Why wont I ever learn?
10-15-2007, 10:18 AM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Atlanta Georgia USA
Posts: 169
Why wont I ever learn?
Opening weekend of muzzleloader season here in GA, and I come up empty! This was my best chance to score on public land.. but I failed to remember lessons from past years.
I know this area like the back of my hand. I have scored on several spots.. but there is one spot in particular which should be a gold mine.. and I didnt even set up there. It is a small clearing with.. not one.. not two.. but three white oak trees. There is a small path through thick brush leading a short distance from their bedding area to this clearing. So do I set my climbing stand up there? NO! Instead I am hunting other spots until the afternoon of the second day and decide to visit this spot.. but I walk through it and of course when I walk past the bedding area I scare one up and it just snorts and runs into deeper cover. Now the spot is ruined probably for a week with my scent there. Hopefully next weekend when gun season is opened I get there before someone else takes the spot.. and they havent already gone nocturnal. This year it is either sex the entire year.. so I will shoot the first thing I see to get some meat in the freezer.
Granted, there were a lot of people out this weekend, and I heard some shooting from near that area.. but I just need to be smarter and have patience and get into a tall tree overlooking that path and stay in that stand from sunup to sundown.. and eventuall I will score. Public land aint easy.. but sometimes it helps get em moving when there are a lot of people out.. which is how I got a good buck last year.
Maybe I need to start keeping a log when I learn something new or find a good spot because I seem to forget stuff from year to year. Does anyone else have this problem or know how to avoid it? One thing I do is re-read my hunting books before the season starts so I can be reminded of good tactics, etc... and that helps me remember things I have learned.
Cheers
I know this area like the back of my hand. I have scored on several spots.. but there is one spot in particular which should be a gold mine.. and I didnt even set up there. It is a small clearing with.. not one.. not two.. but three white oak trees. There is a small path through thick brush leading a short distance from their bedding area to this clearing. So do I set my climbing stand up there? NO! Instead I am hunting other spots until the afternoon of the second day and decide to visit this spot.. but I walk through it and of course when I walk past the bedding area I scare one up and it just snorts and runs into deeper cover. Now the spot is ruined probably for a week with my scent there. Hopefully next weekend when gun season is opened I get there before someone else takes the spot.. and they havent already gone nocturnal. This year it is either sex the entire year.. so I will shoot the first thing I see to get some meat in the freezer.
Granted, there were a lot of people out this weekend, and I heard some shooting from near that area.. but I just need to be smarter and have patience and get into a tall tree overlooking that path and stay in that stand from sunup to sundown.. and eventuall I will score. Public land aint easy.. but sometimes it helps get em moving when there are a lot of people out.. which is how I got a good buck last year.
Maybe I need to start keeping a log when I learn something new or find a good spot because I seem to forget stuff from year to year. Does anyone else have this problem or know how to avoid it? One thing I do is re-read my hunting books before the season starts so I can be reminded of good tactics, etc... and that helps me remember things I have learned.
Cheers
