wildernessmaster
Lil-Rokslider
First let me thank everyone on RS for the input and help this hunting season. While I may have sparred with a few of you (who wanted to go negative) I do overall appreciate the input - even the "quit whining" style input at times...
Its post season for me. I am starting to do some field work to scout for deer for next season but also know I need to improve. I had a good year (especially compared to previous WT years), but am always looking to up my game. While like everyone I want to take a trophy that is not the sole focus of my hunting. I love hunting; I love eating wild game; and I live to hunt. I am happy with taking a doe that is the right doe to take as I am a buck. I was thrilled this year to kill a medium sized 4pt with a bow (my first bow anything) - and am doing a euro mount of it! It will sit right beside a few 130's I have (btw those were incidental kills - I was not even whitetail hunting when I got the opportunity).
Some areas I would love to get input on resources to improve my WT hunting:
1. Trail cameras - I am not a trail camera type of guy, never have been. I largely hunt public land, and vast quantities (even when I prune it down) of public land. I tried setting some out this past year - even on my small farm and had very limited success. I would at least like to better learn how to use and deploy these as a tool in my toolbox.
2. Distinguishing buck (and more particularly mature buck) bedding - I do pretty good with finding signs in the field - even very subtle signs. I read and hear about the experts talking about buck bedding vs. doe bedding vs. mature buck bedding - and trust me I find tons of beds. But how do I really refine: 1) finding more mature buck bedding 2) discriminating that it is a mature buck?
3. Light, Mobile, Versatile - I took up saddle hunting this year, made a lot of mistakes (already sold some of those mistakes
)... and love it. Given I am an old guy with a lot of war wounds (bad knee, ankle etc) that I am milking... and given my style of public land hunting - saddle hunting makes best sense for me. What I need to do is figure out how to whittle my day kits down to being even more light, mobile and versatile. I am looking at single sticks, aiders etc, but I also want to whittle my kits down so they are: 1) ready to go always 2) can span various scenarios. For instance, when I went to hunt a buddy's farm during this past season, saddle hunting really failed me (or my knowledge). The area is pretty young scrub trees, very few even good candidates for climbing and hanging given size, density of the woods, etc. Is there some other way to rig or saddle hunt or? If not then other than still hunting or putting up fixed stands what are my options? I want to be able to have kits that either work across different modalities or I can switch between quickly. Plus I want to "up" my saddle hunting knowledge.
4. The rut - I have been hunting 5 years now and have yet to feel like I have experienced "the rut". Hunted all season and never ran across a scenario where deer were just stupid, chasing does, or.... Granted living in the south, the rut is a lot more distributed, but....????
5. Research - I have gotten pretty good at using Google and Onx to find good spots - in fact nearly every "I think that should have some deer in it" research I did produced quality sign. I need to figure out, though...: 1) better whittling down to get to those. Those all took a lot of quality time to get to. I am reading Jeff Sturgis book and he talks about "put an X over all places within 1/2 mile"... and several macro level approaches. I want to get those down to a run book. 2) Turning quality places found in research to quality hunts. I found tons of signs but few deer. The deer I killed were in part happenstance or hanging out near places I had randomly seen deer. Oh and I want to tie this into trail camming.
6. Anything else to make me a better hunter or woodsman...
Thank you for your input(s)
Its post season for me. I am starting to do some field work to scout for deer for next season but also know I need to improve. I had a good year (especially compared to previous WT years), but am always looking to up my game. While like everyone I want to take a trophy that is not the sole focus of my hunting. I love hunting; I love eating wild game; and I live to hunt. I am happy with taking a doe that is the right doe to take as I am a buck. I was thrilled this year to kill a medium sized 4pt with a bow (my first bow anything) - and am doing a euro mount of it! It will sit right beside a few 130's I have (btw those were incidental kills - I was not even whitetail hunting when I got the opportunity).
Some areas I would love to get input on resources to improve my WT hunting:
1. Trail cameras - I am not a trail camera type of guy, never have been. I largely hunt public land, and vast quantities (even when I prune it down) of public land. I tried setting some out this past year - even on my small farm and had very limited success. I would at least like to better learn how to use and deploy these as a tool in my toolbox.
2. Distinguishing buck (and more particularly mature buck) bedding - I do pretty good with finding signs in the field - even very subtle signs. I read and hear about the experts talking about buck bedding vs. doe bedding vs. mature buck bedding - and trust me I find tons of beds. But how do I really refine: 1) finding more mature buck bedding 2) discriminating that it is a mature buck?
3. Light, Mobile, Versatile - I took up saddle hunting this year, made a lot of mistakes (already sold some of those mistakes
)... and love it. Given I am an old guy with a lot of war wounds (bad knee, ankle etc) that I am milking... and given my style of public land hunting - saddle hunting makes best sense for me. What I need to do is figure out how to whittle my day kits down to being even more light, mobile and versatile. I am looking at single sticks, aiders etc, but I also want to whittle my kits down so they are: 1) ready to go always 2) can span various scenarios. For instance, when I went to hunt a buddy's farm during this past season, saddle hunting really failed me (or my knowledge). The area is pretty young scrub trees, very few even good candidates for climbing and hanging given size, density of the woods, etc. Is there some other way to rig or saddle hunt or? If not then other than still hunting or putting up fixed stands what are my options? I want to be able to have kits that either work across different modalities or I can switch between quickly. Plus I want to "up" my saddle hunting knowledge.4. The rut - I have been hunting 5 years now and have yet to feel like I have experienced "the rut". Hunted all season and never ran across a scenario where deer were just stupid, chasing does, or.... Granted living in the south, the rut is a lot more distributed, but....????
5. Research - I have gotten pretty good at using Google and Onx to find good spots - in fact nearly every "I think that should have some deer in it" research I did produced quality sign. I need to figure out, though...: 1) better whittling down to get to those. Those all took a lot of quality time to get to. I am reading Jeff Sturgis book and he talks about "put an X over all places within 1/2 mile"... and several macro level approaches. I want to get those down to a run book. 2) Turning quality places found in research to quality hunts. I found tons of signs but few deer. The deer I killed were in part happenstance or hanging out near places I had randomly seen deer. Oh and I want to tie this into trail camming.
6. Anything else to make me a better hunter or woodsman...
Thank you for your input(s)
