'd be in the freezer now. Guess I need to practice with the rifle a bit more. Needless to say, I didn't get a deer on opening day of rifle season again. I took the rifle out this morning to see if the scope was off or if it was just me.....turns out it was just me[:@]! I think I rushed the shot. That's ok though, I won't get to hunt this area again probably until the last day of rifle season and I can still hunt with my bow for the rest of the year. We'll see what happens. I'd rather bow hunt anyway.....thought about not even taking the rifle out this year, I just enjoy bow hunting a lot more.

zekeskar

Live and learn - and it's good you realize you need to practice. My advice, which seems to have made my hunting shots a LOT better - practice in the contorted positions and funky rests you will be using in the woods. It looks funny at the range since 99% of the guys out there are just sitting at the bench doing their careful shooting. But I always do all my shooting in wierd positions after I get sighted in. At that point I'm also practicing quick but accurate second shot - and accuracy is measured not by the 1 inch bullseye, but the 8 inch kill-zone circle. (which I improve upon the more I practice, but I never am bummed if I can hit that circle from my awkward positions).

And when you're in position for hunting, rehearse positions, movments, rests, etc. I can't tell you how many chickadees and squirrels I've drawn down on - it relieves boredom and I think if done realistically (quietly, slowly, etc). it doesn't spook deer.